justice. >> thanks very much, mark fallon. the former cia agent and author of the book. that is it for us. i'm ali velshi. >> and i'm stephanie ruhle. we hand you off to andrea mitchell for "andrea mitchell reports." right now on "andrea mitchell reports," do the math. house republicans reveal their plan to cut corporate and personal income taxes. but does it add up? >> this is it. this is a very important and special moment for our country, for all americans. trial by twitter. president trump saying the new york terror suspect should get the death penalty while slamming the country's justice system. >> we need quick justice, and we need strong justice. because what we have right now is a joke and it's a laughingstock. >> on "today," new york city's

top cop hitting back. >> how does that sit with you? >> i get to work with our justice system every day, and in new york city it's definitely not a joke. and charged up. paul manafort and rick gates preparing for another day in court as president trump caused the "new york times" to deny that he is furious over the indictments. and crackdowns on big social media companies for not preventing election year interference. >> you've created these platforms and now they are being misused. and you have to be the ones to do something about it. or we will. good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington on a big day. a big day for tax cuts, at least proposed, a new fed chair and

the russian intervention all combining in washington. hoping to create one big legislative victory for the president before the end of the year. president trump is going to replace fed chair janet yellen with governor jay powell. another fed chair is not going to be given another four years at the helm of the nation's economy. what will be the fallout from that? joining me, kristen welker, correspondent kasie hunt. kasie, first to you, because they just rolled out this big tax proposal and you've been writing and briefing us this morning. they were working on it until the last minute. this is thrown together, if you will, over the last 24 hours. >> reporter: they're still working on it, andrea. there are still, you know, some final details that were not included in the handouts that were given to members this morning. there were quite a few questions that we put to republican members of the conference about the contents of this bill, and

they said, look, frankly we don't quite have the answers yet. but they are pressing ahead, anyway, and it has made a great deal of progress in figuring it's sorting through this framework, and it's clear that they are feeling a lot of pressure to make sure that this is something that middle class families feel like helps their bottom line, that this is, at the end of the day, a middle class tax cut. some of that pressure came from the white house, some of it came from messaging around from democrats and potential criticism. so i think you have really seen that reflected in the final product here. but there still is a fundamental conflict, potentially, and house speaker paul ryan was just here insisting that they were absolutely going to get this passed. he has to negotiate a tricky path through his own conference. on one side the freedom caucus and that 20% business tax rate that they don't want to compromise on, that the president doesn't want to compromise on. on the other side a group of more moderate republicans from

states with pretty high taxes, like new york and new jersey, who don't want introductions of state income taxes. right now those taxes will not be able to be deducted from these taxes. some of state taxes, $10,000. but the math is pretty tricky, and overarching that is the math to try to get this $1.45 trillion of cost. that's what they've been scrambling around through the night. one thing i'm going to be looking for, andrea, is the documents. they're called distribution tables. it's a very kind of bland description for the pieces of paper that are going to show who is going to benefit from this tax cut, what percentage is going to go to wealthier americans and businesses and what percentage is going to go to people making less money. when those tables actually come out, those will give you a much better sense of how this is actually going to play out

politically. andrea? >> i can tell you what's happening right now behind the scenes on k street, what we call gucci golf for the shoes that they wear. they line up outside those markup sessions. they are all poring over that to see who gets helped, who gets hurt to lobby for their particular clients. kristen welker, this is going to be a free-for-all, and the president is leaving it in the hands of gary kohn and his secretary gary mnuchin as he heads to a big trip across asia. >> reporter: that's right, he's holding meetings at the white house today, andrea, including with a number of senators as well as members of the house a little bit later on today, but you're absolutely right. he leaves for asia tomorrow. so he is placing this in the hands of gary kohn, steve mnuchin, of course his legislative affairs director mark short as well. he talked about this yesterday. he said, look, it's basically on them to get this through. the pressure couldn't be greater here, andrea.

the stakes couldn't be any higher. the president wants a win, he needs a win after failing on health care, and so he really wants to see taxes get done. now, of course, his strategy has been a bit different than we saw during the health care fight. the president has been out on the road really trying to sell this tax proposal to voters, the broad outlines of it, at least. and he's been working the phones with lawmakers, holding meetings here at the white house, so he's been putting the pressure on leading up to his big asia trip. of course, the nitty-gritty will come down to these next few days and weeks, and for the next chung of tha thung chunk of that, he's going to be overseas, andrea. >> and the property tax side is a huge change. that is going to be hugely controversial. also i want to talk to you and get reaction as well from kasie hunt on the hill. to jerome powell, a relatively safe choice, a republican, not an economist, a fed governor?

what do you expect the outcome to be when the announcement comes in a couple of hours that he is not reappointing janet yellen who is a standout economist and has been given high praise for her stewardship of the fed but was appointed by a democrat. >> well, andrea, i think it's really notable because president trump himself yesterday said that she was excellent. and when he was pressed on whether that meant that he would be keeping her in place, he wouldn't commit to that. and a white house official confirming that, in fact, he is expected to appoint jerome powell. this is someone, as you say, he's the governor of the fed chair. it is being met with a move that will be stabilizing because he sees eye to eye with janet yellen on a whole host of issues. but at the same time, andrea, as you point out, she is a democrat. so this move will likely be criticized as a political one, and this is the first time that we're seeing a fed chair not serve out two terms since 1979, i believe, was the last time. so this is going to get a lot of scrutiny, but it's a big

announcement the president is going to be making in the rose garden this afternoon. so expect a very big rollout, andrea. >> and kasie, another confirmation we have today is that sam clovis, who was the nominee for a top science position which he was arguably not qualified not being a scientist in the ag department, is not going to be up for a hearing. that nomination withdrawn. he's been under quite a shadow because we've reported, kim delanian of our team, reported he is the unnamed supervisor with george papadopoulos. the question would be, what did you know about russian contacts? what did papadopoulos tell you as the supervisor? >> reporter: that's right, andrea, and that is a big part of the reason why this, of course, has been derailed, although i will also say there was a story in the "washington post" this morning, the paper

obtaining a letter in which clovis admitted in questions from some of the senators that he didn't have nyack dem i can or scientific credentials at all, and that, of course, this position was as the top scientist at the usda. so a conflue nernce of factors there. we have reported that clovis has spoken to special counsel mueller about all of this russian meddling investigation, and that he is potentially involved. so putting him in front of a committee of senators is a potential land mine for the administration. i think it helps explain why he will not be sitting in public taking questions from these senators, andrea. >> kasie hunt and kristen welker. busy day in the white house and capitol hill. now the latest on the suspect in tuesday's deadly terror attack in lower manhattan.

saipov now sitting in jail after he told investigators he planned for halloween for his attack and he felt good about what he had done. he supported terrorism, and his case brought controversial comments from president trump who backed off today his initial call to send the suspect to guantanamo but is still calling for the death penalty. tweeting today, would love to send the nyt terrorist to guantanamo but statistically that process takes much longer than going through the federal system. there is also something appropriate about keeping him in the home of the horrible crime he committed. should move fast. death penalty. former assistant to the fbi and pete williams. pete, what do we know about the case so far as to whether others could have been potentially involved? was he acting alone? and also to the president's comments, pete. >> the big question is was he

acting alone? this is not the kind of attack that would have required help, certainly. it wouldn't have been expensive to carry out. it was $50 to put the deposit down on that truck and $15 maximum toll to cross the george washington bridge. so it didn't need a lot of money to carry it out or expertise. it's not the kind of attack that would have raised red flags in the preparation for it. he wasn't buying precursor chemicals for explosives or any other kinds of things that have been trip wires that have helped to foil previous attacks. but the question is, did anyone else know what he was up to? did anyone else egg him on? was he in touch with terrorists overseas or terror groups? those questions have yet to be answered. i have to say, andrey a the criminal complaint that was filed last night has an enormous amount of information on it given it was filed the day after the attack. it's the kind of document we would expect to see three or four days afterwards. a lot that far has to of that he

fact that he confessed. in the hospital he bragged about what he did. said he was planning on doing another kind of attack within a year but then decided on the truck attack two months ago, and that was bolstered by the information they found on his cell phone. as for the president's comments, i guess there are two ways to look at it. from a practical perspective of what impact it would have on the trial, it simply means that during the process of getting a jury selected, you have to find people who either didn't know what the president said or who say they can set it aside. so him calling for the death penalty. one of these counts is death eligible, and at some point in the trial preparation process, the government is required in the law to give notice if it intends to seek the death penalty. there is a schedule for that. i think it would be very surprising if the government does not in this case. so you may ask yourself, what's the difference between eventually the justice department saying he ought to get the death penalty and the president's calling for it now, and the difference is presidents have followers, prosecutors don't.

prosecutors are saying, this is what we think the punishment should be. that's a little different than the president calling for it. but at the end of the day, while it strikes many people as inappropriate, as a practical matter, it probably won't affect the trial that much. >> shawn torques foll, to follo pete just said, we already heard from commissioner o'neill in the nypd. they're so proud of what they did, they're proud of the hero policeman and three colleagues who ran toward this suspect and were on a different kind of call and ran right into the fray and shot him but didn't shoot him fatally so he's able to talk. how does it affect the people in the justice system and others to hear the president demeaning them this way? >> the nypd, the fbi and others should be proud of what they did. pete described that complaint. that didn't just happen by itself. there were fbi agents in five or six different states and internationally who were pulling

information together. there were people, prosecutors and new york city detectives who worked throughout the night at the crime scene collecting all this valuable information, to put it together so they could hold him and file that complaint. i think when people hear their efforts challenged, i think that it may serve to undermine them and impact morale. but the reality is, andrea, i've worked for many years with agents and prosecutors. these people do what they do because they're proud of the mission, they want to serve their community, they want to protect their country, and they'll do it regardless of what's said. they'll make sure they're standing on the line between good and evil and trying to hold that line to keep our citizens safe, andrea. >> thanks so much, shawn henry, pete williams. pete has been all over every issue in the past couple weeks. thank you, pete, for taking some time. coming up, a tax to grind.

will republicans pick up any democratic votes for their tax plan? chris holland is here on "andrea mitchell reports" right here on msnbc. mountain bikes and tabs along with her new juice press. luckily the geico insurance agency had helped her with homeowners insurance. she got full replacement on the stolen goods and started a mountain bike juice delivery service. call geico and see how affordable homeowners insurance can be. (avo) but you also have a higher risk of heart attack or stroke. call geico non-insulin victoza® lowers a1c, and now reduces cardiovascular risk. victoza® lowers my a1c and blood sugar better than the leading branded pill. (avo) and for people with type 2 diabetes treating cardiovascular disease, victoza® is now approved to lower the risk of major cardiovascular events such as heart attack, stroke, or death. and while it isn't for weight loss,

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this plan is for the middle class families in this country who deserve a break. it is for the families who are out there lifving paycheck to paycheck who just keep getting squeezed. this is our chance to make sure that generations to come don't just get by, they get ahead in

this country. >> house speaker paul ryan selling his top legislative priority, but concerns from top democrats are raising questions about the future of the bill. former congressman chris van holland serves on the budget and appropriations committee and he joins me now. chris, thanks for joining us. what are the reactions of what you've seen? we see they have not sunset that corporate tax as was originally proposed and there is a cut in the top rate for some taxpayers, i should say. >> that's right. what paul ryan said was accurate. the reality is we now know why they kept this behind closed doors for so long and why they're trying to push this through so quickly. they don't want people to have a chance to take a look at it. why? because it provides a windfall tax break for big multi-national corporations. in fact, it's a $2 trillion tax cut for those big corporations

paid for in one way or another by all the rest of us. middle chalass taxpayers will s their taxes go up. that's why the national association of realtors, all those realtors in all our neighborhoods have already warned this is going to reduce the value of people's homes around the country. they warn that taxes will go up on middle class homeowners. and we also know that at the end of the day, it's still going to add $1.5 trillion to the national debt, which is going to be paid for by all of us or by cuts to medicare and social security and education, which is also going to whack middle class families around the country. >> what about the state and local tax deductions which are now going to be cut? at least as far as income tax deductions. >> yeah. this is going to be mean a big tax increase for millions of lower class taxpayers around the

country. this is double taxation. the great irony, andrea, if you're a corporation in any state, you get to deduct your state and local taxes. but if you're a homeowner, this won't let you do it. it's just one more example of how this bill is a big sop so big national multi-corporations. the more we see, we see there is an advantage to companies moving their headquarters overseas, because they'll have a worldwide tax rate on average of of 10%, which will allow many companies to gain the system. this will actually give them an incentive to locate their operations overseas. again, a big sop to millionaires and billionaires and big corporations to the expense of just about everybody else in the country. >> i want to ask you about the investigation, the ongoing investigation, into the terror

attack in lower manhattan, and what the president called for in criticizing the justice system and calling for the death penalty. that could be very popular politically. no one would disagree with the sense of horror for what happened there. but do you have any concerns about the justice system criticism, and what are you saying publicly about an ongoing case? >> well, this was a horrific, cowardly attack, and you would think these terrorists would learn that these cowardly actions only redouble our resolve. new york city has shown that repeatedly, the country has shown that repeatedly. this is a time when the country should be coming together and unified, and it is really sad to see the president immediately try to politicize it in so many ways, starting with his tweet yesterday morning going after chuck schumer for an immigration program that's been in place since 1990 on a bipartisan basis. look, we should look at all the facts.

the president saying that our justice system is a laughingstock of the world is so untrue and reckless and irresponsible. we have a system of justice and we need to make sure that we have justice in this case, and i know we will hold this killer, this terrorist, accountable under our system of laws. and the president should focus on bringing the country together, not trying to point fingers at people like the senior senator from new york, chuck schumer. is really is outrageous conduct from the president of the united states. >> the president is going to have a lot on his plate because he's leaving for this major trip to asia. what would you like to see him convey to president xi about north korea and to our ally in south korea, president moon? >> well, we need to underscore support for allies like south korea, like japan, and we need to say to the chinese they've really got to start working with

us, and words are not enough. we want to see action. this is why senator toomey, a republican from pennsylvania, and i have introduced legislation modelled after the iran sanctions legislation that doesn't just impose sanctions on north korea. we've already done that. but in order to enforce those, we need other countries to comply, especially a china. so our bill would impose secondary sanctions on banks and firms and china, wherever they are in the world, that are doing business with north korea. saying to these banks, you can do business with folks who are engaged with north korea, or you can do business with the united states, but you can't do both. and i expect we're going to have a mark-up. we're going to have a voting session just next week in the senate banking committee on that bill. >> that's while the president will be in china, so some people will be noticing this from beijing. thank you very much, senator. thank you for being with us today. >> thank you. coming up, keeping calm and carrying on, president trump trying to calm the waters as

robert mueller keys in on more of his top advisers from the campaign, at least. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. what started as a passion... ...has grown into an enterprise. that's why i switched to the spark cash card from capital one. now, i'm earning unlimited 2% cash back

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as we've been reporting, president trump's nominee for the department of agriculture top scientist post, sam clovis, has now withdrawn his name today for consideration, following reports that clovis was questioned last week by special counsel robert mueller's team and also testified before the grand jury. clovis was the supervisor of george papadopoulos, raising questions about just how much clovis may know about early contacts with the russians. this also as president trump called the "new york times" last night to deny reports of white house turmoil over the mueller indictments. he's also insisting he is not under investigation. joining me now, nick ackerman, assistant investigator, and former foreign policy adviser to vice president joe biden. welcome both. nick, first to you, there is a status hearing for both manafort and gates. presumably they want permission

to leave their homes not just for medical appointments or to see their lawyers. they've been described as a flight risk in detailed court filings. what's likely to come out of that? what do we know? >> i think it's pretty likely that they're going to have their motion denied. i think the judge is going to keep them in home confinement. what mueller asked for is extremely reasonable under these circumstances where both men have lots of money, they've had conflicting statements about how much money they actually have. they have multiple passports. manafort has been going under aliases and traveling under aliases. i think they're both lucky they're not being put in prison as opposed to home confinement. >> and sam clovis, this controversial figure. he was an iowa campaign aide, came to the campaign late, michael, and he testified to the grand jury. and according to the plea agreement with papadopoulos, he is -- we've been reporting he is

the supervisor to whom papadopoulos confided information about meeting with a professor and a female russian national described as putin's niece. not true, but this is all very early information about the russian hacking before it had been announced. >> well, papadopoulos was actively seeking collusion from the russians. i mean, the question now is what did they give him in return? but he was out there repeatedly trying to get these e-mails that had been hacked. the fact his supervisor, who authorized him, in fact, encouraged him to go to russia to have meetings was a part of scheme, it's entirely appropriate that he should be withdrawing his nomination. not to mention the fact that he denies climate change and being an agricultural position at doa is probably not the best fit. >> what did clovis say to his sprrz or othe superiors or others in the campaign?

to whom did he countrywide about the russian confrontation? >> certainly during that couple month period of time where this whole papadopoulos has been under seal, you have to believe that papadopoulos was out there recording conversations, meeting with the various people that he had dealt with on this russian matter, and you also have to ask, did clovis get immunity? did he voluntarily go into the grand jury? it's hard to believe he wasn't forced to testify and given immunity. or maybe he's even entered into a deal with the prosecutors. we just don't know what those details are, and we don't know who all the other people are that the prosecutors are speaking to and making deals with. >> and, in fact, that's what mueller has left hanging out there that is certainly going to have an impact -- john kelly admitted, acknowledged in his

interview with fox the other night, with laura ingram, that it is having an effect on the white house despite what the president was telling the "new york times" last night. let me play diane feinstein at the social media hearing yesterday to the people from google and facebook and twitter about this russian interference. >> i must say i don't think you get it. i think the fact that your general counsels, you defend your company, that what we're talking about is a cataclysmic change. what we're talking about is the beginning of cyber warfare. we are not going to go away, gentlemen. and this is a very big deal. >> michael carpenter, do the social media executives realize this is not just a pr problem, that this has been an invasion into our election process, and that whatever form of regulation is going to emerge from this,

which will be hotly debated, something is going to happen? >> they say they get it, but it's clear from their statements yesterday and the day before, they don't really fully understand the gravity and the scope of the problem. so the fact that they are citing data and talking about a fraction of users who saw some of this russian disinformation, they are basing all of this on the fact that they have uncovered accounts from one russian troll farm in the outskirts of st. petersburg. the way russia operates is very widespread. they have all over trolls and misinformation pur haveveyors. so the notion this is everything that's out there is completely false. >> the gru, the russian military intelligence, they are trollers known as fancy bear. now we understand that a security firm has come up with their fishing list, and it includes everybody from the vatican to officials in kiev. so the american election was not

the only target by a long shot. to you, nick. >> no question about it. the russians have been trying to interfere with the brexit vote. they probably did interfere with that. they're trying to interfere with the european elections. this is the only way this country, russia, can do anything at this point. i mean, they're just not the same superpower they used to be, but they certainly have the ability on the wherewithall in the cyber world. and unfortunately, this country has not met that challenge. congress has refused to pass an all-encompassing bill to address this problem, and we have a president who is basically tone deaf when it comes to cyber security. >> and in denial about russia, michael. >> absolutely. the president has denied that russia was interfering in the election on multiple occasions. he doesn't get the gravity of this. so we haven't seen any action from the administration. there was a denial initially by the state department to use money that was programmed for

countering russian propaganda. if they don't understand now this is a critical national security issue, when will they? coming up, president trump planning to replace janet yellen as head of the federal reserve. that next. we'll be right back. 1,200 workers are starting their day building on over a hundred years of heritage, craftsmanship and innovation. today we're bringing you america's number one shave at lower prices every day. putting money back in the pockets of millions of americans. as one of those workers, i'm proud to bring you gillette quality for less, because nobody can beat the men and women of gillette. gillette - the best a man can get.

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to replace janet yellen as fed chair. powell is a lawyer, not an economist. it's a break with tradition. he is a republican. yellen, an economic adviser, is a democrat. what could this mean for monetary policy? talk about the budget when a new tax bill has been unveiled as well. lots to get to. jillian, let's talk about the switch from janet yellen to jerome powell. assuming everyone gets confirmed, what does this mean? >> you want to get some kind of verdict which is not necessarily that much. powell has been part of the federal reserve group for quite a while. he's a fairly known quantity. he's not viewed as a firebrand. he's seen as moderate in many ways, so what many people in the

market think is that the monetary policy will be moving on a similar path that it's been on the last year or two under janet yellen. now, that could be wrong, because as you say, he is trained as a lawyer, not an economist, and his inner workings are not that well known. but one thing very important about him is he's well known by wall street and the markets. he was actually working in investment banking before. so again, as far as the investment community is concerned, that's another quite reassuring point. >> also a lighter hand in terms of regulation, perhaps, than janet yellen. >> interestingly enough, people have been assuming that because he comes from the financial industry in the private sector, he will be lighter in handling regulation. if you pass through his statements the last few years, he's not in the camp of some republicans who are saying we should roll back everything that happened in 2009 and 2010 in terms of financial regulation. again, he's been a lot more

cautious and balanced. what we don't understand about governor powell in some ways is that he himself has never been one of the people to become fed chair. he's regarded as a safish pair of hands and not controversial, and maybe that's why trump wanted someone he could influence and chose him. >> and i wouldn't guess on the tax proposals because we don't know much about the details. maya, you've already expressed concerns about the effect on the deficit. >> we do know enough of the details that this is going to be a tax bill that ultimately does end up adding to the national debt at a time when the debt is at very high levels. when you talk about monetary policy, you want fiscal policy which works well for both of

them to help grow the economy. the best way to grow the economy in tax reform is to have tax reform that isn't undermined by increases in the debt. we're only starting to see the details. we do know there are some pay-fors in there. some are forms to tax expenditures, but we also know there are some real gimmicks in this bill so there will be things expiring in the 10-year period and the estate tax will be phased in to make the tax look shorter. all these gimmicks will contribute to where they're already allowing themselves to add $1.5 trillion to the debt. it could end up more costly. the more debt there is to the tax bill, the less economic growth there is. we really need a tax bill to grow the economy. >> the 1986 tax proposal, it took two years to get that through and it was bipartisan in every effect. this is something the president told the oval office he expects by christmas. >> in the face of this, they

have tried to get tax reform for many years. there was work that dave camp did, the blueprint. but there isn't time for members of congress to really look at this and do a bipartisan outreach if that's what they want. i think bipartisan is always better because at least they're durable policies, policies that will stay in place. that model in 1986 was good because it was bipartisan. also because we used the reduction of tax breaks to truly offset the rate reductions and other things that helped create a comprehensive tax reform. i don't think the timeliness of this matters near as much as getting it right. make sure they're pro growth and have the distribution effects that we want and build as much support as possible so this is something that adds real permanence to the tax bill so

that we can count on it. >> the president leaves for a trip to asia. slamming congress for deficits, he still seems to have a fixed notion about deficits that is a little unusual, and for him to be heading to beijing, which is such a -- you know, a big, important driver right after president xi has consolidated his power with so much criticism of the chinese seems to be counter-intuitive. >> if you have a week which demonstrates a problem of overload in the president's in box, it really is right now. because in the middle of trying to choose the next fed governor and essentially teasing them on instagram with an all-important tax reform package. you've had the mueller investigation heeaping on the press in distraction, and now you have this critical trip to asia and china in particular in the middle of this festering north korean crisis. so you have trump attacking

china on the issue of the deficit when he needs china with cooperation on the north korean issue is yet another overload problem. what the trump administration appears to be doing is essentially trying to get the chinese to come on board by threatening them on the trade front. but who knows whether that's actually going to work or not. >> as you can see, the president is about to announce some new jobs from a company in singapore and pitching for his tax cuts, so let's listen in. >> that's happening very rapidly and it's been met with really a great response. but i want to thank everybody for this great day, and it's a great day for the american worker in particular. over the past ten months, we've witnessed something remarkable happening to our country. have you all noticed? a lot of change. a lot of difference, right, kevin, would you say? we're just hitting another record right now on the stock market. we've hit, i guess, close to 60 records on the stock market since november the 8th, that

very big day. the stock market is at an all-time high, unemployment is at its lowest level in almost 17 years. we now have had two straight quarters of 3% or more economic growth. for those of you that don't understand that, this is a tremendous increase over where it was, and we're going higher. jobs have been offshored to so many countries that were now coming back and now those jobs and companies are coming back to our great american home. i want to thank the majority leader, kevin mccarthy, for joining us this afternoon. he has been so terrific in so many ways, and i will tell you he's working very hard on tax cuts. in fact, so hard that i'm surprised to see you here. this must be truly a great company, which it is. you'll be hearing in two seconds. you've been pretty busy today. we're thrilled to welcome

broadcom limited and its ceo hot tan to the white house to announce that broadcom limited is moving its headquarters from singapore back to the united states. broadcomm limited is a fortune 100 company, one of the really great, great companies. they manufacture technology and parts. they employ over 7,500 american workers in many states across our country. we're looking forward to seeing that number grow very substantially, which is now anticipated to do. he'll move back to the united states and to the united states is something very, very special and very important. and you've been seeing this happen with numerous companies, and at a minimum, expansions and sometimes plants. with this commitment, more than $20 billion in annual revenue

will come back to our cities, towns and the american workers. today we're joined by some of the incredible men and women from their manufacturing plant in the great state of pennsylvania. that's a state i like very much. you know that, right? i love pennsylvania. i went to school in pennsylvania. you're skilled in your craft, take pride in your job, and because of you our nation's trademark "made in the usa" is respected all over the world once again. we're telling people, made in the usa is a big deal now. we're bringing it back. when i was growing up, when i was a young boy, it would say made in the usa. that meant something. well, it means something again. my administration is working every day to make the united states the most attractive place in the world to do business so that more and more companies like broadcomm come back to our shores, grow their businesses and create more and more

american jobs. you see it happening on a daily basis. that's why i've already slashed more unnecessary job-killing regulations than any president in history. that includes their term. and i've only been here for about ten months. and we're not finished yet, believe me, we're not even close. and that's why we're working to give the american people a giant tax cut for christmas. we are giving them a big beautiful christmas present in the form of a tremendous tax cut. it will be the biggest cut in the history of our country. it will also be tax reform and it will create jobs. today, the house ways and means committee unveiled a historic tax reform bill that will create tremendous prosperity for our nation. we will provide a massive tax cut for american families. we will make the tax code simpler and fair. it's called simplification.

we will restore our competitive edge by reducing business taxes for the first time in more than 30 years. and we will bring back trillions and trillions of dollars that's now parked overseas so that money can be put to work rebuilding the united states of america as opposed to rebuilding other parts of the world. again, i want to thank broadcom ceo for joining us today. he's a highly, highly respected man, a great, great executive. the job he's done is an incredible job. but what he's doing is committing to massive amounts of american jobs. when hot told me about this move, he said, mr. president, we want to be an american company. we're hearing that all of these days, we're hearing it more and more. we're hearing it, frankly i'm hearing it every single day.

people are coming in at levels that you will be seeing over the next short period of time. you're seeing it in so many ways. you're seeing it when you just look at what's happening with the stock market. and you'll look at the enthusiasm indexes which is the highest they've ever been. the business enthusiasm in this country is at record levels. and we're hearing it from everything from tax reform, which is really spearheading it, and yet i think it's really a feeling for a country that people haven't had in a long time. they see what's going on with regulation. they see the tax move. that's going to happen. i really believe we'll have it done before christmas. i consider that to be one of great christmas presents. and not just the reform. not just the tax cuts. but we will be creating jobs like you have rarely seen in this country. so we never get tired of that pledge. because we never tire of

returning wealth to our country. jobs to our citizens. and honor to our great american workers. i honor our workers. these are incredible people. they've worked hard. you go back 20 years, and essentially they haven't had that salary increase that they should have had. now you see it, wages are starting to rise. so we're very proud of our country. and, hot, i'd like to have you say a few words. op and, again, on behalf of not only the pennsylvania folks behind me, but all of the united states, i want to thank you very much for choosing us. appreciate it. thank you. >> and joining me now is the "new york times" jeremy peters. the president talking about the tax bill as well as ashley parker from "the washington post" down at the white house. the president calling your colleague at "the new york times" to say he's not troubled by the mueller probe. trying to reset the record? >> exactly, right.

maybe he should have checked with his chief of staff before calling maggie so they could get on the same page. their talking points weren't quite in line. >> kelly already has acknowledged it's been a distraction. >> it's an obsession of the president's, andrea. he says time and time again, i'm not under investigation. he made comey insist to him, i am not under investigation. and then went on the air time after time after time saying comey told me, i'm not under investigation, i'm not, i'm not. he just can't seem to accept the fact. >> this is partially pushing back about "washington post" reporting about turmoil in the oval office. >> i was one of the authors of that story. it seemed like he was pushing back on. we feel confident in our reporting. we would not have written it if we didn't feel confident in our reporting. i understand why the president would publicly want to say he's not upset. it's not a good look for a president to sort of be frustrated and aggravated by this cloud of russia that's hung over his administration.

the entire time. but our understanding was, and, again, we have to put his anger into perspective. he's certainly been more upset over other things. on the morning when those indictments came down, the president stayed up in the residence longer than usual. his aides were kind of worried when he didn't show up to work or come down to the oval. again, as jeremy said, the reason he was frustrated is because he believes he's done absolutely nothing wrong so he doesn't understand why he feels like he keeps on unfairly getting dragged into this russia investigation in the media and with muler. >> and, jeremy, all of this, as we now know that sam clove es has been testifying, whether it's cooperatively or under some sort of an immunity grant. this is getting further up the food chain. >> exactly, we've just seen the tip of the iceberg. they're certainly more to come. this is an obsession of trump's for a very particular reason, andrea, and that's that he views any investigation into russia as

a delegitimization of his election. that he didn't win fairly. that he doesn't deserve to be president. it's his achilles heal. and he candidate let 't let it >> joe biden was one of the people speaking out. ashley and jeremy, let's play a little bit of biden in chicago on the whole use of twitter by this president. >> we've got to stop this tweeting. we've got to stop this sort of -- you know, it is so -- i've tried to stay out of the mosh pit, the president and i, president obama and i have. but it's childish. it's time to grow up. >> ashley, obviously, a difference of political party here. but he's not the only person talking about the tweeting. there are plenty of republicans who have been saying that as well. >> that's exactly right. the president's tweeting seems to be one of the few things that can unite this divided nation. it's republicans, it's democrats and one thing that's interesting

is when you talk to trump's voters, his supporters, who still deeply support him, they sort of even say look, i wish he wasn't sending all of those tweets, you know, but i think he's trying his best or i think he's doing a good job on immigration or whatever it may be. so i think it is going to frustrate people across the board. i think it is something that this president, he's been on this earth for aeight decades, s not going to change either. >> joe biden not being the only person. john mccain expressed the same sentiments to tom brokaw in an extraordinary interview. check it out online but let's play a little bit. >> if the president said, john what should i be doing i'm not doing right now, what would you say to him? >> stop tweeting. i think i'd say stop tweeting. >> that interview was done, ashley and jeremy, on the anniversary of john mccain's having been captured in hanoi. including current politics, past

politics and the press. he says he hates the press but the press are important. >> for john mccain. he used to call us his favorite constituency. boy, if i had a nicokel for evey time an aide of trump's said boy, we wish he would stop tweeting. it's not going to happen. he sees this as a vital communications tool to reach his base and he's going to keep doing it for as long as he's president and probably after. >> ashley, as you're all covering all of this, the asian trip coming up, this is a real moment in the young presidency of donald trump. his first big trip to asia. >> that's absolutely right. there's actually a lot of parallels between this trip and his first foreign trip when he headed off to the middle east and some other places. it was interesting, you may remember when he left then, he wallace under a lot of the pressure. health care had gone down for the first time. he was under a different part of the russia cloud.

he's leaving again under similar circumstances. it's hard to call it sort of a respite from the stress of washington because it's a different kind of stress but in some ways it might be nice for this president to get out of washington and spin his specific policies. >> as you can recall that first trip was fraught with all sorts of complications as well. now he's leaving gary cohen and treasury secretary mnuchin behind with the instructions get the tax bill done, which is a pretty tall order for both of them. thanks to ashley parker and jeremy peters. thank you both for being with us. that does it today. remember, follow online at facebook and twitte twitter @andreamitchellreports. chris jansing is next. good afternoon. we're at nbc headquarters in new york. the long awaited tax reform plan. moments ago. the president calling it a big beautiful christmas present.

after suffering repeated defeats on health care, can the president lead his party to a much needed victory on tax reform? probe intensifies. two indicted former trump officials due back in federal court just an hour from now as the investigation into russian meddling escalates on capitol hill. all of it as the president's usda nominee withdraws from consideration. and more and more accusers surface with stories of sexual harassment against powerful men, forcing apologies treatment and the severing of business ties. but we start with the flurry of activities today as trump and republicans try to put their stam on taxes and the american economy and maybe, just maybe, save their electoral prospects in the process. we're expecting to see the president and house republicans on the tax writing committee at the white house. now, earlier today, republicans released their roughly 400-page tax plan, just one day