all this as the trump administration continues to insist that ousted veterans affairs secretary david shulkin are signed rather than being fired. shulkin denying this claim, saying he never submitted a resignation letter. >> i would not resign. i'm committed to making sure this job was seen through to the very is end. >> so you were fired? >> i did not resign. >> it is unclear whether the tweets represent a change in policy or whether he was venting a after reading an article or watching a television news program. it is important to keep in mind it goes to show how capricious this president can be when it comes to immigration policy. it is important to remember when he spent the weekend with, a series of fox news he hosts, and steven mural, his aide, who is the most hard line on immigration. john, jim, and alisyn. >> thank you very much for all of of that interesting reporting. we will get to that right now. joining us is brian karen and jeffrey toobin. great to see all of you guys. john avlon, let's start with china retaliating. here's the graphic. 128 u.s. products. 120 involve fruits, nuts

all this as the trump administration continues to insist that ousted veterans affairs secretary david shulkin are signed rather than being fired. shulkin denying this claim, saying he never submitted a resignation letter. >> i would not resign. i'm committed to making sure this job was seen through to the very is end. >> so you were fired? >> i did not resign. >> reporter: he has been on quite the media tour since he resigned or was fired. the president is continue to go tweet following up on his tweet storm yesterday saying, quote, mexico has the absolute power to let these large caravans of people enter their country. they must stop them at their northern border, which they can do because their border laws work, not allow them to pass through our country, which has no effective board laws. he is continuing to tweet about this. it is unclear if they actually represent a change in policy for this president or him venting after watching cable news. >> okay. we'll talk about that. >> does that happen? >> thank you very much. here to break down all of this, cnn chief legal analyst jeffrey toobin

david shulkin, happy passover.o much for being here. >>> in the white house there's one powerful player behind the scenes that's melania trump according to my next guest. i'll ask how she's been able to sway the president next. stay with us. ultra strength heartburn relief chews. with more acid-fighting power than tums chewy bites. mmmmm...amazing. i have heartburn. heartburn relief from alka-seltzer. enjoy the relief. brbut how will his dentured to thicope with... a steak. luckily for brad, this isn't a worry because he's discovered super poligrip. it holds his denture tight and helps give him 65% more chewing power. leaving brad to dig in and enjoy the tastiest of t-bones. super poligrip, helping you enjoy the foods you love. ♪ last night took a l, but tonight i what's an l? ♪ the rap singer took a loss and now he's ok again. right. yeah you can get a mortgage that avoids pmi, but there's no way to avoid mip on... . hey! this'll help. rocket mortgage by quicken loans makes the complex simple. so, origination fees

but of all the people who have left, few has been as vocal as david shulkin. just six days ago, the white house announced that shulkin would be replaced at va secretary. since then, he's been making the media rounds, defending his performance and insisting that he did not resign. >> i came to fight for our veterans and i had no intention of giving up. there would be no reason for me to resign. i made a commitment, i took an oath. and i was here to fight for our veterans. >> so why would the white house say technically you resigned. did you submit a letter of resignation? >> no, we did not. >> were you asked to submit a letter of resignation? >> no, i was not. >> he says he was forced out. the white house insists he resigned. the truth could have long-ranging implications. will fisher is an iraq veteran and a purple heart recipient. garrett haake is also with us. garrett, who's telling the truth? shulkin or the white house? and if he didn't resign, if he was fired, why wouldn't the white house just say so? >> well, we've heard conflicting stories from the white

david shulkin was pushed out against the backdrop of sort of ideological warfare at tv.a. ovr what he calls privatization efforts. the "daily beast" acted paranoid enough to the point he thought there were a lot of people in his ranks at the v.a. out to get him to the point he stationed and armed guard outside of his office door. so this was -- an era for the v.a. plagued by palace backfighting, ideological warfare and second guessing to the point where whoever this guy was, it was made untenable for him to be kept in that position. >> so, jeff, final question. you here, obviously no firings or resignations over the weekend. because that does sometimes happen in these two days or so. however, there is word scott pruitt can feasibly be the next person on the chopping block. what are you hearing? >> look, scott pruitt is certainly keeping ethics officials at the epa fairly busy. it's not just a question about that apartment lease he got last year. also questions about his over reliance on pricey first-class air tickets and his use of a 24/7 security detail, which is fairly u

david shulkin joins me now. mr.ecretary, welcome to "meet the press." >> good morning. >> let me start with just a simple question. were you fired or resigned? because the white house now claims you resigned. >> you know, i came to the va because our men and women in the country fight for us and don't give up. i came to fight for our veterans. i had no intention of giving up. there would be no reason for me to resign. i made a commitment. i took an oath. i was here to fight for our veterans. >> why would the white house say technically you resigned? did you submit a letter of resignation? were you asked to submit a letter of resignation? >> no, i was not. >> you were just terminated? >> i received the information the way that you talked about it and general kelly gave me a call shortly before the tweet came out. >> you said you had a call with the president a week before, after i guess -- did you brief him on the context of the inspector general report? >> we actually spoke the day that he sent the tweet out. just a

that is the question surrounding david shulkin. shulkin left his post at the va just last week. the white house says shulkin resigned during a phone call with the chief of staff, john kelly, who was calling to tell him the president planned on removing him as the head of the department. but you talk to shulkin, he maintains he did not leave voluntarily and was instead fired in a tweet from the president. >> were you fired or did you resign? >> well, i came to washington with the commitment to make our system work better for veterans. that's the commitment i went to work every day. i continue to feel strongly about that. there was no reason why i would resign. >> so why don't you just say you were fired? >> well, i think that's the alternative to resignation. i received a phone call saying that the president wanted to make a change. that's certainly his prerogative to do that, and that's what happened. >> you received a phone call from chief of staff john kelly, who fired you? >> general kelly gave me a heads

claiming for the first time that former veterans affair secretary david shulkin resigned. they say he was -- he says that he was fired via presidential tweet right after chief of staff john kelly gave him a heads-up last week. >> were you fired or did you resign? >> there was no reason why i would resign. >> so why don't you just say you were fired? >> well, i think that's the alternative to resignation. the president wanted to make a change and that's certainly his prerogative to do that. >> so the tweet fired you? >> yes. >> but this is more than a he said/she said. it can impact the va going forward and it's the latest chaos in the trump cabinet. joining me now politico's anna palmer covering all these fast changes. let's talk about shulkin. we've never seen a resignation letter from him and the white house didn't dispute his account that he was fired. why does it matter? >> it's been interesting they've shifted their narrative. first they said he resigned and

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ben carson, david shulkin, tom price. i'm going to forget the rest of the names because there have been so many people who have overstepped, not followed the rules, thought it was their playground. this is a narrative that is so outrageous that the president would allow this to continue. basically the president's word is meaningless. he has given a pat on the back to the kiss of death. i don't think he will make it to another tv interview. >> let me play a clip from what he said on fox. listen to this. >> president trump said he would drain the swamp. is draining the swamp renting an apartment from the wife of a washington lobbyist? >> i don't think that's even remotely fair to ask that question. >> you think it's a fair question? >> it's certainly a fair question. good, tough interview there from fox. look, he had to have known going into this job that he was going to be under a microscope, right? democrats, liberals who cared a lot about the epa, found this to be one of the better picks from donald trump. he had to have

david shulkin's firing was so chaotic and of a sudden that it is possible that donald trump didn't even know that donald trump was going to do it earlier in the day when donald trump spoke with david shulkin. >> when's the last time you spoke to him? >> i spoke to the president yesterday. >> what was that conversation like? >> we spoke about the progress that i was making, what i needed to do from a policy perspective to make sure that we were fixing the issues in va -- >> wait, that's before you were fired? >> that's correct. >> you spoke to him, he made no mention of the fact that he was about to terminate you? >> that's correct. >> and then you found out via tweet? >> right before that the chief of staff kelly gave me a call, which i appreciated, gave me a heads up. so -- but that was much after the phone call. >> the trump administration has always been choosing from the bottom of the republican barrel of talent and there is no possibility of that changing according to a report in "the washington post" today, the post reports that the presidential personnel office that's responsible

what we do know is that david shulkin, the now ousted va secretary, spoke to john kelly last wednesdayuest and said he heard a rumor that he was going to be fired by tweet at 2:00 p.m. last wednesday afternoon. and john kelly told him that he wasn't aware of any plan for that. now, kelly had to call shulkin again hours later and say that plans had changed. that's the phone call you heard shulkin talk about. so i don't think shulkin had the chance to submit a resignation letter before the president issued a tweet at 5:31 p.m. that afternoon. the white house had wanted the president to hold off on firing shulkin because they wanted to fire his deputy bowman who would go into that top job if he fired shulkin rather than shulkin resigning, because they've had a lot of problems with him in terms of his loyalty to the white house, his fuel to the trump agenda. people were not aware he would fire off a tweet getting rid of shulkin when he did. >> and now they're in a mess because nobody knows how long this will go on. if the president confirmed the choice, however, people say they're deeply q

you referenced david shulkin and your interview with him last night. david shulkin was axed ostensibly for far less. why is scott pruitt sticking on. the only real los angeles is he's doing a more effective job of carrying forth the trump agenda. while this is all happening, we are now talking about what was a major epa announcement that happened today, the ending of the fuel emissions standards for cars put in place under the obama's epa. that is being done as pruitt is being dogged by all these revelations. >> we'll talking about that issue with our next guest and a good point these ethical lapses are orders of magnitude greater than david shulkin. i have a funny feeling we'll hear more things coming out. eric and sam, thank you. with me now ted lieu, in a letter today requesting congress investigate pruitt's condo deal. what you do you make of this news. >> what scott pruitt did is part of a pattern of corruption in the trump cabinet. we've seen ben carson order a $31,000 dining table. ryan zinke spent $13,000 on office doors. and treasury secretary

outgoing veterans affairs secretary david shulkin is leaving the trump administration but not going quietlyulkin accusing the trump administration in its political appointees within the va of conspiring against him and his management with the goal of privatizing the va. shulkin also told chris hayes he spoke with president trump just hours before he was fired. >> when is the last time you spoke to him? >> i spoke to the president yesterday. >> what was that conversation like? >> we spoke about the progress that i was making, what i needed to do from a policy perspective to make sure that we were fixing the issues in va. >> wait, that's before you were fired? >> that's correct. >> you spoke to him. he made no mention of the fact that he was about to terminate you? >> that's correct. >> and then you found out via tweet? >> right before that, the chief of staff kelly gave me a call which i appreciated, gave me a heads-up. and so -- but that was much after the phone call. >> white house staff are now playing catchup in defending shulkin's would be successor, ronny jackson after being blind side

david shulkin has been clear as to why he thinks he was pushed out. because of ethics concerns. he thinks it's base people within the administration, important influencer outside the administration, who want to privatize the va. he opposed it so that's why they got rid of him. this ongoing pressure to privatize the va is one of the things shulkin's predecessor at the va bob mcdonnell warned was happening. when he was va secretary, he warned against it over and over again. >> some have argued, hard to believe, some have argued va can best serve veterans by shutting down va health care all together. they argue that closing vha is the bold transformation veterans and families need, want, deserve. i suspect their proposal serves some parties somewhere pretty well. but it's not transformational. it's more along the lines of dereliction. it doesn't serve veterans well and certainly doesn't sit well with me. >> that was then-va secretary bob mcdonald in july of 2016. so right at the height of the 2016 presidential campaign. after trump won the election and c

this is david shulkin speaking on nbc's "meet the press." >> i came to fight for our veterans.i had no intention of giving up. there would be no reason for me to resign. i made a commitment. i took an oath. amy: david shulkin has been speaking out on many networks in a move not seen by other trump officials who have been ousted. dr. shulkin says he was fired over his opposition to privatizing the v.a. -- an effort that's been led by a group called concerned veterans for america, which is funded by the billionaire conservative koch brothers. president trump has nominated white house physician dr. ronny jackson to replace shulkin, while appointing pentagon official robert wilkie as acting head of the v.a. but legal experts say that if dr. shulkin was fired, trump's move may have violated federal law by bypassing shulkin's deputy, who was next in line to succeed him. the juststice department hasas demoted the head of its death penalty unit after "the new york times" investigated reports that he promoted favoritism, gender bias and a sexualized environment in the workplace. "the ti

then david shulkin took over. david shulkin's big idea was this new, multibillion-dollar project for new, electronic health records. we are unsure what will happen with that now. it seems every secretary that comes in has a big idea that starts but does not finish. even concerning how long the confirmation process will take, is that delaying reforms in the v.a.? president trump appointed someone from the d.o.d. to come in during the interim. what is happening at the v.a. now? are they continuing with david chilton's plans? it is uncertain. a lot of veterans are concerned progress has slammed to a halt as of wednesday. isi would say the turmoil with each secretary coming in with grand visions. i think bob mcdonald customer-centric services. each one lays out this kind of vision. we have not seen someone cut to the nitty-gritty to customer-cec services. change and make the improvements that would help. "newcretary shulkin in his york times" op-ed piece said the real battle is over the extent of privatization in the

secretary david shulkin through twitter. here's an interview with chuck todd airing later this morning. >> this is not the way to recruit good people to replace him, is it? >> it's not the way i would do it. >> you would understand if people say, i don't know if i want to take this job. >> the president does need to understand the effect it has on attracting other people. >> the white house now pushing back on exactly how shulkin lost his job telling politico in a statement that he resigned. we expect to get some clarification from shulkin later this morning when he appears on "meet the press." >>> no indication this morning that president trump is backing down from his attacks on internet giant amazon. he's accusing the online retailer of scamming the postal service and hurting american workers. kelly o'donnell has the story. kelly? >> reporter: good morning, dara. the president has many different types of twitter adversaries. but this weekend he renewed his fight with a massive e-commerce business that is popular with cons

howie: the president firing david shulkin by twitter. the story is this is chaos. everybody is getting fired. shulkin got himself in trouble with a lavish trip to europe and he accepted free wimbledon tickets. gayle: that should have been reported more. many of the stories don't go into it. the "new york times" said he was being replaced by trump's doctor. prior administration appointed ronny jackson as the presidential physician. he's a war veteran and he's an admiral. you can't say a navy admiral does not have credible management experience. jessica: i think you can if you look at the millions of people he'll have to manage. howie: ronny jackson praised the state of the president's health. take a quick look. >> i told the president if he had a healthier diet the last 25 years he could live to be 100. he has incredible genes, i would assume. howie: i think it's fair when you look at the sprawling va. jessica: when you look at the senators leading the veterans affairs committee. they are saying we need to know more and hear more about his experience. dr. shulkin was

all this as the trump administration continues to insist that ousted veterans affair secretary david shulkin resigned rather than being fired. shulkin denying this claim saying he never submitted a resignation letter. >> i would not resign because i'm committed to making sure this job was seen through to the very end. >> so you were fired? >> i did not resign. >> reporter: if that wasn't enough in white house news, the new direct of economic counsel who's replacing gary cohn who resigned recently starts officially here at the white house today and what it day it is with china threatening to retaliate with those $3 billion worth of tariffs on u.s. imports. >> it's only 8:00 a.m., so fasten your seat belt on a monday. so we will check back with you. joining us now is josh green and julie pace. so julie, let's talk about how the president has landed in a place with daca and the dreamers quite different than what he had been saying for months and it seems that something happened over the weekend that changed his feeling and he's now sounding much more hard line about what should happen with the

former va secretary david shulkin. i want to clarify one thing about your departure. like a small thing to viewers, but it's an announcement as to who is supposed to run the va now. >> i came to run the department of veterans affairs because i'm committed to veterans and i'm committed to serving them and i would not resign because i'm committed to seeing this job through to the very end. >> so you were fired? >> i did not resign. >> you wrote the -- it became impossible for me to accomplish the important work that our veterans need and deserve. as i prepare to leave government i am struck by a recurring thought that it should not be this hard to serve. all of these are trump appointees, so in a way, i wonder did the trump white house, did president trump himself set you up to fail? >> i don't think that this was the president. the president is committed to improving the care for veterans, these appointees had a belief that there was a different way to do it than i was approaching it. >> privatization? >> yeah, i think that -- i believe that the way that you have to im

we're hearing other sides of the story from andrew mccabe, david shulkin, rex tillerson. does it matter that they're speaking out at this point. as we know, this is a divided country and people hear what they want to hear. >> they're free to speak, just like anybody else is. i would say in a case of mccabe, his problems are related to an internal investigation at the department of justice conducted by a career fbi people. and he's going to have due process on what happened to him. i don't disagree that -- how he was fired and the way the president treated him was rough treatment. it was rough political treatment. but as it relates directly to mccabe's career, he's going to get a chance to go through a due process situation there and argue his side of the case. all of these people who leave government have every right to argue their side of it for their own personal public relations efforts. but the facts will stand on their own merits once they all become clear. we don't know everything that happened with mccabe, report has not been made public, i'm sure it will be in the

roland,wsmakers, denise talks about president trump's decision to fire david shulkin. she also discusses va hospital management and health care talents for veterans. newsmakers today at 10:00 a.m. on c-span. >> tonight on q&a, high school students from around the country were in washingtonnewsmakers toe annual united states senate youth program. we met with them at the historic mayflower hotel where they shared there's -- their thoughts on government and >> -- i'm really passionate about daca. i congress cannot find a solution. it is not a democratic issue. it is not a republican issue. it is a human rights issue. >> an issue important to me is climate change. the fact that we are the only nation not in the paris climate accord is a travesty of it every other nation -- is a travesty. every other nation has recognized it. >> we are the richest nation in the world, yet we have citizens who go bankrupt trying to cover basic health care costs, and i think that is an outrage and that we should be ashamed. tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q&a. monday on landmark cases, gr

david shulkin, continue detecting lies about his exit. why it matters if he re-signs versus got fired. >>> another member of the president's cabinet on shaky ground. scott pruitt. a dead man walking. captivating exteriors dynamic lighting elevated comfort powerfully efficient and one more thing the world comes with it ♪you can go your own way... the 2019 jeep cherokee vof hundreds of families, he'se hmost proud of the one the heads he's kept over his own. brand vo: get paid twice as fast with quickbooks smart invoicing. quickbooks. backing you. and i recently had hi, ia heart attack. it changed my life. but i'm a survivor. after my heart attack, my doctor prescribed brilinta. it's for people who have been hospitalized for a heart attack. brilinta is taken with a low-dose aspirin. no more than 100 milligrams as it affects how well brilinta works. brilinta helps keep platelets from sticking together and forming a clot. in a clinical study, brilinta worked better than plavix. brilinta reduced the chance of having another heart attack... ...o

david shulkin, not the va secretary anymore. but natural line of succession would go to his deputy, thomas bowman. it didn't go there. instead it went to robert wilke. why does that matter? because there is an act within the federal government that allows the president of the united states to appoint a preferred replacement when a cabinet member resigns. it doesn't make that same provision clear at least when a cabinet member is fired. you now have donald trump's choice, robert wilkie who's going to be there for a while because this guy, ronny jackson, has to be confirmed by the senate. so this person is going to be there a little while. so the fact that he's going to be the acting va secretary could well open the trump administration up to legal challenges because he bypassed the obvious next person in line. so parsing words does matter. i also want to talk about this weekend at mar-a-lago. can we go to that slide. >> yes. tell me who he spent his weekend with and why that matters as well. >> this is totally fascinating. amid a

secretary david shulkin will be here. >>> and first look.based on exclusive interviews with the president and his staff providing a rare inside look into the trump white house and offering a surprising

secretary david shulkin. was he fired or did he resign? think that depends on who you ask. a lot of different people have different opinions about that. he clearly feels he was pushed out. president has not always treated members of his cabinet the best when things start to not go well. people,s notifying perhaps twitter is the way they are finding out they are fired. that is the way many members of their staff are finding out these people are being let go. ulkin has made the argument that washington has become a toxic place and really felt like he was trying to do his best to help veterans, to , interestizations just could not do it anymore. host: what else is on the schedule for the president this week? guest: we are still trying to piece together exactly what he has going on, kind of getting a slow start after this holiday weekend. he does have a big event on tuesday. for estonia, let you in lithuania will meet with him. they are planning on talking let security, business, trade, energy and cultural partnerships. is trump owing to once again hit them for not pitching in

fly with me ♪ let's fly, let's fly away ♪ ♪ come fly with me ♪ let's fly, let's fly away ♪ >>> david shulkinb of former trump cabinet secretaries, but was he fired or did he quit and what difference does it make? the white house said that shulkin resigned as head of the veterans administration, but shulkin told cnn he got a pink slip or in this case a pink tweet. >> general kelly gave me a heads up that the president would most likely be tweeting out a message in the very near future and i appreciated having that heads up from general kelly. >> the tweet fired you? >> yes. >> cnn politics senior writer juana summers here with us now. explain to us why it is important why he resigned or whether he was fired, even by tweet. >> in that tweet last week, when the president announced that david shulkin with a no longer leave the va, he named a replace. he said robert wilke would replace him. here is where this gets interesting. he bypassed secretary shulkin's deputy secretary top bowman and that breaks open an interesting legal question. federal law says the president has broad authority to name a

and these concerns were heightened after trump's former va secretary david shulkin said he was fired,tizing the va. >> shulkin alleged today he was fired because he did not want to privatize va care, in essence, because you refused to dismantle the va. he claims he fell victim to a power play by trump's political appointees. quote, "they saw me as obstacle to privatization who had to be removed. >> seth: the good news for shulkin is every time trump removes an obstacle, it comes back as an even bigger obstacle. trump removed james comey, comey wrote a book. trump removed michael flynn, flynn flipped. if trump had a mole removed, it would be testifying before congress a week later. [ laughter ] now trump could have chosen a number of qualified people to replace david shulkin at the va, someone who has experience running a massive bureaucracy would have been a good start. but instead trump went with white house doctor and navy rear admiral dr. ronny jackson. that's right, he chose the white house doctor. i guess we should just be happy trump didn't go with personal doctor. in case you d

this is david shulkin saying that he was fired, he did not quit.dn't go gracefully into the night. >> i came to fight for our veterans, and i had no intention of giving up. there would be no reason for me to resign. i made a commitment. i took an oath. and i was here to fight for our veterans. >> so why would the white house say technically you resigned? did you submit a letter of resignation? >> no, i did not. >> were you asked to submit a letter of resignation? >> no, i was not. >> for a guy who's famous for saying "you're fired," they certainly seem to be trying to back up off of the question of the fact that they in fact did, as mr. shulkin noted, did fire him. the reason, of course, is because they have a legal problem now with the person they put in to run the va who's coming from the defense department. based on a law that was passed in 1998 that tried to restrict to some extent the president's ability to fill these vacancies under this vacancy reform act that was put in place when i was working in the white house for president clinton. you

so kaitlan collins of cnn has reporting that part of why it took so long to get rid of david shulkin, who was the last v.a. secretary, even though president trump didn't feel that he shared his opinion about privatization, et cetera, was because there was nobody else and then it was like, you know, he was thunderstruck when he realized he could do ronny jackson, who he liked so much, so now what? who's going to head the v.a.? >> that becomes the big x factor. the drip, drip, drip over shulkin over a period of months. widely respected. the white house kept hanging out to dry and some ethical concerns add to go his problems, but also some sort of, you know, opposition inside the administration. dr. jackson had that personal connection with trump based on loyalty, but that obviously isn't sufficient to run this massive bureaucracy that still needs reform. who he will be replaced by is an utter x factor at this point. >> it's so important because we know the trail of tears of difficulty of the v.a. and how it effects our men and women who are coming back from combat after afghanistan and

. >> plus ousted va secretary david shulkin is denying white house claims that he resigned from his position. now there is reporting the terms of shulkin's departure could impact his replacement. >> and president trump's war on amazon escalates in a series of weekend tweets. he's accusing the company of a post office scam. ♪ ♪ >> good morning, everyone. it's monday april 2nd. i'm alongside jasmine. we begin with president trump who leveled some factually inaccurate charges this weekend. after a week of more turnover in his administration, during which trump sought the advice of former campaign operatives and hard core supporters, the washington post reports meeting with his political soldiers, corey lewandowski and david bossy, strategist brad and son-in-law and senior advisor jared kushner. white house chief of staff john kelly did not travel with the president to mar-a-lago this weekend, but senior policy advisor stephen miller, a proponent of hard line immigration policies, has been at trump's side. and the president reportedly dined with fox news host sean hannity friday night who was la

when david shulkin took over, that was dropped out.id shulkin's big idea was this new multibillion-dollar project for electronic health records. it is unsure what is going to happen with that now. it seems every secretary coming in has a big idea that they start and it doesn't quite finished. that is even concerning how long this confirmation process will take, because, bringing someone in, president trump appointed someone from the dot in the interim period. what is happening at the v.a. now? it is really uncertain. i've talked to a lot of veterans and they are concerned that progress has slammed into a hall as of when -- slammed to a halt as of wednesday. >> i would say turmoil is crazy and needs secretary comes in and layers on these grand visions. you know, "my v.a.," and i think bob mcdonald centered on veteran-centric customer service. each one laid out these visions, but so far, we have not seen one cut to the nitty-gritty, really get to the front lines to change and really make the improvements that would really help. >> was se

david shulkin was a career bureaucrat.s time to try something new and president trump's instincts with spot-on. he served in the battlefield. he was the doctor standing there when the wounded veterans were brought in. now that he's withdrawn his nomination, president trump needs to find someone else. he might consider the former florida congressman who was the acting va secretary under david shulkin. so we'll see what happens. charles: before we go, we should say that mitch mcconnell probably could do a lot more to help this process as well. >> i feel like in this case you should think back to the way things used to be in the u.s. senate where there was a greater decorum and less willingness to fight in the trenches. they should return to statesman like behavior. if you have a concern about somebody, you can say let's talk about this at the committee level and not ruin the guy's career. charles: i will say let's give a shout-out to ric grenell, finally confirmed as ambassador to germany. america has long prided itself on g

he grew some frustrated in march over the firing of david shulkin that he told colleagues i'm out of here. he had to be calmed down by james mattis and homeland security secretary neilsen. >>> and tensions with china escalate. larry kudlow says beijing has not wanted to talk after the threats of tariffs. >> the chinese response was unsatisfactory. the president is trying to get their attention again. the process may include tariffs. i cannot rule that out. it may rest eventually on necessigotiations negotiations. >> last week, president trump threatened an additional $100 billion in tariffs on china. that followed an early announcement on tariffs of $50 billion of chinese goods. china retaliated with tariffs on u.s. exports. now kudlow is stating new tariffs have not been impleme implemented yet. he was one on sunday downplaying talk of a trade war. we heard from steve mnuchin. he does not expect a trade war. peter navarro says this is a negotiating tactic. and sunday morning, president trump tweeted he and xi jinping will remain friends no matter what happens with our dispute on tra

david shulkin, the secretary of veterans affairs. he was under attack for a trip he took with his wife to wimbledon. >> i weren't to wimbledon on a saturday. i weren't to see some sites in the evening. we didn't miss a single minute of conference. every american has their weekend. so there was no misuse. there was no mixing. this was simply i didn't sit in my hotel room after hours on my private time. we walked outside the hotel and saw sites. reporter: president trump's easter break in florida is or a couple hours from now. air force one will take him back up to d.c. where the first order of business is to host the annual easter egg roll on the front lawn of the white house. arthel: houston, we may have a problem. then maybe not. a chinese space station the size of a school bus is due to reenter the earth's atmosphere in the next 24 hours, but experts have no idea where. the showdown over sanctuary cities intensifies. what california's governor just did that got president trump going after him on twitter after the state sued the sta

now trump tapped jackson for the job after firing at that time previous head of the va, david shulkin this show after his firing and told me trump's political appointees at the agency conspired against him because he refused to move quickly to privatize the va. jackson does not have the sort of resume that would prepare him to lead the va with its more than 375,000 employees. before his nomination, he was most famous for his remarkably rosy assessment of the president's health which included references to trump's "incredibly good genes" and the claim with a better diet, trump could live to be 200 years old. >> the hearing was postponed this morning as reports surfaced concerning allegations of misconduct in his past. >> dr. jackson, can you say anything at all about these allegations that have come out against you in the last few days. >> i was looking forward to the hearing tomorrow. disappointed it's been postponed. looking forward to answering everybody's questions. >> you've seen the allegations, hostile work environment, drinking on the job, overprescribing medications. are you s

the one who got pushed out was david shulkin and that was because i would say because of policy disagreement. some people in the administration want the vaemt to be more private. shulkin opposed the privatization of care of veterans. on policy pruitt has rolled back a lot of obama regulations. he's been very conservative. he's in a place where he agrees with trump and the conservatives' policy view, i think pruitt's in a tell me if i'm wronger place to stay in the administration. obviously trump fires people all the time. there could be a tweet two minutes from now saying pruitt is gone but pruitt is pretty solid on policy and i think that's going to help him stay in the administration. >> real quick, sabrina, why do you think this white house keeps on insisting that shulkin resign when he insists he didn't, essentially he was fired? >> there's this obscure legislation that makes it an important distinction because if someone was fired then the natural person who is the acting secretary would be that person's deputy and in this case trump bypassed shulkin deputy and hand picked his own choic

former secretary david shulkin said last year there were about 45,000 job vacancies.op positions need in the health administration, medical officers, nurses psychologists, and physician's assistants. this is serious business. >> garrett haake joins us now. garrett, to be clear, you spoke to the ranking member of the senate veteran affairs committee. he confirmed this is going to be delayed as they look into jax snn. >> yes, the ranking democrat on the committee put out a joint letter with the chairman saying that this hearing what was scheduled for wednesday will be delayed subject to the call of the chair. that's sort of senate terminology for indefinitely while they search for answers to come of the questions about dr. jackson's background that started to surface, i'm told, on thursday. senators had been reaching out to the white house kind of behind the scenes to try to get a little more information. in the letter from senators today, they formally requested documentation about dr. jack jackson's work. a host of materials that one would expect would be part of a ve

when it comes to former veterans affair david shulkin he and the white house have different versions of the story, and it could make a big difference in how the agency moves forward. that'll crack this case wide open! turns out the prints at the crime scene- awwwww...did mcgruffy wuffy get a tippy wippy? i'm serious! we gotta move fast before- who's a good boy? is him a good boy? erg...i'm just gonna go. oh, you wanna go outside? you gotta go tinky poo-poo? i already went, ok? in the bathroom! as long as people talk baby-talk to dogs, you can count on geico saving folks money. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. ythen you turn 40 ande everything goes. tell me about it. you know, it's made me think, i'm closer to my retirement days than i am my college days. hm. i'm thinking... will i have enough? should i change something? well, you're asking the right questions. i just want to know, am i gonna be okay? i know people who specialize in "am i going to be okay." i like that. you may need glasses though. yeah. schedule a complimentary goal planning se

went through, and david shulkin obviously just left his post.t scott pruitt has done is even worse, really, than what tom price had done with those chartered flights, and yet the parking l president unceremoniously kicked out price and shulkin and seems to want to keep pruitt around because he's done everything trump wanted him to do. in terms of draining the swamp, that's the one thing he hasn't done, and that will come back to bite him, certainly. >> alex, why has the president been reluctant to fire scott pruitt? erin makes a good point, people can be fired from one day to the next. >> a big part of it may be because so many cabinet officials have already been fired and there's a big backlog in the senate right now, which is not happy about the number of cabinet posts they have to confirm. the trump administration doesn't want to set up another contentious confirmation fight on capitol hill. at the same time, pruitt has been one of the more effective trump cabinet secretaries. some of these other secretaries who were fired were not necessaril

former military guy, we tried a corporate executive, now david shulkin who i know well. he was a hospital head in new jersey while i was governor. he's a competent good guy. i feel bad for him this week in the terms of hicm being let go. the president is trying a new model. he's aware they've tried other models. who knows if it will work? these other models who have not work. >> i'm a daughter of a veteran. >> my dad received great care at the va. we hope someone is there who is competent and understands the job and can get the job done. >> no one put on the table -- >> the va service -- >> that is -- >> opening -- >> look we have a new economy. the reason it's growing is because it's an open economy. trump has an idea to open up the va. veterans can still have the va but also have a choice. at least that's change and maybe progress. >> open in what way, alex? you mean private saigs? >> no. giving people a choice, like you can choose what kind of car you buy. if they're held on the line and can't get to see a va doctor -- >> does that choice come with huge budget cuts? i

david shulkin, our secretary has done a great job. the va was a mess. >> and they're all gone. after nbc reported national security adviser h.r. mcmaster was going to be replaced, spokesman michael anton said that he was just with the president and mcmaster both of them together in the oval office, president trump said that the nbc news story is fake news and told mcmaster he's doing a great job. they're all gone now. i'm joined by yamiche alcindor did, jonathan lemire and politics editor at "the daily beast" sam stein. yamiche, are you a godfather fan? have you noticed fredo, you broke my heart? your mother dies. you're gone from here going out in the boat saying your hail marys. he seems to do it in the same ritualistic way. >> tom is it telling michael to kill fredo and he's not doing it. essentially explain that for the people who watched "the godfather." the fact the president is defying john kelly reportedly telling him. >> i like the godfather references. they're very sophisticated. >> really good. >> but the fact that the president is defying his chief of staff hostelin