the problem. these people, you know, are not negative. this economy needs people like this to grow. they're contributing to society. so that's why you have people like marco rubio and jeb bush and paul ryan and orrin happen speaking out today. >> thank you very much, author of how "the right lost its mind" charlie sykes. i'll see you later on tonight and don't miss our show tomorrow at 12:00 p.m. "deadline: white house" begins right now. hi, there. it's 4:00. i'm katy tur filling in for nicolle wallace on deadline today, "the new york times" reporting that robert mueller has received an early draft of donald trump's justification for firing james comey. a draft that according to "the times" was shot down by white house legal counsel because some

thought its contents were too problematic. this memo is said to have preceded the justification drafted by deputy attorney general rosenstein that donald trump cited in the letter dismissing comey. the white house used that justification immediately after comey's dismissal to explain the president's action. but trump cast a cloud over what his motives were when he made these remarks to lester holt back in may. >> regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey. knowing there was no good time to do it. and in fact, when i decided to just do it i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made up story, it's an excuse by the democrats for having lost an election. >> "the washington post" also reporting today that trump has been feeling uneasy at the white house lately. lashing out at allies and cabinet members. trump reportedly at odds with his chief economic adviser gary cohn as tax reform faces a tough

congressional battle. tensions between him and secretary of state rex tillerson are reaching a critical point as our relationship with north korea demands delicacy. "the post" reported that trump feels confined because of a new chain of command put in place by kelly. they dub him the church lady amongst themselves. isn't that special? joinings now to discuss this hour, hans nichols. michael schmidt for "the new york times" who co-authored that new york piece about comey's firing. the co-writer of the piece on the discontinue -- content, my friend, ashley parker and then sarah west wood. with me on set here associated white house -- associated press white house reporter jonathan lemire.

the white house briefing just ended, sarah huckabee sanders was asked numerous times about dreamers and when that decision from the white house would come down. she said tuesday. but she was asked what the president defines as having heart when it comes to how he's going to treat those dreamers that are in this country but she couldn't quite define that. >> yeah. i mean, sarah huckabee sanders is having a difficult time explaining what the president's decision is before the president has made it because clearly the president is playing for time. this is a president that in the last three hours first said maybe this decision would come as soon as today, maybe over the weekend, then another photo spray with reporters at that point it was shifted back to monday. then we just heard from sarah huckabee sanders saying it's going to be tuesday. listen to how she said and the way she put it in terms of what the president's guideposts on this would be. >> the president's priorities on immigration are to create a system that encourages legal immigration and benefits are -- our economy and american workers. the president's been very clear, he loves people and he wants to

make sure that this decision is done correctly and so that's what he's doing now is finalizing that part. >> for a president -- for a president that's picked a lot of fights with his party it looks like in this case his party is picking a fight with him. he's got the state attorneys generals they're demanding he take action by september 25th and there are others who say that congress should take legislative action. so he's being -- his party is divided. he's feeling the brunt of that. he's playing for more time and now it looks like we may get this decision on tuesday. >> hans nichols, thank you. michael schmidt, you co-wrote that piece about mueller getting the preliminary draft on president trump firing james comey. it provides the clearest picture yet of what the president was thinking at the time. what can you tell us about it?

>> well, this was a letter that the president wrote with his aide stephen miller in the weekend before the comey firing. and when trump comes back to washington on monday, he had been at bedminster at his golf course. he tells his staff, look, i decided to fire comey and he hands this out and the white house counsel is taken aback by the letter. what the counsel did was he found a way to substitute trump's rationale for firing comey with the just -- with one from the justice department from the department attorney general rosenstein who said that comey should be fired for his handling of the clinton e-mail investigation. >> so "the washington post" has matched this. the a.p. has matched it as well, you have matched it. miller helped to draft this initial letter. he's not exactly known for his soft touch. what more do we know about why the white house counsel mcgann may have had issue with the contents of that letter? >> you're right about stephen

miller. he's a fire brand aide, one of the architects behind the travel ban and some of to strict immigration proposals. the president had been stewing for days if not weeks about fbi director comey in particular that he would not say publicly what the president said he had been telling him privately. that the president himself was not under investigation in terms of the russian interference in last year's election. he -- that was the thesis of the behind the letter, like "the times" we have not seen it ourselves but we know not just mcgann but others said this could be a problem. we don't want to go down this road. let's substitute a different rationale for dismissing comey which is a decision that trump had already reached. >> how much of this letter is thought to have to do with russia, michael? >> well, that's the thing. i mean, we know that at least one part of the letter holds up. that's the letter that's a part that's actually in the final letter that trump sends to comey where he says thank you for telling me on three occasions that i'm not under investigation. that was really at the heart of what the president's

frustrations were with comey. it was that he was angry and upset that comey was telling him privately you're not under investigation. and then trump as comey laid out in his testimony to congress came to him several times he called him and he said, look, when are we getting out word i'm not under investigation? and comey clearly didn't want to do that. he sort of punted it to the justice department. he kind of ignored trump. and ultimately it's what trump -- it's the reason that trump told folks at the white house why he really wanted to get rid of him. now, if you know that, that's different than what the white house said when they fired comey. when the white house fired comey they said it was because of the way he handled the e-mail investigation and they attached the rosenstein memo to the letter that they sent to -- >> sticking with the memo and this draft letter for one more beat. the "wall street journal" had a report on how the lawyers were in touch with robert mueller and they were laying out the reasons why an obstruction case wouldn't

hold up, he can hire and fire and and comey is not a reliable witness. how does that complicate that argument at defense? >> right, it's a different track now. let's not forget that he was frustrated for comey for not backing off the investigation into michael flynn, his first national security adviser. but the president has been frustrated that any time the russia subject comes up, the president -- it is a flash point with him. he lashes out. he wanted to react. he feels like if the whole probe into their interference last year sort of delegitimizes his election. >> he didn't win it fairly and squarely. >> that's right. that's something that dogs him day after day. just like his defeat of the popular vote does. >> ashley, you have a great piece out today about what's going on in the president's mind, how he feels a little boxed in by some of his advisers. has the russia investigation dropped from his mind or still bothering him? >> the -- i think the russia investigation is never far from his mind. i mean, i think it sort of ebbs

and flows in terms of news reports and as details drip out as to where the probe is. but this is something that other people mentioned earlier that is a tremendous flash point for him, a tremendous point of frustration and often when it comes up, we see him sending out tweets about it. getting angry in private, lashing out publicly. so i think it occupies some mind space for this president. >> he's also fighting with some of his advisers or it seems that he's feeling chafed by some of his advisers. there's reports in your -- in your article right there that john kelly, the new rules that he's put in place, ashley, are making the president feel a little uncomfortable. that he misses the freewheeling days when folks could come in and out and gossip and chat with him. in response to that it seems that the president tweeted this morning, general john kelly is doing a great job as chief of staff. i could not be happier or more impressed. the frustration with kelly, what is the deal there? because it seems like we're

widely -- wildly vacillating between the president's praising him on twitter and the truth of behind the scenes. >> sure. i think what we're hearing behind the scenes and what the president tweeted out today aren't in conflict. the president does like general kelly. he respects him. he thinks he's a good chief of staff. a number of people in the west wing think that. this is not something against general kelly personally. which is a problem the president has with other members of his team right now. but this is just he's chafing against sort of the discipline and the rules kind of, you know, liking a parent but not always liking what that parent makes you do. that's how i describe the situation with general kelly. he is definitely more furious if we're doing a president's fury against gary cohn for his response to charlottesville and feuding with the secretary of state actually on policy matters. they have a different world view on a number of issues. >> secretary of state saying that the president speaks for

himself on a sunday show this weekend when it came to his response to charlottesville. but you mentioned gary cohn, and that financial times article that he basically criticized the administration saying they didn't come out strongly enough against neo-nazis and hate groups after charlottesville. gary cohn was asked on fox business whether or not the relationship between he and the president is still okay. take a listen. >> the gossip is -- you're laughing. you know what's coming. that you're only staying in this administration to get tax cuts done. is that accurate? >> look, tax cuts are really important to me. i think it's a once in a lifetime opportunity, we haven't done tax cuts in 31 years. so to be part of an administration that gets something done that hasn't been done for 31 years is enormously challenging, enormously interesting to me. >> sarah, tax cuts are really important to me. it sounds like his answer to

that question there was yes. what's the state of this administration when cabinet members feel okay to disagree with the president, don't seem to be completely in line with him. >> well, it's actually surprising that we haven't seen this rift between gary cohn and the president spill out more publicly before because it would be hard to think of two people who are more different in terms of their world views and there was a lot of internal resistance to cohn from the steve bannon wing of the white house when it existed. now that internal opposition may be gone. but the truth still remains that gary cohn's world view is different from president trump's and from the platform that he ran on. and people like gary cohn have reputations to think about who came in from positions of power before they were in the administration, who hoped to have a professional future after the administration. they look at what's being written about them and the criticism of their silence in the face of what a lot of people considered an indefensible comment from the president and maybe they feel compelled to

speak out to kind of salvage their reputation, to explain and defend why they're remaining in the administration. we saw treasury secretary mnuchin do the same thing when his alma mater was criticizing him. >> the same apply to rex tillerson as well? >> you know, it could. i mean, he also was facing criticism. everyone in the cabinet was facing criticism for not speaking out so we were first seeing leaks of people internally being dissatisfied and then those specifically were being criticized for a cowardly way to handle it and then on the record criticism of the president's comments. so this is kind of an evolution to the response as people are watching the coverage of themselves and worrying about their own professional futures after the trump administration. >> remarkable that we're seeing this, remarkable to see cabinet members distance themselves from the president who put them into their position. michael, i want to round this up with now. anything to expect coming out soon, anything more on russia that you're working on? >> i mean, look, we continue to try and understand everything

that went on around the comey firing, what truly motivated the president, what was he telling people? and, you know, it seems like the comey -- the decision leads up to comey's firing were really important to this administration. it's the reason that we have bob mueller and it's the reason that there's a dark cloud from mueller over this white house. and that this is something that this white house really has had to confront and deal with. so we're trying to understand as much as we can about that. and it's not the easiest thing on the face of the earth. >> remember, no matter what happens in the world, no matter where the president goes he comes back to washington and comes back to this russia investigation. it is just not going away. hans nichols, michael schmidt, ashley parker, sarah westward and jonathan who is sticking around still, thank you. the president's decision on daca is expected on tuesday. those voices urging him not to terminate the obama era program though are getting louder including key members of his own party and business leaders. is he going to listen? and that decision is just

the beginning of what could be a make or break month in washington. the debt limit, a spending bill, tax reform and the federal response to harvey, my head is already spinning, can the president put his frayed relationship with congress aside and get anything done? >> i have a message for congress tonight. your job is to represent american families, american people, american workers. it's your job. i'm fully committed to working with congress to get this job done and i don't want to be disappointed by congress. do you understand me? do you understand me?

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the white house response the that he's not going to release his tax returns. we litigated this all through the election. people didn't care. they voted for him and let me make in very clear. most americans are very focused on what their tax returns will look like while president trump is in office. not what his look like. >> well, that's one way to put it. the daily beast is reporting another wrinkle in the russia investigation. sources familiar with the investigation telling them that the special counsel robert mueller has teamed up with the irs in his wide ranging investigation. let's bring in our panel, joining me at the table, former spokesman for ted cruz's

campaign, ronnarying. chief of staff to al gore, my friend, jake sherman. irs and the counsel teaming up. the last time they did it in the high profile way they took down fifa. >> another mike schmidt story. i don't put a lot of weight into this. mueller can talk to any branch of the government and he has a wide -- ron would know more than i do. but if there's pertinent information probably everywhere about donald trump. >> kellyanne conway says nobody wants to see the president's tax, they want their taxes improved. while that's true, people want their taxes improved they want to pay less money, some people want to see his taxes. >> and one person who doesn't want them shared with bob mueller is trump. the criminal investigation divisions of the irs which is who bob mueller is consulting is the most elite crack squad of

investigators, they always get their person. and if bob mueller's working with them the small elite unit it does mean trouble for donald trump. it certainly has to mean a lot of psychological unrest for president trump. >> he's called it a red line a violation if bob mueller looks into finances of his family. he doesn't think that's okay. ron, if the president cries foul because robert mueller gets access to his taxes, uses the taxes and he tries to go to republicans in congress we need to stop this investigation what's the response going to be? >> i don't think the republicans in congress are going to support any type of effort to short circuit the independent investigation here. the only way to get through this is to get through it. now, of course it proves to be a huge distraction. every time there's a leak it dominates the news cycle. we are going -- tax reform is a huge priority for the white house and here we are talking about the irs and russia and so on. we have to get through this and any talk about pardon, shutting down the investigation and the like is a distraction.

we have to settle down, you know, get through this -- >> what do republicans do, they ignore everything going on and just try to move forward? does the white house have a tax plan they have shown anybody? >> i think what president trump has outlined -- actually it's correct. he's outlined some broad approaches, some principals, you know, fewer deductions, lower rates, so on. some of the things that gary cohn has been talking about. i think congress is ultimately going to be decide all of the details on this. so as the president said in the past he's not going to write out every single detail that congress will take and do what he wants anyway. >> he said he's got this and even when he was elected, i've got this great tax plan, coming soon. you will see this tax plan, it's coming, it's coming. it's september 1st, we haven't seen the tax plan. >> that he was going to be involved. people around him were saying this is something that the president is passionate about. he would lead the charge on the tax reform plan and they have outsourced much of the health care through congress and that did not work and the president himself -- it was unclear how

helpful he was during that. he would step on his own message repeatedly. he would attack fellow republicans about whether they were pushing it or not. he since said that perhaps the senate majority leader mcconnell should lose his post if he doesn't get more of the agenda through. perhaps some of the congress would be fine with the president takes a hands off approach, but this is not what he ran on or said he would do. >> this russia investigation and now the news that there was a draft letter that came out that the president was working on before he officially got the word from the deputy attorney general rosenstein, he did it with stephen miller. is miller now potentially facing legal issues? >> he certainly is. i mean, i think the question is whether the letter truthful, was it an effort to obstruct justice? they should count the number of hamburgers served to count the number of excuses offered as to why comey was fired. it was because he was too hard on hillary clinton, too soft on

hillary clinton, you know, the list goes on and on. so we'll see the latest set of excuses in that letter when it finally comes out. but the truth is, donald trump fired comey to stop the russia investigation and that's why he is now under investigation by bob mueller for obstruction of justice. >> the white house said for 48 hours that they were -- that the president did this on the recommendation of the deputy attorney general and we're finding out that was his plan all along. then again, you know, he told lester holt this outright. he was thinking of russia at the time. and so how significant is this, if you already told lester holt this. >> we haven't seen what the letter is, and this is again an example where the very incremental step takes place and then dominates the news cycle. you know, provides a huge distraction to of course the white house's top priority which

is moving tax reform. you know, so the president told lester holt that russia was on his mind and he'd do it. >> i think they have debt limit -- government funding, the faa's authority expires this month. they have a whole host of issues and republicans i was talking to the other day told me that at some point, all of these developments are going to add up. this is a republican, and at some point they're going to be forced to do more than respond. i'm not saying that impeachment is going to take place but we're in september of 2017. and there's an election in a year and three months. >> so go ahead. >> so i think there's a valid point in so far as members of congress running in '18. if you're in a bulletproof district it doesn't matter what congress does, but they want to having to run on. they want to go back to their state to say we delivered on repealing and replacing

obamacare with something better. we made your taxes lower, simpler and fairer and the like. that is incredibly important and of course members of congress would like to see the president's approval ratings strong going into november of '18. a long way to go in that regard but it won't get there by talking about russia but delivering on capitol hill. >> there's incremental changes in russia. like reporters are picking things out with a tweezer as much as they can. and the white house what they're doing is just saying you know you have to go to the special counsel, you have to ask the questions of the lawyers. but the reality is they're not just coming forth and saying here's what we have to do with russia. we'll put it on the table. one news cycle. instead we get the news cycles from now until who knows when and it will affect the 2018 election, right? >> the time to come out with all of that information was before there was a special counsel because this is all lawyered up. >> they'll get it regardless. >> you won't do a big document dump at this point. >> that's true unless he's actually guilty. the problem is fundamentally that something very wrong

happened in 2016. and whether it did or not, donald trump did something probably illegal in firing james comey to keep the truth from coming out. so you can't put it out there if is all -- all out there is problematic. >> does that -- some people call them cover-ups, others say it's them changing their story. does it concern republicans there are so many varying explanations for things? >> look, in order to get anything done, nothing moves in congress unless it's pushed and that requires the full bully pulpit of the white house. for anything that distracts from tax reform or these other items that are high priority is a problem. and unfortunately, you know, you're not going to see something that other people were calling for before the appointment of the special counsel. put someone in charge, get all the information out there. that's never going to happen now. now the legal process has to work its way through. >> panel, hold tight. still ahead the countdown to the president's decision on daca.

as top republicans like paul ryan and the heads of companies like microsoft are urging him not to terminate the program. will he ultimately have to abandon his campaign pledge? >> we will immediately terminate president obama's two illegal executive amnesties in which he defied federal law and the constitution to give amnesty to approximately 5 million illegal immigrants. y of john smith. not this john smith. or this john smith. or any of the other hundreds of john smiths that are humana medicare advantage members. no, it's this john smith. who we paired with a humana team member to help address his own specific health needs. at humana, we take a personal approach to your health, to provide care that's just as unique as you are. no matter what your name is.

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what about the dreamers? there's talk there's some reports that the president is about to do away with the daca program. >> well, president trump has said all along he's giving careful consideration to that issue. when he makes his decision he'll make it as he likes to say with big heart.

>> decision time for president trump on the obama era deferred action for childhood arrivals and sarah huckabee sanders announced this afternoon that the president will finalize his decision and make an announcement on tuesday. the time line coincides with the deadline imposed by ten attorney generals threatening to take legal action if the administration didn't end the program by september 25th. it allows 800,000 undocumented immigrants brought to the u.s. as children to receive work permits and deferred deportation. support to protect the so-called dreamers is coming from both sides of the aisle and the ceos of apple, amazon, facebook and google urged president trump to keep the program in place. in a joint letter writing in part, dreamers are vital to the future of our companies and our economy. with them, we grow and create jobs.

joining the table now is marina hinojosa, did i do that right? one of these days i'll get it. anchor and executive producer. i'm terrible at reading names off the prompter. okay, so dreamers. paul ryan today came out and said that he doesn't think the president should end this. that it should be left to the legislature. take a listen. >> there's a lot in the news right now that the president might be looking at pulling back daca. the dreamers act. >> yeah, i mean, i don't think he should do that. i believe that this is something that congress has to fix. >> so he doesn't think that the president should do that. congress should fix it. what is the likelihood that this white house is listening? >> to paul ryan very little. listen, i think there's a deal to be had between republicans and democrats on daca.

democrats want to keep daca, republicans want some sort of face saving measure on the border. they're not going to get a wall, i can tell you that with near 100% certainty. there's some sort of immigration package that could be cobbled together in the coming months according to republicans i talked to. now, i don't think that republicans in congress are going to vote to overturn what trump did. i don't think they have the political will, the political courage or the capital to do so. but paul ryan is saying the time has come for changes here and he -- he'll do something on this. i think we'll see as this issue goes forward but this is another rift between the white house and paul ryan and that's important. as we're bog into -- >> i'm sorry, aren't these all the republicans who have been behind donald trump when donald trump was saying that he was going to end daca? >> yes. >> that he was going to build the wall. so now they're saying, oh, not so fast. i mean, it's like you can't have

it both ways. this is part of what's happened with the republican party. the republican party has been saying these kinds of things for a long time. the chickens are coming home to roost. donald trump wants to end it. kind of what republicans had been saying they're okay with. and now all of a sudden they're like, oh, we're not so sure. but i do want to say one thing about a daca recipient that i met. that just kind of gives context. this kid is a student. and i was asking him, this is before he got daca. he was a totally geeky engineering student. i was like, you know, what are you going to do? well, when i graduate i don't know. i may not get a job because i'm undocumented. so why are you doing this? because i love to learn. i just love to learn. i come every day and i love to learn and it's like those kinds of american values are the ones that we could really use. where kids are saying you know what it's not about getting the job but learning loving. we're not talking about that. >> there was a question in the white house briefing i think

from hallie jackson where she mentioned a dreamer who's down in houston helping with the recovery effort in harvey. she asked sarah huckabee sanders what the president thinks about this gentleman. and she -- sarah huckabee sanders said something to the effect of the president wants to have heart, but is not defining what that means. kris kobach, the kansas secretary of state also on the president's election integrity committee said not all of these people who are dreamers are good students, they're not high achievers. some of them are gang bangers. what's the republican response to those two differing accounts? >> well, i think first we start with the fact that republicans believe firmly and this is why this is subject to litigation that the president -- president obama acted illegally with moving this program forward and that the president now president trump is under pressure to take some action because there's litigation here that comes from states' attorneys earn general.

he has to do something. >> why not allow the courts to just rule on it? >> well, he potentially could. however, president trump campaigned to say he would eliminate this and he said he'd do so on day one. here we are 200 plus days in the administration and he hasn't done it. >> this has come up over the recent weeks and there's pushed the decision, pushed the decision. there was a sort of hesitancy to make a final decision. the president himself at times has seen torn about this. he seems touched by the daca stories even though he publicly campaigned to end it and there's a suggestion even earlier in the week they'd see if they can get it beyond some of the upcoming battles they face in september. you know, stuff they have to get through congress. but now of course we are seeing that it's going to -- the decision is coming in the next couple of days. >> republicans spent the last -- since i have been covering congress in 2009 have spent the last seven or eight years how ever long it's been saying they don't believe the executive branch should be making the

decisions. now the president is making these decisions. it's amazing to me the about face that congressional republicans have taken here. they were totally opposed -- >> the president of their party it's okay it seems. as long as they're coinciding -- >> i think we're pretty consistent in saying that president obama in creating this program out of whole cloth was unconstitutional and is unconstitutional -- >> but undoing that by executive decision is okay? >> depends on who you talk to. >> you know what seems disingenuous is for the president to say i have so much heart. we're talking about the words compassion and resilience in regards to what's happening in houston where our hearts are all breaking. for these daca recipients it's like they're living through a flood. the flood is going to happen on tuesday. that's when they'll find out if their lives are completely up ended and no one is talking about the compassion and resilience at that moment for them. so for them when they hear the

president saying i'm going to approach this with heart, i think they're seeing and hearing a lot of disingenuousness. >> we'll it right there. up next as we have said congress returns next week with a very busy agenda. including harvey relief. with so much uncertainty about whether they can get anything done one of the most prominent voices in the senate is out with a blistering new op-ed urging his colleagues to stand up to the president and return to regular order. >> our system doesn't depend on our nobility. it accounts for our imperfections and gives us our an order to our individual stridings and makes us the most prosperous society on earth. it is our responsibility to preserve that, even when it require us to do something less satisfying than winning.

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congress has a bad habit of lumping a lot of unrelated things together. that's why i was originally opposed to the sandy bill. disaster relief that was something that -- that has broad bipartisan support but i think the just sheer magnitude of this is going to push us up against the debt ceiling and that discussion of the debt ceiling has to be part of that. >> that was republican congressman blake farenthold of texas weighing in on how harvey relief can be added to some bills in congress. lawmakers are set to return from summer break next week and here is what is topping the agenda. approving heart relief funds, passing a budget, raising the debt ceiling, keeping the government open and making moves on tax reform possibly even health care. a daunting list to say the least. but can the bipartisanship out of harvey undo some of

washington's gridlock? senator john mccain who is back next week as well after undergoing treatment for brain cancer writes in "the washington post" today that congress was designed for compromise and that can be messy. but it needs to return to regular order. my panel is back with me, ron klain is back as well. john mccain coming out, calling on the congress to buck the president when it needs to and get some things done. >> yeah. i think they need to get things done. there's a whole list of things that need to happen or else there's calamity. the debt ceiling is no joke. this is a big issue which you focussed on i'm sure when you were in the obama administration and this is like the core of our financial system. i think -- i do think that if they attach harvey relief to the debt ceiling in government funding they could get stuff through quickly and there

doesn't need to be drama. i'm hearing already there's some angst and anger from the right about that. also remember this is a little bit wonky, but we'll do wonk for a second here. the ability to pass an obamacare repeal with 51 votes expires at the end of the month. >> what happens then? >> they need 60 votes to repeal it and so there's got to be something more than this. there's a lot of things on the table and not much time and will. >> danger i have been told to expect it. >> i do expect it now. >> ron, say that they're not able to pass the debt ceiling and the government shuts down, how does that affect harvey relief? does it? >> well, certainly if harvey relief somehow passes before that disbursements will stop. you know not passing the debt ceiling is more cataclysmic, because it means our government is in default for first time in history. it's failure to pay our debts, failure to pay our bills that will erode the u.s. credit rating. long term economic ramifications for our country.

they have a big agenda. you have to add daca which will become a legislative matter depending on what president trump decides on tuesday. you have a very crowded agenda and a president who doesn't seem to sweat the details. that could be the biggest most dangerous part of this as we head into september. >> has harvey made it easier for the president to pass the debt ceiling and keep the government open? because now we are told he is pushing off this idea that the border wall needs to be funded in this package. >> i think you're going to see a debt ceiling increase go through without a great deal of difficulty. i think you will see conservatives seize on the opportunity to have another debate or discussion, legitimate, on the amount of federal spending that you have and the debt that we're passing on to our children. but you will see an increase in the debt limit and increase in harvey relief passed and that's going to happen quickly i believe. >> is that enough for the president to say i have a real legislative win? >> i want to tell you about the reporting i was doing, talking to --

>> go ahead. >> because i'm interested in latino texans who supported trump and what's going on for them. word i was getting is the word you're getting from everyone which is still very funny because they're just like, could he stop tweeting? it's like, he's never going to stop. then they were saying, latinos who voted for donald trump do not support the wall. why? because when the wall was built under george w. bush one section that was built in arizona, and there was a flash flood, what happened? it was a total disaster because it's nature. you know, it's a valley. water comes in and out. when you had a wall it was stuck. it was flooded, it was an unnecessary disaster created by the wall. i'm making a generalization, latino texan trump supporters are not necessarily interested in the wall. but what i heard is they want to get something done. they want him to do something. and then i said, well, like what? well, if he doesn't do tax

reform they will become despondent. i said does that mean they won't vote for him when he comes up for re-election, if they become despondent they are done. this is about texas latino donald trump supporters in the wake of everything happening with harvey and the wall. >> i think people need to get religion on the tax reform issue. this is not a slam dunk. >> i agree. >> i understand their confusion. gary cohn and donald trump have worked for eight months in government. we have all been around government or been more involved in government than they have. so i understand the resounding echo is growing for tax reform. the senate and the house have vastly different spending priorities. this is not easy by any stretch of the imagination and to act like this is a layup is just -- it's's toupding to me. >> he seems to be unhappy with gary cohn, just the idea -- >> and mitch mcconnell the architect of anything on capitol

hill. >> and the idea that cohn might leave the administration sent the stock markets into the deep plunge. so not getting it done, how does that affect the economy, how does that affect the stock market? does it stay on this rise that we have been seeing or do they start to lose faith in this administration? >> look, i think whether it's latinos who supported trump in texas or wall street people who supported him in new york, they want to see tax reform. the challenge is that he's got a very busy list of must do things that have to happen in september. and very few legislative days in september and october before the window shuts here. and if there's a chance to repeal obamacare that's the clock is ticking on that. so it's just how do you stuff all of this stuff through a very narrow opening particularly with the president who hasn't shown a lot of deftness in dealing with congress. he's "the art of the deal" president but no art and no deals so i think that's a big problem for him. >> let's take a look further at this op-ed that mccain wrote in "the washington post."

congress must govern with a president who has no experience in public office. he's often poorly informed and we must respect his authority and constitutional responsibilities we must where we can not his subordinates. we don't answer to him. we answer to the american people. we must be diligent in discharging our responsibility to serve as a check on his power, and we should value our identity as members of congress more than our partisan affiliation. john mccain is obviously somebody who has been a thorn in the president's side from the beginning, but a lot of republicans aren't making moves away from donald trump because they are worried about answering to the american people, many of whom would rather vote for donald trump, it seems, than a republican member of congress. >> well, as of right now for republican members of congress, the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. and that's really the challenge. >> whatever the main thing is. >> because we're in a environment where there are so

many different distractions every single morning usually before 8:00 a.m. and getting tax reform done, this is something that ronald reagan ran on in 1980. it got done in year six. this is year one of president trump's administration and to get this done now requires a massive effort. now, i have to give the white house credit. infor a fact from my communications with the white house that they have mutt an enormous amount of effort not only into thinking this through but coalitions and so on. activating the republican base in favor of this. that's not something i saw on obamacare repeal. it's not something i've seen on anything else else so far. getting it done now, this is the opportunity. we have a narrow window to get this done. it's an enormous task. every has to be focused on and this skom compromise is going to be necessary along the way in order to get this passed. >> i don't think there is a narrow window here. that's the problem. the white house keeps setting artificial deadlines. as you said, year six, it took

two years to do tax reform in an era without cable television. >> so they are not -- >> i love cable television. >> so they are not managing expectations, because everybody is thinking -- by the way, you know, we're talking about this. i was out of the country when charlottesville happened, so i'm still kind of -- and i just got back. i'm sorry, i'm not gonna let that just suddenly not be talked about. what the president said, how he said it, and that is sf that at least in terms of all of the prigsz, democrats and republicans. >> it should be a topic when they come back. >> oh, my gosh, that's done. it's like really? that was an important historical moment in our country and they should be -- >> i have a feeling it's going to pop up again one way or anotherment guys, ron squared and maria, stay with me. jake, unfortunately you're leaving. sad. >> sad. >> coming up, jared kushner and his property problems. stay with us.

so that's the idea. what do you think? hate to play devil's advocate but... i kind of feel like it's a game changer. i wouldn't go that far. are you there? he's probably on mute. yeah... gary won't like it. why? because he's gary. (phone ringing) what? keep going! yeah... (laughs) (voice on phone) it's not millennial enough. there are a lot of ways to say no. thank you so much. thank you! so we're doing it. yes! start saying yes to your company's best ideas. let us help with money and know-how,

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to pop up again one way o i'd love to have jared helping us on deals with other nations and see if we can do peace in the middle east and other things. he's very talented. >> that was then president-elect trump talking about jared kushner's potential role in his administration. now almost nine months later,

the president's son-in-law has just recently returned from the middle east as an envoy to try and restart peace talks in the reasonment while jared has been brokering peace in the middle east, though, he's traveled to iraq. he's launched pay task force to reorganize the u.s. government, and has been advising the president. he and his family business, though, continue to be under intense scrutiny. the latest report is from bloomberg revealing the kushner family business is struggling to pay back millions of dollars in loans and about its over seas fund-raising efforts. jonathan la mere is back with us. this bloomberg story is long, but it's very detailed and it's very good. it shows how much debt the kushner's are in right now. when he went into.white house, was there any concern among those in the administration about the kushner holdings and how that could potentially look at the very least when they're talking about doing deals even diplomatically, politically with

foreign governments that could be investing in properties in new york? >> it certainly raises some questions. this is an extraordinary amount of debt. not too far from where we are right now. the kushner family has even suggested it might be more valuable if they just knock the whole thing down and try to sell the land. but let's remember, the president and jared has always seen a little bit of himself in jared kushner. he inherited a family business from his father from outer bureaus, queens, brooklyn. jared kushner sort of did the same with his father, coming from new jersey, made the big bold gamble in manhattan with this building. there are certainly people within the white house, he certainly has his foes within the white house. some of them have now departed, but this is something where the president was going to push to have jared and ivanka in the white house. >> i don't know why this is such a big deal. i do think it's a lesson in that when you bring people into your administration, particularly

family members, every business connection that you have is going to be subject to much, much greater scrutiny. and every business decision is going to be really evaluated instead of through a business lens, through a political lens. that's part of the price that you pay of the but other than that, here is a real estate firm, family owned that owns a very big pensive believe in manhattan. they bought it at the height of the market. -- >> they're courting foreign donors, though. >> actually, according to the bloomberg -- >> they've had to stop. >> engaging with sovereign wealth funds as a result of jared kushner taking this position in the white house. so there's pluses and minuses to taking it. >> we have 30 seconds. >> they lied about the involvement in china and while they stopped seeking sovereign wealth funds they're still looking for big checks from important foreign ol i garks. there's no way that could reconcile with someone being a senior adviser to the president of the united states. >> they're having a hard time finding americans that are interested in it at least according to that report. >> do they have any -- if any of us are worried about anything

that we owe and it sticks with you, i do think it's a big deal that somebody who is in this position has that amount of debt and he's carrying all of these huge responsibilities for our country that we did not elect him. it's a big deal. >> that will do it for us this hour. maria, john anthony, ron squared. that's what i'm going to do from now on, ron squared. thank you very much. "mtp daily" starts right now with the wonderful and amazing kristen welker, who is in for chuck. hi there, kristen. >> hi there, katy. we have a great labor day. well, if it's friday, could there be a calm after the storm in washington? tonight, the political storm. >> i think we have to come together in a bipartisan fashion and help folks down in texas. >> how will the steep cost of recovering from hurricane harvey affect president trump's priorities? will it cost him the wall? and the future for dreamers. >> we'll be releasing on daca sometime over the weekend. >> we have every confidence that president donald trump is going to honor his word and let