i could talk to these frernds forever, but we're out of time. my thanks to donny, al, rick, and david jolly. thank you all for watching. it's our two year anniversary. we wouldn't be here without you. that does it for our. i'm nicolle wallace. "mtp daily" starts right now with my friend alley jackson. >> happy two years, nicolle. congratulations to you. >> thank you. today, if it's friday, democrats are issuing another subpoena. ♪ good evening. i'm hallie jackson in washington in for chuck todd. welcome to "mtp daily." within just the last couple of minutes, democrats announced they subpoenaed the treasury

secretary and the irs commissioner to hand over president trump's tax returns. it's another salvo in the battle between democrats tiptoeing closer to impeachment and the white house pushing a stonewall strategy. first to something you just can't make up, right? the president spent the last two years battling questions about whether his team coordinated with a foreign power in the last election to dig up dirt on hillary clinton. and now his lawyer, rudy giuliani, is turning to a foreign power for help in the next election to dig up dirt on joe biden. like i said, can't make it up. as "the new york times" reports, rudy giuliani has confirmed -- and by the way, giuliani is on the record here talking about plans by the president's personal legal team to head to ukraine. why? they're trying to encourage the government to find material that could help them run against joe biden and discredit special counsel bob mueller's investigation. so, yeah, it would seem from this that the trump team is not just asking a foreign government for help in 2020.

they're also asking that government for help downplaying that other foreign help they got in 2016. as part of what giuliani told the "times," he said, i'm asking them, the ukrainians, to do an investigation because that information will be very, very helpful to my client. and in text messages to our team here at nbc news, giuliani made it pretty clear he's looking for information from the ukrainians that would exonerate president trump and implicate joe biden. we have a whole heck of a lot of questions on this story and in a couple minutes i'll be joined by one of the top officials in the trump campaign. but first let's start with some facts from some top reporters and some analysis from our political experts. peter baker, his book, obama, the call of history, has just been rereleased with new details with the 44th president. ann gearrin is white house correspondent for "the washington post." michael steele, former senior adviser to jeb bush and john boehner. maria teresa kumar. thank you for being here. peter, let me go to you first

because the story that your colleague ken vogel has dropped today is reverberating not just here in washington but around the country and around the world. >> yeah, no, it really is. it's so fascinating. of course ken vogel had a story about a week or so ago about biden's involvement in ukraine as vice president. the question is whether, you know, leaning on the ukrainian government to get rid of a prosecutor that the west considered to be corrupt had any involvement with the fact that his son had some business in ukraine. the biden people say, no, that's not the case. the investigation that was at issue had been dormant by the time the vice president was involved, and he was simply carrying out u.s. policy. but clearly the trump campaign looks at this as an opportunity. what you don't normally see is a campaign traveling overseas to involve a foreign government not just to even pick up information, but to encourage reopening that investigation. that's something i don't think you see every day. you know, giuliani is pretty open about it. he openly told ken vogel this is

what he's doing. he's not hiding it. it's not a secret, but it's pretty unusual. >> peter baker, you're the master of the understatement. you don't see that every day. i would say so. here's what giuliani told the "times" about this. he says, we're not meddling in an election. we're meddling in an investigation which he says we have a right to do. he says there's nothing else little about it. somebody could say it's improper. he goes on to say, this isn't foreign policy. i'm asking them to do an investigation they're doing already and that other people are telling them to stop. it goes on to say, this could be very, very helpful to my client. somebody could say it's improper. what say the two of you? >> i feel as though somebody we ought to be able to agree on at this point is that american presidential elections probably ought not involve the soviet union or former soviet states. why don't we just have american politics involve americans. >> what's really interesting is the individual that is leading the giuliani trip is a ukrainian businessman that basically gave

the trump super pac-$325,000, and thso it's almost a prid quo pro-. >> when you say this is something everybody should agree on, everybody does agree on that. that's at the core of this issue here. >> right. to your point in the open, i mean the trump administration has just spent two years saying, we had nothing to do with this. >> right. >> and volume one of the mueller report begs to differ. what they didn't do was ask for help, but they readily accepted it. it really just from appearances alone is striking that they don't see it as a bad look to go ahead and essentially ask for some help this time out. >> i mean is this the trump 2020 campaign's, ukraine if you're listening moment? >> i think the difference, though, too, is that ukraine -- opportunitily the folks in ukraine are not the dots line to

russia, which they used to be. this is actually a more independent, democratic, to the best of their ability give the scenarios that they have. i do think the challenge we face is not everybody -- i think the majority of americans are in agreement this is wrong. the republicans right now, though, are complicit because there's silence coming out of them from their leadership, saying that we should not actually encourage any type of foreign meddling, and that's really the difference. this idea that the republicans on the senate side have said nothing. >> i don't know that i agree with that. i think there is broad bipartisan agreement among house and senate republicans. much of the trump administration that foreign meddling is a problem and it's something we need to deal with. home launt security is working with the democratic campaigns, et cetera. the problem is at the top. the problem is president trump. >> i was there. you might have been there actually. this briefing last summer when it was a parade of top officials. we were there in the briefing room and they all walked out. people focused on what the white house was doing to prevent -- this was before the midterms -- to prevent interference in the midterms.

here's that little trip down memory lane. >> the president has made it clear that his administration will not tolerate foreign interference in our elections from any nation state or other droi dangerous actor. >> the president has taken divisive action to defend or election systems from meddling and interference. >> the president has specifically directed us to make the matter of election meddling and securing our election process a top priority, and we have done that and are doing that and will continue to do so. >> peter, that's a real clear message from white house officials about interference in the election from foreign governments. >> yeah. >> what is when the disconnect with the campaign? >> well, look, what they're going to say is this is not interference in the sense of a foreign power without our knowledge trying to shape our election. this is them seeking information or seeking action from a foreign government. it's a fine distinction, and it's not one i'm sure will fly with a lot of people. you know, it's a very odd twist,

and it isn't important to note this is not a pro-russian government, per se. this is a more independent government. it's not exactly the same thing as we saw in 2016, and we're not seeing the ukrainians, you know, creating fake facebook accounts and stealing things. >> right. >> so it may be that it's not illegal as mayor giuliani says, but it certainly raises a lot of questions and it's such a new fraught area. i can't imagine any previous campaign not just doing this kind of thing but openly doing it and saying we think there's nothing wrong with it. >> there's a discussion of how this is playing politically. you've seen elizabeth warren on the campaign trail talking about this. so is adam schiff back in washington. i want to play what he had to say. >> it's stunning that the trump administration is going down the same tragic path they did in 2016, and it seems to me that what giuliani is saying and what others -- brad parscale and others in the trump campaign are saying is we're going to do

everything short of what's downright criminal. ethics don't matter anymore. patriotism doesn't matter anymore. and if that's where we are at a country, then we're in deep trouble. >> well, i mean clearly the trump campaign and the trump white house don't care, right? i mean and that is a strategic decision on their part. >> so what do democrats do about it? >> if fine for democrats to come after them. it's fine for democrats to make that argument. you know, for them, just brush it off. it's not something they see as a thread, and in many cases, they actually see it as beneficial. let the democrats rail and rant about stuff that people don't care about. >> but i think what the democrats have to do is they have to continue passing issues that americans care about while continuing impeachment because that is their constitutional duty. and if we allow this to slide, then what is the difference if it's a democrat in the white house doing the exact same thing? this is where we have to explain it very clearly to the american public what is at stake and it's

the fundamental underpinnings of our constitution. >> i've been surprised and disappointed that congressional democrats haven't done more on this election security, cybersecurity issue. if you're involved in the trump 2020 effort and you've got the campaign manager of the trump 2016 campaign in jail in part for things he did with ukrainian oligarchs, you might want to just stay out of that neighborhood for a while. >> it's a heck of a great question for the guy who is about to join us after the break. look, there is some polling that shows that democratic voters do seem to care more about foreign interference than republican voters. this poll out shows from july of last year, 68% of democrats think foreign election interference is a major problem compared to 22% of republicans. all of you are shaking -- that doesn't surprise any of. >> uh-uh. >> no, it doesn't. it's source of the reverse of the point we were making a few moments ago. it's fine for democrats to talk about that and in fact, it actually may be a good campaign talking point and rallying point

for democrats. but the trump version of that is that it doesn't matter, and -- >> the reason it doesn't matter, and i think the reason we are so stark is that the consumption of the republicans is not talking about this issue. when they turn on fox, when they go on to their radio, they're just not talking about it. >> they're talking about this issue from a different very -- >> have a very different lens. >> and investigating the investigators and all of the -- i mean the president has created a narrative that his supporters have bought into. >> that's exactly right. >> peter, i heard you trying to jump in. >> the thing that's really spry surprising about mayor giuliani trip is it takes away from the focus on vice president biden and whether he did anything wrong and whether he was involved in something that crossed the line with his son being in business there. instead of that being the issue now, the issue is wait a second, what is the trump campaign doing about it? instead of letting that story play itself out to the detriment of their opponent, they now turn the attention back to themselves. >> it's also interesting that

they're going to this length about something that has to do with biden. it shows you -- >> well, sure. what does that mean to you? >> it says what the president has said to friends and aides. he thinks biden is the one to watch. he's afraid that biden could be the only one would who could beat him. >> my day job is over at the white house covering that for nbc, and i've been hearing from folks truly months before biden even ran, even was saying he was going to run, that they were the most concerned about him. so i wonder if -- and peter, i'll give this one to you. if there is evidence now from rudy giuliani, where he's going and what he's doing, that, yeah, they do think he's sort of the big guy in the ring that president trump is going to have to take on. >> well, it's very possible. it may be possible they're just looking at him as the guy to take down early so they're left with a crowd of relatively lesser known figures, any of whom, you know, might be easier in a general election from their point of view. biden does represent a singular threat in the sense that he

seems more competitive in some of these states that we think president trump needs to win the most -- michigan, pennsylvania, wisconsin. and it may be that biden is a better general election candidate than he is a democratic -- and say, well there's just too many questions there. let's try somebody else, and they take him out early. >> peter baker, thank you so much for joining us. coming up, i'm going to ask a senior trump campaign official about rudy giuliani's request and whether it's just an open invitation for other countries to get involved in our election. plus democrats just issued a new subpoena, this one for the treasury secretary. that's not the only new threat for the white house today. plus ahead this hour, tv star tim daly joins "mtp daily" with his take on hollywood, 2020, and maybe madam secretary. (music throughout)

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welcome back. for more on tonight's big story about how the president's personal lawyer is heading to ukraine to urge the government there to dig up dirt on joe biden ahead of the 2020 election, i'm joined here on set by mark lauder, the director of strategic communications for the trump 2020 campaign. mark, thanks for coming on. >> thanks for having me. >> do you disavow with rudy giuliani is doing? >> i can tell you rudy giuliani is not doing this on behalf of the campaign. he's doing it in -- >> sounds like you're distanciig yourself from him. has anybody from the campaign reached out to rudy giuliani and told him to knock it off. >> i know i have not. >> do you plan to? >> it's not my role to talk to what a private citizen is doing in this case. so, again, he's not doing it on behalf of the campaign. >> have you had discussions inside the campaign about this? >> we've had discussions because i knew i was coming on the show tonight and saw the story break. i think one of the things we have to ask ourselves is the underlying issue at hand is that was there any kind of undue

influence or was there any kind of inappropriate activities that were conducted either in relation to the start of the investigation or as it related to the bidens. >> but pull back because the bigger issue here is a campaign, whether you want to or not, having somebody seek information from a foreign government that could hurt the campaign opponent. do you believe this is a slippery slope? >> i believe if you're going to have somebody running for president of the united states, if there is the possibility that something inappropriate happened, then it needs to be investigates. >> well, that's not the answer to my question. do you think what rudy giuliani is setting a bad press incident? >> i'm not going to get into what a private citizen does. >> you should. he's talking about the guy you're working for. >> he's also acting in his ca passity as a private citizen, not on behalf of our campaign. go back to 2016. hillary clinton and the dnc was hiring third parties to go out and work with foreign operatives. >> you think that's the same as asking governments to get involved and -- >> that's another thing we're trying to figure out is was there any influence from the ukrainian government in the 2016 campaign as well?

>> but i see what you're doing here, but are you equating -- i guess my question is how do you put this on the same level as what happened in 2016? does this not strike you as different? a guest earlier made the point that you have a former campaign manager, paul manafort, sitting in prison. >> not for anything that was -- >> not for anything related to the campaign yet, with this question of foreign interference in the election. can you sit here and say that the trump campaign will not use whatever giuliani comes back from ukraine with? will you commit to that? >> we don't know what he's going to find. again, he is finding -- >> if he doesn't matter. if he gets it in this way, how do you feel comfortable using it? >> if a former u.s. attorney, an experienced prosecutor and investigator comes with information that would have bearing on a potential -- a candidate for the 2020 presidency, then i think the american people would need to know what that information is. it's not -- again, this is not foreign interference. this is someone who is going to get information, not a government trying to meddle inside an election. >> i guess i'm confused because at the start of this interview you said that the campaign did

not send rudy giuliani over to get this information. you haven't had any contact with rudy giuliani, yet you'll use the stuff he brings back if he -- >> i'm not saying -- we don't know what he's going to come back with or if he comes back with anything. i'm saying he is a private citizen going on, doing an investigation and trying to get information about something that he believes is important. if that information comes back, that's something that the campaign and the american people would have to decide if there's credibility to it or not. >> so you're trying to have it both ways? >> i'm not having it either way. i'm telling you this is a man doing something in his private capacity. it's not on behalf of the campaign, and whether he comes back with information, i mean we can't pre-date information that we don't even know what it's going to be. it could come back to be nothing. >> shoe's on the other foot and it's the other political party doing this to somebody you're working for as a kaentcandidate. you're still comfortable with -- >> we had that happen to us in 2016. >> you think it was the same thing? it wasn't. i think we can probably agree on

that. reasonable minds, no? >> they actually paid a private firm that used foreign intelligence officers to go out and dig up dirt on a candidate and then use it to -- >> apples to oranges, but i want to get you on what adam schiff said. i don't know if you were listening at the top of the show but congressman schiff came out and essentially accused the trump campaign of walking up to the line of criminality. rudy giuliani himself said he was doing nothing illegal but it may be improper. are you comfortable with that line where it is? >> i can tell you once again adam schiff is using half information and things that aren't even true. this is not being done on behalf of the campaign. so his issue is with private citizen rudy giuliani and his activities. so to bring in the campaign, i think, is just another misinformation campaign by adam schiff. >> you run into rudy giuliani and i know you don't want to call him. he's a private citizen. you see him on the street, outside the studio. do you tell him not to go? >> i don't usually make my business to tell rudy giuliani what he should or should not be doing. >> you work for the campaign. how is this not your business?

>> if the campaign felt the need, i'm sure the appropriate people would talk about it. again, this is a private citizen not working on our behalf. >> is this a slippery slope? >> i'm going to say we need to make sure that we have information that potentially could impact the activities of someone who is running for the president of the united states, and if there is any kind of impropriety -- and i'm not saying there is -- it should be investigated, and the american people should know that information. >> mark lauder, interesting conversation. thank you for coming on set. i appreciate that. coming up next, the art of the no deal. with more on how this already escalating china trade war may get even nastier soon.

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welcome back. in just the past hour, democrats have issued more subpoenas to treasury secretary steven mnuchin and irs commissioner as well with the goal of getting president trump's tax returns. it comes after other threats democrats are using to try and get the white house to cooperate with their investigations. there's the money threat, with intelligence committee chairman adam schiff now threatening to fine administration officials who ignore subpoenas. there's the contempt threat. jerry nadler is threatening to hold former white house counsel don mcgahn in contempt, and he said he'd even subpoena robert mueller as well. as "the new york times" reports, president trump and his team are essentially trying to call what they see as the democrats'

bluff. the message, put up or shut up. impeach or move on. with me now is congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz. she's a former dnc chairwoman. congresswoman, thanks for being with us. >> thanks for having me, hallie. >> let me start with the news that's just developed in the past 45 minutes or so related to the treasury secretary. do you have any hope, optimism, inclination that secretary mnuchin will comply with the subpoena and hand over those returns? >> you know, so far, hallie, the administration, whether it's secretary mnuchin or donald trump himself, has essentially treated the constitution like it's not worth the paper it's printed on, and like it is a document that doesn't apply to them. congress is a co-equal branch of government. we have an oversight responsibility. we have to make sure that we get facts and answers to our questions. that's part of the system of checks and balances, and the trump administration and donald trump himself are intentionally stone walling because they

clearly have something to hide. that's the only explanation. so, yes, we are going to continue to press forward on our constitutional responsibility to make sure we can get answers for the american people and make sure that the conflicts of interest, the cover-up, the obstruction of justice, particularly that was revealed in the mueller report, comes to light. >> if secretary mnuchin does not comply with the subpoena, are you comfortable holding him in contempt of congress as well? is that something you'd support? >> i am comfortable systematically using every tool at congress' disposal, which includes holding individuals in contempt who refuse to follow the rules and comply with subpoenas and meet their constitutional obligations, absolutely, because it is congress' job to make sure that we can get answers and conduct oversight on behalf of the american people. we're going to do our job. all we expect is the administration to do theirs, and when they don't, we're going to use all the tools we've got at

our disposal. >> one of those tools could potentially in theory be jail time for some of these people. is that a step that you think congress and house democrats should actually move forward with should it come to that? >> well, i think that our chairman, chairman cummings, chairman nadler, chairman schiff are going through a sequential process, and they are really being, i think, quite temperate in their -- in the way that they're conducting business, making efforts to negotiate with the administration, to get the documents based on our requests, and then escalating it step by step until we actually can be able to do our job and get answers and get to the bottom of what are really serious questions about the cob inflinff interest that have been raised, the obstruction of justice. if the president keeps insisting the mueller report showed there was no wrongdoing, then what does he have to hide? we should have the full, unredacted mueller report and be

able to get the answers to our questions. >> you clearly have some very serious concerns. that relates to the question about impeachment, and we talked about this "new york times" piece that's out at the top of this segment about how the white house is essentially calling democrats' bluff. that's part of the strategy here, saying put up or shut up, impeach or move on. give me a sense of the temperature inside your caucus. do you believe that more and more of your colleagues are moving toward impeachment as a more likely, more realistic possibility here? >> you know, my colleagues and i are deeply committed to making sure that we can use all the tools we have at our disposal to get to the bottom of what happened, how involved the president and his team on his campaign and at the white house were in seeking and securing russia's influence over the outcome of this election. there were clear indications multiple times, even in the redacted mueller report, that he engaged in obstruction of justice. obstruction of justice to cover up what?

if he's got nothing to hide, we need to get to the bottom of it, and we're going to use the tools. i think in sequential order, until we can really make sure that we can be allowed to do our job as the constitution indicates. >> let me ask you about another story that is making a lot of waves today, the one we've been discussing on this show, rudy giuliani, "the new york times" talking about how he plans to travel to ukraine to seek dirt that could end up helping president trump. if a foreign country were to offer you dirt on your political opponent, would you accept it? >> absolutely not and, you know, what's so disturbing is that donald trump is so lacking in confidence about his ability to actually get elected without the help of a foreign power, and particularly a foreign adversary, that they will go to any lengths and that he will instruct and allow his colleagues and allies to go to any lengths to be able to secure

his success in an election. he did that in russia, with russia. it's been very evident through his desire to hide all of his conversations that he's had with president putin. he very specifically has sided with president putin on his ridiculous assertions that they didn't have anything to do with interfering in our elections over our intelligence leaders, who have clearly said that there was interference. the president is hiding the fact that there was collusion. there was obstruction of justice to cover that up, and we can get all the answers we need if we simply are given the information that congress is entitled to. >> i'm almost out of time but quickly before i let you go, given everything you just said, then, would you support legislation in the house that would stop or prevent or block in some way what, for example, rudy giuliani is trying to do? do you think that's something

that's necessary? >> uh-huh. you know, the next thing i'm expecting to happen is for donald trump to stand at a podium and call for ukraine to continue the investigations like he did during the 2016 campaign to russia, and that happened. and so making sure that congress has the ability to use all the investigative and authoritative tools we have at our disposal as a co-equal branch of government is what i know i would support. >> congresswoman, thank you for coming on. appreciate your time. up ahead, a new strike in the battle over the president's tax returns. the house ways and means committee subpoenaing the treasury secretary. and the latest in this escalating trade fight. what could happen from here?

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welcome back. anne gearan, michael steele and maria teresa kumar are back with us as well. lots to talk about from those

last couple of interviews. let me start with what we heard from mark lauder. your reaction, michael. >> it reminds me of the fundamental weirdness of the trump era. this is the president's personal attorney is making a fact-finding trip to dig up opposition research on one of his opponents in ukraine, and he told "the new york times" that. like this is just fundamentally odd, and i don't think it's unusual that the president's campaign can't really comment on it because this is -- >> well, they sure commented. it wasn't they didn't comment. they said we're good with it. >> giuliani talked to the president and did what he wanted him to do. >> this is what's interesting is that he could also have simply set an email to the ukrainians saying, please investigate. this is all theatrics on the president's part, recognizing that we're going to talk about it and we're going to all of a sudden have the suspicion around biden even if we don't find anything on biden. they're always a step ahead. you could have sent an email. >> i know that seems to be frustrating some democrats even already who are sort of pointing

the finger at us in the media saying, hey, you're making the same mistakes of 2016 all over again. >> i think that's the challenge. we actually know how he operates, and how do we actually take a step back and say, what is he trying to prevent us from actually having a conversation on? that is the fact that the mueller report has still not been completely diagnosed, the fact that he has administration officials that are refusing to appear and now are getting subpoenaed. and that is actually the conversation. >> do you see this as a muddy the water strategy, ann? >> you know, that might be assigning too much strategy here. >> delicately said. thank you. >> i go with muddy water for sure, but rudy giuliani has put his foot in it before. >> sure. >> and i don't honestly know whether this is -- >> this isn't his foot. this is whole body -- >> he's kind of in it up to his neck basically. the facts of the ukraine situation are interesting, and they're not necessarily --

doesn't necessarily mean it's going to turn out a good way for team trump. i think it's just interesting that they are willing to stir this pot, you know, and to basically look like now they're picking sides and fussing around with the results to a degree with the results of a democratic election in ukraine. i mean they're asking the new guy, who is not mobbed up with russia, to do something on their behalf. >> maria, you made the good point that it's not -- what does the president not want to talk about, right? we know he doesn't love conversations about the mueller report. democrats are very eager to get the guy, robert mueller himself in front of them. here's what jerry nadler says about negotiations regarding mueller's testimony on capitol hill. >> he will come at some point. if necessary, we'll subpoena him, and he'll come. >> is it your sense he's going to have to be subpoenaed? >> probably, yeah. i mean i think they can walk

that right up to the line. >> i think for mueller, i think it's easier for him if he is subpoenaed because then he can say i cannot break the law. i think it actually allows him to say, i remain neutral. i remain nonpartisan. i am now being called before congress because now i'm being cast by the governing body that actually has oversite ght on th part. >> interesting point from politico to the conversation we had with debbie wasserman schultz related to impeachment, this vibe that maybe the caucus is tiptoeing closer and clowser to that. politico writes, judges have repeatedly ruled that congress has a greater claim to sensitive government documents and personal information when it can point to an ongoing legal matter instead of just a congressional investigation or a legislative debate. impeachment would give lawmakers that legal matter. >> i think whatever washington

democrats are planning here, they need to hurry up. it is 269 days until the iowa caucuses. >> do you have a counter on your phone? >> the house is scheduled to be in session 80 or 90 of those days. this stuff takes a lot of time. if you have to go to court -- and they're going to have to go to court every single step of the way. so i think if you want to have an impact, if you want to get a result like that -- i'm not saying they should, but if they want to, they really need to put the foot on the gas. >> they have to do it now because if they don't, everybody has to be reminded that after the next congress, if it's not a democratic congress, all of the subpoena, all of these hearings, basically you hit an automatic reset. and the white house is trying to run down that clock. >> they're trying to run down the clock too by basically making everything a court fight. in many cases, precedent is not on their side legally. >> correct. >> but it doesn't -- from their perspective, they would rather

push it to the courts and take the delay and also make the democrats fight every single one of these things rather than do any of the alternatives. >> but isn't that working? >> yes. that's exactly right. >> earlier this week we had a final court decision in a case stemming from the fast and furious scandal under former attorney general holder. seven years later, that issue was resolved by the courts. >> we'll be sitting here in 2026, the four of us. but you're right. i mean these things take time. i think that's part of why you're seeing republicans so frustrated with how quickly some of these things have moved with attorney general bill barr being held in contempt of congress and how that process has evolved. >> the democrats have to use every single arrow in their quiver because we know what the administration wants to do. if you're in the administration, you want to stop that clock. you want to tie it up in the courts. the democrats have to bring in subpoenas. they have to threaten this idea of fines for individuals that don't show up.

right now adam schiff is saying if if they don't show up, they're going to fine them $25,000 a day. >> thank you so much. appreciate all of you guys. up next, the latest in that escalating trade war between the u.s. and china with a live report from the white house. i'm just a normal person who got an awful skin condition. with uncontrolled moderate-to-severe eczema, or atopic dermatitis, you feel like you're itching all the time. and you never know how your skin will look. because deep within your skin an overly sensitive immune system could be the cause. so help heal your skin from within, with dupixent. dupixent is not a steroid, and it continuously treats your eczema even when you can't see it. at 16 weeks, nearly four times more patients taking dupixent

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in the white house. the trump administration thinks they have china right where they want them, even as china is promising to clap back with talks finished for today on those negotiations over tariffs. hans nichols is there on the north lawn covering all of it. hans, talks are over, but there's still this interesting wiggle room period as these cargo ships are to make their way to the u.s. shore, right? >> reporter: you have a window of opportunity. so sanctions -- not sanctions. i should say tariffs slapped onto to goods that left china as of today. so by the time they get here, if there's some sort of deal that's worked out, that's the window of opportunity. here's the issue, hallie. when you look at the rhetoric from the white house, it doesn't appear as though the president or any of his negotiators are overly eager to cut a deal. the line from the white house continues to be -- and it's quite consistent -- that they want to have a good deal, not just any deal. trump's not getting a win tomorrtoday. he's also not getting a loss.

the rhetoric is staying this candid and constructive conversation. that could mean anything. they could have been throwing chairs at each other inside that meeting and they'd come out and say it was candid and constructive. both sides have to go back to their leaders and we'll see what the two leaders, president trump and president xi, how they instruct their deputies or whether or not they pick this up themselves and they negotiate one-on-one and try to iron out these final differences. hallie. >> china is already promising retaliation. when do we have any expectation that will happen? >> reporter: they just hinted at it. it's just a threat. obviously there are a lot of ways they could harm. they could do retaliatory tariffs. they could play in the treasury markets. they can play there as well. the most likely outcome and what they did before was slap tariffs on agriculture. they can then expand that to different fields to say semiconductors or other things that the u.s. exports and they

can try to make u.s. companies feel some of the pain from tariffs. but you have to hand it to the president as well as the chinese. neither of them seem to be that adverse to slapping on tariffs. the president thinks tariffs are his friend. he's almost talking about a world where there are more tariffs going forward. at the end of the day, everyone knows tariffs are paid in taxes by consumers that could potentially hurt the u.s. economy. >> yeah, me and you and the stuff we buy at lowes and walmart and amazon and all that. coming up next, art imitating life. madam secretary star tim daly is joining us next. >> guys, guys, guys, don't get this twisted. we know you all have good judgment. >> yes, most apply. >> running for president, you have a target on your back. youk

welcome back.

iowa, new hampshire may be first on the primary calendar but there comes a time in every presidential election where hollywood plays a role. pete buttigieg held an event last night in west hollywood. joe biden raised more than $700,000 at a beverly hills to-do earlier this week. joining me is actor and activist tim daley you might know him from "madam secretary" where he plays the fictional secretary of state's husband. pleasure to have you. >> thank you for having me. >> let's talk through politics to start and then we'll talk about your arts program, which i know you want to. what role do you see hollywood playing in 2020? we just listed a bunch of candidates making pilgrimages out to l.a.

how do you see that? >> i don't live in california. i don't know what hollywood will do. that said, i did produce a movie around obama's first campaign called poliwood. we see there is now this convergence of hollywood and politics. you know, we have a reality tv star in the oval office. i think the two things are now inseparable. >> in 2016 -- and you supported hillary clinton back then -- you predicted that donald trump would win the election because you said there was frustration and anger and fear in the country. do you believe now he could win reelection? >> i predicted he might. i don't have a crystal ball. i think that anything could

happen, but i think, you know, one of the reasons i'm here in washington is to try to save the national endowment for the arts and to sort of change a misconception about what a program like that does for americans and especially the americans that have been talked about as the forgotten or the unrepresented americans. >> you and i were talking on the commercial break about this. >> yes. >> you have a series of meetings and you're headed back home tonight. thank you for staying with us. >> you're welcome. >> explain what you mean by the forgotten americans. >> there's been a lot of talk about people who are underrepresented in the flyover states. a big my conception about the national endowment for the arts is it's somehow a governor program that feathers the nest of hollywood or the culture elite. it couldn't be farther from the truth. it's people in impoverished

communities who benefit the most from the national endowment for the arts because it's one of the few programs that gives money in every congressional district in the united states. that's something that's very important to remember. as all politicians start talking about those forgotten people, they should remember what the national endowment for the arts does. >> have you found that selling point to be effective on capitol hill? >> absolutely. >> both parties? >> absolutely. we are a genuinely non-partisan organization so we've cultivated a lot of allies on both sides of the aisle. no one is against the arts but there are some people who are against public funding for the arts. we make a very strong case why it's a good idea. every dollar spent on the national endowment for the arts returns 9 tax dollars to the community. >> have you decided on who you'll support for 2020?

>> i don't know. would you like a national endowment for the arts breath mint? >> if that's a hint, i'll take it. this is an awkward terrible moment. "madam secretary" renewed for another season. what can you tell us? >> i don't think anyone could tell me anything because we were hanging by our fingernails waiting to here if we got renewed. but the cool thing is that if "madam secretary" becomes madam president, i believe i will be the first ever first gentleman on television. >> you'll have to come back if and win that happens. >> i will. coming up ahead a very special episode. p ahead a very special episode. you've had quite the career.

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it's a now there's one store that connects your life like never before store. the xfinity store is here. and it's simple, easy, awesome. in case you missed it, this country has a series case of tv deja vu. a remake of beverly hills 90210 is set to roll out later this year. and all in the family and the jefrs will'jeffersons will eacha reboot. >> the full house. >> the full house. >> the full house house. >> the full house. >> the full house. sure, even though aunt becky is in a little bit of hot water right now, we can all agree a little sitcom magic might make

everything better, right? ♪ >> why can't we get along and get something done? >> but there is so much hatred. >> we should come together in a bipartisan way. ♪ >> well, that didn't work out so well. >> we can do better than that. >> so we're going to have to try again. ♪ >> drugs are bad. >> i hope we can all agree. >> we have learned a valuable lesson. >> don't drink and drive in a boat. ♪ >> listen, in this era of constant political upheaval whatever happened to predictability? chuck will be back next week with more "meet the press daily"

but "the beat" with ari melber kicks off. >> have a great weekend hallie. >> you too. we have a big show. rod rosenstein's last day on the job. i have a special report tonight and it may break some news for you. we begin with breaking news. a top democrat today, the chair of the house ways and means committee dialing up the heat trying to get donald trump's taxes, sending a subpoena to treasury secretary steve mnuchin for business tax returns, demanding the documents in the last week. mnuchin was spotted entering the west wing earlier today. he has missed multiple