agassault weapons. guns a topic today. also, not lost on democratic candidates. >> i think we've got a lot of work to do right now on the bakes, universal background checks, red flag laws, a ban on new sales of assault weapons and high capacity magazines, things that the majority in many cases the vast majority of americans support that still haven't gotten done. >> i don't think we should be living in a world where a family can't go to walmart to do their back to school shopping. i don't think we want to live in a world where young children are learning shelter in place drills opposed to math drills. that's the truth of where we are. >> also strong views on the president's role in the wake of shootings in el paso and dayton. 52% of americans disapprove of his handling of the mass shootings. 54% think the president's language has either a great deal or good amount of responsibility for those attacks. let's go to chris pallone, the gun control rally in new york

city. joshua jamerson, national politics reporter, scott wong, senior staff writer for the hill. chris, start us off right now as you're out there, is there a hope that you're seeing from those that are marching and participating in these manages there's a moment something might actually get done? >> i think that's exactly the feeling, richard, among the people out here today. this recess rally as they were calling it wrapped up about a half hour ago. obviously very, very hot and humid here today. the organizers were pleased with the turnout. i would say at least 100 people out here today in foley square in lower manhattan. the people that i spoke withing are cautiously optimistic i think i could say. they see this as a moment where unfortunately, because of the mass shootings we've had recently and some of the inner turmoil going on at the nra there might be a little bit of movement. now it's very important to point

out that the people marching and demonstrating as part of all these events across the country in all 50 states under the every town umbrella are just looking for two things right now. they want to be perfectly clear with that. expanded background checks to be passed by congress and signed by the president and they are looking for as you mentioned a little earlier, red flag laws that hadded allow people deemed dangerous by a court to have their weapons removed. whenever i tried to talk about something going further than that, they don't want to talk about that right now. they want to start with these steps and feel the moment is right for that. >> scott, good to have you on set here. looking at the numbers and not necessarily having the full tracking looking over time, they seem quite on one side. you're not seeing that when you talk to congress members, are you? >> well, you know, democrats feel as your previous guest mentioned cautiously op mystic. but there is a tremendous amount of skepticism of this president

when it comes to gun reforms, right? because in the past, in terms of parkland, we saw parkland, the president say i am for background checks reform. let's do this and what happened? it was all talk and no action. the president pivoted to something else. hardening of the security of schools and so democrats right now while they want to be hopeful, they are extremely skeptical that the president is going to get something done and so what they want to do at this point is really put the pressure as much as possible on the president on mitch mcconnell in the senate. that's why you're seeing these rallies, seeing jerry nadler bringing the judiciary committee backing in early, a few days early from the recess. and democrats rights now are trying to turn the heat up on republicans. >> speaking of what jerry nadler is going to do, there are three acts that he hopes to mark up and get moving here. these are the ones you're

talking about, the keep america safe act, extreme risk protection act and disarm hate act. to you, joshua, do these have legs? >> well, we'll see what happens when the senate gets back from its recess. one thing like scott was mentioning is interesting, last year when president trump openly supported on national television the mansion toomey expanded background check provision, a bipartisan provision in the senate and reversed court and it went nowhere there was a republican house where the opening bid there was no. like scott was saying that might be able to amp pressure on mitch mcconnell who has shown at least some verbal willingness in the last few weeks to consider this issue when they come back from recess. >> chris pollone, there was the poll that came out today from nbc news and "the wall street journal" related to the president, his language, trying to at least by some of the

numbers here understand the causation, right? and that number at 54% saying a great deal or good amount of the language used by the president does lead to potential some responsibility of what has happened in el paso and dayton. is that the conversation you're hearing also from those who are again, one of the some 100 demonstrations across the country that you're at? >> absolutely. you know, every town bills itself as a nonpartisan organization. this is the organizationing that grew out of mayors against illegal guns that michael bloomberg started it early in this century. and it has -- it's an umbrella over the moms demand and students demand groups that rose up after newtown. obviously we're in new york city. this is a blue state. this is a largely blue city. so when you're talking to people who were here even though this is billed as a nonpartisan event, the only member of congress who took part was

carolyn maloney a democrat. she led a chant of vote them out talking about mitch mcconnell and talking about other republican members of congress and speaking with the people who came out to gather. it wasn't hard to get what i'd of the aisle they tend to sit on and vote on. these people do point to republicans in congress and to the president specifically when it comes to the idea that nothing is getting done on guns. there's no doubt about that. >> scott, you spoke with the leader, leader mcconnell's team before and the leader himself. is this enough to help move on this? will he actually bring it to be discussed on the floor here? >> i think there's a few things going on. mitch mcconnell is a staunch nra ally and has been throughout his career. that's why over the past decade, even after newtown which everyone can agree was a horrific massacre involving elementary school kids, nothing got done.

the nra intervened and nothing got done. we haven't seen real movement on guns in the past decade. so i think what mitch mcconnell is sort of looking at and calculating is whether or not from a political standpoint, whether or not his senate majority is at risk and if he feels that the majority is at risk, then he may move on guns. i think obviously, the most important factor is president trump himself. and if the president really puts some teeth behind this effort and leans on mcconnell, i think we could see something get done but right now, you know, it's up to these two men, mitch mcconnell and donald trump. >> joshua, do you agree with that? >> totally agree. mitch mcconnell has often said that he doesn't tend to believe that it's worth injecting himself or going head to head with the president. he doesn't like the imagery of two republican leaders in a

public tiff so and he's shown his willingness to defer to the president. i agree with scott. if the president can clearly articulate and in the past he's shown when he's clearly able to articulate either the beens in the house or senate do, they'll probably do it. >> for those watching those hose are voters chris pollone, another number that cape out of our poll that was released today, the concern about doing too much or too little, right? from the nbc news/wall street journal poll, it shows government restrictions will the government go too far or too little. right down the middle. half saying too little, half saying they'll go too far. >> doesn't that say exactly where we are in a lot of issues, richard? people out here today were talking about just the need even the way they frame the issue, right? we never really thought too much about language. it was gun control. but when you talk to people with

every town, they say common sense gun reform. they really don't even want to go into -- they don't want you to say control just because of the images that it conjures up and it could cause a couple of those dominos that maybe had been with them to go the other way. it's that fraught and those numbers bear that out. >> those numbers might say if you take the average, do something in the middle which is what you've been saying chris pollone as well as scott and joshua looking at what might happen on the hill. thank you for your reporting at one of the rallies today. joshua, scott long, thank you for being here. new poll numbers that point to some trouble for the president. but that does not mean democrats are in the clear. and senator bernie sanders holding a block party with south carolina voters right now after rolling out a bold new criminal justice reform plan. g out a bol justice reform plan. i wish i could shake your hand. granted.

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this hour, president trump about to return to washington after taking an extended break at his new jersey golf club. if he does come to the microphones we'll go straight to him to see if he has any comments on some of the rallies as well as the other headlines. president trump returning to washington, d.c. with new poll numbers from nbc news and "the wall street journal." he's not going to like these though. his approval rating fell to 43%, 55% disapprove. in a match-up with a generic democratic candidate for president, 52% would definitely

or probably vote for the democrat. just 40% chose trump. the new plo harbors warning signs for democratic candidates, as well. all three leading candidates fell precipitously in popularity. more people now disapprove than an problem joe biden. a 36-point swing in net numbers. bernie sanders saw a 17-point swing in net approval disapproval numbers. elizabeth warren underwater in terms of approval. the former vice president as i just mentioned who has been positives and seen his positives drop 20 points highway his negatives going up 16 points in january, 2018, again a 36-point swing in net approval numbers. all this as the democratic contenders continue stumping across the country today including sanders at a block party right now in hopkins, south carolina. earlier in columbia he unveiled his criminal justice reform plan. >> might it not be a better idea

to start taking some of that $80 billion spent to lock people up and maybe just maybe start investing in our young people investing in good education for our kids, investing in job training for our kids so they don't end up in jail in the first place. >> all right. where standards is at is where we find road warrior shaquille brewster. back with us is joshua jamerson and democratic strategist eply touch man and shermichael singleton. shaq, let's start with you on this. bernie sanders criminal justice reform plan, a lot of details that he released. >> yeah, it's pretty a pretty extensive plan. almost 6,000 plans in this. he's spending the day talking about highlighting the key elements of it. what it is an expansion of what he talks about on the campaign trail all the time.

he talks about wanting to end for profit prisons, wanting to end the practice of cash bail and reforming how policing is done in this country. he wants to address the systemic issues that he sees in the criminal justice system that we currently have. i got to ask him about that after a church visit had he earlier today here in columbia, south carolina. listen to what he said. >> a racist system. people behind bars are dispro forcing natalie african, latino. we're spending a fortune rather than investing in young people in jobs and education, we're putting money into jails incarceration. we've got change it in a bode way. >> and for sanders, this has been a weekend of outreach to african-american voters. of course, african voters in this state make up 60% of the electorate. it's a group he's been targeting all weekend. rolling out this criminal justice reform plan.

>> shaq, thank you so much. shaq brewster in the field for us. our road warrior following bernie sanders. let's go over to emily sussman. we are seeing some of the democratic candidates here trying to take advantage of -- advantage is the wrong word. moving on current events we have seen in the last two weeks. when you look at at least this beat coming from bernie sanders, is this the right space that democratic candidates need to be in or do they need to be a little bit more detailed or less detailed? >> votes are expecting candidates to come out with detailed plans. that's what we see from an expan av primary field. people want specifics. if a candidate doesn't have a plan it shows they don't really think it's a problem and don't care about it. the fact the candidates are coming out with more detail proposals is what people want to see. the fact he's coming out with a criminal justice plan, actually

pretty late. he started running for president the day hillary clinton lost. the fact it's taken him lost especially figuring one of the biggest knocks against him is he does not speak to communities of color and frames all problems as economic rather than systemic and racial. the fact he's coming out with in this late does say something about the fact he's just trying to go after african-american voters in south carolina he's not running away with new hampshire as he should. >> one of the things that came out in our poll about this very issue of gun laws is doing too much and too little. almost right down the middle. so when we look at the bernie sanders proposal here and the criminal justice space, is it the right temperature? >> i think a lot of the after american voters will expect to see something from each candidate trying to address systemic issues. one of the issues with sanders, even going back to his first presidential run, he could not find his footing with black voters.

some black voters are somewhat interested in some of his ideas but weren't necessarily excited about voting for him. as you ask voters who the best person to defeat someone like trump, some of the first names that cop to mind are biden, you think of warren and kamala harris. when you ask african-american voters directly. this is an effort by the sanders campaign to somewhat change the dynamics. >> the topic i led in with, when you look at approval ratings for the democratic candidates, the one that took a big hit as i underlines is the former vice president. when you look at biden's popularity, i mean, 36 points. that's a huge swing. he is very much seeing a change. what has caused ha change and is it a real detriment to his candidacy here? >> well, i think it's not dissimilar from what we saw in 2016 when hillary clinton left the state department. she experienced some of her most

high approval ratings over her career. once she became a frontrunner for the democratic nomination, she started taking the types of bars from senator sanders as well as some of his supporters, her approval rating started to go down. we were talking to our office about this the other day. it's indicative where we are as a country when people inject themselves in the presidential race. we're a divided country and people will have split opinions on that person no matter who it is. >> the other question is viability. right? who can win for democratic voters that's a big part of their calculations here. shaq, one of the issues we're watching also is the economy, right? we saw a week when we just look at the dow. the month overall we've lost almost 1,000 points in august. last week's ups and downs huge. look at the numbers, swings in

green and red. when you're there on the ground with the sanders campaign, how is the economy being discussed, shaq? >> it's one of those things that comes up in his rel stump speech where he talks about jobs and he talked about wanting to raise the minimum wage, $15 an hour minimum wage. that's something he frames in this message where he said to a voter it doesn't matter you have these high or low unemployment numbers if you're working multiple jobs at a time. it's that element of going back to his stuff speech, going back to his normal proposals. that's what they're trying to do. one other thing the campaign is mentioning is the trade war. he mentioned this trade war that's going on and the impact that has there. he says that this is something that people understand and people and voters and supporters would understand. >> to you on this, emily. some off the numbers that cape out in terms of the president's

approval rating in terms of handling of the economy, down only 2 points since april. but if this is a real concern and we've been talking about yield curve all week, right? if this is a real problem where we're going to face recession potentially in 2020, what does this mean for the president and for the democrats, right? >> every report coming out of the white house is that the president is basically freaking out. because he doesn't think he's going to be able to run on the economy the way that he was banking on. it is -- it does provide an opening for democrats to be able to be more specific about their pols and show how it can play out to help repeople's lives. that is generally how democrats run on the economy already. they talk about spec pols, they talk about minimum wage, family leave policies. they talk about the ability to keep insurance, obamacare did, the ability to have insurance while working multiple jobs. that doesn't speak to like this top line of "the committee" the

way trump and republicans always have. this provides an opening for democrats to do both at the same time. speak about specific pols that are kitchen table issues ha help people's lives and also talk about the economy broadly to hit him where he's no longer strong. >> those numbers all 401(k)s, we have retirement accounts. we're concerned about that. when you break it down in terms of how republicans and democrats view the nation's economy, almost 80% of republicans say, things are looking good. >> now. >> that's right. and democrats, well, this is trailing, this is july. but this just shows the importancen at view that republicans have about the economy and this president. >> it is i would argue one of the most quintessential things that has sustained donald trump's presidency thus far. when you look at futures, when you look at bond markets and what's going on with agriculture and the trade war with china, if you're following this stuff as a market analyst, you're seeing trends that indicate next year

may not be very good. for this president who ran on this idea of i'm the businessman i'm going to make sure that trade imbalances no longer occur and the economy is not only great for business but also great for the average american, the results aren't indicating that thus far. this does give an opportunity to democrats potentially but beyond talking just about increase in minimum wage, the democrats should talk about trying to prepare people for a different job market. automation is the reality in the future for our country. how do you prepare the nex generation for that market. >> larry kudlow, the president's adviser says just be optimistic. >> people are realistic optimism is great but if i realize i'm not making as much money as i was promised if i'm a farmer and looking what's going on in china right now, a lot of their swine they're relying on south america or other parts of europe, those farmers are missing out on billions of dollars of economic

opportunity. what the president attempts to do is give a band-aid of $14 billion, $15 billion, that's only temporary. a lot of those folks are following futures. i've got to keep reiterating that and saying the future does not look very bright for us. >> the future is the hole in their pockets. thank you so much. >> you're polling shows the field is. >> we've gottlieb it there. emily, thank you so much. joshua jamerson. shermichael singleton, great conversation from everybody. appreciate your time. coming up, the serious side effects of mass shootings and the lasting impact on children. especially those of color. on cr especially those of color. i used to book my hotel room on those travel sites but there was always a catch. like somehow you wind up getting less. but now that i book at hilton.com, and i get all these great perks. i got to select my room from the floor plan...

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>> i'm afraid that one day i'll come to school and i'll never come out. i'm sorry. what actions will you take to protect people like me and my classmates from this happening? i apologize. >> you're good. thank you. >> presidential candidate beto o'rourke getting questions from some of the youngest prans at a q & a he had in the classroom recently. gun violence tough for people of all ages but maybe more for

people of color. the el paso shooting mixing racial hate and violence together. a new piece on nbc news.com explores how people of color deal with skin lore, language and religion in today's heated racial environment. it reads in part olivia ortega is not sure she will continue speaking pan spanish in public places in west texas after a gunmaning mexicans opened fire in an el paso walmart earlier had month. clashes between far right nationalists and antifa protests underlines how this racial fault line festers. a new poll revealed more americans were worried about another possible attack from white nationalists than a major terror attack. nbc blk's janelle ross is one of the writers of that article and joins us on set. we're also joined by contributor victoria defran chess soso toe. janelle, just listening to that

young student share the pain and the worry of an attack of being shot and when you look at those who fear regardless of background but fear for their personal safety because of race or ethnicity, the numbers when you look at it, it crosses all groups. black, 43%, white 38%, asian 35%. hispanic 30%. all groups according to pew worry about because of race or ethnicity violence. >> right. i mean, it's extremely telling. of course, we also have to face some critical facts. hate crimes are in fact on the rise and have been rising for three consecutive years. and preliminary data indicates that it will be for a fourth year. so people are certainly not imagining that there is some increased level of risk. they are not imagining the sort of source and font from which

that risk flows. but for people who are living in this country and understand themselves to be both the targets of white nationalist activity but also have to endure the sort of daily indignities of discrimination in large and small ways that can really mount up in essence. we are human beings. >> right. >> with a full suite of emotions and that can really take a toll. i don't know about other people but that young woman in that classroom, that was difficult to listen to. >> it was. victoria you sit in classrooms all the time. this is what you do. and we unfortunately have seen in recent years a lot of the violence that we're talking about here. gun violence happening in the safe place, the classroom today. tell me about what your students are saying amongst this ptsd that was exhibited here by that student in some small way, right? >> so we have students being scared and it's something that

we see in college campuses, my students themselves feeling the fear. and also, that fear is exacerbated by the fact that a couple of years ago, the texas state legislature made college campuses here in the state where you can bring guns on to campus. you can carry what's called the campus carry law. you see an even heightened level of anxiety here on our college campuses. back down to kindergarteners to kids in primary schools. i have a little girl going into first grade and doesn't know what's going on. after the el paso shooting, what's wrong? was there a man with a gun? so you see the anxiety very much in an innocent way at the very youngest levels and then our students we saw such as the ones beto are talking to and i myself. >> stand by, we'll listen to the president just about to depart to washington, d.c. >> world the terrorists have caused nothing in my opinion or certainly very little.

we have import prices from and through july all the way through july down 1.8% so that the import prices have actually gone down. china is eating the tariffs because of monetary manipulation also, they're pouring a lot of money into their country because they don't want to lose jobs. they're losing as you probably know because you reported it but they lost over 2 million jobs in a short period of time. and they want to make a deal. we'll see what happens. but they def want to make a deal. i'd like to see hong kong worked out in a very humanitarian fashion. i hope president xi can do it. he has the ability i can tell you that from personal knowledge. he has the ability to do it if he wants to. i'd like to see that worked out in a humanitarian fashion. it would be very good for the trade trade deal we're talking about. other than that, if you have any questions. >> stotts of your liberation on

the afghanistan troop withdrawal. >> we are looking at afghanistan. we're talking to afghanistan both the government and also talking to the taliban. having very good discussions. we'll see what happens. we've really got it down to probably 13,000 people. and we'll be bringing it down a little bit more and then we'll decide whether or not we'll be staying longer or not. we're having very good discussions with the taliban. we're having very good discussions with the afghan government. >> reporter: what's the argument for staying? >> i think just that we've been there for 19 years. we're like a police force and that's about it. frankly. i think it's very important that we continue intelligence there. in all cases. because it is somewhat of a nest for hitting us. if you look at what happened with the world trade, it essentially came out of afghanistan. most of the people i think they may not have come from

afghanistan originally but that's where they were taught. so there's a big argument to be made and i buy that argument. you know, it's very tough when somebody says, well this is a big breeding ground and it is a breeding ground. and we have things under control very well with the small force. we can probably make it a little bit smaller and then we'll decide. it will depend on the taliban and the afghan government. but there is a case to be made and the case also is that we're going to be leaving very significant intelligence behind for just the reasons i stated. >> reporter: [ inaudible question ]. >> i can't comment on that. can't do it, maggie. i think president xi obviously has this in mind because he probably would have acted faster. so i think he has at least something in mind having to do with trade because it's something he could do fairly easily. it could be unfortunately very ruthless. so i do think it plays on his mind and i do think he is

thinking about what i've had to say. it would have an impact on trade. there's no question about it. >> reporter: is there any u.s. -- >> a little louder. >> greenland, i don't know. it got released somehow. it's something we talked about. denmark essentially owns it. we're very good allies with denmark. we protect denmark like we protect large portions of the world. so the concept came up and i said strategically it's interesting. and we'd be interested. we'll talk to them a little bit. it's not number one on the burner, i can tell you that. >> reporter: did you ever make an exchange with them of any kind? >> a lot of things could be done. it's a large real estate deal. a lot of things could be done. it's hurting denmark very badly because they're losing almost $700 million a year carrying it. so they carry it at a great loss. and strategically for the united

states, it would be nice. and we're a big ally of denmark and we help denmark and we protect denmark and we will. in fact, i'm supposed to stop, i'm thinking about going there. i'm not necessarily definitely going there but we're going poland and we may be going to denmark. not for this reason at all. but we're looking at it. it's not number one on the burner. >> mr. president, back to afghanistan, i have two questions. first of all, have you seen the reports about the suicide bombers at a wedding? [ inaudible question ] >> i'm not trusting anybody. look, i'm not trusting anybody. it's a horrible situation that's going on in afghanistan. it has been for many years. russia tried to do something and at the time they did it, they were the soviet union and now they're russia. they spent all their wealth on trying to do something in that land. there have been many, many great nations in that land.

it's a difficult territory. there are a lot of very good people there, i will say. there are also good fighters. we have it very much under control as far as what we're doing. a lot of bad things happen in kabul, a lot of the bad things are happening in afghanistan. and some very positive things. but we would -- look, we're there for one reason. we don't that to be a laboratory. okay? can't be a laboratory for terror. and we've stopped that and we have a very, very good view. some things are going to be announced over the next couple of weeks as to what happened,s who been taken out. a lot of people have been taken out that were very bad, both isis and al qaeda. >> senator lindsey graham said that for you to respond -- [ inaudible question ] would be the biggest mistake since obama. >> i guess means lindsay's a very tough man. okay, what else? >> is the administration going

to allow u.s. businesses to continue selling to gallway? because they're going to be an extension of the license tomorrow? >> that was reported. actually it's the opposite. huawei is gul a company we may not do business with at all. and it was sort of reported i think the opposite today. i was surprised that we are open to do business. we're actually open not to doing business with them. oh i don't know who gave the report. they have little sections of huawei like furniture and other things that we could do, but when you cut out sections it gets very complicated. what's being sold, what's coming in. so at this moment it, looks much more like we're not going to do business. i don't want to do business at all because it is a national security threat. and i really believe that the media has covered it a little bit differently than that. we're looking really not to do business with huawei. we're actually talking about not doing any business because again, the rest of it is not national security.

but it's very difficult to determine what's coming in, what's not coming in. it's still huawei. so we'll be making a decision over that in the not too distant future. it's a little bit the opposite of what seemed to be reported this morning. >> how was your meeting with at bedminster? who did you golf with. >> i had a very good meeting with tim cook. i have a lot of respect for tim cook. one of the things he made a good case that samsung is the number one competitor and samsung is not paying tariffs because they're based in south korea. and it's tough for apple to pay tariffs if they're competing with a very good company that's not. i said how good a competitor. he said they're a very good competitor. so samsung is not paying tariffs because they're based in a different location mostly south korea but they're based in south korea.made a very compelling argument so i'm thinking about

it. >> reporter: there's reporting on cnn that larry kudlow may be leaving at some point. >> i hope not. i love larry kudlow. i think he's done a fantastic job. he has been going through health problems as you know. but i watched him this morning. he was electric. i think larry's a fantastic guy. but i haven't heard that at all. >> reporter: are you doing any planning or are you to be directing your administration to plan for the possibility of a recession? >> i don't see a recession. the world is in a recession right now. and although that's too big a statement. if you look at china, china's doing very, very poorly. they've had i just saw a report they've had the worst year they've had in 27 years because of what i've done. and they want to many could to the negotiating table. you know they're having companies -- they're leaving, the companies are leaving. and laying offmyions of people because they don't want to the pay 25%. that's why they want to come to

the table. i don't think there's another reason other than president xi i'm sure likes me very much. but they're losing millions and millions of jobs in china. and we're not paying for the tariffs. china is paying for the tariffs for the 100th time. and i understand tariffs very well. other countries it may be that if i do things with other countries, but in the case of china, china is eating the tariffs. at least so far. >> but a lot of economists say that you should be preparing for a recession, that no president is immune from a recession and that is it's malpractice for the government not to be doing something. >> i'm prepared for everything. we're doing tremendously well. our consumers are rich. i gave a tremendous tax cut and they're loaded up with money. they're buying i saw the walmart numbers. they were through the roof two days ago. that's better than any poll. that's better than any economist. most economists actually say phil that we're not going to

have a recession. most of them are saying we're not going to have recession. but rest of the world is not doing well like we're doing. the rest of the world, if you look at germany, if you look at european union, frankly, look at the uk, look at a lot of countries they're not doing bell. china is doing poorly. parts of asia are doing poorly. we are doing better than any country or even be area anywhere in the world. we're doing great. our consumer is really, really strong. and it looks like they're going to be for a long time. also, when you go in and analyze the curve, the curve always means that about two years later, maybe you'll go -- that's a long time, two years. but i don't think so. interest rates are low. i think i could be helped out by the fed but the fed doesn't like helping me, too much. but frankly, we have money that's pouring into our country because they want the security of the united states. we have billions and billions of

dollars daily that's pouring in. we've never had anything like this because they want to come into the united states. that's a great thing. that means we can loan that money out. mortgage rates are at an all-time low. borrowing costs are at an all-time low. it's probably a great time. i told secretary mnuchin this is a great time to refinance our bonds or some of our bonds. the money is pouring into the u.s. like never before. and like no other country has ever experienced. including china money. china money, everybody they're all coming into the u.s. we've never had anything like it. i think our economy is very, very good. >> if it were to slow down -- >> i'd be prepared for it. sure, we can do a lot of things but if it slowed down, it would be because i have to take on china and some other countries. you have other countries just as bad as china the way they treated us. what's happening with the european union, they have barriers, they have tariffs.

i'm not going to mention all the countries because you'll be surprised. a lot of them buy our allies. we're treated very badly. when all of that normalizes we've got a rocket ship. our country is going to be stronger by far than ever before. if i wanted to make a bad deal and settle on china, the market would go up but it wouldn't be the right hinge to do. i'm not ready to make a deal. china would like to make a deal. i'm not ready. >> how safe are the iranian oil tankers in malta. >> no update other than iran would like to talk also. i have to say also china wants to talk. but iran would like to talk. they just don't know quite how to get there. look, they're very proud people but their economy is crashing. it's crashing. inflation is through the roof. they're doing really badly. they're not selling oil. even -- we put the sanctions on the oil is selling is much less, i mean much less than we thought. it's like a trickle.

and they very much want to make a deal. they just don't know how to call, because they're proud people and i understand that. but i have a feeling that maybe things with iran could work out and an maybe not. if you notice they haven't taken any of our boats. they haven't taken our ships. they've taken ships but not our ships they'd better not. i will say this, i really think that iran wants to get there. they have a great potential. i say this about north korea. north korea has tremendous potential. also iran has tremendous potential. and we can do something very fast but they don't quite know how to begin because they're proud people. they're very proud people. but their country is crashing. their economy is a disaster. they've got to do something. so let's see what happens. >> what about -- >> congress is working on that. they have bipartisan committees working on background checks and various other things. we'll see. i don't want people to forget

that this is a mental health problem. i don't want them to forget that because it is. it's a mental health problem. and as i say and i said the other night in new hampshire, we had an incredible evening. i said, it's the people that pull the trigger. it's not the gun that pulls the trigger. we have a very, very big mental health problem and congress is working on various things and i'll be looking at it. we're very much involved. we're very much involved in looking at what they're studying. >> reporter: the dayton shooter had 100 rounds of magazine. do you support banning high capacity magazines? >> we're going to look at a whole list of things. i'll make a determination then. but i will say congress is now as you know meeting in a bipartisan way. a lot of things are lapping on the gun level. a lot of things are happening. you have to remember also, it's a big mental -- i was talking about mental institutions. they closed so many like 92% of

the mental institutions around this country over the years. for budgetary reasons. these are people that have to be in institutions. for help. i'm not talking about as a form of a prison. i'm saying for help. and i think it's something we have to really look at. the whole concept of mental institutions. i remember growing up, we had mental institutions. then they were closed in new york i'm talking about. there were many of them were closed. a lot of him were closed. all of those people were put out on streets. i said even as a young guy, i said how does that work? that's not a good thing. it's not a good thing. so i think the concept of mental institution has to be looked at. unrelated to that, i believe that the concept also of voter identification has to be looked at. because you can't have great security for the voter. people that vote, you can't have

that national security unless you're going to have voter identification. it's something people have to look at very stockily. >> are you saying -- >> we had a lot of we had a lot of meetings. the golf was the least of it. i played two days. the golf was the least of it. i don't care about -- look, i like golf. it's fine. it's so unimportant to me. usually, i'll play with senators. i'll play with people where it can help. golf is not important from that standpoint. other than it's a little form of exercise and that's not so bad. >> sir, iran, any answer on response, rather, on the sale of -- >> yeah, yeah. yeah. there is. i mean, i've approved a deal. the deal is approved. got to be approved by the senate, but i've approved the deal. it's $8 billion. it's a lot of money. it's a lot of jobs. and we know they're going to use these f-16s responsibly, but we approved the deal. lot of money, and it's a great aircraft and we really believe, or we, perhaps, wouldn't have

done it, they're going to use it very responsibly. but it's tremendous numbers of jobs. it's $8 billion. >> you brought up voter i.d. laws and the concept -- >> no, no, just i said unrelated. i wanted to bring that out while i'm here with you. i think voter i.d. laws -- if you look, voter identification, so when people show up to vote because if you look, judicial watch made a settlement with california, i guess, or los angeles, where they found over a million names that was very problematic. a problem. and you just take a look at that settlement. that's a lot of names. you had people that were well over 100 years old that were voting, but we know they're not around any longer. so you have a lot of voter fraud. the way you stop it, the easiest way, is voter identification. we have to go and think about that. i hope republicans and democrats can both sit down and work

something out on voting i.d. >> voter fraud, didn't find any actual fraud -- >> well, we let the commission -- the commission was having a tremendous problem legally getting papers from various states. like california. they were absolutely hardlining. they didn't want to give this commission -- it was just a quick commission. headed up by vice president pence, to look at voter fraud. the problem the commission had is we had to have a vast amount of lawyers which i didn't want to bother with because california and other states were giving up no information whatsoever. and the reason they weren't giving up information is because they were guilty. they were guilty of it. and they know they're guilty of it. many, many people voted that shouldn't have been voted. some people voted many times. what i'm saying is we need voter identification. we need voter i.d. >> i know it's not a top priority for you, greenland, but when you go to denmark, is there

something you're going to want to talk to them about is. >> maybe. maybe. i don't think denmark has been absolutely set in stone yet going there. if i did, i'd certainly talk about it. but not top on the zbllist. >> how much do -- >> we haven't got therein yet. first, we have to find out whether or not they have any interest. they're losing $700 million, that's a lot of money for denmark. they're losing a tremendous amount of money. we'll see what happens. [ inaudible question ] >> fox is a lot different than it use to be, i can tell you that. juan williams and the wonderful woman that gave hillary clinton the questions. that was a terrible thing. all of a sudden, she's working for fox. what's she doing working for fox? fox has changed and my worst polls have always been from fox.

there's something going on at fox, i'll tell you right now and i'm not happy with it. >> the polls -- >> i don't know what's happening with fox, but when they have, like, a juan williams, never said a positive thing, and yet, when i show up at the fox building, he's out there, oh, sir, could have a picture with you, could i have a picture? and he was 100% nice. i mean, you've never asked me for a picture. >> i have not. >> did murdock change the management at fox? >> no, they have to run however they want to. i think they're making a big mistake because fox was treated very badly by the democrats. very, very badly. having to do with the debates and other things. i think fox is making a big mistake because, you know, i'm the one that calls the shots on that -- on the really big debates. i guess we're probably planning on three of them. and i real -- well, i'm very -- i'm not happy with fox. i'm certainly happy, i think, sean hannity and lou dobbs and i think tucker carlson and laura and jesse waters and janine, we

have a lot of great people. even greg, he wasn't good to many two years ago. now he sees all i've done. he said would you rather have a great president or a nice guy? i don't know, i think i'm a nice guy but nobody's done in 2 1/2 years what i've done and i say that a lot and very few people can challenge it. the first 2 1/2 years, nobody's done what i've done. in terms of tax cuts. regulation cuts. the military. the vets. t the choice. so many different things. nobody's done that. yeah? >> huawei, are you not going to extend the license for 90 d 0 days -- >> i'm talking to my people. ultimately, we don't want to do business with huawei for national security reasons. >> not even a temporary -- >> we'll see ha happwhat happen. i'll make a decision tomorrow. could be temporary. maybe not. we're going to make a decision tomorrow. >> so there's -- fox poll they

had you under water against your main democratic -- >> i don't believe it. i don't believe it. every place i go, we have lines outside. we have even phony stuff with -- you guys were in new hampshire. maggie was there. you saw that room was packed and they had thousand -- maggie. they had thousands of people outside. and then i see some phony website, some wise guys put up. that place was packed. and "the new york times" actually saw that, and actually, there was a massive flag behind -- and even the seats behind the flag where you had no view -- >> pictures from nbc -- >> because those people came down to be on the floor. but all of the people -- any empty seat, you had the people come down to be on the floor because they were so far away. plus, you had a big flag. look, we had, i think they said 17,000 people outside that couldn't get in. they closed ed it at a certain level. i don't know the people at the are arena, that i broke elton john's

record and then i have fake news. the fact is people tend during a speech that i make, they love to come down to the floor if they're sitting in the high areas and they're not allowed for fire reasons to have any more people. so that was an amazing evening and you saw the enthusiasm. but we had a lot of people sitting behind that massive american flag that couldn't see. so they moved over and they moved down and they came down to the floor as the speech started. but maggie haberman was very fair and she was there, and she saw the beginning of that spe h speech, every seat was packed. but then they tend to come down. they do it all the time. >> mitt romney gave a rally there the night before the election and it was packed. he had -- >> oh, i don't know, phil, phil, what can i tell you? do i think i'm going to win? yes. do i think i had more enthusiasm than i had before the 2016 election? yes. i think we -- i think you people do, too, and some of you have reported it. i think there is more enthusiasm

for president trump than there was even for mr. trump because what i said that i was going to do, i did. the tax cut. the regulation cuts. the biggest in history. in 2 1/2 years, more than -- that's one of the reasons our jobs are so good because of the regulation cuts. >> so why can't you tell us whether you talked to president xi? >> i just don't want to comment on that. >> is there a call set up for next week? >> well, i can speak to him any time, but he understands how i feel. i just can't comment as to whether or not i spoke to him. but i will tell you this, we're having very, very substantive talks with china. and with others. but with china. >> watch any of the coverage of that hong kong protest? >> i can't believe it. you know, i tell you, i've never seen 2 million people. when you talk about crowd size, maggie. those are serious crowds. the hong kong crowds. i mean, when they said 2 million people on the streets, that really looked like 2 million people on the street.

>> the other day you were saying -- [ inaudible question nchld. >> no, i think it would be very hard to deal with they do violence. i mean, if it's another teah tiananmen square, think it's a very hard thing to do if there's violence. and, you know, that -- president, but that's a little beyond me because i think there'd be tremendous political sentiment not to do something. so i hope because i think we're going to end up doing a very good deal. and i think china, by the way, needs a deal much more than we do, but i really do believe that if this weren't part of the deal, possibly something would have happened already a long time ago. >> the protesters -- [ inaudible question sfch] >> i tell you what i do support. i support liberty. i support democracy. i understand what's going on very well over there. i'd love to see it worked out in a humane fashion.

and i think they have a great chance of doing it. look, i put out, and i told you that i really believe -- i have a confidence in the talents of president xi. i think if he met with the protesters within a very short period of time, they would work something out that's good for everybody. i really believe that. he's a very talented man. i mean, aside from everything. he's a very talented man. very smart, very talented. i know him well. probably as well as anybody. and i believe if he sat down with them, now, you know, he's not -- that's not his deal. sitting down with people. you know, he doesn't do that. but i think maybe the world changes. i really believe if president xi sat down with representatives of the protesters, and they do have representatives, pretty good representatives, pretty strong representatives, i've been watching and seeing them. if he sat down, th