broadcasting system that has sold its soul for corporate money that we might as well be mice squeaking against an avalanche but squeak we must. on that is the aircraft carrier u.s.s. ronald reagan docks and south korea while two u.s.b. one bomber strafe the border with north korea and rex tillerson conducts a surprise visit to afghanistan as the cia prepares new covert operations to aggressively target the taliban and the spanish government moves to strip catalonia as parliament of power as the dritte verges on open confrontation with barcelona i'm michel supporting tonight for the r.t. newsroom this is the news on r.t. america.

good evening friends we start tonight on the korean peninsula where president trump will appear next month as a part of a twelve day visit to asia astonishingly white house officials say tonight the president is unlikely to visit the demilitarized zone during the trip every president since ronald reagan has visited the boundary dividing north from south meanwhile general mattis will hold meetings on regional security while in the philippines this week the secretary of defense says the entire global community is united against a nuclear north korea. your message the same one. russia . state of the internet you've been directed to the right for your. only one kind or whether. you're here to tell. you

guys you know know you. and in japan prime minister since you abbate declared victory and snap elections called earlier this year said he has a clear mandate and will apply greater pressure on north korea while meeting with general mattis in the philippines japan's defense minister said japan supports the united states in saying all options are on the table japan has strongly supported the u.s. philosophy that all options are on the table we share the policy to back some eyes pressure on north korea and i think we have to further deepen our trilateral defense cooperation and spend every effort as to maintain the peace and stability in the region. this all comes as the united states military continues to increase its offensive capabilities on the korean peninsula r.t.s. alex my holiday chose the story tonight. so the mass of the aircraft carrier the

u.s.s. ronald reagan nuclear powered has parked in busan south korea was part of a war drill exercise or war games in just off the coast of south korea it was one of forty ships and submarines that was participating as well as many planes and helicopters so these are these war games that happened on quite a off and on schedule for the past decades already between the u.s. and south korea to show their strength and usually it's pointed towards north korea and for sure this time it is because we know there's been a lot of rhetoric going between washington and pyongyang back and forth a nothing positive there a lot of people in south korea though are a little bit worried about the situation there actually protesting the u.s. buildup of military power in south korea we've seen people come out and vote sohn with placards and signs basically hoping that the military will start toning things down instead of toning things up but they want to look at that today today another

set of military organize a war games have started up for another five days so that is definitely not get the situation and plus the rhetoric that i mentioned what we've heard from both sides u.s. president vowed to totally destroy north korea and we heard from pyongyang that they threatened to reduce the u.s. to ashes and darkness now these type of words you might be ok if two guys are about to get into a bit of a fist fight but we're talking about millions of people that could be hurt and killed because of this type of rhetoric and because of the sort of military posturing that seems to be just getting worse and worse now we're all thinking you know north korea they're the bad guys they're been tossing missiles around well guess what north korea has gone to the united nations security council and what they've said is that we want to see them for new their appeal for the united states and south korea to back off their joint military drills and when these drills happen this is telling kim jong un we're. coming getcha and that's the way that he feels still that's why north korea has said it that's why we're building our

military might it's not because they want to take somebody over as because they have a fear for their own survival so if you put yourself into their position just for a minute maybe you can see that as well we saw get off we go down we saw sadam hussein assam hussein go down when the us is in your neighborhood it's not necessarily good news if you're leading a country there be a dictator or not as we stand right now though there is a solution here that russia and china talk try to put on the table they're calling it the double freeze so they've told north korea stop with your missile activity stop trying to build a nuclear arsenal that can make its way all the way to the united states and please south korea and us stop with your military drills let's tone this down let's get to the table and let's negotiate the u.s. says no way at least at this point they're not even thinking of this proposal as anything that they might want to do in the near future i'm alex my how a bitch for news with ed schultz. secretary said rex teller citizen baghdad

after an unannounced trip to afghanistan earlier today taylor said expressed continued u.s. support for the afghan government and the need for pakistan to take part of the fight against the taliban and i'll be traveling to islamabad tomorrow back to meet with folks on the leadership as well and we have made some very specific requests of pakistan in order for them to take action to undermine this or to come about overseas and other terrorist organizations receive in parks. as we said in this whole strategy this is a conditions based approach and so our relationship with pakistan will also be conditions based it will be based upon whether they take action that we feel is necessary to move the process forward of most creating opportunity for reconciliation and peace in afghanistan but also ensuring a stable future pakistan. stiller since visit comes as the cia increases

covert operations against the taliban in the country cia director mike pompei o. is expanding the cia's role in afghanistan to aggressively target taliban forces in addition to the agency's role combat in al qaeda in assisting afghan intelligence for more on all of this we turn tonight to former cia agent jack rice jack nice to have you with us first of all your thoughts on tiller since hope that pakistan is going to get in the fight against the taliban in afghanistan is that a reasonable request or expectation. nope absolutely not and frankly if we look back of the pakistani i.s.i. their intelligence service was frankly the ones who established the taliban in the first place as they sent them north that was part of this issue so the idea that you're assuming the pakistanis are actually going to get involved in this fight they are not so i think that's completely unrealistic all right tillerson

claims that the taliban should have a role in the afghan government which i find pretty interesting tillerson seems to be willing to work with the taliban as an effort to reach a settlement but the backdrop of that jack is new cia covert operations how's that going to work. yeah that's a great point because what we have here is a contrast that's the dichotomy you're talking about the need to work with the taliban except for your sending in kill teams to go out and kill those very same people you can't have one and then have the other i think tillerson is right in this sense if we look at where we are right now the united states is losing in afghanistan let's put it very simply the united states is losing because the taliban controls more territory right now in afghanistan than they have since two thousand and one so we're fifteen plus years back and we see that's the reality the only way this entire situation will resolve it some point is if the taliban is

brought into the afghanistan government and plays a major role because they are a major player in the region we can like it we can hate it but it's the truth and what kind of effect or how much effect of miskin new covert cia operations have in this fight in afghanistan against the taliban when you're also admitting that they really need to be part of the solution. or that's a great point too i think part of this has to do with the white house his argument that you want to see a more nimble more aggressive effort in afghanistan and other parts of the world including me jitneys air when the problem with that is these are relatively small numbers when you compare the tens of thousands of soldiers u.s. soldiers who were in the region and i look back to trips that i've taken into afghanistan myself and what we know is that bringing in a couple of hundred guests you might be able to target some very specific individuals but big picture will it make

a difference i think the idea is it's to try to push the taliban to the bargaining table the problem is if you demonize those very same people you may have a very real to problem doing that. ok and so the mission is to get the taliban part of the process to the negotiating table. is that a fifty fifty is that a ten percent chance or is there any likelihood of that happening at all well actually the taliban certainly needs to play a fundamental role if the u.s. is ever going to extricate itself from the region and they're going to have to find a political solution this is not a military solution and one piece of the political solution is the taliban and we have to accept that we have to move forward with that in mind jack rice always a pleasure good to have you with us tonight thanks so much. in other news the administration continues to push congress to pass its latest tax plan whatever that

is the president has called the plan the biggest tax cut in history and has warned house republicans they could lose their seats in two thousand and eighteen in the midterms if they fail to pass the legislation the president selling hard today also relaxed figures on twitter saying that the new tax plan will not scale back for a one k. plans for more on tax reform we go to our political panel tonight ted ryan c.e.o. of the american majority joins us to saving and also civil rights attorney misty maris great to have both of you with us it seems to me to both of you that the president is really selling hard on the middle class for a one ks are a pretty popular misty is this going to work how could the democrats say no to that . look there is absolutely and if there if the republicans are touching for a one k.'s nobody is going to be on board that is a lifeline for middle class americans and for the working public good thing trump

came out and squashed that today although we don't really know what that means does it mean that he simply won't endorse a plan that includes that or does it mean that it's not going to be included in the legislation we don't know but certainly that was something that would not have been popular steve what do you think of this i mean is this just something the president had to do to start getting the middle class believing he's going to protect him at some level you know i think so but i mean i look at this too is the small business tax cut taking it from basically forty percent to twenty five percent i view most small business owners as middle class and that's a massive massive tax cut the lowest it will be since the one nine hundred thirty s. so not only would you give the middle class a tax cut through the small business tax cut but you'd also be allowing them to then give pay raises to people in the middle class and also be able to hire a lot of people that are probably in the middle class so you know my hope is that they'll be able to get their acts together but i'm not very optimistic you know

mitch mcconnell talks about winners making policy and losers going home you know i guess my advice to mitch mcconnell is you better make some policy you're going to be losers going home. how could the republicans and the house not go along with this budget if they really want tax reform ted i mean the bottom line here is that this is what the republicans do best when they have the power while they have to and i mean ed you're looking at twenty some days left in the congressional calendar before the end of the year they've put themselves up against some hard deadlines because of their own failings and so if they want to get something done before the end of this year before you get into twenty eighteen an election year when everybody loses their political courage they're running up against time and so you know republicans have talked a big game they've promised a lot of things they've not been able to enact virtually anything this year but you know again i think a trump tomorrow should remind all the republican senators and again remind people in the house i'm not on the ballot next year you are help me help you let me help

you help yourselves get behind these tax cuts and i can help you turn out the base in twenty eighteen all right missy i want to switch the subject now to the president from going head to head with a grieving military wife i don't know who wins in this deal he is contradicting her today on twitter saying that he had a very good conversation whether she was on one of the morning shows talking about how she was really taken by his tone his attitude why are we at this point misty. i think we're at this point because instead of saying listen maybe my words were misinterpreted or maybe i i wasn't expressing the sentiment that i truly meant to say instead this gold star widow wakes up to a tweet calling her a liar in her time of extreme heartbreak and pain i think that we're at this point because of this counterpunch situation that trump put put this in i mean he comes

out swinging against somebody who's going through such a traumatic time understandable if there is a miss command what do you make of it but it could be dealt with differently yeah no i mean what do you make of the matter you have the commander in chief who was calling a gold star widow the fact the matter is a general kelly is chief of staff four star marine general and a gold star father was telling him not to make these calls and so he picked but he picked up the phone and made the call and again you know i don't know exactly the words that were spoken was there perhaps something that was missed you know maybe not as articulate as you have been maybe but at the same time he picked up the phone to call and you know the fact of the matter is you have a young man with david johnson who was serving this country who died in the service of his country and we're losing that in the midst of all this this young man was a brave young man and we should remember him instead of getting caught up in all this back and forth in the shame of it is you know in the future i'm not sure trump going to pick up the phone as much to call these people nuts of shame. all right

ned ryan mr maritz great to have both of you with us tonight thanks so much the russian scandal is becoming stranger every day over the weekend special counsel bob boehner announced his team was looking into the lobbying firm of tony put desta brother of clinton campaign chairman john podesta moaner wants to know more about the firm's work on a pro ukrainian campaign organized by paul manner for the former head of the trunk campaign the military has been following this and she joins us with boards a night minola and this story has got so many moving parts and you're right the russia stuff is getting stranger by the day as ed mentioned bob mahler's office is expanding his russia probe and it has now reached tony podesta the brother of john podesta who ran hillary clinton's campaign tony protester runs a lobbying firm who did a public relations campaign for the ukrainian government the deal was apparently

set up by former trump campaign chair paul man of fort several years ago before he worked for trump muller's probe has turned into a criminal investigation into whether or not the dust of firm violated the foreign agents registration act better known as far as this just on the heels of cia had my pump a zero being corrected by his own spokesman after saying that intel agencies concluded that russian meddling did not affect the outcome of the twenty six thousand elections. yes the intelligence community's assessment is that the russian meddling that took place did not affect the outcome of the election you know i made some comments about. but are we going to go in twenty eight hundred twenty twentieth's that's what we're very yes we're always a risk we talked about this a great deal but not just from the russians let's just make no mistake the seems to be focused on the twenty sixteen election and the russian pop a

a was quickly rebuffed by cia spokesman ryan trapani but that's not all bill browder the man at the center of the magnitsky act said this on his own twitter account quote not only did putin add me to the interpol list but the us and us simultaneously revoked my visa now browsers claim has so far been unconfirmed but i was able to find this that in the past it does seem that the russian federation has attempted to add browder to a criminal list on interpol dated the twenty sixth of july two thousand and thirteen quote interpol cannot be used by the russian federation to seek the arrest of mr william browder the independent commission or the control of interpol's files concluded that the russian federation's use of interpol's channels to seek information concerning mr william browder was predominantly political in nature and therefore contrary to interpol's rules and regulations it recommended that all data

relating to russian federation's request concerning mr browder be deleted from interpol's database is so if you recall router is the american hedge fund manager who renounced his american citizenship for british citizenship to avoid paying his taxes in the us he later ran a fund in russia where he also evaded taxation his client surrogate magnitsky died while in police custody. in russia he is the namesake for the magnitsky act that the female lawyer used as a ruse to meet with the trump campaign last year at trump tower so at this russia stuff is getting really hard to follow what started out to be the democrats' only talking point against president trump seems to be finding its way back to their own home turf with a new wing to put death to and man of court will certainly be looking for new details to emerge as the week unfold that well i think we'd be remiss monella if we

didn't point out that the democrats and republicans are lacking in outrage tonight and they were all upset about general michael flynn going to an r.t.c. celebration. and several years ago getting paid a speaker's fee yet bill clinton while his wife was secretary of state hauled in five hundred thousand dollars in russian speaking fees as well a very interesting thank you mandela president trump built himself as the deal maker and great negotiator so far some members of congress see the president who doesn't keep his word senator lamar alexander of tennessee thought the president was in his corner on the health care debate only to see the reversal from also promised american workers a better deal on trade agreements and he keeps talking about it if you look at our trade deficits mess of trade deficits with virtually every country you look at our jobs moving out to certain countries and the companies are leaving and they're

firing the people and the product is made elsewhere and then it's sold back into the united states i'm not going to be allowing that so i can understand how certain countries and the leaders of certain countries may feel but we're just not going to allow the united states to be taken advantage of by other countries anymore. nafta is currently being negotiated in canada that canada is sending a clear message don't push too hard canada's chief negotiator chrystia freeland said canada is kind of the little girl next door it's easy to take us for granted canada is the number one customer to the united states and thirty five states so how is this all going to end up let's turn to lori wallach tonight director of public citizen's global trade watch laurie nice to have you with us tonight interesting message coming from canada is there a chance the trumpet ministration could sour that relationship with all those tough

talk the president used just last week well to start with the trade ambassador from canada had the data wrong she i saw that interview on t.v. she said that we had a trade surplus we were sending more stuff to sell to canada than they were sending here and that's wrong we had a sixty two billion dollar goods trade deficit last year a thirty billion dollars service and surplus so we had over thirty billion dollars trade deficit with canada she claimed we had a surplus but aside from mt basically on trade the one place for the administration is actually doing what president trump promised as a candidate it is a nafta renegotiation and they really are making demands that would slow down the offshoring that would help bring down the trade deficit and the two countries that are enjoying trade surpluses are not particularly thrilled with that prospect so i would say it's early to know what will happen with the negotiations but both the big corporations in the us who've used those nafta terms that make it easier to

outsource jobs they're not thrilled that they're throwing a downright hissy fit and candid mexico are objecting to some of the things that frankly should have been nafta in the first place that the trade negotiators from the u.s. are now saying have to come out. so how do you real in one country and play different with another country such as maybe being tougher on mexico and a little lighter on canada is that even a possibility are these independent negotiations or are they all under the same umbrella it's under the same umbrella but it really depends what the rules are there are very few tariffs border taxes laughed at all even if now after one away the average tariff rates that would be left are tiny tiny because in the time since nafta has been a fact the global world trade organization has brought all the tariffs rate down so what everyone's fighting over is what the rules are and the rules of the road and how companies have to be. right the companies have visa be the countries and so the

things that the obama administration replicate in the t p p are some of those things that promoted offshoring those are in now it's all been the same model so now the trump chief negotiators a guy named robert lighthouses are saying we're taking out the incentives for offshoring to mexico our can't that we're taking out the corporate tribunals where foreign companies can challenge our laws and demand compensation we're taking out the band and buy america and we don't care if it's mexican or canadian goods we don't want to offshore tax dollars and so it's changing those incentives in those rules ok and i'm sure both countries are aware that the president has a way of going back on his word even people in his own party of experience that does that play into it all quickly well i'm sure everyone's very nervous i mean the nafta negotiation i would say at least they're heading in the right direction consider what's happened in china zero zilch nada and we've had the largest china monthly trade deficit for the past month that's been on record since teeny years

and they've done nothing so i would say that you know the jury is out. lori wallach thank you for joining us tonight pre-shared it. spain's the senate is expected to strip catalonia as parliament of power on friday artie's medina cochin over reports tonight walk alone or staying together in the kaplan people had a chance to respond to some of those through supporting independence and also those who want to be confluence but part of spain. probably independence leaders sounded better this in the beginning than the tone change. the people of get lonia won the right to become an independent state. him we propose that parliament suspends the proclamation of a dependants. we're practically deciding the future of a nation not

a crime so here is what we have the region is stuck in limbo while the cattle a government has been and for weeks and the jury took an unprecedented step and asked the national senate to depose that we are told. now that cattle and presidents hold at their worst attack since franco's dictatorship if you reward over a with both attackers and the founders using similar arguments on each other. in a greatly irresponsible act christ all boundaries by announcing at effect a coup d'etat to oust a democratically elected government if this is a complete dr there is a coup thoughtful is the one that have been you know followed by. mr bush and his government. we're now applying five five because no government a tool in a democratic country can accept that the law will be ignored or violated or changed yet the spanish government illegally proclaimed itself the representative of the

catalans kaplan a story to still think they could win local media sakya late that the president could even officially proclaim independence this week but it seems ordinary catalans are the ones on the losing site. independence was declared in a very messy way so i'm not surprised by what's happening is that we're a bit lost is the first time we found ourselves in such a situation there are people here doing demonstrations week after week and they don't talk about they only talk about some people that is doing other demonstrations but not. to them the majority of the spanish senate still house to approve the measure is presented by my treats and if it does council will remain a time in the us in name only at least till the next treason elections to take place within the next six months by the question are. barcelona. and that is our

news tonight follow me on twitter at news where they had like me on the facebook page we got it dot com i'm ed schultz reporting tonight they argue merican newsroom thanks for watching will see record about.

what you have for breakfast yesterday why we didn't put those for the faces why for those who donkey like you neal and what's your biggest fear i have a bit on the hayride was the last time that a board you say if you ever met the pope who's the best quarterback. let's point the topic that doesn't belong in the piece now i've interviewed you change the question more. the frances is broadcasting around the world from washington d.c. tonight to big businesses in britain demand a two year grace period to set up proper trade relations after the two thousand nine hundred break from the european union and credit card debt and delinquency is in america income stagnates at this.