matilda's. controls the amana was michael hussey. he's a. potato. a little good he saw. somebody . an investigative documentary. ghost war on. a temporary truce in the us china trade war well in the hold and what happens if it doesn't we'll take a look at that on this edition of politics. welcome to politicking i'm larry king after months of escalating tyrus in the u.s. china trade war the nation's two leaders agreed to a ninety day truce following the recent g. twenty summit in argentina details of the new agreement are vague and whatever new

deal was struck between the leaders still needs to be implemented by the administrations who seem to be operating on conflicting information we'll start there with chris low. white house cabinets attorney and former deputy secretary of labor during the obama administration he's now a senior fellow at the university of virginia miller center and he joins us from seattle or i didn't tails of a what's your read on this u.s. china semi agreement. larry any temporary truths in this trade war is welcome but you're one hundred percent right the devil's in the details are right now when you look at the two statements that were put out by the countries after the fact there was a bit of a disconnect it wasn't clear from the chinese side whether they had even agreed on a ninety day period of negotiation they made no commitment about what additional

u.s. products they would buy and the president president trump has been talking about cutting auto tariffs by the chinese and there's nothing at all in the chinese statement on that so a lot still needs to be worked out on their lot in there is one key area. well again i think there's a lot of areas i mean certainly from the united states side there are legitimate issues about access to chinese markets intellectual property protection to a lesser extent currency manipulation by the chinese and so all of these things are part of the broader relationship between united states and china that need to be dealt with when we think about trade issues and then obviously we have this escalating series of tariffs that each side has put on the other's products fortunately for now we've we've put a halt to that but unraveling all this will take a lot of time. is there a lulu's. ah look i think ultimately the

winner and the loser are u.s. companies and u.s. workers and u.s. consumers let's remember tariffs are sensually a tax which is why they are generally disliked not only by economists but really by policy makers on both sides of the aisle and so each one of these tariffs is making products more expensive here by the united states that's affecting companies that's affecting workers and that uncertainty is really baffling to u.s. companies here because they need long term certainty in order to make decisions so to the extent that this truce holds the winners are companies and consumers but there's a lot more that needs to be done in the triggers name romer line you are surely rumors in movies alone done clearly good beijing. healy's a negotiating team from americans a good idea. well look mr white house or certainly is one of the experts in

terms of chinese trade issues and certainly from the united states' perspective that's a good thing the challenge though is that he has been very hawkish in his trade. positions he's been one of the once that's been pushing for these escalating tariffs and so the key to these negotiations is to try to come up with a win win solution before both sides and i think mr light hisor is previous positions worth regard to china make that challenging how would you grade drums from the g. twenty. well you know look i mean he this is really not the best setting for him we've seen how this is played out on the international stage whether it's the g. seven earlier this year whether it's a nato this is not a forum that the president particularly relishes and to the extent that he didn't blow up things as he has done that previous summits that's a good thing but again i think the biggest and most important meeting that had to

happen was the one that he had with president xi and as i said the jury's out on how successful that walter mitty proved to be what do you make of the new new deal . well you know i think look at the nafta deal certainly needed updating and i think there are some important provisions here i think the challenge is less the policy than the politics right now this is going to be ratified by a congress that that obviously on the house side will be controlled by democrats many of whom are not in favor of these kinds of free trade agreements and increasingly even republicans are more skeptical of these agreements and so an updating of a you know twenty year old thirty year old agreement is a good thing but again the politics of getting any trade agreement passed in the u.s. congress are challenging is their big june june i have to deal with the old. really

not much i mean this is you know this is really about optics as much of anything the president ran on saying nafta was the worst possible deal which is obviously a bit ironic now given you know how he has been very complimentary of president george h.w. bush so the president president trump ran on gutting nafta this is some minor modifications but it really doesn't fundamentally change the agreement and that's a good thing nafta has been on balance good for not only the u.s. economy but for u.s. businesses. in the united states the only country to decline to sign a joint statement on climate change why do we still stay in the twentieth century on climate change. you know that's really the unknown question. larry as well you know when you look at public opinion polls natalie among

democrats republicans independents when jordi of americans believe the climate change is a serious problem that needs to be addressed when you go to scientists the overwhelming number of believe that the earth climate is changing and that the causes manmade you know every country in the world except for a handful of clean united states are taking action around this there is a way to do this to address this issue that ensures continued economic opportunity united states it would have some hardship for some communities here particularly with regard to coal but the rest of the world is moving away from fossil fuels right now it's high time that the united states did it as well the challenge is that if you if you talk to the scientists they will tell you that time to act has now and if we put off action for five ten twenty years we can take action but it's going to be significantly more difficult and significantly more costly to the u.s. economy and so alternately that maybe one of the troubling legacies of this

administration were using dumb troops continues to stay close to or beer. you know look. the saudis are clearly an important ally for us in the middle east but as you've started to see over the coming the past couple of days even his republican allies in congress have said you know what we can have sound relations with an ally like saudi arabia but we also all to merely need to stand up for u.s. values the president has framed this all in terms of the number of the amount of arms deals or the amount of investment that the saudis would make in the united states a lot of those numbers are frankly illusory and probably will never happen but there is a way to have a strong foreign policy and still stand up for u.s. values and unfortunately at this point the president seems more interested in business transactions rather than u.s. values is who would the democrats now control in the house starting january third.

do you want to have them in the mix to use or not why spect there would be a flurry of democratic legislation that comes out of the house i'm not confident that any of that makes its way to the president's desk but i do think democrats will try to take up issues that they believe help frame the differences between their agenda the president's agenda whether it's campaign finance ethics minimum wage health care but i am hopeful that on some issues whether it's immigration or infrastructure that there is certainly a window of time for bipartisan action for compromise but that would certainly require the president coming to the table as well as his allies in the senate who slew of zones knowing sooner. thank you tierney now to our political panel bill press progressive commentator and author host of the build pressure though on the young turks network his latest book is trump must go the top

one hundred reasons to dumb trump and one to keep and he's in washington and in new york amy holmes co-host of the t.v. as show in principle former staffer to senate majority leader bill frist always great having them with us bill special counsel robert muller has recommended. in the national security advisor michael flynn citing first hand details of contacts which we transition team and russian officials who shared this worry the most but first i got to say that anybody in washington who says they know what's what robert mueller is up to doesn't know what they're talking about because this man really does keep some sinkers but from what we could see it certainly is not good for donald trump because while a lot of stuff in that filing was redacted and michael flynn's filing there was another stuff there that gives you clues that robert mueller is closing in and

there's a key sentence that says senior government officials should be held to the highest standards well they're not many senior government officials who are higher than the national security adviser or might be too in the white house jarrett kirshner and donald trump so it looks like muller is closing in we'll find out more on friday when there are filings due on paul metaphor from robert mueller so things are starting the pace is starting to pick up a little bit amy was your read. my read is that it's such a rorschach test when you look at this depending on where you are sitting and with under needs those redactions as bill says we don't know what's under there a lot of pointed out that it was sort of strange actually that part of what the miller document said was that michael flynn was really helpful when it came to details and documents concerning the transition team well that's after the election

that doesn't have anything that we know of will learn more possibly to do with election year meddling or russian you know involvement or collusion between the truck campaign and russian government agents or anything like that he also had that he was helpful in a criminal probe that the special prosecutor is not actually pursuing their office isn't in charge of that so i think there is still a lot of questions here it was notable however that michael flynn sat down for nineteen meetings with the special counsel at the end of which the special counsel is saying he doesn't need to go to jail in fact he's a great patriot he is so he served his country in the military in combat and this is a very different picture of michael flynn that was painted a year ago that he was a traitor and selling out u.s. interests to his russian contacts and sources. there will be right back with more politicking right after the break.

rush. you know world of big partisan news lawyers and conspiracy it's time to wake. to dig deeper to hit the stories that mainstream media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door on the back and shouting past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the truth the time is now we're watching closely watching the hawks.

terror of russian and i guess. what does the rise of the yellow vests lumen in france tell us about the state of the neoliberal order in europe are the protests in france the largest since one thousand nine hundred eighty eight just about a hike in fuel prices and is the manual mccrone the right person to be president to address the problems so many in france.

seemed wrong why don't we all just don't hold. any new world but yet to shape out these days become educated and engagement equals betrayal. when somebody find themselves worlds apart when we choose to look for common ground . i'm back to politicking return. to press for aggressive commentator and author host of the bilbray show on the young turks network his latest book is trump must go the top one hundred reasons to don't trump and in new york city amy holmes co-host of the p.b.s. show in principle and a former staffer just senate majority leader bill frist bill you're going to say i'm just going to say it's also sort of clear now that there's a little war going on there has been for a while but it's even more clear now between robert muller and donald trump over

witnesses i thought was very interesting that in his filings on michael flynn robert muller indicated ok you cooperated with me therefore i'm going to recommend no prison time for you donald trump on michael cole and said you cooperated with robert mueller therefore i think you should get the full sentence and to palm out of court you didn't cooperate so i'm suggesting maybe i'll give you a pardon so people are getting mixed messages possible witnesses from either donald trump or robert mueller to cooperate or not to cooperate and both of them are offering to reward those who do amy those who don't jamie are you concerned about michael cohen. well he is a proven liar so it's concerning that he is not telling the truth as he should and participating cooperating fully as he should but i can report to that on my show

for p.b.s. in principal this spring i interviewed the head of regnery publishing and she said she had already had received a book proposal from michael cohen long before he was ensnared in this investigation promising to dish the dirt on president trump he was never the loyal lieutenant that president trump thought or a lot of the public thought even predating this investigation one last point about . the michael flynn situation mark penn hillary clinton's former pollster for the two thousand and eight campaign he points out that whatever it is you know michael flynn was supposed to have been involved with on the campaign possibly during the transition it can't have been all that bad if muller is not recommending jail time in fact is saying keep him out of jail so the big question is where are we what does this all mean and we'll find out shortly i got to say again larry mark penn is talking through his hat nobody knows what michael flynn told robert muller except

robert mueller and as investigators i think we all have to be careful about going out and making paul these public statements about what so and so told robert all in the day using a michael cohen to regnery to publish that both. did he did sorry right conservatives are very conservative rule against publishing company yes indeed it was regnery and the president of regnery i interviewed her for in principle for p.b.s. and she revealed to us that michael cohen had dropped a book proposal with her before any of this investigation got underway or at least that he was a part of i would just say again as a matter what michael cohen told regnery what matters is what michael cohen has told the u.s. attorney in new york and robert mueller and his prosecutors in washington d.c. let's get to work my way being that he has been a loose cannon character and not loyal to president trump long before being pulled into the investigation scared that a crook service where bill do you think wallace is going. i think is going right to

the president i think robert muller is is pursuing both tracks. the collusion possible collusion with the russians not proven yet and possible obstruction of justice also not proven yet but i think what we've seen in the little bread crumbs if you will that mahler mahler has dropped along the way that's what is leading to a serious criminal case against the president of the united states reading that michael flynn document as i read it if i were donald trump i'd be nervous amy where do you think it's going. well so far you know hold on to your hat bill preservation barked and the president has not been tweeting about michael flynn and summer is basically because lawyers told him you know zip it that this can get you in some more legal jeopardy but the big question is in this report well there actually be a criminal referral to any of these you know top lieutenants in from the trunk

campaigner in the trunk administration or will the special counsel opt to issue a report that he then hands off to congress and congress then can decide whether or not they want to move forward with say articles of impeachment which of course we know with the democratic party coming into power in january in the house there is a lot of appetite among democrats to do just that bill you think you're going to have a government shutdown no i think i know republicans in congress do not want to government shutdown i think it's total pure bluff on donald trump's part by probably a half a dozen times in the last two years he has said he wants to shut down the government he's willing to shut down the government he thinks it would be good for him he thinks it would be good for the party i think wiser heads in this case will prevail and tell him that look when the republicans control the house and the senate and the white house and they shut down the government they're the ones who are going to get the blame so take your one point six billion dollars and merry

christmas and go away and don't shut down the government amy downturn told reporters recently that what's happening along the southern border with the migrants is a big win for the republicans and a loss for democrats you agree. well i think that the caravan organizers really overplayed their hand both in terms of media and politics but more tragically for the members of the caravan who we're told are basically i sold it's a bill of goods about what was going to greet them at that southern border between the u.s. and mexico legal insurrection for example a legal website was lead to many stories that i was reading over the weekend of migrants who are very upset with care of caravan organizers who said that the doors would be wide open seeking asylum would be easy which in fact it's not only about twenty thousand people from around the world are granted asylum in the united states per year so you had a caravan as turning back to honduras trying to figure out what do we do now we

walked thousands of miles we're penniless where there's a lot of illness going on in these camps as we know the stadium the people in the stadium in t. want it were moved ten miles back south from the border there's a lot of chaos and a lot of misery and i think that the people that were instantly this false hope have a lot of responsibility to their do you think bill well speaking to your question larry i think it was this whole caravan nonsense was a disaster for republicans and disaster for donald trump i would just point out republicans lost forty seats in the house of representatives donald trump made one big issue in his campaign. do the mexicans or come in the mexicans are coming or whoever from from latin america people didn't buy it didn't believe in sending the troops down there i think they saw that as a political stunt and they voted accordingly so that's what donald trump wants to do more of that it will be bad for republicans and good for democrats bad bad for

the emigrants too by the worse amy where do you think we're going with this trade war. well right now we have a ninety day pause they hit the pause button that started december first president xi jinping and president trump they met in buenos aires argentina apparently over grilled steak said red onions and go. read this out try to post that the room burst into applause when the two leaders said that they had come to you know tentative agreements about points of interest between the united states and chinese trade with the three top issues or three top issues is china's widespread theft of intellectual property their forced technology transfers when u.s. companies want to do work with china the question that i have larry and i had since the very beginning of this is that we have to remember china is a communist regime and they have a very long view and are not responsive to the pressures of the people so if they are feeling pressure over a trade war if prices go up or you know supplies go down they don't necessarily you

know they're not as i going to respond to the chinese people suffering so in this game of chicken i'm not sure we're well positioned as an open democracy when it comes to china. amy billings yeah i just wanna look at the bigger picture i think there's a there's a lot more going on here let's go back donald trump came out of singapore and said boy i got a great made a great deal with kim jong un john bolton said this week that north korea has done nothing nothing to dismantle nuclear weapons donald trump came out of helsinki and said boy i made a great deal with latimer putin for peace in the middle east or whatever russia sees in the ukrainian ships and invading the ukraine still now he says oh i made a great deal with china and then china turned around and said basically what deal and what happened the market fell eight hundred points in one day because donald trump then doubled down and said remember forget about this truce i'm a tariff man i fear where this is taking us i hope not could be end of this

economic recovery and sliding down into recession call it the trump slump that's where i think we're heading in the looking ahead to the next two years with nancy pelosi apparently going to be speaker of the house again. do you think gave you will make any progress in the next to yours. boy that's a really tough question i hope so and you know one of the things that i would advise my fellow americans and viewers of this show is that big things can happen in presidential election years the one nine hundred sixty four civil rights act for example was passed during an election year summer right before the election the one nine hundred ninety six welfare reform that was passed the summer right before an election so you have a lot of you know surprised it's conventional wisdom that says oh election years everything grinds to a halt because people go into their corners and they're campaigning that doesn't necessarily need to be the case if those put pressure on their elected leaders to get something done starting with health care which is where i think that you know

the republicans really missed the boat during this midterm health care was the number one issue for voters that was polled way back in the spring both parties knew it and democrats really took advantage of focusing on that. glad to see any progress in next two years first i want to say take it to the bank larry nancy pelosi will be the next speaker of the house and there's a progressive how do you feel about that i feel great about that nobody is running against her she's not a great job without her democrats would not have taken back the house i think she earned it but let me say i kind of agree with amy in that in this sense look democrats will be doing some oversight hearings but they also with their ideas that they want to show that they can get something done now they have control of the house prescription drugs jamie jamie mentioned health care the whole thing about preexisting conditions infrastructure remember that old word climate change and but so they'll want to get some things done looking ahead but also you know what i

think republicans will because of twenty twenty they both want to have some things on the scorecard for twenty twenty so i think there's at least the potential for some progress in the next two years believe it or not and let me have this one last point that senator mitch mcconnell back in two thousand and eleven interestingly he said. that he thinks it's easier to get compromise when you have divided government with one party in charge of one chamber and the other in the other because you have to if you want to come to the table and you know pass a bill to get signed by the president night it states you can't just party you know pass on a party line you know for a score but not for a lot well now is the time for mitch mcconnell to prove he meant what he said oh well. and we in bill thank you so much it's always great having you with us in the hones and build press and thank you for joining me on this edition of politicking a member you can join the conversation on my facebook page or tweet me

a king's things and don't forget use the politic he has tagged and that's all for this edition of politicking. of russian headlines. you know world of big partisan newton's laws and conspiracy it's time to wake up to dig deeper to hit the stories that mainstream media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door on the bad shouting past each other it's time for

critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the truth the time is now for watching closely watching the hawks. aeroflot russian and lights. it as the protesters in france are saying their purchasing power has diminished because all this money printing that's going on and you mention they can't tell

a fact that money printing in which as the people on average in paris and shows little is a in paris and those people who are working doing blue collar jobs their personal power is eroded and so they have the korean pamela anderson figured out that this is a structurally violent system that they need to address with a quid pro quo violence for violence. bad loans at all to international vehicles a set of forestry rushes clashed with french police and fresh mass protests for the government's decision to accept a key among the big yellow vests demonstrate it.