acosta. that is not getting better with his supposed defense. it seems like it's getting worse. also, the materials that acosta distributed today in his own defense additionally show that his office, acosta's office believed that epstein was breaking the terms of the non-prosecution agreement they had signed him up to. it is clear neither you or your client ever intended to abide by the terms of the agreement he signed. they put that in writing. acosta's office and prosecutors saying you were never intending to abide by that deal. well, okay. once you have got an alleged perpetrator who you decided to give a non-prosecution agreement to, once that perpetrator violates the terms of that agreement, then deal's off. agreement's broken. you are no longer bound by it. prosecute away, right? alex acosta's office never prosecuted jeffrey epstein. acosta released this information purportedly as part of the reason you are supposed to feel better about his actions. it doesn't make things any better for

president trump says acosta is doing a great and fantastic job. but said the matter must be looked at closely. i'll speak with democratic candidate amy klobuchar and congressman john garamendi and our correspondents will have full coverage. let's begin with our chief white house correspondent jim acosta. a member of the trump cabinet is under fire for his controversial actions in a previous job. what is the latest? >> reporter: he certainly is, wolf. president trump is stepping up to defend his labor secretary who is is facing calls to resign over his handling of the jeffrey epstein case. president said secretary alex acosta is doing a fantastic job. mr. trump also tried to distance himself from epstein in the oval office earlier today after once describing him alz a terrific guy. >> thank you very much -- >> reporter: tonight president trump appears to be standing by his embattled labor secretary alex acosta. at least for now. >> i can tell you that for two and a half years he's been just an excellent secretary of labor. he's done a fantastic job

acosta, however, seems to be digging in.oday he responded, defiant about how he handled a 2007 plea deal with epstein that critics argued was far too lenient. especially in light of evidence revealed in yesterday's doj indictment. this afternoon speaking from the oval office the president threw his support behind his embattled cabinet member. >> i can tell you that for two and a half years he has been just an excellent secretary of labor. he has done a fantastic job. you know, if you go back and look at everybody else's decisions, whether it's a u.s. attorney or an assistant u.s. attorney or a judge, you go back 12 or 15 years ago or 20 years ago and look at their past decisions, i would think you would probably find that they would wish they maybe did it a different way. i can only say this from what i know and what i do know is that he's been a great -- really great secretary of labor. i feel very badly about that whole situation, but we're going to be looking at that and looking at it very closely. >> there's reporting th

acosta to such a powerful position., on health care, today oral arguments begin in the texas versus united states and the fate of our -- >> so you have been listening to senator chuck schumer calling on the labor secretary, alex acosta, to step down. schumer had been expected to make the remarks. he now joins house speaker nancy pelosi and other democrats in making that call. i can tell you that the department of labor, a spokesperson there told me that acosta has no intention, is not considering stepping down despite the growing calls. and the white house is defending acosta's a appointment as labor secretary. let me bring in capitol hill reporter kasie hunt live on the hill. kasie, i think we heard a kind of unified front with nancy pelosi on this issue. >> reporter: that's right, hallie. he went a little bit further, not just calling for the resignation of acosta but also calling for an accounting from both the president of the united states and the department of justice for what happened here. and i think the one th

acosta was a u.s. attorney a decade ago when he cut a secret plea deal for multi-millionaire jeffrey epstein who faced sex charges and now with epstein facing new charges for allegedly running a sex trafficking network and abusing underage girls, joe biden is the latest to demand that acosta resign. president trump says acosta is doing a great and fantastic job. but said the matter must be looked at closely. i'll speak with democratic candidate amy klobuchar and congressman john garamendi and our correspondents will have full coverage. let's begin with our chief white house correspondent jim acosta. a member of the trump cabinet is under fire for his controversial actions in a previous job. what is the latest? >> reporter: he certainly is, wolf. president trump is stepping up to defend his labor secretary who is is facing calls to resign over his handling of the jeffrey epstein case. president said secretary alex acosta is doing a fantastic job. mr. trump also tried to distance himself from epstein in

acosta: good afternoon. let me start by reiterating that i'm pleased that the new york prosecution is going forward. his acts are despicable and then you prosecution offers a better opportunity to more fully bring epstein to justice. in 2008, a major newspaper described the epstein prosecution like this. " a florida grand jury, a grand jury convened by the district attorney of palm beach county, had charged epstein with a lesser offense. at that time, the epstein legal team was elated. he would have avoided prison altogether. but then the united states attorney's office in miami became involved. epstein got an ultimatum. plead guilty to a charge that would require jail time and registration or face federal charges. that was the week, more than 10 years ago, that epstein went to jail. times have changed and coverage of this case has really changed since that article. facts are important and facts are being overlooked. this matter started as a state matter. it was prosecuted initially by the state of florida a

so keen interest in what we hear from acosta. the president saying that he is doing a fantastic job, saying that he to this point has been excellent. but notably in the comments from president trump on tuesday, president did sort of distance himself from acosta saying he only first met him when i was going through that nomination process back in 2017. so all of that of course is the backdrop as we anticipate these comments from secretary acosta. and certainly tough questions from reporters. >> certainly tough questions indeed. great reporting there on the background of why we are going to hear from secretary acosta. kasie hunt, over to you and get the view from capitol hill. i want to play you something that we heard from democrat tim kaine on "morning joe" earlier today as pressure mounts on capitol hill for acosta to go. take a listen. >> the secretary of labor oversees human trafficking enforcement. human trafficking claims. what victim of trafficking is going to think under secretary acosta that they are going to be protected

acosta said he has no intention of resigning. let's bring in our experts, our constituents and analysts to assess. and kaitlan, you were there at that news conference at the department of labor earlier today. and you've done some serious reporting on the pressure behind the scenes from the president on alex acosta to do something. tell us about that. >> president trump was the reason he came out today and did answer the questions from reporters because they got on the phone yesterday and the president told him he needed to defend himself and do so in a press conference, maybe taking questions because he wanted him to go out there and defend his actions as he oversaw the plea deal. we reported last night the president had been privately telling people he had confidence in secretary acosta making the same argument he did in the oval office yesterday, downplaying his role in the deal, saying there were multiple people involved and stating that it was 11 years ago. with the the president was saying it was a long time ago. so that is

and acosta says they were victims. the question is, is he making the case for his actions then, and is he making the case for the cause for him to step down to subside? we will let him continue now in english, and you decide. >> felt let down by you. >> look. victims came forward and there were several victims. i believe that in one of the filings, the department of justice talked to several of the victims and some of the victims just didn't want any public notoriety. other victims have provided interviews and said they felt let down, that they were let down. these are really hard cases. the prosecutors in my office and i were focused on putting him in jail. i provided the information from the career attorney as to why there were concerns. if we went to trial, and it became clear that they were going to receive money if he was convicted, how that would impeach their credibility. today that would proceed very differently because victims shaming is just not accepted. the circumstances of trials and with juries would cons

acosta made clear this morning -- the president made clear it was based on acosta's decision, but certainly president based on the conversations the president had been having over the last 24 hours or so. >> kate lynn collins, thank you very much. stand by and let us know as you have more reporting. i think it's interesting that according to kaitlyn's reporting the president's turn was about the lack of the victims being notified. let me remind people, it is a federal judge that has ruled that what acosta agreed to, to basically keep this deal secret from the dozens of victims, over 30 victims that we know about, was not only illegal, that's what a federal judge said. the great reporting from julie brown in the "miami herald" earlier this year point out that acosta act we increased to the attorneys, agreeing to have secret meetings and keep things private and limit the scandal by shutting out the victims, moving some of this to miami to keep it out of, quote, significant press coverage away from many of the victims in the palm beach area? >> that's right. and he tried to offer an explanatio

acosta needs to go. and this argument that times have changed over the last 10 or 12 years, i mean, come on. it's not like this happened when women didn't have the right to vote and men walked around in top hats. it's not that long ago. and i think we have to keep in mind that this job that acosta has is a job running the department of labor. the purpose of this agency is to stand up for people who don't have a lot of power in a world where powerful, rich people just exactly like epstein and others are there to take advantage of you this. is what his job. and i think it makes him particularly unsuited to continue as the secretary of labor. >> is there consensus among your caucus on this? i saw the few folks joe manchin and cortez masto do not seem to be in terms of calling for his resignation. what is your sense where the caucus is at? >> i can't speak for my whole caucus. i've had conversations with many people. jon tester really stands out. he talked this morning about how he supported acosta initially

secretary acosta becomes the 13th. let me say that again, the 13th cabinet member to leave this trump white house. we just heard the president say he is with acosta and he didn't have to quit, but behind the scenes, cnn has learned that trump was expressing his doubts, you tell me what you know. >> that's right, brooke. sources tell cnn president trump was stewing over secretary acosta's performance at that press conference wednesday in which acosta defended his role in the plea deal jeffrey epstein received in florida some ten years ago. president trump had gone from publicly praising acosta and urging him to defend himself, in fact it was president trump who encouraged acosta to give that press conference in the first place, to questioning why it was that victims in that florida case were not notified of the deal that epstein's defense team ultimately struck with the u.s. attorney's office under acosta's leadership. president trump clearly saying today that it was acosta's decision to resign, acosta was the one who s

is that all he's got, is that good news for acosta? >> and his friends also say he doesn't have the capacity to do anything other than what he did today. he's a low-key lawyer. this is not somebody on the campaign. this is not a friend of president trump. this is a lawyer who made decisions over a decade ago that continued to haunt him in his career and they will be part of his legacy. but in terms of responding to president trump, this is who he is. >> joyce, we're covering the world as it exists because everyone here covers donald trump. but the world as it should be, we should be covering a president or white house or secretary of labor who once served as a prosecutor who's saving all of their condemnation and fire for the monster in this story, and that's jeffrey epstein. is it stunning to you as a former federal prosecutor no one is talking about donald trump being repulsed by epstein's alleged conduct? >> you know, it is so hard i think to avoid the comparison between epstein and trump. of course, one is under indictment. the oth

our chief white house constituent jim acosta standing by. the president's embattled labor secretary is defending his actions as a u.s. attorney a decade ago. >> reporter: in an update, so far officials here at the white house believe labor secretary alex acosta handled himself well at the press conference this afternoon as we saw as he came out in front of the cameras, there were no apologies or regretted from the embattled labor secretary regarding his handling of the jeffrey epstein case and secretary acosta claimed he still has the support of the president even though mr. trump hasn't always stood by cabinet secretaries facing intense scrutiny in the past. under fire over a plea deal he once cut for multi-millionaire sex offender jeffrey epstein, alex acosta defended the handling of the case as a prosecutor. >> no regrets is a hard question. you look back and say what if. >> reporter: with you in victims coming forward questioning whether acosta was too lenient in the case, the secretary was asked whether he would have reached the same ag

i want to ask you about alex acosta's press conference. first of all, is there anything that you heard that he said that you do not think to be true? >> well, there were a number of things. and i -- he managed to present it in a way that it sounds true if you really don't read the court records and understand the sequence of events. i guess there is a lot to unpack. there are two areas, i think, number one his argument about the evidence and whether there were adequate witnesses, if the witnesses were strong enough to testify, look, he didn't need all -- he had 36 girls who all told the same story which is amazing. and i talked to only a handful of them and they all said, you know, exactly what the m.o. was. sarah would call me and we set it up for 3:00, i went into the kitchen and went up this curving stairway. it isn't just the witnesses and whether they were scared to testify, which by the way i heard one of the lawyers mention, it is the job of the prosecutors to make them feel secure enough to testify. and so that -- that is one thing

let me start with your reaction that alex acosta is stepping aside as labor secretary. >> look, acosta no longer hold that position of public trust, it just wasn't possible. and, you know, the acosta angle to the story encapsulates a very important part of what we're talking about here. because we all agree, right, epstein was an evil guy, he's a terrible guy. but there was a network of powerful, rich, politically connected people who enabled him to carry out this abuse of children for an extended period of time. and -- and without those connections, without that power surrounding him, it wouldn't have occurred in this way. what acosta didn't do when he had the opportunity, which was to aggressively prosecute him, is a reflection. it's a man testtation of that issue. do any of us seriously believe that if jeffrey epstein wasn't rich and wasn't powerful that he would have gotten the kind of sweetheart deal that he got? the answer is definitively no. he wouldn't have. there was a 56-page indictment. there, numerous witnesses willing to testify and he got work release for a year or whatev

and i want to thank alex acosta. he was a great, great secretary. . >> (inaudible). >> iran better be careful. they're treading on very dangerous territory. iran, if you're listening, you better be careful. >> (inaudible). >> i had a big one yesterday. >> you've been listening to donald trump on the white house south lawn. you saw him dripping with sweat at the end of more than 30 minutes of speaking to reporters on a series of topics. of course the major headline was the president standing beside his now former labor secretary, alex acosta, saying despite tremendous pressure, he thought acosta did a fantastic job explaining his role in the plea deal as it related to jeffrey epstein. the president, as you just heard, said acosta is resigning. you see our panel right now. hans nichols was on the south lawn. elliot williams is joining us right now. we have juan that summers, susan del persio. kimberly atkins as well. hans, i want to start with you if i can. you were on the lawn right now. it was sort of remarkable agai

attorney for southern florida alex acosta. currently donald trump's secretary of labor who was confronted by cnn last year only to dodge questions. >> i want to you ask about the jeffrey epstein -- >> reporter: in 2017 at his senate confirmation hearing, he defiended the lack of federal prosecution but did agree jeffrey epstein's come and go as he pleased jail time was a disgrace. >> he had to sleep at a county jail but he was basically allowed to move and go around the community and do whatever he wants and then that became a subject of significant criticism. >> and i'm on record condemning that and i think though was awful. >> reporter: the lack of federal prosecution more puzzling given acosta's record of aggressively going after others for sex trafficking. getting convictions and pushing for sentences of a decade or more behind bars. acosta's role in the plea deal brought to light last fall by a long investigation by the "miami-herald" which identified dozens of women who say they were molested or otherwise sexually abused

trump told acosta to hold the presser today. acosta does in defiant performance. and makes sure it's been happening to me a lot -- groery i hear you let me play the sound bite. here is what acosta said about trump. >> my relationship with the president is outstanding. he has i think very publicly made clear that -- that i've got his support. >> all right. so that's acosta's version. everything is wonderful he is fully behind me. yesterday, gloria, trump said this. >> i met secretary acosta -- this is the first time i know when i made the deal to bring him on -- into the administration. i can tell you that for two and a half years he has been just an excellent secretary of labor. he has done a fantastic job. part of it is our economy is so good, unemployment numbers at record lows. you know, so many good things happening. >> sew clearly gave himself an out, groeria, then acosta gives this performance. did he save himself in trump's eyes today. >> he might have. you're not hearing any screeches out of the white house? they believe he behaved appropriately. one thing

we didn't see any of that from secretary acosta today.ked multiple times what he would have done if he could do it over. if he felt guilty. if he could have done things differently fefls sorry. this speaks to his audience of one and not wanting to admit any responsibility or wrongdoing in front of the president. when you talk about something that involves the rape of young children, it is beyond rationalizing how he should be acting in front of the president's eyes versus how a human being should be acting. and i totally agree with susan. he kept referring to how times have changed. this was only a decade ago and maybe he was conflating the me, too move. with child rape and pedophilia. but you cannot, not to take any significance from the me too movement but we're talking about children at the age of 13, 14, 15. and jennifer, in many respects is one of the lucky victims. she's alive today. if you read the report from the miami herald, many fared far worse including death and suicide. so i do think that watching that today is something tha

jim acosta joins us now. the white house, do we know what they thought of acosta's performance today? >> so far they feel secretary acosta handled himself well earlier today. i talked to one official this evening that said he offered some information to his defenders out there who are trying to counter this criticism that he was too lenient. the vice president said they were glad to see secretary acosta step forward but much of this is driven by the president, anderson, who does not appear at this point to be in the mood to unload the labor secretary from what i understand talking to a senior administration official, he wanted secretary acosta to go out there and fight for his job and the president wanted to fight for calling his resignation and the president's attitude about those detractors was quote screw them. >> well, in terms of his job security, should he be breathing a sigh of relief tonight? obviously, there were a lot of things he left unsaid or refused to answer or, you though, apparently answered

acosta and concluded that mr. acosta had to go.trouble in the sex case involving mr. epstein, mr. trump publicly took to the air waves and said jeff epstein is a terrific guy. he appears to love beautiful women almost as much as i do. these are direct quotes. >> that was back in 2002, i think. >> that's right. and some of them appear to be on the younger side and he certainly enjoys his social life. how did mr. trump know all those things unless he had socialized with mr. epstein? i don't think the administration wants those questions asked one little bit. >> but 2002 is not 2019. friendship can fall apart in that amount of time, yeah? >> that's true. and mr. trump did strike him on the no-fly list for mar-a-lago years later, but that was his spontaneous reaction to the reports about his then friend, jeffrey epstein. he appeared to know a lot about mr. epstein's social life. mr. epstein by his own words was a fixture in palm beach, where mar-a-lago is located. so that's my inference anyway. i think it's a reasonable inference, and

when reporters pressed secretary acosta yesterday, about why he agreed to such a deal, acosta placedme squarely on local prosecutors in florida. >> the palm beach state attorney's office was ready to let epstein walk free, no jail time, nothing. the prosecutors in my former office found this to be completely unacceptable. they became involved. our office became involved. without the work of our prosecutors, epstein would have gotten away with just that state charge. >> in response, the former state's attorney for palm beach county at the time of the epstein plea deal is disputing acosta's account, saying acosta could have moved forward with a 53-page indictment that acosta's own office had drafted. barry krischer releasing this statement, in part, i can state that mr. acosta's recollection of this matter is completely wrong. federal prosecutors do not take a back seat to state prosecutors. several democrats also question acosta's version calling on acosta to appear at a congressional hearing in two weeks. lawyers for some of epstein's alleged victims are saying they're not satisfied

acosta also i wrote that the white house is saying that acosta was not told he had to do this. he was encouraged to go out and defend himself. this does come just a few days after there were background quotes from people in the administration saying that maybe alex acosta hasn't done much at the labor department is much as they would like. because they want to be more aggressive. that to me was a little bit of it held that there might be a problem for alex acosta staying his secretary of labor. >> specifically in the issue of deregulation. there are a lot of regulations in the workforce and they felt that as the secretary of labor he could push more aggressively on that. at one point the domestic policy basically came in and fired acosta's chief of staff as a not very subtle warning to the secretary of labor, you have to get going. we mean business, we want to see more rolling back of regulations in the workplace. so he doesn't have a lot of friends, he just doesn't have strong standings. he is playing to an audience of one and this is not totally unlike him obviously different

acosta was a u.s. attorney in florida at the time. speaker pelosi calls that deal unconscionable, and the controversy is rising, again, after federal prosecutors in new york implicitly rebuked acosta's handling of the case, filing new charges yesterday accusing epstein of running a sex trafficking ring. they allege the millionaire financ financer abused dozens. >>> they uncovered a trove of lewd photos in his safe last weekend. he faces 45 years in prison. jeffrey epstein's social circle involves a wide swath of powerful people, including two u.s. presidents and a saudi prince. we are also learning that attorney general bill barr has recused himself from parts of this case because of his professional and family connections to epstein. at this hour, we are waiting to hear from secretary acosta, and from the white house. cnn's brynn gingras is here with all of the latest developments and there are many. >> jeffrey epstein, an already registered sex offender, meaning this was no secret but he still had friends in high places, former pres

well, today president trump expressed a sympathetic view of acosta. >> i met secretary acosta his first time when i made the deal to bring him into the administration. i can tell you that for two and a half years he's been just an excellent secretary of labor. he's done a fantastic job. if you go back and look at everybody else's decisions whether it's a u.s. attorney or an assistant u.s. attorney or a judge, you go back 12 or 15 years ago or 20 years ago and look at their past decisions, i would think you'd probably find that they would wish they maybe did it a different way. we'll have to look at it carefully. you're talking about a long time ago and again, it was a decision made, i think not by him but by a lot of people. so we're going to look at it very carefully. i feel very badly actually for secretary acosta. >> well, tonight "the new york times" reports, quote, white house officials said mr. trump regarded mr. acosta as a loyal and until now no drama member of his cabinet. mr. acosta has not spoken with the president about the epstein case recently. according to "the washington

hash tag, acosta resign. has not said anything about this, and the more that comes to light, the more baffling it is what alexander acosta did. why wouldn't he tell the victims that he was making this sweetheart deal with jeffrey epstein by which jeffrey epstein, he could have served life in prison. he ended up getting 13 months, but he was able to go to his office and work for six days a week. >> yeah. the go to the work release program from jail is a new one for me, and i think a new one for most americans. that's a jeffrey epstein special. what's happening within the trump administration is that we have an alarmingly large number of men who either have been accused credibly or rape, accused of sexual assault, accused of domestic violence, who have found their way into the white house, into the administration where they find protection by the president who has been accused by some 17 women of his own just three weeks ago, we had a credible accusation of rape against our president. i think at this point, we

>> acosta is a liar?no, admit, there was a female lead prosecutor -- >> acosta says he did the deal. >> don't try to blame women. that's disgusting. >> you're lame. stick to the facts. stick to the facts. >> let's -- listen, this discussion has ended its utility for tonight. were there multiple people on the deal? yes. does acosta own that he negotiated the deal? yes. nothing else is relevant. we will learn more -- >> there are lots of other things that are relevant here, chris. there are lots of other prosecutors who wanted to put this guy away for a long time. >> he did the deal. >> what did trump know and when did he know it. >> that's not an interest for me at this point. i respect the passion. i'll talk to you again. >>> all right, you're going to hear more about that case and it's going to have a lot of political purchase. wait for the closing. it's relevant. he's the sitting labor secretary. but there's more. >>> another story, the president has promised mass immigration sweeps across the country.

the question now, does alex acosta keep his support? the tweet is evidence that he wants to fight to keep his support. republicans on capitol hill being asked should he stay. >> the department of justice has an ongoing investigation. i think we should find out what happened. >> this is an area of the law where the tie goes to the kids. if we think somebody is out there abusing children, no matter how hard the case may be, you want to bring it forward. >> is it time for him to resign? >> i think there's nothing new that we didn't know before he was confirmed by the senate. >> is there nothing new? >> i think there is quite a bit new. i mean just to your earlier -- the indictment, which is certainly new, and there are the victims who we knew existed but now we're hearing from them, seeing them. that is new, and to your point it is quite powerful. even in senator cornyn's comments of the three republicans you played there, he was probably the most forward-leaning in terms of supporting him. that is not iron clad support that you heard from

what's the case the president is effectively making on alex acosta's behalf? >> one of the things the president is pointing to is his accomplishments on the job. this is different than some of the other cabinet secretaries who have gotten into trouble and ultimately left their positions. those were instances of difficulties they had in the course of doing their business. as a member of the trump administration. these facts go back to acosta's judgment in a prior job as the u.s. attorney in florida. the president separating those in part because he likes the job that secretary acosta has been doing. and one of the problems for this, for the white house, for secretary accoosta is that jobss one of the biggest things that's part of the president's argument for re-election. the economy, jobs and so forth. the kind of position where he would want to have that secretary in the sunshine with him talking about various accomplishments or programs. and this makes that very difficult. with the secretary putting out his tweet, calling jeffrey epstein's offenses horrific a

aco a acosta. the state attorney's office was not a party to those meetings or negotiations and definitely had no part in the federal non-prosecution agreement and the unusual confidentiality arrangement that kept everything hidden from the victims. it he was concerned with the state's case and felt he had to rescue the matter, he would have moved forward with the 5 3-page indictment that his own office drafted. instead, mr. acosta brokered a secret plea deal in violation of the crime victims rights act. acosta defended his position as labor secretary during yesterday's press conference saying he has the president's support. >> i'm here to talk about this case. i'm doing my job. if the president decides i'm not the best person to do this job, i respect that. that's his choice. i serve at the pleasure of the president. i thought yesterday he was kind and showed great support. >> the white house seemed ple e pleased with acosta's performance saying acosta did very well. acosta received praise from mi

acosta to resign are now growing. the president had a lot to say. it's part of the fallout over the arrest of bombshell indictment of billionaire jeffrey epstein. you are watching "outnumbered overtime" now. and harris faulkner. critics calling on labor secretary acosta to move on over a past plea deal he cut as a u.s. attorney with epstein on sex trafficking charges in 2008. but the president defended acosta. watch. >> i knew him like everybody in palm beach knew him. people in palm beach knew him. he was a fixture in palm beach. i had a falling out with him a long time ago. i don't think i've spoken to him for 15 years. i wasn't a fan. i was not -- a long time ago. i would say maybe 15 years. i was not a fan of his. that i can tell you. >> harris: i do apologize, that obviously was not the right to clip from the president. he was talking about jeffrey epstein. we were expecting something about the labor secretary acosta. so here is how we will recover. we will go to our john roberts, who will have it all for us outs

acosta. any other president would have seen a day of reckoning was going to come eventually for alex acosta as it has now finally come. only donald trump would not care about that day of reckoning and how alex acosta handled a major sex crimes case against a rich old friend of donald trump's in palm beach. >> i have to use tic-tacs in case i start kissing her. i'm automatically a tracked to beautiful -- i just start kissing them. when you're a star, you can do anything. grab them by the [ bleep ]. you can do anything. >> that's donald trump's confession to sexual assault. you can do anything. that's donald trump's description of the first sexually assaultive moves he likes to make on women. you can do anything. for donald trump, you can get away with anything. it means his friends and his people should be able to get away with anything. the white house staff can violate the hatch act whenever they want. you can do anything. that's the motto of the trump white house. it certainly means that do

acosta is staying on for now. the secretary may want to look back at how other embattled cabinet members have fared in the past. as one senior administration official that, one day you're working for president trump and one day you're not. there was one departure in washington that was welcome by the white house today. that is the british ambassador to the u.s. he announced he is stepping down after some of his past criticisms of mr. trump surfaced in the news media. one top white house official said in the day this was the right course of action. they welcomed that news at the white house. >> i'm sure. thank you. let's get more on the breaking news. here in the situation room, you've been going through the legal documents around this 2007, 2008 case when alex acosta was the u.s. attorney prosecuting him. what did you find out? >> we found out there were bare knuckle tactic that's were used by the high profile lawyers. including ken starr, the lawyer who had investigated bill clinton. what we found was that there

what more are you hoping to hear from acosta?> well, first of all, we want to give an opportunity to the victims of all these sexual assaults who are now young women who were then girls, 13, 14, 15 years old, the opportunity to testify about what this has done to them. acosta oversaw essentially a double system of justice. while they're putting lots of people away in jail or prison for marijuana offenses, for example, they're letting the wealthy and well-connected jeffrey epstein off after having committed dozens of sexual assaults against girls. these are rapes and sexual offenses, and he got a really sweet sweetheart deal where basically he spent half the day in some kind of mellow incarceration and then he could go do whatever he wanted and that was after a plea relating to the least serious offense of the 17-year-old girl involved and they decided to describe it as soliciting prostitution, so they basically labelled her a prostitute instead of dealing with the realities of his offenses. after a storm of outrage about this, th

alex acosta is set to speak out with his past connection to epstein. we'll hear from his new accuser, she said epstein raped her when she was a 15 years old child. plus, how migrants are being treated including abuse and sexual assaults. >> the president's golf club is holding a charity today hosted by a strip club. nbc news has exclusively obtained dozens of accounts by children collected by government case managers that alleged mistreatment of the hands of u.s. border agents in arizona. a 15-year-old girl from honduras described a large beirded officer putting his hands inside her bra and what is meant to be a pat down. a spokesperson responded to the report saying, u.s. customs and border patrol treats those in our custody with dignity and respect. the allegations do not align with common practice at our facilities and will be fully investigated. >> jacob soboroff, one of the reporters who broke this story who's been covering the migrant crisis from the beginning. the 15-year-old girl went onto say the officer was laughing during the pat down and sh

what's your reaction to what alex acosta said? >> well, there was a lot to unpack here, and i sort of divided it into two areas. number one, he talked about the agreement itself, the evidence, the investigation, how it was difficult in these case. and these cases of course are difficult. but it is the job of these prosecutors, highly trained prosecutors to be able to talk to these victims and to understand where they're coming from. and, you know, i think because there were maybe -- and there were women that were reluctant to talk about and to go to trial, but you didn't need all 30 to go to trial. sex offenders and sex traffickers have gone to prison for a very long time on far less evidence. number one. and then the second part of this is the secrecy part of it. you know, this idea that he thought that somehow the case would be compromised if they knew that they might get some restitution to it. and that they use that. i did see that in the case file that that was the argument. but you didn't have to tell them about the restitut

acosta just to resign. i mean, the irony of it is that part of the duties of the labor department is to prevent labor trafficking and here is a man who said it's okay for this sexual predator to traffic in young girls. no, i don't think he's fit to be in office right now. i think the best thing he could do for this country is to step down. >> all right. congresswoman lois frankel, thank you for joining us. congresswoman frankel is from palm beach. >> we got a lot of feedback on the issue of what bill barr did or didn't do with respect to recusal in the epstein case. remember one of the confusing things about this case is that there are two issues we're talking about, the investigation that was opened up in miami in florida and the new york investigation. when we come back we're going to clarify that. stay with us. clarify that stay with us hmm. how did you make the dip so rich and creamy? oh it's a philadelphia-- family recipe. can i see it? no. philadelphia dips. so good, you'll take all the credit. and my

>> you know, i didn't vote for secretary acosta to begin with. so i think that was part of it. a number of us had opposed him from the very beginning as this being one of the reasons, as you know senator kaine asked him about this at the hearing. but i think there has been many new developments since that hearing. the first thing was a federal district court came out and said that that agreement that he had made with epstein's lawyer violated the law. i know as a former prosecutor that you consult with victims, sometimes you have plea agreements, but the law both state and federal say that you need to consult with victims and that didn't happen in this case so that was a violation. the other thing that has happened was just the gruesome details in the gory details that we all learned yesterday, they still found photos according to news reports of young women. and when we step back and look at this, wolf, we have to remember through all of the political discussions about this, these were young girls. these were 14-year-olds. these aren't prostitutes, these are actually victims.

acosta in his cabinet. he defended him yesterday, but it reminded me a bit of scott pruitt at the epa, defended by the president, kept in the job for a while until finally he was defended, then dumped. >> jim, what is the future of alex acosta, listening to the president talk about him, say he felt badly for him, but you all are reporting at axios, there's not a ton of goodwill to begin with because of alex acosta, not because of this, but because of the way he has done his job as labor secretary. >> it's bad news, i think, for the acosta that you have so many people inside the white house leaking out that they weren't happy with him before any of this. they claim he hasn't moved fast enough on regulatory fronts that they wanted him to move on. mick mulvaney white house chief of staff thinks this is problematic, and it's going to get worse. it's going to go back to the media. there's going to be more and more reporting from the miami herald and others about what evidence did acosta have when he was making t

today he's fine with acosta because acosta took epstein out of the white house and took it on.nd so it brought it out of the white house which is -- that was job number one of the president. he wanted it out of his kitchen, and he got it. but if this is lingering in a week, isn't he gone? because that's the way this president operates? if you're grabbing too many negative headlines, get out. >> yeah. if past is precedent, i think that's a pretty safe assessment here. when he was walking out of that conference room just down on the second floor of the labor department, i asked him if he would testify before congress. elijah cummings who was the democratic chair says he wants to bring acosta before congress. he ignored that question. but if you see him on camera again for the course of a long day of testimony, it could become yet more problematic i think for this secretary. >> i'll be very curious to see if acosta does testify before congress. peter alexander at the white house for us, thank you. let me bring in our political experts today. joined here from the set by nbc news co

i feel very badly actually for secretary acosta. i've known him for being someone who has worked so hard. i feel badly about that whole situation. we're going to be looking at that and looking at it very closely. we're also going to be signing a big contract in a little while. so we're going to see you in a little while in a different room, in a different part of the white house where we're going to be signing a big deal with boeing. thank you very much. we'll see you in a couple minutes. >> as you just heard, the president very strongly endorsing his labor secretary acosta as an excellent labor secretary, but saying he didn't know him before. there's a little bit of distancing there, they're going to be taking a close look at it. saying he was not a fan of jeffrey epstein, even though he previously in 2002 at least told the press that they were good friends and that he -- they shared a like for beautiful women. that's a strange introduction of democratic presidential candidate bernie sanders. my apologies, senator. secretary acosta

will acosta be held accountable? i think other thapt presiden tht of the united states, everybody that i've heard from and read from thought he did a miserable performance, some white house aides say he hurt his chances of surviving. politically, politically what was the takeaway of yesterday's press conference? >> i think that's close to where everyone settled here in town, joe, the idea that acosta did not go out there as a fire brand as we saw in the kavanaugh hearings part two where after the break kavanaugh came back and really showed that he was going to fight for this -- this argument on behalf of his appointment. and here you didn't see acosta make the case to the president why he should say. way the president typically likes to see it, which it to push back against the system, make the proper noise. so that did weaken his position inside the administration with the president. to the extent that this continues, to jonathan's reporting earlier, that if this continues to bleed out, which will it will. this stor

excuse me, whyid acosta resign?> the performance was not the kind of performance we' use to from people when they're trying to please the president. he lacked he lacked indignation. you'll remember when brett i kavanaug his confirmation hearings for the supreme court defended himself, he did so with a lot of vigor and passion and indignation and anger and trump really liked that.ru i think wasn't sure what to make of acosta's performance. started askingt around and f forward to friday and acosta's out. robert: he alsoid not apologize to the victims, jerry? >> i think the way t victi were treated may have been the biggest part of it, at least the public relations problem even the legal problem not telling the victim what is you were doing struck a lot of people kind of the worst of the sins that were com down in florida. but i think the backdrop of this that's important tbeo rem is that this is just continuing turnover within the trump administration, remarkable level of turnover. nine cabinet secretaries have resign