tv First Look MSNBC March 29, 2018 2:00am-3:00am PDT
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real news tonight from america's southern border and that is, indeed, our broadcast on a wednesday evening. thank you so very much for being here with us. good night from nbc headquarters here in new york. this morning, questions about possible pardoners one of president trump's.top lawyers reportedly floating for michael flynn and paul manafort last year. plus, more reshuffling in the white house. the president nominated his personal physician to replace veterans affairs secretary david shulkin. north and south korea will have a summit next month. it will be the first in nearly decades for the neighboring countries. good morning, everybody. it is thursday, march 29th.
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i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside louis burgdorf. reports yet that john dowd raised the prospect of presidential pardon for former national security adviser michael flynn and campaign chairman paul manafort just as special counsel bob mueller was building a case against them. dowd's conversation with michael flynn's lawyer occurred sometimes after dowd took over last summer as the president's personal lawyer at a time when a grand jury was viewing evidence against flynn on a range of potential crimes. the times also reports that the pardon discussion with paulen manafort's attorney came before his client was indicted in october. one person familiar with the outreach said dowd over the summer relayed to manafort's lawyers that a pardon was a possibility. the fbi raided manafort's home in the early hours had of july
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26th. dowd said there were no discussions, period, as far as i know. no discussions. white house special counsel ty cobb said, quote, i have only been asked about pardons by the press and have routinely responded on the record that no pardons are under discussion at the white house. all of thises as sarah huckabee sanders say she had no firsthand knowledge. >> can you say unequivocally that no one here has discussed pardons in this case? >> i would say ty cobb is the person that will be most directly involved in this and he's on the record saying no discussions have taken place in the white house. >> did the president direct john dowd to talk to the attorneys of paul man na ford and michael flynn regarding pardons? >> i'm not aware of that conversation at all. >> did the president have a reaction to these -- >> again, i -- >> did you ask him specifically? >> i didn't talk to him about it
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specifically. again, i've been in a number of conversations. it's never come up. >> all right. but others in the trump white house say there have been pardon conversations and are reportedly talking to the special counsel about it. two people with fj tell the "new york times" that during interviews with mueller's investigators in recent months and current former administration officials have recounted conversation they had with the president about potential pardons for former aides under investigation. now, according to a person briefed on the conversation, in one meeting with lawyers from the white house counsel's office last year, trump asked about the extent of his pardon power. the lawyers explain that the president's powers, they are broud. in other meetings with senior advisers, two sources present say the president rated the the prospects of pardoning michael flynn. >> and to review some of the previous reporting and statements on presidents and pardons, "the washington post" reported last july that trump
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has asked his advisers about his power to pardon aides, family members and even himself in connection with the probe according to one person. after michael flynn's guilty please in december, the president declined to share his opinion telling people to stay tuned. >> would you consider a part from michael flynn? >> i don't want to talk about pardons for michael flynn yet. we'll see. let's talk about stormy daniels. last night, david schw a arz, the attorney representing the
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president's attorney, michael cohen, said the president had no idea about the agreement or others cha cohen had arranged. >> it seems like a simple question and you are cohen's spokesperson in this. can you say unequivocally that the president was never aware of the $130,000 and the agreement itself inspect. >> the president was not aware of the agreement. at least michael cohen never told him about the agreement. i can tell you that. >> what about the money? >> he was aware about any of it. he wasn't told about it. michael cohen left the option open to go to him. he chose not to. it was much more than attorney and client because he's that close to him. he had great latty attitude to handle these matters. >> so they happen with such
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frequency that -- >> look, michael was the fixer. it could be anything. it's not that this -- there were a ton of matters that took place that michael fixed. and donald trump wasn't involved in every single matter, all right.? >> i understand that. >> there was a line there, right, for d.d. >> david denson. >> it was blank, right? and that's evidence in and of itself that he didn't go to donald trump because the line was blank. he left the line blank. >> michael cohen was the fixer. that's schwartz's admission. renato mariotti tweeted michael cohenen's attorney just claimed on out front cnn that trump was not aware of the stormy daniels agreement which means there was no contract between trump and daniels and daniels can release the materials. why with would he admit this on national television?
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the shake-up continues inside of trump's administration after weeks of speculation. embattled secretary of affairs david shulkin has been ousted. trump said in a tweet, close, i'm pleased to announce ronnie l. jacksan m.d. as the secretary of veterans affairs. in the interim, i am thankful for dr. david shulkin's service to our country and our veterans. unlike rex tillerson who learned that he had been fired by tweet. shulkin was the lone obama holdover and had rare bipartisan support. the president joked last soon that his signature "you're
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fired" phrase would never be used on shulkin. i also want the to express our appreciation for secretary shulkin who is implementing the dramatic reform throughout the va. i have no do doubt it will be properly implemented. right, david? better be, david. we'll never have to use those words on our david. >> so dr. ronnie jackson, who trump has nominated to replace shulkin is a u.s. navy admiral who was appointed white house physician back in 2013. he briefed reporters on trump's first physical exam has president. the president's overall health is excellent. the president is currently very healthy and he will remain so for the duration of his presidency. he's very ar particular ewe a
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lat when he speaks to me. i've never known himself to repeat himself around me. >> how a guy who eats mcdonald's and all those diet cokes and never exercises is in as good of shape as you say he's in. >> it's called genetics. i don't know. some people have great genes. i tell the president if he had a healthier diet over the last 20 years, he could live to be 200 years old. >> according to the associated press, jackson's name was not among the roughly two dozen candidates the white house has been reviewing. some on capitol hill are concerned about jackson's qualifications, given his lack of experience running large organizations. national political reporter for axis jonathan swan tweeted last night, one immediate point, it's unclear how he is remotely qualified to run the second
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largest agent in the federal government based on the feedback i've seen so far from white house sources. it's pretty clear people inside share this exact concern. >> let's talk about this morning. joining us now from "the washington post," eugene scott. thanks for joining us today. so we have shulkin out, ronnie jackson in, the white house physician. what's been your reaction so far? >> i think most people view this change as another reminder that the most important qualification to have to be in the trump white house is a personal loyalty to the united states. this is a -- quite accomplished military man, a physician who as we reported earlier has zero management experience. this is not the first time we've seen the penalty make a move like this. this mirrors what we saw with ben carson and the department of
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housing and urban development and quite a few other offices in this add a administration. >> we've seen lots of staff shake-ups within the white house. who are you hearing could be feasibly next? >> well, those three names are names that we've heard about for a while that were not as surprising. we haven't heard a lot of jeff sessions recently or john kelly. >> we reported earlier that trump's lawyer told attorneys representing paul manafort and michael flynn that trump might be willing to pardon both of them. the white house obviously denying necessary discussions. do you think these pardons could actually happen? and what kind of impact could they have on the russia investigation going forward?
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>> in the words of donald trump himself, we'll see. we've seen the president pardon loyalists in the part when you think about joe arpiao, someone who supported trump early. the impact it could have, it could give the impression the president is not taking seriously the role that russia played and not actually trying, but acourting to u.s. intelligence agencies interfered in the elections and their intention to do so in the future. the question is is the president more loyal to individuals than he is to american people? >> could be pretty shocking to see the a pardon for flynn and manafort. still ahead, what we know about the newly announced summit between north and south korea. we're going to get a live report from seoul in just a couple of
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minutes. plus, hope hicks finishes up her last day as white house director. those stories and a check on your weather when we come back. is it possible to save someone's life... from thousands of miles away? yes. thanks to the dedicated technicians at the american red cross... who worked with vmware... to develop technologies to help redirect the flow of blood to the areas and people needing it most. helping them recover... and refilling everyone with life-affirming hope. magic can't make digital transformation happen...
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welcome back. we go to the korean peninsula where north and south korea agreed to a date for a summit between their leaders. kim jong un and moon jae-in are set to meet for only the third time the leaders of north and south korea who technically still remain at war have held meetings. the previous being in 2000 and 2007. both of those were held in pyongyang, meaning this is believed to be the first time that a north korean leader has set foot in south korea since at least the korean war.
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hans, what has been the reaction so far and what could this feetbly mean for the president's potential meeting? >> it makes that meeting between president trump and kim jong un more likely. april 4th, there will be working level talks and april 27th, the two leaders will be sitting down together on south korean territory. as the intelligence agencies assess what's happening, we're really trying to understand what motivated kim jong un to decide, a, to go to china and, b, agree to these talks. one theory is the maximum pressure campaign is working. there's anecdotal evidence that china is being much more strict in enforcing the embargo. they're inspecting shipments back and forth to make sure there's no ill litis smuggling.
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remember, he had the nuclear tests, he had 16 separate missile tests testing some 23 missiles. so that's the urgent task for intelligence officials to try to figure out what's motivating kim jong un. we go down to the actual details of this, they'll go forward. they will have this meeting. they're going to be meetings ahead he of that between mr. abe, the prime minister of japan, he will be flying to washington to meet with president trump. what we're seeing here is an attempt to make this more regional. japan so far has been somewhat left out of these talks. we saw president xi jinping try to insert himself and host mr. kim. >> so ramping up his defends before he goes into these negotiations. hans nichols for us in seoul. thank you. let's get a check on your weather with bonnie snyder. bonnie, hopefully the weekend is looking to be okay. >> a lot of travelers with this holiday weekend, lewis. stormy conditions in texas. we saw that yesterday.
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unfortunately this morning, more storms working there way into louisiana. 8 million people at risk for isolated amounts of large hail and a few tornados. it's all possible as those storms slide to the east. but this morning, the concentration of lightning and rain will head into louisiana. 15 million at risk for flooding and that's all the way across west virginia through the mid south, including tennessee the. so be careful if you're going to be on the roads there. they could get pretty wet and pond over quickly. in terms of winter weather this month of march, we have seen a lot of snow. in new york in, for example, most of the snow, almost all of it in many locations occurred in the month of march, which is unusual. you might think we would see more snow in a city like minneapolis in march. but that's not the case. we got more snow in many of the eastern cities as opposed to what we saw in the area. speaking of cold, temperatures are turning cooler as we get
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closer to the easter holiday. chilly for some of the egg hunts. overall, a nice looking weekend. he just walked in, people. still ahead, mike b with arnacle. can we get a shot of him getting miked up right now? no? okay. his long, long wait is finally over. there he is. there's barnacle. looking good this morning. >> play ball. >> baseball's opening day finally here. meanwhile, kwing james finally catches mj. itis, little things can be a big deal. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats differently. for psoriasis, 75% clearer skin is achievable with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. and for psoriatic arthritis, otezla is proven to reduce joint swelling, tenderness, and pain. and the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring.
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welcome back. lebron james and the cavaliers squared off against kendall walker and the hornets. during the game, lebron tied michael jordan's all-time record of 860 games of ten points of more. lebron had 41 in the win. meanwhile, kevin walker needed just 20 points to become the hornet's all-time leading scorer and he does so in the final seconds passing dell curry. 9,841 total in seven seasons with the franchise. congratulations to him. moving to minnesota, the timber wolf faced the atlanta hawks. carl anthony towns scored 56 points in the win over the hawks. 126-114. that set the franchise record for most points in a previous game.
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meanwhile, isaiah thomas can no longer put off a procedure on his ailing right hip. thomas will undergo surgery today and is expected to be out the remainder of the season. thomas will be a free agent this summer. over now to the nfl there has been growing speculation and then denial about the status of odell beckham's future with the new york giants. league sources have told espn that the giants have asked for at least two first round picks in return for the pro bowl wide receiver. however, the giants david gedelman trying to squash the rumors on tuesday saying, quote, you don't quit on talent.
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why are there trade rumors swirling around beckham? because a few days ago, mara said he was tired of answering questions regarding beckham's behavior. beckham is entering the final year of his rookie deal, but regarding a contract extension, mara said contracts get done when they're supposed to get done. we'll have to see what happens. but he hopes the wide receiver will remain in a giants uniform. we'll have to wait and see with that one. baseball fans, today will major the league's early season. the first game, the chicago cubs take on the miami marlins in south florida. as teams across the country ready for this start in the new season, the opening day festivities at the great american ballpark in cincinnati will have to wait.
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it's rescheduled for tomorrow because of poor weather in the forecast. but we know that mike barnacle is extremely excited. >> i can sort of see the excitement from here. there he is. are those signals tore me or -- >> both of you. you're on third, he's on first. >> i'm a shortstop. come on now. still ahead, the latest in the russia probe. new court documents filed by mueller's team are taking a look at by rick gates. plus apple's ce on o tim cook takes aim at facebook in the wake of the cambridge analytica scandal. what he has to say about customer privacy concerns. the roasted core wrap. 3, 2, 1... not cool. freezing away fat cells with coolsculpting? now that's cool! coolsculpting safely freezes and removes fat cells with little or no downtime. and no surgery. results and patient experience may vary. some rare side effects include temporary numbness,
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welcome back, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian along with louis burgdorf. amid reports that president trump's lawyer dangled potential pardons for former aides who were being investigated and later charged in the special counsel's probe, we are learning that bob mueller's team has formally alleged a link between two top campaign officials and russia intelligence during the 2016 campaign. in court documents filed late tuesday, the fbi says that trump campaign share paul manafort and his deputy rick gates were in contact with a person who had an ongoing relationship with russian intelligence and alleged that gates said he knew the person was a russian intelligence officer. the revelation came in the presentencing report to alex v
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are an did he rlon who lied about his contact with gates. vander zwaan had a series of kauts with gates and person a in september and october 2016. the conversations concerned potential criminal charges in ukraine. raising the question posed by poe lit toe, how much is he actually telling mueller about trump? manafort declined a comment on this. the plaintiffs in a lawsuit accusing president trump of accepting unconstitutional gifts are hailing progress in their case. a federal district court judge is letting their case advance, though the court has limited the case only to payments involving the trump international hotel in washington, d.c. the suit was filed by washington, d.c. and the state of maryland accusing the president of violating the
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constitution's anticorruption clauses. last night, the trump hotel near the white house was lit with a light projection reading crime scene-do not enter, as you can see right there. the other big story this morning, embattled va second david shulkin has been ousted. the president has taped the white house physician ronny jacks.on to take his place. >> david shulkin becomes the latest in more than two dozen high level departures from the trump administration. the president has made changes to his.top economic adviser, his top team on the russian probe. his clash with the president came under fire by the inspector general which shulkin took with his wife last summer.
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shulkin spent much of that official trip sight seeing. who is the president nominating to replace shulkin? vice admiral ron y jackson. and the attorney for stormy daniels said he would consider settling his case. it comes just a day after he filed a motion aimed at getting donald trump under oath. michael avenatti said any settlement would depend on the terms. he said it would have to include, quote, the truth coming out. >> again, i'm not going to get into a hypothetical question and i would refer you to michael cohen on that matter.
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>> we haven't seen much of the president in the last week. he said he was going to do a news conference and ended up taking questions -- >> he actually took a couple questions at the end. >> yeah, but not formal questions and addressing other topics in the news. why haven't we seen so much of the president? he hasn't done a formal news conference in more than a year. >> look, the president has a major speech tomorrow. he's been incredibly active all week long. >> will he take questions from the press? >> we take questions from you guys every day in a number of on different formats. right now, i'm standing up here taking questions from you which raj did yesterday and the president will be giving a speech tomorrow. >> donald trump tweeted great briefing this afternoon on the start of the southern border wall. joining us now, a reporter
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from "the washington post" eugene scott. eugene, good to see you again. let's start with that emoluments lawsuit. a maryland judge allowing a lawsuit accusing trump of not divorcing himself from his businesses going forward. why is this case such a big deal, eugene? >> as you know, the trump international shoelthotel is a relatively new hotel in the area. those invested in the hotel haven't been able to see a difference in business since trump went to the white house compared to the time they were involved in the industry before trump came to washington. and they believe that there are government koofficials coming fm across the world staying at the hotel to gain favor with president trump. >> i want to turn to capitol hill now, eugene.
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this is pretty interesting stuff. all 22 women senators are both sides of the aisle sent a signed letter to senate leaders demanding a vote to change the way the senate deals with sexual harassment. are we likely to see this deal come to a vote with when congress returns to session, eugene? >> well, these lawmakers are certainly hoping so, as are their allies in congress who care deeply about this issue, as well. so far, we have not heard a response from mitch mcconnell or paul ryan. but this is a very real concern on chill. as you know, at least seven lawmakers have either resigned or said they would not run for re-election because of sexual harassment complaints in the halls of congress. i think they're hoping if we're going to see significant change across the country, that it could start in washington. let's turn to yesterday,
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white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders calling police shootings of after can americans, quote, a local matter. is this an opportunity the white house is missing to lead a conversation about race in this country? >> it certainly is. i mean, if you recall the briefing yesterday, this was a situation related to alton sterling in louisiana. they stalk about stefon clark in california. they talked about eric garner in new york. with when you have these incidents happening across the country, it doesn't seem like a local issue at all. it's been disheartening to many voters because the president campaigned in 2016 saying he would address these issues so his silence speaks volumes. >> eugene scott for us, good to see you this morning. thank you. >> thank you. still ahead, jim vandehye is
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joining us with a look at the morning's one big thing. plus, former vice president biden said not once, but twice that he would fight donald trump, but now it looks more and more like he's got a fight to walk away from. we're going to explain. >> the press always asks me, don't i wish i was debating him? >> no. i wish i could take him behind the gym. >> did you see where biden wants to take me to the back of the barn? me. he wants to -- i'd love that. i'd love that. mr. tough guy.
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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 ibm cloud private. the cloud that's built for all your apps. ai ready. secure to the core. the ibm cloud is the cloud for smarter business. what's up, adorable? >> but most of all, thank you for making america great again. >> how could you have voted for -- >> he talked about jobs, jackie. he said he would shake things
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up. we almost lost our house the way things are going. >> have you looked at the news because now things are worse. >> not on the real news. >> oh, please. >> that is a clip, if you haven't noticed yet, from the new season of "roseanne" which came roaring back this week with the debut episode of more.than 18 million you viewers. that is a ton of people. the president called roseanne barr yesterday to congratulate her on the ratings win. the trump political divide is a major theme of the show. and vice president joe biden says he regrets his most recent comments about fighting president trump. here he is on a pod cast hosted by former obama administration staffers. >> the way this came up -- and i shouldn't have said what i said. i shouldn't have brought it up
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again because i don't want to get down in the mosh pit with this guy. what i did say back when he was running, when he made these comments about being able to grab women in their private places and so on and so forth, all that, i was asked during the campaign whether or not do i regret not being able to debate trump. and i said, you know, if we were in high school and i did this again. i said if we were in high school and he said that in the presence of my sister, i would take him behind the gym. now, the idea that i would actually physically get in a contest with the president of the united states or anybody else now is not what i said and it is not what this was about. but i should have just left it alone. >> so donald trump hit back at biden both times, once on the campaign trail and most recently on twitter.
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we are looking at storms for texas. not the best weather in houston this morning or in louisiana. that storm system working its way into the shreveport area right now. 8 million americans at risk as the storms slide to the east, so impacting alabama and mississippi. we could see large hail from this system and maybe unfortunately a few tornados. the severe weather threat persisting in this part of the country, but the threat for flooding extends further to the north and east. across ten ten all the way from kentucky into west virginia. so 15 million at risk for heavy downpours and flooding. be careful in you're traveling and a lot of people are getting a head start on the holiday weekend. as we're looking back at the month of march, a couple days left, if you're in new york city, we've seen a lot of snow this month. look at boston. a lot of places have so much snow in the month of march. one place that didn't see it that you might expect to is minneapolis. just under 6 inches there. total snowfall for this season,
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though, a lot more than that. so it was really just the eastern part of the country that got hit hard then. turning cooler, and some of the cold air you see here where temperatures are in the 40s, that's sliding to the south and east, as well. if you're planning ahead for a trip, maybe to memphis or chicago, i would say for easter sunday, be prepared to put a jacket on because it's cooler out there as we work our way towards the holiday. >> we haven't taken our jackets off. so we're hoping to take them off soon. still ahead, facebook takes new action to try and win back trust. what apple's ceo has has to say, next. empowering. downright exhilarating. see for yourself why chevrolet is the most awarded and fastest growing brand, the last four years overall. switch into a new chevy now. current qualified competitive owners and lessees can get this 2018 chevy equinox for around $199 a month.
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welcome back. heading across the pond for the latest in the poisoning of the ex russian spy in the uk, british police say they believe that sergei skripal and his daughter were exposed to the highly toxic military grade agent at the front door of his home in the town of salisbury. it comes as 27 nations including nato have expelled russians in the wake of this attack. nato is reducing russia's mission size from 30 to to 20. watch this. >> so russia needs to stop its actions. these are, again, unprecedented steps, kicking out 60 diplomates
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out of the united states -- excuse me, i just called them diplomates. these were spies, right, operating under false diplomatic cover. russia denies responsibility for its behavior, but we have proof. the brits have proof. we have proof of what they are doing in syria, of the tens of thousands of people that they are responsible for killing. we see it. we see their planes. we see their forces. we see their weapons. we know what they are up to. so meanwhile, president trump spoke with british prime minister theresa may just yesterday. the white house says they discussed the situation regarding the ex spy poisoning and the mass discussion to expel russian spies. in addition to agreeing, quote, on the importance of dismantling russia's spy networks in the uk and in the united states, downing street adds that they also discussed the temporary exemption of trump's steel and aluminous tariffs adding that may looks forward to constructive talks on making the
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exemption permanent. although that topic was not mentioned in the white house readout of the call. let's turn to business in the wake of the cambridge analytica revelations. facebook is taking steps to restore announced it would no longer allow advertisers to use information from third party data brokers to target users with ads. based on information from data brokers could undercut the appeal f o-facebook ads from marketers. now, the company's ceo mark zuckerberg has called the cambridge analytica leak a major breach of trust and has outlined steps that his company will take to better protect the data of its 2 billion users. he is set to testify on capitol hill in the coming weeks to answer questions about what happened there. ceo tim cook of apple addresses the facebook controversy. take a listen. >> we're looking at every app in
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detail. what is it doing? is it doing what it's saying it's doing? is it meeting the privacy policy that they're stating. right? and so we're always looking at that. should we raise the bar even more? we're always looking at improving and raising the bar. >> what would you do if you were mark zuckerberg. >> i wouldn't be in this situation. >> you can watch more of cook's town hall as part of msnbc's revolution series airing friday april the 6th at 8:00 p.m. eastern and 5:00 p.m. pacific. looks fascinating. >> still ahead. a look at this morning's one big thing and coming up on "morning joe" the president's latest legal drama. from stormy daniels to russia, what a former campaign official is telling bob mueller. plus, reports of talk concerning possible pardons for paul manafort and michael flynn and the va secretary is out.
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the president wants the white house doctor in. here to help break down all the moving parts are michael schmidt of the new york times and robert costa and sue susan page. "morning joe" back in a moment. . because i am cured with harvoni. harvoni is a revolutionary treatment for the most common type of chronic hepatitis c. it's been prescribed to more than a quarter million people. and is proven to cure up to 99% of patients who've have had no prior treatment with 12 weeks. certain patients can be cured with just 8 weeks of harvoni. before starting harvoni, your doctor will test to see if you've ever had hepatitis b, which may flare up and cause serious liver problems during and after harvoni treatment. tell your doctor if you've ever had hepatitis b, a liver transplant, other liver or kidney problems, hiv or any other medical conditions and about all the medicines you take including herbal supplements. taking amiodarone with harvoni can cause a serious slowing
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welcome back, everybody. joining us from washington with a look at axios cofounder and ceo of axios, good morning to you. >> good morning. >> talk to us about what this morning's one big thing is. >> there's so much coverage these days about how easy it is to get booted from the trump white house if you're talking smack about him internally or if you're upstaging him. we looked at what does it actually take to thrive and survive and there are some tactics that allow some of these aides to stay there for a year, possibly make it a couple of years. first and foremost is you have to really suck up to the boss, particularly on tv. and the two people who are genius at this are steven miller who's a policy advisor and vice president mike pence. if you watch them in public, they are always on message,
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they're always praising the leader and they're never critical even in smaller gatherings off of tv. that's huge. two is if you work on an esoteric topic. so if you're working on an economic issue that's not tax cuts or if you're the energy secretary and working on energy issues the president doesn't care about he's just not paying attention to you as long as you keep a low profile you're fine. obviously he protects his daughter and son-in-law but there's people like hope hicks who left yesterday who really do become like family to the president and they are untouchable internally. >> we've talked about how jared kushner could be on his way out because of his business dealings, because of his lack of security clearance but it seems to me because of your reportering that you don't think that would happen that the president would ask his daughter and son-in-law to leave the white house and head back to new york. >> you never know with this white house, but so far no. there's been story after story
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that they're on thin ice, yet they always survive. family always survives and this predates the white house. the president's always surrounded himself with a small group of people that stick with him and that he sticks with. it's a really small group of people compared to most previous presidents, but he does stick with them. loyalty is huge. look at what happened yesterday. so the va secretary is fired. who is he replaced with? he's replaced with the president's personal physician. why? because the president has a personal rapport with him. he's seen him on tv defending him. f he believes that he would be loyal to him. a lot of people would say why would your personal physician be qualified to run one of the most important agencies in the world, but to the president, loyalty always trumps everything else. >> but it's interesting that you bring up family and loyalty but there are also those that have stayed in the white house that have stayed on the fray of the white house. the president doesn't even know and they've been able to sort of maintain their safety and their
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position in the white house. >> absolutely. again, the "power & politics" has -- president has a few issues that he's involved with. as long as you're keeping your head down he doesn't pay that much attention to it. look at peter navarro. so your viewers know him. he's the most important trade advisor internally. every couple of months you hear a lot of people say he's going to get fired and he's always getting elevated because he's a true believer on the topic that the president has been a true believer on. so if you're with him on the big topics consistently even in tough times, another way to survive and by the way, this is a tough white house to thrive in. it's not like others. it's so chaotic. you're constantly fretting about your standing. there's a lot more back biting than i've seen in previous white houses. because as people think about
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taking jobs people have to figure out whether or not they can do a gut check, can i pull this off. >> and the looming question is who's next. thank you. we're going to be reading axios a.m. in a little while. you can sign up for the newsletter. that does it for us. i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside louis burgdorf. >> all clinical data indicates the president is currently very healthy and that he will remain so during his presidency. he's very articulate when he speaks to me and i've never known him to repeat himself around me. he says what he's got to say and he speaks his mind. >> explain to me how a guy who eats mcdonald's and all those diet cokes and who never exercises is in as good of shape as you say he's in. >> it's called genetic. i don't know. some people have just great genes. i told the president if he had a healthier diet he may live to be
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200 years old. he has incredible genes and that's the way god made him. >> articulate, very healthy, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. the president nominates his doctor as new cabinet secretary. >> mika, you know, he runs a 4.340. i mean, he's amazing. >> he's hot. >> at the time this doctor came out and basically -- he said things about his weight that just don't seem to be true, said a lot of things that didn't seem to be true. everybody was shocked how dare you question this doctor. you weren't there, he was there. >> this doctor knew what he was doing. >> this doctor actually specializes in the form of medicine that you call quid pro quo. it's a new -- it's sort of a new sort of -- >> yes, and also flattery. despite that quick shift in the news cycle stormy daniels isn't going away. >> no. >> neither is bob mueller who is
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