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tv   Hardball With Chris Matthews  MSNBC  March 6, 2018 4:00pm-5:00pm PST

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past critic of trump's white supremacist comments. sometimes it can't stop because it won't stop. thanks for watching "the beat." we're here every night at 6:00 p.m. eastern. now over to "hardball" with chris matthews starting now. >> man overboard. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. even as president trump tries to convince the world there is no chaos at the white house and everybody wants to work there, his top economic adviser just quit. gary cohn's decision seems to be a rebellion against trump's decision last week to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, something many in the president's own party have warned could lead to a trade war. cohn was one of several white house advisers who strongly urged the president to relent on
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that decision. it's a dramatic end for a man reportedly considered in recent times to be a candidate for chief of staff. as trump spoke this afternoon, a joint press conference with the swedish prime minister, there was an ominous sign in the room, gary cohn's seat, there it is, was empty. nbc news reported friday donald trump became unglued over the stories about hope hicks, jeff sessions and jared kushner. according to two officials he was angry and gunning for a fight. he chose a trade war. well, early this morning, donald trump tweeted the new fake news narrative is that there is chaos in the white house. wrong. people will always come and go. i want strong dialogue before making a final decision. i still have some people that i want to change. always seeking perfection. there is no chaos, only great energy. that was the president's tweet this morning. trump was asked about that tweet today, specifically who he wants
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to change next. let's watch. >> does that include your attorney general jeff sessions or either of your cabinet secretaries? >> i don't really talk about that. i just said that the white house has tremendous energy. it has tremendous spirit. it is a great place to be working. many, many people want every single job. i read where, oh, gee, maybe people don't want to work for trump. believe me, everybody wants to work in the white house. it's tough. i like conflict. i like having two people with different points of view. i certainly have that. then i make a decision. but i like watching it, i like seeing it. i think it's the best way to go. yeah, there be people, i'm not going to be specific that change. sometimes they want to go out and do something else. but they all want to be in the white house. so many people want to come in. i have a choice of anybody. >> i'm joined by white house correspondent kristen welker, msnbc anchor stephanie rhule and
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the former chair of the republican national committee michael steele. there is "washington post" columnist dana milbank. a great first team. chaos or not. kristin, the fact that they had had the empty chair today, this to come out after the president said everybody wants to work here, you know, everybody loves raymond kind of thing and then have the guy walk out the two. i know the two people who don't want to work there, hope hicks and this guy left today. not of's clamoring to be there. he calls it the fake news narrative that of's leaving even though everybody is leaving. your thoughts. >> it was like a prebuttle this astounding visual. you have the ominous sign of the empty chair and the president talking about in his words, everyone wants a piece of oval office. he was essentially foreshadowing what would become true in a few hours. the timing also interesting, chris, because it happened after the markets closed.
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it was clear the white house wanted to stave off any type of market reaction today. we'll be watching very closely overnight, asian markets and the u.s. markets as they open up tomorrow morning. the stature of gary cohn inside this white house cannot can be overstated. this is someone who was not only opposed to the tariffs, chris, he was sharply opposed to the tariffs but he's a free trade democrat, someone not afraid to clash with the president with wilbur ross. he's seen as a stabilizing force. so his ouster, his resignation will be a big deal for this white house. the question is, what will the ripple effects be within the broader economy, chris. >> stephanie, he knows he's leaving at a time the president is in a chaos world. everybody's talking about everybody leaving. one piece of the oval office he doesn't want is the chair. he wouldn't sit in this today. this is a weird choreography.
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usually in the real world of politics, they used to say, well, jimmy's leaving but joe's coming or mary's coming. there will be a new economic adviser to the president. this guy leaves an empty chair literally. you can't tell me that's organized. is it. >> it's not. i don't know jimmy, joe or mary but i know gary. gary cohn is a process guy. in january after tax reform got done, he went to the president and he went to general kelly and said, i'm only working at 20% capacity. i need something to do here. i can do more. he said to the president, i'm ready for a cabinet level position. i want to do something bigger. could be something in the state department or the cia. the president said why don't you focus on infrastructure ab-gary was the one who drove infrastructure and has been waiting to work on that and hasn't been able to. things got sigh lined with daca, things got sidelined after the shooting. ideally sidelines because the president doesn't pay attention.
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he said i'm willing to leave and come back if a bigger role comes up down account line. remember what happened last wednesday. they have tariff tuesday every week talking about it for months. you know the president's views for over a year. but things getting completely out of hand with wilbur ross and peter that var row who gary cohn has zero respect for and peter navarro is not respected by any mainstream economist and so suddenly, gary is saying you know what? if this is the process, state, treasury, no one's aware, i'm going to going. > mike, the way normally things -- when you take a job, take the job. don't think i'll get a raz later. cut the deal then and live with it. he wasn't asked to be can of state or treasury. i was asked to be economic adviser for a president openly for protectionism. all the key industrial states he ran in, he said i'm going to screw our competitive partners around the world. now he says i can't believe
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there's protectionism. >> that's not true. it's a process. >> why does he demand a big job when he didn't get a big job offer? >> he said, sir, i can do more. in this, the president is going to make a decision on tariffs potentially that's not in the best interests of the country. so gary's job is to be there to focus on the economy. and he is not giving gary an opportunity to do that. then what's the point of being there? >> what states did gae cohn gary? >> excuse me. >> i'm wondering who the boss is. it's not his job to set economic policy. it's the president's job. >> yes, so gary has done his job with the president. if he doesn't work anymore, he's happy to go. >> i think it's chaos. >> it is. by the way, you usually wait for somebody to replace you before you take french leave. >> i think gary has been telegraphing his displeasure and inclination to leave for some time. certainly what happened this
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weekend was for hip the fim str final straw. the white house didn't have time to put someone in place for gary because they're not thinking that far ahead. they're not reading body language of their own people that's telling them about the dissatisfaction and the concern they have over policy. it's a big deal. for the economic adviser to the president of the united states to leave over this particular issue. particularly given that he doesn't have the kind of support right now among house republicans at least, senate republicans, as well, and how this plays out with the broader business community. >> just on the reporting from the white house, what's it feel like there when you have hope hicks, a close confidante of the president walks out of nowhere and gone, in guy leaves his chair sitting empty. i'm sorry, i can accept what stephanie said about the qualifications of the guy and he's for good government and good economics but trump is running the place. it looks like a ship that's sinking and people are jumping.
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this is what it looks liking. > it feels like, you can see real concern in the eyes of the people who work here. in part, from a practical standpoint, they're concerned about the workload that they'll now shoulder with the fact that can hope hicks is leaving. what is that going to mean for rest of her communications team? there hasn't been a new communications advise named. more broadly for chick policy, this is a significant significant departure and again, i think what a lot of people here feel is the president is losing i accounter balance to how he views economic policy and how so many of those close to him view policy. there's a real concern that some of the forces that were stabilizing him are now departing. what will that mean not only for the messaging here at the white house, some of the 2003s he sends out, for example, early in the morning but what will it mean more broadly for policy and
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for them to be able to actually get stuff done. steph makes the point of infrastructure. that was one of the issues that the president really wanted to focus on. of course, that's gotten completely offtrack. how do they get back on track with what was supposed to be a key priority for this president. >> i'm going to end the show tonight by talking about peter king. like a guy playing a pinball machine. as long as the ball keeps moving, you're winning. i don't think trumpcares where anything except everyone knows the boss. doesn't want any challenge. gary cohn looks like the kind of guy in the room has to be taken seriously. i don't think trump likes that. >> he has achieved the effect of dominating headlines at all points. you can't even argue the question of chaos. we have numbers as of last week, with hope hicks according to brookings tally, 40% of senior white house positions had turned over within a year. now it's approaching one in two
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have left. >> more coming the president says. >> this is double or triple what it is. they're not just leaving because i've done my job and leaving, they're being destroyed look what happened to gary cohn. he's standing at trump's side during did the charlottesville disgrace. he's passed over for the federal reserve. he's hanging on just to try to keep him from going in a protectionist direction after a year he gives up that at all. they're getting chewed up. who wants to come into the white house and do that. >> stephanie, i understand there was a meeting planned, maybe in your note. there's a scheduled meeting for was scheduled two days from now on thursday where they'll hear the rebut to this protectionist notion. now that cohn had no confidence that meeting would take place. is that true? >> it is true but it also speaks to exactly the point that was just being made. we know gary was angry with the president after charlottesville. but he didn't leave. one could say why would he leave over this?
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because he's there specifically to work on issues of economics relating to trade. if he cannot get the president's attention, you said before he's leaving over policy. he's leaving over process. the president made this big plan about the tariffs and did not have the white house legal team signing off. he said this was an issue of national security. the white house legal team has not approved that. people are going, well, trump goes i like when there's two different opinions wilbur ross versus gary. this is still president trump versus his own white house counsel. he didn't have clearance. for a process guy, if he's not going to get to lead the process, he's saying forget about it. you are exactly right. president trump is an i and a loan guy. he doesn't want to go to mar-a-lago and say really glad gary's there, good for the markets. that's not what he likes. >> i love that. let me go back to chris on this. that's the point i want to get to the which is personnel.
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the warring tribes in the white house. you're much better at this than anybody else. ivanka, jared, goer cohn. that was apparently one of the tribal groups, one of the gangs if you will. now that dang gang's under assault again. cohn's gone. jared is on the opposite of the on-deck circle. he's not going to go to bat. what's going on in terms of the warfare inside of the white house? >> first of all, you'll recall steve bannon called that group you just talked about the west wing democrats. that's how closely aligned they were in terms of policy and alliances here. you're right. jared kushner has lost his top security clearance. he was the guy spearheading middle east peace. what does that mean for his ability to carry out that task? ultimately what it means is that right now, john kelly has been emboldened. what's so interesting abouting thatting is just several days ago we were talking about the fact maybe he would be on the chopping block in the wake of the rob porter incident.
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you're seeing power alliances constantly shift. i want to make one point what steph was saying which is not only was president trump's announcement on trade and tariffs not mapped out from a legal perspective but look at the messaging. it's been all over the place. he made the announcement. he said trade wars are a good thing. then he said there's not going to be a trade war. today he seemed to flip again and said look, trade wars aren't so bad. he's been all over the map and even his top officials don't know how to protect him on this issue. they don't know where he really stands right now. >> mike, back to my point which is what i love in politics is the personality of the leader. we have a president with a view of the universe, i am the sun is, the solar system. there's one sun. it burns hot. it this guy going to be the happiest man in the world when he's home alone and there's
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nobody around and everybody has to give him credit? >> yeah. >> for the economy. the indices he's looking at what he believes it happening with the economy right now on the heels of the tax bill. he sees this despite the peak surrounding the trade decision for him, that feeds that narrative with his base. so he's out there doing what he thinks he needs to do to keep the universe centered right around that sun. >> but this is different because you see republicans were holding fire to some extent because they still thought ed change his mind. clearly with gary cohn gone, they're not changing his mind on this. there's going to be open warfare right now. >> a lot of money to be made in free trade, right? there's a lot more money. free trade than in protectionism i would think. >> without a doubt. gary will be there for another two weeks. i suspect he'll be trying to get the president on track. but in terms of willing to stand by the president, you know, gary wanted to hang his hat saying i
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got tax reform done. i haven't ca tried to take credit. they're all trying to take credit for tax reform. gary doesn't want to be there because it's embarrassing if tariffs go the wrong way. they all want to want to save face and say i don't stand with him on the crazy stuff. they feel embarrassed. >> anyway, thank you kristen welker. stephanie, great having you on. the crisis situations affecting the markets and the economy and everything including our futures we call on you. michael steele, thank you. dana, i know you'll have an interesting turn on this in the next 48 hours. we'll get to the market's reaction to cohn leaving in a minute. coming up later, the timing of cohn's departure koxs comes one day after sam nunberg says trump may have done something wrong on the russian thing. tonight here on "hardball."
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plus, nothing to see here. trump wants you to know there's no chaos in the white house. just the every day comings and goings of a typical presidency. after cohn's exit you the is anyone buying that. >> and the first battle for control of the congress in texas is on tonight. will the resistance against trump show up at the polls? will there be a big blue wave this year? we'll see how real that is. let me finish with trump watch. he won't like it. he might in a weird way like this one because it's how whacky the whole thing is but seems to fit with him. this is "hardball" where the action is. ♪
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when heartburn hits fight back fast with tums chewy bites. fast relief in every bite. crunchy outside. chewy inside. tum tum tum tum tums chewy bites. welcome back to "hardball." stock future trading tonight is pointing to a lower stock market opening tomorrow after news broke that white house chief economic adviser gary cohn is gone. he'll be gone in two weeks. he's out of a job now. i'm joined by john harwood.
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this would shock most of the world that the top economic advisor to a head of government has walked right after a major announcement on trade has been made. this is a conflict maybe? we've been thinking some country like italy was going crazy if this happened. your thoughts about the impact from the number one country in the world, us. >> chris, as you know is, we've got a republican party that is split between hits blue collar working class wing which has grown and its pro business pro market wing. now, in donald trump's era, the blue collar wing has become ascendent. i'm standing here in southwest pennsylvania right behind me, joe bide is giving a speech for a republican -- democratic congressional candidate conner lamb. some of the thinking was that president trump wanted to help the republican running for this special election next week by applying these tariffs. but this is a president who is
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siding on a critical economic issue with that be blue collar wing. that's not normal, not what the bushes have done in the past. that's not what the mitt romney would have done. they would have sided with the pro market, pro business wings. and this nomination and election of donald trump had consequences. we're seeing them right now. the markets are likely to open lower tomorrow. i do think, chris, if president trump gets pounded in the markets for multiple days, that will influence who he picks to succeed gary cohn. and maybe what he does going forward on trade. there's a much bigger trade decision that the trump white house faces on china later this year on intellectual property. if they go full-out to punish china for stealing our intellectual property, that is going to be a much bigger and more economically congressional step than these tariffs he announced right now. >> the great irony, people like
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sherrod brown, very tough on trade. they think you've got to help the steelworkers, geojury regard. these are tough guys angry about what they see as the dying of our steel industry and they've got a president leaning in their direction. this is a strange political division we're looking at, working class democrats and trump. looks like. >> the weird thing about it, chris, is we had a pro labor republican tim murphy who was forced from office over a personal sexual scandal. now the republicans have put up ach anti-labor republican. trump's trying to help him here. he's embraced tariffs but so has conner lamb the democrat running for the seat and neutralizing that issue. >> it's a union state still. up next, the latest on the russia probe. special counsel mueller is reportedly interested in trump's long-time lawyer michael cohen giving us a better sense where
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welcome back to "hardball." as the white house reels after the departure of gary cohn, new reporting tonight that another member of the president's inner circle is of interest to special counsel robert muler. according to "the washington post," mueller requested documents and interviewed witnesses about incidents involving michael cohen, the longtime lawyer for president trump whose wide ranging portfolio has given him a unique vant teenage point into trump's business and political campaigns. while there's no indication he is specifically a target, this is another sign mueller may be zeroing in on trump's financial dealings. "the new york times" is reporting robert mueller has gained the cooperation of an
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adviser to the uae, part of an effort to the determine whether foreign money had any influence on trump's political activities. all this comes after trump's former campaign adviser sam nunberg who has spoken to investigators as a witness in the probe told us he thinks mueller already has found something on president trump and that it may relate to his business. >> they probably have something on trump, trump did something pretty bad. >> what do they have? >> i don't know. >> you felt they were asking you more about potential crimes related to the trump organization rather than the campaign. >> yeah. >> joining me is an natasha bertrand and kim whaly former u.s. assist isn't attorney. let's start with michael cohen. we know he was involved with stormy in that payout of $130,000. we know him from that background. it looks to me like trump is about to make a reckoning with
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robert mueller. he made it clear he's ooh going to treat as a red line, you go after my business affairs, you're just fishing. all business guys would hate that, i suppose. he says if you do that, i'm going to get rid of you. he's going after the uae and everything with regard to his lawyer who does all his business stuff. mueller is not stopping at the narrow definition of what his investigation started with. >> the financial aspect is important because that is ultimately the biggest form of leverage that russia would have over the president if it indeed exists. >> what had they have? >> they would have potential money laundering deals which has been heavily scrutinized by many reporters and including the founder of fusion gps testified before the house intelligence committee and said they had had seen a lot of indications that russian money-flowed through trump properties and that all signs pointed to money laundering. if that did occur, that would create a position where trump
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was susceptible to kompromat. it would be something the russians would know about. this is definitely an example of mueller going after the heart of the question which is, is there a reason why president trump never criticizes vladimir putin and why throughout the entire campaign, he seemed to be cozying up to the russians and welcoming their help including asking hem to hack into hillary clinton's e-mails. >> he did it again today. he said there may have been some meddling that didn't affect the votes. he said other countries may have doneton, as well. other individuals. he's trying to spread the blame around so vladimir won't hear him attacking him. he doesn't want vladimir to make the point just made hearing him bad mouth him. he doesn't want him mad at him. >> it's a fair implication. we don't as americans care a lot what happens in other countries to the extent it affects our democracy. we want our elected leaders to make decisions based on what's
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best for the country, not based on shady business dealings, something you owe somebody else. the money matters here because it gives a rationale or a justification for collusion for lack of a better word which could lead to other crimes. the money laundering itself and the other financial machinations can be crimes in and of themselves. i think this is squarely within rod rosenstein's mandate. >> it says anything he uncovers. wide mandate. tell me about the united arab emirates talker. who is the new stool pigeon? >> this is a remarkable story from the "new york times" how this adviser to the united arab em rates george nader is cooperating with the special counsel. we propertied previously he had been interviewed by mueller's team but no one understood how they had a nech us to mueller's investigation. now we know nader was at that meeting in the seychelles along
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with erik prince and a representative. >> what happened at that meeting? >> well, there are conflicting reports. there is erik prince said it was just a casual meeting with an investor over beers and they just chatted about general global affairs. but others have said people present at the meeting told "the new york times" that the emirates thought that erik prince was a representative of the trump campaign and so did the russians. so there is some speculation that perhaps after the election took place, after trump won, there was then this meeting to kind of get their ducks in a row. >> why would they meet in this third place? why would they go down to the say shells. >> it's odd agree og geneva? to keep it secret. >> perhaps more easily concealable. >> let me ask you about this guy sam nunberg. now he's like this cato cale condition type character. there's a little bit dodgy. they say things that don't seem to be well thought through.
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they do make news. when he said he thinks mueller's got something that the president did something bad, do we count that as a serious contribution to the facts here? >> no, i don't think so frankly. i think it's relevant i guess to the public discourse to understand that people within the grand jury are reporting that these are the kinds of questions that the mueller team is asking burks it really shows mueller is following the facts and will ultimately make a determine nation. >> what do you make of these characters? they seem a little loopy. the way they look and behave on camera doesn't seem norm. >> we have three guilty pleas from people within the president's core team already. so. >> we've got erin burnett saying were you drinking today? i'm not used to hearing this kind of conversation. this is stranging. > apparently cam nunberg has grown frustrated with the fact he feels a lot of friends during the campaign have abandoned him. he was pivotal to the campaign's early days and ousted twice
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after a series of kind of racist facebook posts were unearthed. he feels he's been throwned you the bus and does not have any loyalty to donald trump. his loyalty is to roger stone. >> what's trump most worried about, the business end, obstruction end or the collusion piece. where is he most worried. >> the financials because the tax returns he's still trying to hide. >> i think mueller probably has them. >> i think he has them but he doesn't want them released. there's a reason for that. >> why? because he's not rich. >> maybe shows evidence of wrongdoing. >> his hands are smaller than we thought. thank you, kim wehle and natasha. despite reports the white house is descending into power madness, according to trump there's no chaos only great energy. after today's adviser, who does the president think he's fooling? hey, need fast heartburn relief?
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welcome back to "hardball." this morning, president trump called reports of chaos in the white house a fake narrative. even as the president was tweeting that this morning, bloomberg reported trump told advisers he believes gary cohn will leave his white house job if trump decides to go forward with tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. late today trump's fears came true. it's a big blue to an administration whose number one issue is supposed to be the economy. ken vogel from the "new york
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times," anita kumar from mcclatchy. and a republican pollster and former director of the texas republican party. i remember there was a high school play, everybody "ten little indians,"ing about ten people staying at a mansion one weekend and each keeps dying. the murderer is one of the few people left. what is going on here? because they are all die. they're walking out the door. his most confident confidante hope hicks walks last week in the middle of the day says i'm getting out of here. this guy gave forewarning but he didn't wait around to be replaced. >> this is the feature, chris. not a bug of trump run organizations. it goes back to the trump organization where he admitted he pitted his own wife ivana against one of his casino xbz in a battle for control. we saw it on the campaign. it was the whole premise of "the
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apprentice." he likes there to be warring factions i guess giving him the benefit of the doubt. you might have good ideas emerge but more often than not what you get is chaos. >> it looks like chaos. >> you said it earlier today. earlier on the show how if you have someone leaving, the normal way to do is have someone coming in and announce the replacement at the same time. instead what the white house has been doing every time is saying, this person's been thinking about it for a number of weeks. if they had, why didn't you have someone lined up and have a smooth transition. they haven't done that for anyone. hope hicks the same thing. >> in politics, chris, it seems to me in politics you always have somebody in the room with you. you get in trouble, you call the person up. your lawyer, your best friend, your spouse. but trump seems to have very few people he can call anymore. who is he calling now? tom barack?
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who is left out wherever he is, somewhere out west. >> it's a good question. with cohn, it's a unique situation. this is a pattern. gary cohn was instrumental in designing the tax bill. after a past, there's nowhere to go but down. it's not that surprising that he left. shows the battle over tariffs at the white house right now. >> there's still a business cycle. we'll have a down soon. at some point there will be a down. they're called recoveries but they last seven years maybe. it will zy. there will be a time you need to reorganize the whole freshl economic program. it's going to happen probably before the election in 2020 for sure. who will be around to help him do it. >> it's already happy. the protectionists are an zendent. robert navarro pushing the tariffs. >> is that an economic policy. >> whether political or
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economic, these are the folks hobbs have trump's ear and gary cohn was the one fighting against that. he's gone. it's tough to see anyone giving that balance now. maybe they'll bring in someone else. maybe kushner or ivanka will push one of their sort are of new york democrat friends as bannon called them to balance out the agenda. >> good point. there was a fight in the white house for months between the, that steve bannon nationalists almost hard right against the traditional sort of metropolitan new yorkers who have friends around the world and think big. it looks like the think big crowd has taken a big fall. >> all the news today is about gary cohn. let's not forget. >> wilbur ross is winning. ross won this one. >> the big picture here is that jared kushner part of the white house is slowly leaving. jared's there, right? he has a diminished role. we've seen one person after another that is tight with jared and ivanka. they are leaving. it's all those people. it's not just trade.
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it's climate, immigration, all these issues that the globalists wanted. >> the liberals such as you call them. they're not even nationalists. chris is, trump getting more trump. >> there's no question. it's not a simple right/left republican democrat issue. >> there's a damn well fight between this president and this speaker of the house. the speaker believes in free trade, doesn't believe in changing immigration law. >> the other side of where the president is going right now. that's an issue in if the 201 elections. >> it's ironic it was gary cohn enforcing the republican orthodoxy on free trade. he was a democrat. now he's gone. >> democrats largely in the big state -- tend to be protectionist right now the. >> the people in the rust belt cheering these tariffs, as well. >> i don't know what bob casey and sherrod brown are saying about this, but they can't be attacking it. up next, these people tell me something i don't know. you're watching "hardball."
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we're back with the "hardball" roundtable. ken, tell me something i don't know. >> the white house has tried to create some distance with sam nunberg, former trump trump aide on this media tour. >> they don't accept judgment at nunberg. >> they say they make the point valid one that he never worked in the administration. but in fact, he has remained close to and worked for two trump insiders who did work in the administration including steve bannon as well as chris rudy this trump friend. >> they were picking a point. >> anita? he was closer than they admit. >> as if there isn't enough going on in this white house, the budget director nick mulvaney, is getting involved in state budget disputes. what this shows is that he and the administration is still strongly opposing obamacare and so they're getting involved. they recently got involved in the virginia budget dispute that's over obamacare. they're telling virginia do not expand medicaid. we do not support it. >> chris?
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>> today's primary election day in texas. democrat turnout over up 100% from 2014. every couple years democrats say it's going to be a blue wave. never is. faus flat. we analyzed data for primary election, an early vote and the general election. zero correlation between who votes on primary and what happens in the general election. >> you don't expect a blue wave. >> no. >> the democrats will not get the house. >> i think the house in texas will look almost like it does today. >> how about the house in the country. >> that's a story for a different day. >> you're chuckling. thank you ken, neat ta and chris. as we mentioned tonight, we'll get our first sense whether or not we can expect a big democratic win this november. it's primary night tonight in texas. polls will be closed in much of the state at the top of this hour. the early vote numbers have been great for democrats. will the resistance show up tonight? this is "hardball" where the action is. because you get a break on breakfast
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he echoed that sentiment at the white house this afternoon. >> they seem to be acting positively. we're going to see. i'm willing to go, as you probably noticed this morning, where we sent out through social media a statement willing to go either way. hopefully it's the proper way, the proper way is the way that everybody knows and everybody wants. but we are prepared to go either way. i think that their statement and the statements coming out of south korea and north korea had have been very positive. that would be a great thing for the world. >> we'll be right back after this. are defined by the things we share. and the ones we love. who never stop wondering what we'll do or where we'll go next. we the people who are better together than we are alone... are unstoppable. welcome to the entirely new expedition.
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and butch.aura. and tank. and tiny. and this is laura's mobile dog grooming palace. laura can clean up a retriever that rolled in foxtails, but she's not much on "articles of organization." articles of what? so, she turned to legalzoom. they helped me out. she means we helped with her llc, trademark, and a lot of other legal stuff that's a part of running a business. so laura can get back to the dogs. would you sit still? this is laura's mobile dog grooming palace and this is where life meets legal. welcome back to "hardball." polls will be closed in most of the lope star state at the top of the hour. the country will have its first indication from texas what's in store for the fall midterm elections nationwide. for democrats the road to the majority in the house and potential impeachment of president begins in texas.
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democrats have a reason to be excited. they've doubled early voting turnout from the last midterm election. the top 15 counties in texas, early vote shot up 105% since the last midterm. republicans have only gone up 15%. despite the troubling signs for the gop, the president talked bullish on republican prospects in the 2018 election. while a recent poll showed donald trump's approval rating at 39% in texas, a poll among texans showed 83% approve of the job he's doing. republicans remain the dominating force in the state but democrats remain hopeful their enthusiasm can translate into victories down there. the question is, will the resistance since the day after trump was elected show up and what does it mean if they do? i'm joined by elaine nan snyder reporter from politico. you're our person down there. you're au we got. you tell me, can you tell from now or we have to wait till late
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tonight to get did the first tea leaves whether there's a blue wave coming november? >> certainly democrats are excited to vote. you can tell that just from the early vote. we're going to see high turnout all over the state. that tracks with what we've seen in virginia, new jersey and state special elections across the country in the last year. so this goes along with a larger democratic enthusiasm. what it means for the ability to change hands in the house, it gives democrats a reen to be excited about that possibility. but so far from texas, it doesn't necessarily mean that texas is going to suddenly turn blue. it is still a very red state. we're expecting to see that coming out of the primaries. >> let me give hope to some people. progressive watcherses. what about beto o'rourke? can he beat ted cruz in november if he gets the nomination? >> it's certainly somebody who put up a tough fight, incredibly well funded. grassroots have shown a huge amount of support for him.
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but the chances that he's going to be able to beat cruz, somebody who remains pretty popular in the state it seems very unlikely in a red state like texas. >> thank you very much. we've got news coming in here now i think at any moment. breaking news right now. stormy daniels, sues president trump saying their hush agreement is invalid because he never signed it. what do you make of that? >> potentially problematic. he's already been out there. let's not forget and sort of the contours of what she's going to say are pretty well-known. she gave this 2011 interview in which she alleged affair. maybe she will say -- the interesting thing is it doesn't seem to matter for his supporters. >> i think you're right. an adult film star, we know what that means. $13,000 nondisclosure agreement. we assume so far the lawyer paid it and still waiting to get compensation from the president. does that still hold?
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it sounds like stormy daniels doesn't harn it anymore? >> it sounds like a lot of critics are saying there were campaign violations. finance violations. >> because it would be seen as an inkind contribution. >> he did it for the president for donald trump. >> whether or not it was coordinated. he talked about he held off because he was trying to get in touch with trump. that's what the "wall street journal" reported. he wanted to get to trump. >> i spent my life hearing about people who never get paid by the competition. >> a huge story barely gotten any air play. >> i worked for cruz in the primary against trump. 42 states we went up against him. if we took all the scandals this would not be in the top 20. >> explain that. >> if i could, i wouldn't be sitting here right now. i would be leaving the white house. >> it used to matter. i don't know. thank you, ken vogel, neat ta kumar and kris wilson for that nice admission we have no idea what's going on.
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elena snyder thank you for going down to texas. let me finish tonight with trump watch. you might like it. it can power your apps with public services without starting from scratch. it brings your business up to speed, doing more with systems you have in place. it can bring all your apps to life and run them within your data center. it is... the new ibm cloud private. the cloud that's designed for your data. ai ready. secure to the core. the ibm cloud is the cloud for smarter business.
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trump watch, tuesday march 6th, 2017. 2018. congressman peter king, a big city guy like donald trump compared his behavior these days to someone plays an old pinball machine trying to keep the action going by shaking the table, keeping the ball jittering from side to side, anything to keep it moving in
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play and in his control. i think the congressman everyone long island has got it, he's got trump and our time. i used to tell young political press secretaries to rely on old news radio. if you listen to an all news radio station in a big city, you realize the station needs to reup the stories every two hours. everything gets old fast for the person driving. you need to keep giving them new news. today it's a lot faster. we don't wait for the hourly news or half hour news report to give it to us on radio. i think trump gets this. he understands we not only get our news faster, we move in the news sykes faster. what happened an hour ago is history. what's happening now is news. he tweets a dawn over the weekend and when the congress is back hope, he tweets at every new moment because he knows it's practically like a new era, things are coming at us that fast. what trump knows and has
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exploited is the fast paced news cycle of the big city. he knows to dominate the news now, you have to produce news now. there's no such thing as licking what you said last night or this morning. you have to be talking in now. the president will be making a decision soon on the appointment of a comu economic adviser. many people wanting the job. choose wisely. thanks for all in. all in with chris hayes right now. >> tonight on "all in." >> believe me, everybody wants to work in the white house they all want a piece of the oesk office, of the west wing. >> as the investigation closes in and staffers flee, the president says there's nothing to see here. >> so many people want to come in. i have a choice of anybody. >> once again refuses to acknowledge the full extent of russian election interference. >> certainly there was meddling and probably there