your back like american express. so where ever you go. we're right there with you. the powerful backing of american express. don't do business without it. don't live life without it. ♪ morning, glory, america. i'm hugh hewitt. coming up after the break, the man many favor to be the next speaker of the house of representatives, the current house majority leader kevin mccarthy. three of the beltway's best to review what just happened this week. political.com, al weaver of washington examiner and eugene scott of the "washington post". welcome all three. anna, what's your big story of the week? i will sit here and complain about the cavs getting screwed on thursday night's game. >> tough loss. but russia, russia, russia. this is the story that continues

to permeate so many story lines. this was the revival of jeff sessions and donald trump and donald trump trying to pressure him to stop recusing himself. i think it is impacting every other story line and so many moves out of this white house right now. >> did you see it metastasize when the "washington post" wrote about andrew mccabe's fabrication. that is investigation five. do you have a score card at politico where you are following all of this? >> every time you think you have a handle on where robert mueller is looking, he's actually looking somewhere else. he has his tentacles everywhere. it is across all departments, congress, the white house, the administration, and obviously into the campaign. >> and president trump tweeted on friday, now at 17 million. i never believed cost mattered to anyone on benghazi, whitewater. do you believe the cost factor

matters at all, anna palm senator. >> these are things no american voter really understands. we talk about how big the budget is. is it increasing the price of milk, the gas station? if he can make that direct line, maybe. >> eugene scott, i just brought up the "washington post". you're the "washington post" reporter. what is top of your tablet this week? >> yeah. it's difficult to get around the roseanne story and the unfolding of it from trump making it about him in terms of wanting abc and disney to apologize for offensive comments made. to the samantha bee situation where she wound up apologizing for using language not identical to roseanne barr's remarks about valerie jarrett but directed toward ivanka trump. >> how do you compare the two or do they compare at all, eugene scott? roseanne barr versus samantha bee. >> i think they are both crass, inappropriate words. but quite frankly, i think you

have to look at the implications of comparing black american human beings to apes and how that has influenced policy from the three fifths compromise that black americans weren't actually humans to ongoing attacks that many black reporters have found themselves at the receiving end of. sometimes that trump rally has been called monkey. there is a great essay in the "washington post" it's a day by robert samuels. obviously both are greatly unfortunate terms that should not be used by people of influence. i think we talk about the systemic implications of one. to me that personally greatly outweighs the other. >> eugene, have you run into that yourself? >> every week. every week i get e-mails and tweets of racial slurs of people who don't like what i am saying on tv or writing in the "washington post". every single week. >> i'm actually stunned by that.

are they anonymous? i'm not stunned by trolling. but do people put their name to bigotry? >> they do. i don't know if they are always their real names. it is not as anonymous as people would think. part of it is the ease to be able to reach out to journalists on the internet. i know i have heard from many women in journalism, once they say something readers do not enjoy, seems to be greater than the numbers working as journalists before the internet age found themselves to be. but i think what both roseanne and samantha bee have shown is the quick response that saying something just off the cuff or in a tweet or a stand-up bit can have on your career long term. >> i am going to talk about that with kevin mccarthy, the internet and the trolling after the break. al weaver, washington examiner, your story of the week? >> tariffs. obviously the white house comes out and surprisingly announces

new tariffs on the european union, mexico, and canada. the three big u.s. allies. it set off alarm bells with republicans. for republicans who have really been supportive of the president, this is one issue where they seem unafraid to go after him and say, you're wrong on this and take issue with the white house. most of them do not like this. they were taken aback just like they were with the 100 billion threat against china. they liked the threat obviously back then. they don't like it now that it seems to be real. we will have to wait and see what happens. >> i began my show on friday, i hate these tariffs. i began by reading "the wall street journal" editorial, a complete takedown of the theory and practice of tariffs. it's bad politics, bad economics. but the president, i'm told repeatedly by all of my friends, has been a protectionist as long as he has been known by new

yorkers. who is going to win this? >> it is a bad time for republicans, as as they want to run on the economy in november. that's their big message. tax cuts. especially the jobs numbers just came out friday. 3.8% unemployment. they reallyt to harp on the numbers. it's going to be tough if tariffs end up upending the situation. it's a big catch-22 for republicans. >> we just went around the horn. we started with the russian investigations. and you brought up culture, race, and gender, and then we got to economics. anna, what do you think? >> i agree with you. i think it's about is my life better, is this president, is this congress person going to make my life better or worse and am i feeling the pain of the economy? right now the economy looks pretty good. the question that is very critical, do these tariffs cause a massive problem between now and election day. >> the president was talking about the unemployment numbers

early on friday. 3.8% is the lowest since 2000. in category of african-americans, it is historically low. how important vis-a-vis voting that the cultural issues that we were just talking about versus financial issues in the key congressional districts? >> they will be important depending on the districts. i certainly agree with everyone of the people who think it is shaped by economics. i don't think that's the only issue that people are paying attention to. people factor in multiple things, including cultural issues. and i think more importantly we are seeing people look into the details of the economics. the president regularly points to historic low black unemployment rates and relatively low unemployment rates with hispanics and women. the gap between the black and white unemployment rate is still usually close to double. that's what we have repeatedly seen. so people want to know why america's greatness is being

made better for some americans as opposed to other americans who will likely ask those running in the fall. and to continue supporting the trump agenda what the explanation for the gap is. >> are republicans feeling confident right now? a year ago they were ready to throw themselves off bridges and thought the blue wave was going to engulf them. i think they think they have the wind at their back? >> they seem more confident than they have the last couple of months, especially when the whole roy moore thing was kicking in, those times. they are getting more and more bullish right now. it is down 5 points. that's a good sign for them. they think as long as they're below 6 they are relatively optimistic. the senate map is the one saving grace the republicans has and president trump has if he wants his nominees to flow through. >> we will talk about the california primary next month. for example, scott bob versus

rohrabacher. chavez versus harkey. did it close the door on the house democrats? do you think kevin mccarthy will be the next speaker, anna palmer? >> i think we have a long ways to wait for the next five months. you are already starting to see a dynamic between kevin mccarthy and steve scalise, the number three in the house, that is very similar. it reminds me of flash backs between mr. cantor and boehner and the in fighting that happened. >> do you think kevin mccarthy will be the next speaker, eugene? >> i think it is huely likely. what is interesting is what got kevin mccarthy out of the running previously perhaps just saying things that were jumping the gun will not be as much of a concern to voters and other republicans who have to make a decision in the end. but i'm still paying a lot of attention to the house freedom caucus of seeing who they will back and how much howe trouble they could cause to getting

kevin mccarthy to that seat. >> is eugene, anna right? >> 50/50 right now. i think scalise has a good shot right now. it depends on the freedom caucus. >> i think it will be kevin. we will see. thank you, anna, al, eugene. coming up, i'll talk with the aforementioned kevin mccarthy. i'll be right back. [thoughtful sigh] still nervous about buying a house? a little. thought i could de-stress with some zen gardening. at least we don't have to worry about homeowners insurance. just call geico. geico helps with homeowners insurance? good to know. been doing it for years. that's really good to know. i should clean this up. i'll get the dustpan. behind the golf clubs. get to know geico. and see how easy homeowners and renters insurance can be. you're trying to lower your very hwith a healthy diet... and exercise.

and maybe even, unproven fish oil supplements. not all omega-3s are clinically proven or the same. discover prescription omega-3 vascepa. the one that's this pure... and fda approved. look. vascepa looks different... because it is different. it's pure epa. vascepa, along with diet, is clinically proven to lower very high triglycerides by 33% in adults, without raising bad cholesterol. that's pure power. proven to work. vascepa is not right for everyone. do not take vascepa if you are allergic to icosapent ethyl or any inactive ingredient in vascepa. tell your doctor if you are allergic to fish, have liver problems... or other medical conditions and about any medications you take, especially those that may affect blood clotting. 2.3% of patients reported joint pain. it's clear. there's only one vascepa. ask your doctor about pure epa prescription vascepa. ♪

♪ welcome back. i'm hugh hewitt. monday through friday you can hear from on salem radio network from 6:00 to 9:00 a.m. driving you to work. most saturdaysis i'm here on msnbc hopefully getting your

saturday off to a newsy start. i'm joined by kevin mccarthy, majority leader of the house of representatives and likely the next speaker of the house when the republicans retain the majority after the election, i hope. welcome back, mr. majority leader. good to have you. >> thank you so much for having me back on your show, hugh. >> let's begin if we can, kevin mccarthy, a story that was in your twitter feed thursday morning from vice.com. google decided that the search term brings up nazi ideology. what's your reaction to this? >> this is disgusting. if anyone searched through google, the biggest search engine, the ideology didn't say the party of lincoln or the party of regan. it said our ideology was naziism. they pulled that from wikipedia. the tough part is i was talked about this before hand. and i looked at wikipedia and it

didn't say naziism on there. the bias has to stop. because if you just went a couple days before to instagram and you searched donald trump jr., it gave you a warning this site to be harmful and could actually cause death. so that puts a real concern of what's going on. and what happened at amazon kicking out the alliance for freedom. you couldn't give the charity money through there even more, even though they defend religious freedom before the supreme court and amazon smile, those customers can't pick that charity anymore to give money to. >> old friends of mine, i have spoken at their groups. they have been kicked off amazon. that's wrong. leader mccarthy, we have talked about this before on this show. what do you do about this? i think you said this has got to be a source of alarm. there has to be accountability. if you're speaker of the house, what will you do about it? >> i think individuals need to come in. there needs to be transparencies. because we have to have a clear

understanding. we have a first amendment and others. people are controlling -- if they're controlling the feed of what people are seeing, that is fundamentally wrong. there is a problem there that the users, are they truly knowing what's happening with their information and others. this is an area congress needs to look at throughout. >> are hearings enough? obviously you did have mr. zuckerberg come in. but in europe, the european union is going much further into intrusive regulation. we talked about new agencies before. i want to see the antitrust division do this. do you support a regulatory scheme for silicon valley and big tech? >> before i take the next action, i want to make sure i have all of the information. this bias has to stop. i want to see more transparency. let's get all the facts and put a clear aim at the direction we think is right for the the american public. >> let's turn to the issue of your being the next speaker. chairman of house ways and means

brady endorsed you. you have clear momentum behind your back. i have to assume that the house is in the republican hands and that you are the next speaker. that would make you a constitutional officer. you would have to speak to your coordinate body of the senate of any deal done between north korea come before the senate. you know the action with iran was a handshake between president obama and tehran. what's your opinion on whatever deal, if one comes, with north korea, where it should go in the senate? should it be submitted to it? >> well, i know we are jump to go four or five different things. one, we are the majority. two, we get an agreement with north korea. we are much stronger than we were 2 or 10 years ago not to have a nuclear weapon and continuing that process. the one thing i have found. if it's going to be longstanding, i think treaties are longer standing and supportive from administration to administration.

we all know that iran agreement, had it come before the senate, it never would have been passed. that was the question. and how can you negotiate with north korea to end the nuclear weapons that they have if you're allowing iran to develop one? that to me was the wrong approach all along. and the president took the right approach by saying no to iran and sitting down with north korea and saying you have to stop. >> when president trump tore up the handshake deal with iran, he was criticize said saying, oh, people won't trust the united states. i think the answer is, i want to know if you agree with this, will put something to the senate, if it is a deal and we get there. and i know we're jumping ahead. it would be your expectation that anything they did that was lasting would go to the senate for review and approval by two-thirds vote? >> yes. you have to sit for one moment. they criticized president trump for doing this, not the people in the region did not criticize president trump.

they thought it was the right approach. they criticized ronald regan when he walked out of iceland against gorbachev. i think president trump is taking that same approach. he's making sure that for this negotiation to go forward that the tone is set correctly. to have an agreement means that you have to. he's been very clear. you have to end any nuclear weapons that you have or any development of that for any agreement to go forward. and he would put that into stone by going forward with a treaty. >> let me switch to the second biggest issue. there is no plan for that yet. i've been told by the navy they can't count on the defense appropriation money flowing. if you are speaker, will the defense money continue to flow as it has this year and next in the appropriations with you as superintendent and majority leader? >> you have been a great advocate of this. 20% cut to our military, and the

world did not get safer. you have watched what we did in this last there agreement where we have increased the spending into. that can't make up all the difference. we got the pay raise in the last nine years. the greatest increase to military in the last 15. we have to continue to build that to make the world safe. right now we are only at 283 ships. we will continue to work to build the navy to the navy that we need to keep the world safe and the process and keep making sure america is safe throughout the world. >> you have rob whitman who will support you in your bid for speaker and others in favor of the 355 ship navy. but the pentagon doesn't produce the plan. will you insist on seeing this ship count from these development facilities at this time? >> you see, we sit there, we have built -- it's not just the navy that we have to look at. we have to look at the future when it comes to our own weaponry, when it comes to our planes and others. and those are the investments we're making as we move forward.

next month we will pass the appropriations for the d.o.d. that's where the debate will taep take place. i'm proud of the fact that you will find, just as last year, we have the money there for the military to build us back up to keep the world in a secure and more safe place for america. >> last question, kevin mccarthy, if you become speaker, as most expect you will, how will you be different stylistically than paul ryan? >> everybody is different. but the first thing i'm going to do is i'm not going to worry about being speaker. i'm going to make sure that the republicans are in the majority. i'm going to make sure that a republican has the opportunity to become speaker after the next congress. hugh, you understand that history is against us. that the party and power, there's only two times in modern history that those individuals actually gained seats. if you look at where we were 12 months ago, incident was in a bad place. look at the numbers today. unemployment. we just tied the lowest level this country has been in the

last 50 years. unemployment claims at a 44-year low. look at what we have done with the v.a. we have transformed it where the g.i. bill is no longer 15 years and you lose it. it's for a lifetime. what are we going to do with opioids? 174 people will die today because of addiction. we will pass 70 bills to deal with this addiction problem throughout america. maybe our style is a little different, but our agenda in making this country more secure, more prosperous, and being able to make america, the next century ours, that will be the ultimate goal. >> thank you house leader kevin mccarthy from bakersfield. next is hugh's views. the political tone in and out of washington.

i've been making blades here at gillette for 20 years. i bet i'm the first blade maker you've ever met. there's a lot of innovation that goes into making our thinnest longest lasting blades on the market. precision machinery and high-quality materials from around the world. nobody else even comes close. it's about delivering a more comfortable shave every time. invented in boston, made and sold around the world. now starting at $7.99. gillette. the best a man can get. ♪ with expedia you could book a flight, hotel, car and activity all in one place. ♪

a hilton getaway means you get more because... you get another day in paradise. get a sunset on a sunday. get more stories to share. get more from your summer getaway with exclusive hilton offers. book yours, only at hilton.com ♪ the kenya tea development agency is an organization that is owned by tea farmers. every week we sell this tea, we get paid in multiple accounts.

we were looking for a bank to provide a safe and efficient technology platform to pay our farmers. citi was the only one that was able to ensure that this was done seamlessly. and today, at the touch of a button, all the farmers are able to get their money, pay school fees and improve their standard of living. with citi, we see a bright future for our farmers and their families. ♪ welcome back. i want to hearken back to what eugene said at the top of the show, the online racism he runs into every day. is it hard to ask for a little decency in the throws of political combat? i don't mean patty-cake.

i think he's the steven miller of the left. miller is president trump's writer. miller is going to end up on a podcast. favreau doesn't like the comparison, so he fires back at me on twitter. that's fine. that's commentary. but roseanne barr and now samantha bee, the racism eugene scott talked about. i'm not going to repeat what either said. it is the in decent, horrific polluting of the public airwaves with the depraved racism and sexism. we see it all the time online. the fcc still patrols my world of radio and network television, thank goodness. it is the public that determines when to shun people for their public behaviors. both bee and barr ought to be shunned. if you find yourself upset with only one of them, you are either

confused, ill-informed or a hypocrite. thanks for joining me. i'll see you next week here on msnbc. keep the conversation going on msnbc.com/hugh-hewitt. signature toughness... and one more thing... the world comes with it. the new, reimagined 2019 jeep cherokee. but as it grew bigger and bigger,ness. it took a whole lot more. that's why i switched to the spark cash card from capital one. with it, i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy. everything. what's in your wallet?

that goes beyond assumingl pet ingredients are safe... to knowing they are. going beyond expectations... because our pets deserve it. beyond. natural pet food. at&t provides edge-to-edge intelligence, covering virtually every part of your retail business. so that if your customer needs shoes, & he's got wide feet. & with edge-to-edge intelligence you've got near real time inventory updates. & he'll find the same shoes in your store that he found online

he'll be one happy, very forgetful wide footed customer. at&t provides edge to edge intelligence. it can do so much for your business, the list goes on and on. that's the power of &. & if your customer also forgets socks! & you could send him a coupon for that item. californians are leading against donald trump. our senator should, too. kevin de león is the only candidate for senate who passed laws protecting immigrants from trump... and helped dreamers stay in school. he led bold action against climate change. and only de león fought for universal, medicare for all. democrat kevin de león the only true progressive for senate. change california now is responsible for the content of this advertising.

hey there. good morning, everyone. i'm alex witt here at msnbc world headquarters in new york at the half hour. president trump is at camp david a day after reversing his decision to cancel his summit with kim jong-un. the president now appearing to concede that it is going to take more than just one meeting with the north korean leader before they come to a final agreement. here's what the president told reporters after meeting with the top aide yesterday. >> i've never said it happens in one meeting. you are talking about years of hostility, years of problems. it's a process. we're not going to sign -- we're not going to go in