here for the lead off discussion on a friday night, peter baker for "the new york times", ashley parker politzer prize winning white house reporter for "the washington post" and franco, white house correspondent for npr. good evening and welcome to you-all. peter, tough question to start off with as the president starts his vacation, where in his presidency does this week rank among its challenges? >> well, you know, it's interesting. we ask this question a lot because every week it almost seems like we're reaching new levels and new scales of challenges to use your word of crisis, of, you know, unbelievable moments that have shocked the nation or otherwise challenged the political system and yet the next one comes along and we see another and another and i think what we're seeing now of course is really we're on the launch pad for the election next year and this gun debate is part of it. this debate about the presidency and his words will be part of it. this debate about white supremacy race, all of this is part of the mix and it's ingredients for a pretty toxic conversation we're abou

>> no, tiffany is great, i love tiffany. >> back with us, peter baker, jill colvin, and tessa berenson. peter, this story caused quite a bit of confusion and questions being asked. now some of the blanks are being filled in. what more can you tell us about what's going on and what led to this? >> look, nobody in this white house or few people in this white house spent as much time close to the president physically every day as madeleine westerhaut. she had an office just outside of the oval office. she was a gatekeeper for the president. if you wanted to have a chance to talk to him, she was a good person to know in the west wing. and so for her to suddenly be on the outs was shocking to a lot of people. she had been seen as one of the people in his inner circle. mind you, she had previously worked for other republicans. she was not originally a trump supporter in the primaries. but she had works her way into his level of trust. so when he heard about these comments, apparently she had made at this dinner, obviously, you know, pushed over a line that he was willing to tolerate. he says

even professionals like peter baker is also feeling it quoting from his tweet this afternoon, just a day in the trump white house, reagan treaty terminated, spy chief nominee polled, north korea given pass for illegal missile launches, rapper freed in sweden, trump signs deficit spending bill and top deficit fired and it's not even 3:00 p.m. yet. we begin keeping them honest, a very important job being pulled from consideration, john ratcliff nomination for director of national intelligence and the acts fell on twitter that's fitting because that's where president trump named him as the pick. our great republican congressman john ratcliff is being treated very unfairly by the lame stream media rather than going through months of slander, i explained to john how miserable it would be for him and his family to deal with these people. john is therefore decided to stay in congress where he's done an outstanding job representing the people of texas, and our country. i will be announcing my nomination for dni shortly. the president wants you to believe his candidate is perfect for the job,

i hope nobody gets killed. >> peter baker, u.s. policy toward china has been, you know, front and center. negotiations stalled, not going anywhere. tariffs suspended. a lot of angst going on between washington and beijing at a time when beijing has this enormous domestic problem. >> that's exactly right. you know, this is a president who has been confrontational with china. it's on issues of economics and trade, not on issues of human rights or security. he's made it clear from the beginning of his administration that that's not the area he plans to make a priority. he does not intend to intervene in what he sees as a domestic issue of other countries, no matter how badly they treat their owns citizens. he's not a cheerleader for democracy activists around the world. he saids th he sees that as not the united stat states' business. he's not planning to take sides, he's not going to encourage the protesters. if anything, he has, you know, expressed some sympathy for the government. >> and, peter, at this time, also, other leaders ar

i followed an investigator named peter baker who arrived in beijing in 2015. of 38 manufacturing plants as he inspected in china the 48 plants he inspected in china he found fraud or data manipulation in dirty aid of those plants. we know that there is endemic fraud and chinese drug plants because chinese regulators have found that them selves. in 2016 an investigation by china's own national products administration found 80% of clinical trial data submitted by chinese companies to regulators to gain approval for new drugs was fabricated. as an example peter baker showed up at a plant 200 miles south of shanghai which was the site of a joint venture with pfizer to make high-quality low cost medicine. it was not a fly by night plant plan. it was china's largest exporter drug ingredients to the u.s.. peter baker instead of requesting documents as many fda investigators to look inside the computer of the client and using rudimentary measurements that you using college looked for chinese symbols for the words trial injection and experimental samples. despite a thr

one investigator named peter baker who arrived in beijing 2015 of 38 manufacturing plants he inspected, i'm sorry 48 he found fraud or data manipulation and 38 of those. we know that there is endemic fraud in chinese drug plants because regulators have found that themselves in china. in 2016 investigation by china's own national medical product administration found 80 percent of the trial data submitted by the chinese companies to regulators gave approval for new drugs that were fabricated. so showing up at a plant 200 miles south of shanghai which is in a joint venture with pfizer to make high-quality low-cost medicine. it was not a fly-by-night plant largest exporter of drugs into the us. peter baker instead of requesting documents as investigators do, looked inside the computers of the plant using rudimentary mandarin he learned in college trial injection and experiment of samples in mandarin it chicken one day to figure out it was running an alternate and hidden laboratory operation and putting in drat on - - drug samples and turning off the audit trail to leave no evidence of the

. >>> it was a week that was for the president -- we've got peter baker, the chief white house correspondenthe new york times". he is in france and he will join us next from the g7. you only talk about your insurancet, when you complain about it. (garbled)....it's so painful. good point! that's why esurance is making the whole experience surprisingly painless. so, you never have to talk about it. unless you're their spokesperson. esurance. it's surprisingly painless. as a doctor, i agree with cdc guidance. i recommend topical pain relievers first... like salonpas patch large. it's powerful, fda-approved to relieve moderate pain, yet non-addictive and gentle on the body. salonpas. it's good medicine. hisamitsu. [dog barks] [dog panting] [dogs barking] [dogs growling] [dogs whimpering] (vo) the subaru crosstrek. dog tested. dog approved. [dog barks] the first survivor of alzis out there.ase and the alzheimer's association is going to make it happen. but we won't get there without you. join the fight with the alzheimer's association. what might seem like a small cough can be a big bad problem f

about face as more evidence of a slowing economy comes to light, according to maggie haberman and peter baker of "the new york times," even some people who once worked closely with the president are voicing concerns he's acting erratically. i'm quoting now. some former trump administration officials in recent days said they are increasingly worried about the president's behavior suggesting it stems from rising pressure on mr. trump because the economy seems more worrisome as next year's election approaches. so that's the backdrop to the latest flip on something the president, again, did a 180 on just yesterday. >> i'm not looking at a tax cut now. we don't need it. we have a strong economy. >> so not looking at a tax cut now, and again that was just a day after he said that he was looking at a tax cut now, which in turn came a day after the white house denied that he was looking at a tax cut now. so the bottom line is here's here's where things stood when we left you last night. the president took tax cuts off the table after putting them there the day before and early this evening larry kudl

this is peter baker. the new york times' white house correspondent peter baker.ifferences with trump, the g7 leaders ended up releasing a largely general one—page statement that added up to 264 words. the lastjoint statement under obama in 2016 was “l263 words." let's get an overview of what happened today in biarritz. ros atkins was there. there are two ways we can look at the announcement from president macron that iran's president rouhani is willing to meet donald trump, and donald trump's confirmation that he may be willing to meet president rouhani in the next few weeks. on the face of it, it's simply a huge diplomatic coup for president macron. bear in mind america and iran have been exchanging diplomatic barbs for months. and of course, the americans walked away from the iran nuclear deal. there are some caveats, though. the meetings not definitely going to happen. if it does happen, we've learnt from the two north korea summits it doesn't necessarily lead to a significant shift in the situation. and even if the meeting were positive, actually finding eith

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yet peter baker, a pendant masquerading as a journalist was so desperate that he measured the meeting success on the number of words in the final statement that came out for the g7. with all the differences with trump, they largely had a statement that added up to 264 words. 14,263 words. international bureaucrats, they talk a lot and right a lot a lot, meaningless blather. and that was back in 2016 of course when the u.s. economy was limping along and china was eating our lunch. do you want that or do you want a short g7 statement especially compared to the french, the german and the british. my friends, this is an easy call. the fact that major european countries are in the economic turmoil, it's not our fault. it's theirs. they staked their futures on a european union that was flawed from the inception. they were over regulating their businesses and overtaxing their people and they allowed in over a million refugees of very different backgrounds and very different values. and the media somehow think trump should follow their lead. i don't think so. trump had the guts to do a seriou

peter baker, that is -- i saw that excuse and talk about thin. believe the reports and if you believe the victims and the depositions some guy -- we've got a guy in epstein, a witness who can testify against past presidents, against princes, against senators, against governors, against college professors. you can go down the list. the justice department had every reason as it entertained to justice to keep this -- as it pertained to justice to keep this guy alive and he was one of thousands of prisoners and they couldn't make the rounds quickly enough because of staff shortages that does seem thin. how did the justice department, how did the attorney general allow this to happen? >> it's a great question and it sounds like a thin excuse and one they have to answer for, both for the attorney general and the president of the united states. he's expressed interest in this over the weekend. he does it in a way that naturally fans the flames of conspiracy theories. but, you know, in this case there is reason for suspicion and there's reason for doubt

>> there's a times piece by peter baker and maggie habiterman thhabit e have written, that he's complaining about everything else and that, you know, that this has put him in a rage. you can understand that. i think this is a position who always believed i'm the negotiator, i'm the successful businessman. i'm the person who can dig us out of any hole and by the way any hole we are in was created by barack obama, and if he loses that and people begin to feel the pinch and the farmers say, you know what? the trade war is hurting us though you're supplementing us to the tune of $14 billion, that this will hurt in the reelection, and of course that would drive him crazy. >> the problem, just to add to gloria's point, when you refer to yourself as a chosen with this is you do what donald trump has done his whole life in politics. you put yourself in a situation where you're the only one that can fix these things. if they go wrong, it's also hard to blame jay powell at the fed or the world markets or china. he has put himself in a place where he is uniquely suited, he understands the markets in a

i'm looking at peter baker's piece. many interviews with presidents past. is trump really losing it or is this just more of the same but more? how do you respond to that? >> who knows? it feels like more of the same but more, but a lot more. it wasn't chosen one, it was greenland, the nasty comments. he retweeted at lengths wayne alan root. >> more than once. >> more than one reference per presidential term is enough. to your point, it's an important one, what i'd like to see and we haven't seen enough of as a reaction to donald trump is maybe a president shouldn't have this much power. if we don't like a trade war -- i certainly don't like a trade war -- maybe congress should hobble the president's ability -- should use its own legislative function, we need to have more of that conversation. >> we'll leave it there. matt, maya, david, thank you for being here. tomorrow katy fanning will shown us, michelle goldberg and maria hinojosa. that's 8:00 eastern on msnbc. ahead at the top of the hour, a weakening global economy

correspondent for "the new york times" who was the author of that quote we just read alongside peter baker. so tell us more about that. former trump administration officials say they're seeing behavior that worries them. >> there's this constant question that hovers around commentary about the president these days is has he changed, is he different? i think we're seeing a lot of what we saw in the campaign. i've spoken with a bunch of former officials and senior officials in the last week or so, all of whom who disagree and say they believe this is an escalation of sort of his more erratic behavior or his more extreme behavior. and they attribute it to increasing stress in the job as he faces re-election. i don't think we can ignore the fact that literally every day for him now is tied up in were yg about whether he's going to get reelected next year. for all the question of whether he likes the job, we know he likes to win. i think we've heard previously from former administration officials they've been concerned about his behavior. with you leave, you suddenly become a lot more aware of

about face as more evidence of a slowing economy comes to light, according to maggie haberman and peter bakerork times," even some people who once worked closely with the president are voicing concerns he's acting erratically. i'm quoting now. some former trump administration officials in recent days said they

and peter baker from "the new york times" and msnbc political analyst.of all, what concerns if any do you have about the u.s. test and whether or not this combined with this very mysterious test that the russians did recently which resulted in a nuclear accident apparently, whether we're getting into an unwieldy? >> two different things here. the russian weapon is an extremely long range nuclear powered -- in other words it has a nuclear propulsion system and it evidently blew up, a lot of dirty radiation. but it is tied to the american tomahawk launch as follows. you see both nations, russia and the united states, testing and pushing new variants, longer range. potentially nuclear tipped. in other words, not nuclear propulsion, but a nuclear weapon on the end of the weapon system. it really is going to be put us in a pattern of escalation. we do need to draw a line under the fact that russia created this situation by cheating on the treaty. regardless, we have to play the ball from where it is on the field. we ought to be working very hard to get back i

well, peter baker put it this way in the "new york times." day by day even hour by hour his approach to the trade war with china, the most consequential economic conflict on the planet, veered back and forth leaving much of the world with geopolitical whiplash. let's dig deep we are nbc white house correspondent kristen welker, bill crystal, founding director of founding democracy together and elan mu we. what are your hearing from your sources, is there any concern at all from the staff or his campaign that these mixed messages on the trade war generally are having serious consequences for the economy that then will have consequences for the campaign? >> that's the big concern everyone has their eye on the economy, there's no doubt about that. what they continue to point to, chris, at the white house is the fact that, look, there are trade talks that are supposed to happen in september. those talks haven't been canceled. now, president trump really leaned into the idea during the g7 summit that, yes, there was going to be some type of moveme

you so much as predicted that the tinderbox that phil and peter baker of "the new york times" have written about, this country's sort of state of play when it comes to questions of race. so amped up by the president's rhetoric, colliding with this rise in white supremacy and domestic terrorism. talk about what you predicted, what you feared, and what has come to pass. >> well, i have never felt so badly about being right before. i wish i were wrong. but i had to put pen to paper because it was instinctive. this isn't rocket science. if you have been in the intelligence community, you have an instinct to identify a threat, push it out and get the intel and prediction out. what i saw happening was the theme of the president attacking the so-called squad, the elected congress members of color, telling them to go back where they came from and the attack on elijah cummings and the city of baltimore where no human, quote, would want to live. i saw that resonating among the white hate groups, the white supremacist movement and i saw them being encouraged and boldened by it. that kind of was a tri

peter baker is also feeling it quoting from his tweet this afternoon, just a day in the trump white houseterminated, spy chief nominee polled, north korea given pass for illegal missile launches, rapper freed in sweden, trump signs deficit spending bill and top deficit fired and it's not even

peter baker, writing in "the new york times" now, at campaign rallies before last year's midterm electionspresident trump repeatedly warned that america was under attack by immigrants, heading for the border. you look at what is marching up. that is an invasion, he declared at one rally. that is an invasion. and "the washington post" phil rubbinger, isn't about how the president will respond but whether his words contributed to the carnage. joining me now assistant director in the counterintelligence division and nbc national security analyst who wrote that piece in "the washington post." msnbc national security analyst and charlie sikes, msnbc contributor and editor of the bullwart. nick, let's talk about counterterrorism. you dealt with it in terms of foreign terrorism, of course. the fbi on domestic surveillance in terms of the internet and other forms of eavesdropping that could get at this white supremacist danger? >> for too long we've had this divide about the way we think of international terrorism and domestic terrorism. you go to al qaeda as international terrorist groups that al

. >> or, you know, we had the quote from the maggie haberman and peter baker of "the new york times" of former people who used to work for the president, concerned about erratic behavior, or white house officials saying anything about this behind the scenes? >> the fact of the matter is publicly they are saying we're not worried about the economy. when it comes to this issue specifically, they're saying we have a lot of optimism, we don't see a recession in the future. that's what larry kudlow said not long ago a few moments ago. in reality the people behind the scenes are paying attention to what these trends are showing. they are worried about it and they're telling the president that, they're being honest with him and he's responding in kind. he knows a lot of his reelection hinges on the economy. that's why you're seeing the president lash out in ways about the economy. yes, i'm considering this, and then when one aide shows the president that actually, remember, president obama is someone who instituted that payroll tax cut in 2012, that's something the president then came out a

followed and investigator named peter baker who arrived in 2015.ng in of 38 manufacturing plants that 48 nspected in china, or data e found fraud manipulation in 38 of them. there is intkpl mick proud because c they have found that themselves. investigation by china's own national medical found administration that 80% of clinical trial data ubmitted by chinese companies to gain approval for new drugs was fabbri indicated. fabbri indicated. plant ker showed up in a of shanghai site pfizer.nt venture with by night plant. it was china's largest exporter the u.s.ients it instead of requesting documents inside the he looked using r of the plant and language he looked for words and despite the head it took him about a day it particular out the plant was hidden lab tier operation and -- laboratory and masking the and results in part by turning off he audit trails it leave no evidence of tests. the f.d.a. followed up by planned under an impart alert restricting the 15 of thosescovered drugs were in short supply in united states and lifted the restricti restriction. another example of an f.d.a

"the new york times" peter baker points out trump's comments on the trade war with china resulted in eaders. baker highlights how on friday trump claimed china's president xi was the enemy. by yesterday his view of xi was rosier. >> i think president xi is a great leader who happens to be a brilliant man. he can't lose 3 million jobs in a very short period of time. that's going to be magnified many times over and break down the chinese system of trade. >> in the meantime, the united states which never collected ten cents from china will in a fairly short period of time be over $100 billion in tariffs. so i think they want to make a deal very badly. >> you have recently been saying china wants a deal but you are not necessarily ready for a deal and you like the tariff revenue that's coming in. are you now ready to make a deal? >> only if it is a fair and good deal for the united states. otherwise i will not make a deal. we have billions and billions coming in. i think we are going to get there. it's not a question of behavior. i think they want to make a deal and should make a deal. if

. >> joining me now, new york times chief white house correspondent and political analyst peter bakerr being here on a holiday weekend. i want to start with you here, we'll get to westerhout in a minute. moments ago -- >> the president is staying at camp david a couple nights after cancelling his planned trip to poland and he is at his golf club in sterling, virginia. a representative from his team handling fema is with the president, he's getting hourly updates on the hurricane, and he will go back to camp david and it's our understanding there will be a hurricane briefing in a larger sense this afternoon. there have been two a day coming into this weekend. and so the president being in the u.s. as opposed to in europe, was a better dhois given the uncertainty of the path of the storm. he will be on a golf course this afternoon at the same time the storm has not hit land fall today. and the president likes to go golfing and does not seem to be bothered by that criticism he will have more briefings about the hurricane and will talk about it, he's been using his twitter feed to put out

. >>> 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 reporte

with christopher steele, there was james baker who we know was leaking to mother jones and david corn to get out the dossier, in an orwellian sense, lisa page and peterzok, no comment needed. they got together and said let's categorize these -- the ones that he took home we determined are confidential and not erroneous and the ones he left behind we will say are classified but he is not subject to criminal exposure because he didn't take those three home. how hard would have been to get three or four fbi agents who are not involved in spreading and ceding the steele dossier and were not confidants of jim comey -- exactly the type of behavior that is getting people very disillusioned because we've seen with the clinton email scandal he acted on ethically and unprofessionally but not criminally. here we have the same devastating acknowledgment but his own friends ensured he wasn't the subject to criminal liability post fecteau. these are not categorized at all until the press got a hold of it. if >> tucker: what do you say about a man who in the face of the evidence you presented, who becomes even more self-righteous when confronted with what he has do

james baker, who we know was leaking to mother jones and david corn to get out the steele dossier to the press before the election. lisa page and peterople after the whole thing blew up, they got together and said let's categorize the. the one that comey took home weo determined are confidential and not felonious in the one he left behind we will say are classified but he's not subject to criminal exposure because he didn't take those three home. how hard would it have been to get three or four fbi agents that were not involved in spreading and seating the steele dossier and were not confidants of jim comey. it's exactly the type of behavior that's getting people very, very disillusioned because we've already seen with the clinton email scandal, comeyen acted on ethically and unprofessionally, criminally. here you have the same devastating acknowledgment, but his own friends insured that he was the subject to criminal liability post factor. these were not even categorized at all until the press got a hold of it and they went back and had his friends say he did something unprofessional, but it was not guilty of a felony. that's pretty