okay, we're not twins today. i had to do something to look different. >> where are you going, girl? i'm in work hair. you look great. very fun look. thank you. >> bye. >> good day to you, msnbc in new york. president trump sweeps into france for the g7 meetings and there are reports he may get an icy reception from his counterparts. why? the president says he has the power to stop american businesses from dealing with china, but how? a new twist in the jeffrey epstein saga. britain's prince puts out a relay of what he saw. trump may be getting rid of

detainees entirely. the g7 in southwest france is where president trump is. he is also expected to take part in the g7 family photo. earlier he sat down for lunch with french president emmanu mm macron and suggested coming together on this economic slowdown. >> how to decrease and fix the situation in terms of trade, because i think we fix it now. >> those economic words is why this international gathering of the world's major economies is especially important. the president complained to aides about having to attend and he reportedly wants to boast about the u.s. economy. leaders at the summit wanting to

talk about global warming. that's one of the problems the g7 host hopes to tackle, including the fires in the amazon rainforest which is becoming a global crisis. and this comes after the president had a turbulent week. even by his standards with statements about jewish american voters, the fed chair, greenland's prime minister, the stock market and, quote, hereby ordering u.s. companies to stop doing business with china. after that tweet, the dow closed down more than 600 points. >> in 1977, we had a national emergency act. i have the absolute right to do that. we're having a little spat with china and we'll win it. no, i'm not happy with jay powell. do i want him to resign? let me put it this way. if he d i wouldn't stid, i woul.

i don't want france to tax us. if they do, we'll be taxing their wine. >> the president had lunch with president macron. it certainly appeared to be cordial. what did the president say? >> reporter: certainly setting a tone as they begin these couple days of meetings where the expectations are, as you laid out, much more about the areas where there might be disagreement or tension, some of the relationships that have been frayed over things like trade or different positions on climate change. we know that the president has at times in past gatherings like this left people with a less than cooperative spirit. so at least starting off with the president trying to set a more positive tone, and certainly mindful that the host this year is a rotating host position. the u.s. will be the host next year. but emmanuel macron has been one of trump's better friends on the world stage, and president trump

and the first lady arrived even earlier than had been anticipated. and that made some room in the schedule for this luncheon that gave them a chance to have some one-on-one time, and the president, in his chance to sort of set the groundwork, wanted to emphasize some of the positives, saying they have a go at each other now and again, but basically they're working from a position of friendship. here's president trump from earlier today. >> we actually have a lot in common, emmanuel and i. we've been friends for a long time, and every once in a while we go at it just a little bit, not very much, but we get along very well. we have a very good relationship, i think i can say a special relationship. so far so good. the weather is perfect, the guests are fantastic, and i think we can accomplish a lot this weekend. >> reporter: accomplish a lot is a question mark. what would they accomplish? one of the things that has changed with president trump's position on the world stage is that this group is not doing

what's known as the communique, a joint agreement among the leaders. last year he refused to sign it, this year they're not going to attempt to do it. there can still be value, of course, in leaders getting together. the relationship evolve, participation of leaders who are now in office changes, for example, with the united kingdom. we'll see boris johnson in office as the prime minister for the first time, so that changes the dynamic somewhat. we also saw the president dealing with some of the issues that he brings to the table. of course, he had been feuding with the prime minister of denmark, not a participant in the g7, but wanted to sort of get that out of the way, so they had a phone call before he left washington. but he also was not backing away from saying if france is taxing big u.s. tech companies, the u.s. would consider taxing their wine, for example, an important import. he also talked about two reporters before he left the united states, something that got a lot of people scratching

their heads when the president referred to himself in the trade war with china as the chosen one, a biblical reference, a religious reference that had many people wondering, what is he thinking? the president saying in a tweet that that was simply meant as humor. he also told reporters in a back and forth with them that that was simply meant as sarcasm, so the president wanting to clear up or at least explain in some way one of the controversies that's been around him over the last several days. obviously the undertone to all of this has been his economic fight with china. that is something that the host president here, emmanuel macron, is saying that he would like to see the leaders work in a new way to not have some of these, as macron called it, war on congress, saying it's not good for anyone. alex? >> there is a lot riding on this meeting, so thank you for the setup from biarritz, france. i can't tell, kelly, if it's frustrating to be in front of that beach since you can't be lying on it or not. >> the ocean breeze is very,

very nice. >> good, good, glad to hear it. joining me now, writer tore positilitic politico, and peter baker, political analyst. welcome to all three of you. peter, you first here. i want your reaction of what we heard there from president macron. was it just for appearance sake? >> reporter: i think it was just for appearance sake, because even as the president was making nice with macron at lunch, he was telling reporters how they are messing up this g7 summit. president macron has focused on the wrong issues. they don't like the fact he's focused on climate change and digital transformation a and equalities. he said they should be focused on global trade, that's what the

g7 is for. it's his staff who is spreading the message that they think president macron is busy playing to his own domestic constituencies rather than carrying out his duties as the host of the g7 summit meeting. >> i want to ask you about what the president did when he arrived in france. he pretty much doubled down on his authority to force u.s. companies to find an alternative to china. he said this in a tweet, for all the fake news reporters that don't have a clue as to what the law is relative to presidential powers, china, et cetera, try looking at the emergency economic powers act of 1977, case closed. peter, i know you just published a piece on all this. is there anything to this law that the president is invoking and talking about the implications of him doubling down on it? >> well, this is a law that's been used now for the last several decades as the main source of sanctions against criminal regimes like iran or north korea. it's been used against drug kingpins and, you know -- sorry,

cyberattackers and terrorists. it's never been used in the context the president is talking about. it's never been used in a purely economic dispute to punish a trading partner and to force american companies, the private sector, to pull out of another country in this kind of context. so it would be a novel use of this power, to say the least. never before used. no doubt will be a challenge in court. we don't know how that would play out. >> one more piece i want to reference that you wrote, that even some of the president's advisers were alarmed by his statements on the economy. what are those aides saying, and to whom are they expressing those concerns? >> well, they're expressing it to us. i don't know if they're expressing it to the president, that's the real question, right? at least some of his aides think he is risking going so far with this trade issue that he's taking what they think is a political strength of his, the economy, and risk turning it into a liability heading into his reelection. if the president's sort of erratic comments and behavior

and actions end up disrupting the global economy that would hurt the united states, that would hurt his chances for winning a second term next year. so they're very nervous about that and wondering if he should be pulling back and trying to avoid disrupting things too much. >> all right. presidential campaigns notwithstanding, abigail, yesterday the dow finished down more than 600 points. there is talk of a slowdown both domestically as well as globally. use us and china escalating their trade wars with newly imposed tariffs. how does all of this factor into this summit? >> it absolutely factors and you have to take into account the fact that the president is going into a g7 meeting at a point where he's very nvervous, or hi aides are very nervous about him talking about the economy and how erratic behavior might be impacting this. this isn't an atmosphere where the president has thrived in the past. he was picking fights with u.s. allies. after agreeing to the joint

statement, he went on twitter and took shots at justin trudeau. as we go into the summit, there are incredibly low expectations among european diplomats and u.s. allies, and you do get the sense that they might be trying to wait this president out, particularly given that they already scrapped the idea of even trying to agree to a joint statement this year. >> i'd love some perspective from you, melanie, on the week that was for the president. is it possible to find some sort of clear rationale for all that we heard from the president this week on both the economy and all the other issues? >> on the one hand, you could say there is some sort of political strategy here. he appears to be lining up scapegoats in case the economy does falter. he ran against his own chairman of the federal reserve, he bashed china. but we all know the president tends to lash out on twitter, especially when he feels the heat. we know his trade war with china has just escalated. he's feeling pressure to act on

some sort of gun control, and he feels being pulled this different directions there. he's going into this summit with all the leaders he's sparred with in the past and he has this list of grievances that he plans to press on. so it appears the president is only act ing on his instincts ad we see that with his twitter. even aides are reacting on his political twitter. i would watch out for them when they come back to see if they actually do push to rein in on the president's tariff authority. the one thing they are most concerned about is the economy. if there are any signs of a downturn or if trump does anything to harm the economy further, send the markets into a tailspin, that is where i think you'll see some republicans stand up to him. >> i'm curious, melanie, given the president's penchant to

constantly point the finger at anybody else when things go wrong, does anybody believe he doesn't hold a level of responsibility in all of this? when you talk to people, do they say, oh, yeah, it's definitely jay powell, it's not the president here. >> i would look no further than friday when china released the war on tariffs. it was when the president started tweeting about china and jay powell and the markets started dropping. the president does have some responsibility here, although i would point out not everything is in his control, but the time you see the republicans especially shaking their heads and putting their head in their hand is when the president makes his own crisis. >> two pieces of reporting, abigail, i want to get your feeling on how the president is handling the economic slowdown. there is a senior official

saying the president, quote, wants to brag about the economy at the g7 summit, but is there something about pushing that there is nothing wrong with the economy? >> we see the president himself sending conflicting statements or conflicting signals to the americans about the health and state of the economy. i think going into the g7 summit, the idea is to push an economic message and to talk about it which the origins of the summit was to address economic issues. so it's not much of a dever yia there. i think when we push back on his behavior and he is responding about a potential slowdown, there is some erratic behavior and he's making it worse. i think as we move forward the greatest threat to the public messaging is the president himself. >> peter, what do you think realistically what's going to

come of this g7 meeting? do you think anything constructive will come of it? >> reporter: it's like the old saying the doctors have, first do no harm. what the leaders here are hoping to avoid is a blowout. last year the president stormed out of canada in a huff, the canadian president said he had been insulted, he refused to sign the communique. they're trying to avoid something like that here. is there going to be any kind of concrete agreement or action on issues that the french president cares about, that president trump cares about? probably not. he's working out a trade agreement with japan that may or may not be close to some sort of progress point. he's talking to boris johnson tomorrow for the first time, the new prime minister of the u.k. they share feelings on brexit. can they have a trade agreement that will succeed once britain

pulls out? >> thank you to all of you, long distance to you, peter, and abigail and melanie. thank you very much. later, new information on the raging fires in the amazon and outrage spreading as activists demand action. e spreas activists demand action. every day, visionaries are creating the future. so, every day, we put our latest technology and unrivaled network to work. the united states postal service makes more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country.

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new today, britain's prince andrew just releasing a statement about his past relationship with jeffrey

epstein. the british royal has received accusations about epstein's alleged sex trafficking ring, including court documents just before epstein was found dead in jail. sarah harmon is in london with all the details about this. quite a lengthy statement. let's get right to it, sarah. >> hey, alex, quite a statement by prince andrew defending his relationship with jeffrey epstein. let me read a part of what he says here. at no stage during the limited time i spent with him did i see witness or suspect any behavior of the sort that subsequently led to his arrest and conviction. he goes on to say, i've previously said that it was a mistake and an error to see him after his release in 2010, and i can only reiterate my regret that i was mistaken to think that what i thought i knew of him was evidently not the real person, given what we now know. he also says, this is a difficult time for everyone involved and i'm at a loss to be

able to understand or explain mr. epstein's lifestyle. i deplore the exploitation of any human being and would not c condone, participate in or encourage any such behavior. pretty rare to get this sort of statement from a royal. generally they have people who put out statements for them. bucki bucking buckingham palace had responded earlier this month about the scandal, and now we're getting a statement from the duke of york himself. really interesting. >> given the amount of heat he's been feeling and the nature of the allegations against jeffrey epstein, he probably felt he had to put that statement out himself. sarah, thank you so much for that. joining me now, william cohen, special contributor of "vanity fair." he's also the author of the book "four friends, a life cut

short." what do you think about andrew's statements about his dealings with jeffrey epstein? do you find it to be plausible? >> it seems anyone who had any contact with jeffrey epstein during his life is now backing away from that contact as quickly as they possibly can. and, frankly, prince andrew's statement, while probably genuine and heartfelt, shows once again that nobody wants to admit to having anything to do with this guy, and everybody is now saying they had no idea what he was up to. and it's not just prince andrew, it's also the wexners of the world, the glenn dubins of the world, so to me it doesn't ring true, it rings sort of hollow. >> part of that statement that sarah harman read, it reads as follows. at no stage during the limited time i spent with him did i see, witness or suspect any behavior of the sort that subsequently

led to his arrest and conviction. you know, with regard to a photo that has been circulated widely of prince andrew peeking through a door and a photo that he took with a woman who claims to have been abused by jeffrey epstein, not only him but others, is it plausible to think that he had no idea this was going on? >> you know, alex, look. i wasn't there, obviously, but i don't think it's plausible. i don't think it's plausible that any of these wealthy men are now claiming they had no idea what jeffrey epstein was up to. it's just not plausible. and how convenient is it that now that he's gone, now that he's dead, they're saying they had no idea what he was up to? because there's really very few people to contradict him. but if you spend some time, and i don't recommend this, frankly, because it's very painful to read, but if you read some of

the admonitidepositions that thg women gaive that were unsealed couple weeks ago, they're so heartfelt and so grieved and so pained and now for the prince andrews of the world to say, i had no idea what he was up to, it just rings hollow, i'm sorry. >> notably we found out epstein signed that will a couple days before his suicide. we also learned france has opened an investigation into his alleged crimes. given what you know, william, of all these new developments, which ones do you find most interesting? >> i think the idea that this case is not over, the idea there's still going to be civil lawsuits, the idea that perhaps the southern district of new york is still pursuing criminal inquiries, that -- and what's going to happen to this so-called $500 million estate that now jeffrey epstein has awarded to his brother.

we'll see what happens. all of that to me is interesting, because these women who were abused by this guy and the men who participated in it, the women deserve justice and the men need to be held accountable, and i'm glad to hear, i think, that that's still happening. and i'm glad to hear that it will continue if, in fact, it does. >> can i ask you about ghislaine maxwell? she allegedly stayed that in n out burger in los angeles. do we know where she is? >> she was allegedly living by the sea with the entrepreneur. my bet is she's cooperating. my bet is this is one big head fake. they know exactly where she is and she's trying to save her skin now because she's the focus of a worldwide woman hunt, if you will. >> and potentially a lot of

civil accusations, that's for sure. let me ask you as we switch gears now to anthony scaramucci. he's someone you've interviewed. he's been very vocal going after his former boss. is the criticism authentic? it's coming from someone who was on the trump train for quite some time. >> i think it is authentic. i've known anthony now a long time. i think his desire to be involved in republican politics at the highest level was genuine, was authentic. don't forget he first started supporting scott walker, then he moved to jeb bush, and only once it was clear that donald trump was going to get the nomination did he switch to donald trump. he's definitely op pportunistic that way. he got his day in the sun. but i think he's an honest person, a genuine person, and he recognizes that now donald trump is not good for the republican party and for our country, and

he's doing everything he can to try to stop him. at least he's standing up. i think he's actually at the beginning of something special and tangible. you have mark sanford from south carolina and joe walsh and bill weld who are actually considering primarying him, maybe even nikki haley. i think this is a real movement that anthony scaramucci has started here and lit a match to. i give him a lot of credit for that, even though i also wonder what took him so long. >> that was a question worth asking. william cohan, thank you so much. i look forward to talking to you again. >> thank you, alex. a new gun control plan. we'll talk about that next. we'll talk about that next ♪

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now to a new proposal for gun control legislation. it says 6600 people have been killed in mass shootings in the u.s. since parkland high school 2018. eve, welcome to you. let's talk about this agenda which is called a peace plan for

a safer america. take us through what your movement is calling for and how it changes the conversation of the. >> thank you so much for having me. so our new proposed peace plan has six parts which spell out the acronym change. the cs are about gun ownership in america. we're calling for a licensed registration system wlsas well a buyback for assault weapons. we need more accountability for the gun industry. this means reviewing cases and looking at the non-profit status of the nra. the n is we need to name a gun revolution person. and the e is to empower the next generation of voters through

automatic registration. >> how are you going to use this in 2020? what are your plans on that? >> this peace plan is really for any individual person to do in government, specifically looking at the 2020 candidates. we hope that 2020 candidates will be able to use the peace plan as a sort of goal and guiding post as they create their own policies and plans for what they are going to do to get rid of our gun violence epidemic. >> white house officials told the daily beast this week that the reason the president has started backtracking on his support for gun background checks is, quote, unquote, he's started to move on. there will be an uphill battle, certainly, to win over the republicans and the president. do you think this proposal will change and grab the president's attention? >> first i would say the notion of the president saying he could move on is a luxury a lot of people don't have. it's not a luxury survivors have who are experiencing trauma on a

daily basis. it's not a luxury that people living in communities that experience everyday gun violence have because it's an everyday occurrence for them. i would encourage every politician to understand that gun violence isn't something you can move past. i would love for the president to read our plan and consider it and endorse it. at the same time i think that that's probably unlikely, but i think that there are members of congress and people at state legislatures and more importantly activists on the ground that will help this stay a looilive at all levels. >> sure, eve, but you have to be frustrated that there are mass shootings and the president does seem to move on. we had a candidate whose main

topic was gun control, and he dropped out because it wasn't a main topic for them. how do we act on it and make our legislators do something? >> i think it's going to take people all around the country, students, teachers, doctors, to make it a reality. in our government if it's not something that's necessarily on the media or something officers are getting a lot of emails or calls about, they're going to move past it. that's where this becomes a grassroots effort and is the responsibility of tens of thousands of supporters across the country and the other groups we work with to continue to make protests, continue to call and email, et cetera. speaking of president saul and his presidential bid, he said, what if his goal was to bring it to the forefront of the presidential election? i think that's a reality. it's something we also focused on with our upcoming forum with giffords in las vegas on october

22nd. >> i can just say this is not an issue that will get lost on this broadcast. we'll keep it front and center. >> thank you. >> eve levenson, thank you. >> thank you. let's kick donald trump's rear end. i believe i'm the person to do that because he lied to my folks in ohio two and a half years ago, and i will chase his rear end all over the great lake states. we will win wisconsin, michigan, and ohio and western pa and send him back to mar-a-lago. o mar-a-o so i called him. he didn't call me back! if your ex-ex- ex-boyfriend isn't a lawyer, call legalzoom and we'll connect you with an attorney. legalzoom. where life meets legal. why accept it frompt an incompyour allergy pills?e else. flonase sensimist. nothing stronger. nothing gentler. nothing lasts longer. flonase sensimist. 24 hour non-drowsy allergy relief

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on the road to 2020. several contenders are rallying for votes across the east coast while senator kamala harris is taking on north carolina. former vice president joe biden and south bend mayor pete buttigieg, they're fighting for votes in new hampshire. buttigieg took on the president's approach to gun control and legislation. let's take a listen. >> think about how low our self-esteem as a country is that we are debating whether it is consequential for the president of the united states to be completely out of touch with reality. this is maybe a mayor's eye view of the world, but when you see a problem, it's not enough to get credit for describing the problem just right, you got to do something about it. >> and joining me now is nbc's mike emily. mike is traveling with the former vice president. what can you tell me about

today's event there? >> reporter: hey, alex, on a beautiful early fall, almost, afternoon in keane, new hampshire. it's interesting this is biden's fourth trip to the state since he announced his candidacy. he started this event today by talking about what he wouldn't talk about and that is trump and foreign policy. let's take a listen to what the vice president had to say earlier here in keane. >> i never criticize the president's foreign policy when he is abroad. this administration actually seems to me to be falling apart. when the pressure of economic, the economy, is teetering on recession, the market just blew up, and we learned this administration created 500,000 fewer jobs than we thought. the truth is the president is in trouble, and he knows it. >> reporter: alex, of course, the vice president's campaign is

premise d on the fact that he i the best candidate to take on donald trump. what we saw here this morning, though, you heard him say he doesn't want to attack the president on foreign policy while he's attending the g7. i will say, though, last night before the president took off on air force i for france, he was very critical of the president, calling his process a defeating campaign to make it less effective around the world. >> mike memoli, thank you very much on this pre-fall day there. thank you so much. up next, a disturbing new development in the investigation linking vaping to a frightening illness. g illness. so, every day, we put our latest technology and unrivaled network to work. the united states postal service makes more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. he borrowed billionss to homes donald trump failed as a businessman.

and left a trail of bankruptcy and broken promises. he hasn't changed. i started a tiny investment business, and over 27 years, grew it successfully to 36 billion dollars. i'm tom steyer and i approve this message. i'm running for president because unlike other candidates, i can go head to head with donald trump on the economy, and expose him fo what he is: a fraud and a failure.

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hey! i live on my own now! i've got xfinity, because i like to live life in the fast lane. unlike my parents. you rambling about xfinity again? you're so cute when you get excited... anyways... i've got their app right here, i can troubleshoot. i can schedule a time for them to call me back, it's great! you have our number programmed in? ya i don't even know your phone anymore... excuse me?! what? i don't know your phone number. aw well. he doesn't know our phone number! you have our fax number, obviously... today's xfinity service. simple. easy. awesome. i'll pass. developing this hour, the trump administration today defending a new plan to get rid of the limit on how long it can detain migrant families. >> we want to stem the flow. we want to stop people from risking their lives, but they do

so because currently the law tells them if you grab your child, it's your passport in the united states and to risk your lives. we want to stop them from doing that. >> joining me now, dnc communications director sochi, rick james and rick tyler. they want to remove any insent ti -- incentive to bring children to the united states, but do the end really justify the means here? >> no. we spent $40 billion trying to process people who have asylum claims, and they are trying to determine that process in a way

that every american is allowed due process. and we're trying to process them, legal or illegal. we should stop treating all immigrants as liabilities and treat them as assets, which is what they are, because every immigrant is a human being and should be treated with human dignity and human potential. >> by the way, there are no statistics that suggest by putting in these draconian plans it does deter migrants from leaving any form of violence they may be having in central america. what it does do is force them to get on receipt the rio grande i middle fortunaof the night. >> it would be like not escaping a burning house. that's what these immigrants are dealing with. >> the president said the following. >> president obama and others

tore the families apart. but i'm the one keeping the families together. what we do now will do even more of that, but it will make it almost impossible for people to come into our country illegally. >> sochi, is this the new rule that says it would keep families together rather than separate them? is this a step in the right direction for the administration? >> absolutely not. detaining families indefinitely is unamerican and inhumane. i think anyone who is a parent, an american in this country, would agree we should not detain families indefinitely. this is part of trump's attack on immigrant families that he made a campaign promise on, and frankly, you know, when you're looking at where these people are being detained and these families are being detained, they're being detained in private prisons and many of them have already contributed to donald trump's campaign. so he's personally benefiting from people being detained indefinitely. how disgusting is that, and do we really want our president to benefit from something like

this? this is just absurd. >> so, stephanie, this new detention rule set to take effect in about 60 days unless there is a court challenge that's delaying it. what can be effectively done to stop this from happening. >> well, i think we will continue to see court challenges to this. i mean, when the flores rule was first put into effect many, many years ago and was upheld in various court sdidecisions, at heart of it was the importance of saying that children cannot be detained. and now with this new rule -- and this is really typical bait and switch tactics that the trump administration continues to do. at the heart of this rule is saying that children can be detained indefinitely. they are being detained and they are being housed in facilities that are not licensed, and we still are at a situation where we're not having any kind of real comprehensive immigration reform coming from this president. so what the american people needs to do is really focus on what is at the heart of this issue, and that is the fact that

these children will continue to be detained indefinitely because it's almost impossible for them to get their asylum cases heard in a reasonable amount of time that would get them out of these facilities. >> look, going back to the fact that there are those that financially benefit from this, there are several recent reports that have highlighted how private prisons contracted by i.c.e. are benefiting from detaining the immigrants. according to the center for responsive politics, private prison companies poured record amounts of money into the 2018 election cycle. sochi was referencing this, rick, overwhelmingly giving to republicans with just 1100 of these contributions going to democrats. when you see this, do you think they have a connection to this latest immigration decision? are private prisons now influencing these immigration policies? >> i just saw the numbers on the screen, and it would be very hard to deny that there is an influence. look, i would ban -- if you have business before the federal government, you can't lobby the

government, end of story. i just think that is the way it ought to be. we can't set up even the perception that there is, you know, money to be made by government policy. in this case you're locking up human beings and people are benefiting from that and campaigns are benefiting from that. that looks really bad. >> yeah. but sochi, i want to get back to this because there are republicans that have taken the bulk of the donations in 2017, but it also shows democrats taking money from these companies. does that make them complicit, too? do they bear responsibility for the influence the private prisons have? >> i think the president has been very clear on this and it's been stated that we should do away with private prisons, but we're the ones advocating that we have a process that actually works for families and these asylum seekers.

frankly, i think if president trump wanted to fix this tomorrow, he could. nancy pelosi is ready to stand by and ready to work with him on an immigration reform policy that would help asylum seekers, that would help the immigration system in our country, which i think both parties can agree is broken right now. democrats do stand ready to work on this. we've been very clear where we stand. we do not believe kids should be detained indefinitely, we do not believe kids should be in cages. there needs to be a humane process here. >> in terms of democrats, several 2020 candidates have called for eliminating the private prison system altogether. how big do you think this will be going into the election? >> we know that most americans, in fact, the aclu had a poll that showed 90% of all americans want to have criminal justice reform, and included in that is we need to get rid of private prisons. so this is an issue that voters are concerned about.

it's an issue that will get increasing attention as this election goes on. i think we'll have more presidential candidates talking about the new rule as it relates to children being kept indefinitely. but i think that this will continue to be an issue that we hear because it is so inhumane, it is so unjust, and it's also not a solution to the overall problem that we have with immigration in this country. >> okay. i want to thank all of you for your insight on this. xochitl, stefanie, rick, thank you. breaking news as any moment now the president is expected to attend a working dinner at the g7 summit in the south of france. he is also expected to take part in a social greeting and that

customary g7 photo we've all begun to appreciate. a little earlier the president and president macron sat down for an early lunch, macron urging them to come together to address a potential economic slowdown. president trump reportedly complained to aides about having to attend the g7 and he reportedly wants to brag about the u.s. economy while doing so. protesters near the summit are demanding action on global warming, and that was the sticking point at the last g7 summit, if you'll recall. let's look at some of the radical statements the president made talking about greenland voters, jokes for greenland, and ordering u.s. companies to leave

china. after that, the dow fell 600 points. >> we have the absolute right to do that. we're having a little spat with china and we'll win it. no, i'm not happy with jay powell. do i want him to resign? let me put it this way. if he did, i wouldn't stop him. i don't want france going out and taxing our companies. if they do that, we'll be taxing their wine. >> nbc's kelly o'donnell is following the president in southwest france. we heard the president on camera but he's also very present on twitter. how about today, what's the latest? >> reporter: well, the president certainly likes his favorite social media platform twitter. he has been using it, in some ways perhaps trying to set a more positive tone given the fact that there are many who believe na his pathat his part , the biggest group of leaders of other countries, that he does

not see things the same way these other leaders do, doesn't even want to talk about the same subjects, for instance, climate change one of the particular topics that they want to talk about. instead president trump wants to include in the die log taalogue about the global economy. on twitter he used that to put a more positive spin on this couple of days that he'll be spending with world leaders, saying many good things will happen. he also emphasized the lunch that he had with the g7 host for this rotating position ne. next year he will be the host. this year it's emmanuel macron. we also heard the president sit down with macron who made it clear before the president even arrived in this country, macron addressing the french people talking about what he believes is important, and in part he was intrinsically critical of some of the issues president trump

likes to talk about, saying he's concerned about a war on commerce being bad for all of these countries. macron talked about that with the president very frankly. and president trump saying that they do disagree on some issues, but there are ways where they can try and work together, again, face to face in a nice setting here in southwestern france, at least to start off, they were emphasizing friendship. here's how the president described macron and the group today as things got started. >> we actually have a lot of common, emmanuel and i. we've been friends for a long time. every once in a while we go at it a little bit, not much, but we get along very well. i think i can say a special relationship. so far so good. the weather is perfect, the guests are fantastic. everybody is getting along and i think we can accomplish a lot this weekend and i look forward to it. >> reporter: especially some of the other world leaders who have experienced dealing with president trump in the past who

are back again. think of canada's trudeau or angela merkel of germany, and you know that they have had these dynamics before and they've seen how the president, especially in the area of trade, sometimes wants to use tariffs to try to extract promises from these allies and partners. and many other countries don't like tariffs used in this way. it's something president trump has believed in, it has caused a lot of tension with china, china not a part of these talks, but certainly this relationship will be a part of the discussion. a working dinner tonight, as you mentioned. that is about international security, one of the many talks that they will have on different topics, and the family photo may be a little dysfunctional at times, but they will do that group picture of all the leaders tonight. >> sometimes they're smiling and sometimes they're kind of grimacing, but we'll see how it turns out today. thank you, kelly o'donnell, in southwest france. writer from politico and

laura bassett, freelance journalist, and chen who is covering the president in southwest france. welcome to all three of you. i'll reach toout to you, shanno first on what's going on with the president and president macron. are things off to a good start or is that meeting just for appearance' sake? >> reporter: i think between the two of them, they have one of the better relationships here, but definitely going into this meeting the president has been back to some of his usual criticizing his allies while he ingratiates himself to some of our adversaries. before he even left last week, there was the attacks of the danish prime minister while the president was talking about how we should let russia back into the g8, so i think the day is leading up to the sort of tone that this is a president who does not see our allies, necessarily, as our allies.

he is certainly focused on bringing trade into the talks here despite the sort of economic pressure of this trade war with china has been presenting back home on the u.s. economy, bringing up this wine tax again, a tax on german cars is expected to come up. the lock on tariffs with china, too, will come up, but as you see him sitting down with macron, he may drive a wedge between macron and merkel if he thinks they can avoid a trade war, so the french and germans are someone to watch as well. >> when the president tweets that many good things will come out of this summit, is that your consensus among the world leaders? >> well, the main thing the president wants to see coming out of this summit is some concessions on trade from either france or germany.

i can never get into his head about what he's thinking, but if a good thing can come out, i think that's what he wants to come out, if the french can move this internet tax they put on or move the agricultural markets. >> macron was giving his televised speech and he laid out his priorities for this meeting. he said one of his main goals is to convince the leaders that a global trade war is bad for all, but then he acknowledged not all world leaders share his view. is that who he means? is that who he's directing his comment to? >> i think he is. i think he's doing it that way because he knows when you confront president trump directly, he often gets his back up and there is no value in him in france getting into a direct conflict with the u.s. in some of the ways shannon was talking about. all these leaders have to be very nervous now, the president nervous about talk of an economic downturn that could

imperil his reelection. but in some of these countries like germany, there are now obvious indications from multiple quarters that they're having an economic contraction. so you're talking about a meeting the g7/g8 is supposed to be a meeting dealing with economic issues and that has to be really front and center, that this kind of combative talk from the president, the tariffs and some other factors could lead to a real global recession. >> let's get to the economic issues, laura, because looming over all of this, of course, is the escalating trade war with china. the stock market dropping 600 points alone. how will this stand with the president, especially since he said he wants to boast about the u.s. economy? >> i think all world leaders are frustrated with trump in trying to figure out not only how to deal with him but how to work around him on all these issues of global trade to the burning amazon which is threatening our entire species which trump has

sort of referred to as a niche issue and he's annoyed he has to deal with climate change at all despite it being a global emergency. i think a lot of global leaders are blaming trump for the global recession we're seeing for the downturn, blaming his trade war on china and his threats against europe, and he's been speaking this week like a sort of dictator from the middle ages, saying i hereby declare that companies must go around china. this is not how a u.s. president behaves. so i think they're trying to figure out how to deal with this leader who is just completely abnormal and seems to be unraveling a little bit. >> you know, shannon, in recent days the president sought to calm fears about the economy, whether he was brushing off talk of a recession or pointing fingers everywhere but at himself as he tries to defend his actions on china. is this sustainable? is there any insight into how white house officials are viewing this standoff with

china? >> reporter: there is definitely anxiety within the white house about the economy and the need to get a deal with china done. that's what i've been hearing for several weeks now, and especially last week. it is very clear that this china trade war at this point doesn't show signs of letting up. within the white house they don't necessarily see an end game. there are supposed to be talks again with china in september, but it's unclear if those will even take place now after seeing the tit-for-tat over the past week. the white house officials i talked to say china is having an effect on the economy and the economy was supposed to be the president's number one selling point in 2020 for why you should reelect him, because he made the economy so good was going to be his pitch. the only strategy i've heard someone suggest is, well, if there's an economic downturn, the president can blame china,

sayi saying, look, they've been ripping us off for years and now there is an economic downturn again. i don't know if voters will buy that so there's a lot of uncertainty right now. >> josh, he cited a national security law that's mainly used to target terrorists and drug traffickers and north korea, but what is the reason for the president doubling down in this case? >> from another presidency we may see another dramatic drop in the markets if the president makes the kind of threats he made yesterday and last night, to use this emergency economic powers law. it basically allows the president to place embargoes on other countries, to freeze their bank accounts in the u.s. it's kind of a blunt tool to try to use in a trade dispute because it's more aimed at sort of isolating countries completely. but the president, remember, earlier this year when we had the so-called crisis over

caravans coming over the border through mexico, he did try to slap tariffs of 5% on mexico and he cited this law. whether he can actually use it this way, who knows. it does seem like it's more of a negotiating tactic, but what makes the market nervous and wonder what other things the president might be willing to do if he gets more and more enmeshed in this fight with china. >> josh, were you implying that since this was coming from donald trump that it was somehow baked into the cake that the dow only fell 600 points? it might have fallen more precipitously with another president making these claims? >> i think so. i spent a lot of time covering president obama. if he just came out on the white house lawn one day and said he thought the federal reserve chair was the worst enemy of the united states than the president of china, i think the market would have dropped like 10 or 15%. but we're so used to this tumult

from president trump that people slough off almost anything he says at this point. >> and laura, your opinion about ruth bider ginsburg who survived three weeks of intensive treatment after doctors found a tumor on her pancreas. >> look, a vacancy on the supreme court or a potential vacancy on the supreme court has a massive effect on u.s. elections. it can be argued that trump won in 2016 because of that vacancy held open by mitch mcconnell. even conservatives that kind of had to hold their nose and vote for trump wanted a conservative on the supreme court. it tips the power of the court for decades. and so i think they have to be really careful about what they say about ruth bader ginsburg's health. she's probably the most

high-profile justice on the court. liberals are absolutely paranoid about her dying. mcconnell has straight up said that he was going to fill that vacancy with a conservative regardless of the precedent he set by holding back merrick garland's nomination, so i do think there is reason to kind of play this very carefully with the media. >> can i get your take, josh? i know you wrote about this. >> yeah, we've seen a pattern. i know people hold justice ginsburg in very high esteem, many people do, but we ever seen a pattern of a lack of transparency surrounding these health issues. you may remember the last time this took place, she had some nodules on her lung that turned out to be cancer. just within days of that kind of announcement, she had said she was fine, that her health was okay, and then we get a statement from the court on paper saying she's had a very serious health scare. so whatever other praise she may get, i do think in this area of transparency around her health, the track record has not been a very strong one, let's put it

that way. >> i know we all agree. rbg is a force to be reckoned with and i hope she keeps going for quite some time. a new statement from prince andrew about the jeffrey epstein scandal. boost® high protein. be up for life. so, every day, we put our latest technology and unrivaled network to work. the united states postal service makes more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. e-commerce deliveries to homes (vo) vfundraising. giving back. subaru and our retailers have given over one hundred and sixty-five million dollars to charity.

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new today britain's prince andrew releasing a statement about his past relationship with jeffrey epstein.

the british royal talked about his sex trafficking ring, including being revealed in court documents just before jeffrey epstein was found dead in jail. he said, at no stage during the limited time i spent with him did i see, witness or suspect any behavior of the sort that subsequently led to his arrest and conviction. joining me now, an attorney who is representing two of epstein's alleged victims, lisa bloom. lisa, welcome back to the show. good to see you. i want to get your reaction to this statement because from what you've learned from your clients, do you believe this is plausible? >> i do. my clients don't have any allegations against prince andrew, so i will take him at his word unless there is further evidence against him. the cases i have filed on behalf of my epstein victims are against his estate and against a young female recruiter who we believe may have been a victim but also was part of the conspiracy to bring girls and young women to him, so that's who we're going after. >> but given your legal expertise, i want to have you

take apart this statement by prince andrew, particularly this part where he denies seeing, quote, any behavior of the sort that subsequently led to his arrest and conviction. what is your take on the wording there? >> well, i don't know if i'm sure what you're getting at. i read this as a statement that, you know, he just didn't know. you know, what's funny is that these guys could get away with this kind of thing over and over again -- i'm in the middle of a sexual harrassment trial right now, and they put a witness on the stand to say, i didn't see anything, i don't know anything. many times people who engage in sexual harrassment or sexual abuse is not going to do it in front of their friends, so it really doesn't add anything to the conversation about what jeffrey epstein did. >> you make a good point about in front of their friends, but let's address the lawsuit by two of his victims, because epstein signed over assets of 5$550

million in assets two days before he hanged himself. what's that mean for your clients? >> it's disturbing that his lawyers knew that skpand allowe him to be off suicide watch. turning to your question, now the law has been probated in the virgin islands, which means a probate judge has to approve it. what the law attempts to do is the same that a lot of wealthy people try to do which is put all their assets in a trust which is secret and then nobody can know about it. the good news about us making claims against his estate is that the probate judge has to approve it. we intend to make an application in that probate court on the island of st. thomas to say we have very valid claims against the estate. my victims are entitled to full and fair compensation and i intend to get it for them. so, judge, essentially don't allow it all to go in the trust. put a freeze or a hold on his assets so that all of the victims have time to come forward and establish their

claims. >> so you've got these two you're representing thus far. i heard you say you're talking to eight other victims about possible claims. >> yes. >> any of these women you've spoken to, have they decided to bring forward charges and are you representing them? >> yes. i think i just messaged someone in my office to get the latest count for you, because i've been in trial in my other case. i think we're up to four we're representing and another four may sign on. even in death, people are afraid of jeffrey epstein, because while he may be gone, he had this vast network of powerful people. so fear is what i'm up against in all of my cases representing victims of discrimination, harassment and abuse. and even after somebody is gone, there is still so much fear in coming forward. but i encourage people to reach out to an attorney, find out confidentially what your rights are. i do believe we are going to get full and fair compensation for our victims because they deserve it, and i think the public is with us. >> when you say full and fair

compensation, you're looking at $577 million of the assets you hope to have frozen so you can figure out what that amount is. between $1 and $577 million, what is a fair compensation? how much do you think you may get? >> i just want a sexual harrassment trial. again, another case a couple months ago on behalf of one victim and we won $11 million. the way we win large numbers for our clients is to really understand the emotional trauma that they go through. so we talk to their friends and their family and their therapists, we talk about the career derailment. all of that when a tryer fact like a judge or jury understands adds up to a very large number. people's lives are destroyed by child sexual abuse. many people commit suicide when they're sexually abused as children. they have problems with their relationshi relationships, with their sexuality, they have problems with their careers. two of my clients were models and they just gave up on modelling after their incidences

with epstein. they didn't want to do it, and they were gorgeous young women with bright futures ahead of them. i think when we establish that to a tryer fact, it should be at least millions for each one of the victims. i think we can pry that out. >> you're a busy woman, so i really thank you for your time. >> thanks, alex. a white man accused of killing a black man guilty of manslaughter. that argument occurred last year over a parking space and was caught on tape by a security camera. here's a warning that what you're about to see may be disturbing. yeah. and that's going to get worse. the case is renewing a nationwide debate over the state's stand your ground law. talk about the disturbing video right there. what more do we know, morgan?

>> this trial followed nationwide, because as you know, a controversial debate over florida's stand your ground law. the jury deliberated well into the night last night before finally coming up with a guilty verdict for michael draka. to remind everyone, the video you're about to see is disturbing. this morning michael draka is in custody after he was accused in the death of marquis mcglockton. >> we're thavnkful that the jur got it right. we're thank fortunateful that tw what we saw in that video. >> i submit to you he's a part of the gilante. >> reporter: draka described the moment he drew his gun after being pushed to the ground by mcglockton, the argument stemming over the misuse of a

handicapped parking spot. >> he stepped toward me and that was that. >> reporter: his girlfriend on the stand, saying how draka was harassing her as she sat inside a parked car. >> this man was yelling at me and telling me where i should park. >> reporter: draka was not arrested because of florida's stand your ground law which allows you to use a weapon on a threat without retreat. >> he did what he thought he had to do in the moment in split second timing given that he was attacked. >> reporter: after more than six hours of deliberations, the jury found draka guilty. >> we know there are some appeal issues. we'll deal with that on the back end, but for now the jury has spoken and we respect their decision. >> reporter: for the family of marquis mcglockton, the decision brought about much-needed closure. >> my family can rest now. now we can put the pieces back together and move on.

>> reporter: as for what's coming next, we did hear from draka's legal team last night. they said they do plan to appeal this case. his sentencing has been set for october, and keep in mind here the maximum is 30 years in prison. alex? >> it is remarkable. all over a parking space. just a hell of a story. thank you very much, morgan chesky. g7 leaders are fearful what t the x factor might do. that's next. t the x factor might do. that's next.

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welcome back to biarritz, france. that's where the g7 leaders will meet for dinner in a half hour or so. as the president stands back from center stage, tension rz hi -- tensions are high after a whirlwind week of ramping up allies. mr. ambassador, jamie, welcome to both of you. ambassador, you first here. as they put it, france is trying to create a no-drama summit, but trump is the x factor, where the

main objective is to get through the day without a family explosion, one of france's main objectives as host of this weekend's group of seven summit is to minimize the chances that president trump will blow it up. >> we should be the leader of the g7. we should be leading our allies, because all of these leaders are allies of the united states, to discuss the challenges. the global crisis and we're left with a dinner announcement. that shows how far weav've fall as leader of the free world. >> this meaning is set to end without a communique for the first time in 44 years.

last year they didn't end up having one but they went into it assuming they would. how does that play into how this turns out? >> i think the fact that they're not even going to try to advance what we call the principles of international order, let's remember these g7 leaders are national economies, they're the countries where we work together to lead the world to the successful fall of communism, to the growth of europe and asia's economy so that billions of people's lives were improved, and we did all that without the risk of major power wars. those risks have returned. and either the countries in the grks 7 in the united states are going to have to realize that the system that we had created to prevent those wars, this international order, is symbolized by a g7 meeting where democracies, the global democracies were working together. that system is breaking, and there is no system now by which

we can look out five years, look out three years and say, where are the big risks? as ambassador mcfaul said, china should be the major thing that these countries should deal with, and they're not, they're talking about seven different disput disputes, some between each other, some with the united states, but i think this is a destruction of the structure that was designed to prevent war and allow for prosperity and the united states to thrive. that system is now broken. >> okay. this is pretty weighty on your part, this whole statement, but given your view of things having been assistant secretary of state to the clinton administration, when you look at the back and forth, the history of, say, macron, for example, and this president, choppy at best. when you see them talking, what's the undercurrent there? how credible is this, oh, yeah, we're getting along just great?

>> look, there's always been a certain rivalry between american p presidents and french presidents during the time i served as secretary. there was the president in france and president clinton. they had a certain rivalry and they didn't like being one-upped by each other, but they had a grounding and a belief they were working together along the lines i just referred to, that it was their job to come together to advance the decisions of this group of leaders. the whole point of this when the g7 started was these seven people are going to face crises together. when the g7 was created, the idea was let's have them get to know each other, let's have them get used to working together so when a crisis comes, when a problem comes that they have a unity and a comfort with each other. instead, what this is is a series of oneupmanships between boris johnson and the french,

between the united states and the french, between different countries, italy, will they even be represented, and then angela merkel who still represents that old system. she's the leader. she's been there for many, many of these meetings, and if she were the leader, this kind of oneupmanship and this kind of battling back and forth probably wouldn't be happening. >> ambassador, there is one topic that is quite likely to come up and that would be russia. after the president said this week that russia should join the group of seven, look what he said. >> you said russia should be back in the g7, but they annexed south korea. why would you take them back? >> they were taken out because putin totally outsmartd obser d. obama was upset. they took him out.

i think putin should be included because we're battling world peace. >> give me your view on what the president said. >> i also worked at the white house for three years with president obama. putin did not outsmart president obama. putin invaded ukraine. he annexed crimea, he went into the g7 and they kicked him out because of those greej egregiou deliberate actions because they violated some of the things he was talking about. we fought world war ii, afr all, because of annexation. it's just a deliberate misreading of the facts of history, and it makes no sense whatsoever to invite russia back, to invite putin back, let's be specific, until he changes his behavior. and, of course, this is a non-topic and it's just going to create tensions at the g7

meeting and these are real issues this group should be addressing that won't be addressed because of these wrenches he throws in right before he gets on the plane. >> all right. former ambassador michael mcfaul, thank you for that. here in the studio, jamie rubin, thank you for your time. what he said that has people wonder if he should have said it at all. that's next. wonder if he should have said it at all that's next. mix and match different unlimited plans. sebastian's the gamer. sebastian. wonder if he should have said it at all. that's next. o said that has peoe wonder if he should have said it at all. that's next. e said that has people wonder if he should have said it at all. that's next. said that has people wonder if he should have said it at all. that's next. b said that has people wonder if he should have said it at all. that's next. i said that has people wonder if he should have said it at all. that's next. d said that has people wonder if he should have said it at all. that's next. e said that has people wonder if he should have said it at all. that's next. n said that has people wonder if he should have

as the president met with world leaders, back home he escalated a trade war with china. but he refused to take responsibility for the dow falling 600 points and admitted a chaotic week with china. >> other presidents should have done something about it, and they should have done it a long time ago, whether it was clinton, bush, obama, any of them. they should have done something about it, and they didn't, so i'm doing it. i have no choice. >> joining me now, democrat from pennsylvania and member of the budget ways and means committee. welcome back to the broadcast. good to see you. let's get into it here. does the president have a point here? the former presidents should have dealt with the trade leader. is the president maybe going about how he's trying to hold china accountable?

>> china has been cheating us for decades, especially when it comes to stealing our intellectual property. that's one of china's many misdeeds when it comes to trade. the way president trump is going about it, though, is the worst case scenario. these tariffs are hurting the american people. they are a tax increase. even a couple of the president's tweets used the term "tax increase," and that's probably one of the most honest things he's tweeted in quite some time. and the reality is, with parents attempting to send kids back to school, these tariffs actually hid disp hit disproportionately on working class americans. while i'm someone who has said for five years having been in congress now that we need to get tough and realistic on trade, the way president trump is going about this is completely backwards. >> we take a look at president macron in the lower part of your screen as they wait for dinner

arrivals of the world leaders. the trade war is affecting farmers and consumers across this nation, but is it possible in the end the trade war could be worth it? >> the way it's going right now, it's very difficult to see that. especially when you have a president who has an attitude, as he's expressed a number of times, that trade wars are easy to win. the reality is quite complex. actually, right now both sides are losing. the only question is how much is one side losing? is one side losing more than the other and who will cry uncle first? right now there is no sign of that at all. my worry right now, frankly, is that we're going into a global recession. germany one of the largest economies, i believe the third or fourth largest gdp in the world already is in recession. there is a very significant chance that we will be in recession within the next 12 to 18 months, or at the very least,

a serious slowdown. this uncertainty that the president is injecting into the markets only increases the odds that we will face a recession. and that's something that, let's be clear, every recession in my lifetime has hurt the american people, has led to layoffs, has hurt working families. that's not something that i cheer for, it's something we should work against. right now we have a president who only increases the odds that that's what we'll be facing. >> let's move now to the race for the white house. i know you are a strong supporter of former vice president joe biden. let's take a listen to biden raising a hypothetical that left a few people scratching their heads. >> i graduated in 1968 and my two political eras were martin luther king and bobby kennedy. my senior year they were both shot and killed. imagine what would have happened if barack obama had been assassinated after becoming the

de facto nominee. what would have happened in america? >> he's trying to illustrate how political assassination can raise political awareness. but do you understand why some voters are concerned about biden's style overall given his propensity for gaffes and misstatements? >> i find this topic a little frustrating, to be candid, because this is the most serious election, i believe, in our country since 1864. in many ways it is an existential election, the one coming up next year. we have a president who is unhinged sitting in the oval office. we have a climate that is in crisis where literally 20% of the world's oxygen is right now burning in the amazon. that should be the focus. there are real issues we're facing. parsing what exactly the vice president making an analogy to the assassinations in 1968 and

the tumult that put our country through, i don't get very animated about that. i think any sort of overfocus on the vice president's statements or things he says and then has a slip of the tongue and quickly krekts somethi corrects something, by the way, that i do myself. >> i do, too. >> i think we're all guilty of that regardless of our age. frankly, i think we should keep the focus on the incredibly significant issues that we're facing in this country right now and that will be on the ballot next year. >> last question, then. do you think relative to the gaffes that given the president we have right now, and not what he says as a gaffe or tweets as a gaffe or what doesn't make sense at all, do you think we should give biden a pass? as compared to trump. >> joe biden, his worst gaffe on his worst day is better than

president trump's best day, period. >> okay. brendan boyle, congressman from pennsylvania, always very good to see you. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> to all of you, let's go back and take a look at what's happening there overseas in biarritz. there you see president macron. full screen there. he and his wife are greeting those that are incoming for the g7 meeting there. an absolutely beautiful setting in the southwest part of france. they will be having a working dinner shortly. of course, with all the members of the g7. they will be taking some photos. we're getting ready for the ultimate class photo, as they call it, but that can only happen after everyone has arrived. we're expecting the arrival of the president and first lady any time now, but quite a picturesque setting. i'm going to bring in three guests on my panel right now. we have peter emerson, nirks

dell nipfor. you guys will forgive us showing some of those beautiful shots in france as we wait for them to appear there. you heard peter say the president's words embarrass us on the global stage. is he right, and how do you expect leaders to treat trump after fresh insults are still clear in mirror mintheir minds? >> yes, president trump's comments are embarrassing and isolating, but some are very concerned that trump is a direct threat to the national security of america. as i reported before,all. if you don't have any trust, you can't do deals, you can't have conversations that have any value or any substance and worst of all, after this past week's somewhat delusional megalomaniac

and somewhat delusional behavior on the part of trump, the advisers to several european leaders i spoke to are now very, very concerned about his stability. >> all right. let everyone know we've just seen boris johnson, the newly elected prime minister there of the uk. there are those who have referred to him as trump 2.0 and it's largely due to the way he appears with his same color hair and it gets kind of unruly at times as we are laughing with a good wind but a man with a lot of personality which should bring a different sort of tenor to those dinners and subsequent meetings. let's go to this with the white house officials who are telling "the washington post" that the president has complained to aides about having to even attend the g-7 summit. he sees his meeting with boris johnson, who is considered a potential ally on the world stage, as the only bright spot he is anticipating. noelle, is this really the right attitude, the right approach

here, especially after trump is the one that blew up last year's g-7 gathering in canada? >> well, no, alex, it's not the right approach but we're talking about president donald j. trump. he doesn't approach things politically correct to say the least. you've also got to realize that he is going to go against the grain, even if it's laid out simple for him, even though he knows the right things to do and not to do, he's going to go against the grain. he's been called, as kellyanne conway says, a disrupter. it does not limit him to anything globally. he's disrupting everything globally as well. no wonder he likes boris johnson. i do agree with you on an earlier point, i think it's more about his looks and the way he approaches things and his personality versus policy. >> okay. i just want to let you know we are waiting justin trudeau who should be inside that aud ichli

limousine as the leader of canada is joining the g-7 summit as well. he hosted last year's. abdul, do you think there is any chance that donald trump gets through this weekend without any drama? >> well, look, if you used the last week as any indication, i think it's no chance. we're talking about the president of the united states as if he's a child going to a play date. honestly, we have to have a serious conversation about the fact that he's just head longed pitched our economy down the tubes. he's been doing it because of a spat that he has with a leader in china. and we're talking about whether or not he's going to have a good time at the g-7. this is the president of the united states. we have to treat him as such and we have to be asking about whether or not we are willing to get serious about the conversation that we need to be having about what's going to happen in our future. right now 2020 is on the horizon. i know in my state of michigan, he is hurting people, whether you're talking about manufacturing or you're talking about farmers in our state. and it's happening all over the

country. this is serious. this is about whether or not you can come together with leaders of other countries and solve big global problems that, by the way, when it comes to donald trump, he started. >> ah, that last point, i was going to pose that to you, peter. so based on what abdul just said, do you agree with him, a lot of the global economic challenges, the slowdowns in different countries and we heard others saying in germany there is an official recession. how much do you attribute that to donald trump? i mean can he be the man responsible for all of this like a bad domino effect? >> well, he will be if we in fact go into recession. that's the way american voters hold their presidents accountable, just as george herbert walker bush got blamed for the economy so clinton could get elected. i think there's a larger issue here and that is this concern that democrats have that somehow the economy may be the winning ticket. right now if the values, which is really the big debate and the

glue that's holding trump's base together, continues to hold, then his base, his base may not desert him at all. right now you've got historic suicides, historic bankruptcies among some of his most keen supporters and it's not deterring them from supporting him. >> noelle, give me your thoughts on all this. let's face it, this president did inherit a pretty strong economy. how much should the president take credit for this? i know that they all do. when you start and take over in the white house, you will take credit for good. this president won't necessarily take credit for bad. but how much is this churning along the good part of the economy thanks to donald trump versus barack obama? >> well, i think that, you know, he is attributing a lot of the economy to the jumpstart with the tax cuts. if you'll remember, that was a big win for the republicans and, you know, while we got a lot of blowback from, you know,

democrats and liberals saying that there was a lot of stock buybacks and a lot of people were not favorable of the tax cuts because they thought that it benefited corporations and the rich, we did see an uptick in people that were being hired. we have unemployment numbers that the republicans and a lot of people, even if you weren't a republican, were celebrating the fact that we have virtually very low unemployment, which is good for americans. so i feel that donald trump is really, you know, placing everything -- and he said it in speeches. he said, look, you have no choice. the economy is doing great. you have no choice but to vote for me whether you like me or not. a lot of that is true. now, the big question is what is going to happen if we take a correction. and i think that you're going to see a lot of people questioning if they're going to vote for donald trump. if the correction is big enough.

if it's a small correction or a small bump, i think they'll stay with donald trump. but if it's a major correction, i look for some people to jump ship because it's all about the economy. >> noelle, the president has got to steer us away from a recession if for no other reason, look at the campaign and the numbers of the voters in his base right now. you've got 43% that say they would hold trump partially responsible for a recession. only 7% say they would hold him solely responsible for it. is this a snapshot of how important the economy is to his base? >> yeah. i mean the economy is important not only to just the base, but to republicans that are holding their nose and staying with donald trump. i mean it's all about the economy. that's why when i say, you know, recession or let's just say a correction, let's see. because if you have a bad correction, what's going to happen, it's almost a trickledown effect. you're going to have companies

that look at this and they're going to say, you know what, for the forecast we're not going to hire as many people. we're going to cut back on hiring. and that's going to be somebody that may not be able to get a job or even keep their job. so it will be a domino effect and this will affect trump. if a correction is mild and a lot of people don't really feel it or see it as much, it's kind of a moot point. so i think it all depends on how deep and how big of a recession we're talking about. i don't know if anyone knows. there's been a lot of predictions from the right and from the left but i don't know if anyone really knows or can guess. >> yeah. as we look at macron greeting shinzo abe of japan. and we saw macron speaking with his wife earlier. it looked like he was doing a finger count on those who already arrived for that dinner that was supposed to left in about three minutes. we're still awaiting the arrival of two more of our global leaders. but again, very, very

picturesque, beautiful place for this meeting in the southwest part of france which will be hosted by eman ymanuel macron a his wife. they have the big dinner and the class photo and then we get to work tomorrow before things wrap up on monday and the president heads home to the united states. peter, as we discuss a bit more about trump, the campaign, what might be in trouble with regard to 2020, it would look like female voters, that is another possible sign of him -- for him, especially the non-college educated white women. there's an nbc news/"wall street journal" poll. 49% of saying they would support the democratic candidate, 43% say they would support donald trump. is the president in trouble with women voters? how much might that affect his re-election chances, peter? >> that could have a significant effect. it also clearly depends, since we are dealing with an electoral college, it depends on where those voters come out to vote as we've seen in two elections,

both the gore/bush election and 2016 election. so you have to break it down and see where those votes, those female votes, the women voters are going to vote in key electoral states that will make the difference. >> okay. peter, noelle and abdul, i have run out of time. i'm handing things off on time to my colleague, kendis gibson right there. we see angela merkel of germany so it looks like there's only one world leader for you to keep track of. thanks, everyone. i'll see you back tomorrow at noon eastern time. >> angela merkel, who is not seeking re-election there, visiting with the french president. if we can get some lights on. boom. a good start to our day here. so we expect that the president of the united states will be there shortly greeting emmanuel macron. when we look back at the numbers, he's visited france, i believe, as president more than

any other country because of many of the v-day celebrations as well as being there for bastille day. we've got team coverage, by the way, i should point out as we continue to watch these pictures. this is from the southwestern tip of france just a few miles, in fact, from the spanish coast. nbc's kelly o'donnell is in the south of france for us, carol lee as well following the president at the g-7 summit and also with me, by the way, watching these