difference for those who don't have a voice. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm natalie morales. thanks for watching. hey hey there, good morning, i'm i'm alex witt here in newark at msnbc headquarters. trump in tokyo. the president arrives less than two hours ago in japan's capital but new problems today on the domestic front threaten to overshadow his trip. new powers. bill barr now has a wide berth to look into spying claims during the 2016 election. why a former cia director is sounding the alarm. swing states could suffer the most in the tariff row with c why why the trump administration is putting the brakes on a $20

bill featuring harriet tubman. we begin in tokyo. let's go to hallie jackson who is following the president on his trip to japan. i guess it's evening time there. let's talk about the expectations from this trip. what are they? >> reporter: sure. well listen, personal, not i policy. i think that's a fairway to sum it up. i got off the phone with a white house official and emphasized this trip is about relationship building for president trump and shinzo abe. that's code for friendly it's diplomacy. it's not a trip in which the president is looking to come home with a trade deal with instead this instead this is about spending time with somebody who the president is close with on the international stage. shinzo abe his closest friend on the world stage. the two will play golf.

theology go to a sumo wrestling and then and then he'll meet the new emperor of japan. he'll be the first leader to do so, to be able to have that it honor. it will be a lavish ceremony. expectations are the president will come, he'll work on his relationship with these japanese trade leaders. trade deal again, trade will definitely be a topic. the two will talk about it. but there's not so much in expectation that he'll walk out the door with something the concrete. the president however did issue a warning to japan when he was delivering remarks to a grouch business leaders just a couple of minutes ago right after he got off air force one. >> watch. >> as you know the united states and japan are hard at work negotiating a bilateral trade agreement. which will benefit both of our i would say countries. i would say that japan has had a substantial edge for many, many years, but that's okay. maybe that's why you like us so but much. but we'll get it more fair.

with this deal we hope to address the trade imbalance, remove barriers to united states exports, and ensure fairness in our relationship and we're getting closer. >> reporter: before coming on the trip, alex, the president talked about possibly maybe being able to get closer to that trade deal by this time by the end of may when he came here to visit tokyo and shinzo abe. there are domestic political pieces at play. there are elections this summer in japan and possible it would be more advantageous for the japanese prime minister to wait until after those elections to do some kind of a deal with president trump. this is the only first trip in the next month and a half here to japan. it's a long flight, 14 plus he'll do he'll do it again for the g-20 summit in osaka where he'll meet a number of world leaders.

i'm curious, do you have any sense how this trip is being perceived by the japanese people or is this more about the big events that they have going on. sumo wrestling tournament you said and the coronation and speaking with the new emperor and empress. >> absolutely. who was installed into that role at the beginning of the month. an interesting mix. the president just arrived. we haven't seen the headlines from the japanese papers. when we wake up tomorrow morning we'll see those. shinzo abe has come one some fire here at home for borking to cultivate this relationship with president trump. but with some critics questioning what abe is really getting out of this. keep in mind the japanese prime minister for two and a half years now has really worked to make sure he's in president trump's good graces, but yet some here in this country what have you gotten for us, what have you shown for japan.

there's a lot of support for abe to build that relationship with donald trump. he's somebody who is one of the closest allies to president trump personally and when politically. when he comes to washington, for example, he and his wife went out with president trump and the first lady around her birth day. they share these personal events they've been they've been golfing multiple times and will do so again on this trip. there's support to make sure that relationship is solid. there's a sense that shinzo abe is one some pressure to bring something home if not this trip then out of the next one after the g-20. hallie jackson, we'll put you to work more in the next hour before we let you call it a night there in tokyo. the day's other big headlines. president president trump's long sought border wall a setback. a why blocking the president from using defense department funds to build part of his

u.s.-mexico border wall. the order prevents work from beginning on two planned projects. meanwhile the meanwhile the battle between the president and house democrats intensifying as calls to start impeachment proceedings are growing. representative steve representative steve cohen revealing revealing how many of his colleagues are now in support. >> it's getting more and more people coming up to me, when are we going to do something or what can we do? i'm getting closer. >> what do you think, 30, 40? >> something like that, >> probably. >> more than 40? >> give or take 40. >> democrats aren't getting the same support from the senate. senate democrats want the house to tamp down the impeachment talk saying the drive is hurting more than helping their efforts. the intelligence community pledging to cooperate after attorney general bill barr was given sweeping powers to fwat the white house's spying claims during the 2016 election.

but john brennan sending a warning over growing concerns about possible secrets being exposed. i implore dan coats and others to stand up to this, i think, unprehe is deputied act on the part of mr. trump who done understand nor care about the national security concerns of the intelligence community. and facebook now responding to manipulated videos of house speaker nancy pelosi that made it seem like she was slurring her words. the social media giant acknowledging the video which has been viewed millions of times was faked but is refusing to delete it. >> anybody who has seen this video in news feed, anybody who is going to share it to anybody else, anybody who has shared it in the past they are being alerted this video is false. this is the part we deal with it's misinformation. it's important for people to

make their own informed choice of what to believe. >> joining me is senior editor of business insider and editor of "washington examiner". thank you both for joining us. the president also tweeting a separate video of speaker pelosi that was an edited kplip. it suppliesed together a 20-minute news conference and emphasized some points where she stumbled on her words. look this war of words has each intensified. each of these leaders questioning the other's temperament, mental temperament, mental fi what's what's behind this? >> it's this question of what trump character jazed as the "i" he's word. he's growing frustrated with the house democratic -- the house democratic push to impeach him from more aggressive factions of the party like alexandria occasio-cortez and nancy pelosi

is very much the face of that effort where she's trying to kind of, you know, balance these two sides and these political concerns about impeachment and how it would play for the democratic party. trump and his allies may think it goes in their favor to cast pelosi as, you know, physically, mentally unfit for office in the same way that a lot of democrats have been casting the president. >> do you think nancy pelosi knew something that she was going to set off the president like this when she said he's engaged in a cover up, especially when she went to the family intervention line? >> i think pelosi, she's been in government for decades now. she's very aware of the way her words come off. it's pretty clear she knew that president trump would become angry when she said he was engaged in a cover up. i think that was part of the calculation to goad the president to make increasingly misleading and inflammatory statements that the democrats

can using 2020 election to show he's mentally or physically unfit for office. knee certainly went there. the president is now defending his personal attacks on pelosi. here's what he said yesterday before taking off for japan. >> excuse me. this shows how fake you and the news are. when you say -- when you say a personal attack. did you hear what she said about me long before i went after her. she made horrible statements. she knows they are not true. she said terrible things. i just responded in kind. look, you think nancy is the same as she was? she's not. i think nancy pelosi is not helping this country. i think the democrats are they are obstructionists. they are hurting our country v-very badly. >> does anyone win here politically speaking? >> that sounds like an elementary school brawl there rather than a top discussion at

the highest levels of i government. i think it just reinforces what the bases on both sides want. president trump's supporters want him to go after nancy pelosi, the speaker and other detractors as aggressively as and possible. and speaker pelosi's political base wants the same thing against president trump. i'm not sure it really advances the conversation or accomplishes much, but it makes both sides bases very happy. there is talk, david, of impeachment certainly growing and that also accounts for the list of democrats that are supporting it. what is the mentality right now on impeachment? >> i think the majority of house democrats at this point feel like there are grounds for impeachment of president trump based on the mueller report, based on other actions the president has taken in his two and a half years in office. the majority at this point don't seem ready to move forward with

actual articles of impeachment. they see it as a political loser, like it would go against them and not worth something moving forward yet. that could change at any moment. >> guys, let's switch gears and talk about attorney general william barr. we have the headline for your most recent piece and it reads trump is said to be telling confidants he finally has my attorney general with william barr. how much does that bolster the criticism that barr is indeed acting as trump's defense lawyer as opposed to being the nation's chief law enforcement officer. >> we're seeing a stark change in barr. circa his confirmation hearing he told lawmakers he didn't think mueller would be involved in a witch-hunt and then he would do everything he could to ensure that the integrity of the russia investigation was protected, and then we see him now essentially parroting many of president trump's and his

allies claims that there was, you know, unauthorized quote spying on the trump campaign during the election, that senior fbi, doj officials may have acted inappropriately and barr is doing it in a very shrewd way where he's not saying look these acts that trump is saying have occurred but he's saying we don't know. the fact is we've seen multiple reporting, we've had hours and hours of testimony from senior fbi and doj firms who were involved in this investigation, you know, that have made it pretty clear that the fbi was following protocol, going by the book and mueller followed those many of those same steps. so, you know, we have barr now asking for sweeping authority to declassify intelligence that could put u.s. sources and methods at risk that could impact our alliances with foreign countries who we have intelligence sharing relationships with. you know, that could go a long

way and actually damage the country's national security. >> david, she's echoing the concerns of john brennan who you heard earlier saying the same kind of things. is this all about fear of exposing secrets and what do you see as being some of the underlying concerns? >> there's some legitimate concerns about exposing sources and methods. if you start getting into revealing there was a wiretap on this person or that or some other surveillance method, other people, other targets who are being surveilled now may discover that and that may go down against american interest. you would hope that nothing like that would happen. the problem sue have one individual figure, the u.s. attorney general now overriding professional intelligence figures who very much want to keep these things under wraps. so as brennan said, it's kind of up to the cia director, gina haskell, the director of

national intelligence, dan coats and other top officials to decide what could be declassifie >> >> and chris wray too. thank you both so much. the new turn in the president's fight to keep his financial records from being handed over to democrats. handed over to democrats woman 1: this... woman 2: ...this... man 1: ...this is my body of proof. man 2: proof of less joint pain... woman 3: ...and clearer skin. man 3: proof that i can fight psoriatic arthritis... woman 4: ...with humira. woman 5: humira targets and blocks a specific source of inflammation

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were the president i think he he would view it as a witch-hunt and a hoax. >> the evidence now suggests that the accusations against him were false. and he knew they were false. and he felt that this investigation was unfair, propelled by his political that's that's not a corrupt motive for replacing an independent counsel. >> some new concerns this morning as the president has given attorney general bill barr complete authority to declassify information found in his investigation into those who launched a probe into the president in the first place. a new article in the "washington post" argues the president's efforts to politicalize law enforcement makes barr quota threat to a political intelligence under law. this comes just hours after the president accused four former fbi officials of treason. joining me now msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos. okay, here come the questions and there are a few of them, barr has claimed barr has claimed that the president was falsely accused.

how much latitude does the a.g. have here sean it possible that the conclusion has already been >> determined? >> first, the a.g. has been. given considerable power when documents and former are declassified. this strikes this strikes a tenuous balance between the know information and the need to conceal information so as not to compromise intelligence gathering the the challenge here is how much will be declassified and how much does barr seek to learn about, because if it's unlimited then there may be no end to how far barr can investigate the genesis of this investigation against trump and there may be no limit to how far trump wants barr to go to quote exonerate and and i use air quotes because trump could already claim he was in a sense exonerated by the lack of criminal findings in the mueller report itself. >> he's been doing that for

su the the question is this just political, danny or do they have a legal, a constitutional right to oversight of intelligence >> gathering? >> the president has the right to classify and essentially declassify information at his will. traditionally that's traditionally that's done with a lot of deliberation. in this case, another way to use it is the president doing it so that someone can investigate why he, the president was investig not not probably what the original vision was for declassifying documents but it's within the president's constitutional powers to declassify it's information. it's just a question of how much should he declassify and for hat reason. >> these >> these agencies cooperating in this investigation do they have legal responsibility? do they have to protect agents and sources because that's of grave concern. >> they do. it comes back to that balance that our government has never

been completely transparent. 100% transparency would destroy the government as much as we talk about the virtues of when transparency. when it comes to law enforcement and intelligence gathering transparency can be devastating. not necessarily because these agencies are up to anything nefarious at all. more because we need to protect the operatives, the agents, even prosecutors and. law enforcement officers. fbi agents who are out there collecting information and conducting investigations. even our freedom of information laws reflect this balance. the public is entitled to know generally government information unless and until it infringes upon investigative techniques. >> thanks for laying it out for us. he calls himself the stable genius, but was it smart for the president to put his staffers on-the-spot to vouch for him. putting the harbor radiate tubman $20 bill on hold. can we believe the treasury secretary's explanation? secretary's explanation?

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this is his second trip residents japan. residents recovering from storms ravaging the central u.s. this week might be hit with more severe weather throughout the holiday weekend. jefferson jefferson city, missouri was the hardest hit. the national weather service is warning western texas to northern missouri to iowa they are at risk for more downpours and flash floods. missouri is the latest state to pass new tough abortion the governor restrictions. the governor signed a law friday banning the procedure after eight weeks of pregnancy. there are no exceptions for rape or incest, the only exception is for a medical emergency that risks the life of the pregnant other woman. other states including ohio, kentucky, georgia and mississippi recently passed bills forbidding abortion when heart beat activity is detected. high drama in washington. presiden

president trump denying he threw a temper tan tum on wednesday. then he orchestrated this >> >> kellyann what was my temperment yesterday? >> very calm. >> what was my attitude, sara? >> you were very calm and very >> direct. >> larry, you were there. what was my attitude yesterday? >> kellyann is right you were very calm. >> sara, we were just talking about the meeting yesterday. what was my tone yesterday? >> very calm. i've seen both and this was definitely not angry or ranting. that was funny bizarra. joining me now a democratic strategist and republican hey strategist. hey guys, welcome to you both joe, here. joe, i want to pull on your experience working in the white

house. what were you thinking when you saw that scene play out? >> it's called i don't want to get fired. please don't call on me. if you call on me, i don't want to get fired. please don't make me say something that will get me >> fired. >> you can skip over me. totally to your point. what about you. what do you think this scene says about how the white house functions and about the people who have been able to keep their >> jobs? >> the first thing that came to my mind was the words of my share cropper grandmother zebra won't change their stripes. thisst is consistent in his behavior and the people who pledge their allegiance to him, they have been consistent. no matter what he says or does they will be with him no matter it was it was a sad display of what we think the president of the united states should be doing and talking about, particularly in a press conference when we have so many challenges both abroad and at home here in the united states.

>> look, you make a good point the seriousness of all of this. joe, what this? is this another made for tv moment from the reality show present or do you have concerns about this level of catering to this president? >> it is a major reality. i think president trump does understand the power of television and he did have a successful reality tv show, but at the end of the day i don't know it helps anybody. certainly done change minds. won't move poll numbers for staff members to be put on-the-spot and respond as he wishes them to respond. this is kind of a difficult thing to watch. those folks didn't want to be called on. there might be people that have good stuff to say to the president that they don't want to say on camera, but they don't want to be on camera in front of an office, especially a television audience. >> that's an absolute cringer to wa in in another moment that raised

some questions about the trump administration's agenda, treasury secretary steve mnuchkin said plans to put harriet tubman on the $20 bill has been delayed. >> the primary reason. we've looked at redesigning the currency is forldn counterfeiti the issues. the $20 bill will not come out until 2028. even the most optimistic scenarios is probably beyond my >> term. >> wow, 2028 with the $10 bill and $50 bill preceding. >> emancipation didn't take that lo >> >> what about this explanation? >> this is par for the course. no doubt historical black figure, thanks formational figure like harriet tubman, someone who african-americans are so proud of the work she's done is being delayed by the

trump administration. it's not a big surprise to me. what's so sad is the dangerous precedent it sets going forward and we know what this means for future scenarios like this. >> what do you think, joe? do you think this is is this intentional? is this an intentional delay? >> i don't know what steve mnuchkin was thinking. this should have been an easy lay up. the administration know what its polling numbers are with the black commune and it seems to me it would be a lay-up to ensure during the course of your administration that harriet tubman's picture would show up on the $20 bill. she's a hero to americans of color and also to other americans. it doesn't it doesn't take eight years. if i'm bill mayer i would have a field day. how do you say it takes eight

years to put harriet tubman's face on the $20 bill. >> you know where they stand with black people and african-american voters in particular and we know the behavior, some of the rhetoric and some of the things that donald trump has said and done as it relates to african-americans, as it relates to some of his policies that have direct negative impact on the community. this should be no surprise particularly when you look at the way black women and the power they have particularly within the democratic party and the decisions they will essentially make a decision about who the next president will be. the fact that they are delaying putting an african-american female on the $20 bill is very telling. i want to speak further about the president's agenda because as you both know he's given attorney general bill barr full and complete authority to declassify intelligence. anything related to the russia what probe. what does it say about the president's relationship with the a.g.? >> it says that the a.g. has pledged his allegiance to donald

trump and donald trump confirms that with this scenario he laid this out. this is a moment of convenient transparency. if if this administration was concerned about transparency the redacted portion of the mueller report would not be an issue. if they were concerned with transparency his a.g. would be sitting down in front of a what this president what this president knows is this is another distractiontion tactic to take away from the corruption that overfloss from his administration. >> what do you think, joe, it will take for republicans to push back against this president's efforts to use the justice department to go after his enemies? >> well it's going to take republicans of conscience to stand up and to say what is that right. that means there won't be a lot of folks rushing to stand up to say anything because people have seats to defend, they want to be

they re-elected. they don't want to be targeted. they will be very careful about the words they choose in this case. but in but in a perfect world people of good conscience would stand up to say what's right and true. with regard to the attorney general, the attorney general's job is to be the chief law enforcement officer for the >> i'm >> i'm more concerned what they it's do. it's one thing to stand up and get in front of a tv or microphone and saying the president should be doing this, this is not right, this is typical donald trump. another thing to act on those we words. we have yet to see any republican stand up and act on the behavior that we continually see from donald trump and what they do not realize there will be life after donald trump. so what that means is that they are going to have to continue going down this road because they refuse to stand up in a historical moment that we're in now. that's that's very sad. everything about the modern-day

republican party. >> i'll leave it. thank you both so much. have a good holiday weekend. next some history at west the the graduating class at the u.s. military commencement today will be the most diverse ever and that includes a record number of african-american women. morgan ratford caught up with a few of those proud cadets. >> i want them to feel empowered "when they see us" and say it can be done. >> reporter: a class photo shared tens of thousands of 34 time. 34 black female cadets standing on the stairs of the u.s. military academy. >> did you ever think this day would come? >> reporter: these cadets become being part of the most diverse class in west point's history. >> what did that feel like to be standing on those steps with all these other women who look like >> you? >> just good to know you always have a girlfriend that can you lean on.

>> reporter: it's a sisterhood that's been a long time. west point saw its first female graduates in 1980. more than 175 years after it was and founded. and with more than 900 students graduating this year, black women make up less than 4%. >> has it always been easy being a woman of color here? >> i definitely struggled sometimes because sometimes i would be the only woman of color or even woman in general in my >> classes. >> representation is one of the hardest things. >> the elephant in the room. >> reporter: still some don't understand why this moment is monument. al. >> what al. >> what do you say to the critics? >> i'm not just a cadet, not just an american, i'm an african-american and this is who i am. it's like embracing your that's identity. that's what this institution is about, it's about diversity. >> reporter: its progress their classmates want to see more of.

>> because of our differences we're able to make an impact and crib and i think for that reason people are excited we have such a historic class. >> reporter: what do you hope other little girls who are watching you graduate take away from seeing you here? >> i hope those girls can see themselves in us. we're little girls, students pretty princess. i want women to be soldiers. i want these little black girls and say hey, i can do it too. hey it's possible for me. and today's historically diverse graduating class at west point features a record 223 women, the largest lclass of latinos numbering 88 and 110 african-americans. the trade with china may have a much bigger impact on your wallet than experts first some of the some of the president's biggest supporters might suffer the worst of it. here's a quick programming note.

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ask your doctor if cologuard is right for you. covered by medicare and most major insurers. in in power, politics and paychecks, trade war drama on wall street. the three major indices finished higher yesterday but not enough to offset the selloff triggered

by the trade war with china. as a result the dow lost 0.7% for the week. it was the longest losing streak since 2011. second steepest rise in gas prices in this country has hate pl the holiday the holiday weekend begins with national average at 2.85 a gallon which is a dime less than a year ago. the average price rose 67 cents. lawmakers on capitol hill work on legislation to lower drug prices, california has lowered the price of insulin. it can't exceed $100. there was a sudden surge of insulin prices nationwide. tariffs on $200 billion worth of chinese imports will hit american wallets pretty the hard. the average household could pay $831 more per year. that's about five trips to the grocery store, maybe 19 times

filling up the gas tank, taking away any gains taxpayers saw from that 2017 tax overhaul. china is hiking tariffs on $60 of billion. of u.s. goods and that's going to take effect next weekend. key swing states will be the hardest hit. i know i know you wrote an article which explains china's retaliation tariffs and with it hit the states the president has to win in 2020. why will the tariffs be devastating to states like ohio, minnesota and iowa? >> yes. the trade war between china and the u.s. has been completely devastating for u.s. farmers because china is the biggest importer of u.s. soybeans. so since this trade war has escalated we've seen that u.s. soybeans exports to china have dropped more than 80%, a drop of $8 billion. that's a lot of money that's not going into the pockets of

of course farmers. of course these are swing we're states. we're talking about ohio being the state that's the hardest hit. michigan, new michigan, new so so what president trump has done because clearly he has no intention of handing over those votes to demonstrate, he knows these farmers are going to vote with their pocketbooks come november 2020. what the white house has done is given billions of dollars in. aid to those farmers. it turns out that's not been they are enough. they are still facing financial pain. just just yesterday president trump unveiled a $60 billion bail out package to those farmers. >> so long term does that make a big difference for the farmers >> then? >> see, that's the thing. we were very close to getting a trade deal. we were for months we were just 10% from -- >> hang on for a short period of >> time. >> exactly. all of a all of a sudden we reversed the. the trade war has deteriorated and we've seen china retaliate

on u.s. goods. that's a great question. is this sustainable? clearly president trump wants to help these farmers through november 2020 because he wants to get re-elected. is that a good u.s. policy? can the u.s. government continue to afford billions of dollars in bail outs to farmers every single year and doesn't seem like this trade war will be resolved any time soon. treasury secretary steve mnuchkin this week said there are no plans for u.s. and chinese officials to meet to talk about a deal let alone sign >> is there >> is there a way to force china to change its ways without the u.s. having to shoulder a little bit of economic pain? >> it looks like we're at an impasse right now. what china wants for a deal is for the u.s. to remove tariffs. what the u.s. wants, they want to keep those tariffs in place as a measure to make sure if they do sign a deal with china the rules are not broken. what the u.s. wants is more protection in terms of intellectual property for u.s. they want to they want to stop forced tech

but transfers. but it looks like neither side really wants to give in here. >> all right. thank you so much. trash talk, what to distill from president trump's twitter outburst at rex tillerson. that's interesting. we'll talk about that next. boutt

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next battle 2020. a sign of potential trouble for bill de blasio. >> your government should be about working people first. >> the new york city mayor campaigning in iowa trailing the entire democratic field right now in some polling. de blasio owns the worst net favorability rating with a minus 32. that's about 25 points worse than gabbard and gillibrand and while it features the greatest number of women candidates ever, among the leading campaigns, women hold most of the senior staff positions. the leaderships of the campaigns for castro, sanders, harrison, warren had at least 60% female

staffers there and women even rule in the trump 2020 campaign with the senior leadership being 53% female. well, new this morning, the president arriving in tokyo. he's on a four day trip to discuss trade and on going tensions between the u.s. and north korea and escalating tensions between the u.s. and iran. joining me now is world news editor with the daily beast and msnbc country pu to joining us there. welcome, my friend. north korea among the most pressing concerns. the north violated u.n. resolutions by testing ballistic missiles earlier this month. the north said it's not going to resume talk with the u.s. until unilateral disarmorment is completely off the table. what is this president walking into? >> it's a love affair gone wrong, isn't it? only a few months ago -- well, a

little while ago we were hearing about fire and fury and that turns into a great love affair between trump and kim and now we see what we should have known all along. kim is not giving up his nuclear weapons. he wants graduated process where sanctions are lifted. he gives up a little. trump finally realized he would look like an idiot if he started doing that because that's where all negotiations failed with north korea. he gave away american prestige by deciding to meet permly twice with kim jong un. >> shinzo abe trying to serve as a mediator between the u.s. and iran as all the tensions are racheting up. is this realistic?

does shinzo abe has leverage here? >> not really. he wants to get iranian oil again or workout a deal where iran could ship oil again. that's not going to happen any time soon. all of those kinds of things and he like other leaders is making the mistake to believe that by flattering himself and making him feel like he is a king trump will make concessions on big issues like iran. trump is not going to make those concessions and this visit isn't going to go anywhere. >> congress got an ear full this

week. he was telling them that the president was out prepared in july 2017. he said the u.s. side expected a short meeting but it ballooned into a two hour long session. trump fired back calling him dumb as a rock and ill equipped to be secretary of state. mind you, he picked him, but what does this tell you about what happened in the summits? >> president trump believes he can rely on his gut to tell him how to read a room and how to deal with people in negotiations and putin relies on his brain. so i don't know, gut, brain, who is better prepared? i'd put my money on putin. >> well, the president said many times he believes his gut is what gets him through on most

things. but tillerson criticized jared kushner as well. he said his lack of knowledge of history exposed him to being completely out maneuvered. how plausible is that? >> i think it's going to be dead on arrival but i think kushner believes he has an inside track on this because his family has been close for a long time to israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu who if i read the record correctly used to stay with the kushner family when he would visit new york. so it's not surprising he thinks he has a track. the people left out of this equation are the palestinians. always giving us your

perspective which i very much appreciate from paris. new polling in the battle for the white house. what does it really mean? steve kornacki is going to tell us coming up. up ♪ ♪ ♪

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good morning, everyone. from msnbc headquaters here in new york. welcome to weekends with alex witt. far and away, the president in