erik: that is a big change. ray: well, i don't think so. erik: nope? change in that it is formalized. the way that we operate it, this idea of meritocratic way. they were all ideal partners. erik: radical truth, radical transparency. so the ideas have been surfacing for a long time? ray: we have been doing transition over gradual period of time for a number of years. this is just a great step into -- in terms of formalizing it. what does it mean to be a partner? what are your decision rights? how do they get together? and evaluate the ceos? those kinds of things being much more -- erik: these will be systematized. ray: systematized. a lot of it has to be worked out. we are at the stage where we signed a partners, we have stepped aside, it is up to them to do that. we are excited about it. erik: are you at all afraid that bridgewater, at some point in the future, will no longer be the idea of meritocracy? it will note -- not stand for radical truth, radical transparency, the things you obviously championed, believe in, and that you enshrined in your pri

erik: no.ening to what you were saying and thinking if you were right and you have fundamentally changed, the culture of the company and the way it does business, then what we learned about last week, altering some client information surely has to worry you because that seems cultural, doesn't it? it's not all that far away from creating phony accounts or signing people up to auto insurance that they didn't need or charging them in proper mortgage fees. it seems to suggest there is still a cultural problem. tim: i want to reinforce that we are changing. we are improving our culture. fundamentally, the culture of it company is fine. the vision of says eyeing customers financial needs and helping them succeed. we have five primary values that drive this company. it is interesting to cut if you go out and google the word culture. in .45 seconds you will get 90 million references. everybody has a different definition. when i think about the culture of this company, our vision, our values, it is fin

erik: this is bloomberg. ♪ erik: this is "bloomberg best." i am erik schatzker.estors and asset management and corporate america in our new york headquarters at the bloomberg invest summit. blackstone'som head of global equity. >> how expensive is the world right now? >> it is historically expensive. we are subject to that. we have to navigate within that. fortunately we are only making 12 investments a year out of our global buyout fund across five key geographic regions -- u.s., europe, india, china, australia and japan. trying to0 people source transactions. i think we are able to find those idiosyncratic situations. there is not a single industry or country where we say the wind environmentses, generally improve. i think we have had winds on most of the key industries with the exception of energy. that has, roaring back. back inhas come roaring most of the regions we invest in. you think about the possibility of a recession globally and in the u.s., how worried are you and what is the timeline? at our 90 portfolio companies and the data we get monthly from th

erik: why? growth in that space, the first part of this year, year today through may, $54 billion of new clo creation, significantly faster than the last five years throughout the part of this year with a lot of capital flowing in search of yield and managers needing to reach. that does not necessarily mean they are bad credit but these structures are ratings driven and when we in depth in an economic cycle, forget a market cycle, and ratings are lagging indicator, but they reflect corporate fundamentals. you could see selling activities s.t ofc lo -- clo erik: thanks, the volcker rule took the balance sheet out of the credit market come is a backend? jamie: it is coming back in. -- you have seen banks slowly starting applying capital again and building positions quietly. maybe not as large as what you saw a decade ago but definitely more action in some of the traded credit markets. another thing that happened is banks have pulled way out of being involved in middle-market edit. a lot that activ

erik: no.we are seeing now is terrible news for the world economy, certainly for china and europe. and i think there are two issues for the chinese, the technology path, and they need to keep grow going. the economy is slowing by itself right now. and they are using this climate, a terrible instrument to use, because the number one issue china has is the leverage issue, so you cannot resolve the slow down by asking for more leverage. i think they are in a tight spot. francine: what will happen? elsa: i think it may be weakening from here. we have seen it in mexico and canada that both countries have been less concerned about the threat of tariffs, because their currencies can do a lot of work in counteracting the tariffs, but the chinese do not have that capacity because it is such a managed currency, but we will see a trending higher overtime. francine: what about, what will it do overtime? sa: something above seven and 2019. this will play out over several months. we will see the u.s. respond

erik: this is bloomberg. ♪ erik: you are watching "bloomberg best." i am erik schatzker.rosoft shelling out billions for a company that is a top destination for millions of software developers. >> microsoft has agreed to hub.ire get help -- git what is the logic behind the deal? most profitable business is its cloud business. ,hat a lot of companies do google has a coding language which it uses for special intelligence. it is a way of on boarding them. microsoft has always been a developer-first company. now we are all in on open source. together,coming github makes a lot of sense. we can contribute a lot and state true to the original ethos of github. that is how we will operate github going forward, which is developer first. >> starbuck says howard schultz, the founder of the coffee chain, is stepping down as executive chairman and they have named the next chairman. melanie hobson has been named as the vice chair of starbucks. howard schultz step down as ceo last april, leaving that role to kevin johnson. this is howard schultz cutting his ties. , a titana 64-year-old i

erik: that is one way to put it.t regulation is superfluous and best and much of it is harmful, especially in the realm of finance. i think money itself is in need of being let loose and freed from government control. a market-based economy having the primary good, money, being centrally planned, i think is problematic. no one would tolerate a monopoly in the manufacturing of shoes or cars or cell phones, and yet they tolerate it in the realm of money. so people in crypto basically want to offer alternatives. caroline: let's dig into the [indiscernible] will government banks not play a role? erik: crypto is not a panacea and it does not bring a utopia, but i think it does bring competition into the realm of money and allows people to actually innovate in financial systems in a way that has never been able to be done before. for that reason, it is important, and even if someone does not buy into whether bitcoin will take over fiat currencies like dollars, most people should at least be interested in the fact that comp

erik: yes.re convicted of a crime that you did not think you committed, you would want to have that conviction reversed. michael milken has done a great deal since he exited prison in 1993 for the good of humanity. he started a prostate cancer foundation. the milken family foundation, from which he makes very generous donations -- he runs the milken institute, an economic think tank. he has done a lot. the question is whether it is expunging, ifant you will, the record of the crimes to which he pleaded guilty. vonnie: that was my next point. he pleaded guilty. bargain.a plea this was in connection with the insider trading scandal that involved vernon lambert, the firm for which he worked, and dennis levine, that ultimately caused drexel to collapse under a racketeering investigation. milken himself was indicted on counts of racketeering in fraud -- and fraud in 1996, but he did not plead guilty to those things. he pleaded guilty to six counts of tax and securities violations . he did not go to p

erik: they sure seem to be.there are those around the president that are in favor of not being pardoned here. have rudy giuliani who is one of trump's lawyers, certainly writing this obstruction of justice. and an playr, scaramucci who may or may not an effort to pardon michael milken. joe: why is this an important thing for them? erik: because they are friends with mike milken. that is pretty much what it comes down to. if you are going to get a pardon you need friends in high places. you don't get much closer than rudy giuliani and jared kushner. michael milken has been campaigning for a long time. there is no question that since he left prison in 1993, he has done a lot of good. he gives away -- he and his brother have given away hundreds of millions of dollars. possibly more than that. he is a huge benefactor to medical research. good friends with francis collins, the director of the nih. michael milken has it done his best to be a good public citizens. say what you will of what he did at the time. the issue

there's a host of issues here that erik prince could be questioned about.ngs in this, brooke, with mueller, we don't exactly know, but certainly there are certain aspects and tea leaves we can read that show that because of what mueller is looking at, foreign influence, not just russian, could be others, that this could be something that erik prince would have been questioned about. >> shimon, thank you very much. >>> coming up next here on cnn, she is a purple heart combat veteran, a mom, and hoping that one powerful campaign ad can help the democrat win a very red congressional district in texas. we will talk to her next. hegar,, m ireland donegal, ireland and your ancestor was a fisherman. with blue eyes. just like you. begin your journey at ancestry.com no one thought much of itm at all.l people said it just made a mess until exxonmobil scientists put it to the test. they thought someday it could become fuel and power our cars wouldn't that be cool? and that's why exxonmobil scientists think it's not small at all. energy lives here. >>> as we mentioned

erik: we will get there.er] these are business people and you have occupied two very important roles that concern business and the economy. so, one of the things that helps on which western democracy and capitalism stands or rests, his institutions. this president has been a fairly free and lets call it a tax on certain institutions, federal institutions, multilateral institutions, and the net effect of those, i am calling them attacks, is he may have sown some mistrust and things like the fbi, the justice system, or maybe in allies of the united states, like germany or canada. so what do you think of those things and what should people hear, how should people here interpret those tweets by the president? mr. mulvaney: i will answer the big one about the institutions. stories, treyhe gowdy is a close friend of mine, i was talking to the president this morning and he came up and i kept telling him, because two weeks ago he was lauded on the left as a critic of the president, today he is being lauded on the rig

has got erik prince's phone and computer. that is, if abc's reporting turns out to be correct. the dow jones went off a cliff again today. it appears to be mostly because of the trade war-mongering of the president and retaliatory actions by our trading partners around the globe. harley-davidson, which iconically at least is probably the most made in america thing ever. harley-davidson announced today they're going to start making some of their motorcycles overseas specifically because of trump's new tariffs. nbc news today has reported some hair-raising new details about trump giving in to kim jong un's demand that the u.s. military cancel its joint exercises with the south korean military. we're going to have more on that story coming up tonight. it's actually kind of of a big scoop from nbc. also tonight, we here on this show have got a truly, truly weird little scoop about tomorrow's primaries. there's a whole bunch of primaries in a whole bunch of states tomorrow but we've got some exclusive reporting on a political surp

erik: trade is issue number one as g7 leaders meet in quebec. shinzo abe hold a pregame huddle at the white house. president trump: to achieve a fair and mutually beneficial economic partnership. erik: howard schultz plans to leave starbucks, possibly for politics. the athena

[applause] ♪ erik: wells fargo has lurched from scandal to scandal. bank accounts, deceptive auto insurance, improper mortgage fees. now, after more than a year-and-a-half, the company is growing as the worst is behind them. tim: today, we are renewing our commitment to you. fixing what went wrong and ending product sales goals. erik: in a new national ad campaign, wells fargo admits they lost customer trust and say s they are working hard to earning back. -- burn it back. i am erik schatzker, and i sat down with wells fargo ceo, tim sloan. tim: we have made some mistakes . no question about that. we

erik: are they too powerful?are seeing now, the metal merchants have created a structure again. erik: not all the banks are gone. goldman made as much money first five months of the year as it did all of last year. how is that possible? is goldman getting back in the market in a big way? isistoph: my understanding it comes from their j aaron days so they hold over when it comes to trading commodities. they are getting it right by focusing on commodities. what do you see them doing -- erik: what you see them doing? christoph: we see them taking more risks, providing liquidity. that is something we feel is helpful to the market. erik: thanks so much for coming in. that is christoph eibl. the russian direct investment fund is their sovereign wealth fund which is charged with making investments in russian companies together with top global investors all with the goal of promoting foreign direct investment in russia. kirill dmitriev. very good to have you with us. let me start with the obvious question, why beijing, w

erik: trade is issue number one as g7 leaders meet in quÉbec.t trump and shinzo abe hold a pregame huddle at

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and erik prince. that's coming up after this. i have no idea how we're going to get through this. follow me. unitedhealthcare has the people and tools to help guide you through the confusion. well that wasn't so bad at all. that's how we like it. unitedhealthcare. my mom washes the dishes... ...before she puts them in the dishwasher. so what does the dishwasher do? new cascade platinum lets your dishwasher be the dish washer. three cleaning agents dissolve, lift and rinse away food the first time. new cascade platinum. ♪ ♪ legendary jockey vÍctor espinoza is insatiable when it comes to competing. ♪ ♪ so is his horse. ♪ ♪ when it comes to snacking. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ that's why he uses the chase mobile app, to pay practically anyone, at any bank. life, lived victor's way. chase. make more of what's yours. ♪ south l.a. is very medically underserved. when the old hospital closed people in the community lived with untreated health problems for years. so, with the county's help we built a new hospital from the ground up and having citi as an early investor worked as a signal to others to invest.

erik: the ballet of the charts? mike: it's also just being disciplined.n, sometimes you make mistakes. ethereum.lot of it started rallying a lot. i started selling, maybe too early, but, broadly, it has benefited me and our organization. to do work on which companies -- they are not even companies, they are ecosystems. which ecosystems do we believe have a shot of really growing emily: mike novogratz also made mention that, like uber, there will be regulation. he just doesn't see it coming for another two years to three years. coming up, alphabet's annual meeting was turned on its head when google employees took to the stage to criticize their boss' pay. we will have the details on how shareholders voted down a proposal on diversity pay next. this is bloomberg. ♪ emily: alphabet shareholders have voted down a proposal to to executive a -- pay progress on e diverss of alpha'a push to close the current gender pay gap. google employees have criticized the company for not doing enough to address workplace harassment and have backed up addition to create bette

erik: i want to talk about impact. let's get into this.horny subject that many people wrestle with, both conceptually and practically. how do you measure impact? half we spend a year and a before launching the fund working with bridge span and 80 different organizations that have done a lot of great work over the years trying to figure out how you can actually credibly measure, underwrite and report audit impact. we got play place where we were confident we could do it. week published -- we got to a place where we were confident we could do it. that washed a report audited by kpmg. that came out three weeks ago. we connect the dots between the output of the business both positive and negative thernalities, we underwrite amount of that output we are generating and translate that into a monetary measure of the impact that our dollars invested are generating. >> your deciding where you are looking for that impact and at the same time, there is some confirmation bias there. some of the negative impacts that an investment or business may be hav

erik: trade is issue number one as g7 leaders meet in quebec. trump and shinzo abe hold a pregame huddle at the white house. president trump: to achieve a

and erik prince. for allegedly lying to congress. that is coming up right after this.yle, we talked about this. there's no monsters. but you said they'd be watching us all the time. no, no. no, honey, we meant that progressive would be protecting us 24/7. we just bundled home and auto and saved money. that's nothing to be afraid of. -but -- -good night, kyle. [ switch clicks, door closes ] ♪ i told you i was just checking the wiring in here, kyle. he's never like this. i think something's going on at school. -[ sighs ] -he's not engaging. >>> the top democrat on the house intelligence committee believes some witnesses in the committee's russia investigation committed perjury. and he wants special counsel robert mueller to investigate. yesterday congressman adam schiff released a letter he sent to the committee's chairman devin nunes two weeks ago asking him to give mueller the transcripts of the interviews the committee conducted during its investigation. in the letter schiff wrote, these materials may be important to mr. mueller's investigation and shed additional lig

erik: over what amount of time? transition in terms of equity and the like, a lot of it. probably overt the next three years or so, we'll do a lot more. most of it has been done and we need just to formalize their decision-making capabilities. alix: that was ray dalio and erik schatzker. david, you are a lawyer. the first timeer i walked into a partners meeting as a partner. you start as a junior partner. it is a different psychological relationship. the relationship among the people is different between partners than employees. not the same hierarchy, even if you are a junior partner, you have a stake in it and people listen to you more. also impressive to me, he said he would have a succession. a lot of people were skeptical of that, because so much, he ran that shop, bridgewater. how it works out. not many people in that position are able to pass it off to the next generation. alix: i didn't know that. i guess it makes sense that you have more ownership. david: you think about the relationship in a different way.

erik: more people feel like they are benefiting were invested in it?at it's right, in a way, it creates incentives that pay for themselves. not just social programs, but enabling others. number two issue, not in order of priority, is the relationship between the united states and china, and of course, other countries, as we come into a rivalry. how is a rivalry handled? will that be handled peacefully, or will it be antagonistic we? ;y? -- the third thing, is big data and artificial intelligence. when we look at the world 5-10 years from now, which is not so far, i think we will see a world that is very different, depending on how we handle -- the world in terms of data and artificial intelligence, how we use it, it will be a different world. the world in terms of that conflict or competition with china will be a very big deal. and the issue of whether we can operate in the country as a whole, in which we don't have the factionalism where we are united among common principles and pull together to be effective, those will be the three things. taylor: up

erik: trade is issue number one as g7 leaders meet in quebec.rump and shinzo abe hold a pregame huddle at the white house. president trump: to achieve a fair and mutually beneficial economic partnership. erik: howard schultz plans to leave starbucks, possibly for politics.

he spoke with bloomberg's erik schatzker this week at the aspen ideas festival. the financial system today, the risks to investors, people with capital are different than they were clearly in 2007-2008. what would you say are the principal risks? in order of importance. ray: ok. as far as the debt crisis, we calculated that we would have a debt rollover crisis. and that -- we don't have that. but we have a situation in which the number of ious that we have, in terms of not only debt, but , pistons, and so on, are a lot. so there are more ious than can , be dealt with, and that is a problem. as we sell more bonds into the market, because we are and the process of a larger deficit, and running down the balance sheet, that is supply and demand. if i take three things, in terms of what i would say are the three most important issues of our time, what they will become other than how we deal with the next downturn, i would take a second on that downturn -- if you have a downturn and we are so much at odds, i think it will be a difficult time. i think you can get more p

joining us tonight is erik gordon from the ross school of siness. good to see you again. welcome back. >> hello, bill. >> it is widely believed this kind of a decision could bring on other mergers to get past regulator. do you buy that notion or not? >> you know, i thinkt will make it somewhat easier but i think it is easy to overstate the effect of this case. the judge didn't say something like we should have more media or vertical rgers, he sa in this case the government failed prove what it had to prove. interestingly the judge didn't even say because he didn't need to well this is a case which the government could have won or copt -- or could not have one but all i he said the government failed to convince him. so you don't want to overstate it. but clearly i think we will see more merger attempts. because if the case had gone the other way, it might hav slapped the door on mergers. >> and a vertical merger is where a company buys one of the suppliers and that is what happened with at&t and time warner. and tomorrow we're hearing that comcast will make its bid formal

erik. what is a blow out? no. sara. -what is a closeout? -closeout, that's it. yes.rdre. -who is beatrix potter? -correct.

erik prince does a lot of business in the middle east may have factored in.n mueller is interested is because george nader is cooperating with mueller and is telling him that this was a back channel. this was a way for the russians to meet with officials in the trump administration or send messages to them about better relations with russia. this is after the election, before trump took office. >> according to nbc's reporting, rick gerson has been friends with kushner for more than a decade. he met at another secret meeting in mid-december right after election. the participants at that meeting included gerson, jared kushner, george nader and the crowns prince of the uae along with trump's national security adviser michael flynn and trump's political adviser steve bannon. what everybody's watching, the experts nobody is like you, ken, let me ask you, as we move towards a declaration of guilt, i expect one from robert mueller. it's going to deal with obstruction. is he still building a heavy body of evidence regarding collusion with the russians? >> it looks li

erike: las autoridades se han -- erika: las autoridades se han comprometido a seguir investigando y los: a pesar de las duras polÍticas anti migrantes de donald trump, la cifra de migrantes que cruzan buscando el sueÑo americano, continÚan al alza. la estrategia para detenerlo, se puede considerar fallida. hoy se revelaron estadÍsticas que tiran por tierra el triunfalismo en la casa blanca. pablo gato amplÍa. pablo: la administraciÓn de donald trump separa familias para desanimar a otras familias a que vengan. enviÓ a la guardia nacional de la frontera. [habla en inglÉs] e incluso se auto felicitÓ por los resultados de la llamada "mano dura", pero estadÍsticas del mismo gobierno e indican que esa estrategia no funciona. los expertos dijeron que nadie podÍa impedir que sigan viniendo. >> yo creo que no, porque la realidad es que la necesidad y el miedo que tienen, es mÁs grande que cualquier ley que pueda haber. pablo: el nÚmero de arrestos de la frontera es el mÁs alto desde que donald trump se hizo presidente. de marzo y abril, hubo mÁs de 50,000 arrestos por mes. y continuÓ en marzo.

more let's bring in now erik gomes a defense and foreign policy analyst who joins us from washington welcome to you eric so we have this joint statement now with not much flesh on the bone do you see it as a first step toward peace or did donald trump get taken for a ride here by the north koreans. i think could be a potential first step towards peace like you mentioned the hard work is still ahead of us there's still a lot to iron now and a lot to get accomplished between now and some future denuclearization of north korea but i think that the joint statement that was released it builds on some of the progress that we've seen on the inner korean summit and i think that i think they could be different this time ok i mean so let's break this down now let's get into the details because one thing that is certainly different this time president trump making a major concession at the very outset promising to cease those military exercises with south korea a huge move here critics say that he got nothing tangible in return is that a fair assessment. i think we need to wait to see what the

it's supposed to be the first time in thirty years that a great white has made its way to the bull erik island. where mexico is gearing up for presidential and parliamentary elections on sunday following a campaign that's been marred by violence dozens of candidates running for office have been killed by the country's powerful drug cartels polls show a more than twenty percent lead for leftist candidate on british manuel lopez obrador the former mayor of mexico city has vowed to end the violence and tackle and democrat should is rival is this man ricardo in iowa who leads a left right coalition of parties. and correspondent ophelia harms our rooty is in mexico city and she joins us now for the latest so ophelia there have been these reports of some people being too scared to go out and vote because of all the violence just what sort of turnout is expected. well yes there is fear in some states that are very. filled with criminals which is colima get out on behind where people think that maybe criminal organizations might be disrupting the electoral process but this is actually expected

erik l srevivientes estÁn exigiendo a las autoridades que realicen los rastreos para encontrar a susque han sido hallados. esta mujer apenas se puede mantener de pie. >> no son perros para que vengan y los agarren. yo no quiero eso. erika: asegura que el Área donde un dÍa fue su casa, ahora es un cementerio. >> si ustedes van ahÍ arriba, es como un cementerio. no es una aldea. erika: si de lÓpez perdió a siete de sus hijos y se encuentra con un gran desconsuelo.. silvia: mi nena que estaba ahÍ conmigo. como a las 8:30 se fueron para arriba. ya no los volvÍ a ver. erika: boris es tÍo político de los seis niÑos que murieron abrasados. tambiÉn perdiÓ a su esposa, quien se encontraba embarazada. boris: tengo la certeza de encontrar la viva, la esperanza. puede ser que estÉ en alguna parte no puede comunicarse con nosotrosÑ erika: los cuerpos de socorro a un realizaron algunos rescates de cuerpos, aunque se encuentran seriamente quemados y mutilados. >> ahía sa y me rime a verlos las cabecitas y las reconocÍ que estÁn. pero son pedacitos. erika: en medio de la desesperaciÓn, la ayuda de d

apparently mueller is now homing in on erik prince, founder of the mercenary company blackwater and antrump's transition team. specifically, mueller is now looking at a secret meeting prince held with a kremlin emissary on a remote island shortly after the election. >> robert mueller has, quote, "gathered evidence that a secret meeting in the seychelles just before the inauguration of donald trump was an effort to establish a back channel between the incoming administration and the kremlin." erik prince, the founder of the private military company blackwater, met with a russian official close to president vladimir putin. a witness cooperating with mueller has told investigators the meeting was set up in advance, so that a representative of the trump transition could meet with an emissary from moscow to discuss future relations between the two countries. >> seth: wait. you're telling me a secret meeting on a remote island in the indian ocean between a mercenary and an agent of the kremlin turned out to be suspicious? [ laughter ] where was the meeting? inside a volcano the shape of a sk

it is a live interview with our own erik schatzker at the ideas festival.ust a reminder, bloomberg users can interact with the chart you have seen on gtd go. go.te you have been watching bloomberg. ♪ ♪ it is 2:00 p.m. in new york, and 7:00 p.m. in london. julia chatterley. julie: and julie hyman denver scarlet fu. welcome to "bloomberg markets." ♪ julia: we are live and bloomberg world headquarters in new york over the next hour. here are the top stories we are covering on the bloomberg and around the world. great dalio takes a step back from bridgewater. we are live in a few moments with the billionaire investor from the ideas festival. speaking of that, heavy hitters continue with the -- with david rubenstein. thoughts -- at foxconn. he is said to tell to his economic policies of the groundbreaking ceremony for a new multibillion-dollar facility in wisconsin. in two hours.lose let's get a check on where stocks are trading with abigail doolittle. abigail: we have a push for the major averages. we have had moves up and down on the day. at this point, we

erik pri private military company blackwater, met with a russian official close to president inadimirtness cooperwith mueller has told investigators the meeting was set up in advance, so that a representative of the trump transition could meet with an emissary from moscow to discuss future relations between the two countries. >> seth: wait. you're telling me a secret meetinon a remote island in the indian ocean between a mercenary and an agent of the kremlin turned out to be sp ious? [ laughter ] where was the meeting? inside a volcano the shape of a skull? [ laughter ]et "we'llown to business shortly, gentlemen, but first, enjoy your zebra steaks! [ laughter ] orphans, serve us!" [ laughter ] no the meeting is of speci interest to mueller apparently because prince has lied about it. he later told investigators the meeting was an unplanned encounter that came about chance, because he happened to be at a luxury hotel in the in an ocean island nation with officials from the united arab emirates.th 's right. he tried to pass it off as a chance encounter. "i swear!st i appen to be vacatio

and the fact that erik prince of blackwater fame was involved and does a lot of business in the middletored in. george nader is cooperating with mueller and is telling him that this was a back channel. this was a way for the russians to meet with officials in the trump administration or send messages to them about better relations with russia. don't forget this is after the election, before trump took office. >> anyway, according to nbc's reporting, rick gerson has been friends with kushner for more than a decade. however, gerson first met george nader just weeks before his trip to the seychelles in another secret meeting at the four seasons hotel in new york in mid-december, right after the election. the participants of that meeting included gerson, jared kushner, george nader, and the crown prince of the uae along with trump's national security adviser michael flynn and trump's political adviser steve bannon. so what everybody is watching -- and nobody is like you, ken. let me just ask you as we move towards a declaration of guilt perhaps -- i expect to have one from robert mueller.

david: many thanks to congressman erik paulsen. we turn now to mark crumpton for "first word" is. former campaign chairman paul manafort is heading to jail ahead of his trials punt bank fraud and money laundering. a judge in washington revoked his bail today after being told by special counsel robert mueller's lawyers that manafort protected to tamper with witnesses for his trial. the judge told manafort he has abused the trust placed in him six month ago. the president told foxnews he will not sign a so-called moderate immigration bill crafted by house republicans. the proposal looked to protect the young undocumented immigrants and a funny joke the controversy policy of separating families -- and end the controversial policy of supporting families of the border. the president doubled down on his opposition to the bill. pres. trump: i hate children being taken away. the democrats have to change that -- that is their law. quiet. that is the democrats' law. we can change it tonight. i will leave here -- no, no. you need their votes. mark: the president said he will not suspend spec

around the same time in a a secret meeting took place between trump associate erik prince and russia and united arab emirates specials. no. news was told mr. gerson was in the seychelles prior to the meeting, never knew about the meeting that took place and has never met or communicated with erik prince. joining us, carol lee, who cowrote the nbc news story. also joining us, danny is a val owes. carol, what do we know about these meetings are of interest to mueller's team? >> if you take the seychelles on its own, it is of interest to robert mueller because of the possibility that this was a planned meeting designed to try to create some sort of back channel between trump transition officials and the russians. and it was involving officials from the uae. now, what happened there was that eric opiniok prince says h there to meet with uae officials. he just happened to be introduced to a russian official who was very close to vladimir putin and he had a discussion. he cast it as happen stance. about you the question mueller is looking into whether it was actually happen stance or wheth

the meeting happened to be around the same time trump associate erik prince was also in the seychelles secret meeting with russian and ramadi officials, including the crown prince. mueller has gathered evidence that the meeting was an effort to establish a, quote, back channel between the incoming administration and the kremlin, according to "the washington post." gerson's spokesperson says, no, mr. gerson was on vacation prior to the meeting that was referenced. he knew nothing about the meeting. joining us now is ken dilanian, intelligence and national security reporter for nbc news, who helped break this whole story. betsy woodruff with us. ken, do you ever vacation in the seychelles, first of all? >> i would love to someday but haven't yet. >> maybe you can do some reporting and add on a couple days on the end. i don't think you need to be as great an expert reporter as you are in this to kind of question the explanation, but lay it all out for us. >> yeah. as you said, gerson's spokesperson is saying that he was there on vacation. he was not even aware of this secret meeting that

for more, erik back to you. >>> d.c. prison aolice are investigating a deadly crash involving a bus and clsit. police say 19-year-old malik habib'sike tire got caught in the rail causing him to fall into the path of a charter bus. he wase taken to hospital where he died. he lived in northeast d.c. no word on whether the driver will face any charges. >>> more protests today outside detention centers where immigrant children are being held. meanwhile, president trump doubling down on his immigration policyt tweeting t people who quote invade our country should be sent back without a court hearing, a move some are calling illegal and unconstitutional. nbc's jennifer johnson has more. >> reporter: protesters in texas where migrant children are being held, demanding they be reunited with their parents. >> it's otright. >> reporter: one of several protests across the u.s. >> i'm a proud arican but i'm president. my >> reporter: there are over 2,000 children in federally funded pa cities, many separated from parents at the bord

they spoke to erik schatzker at the bloomberg.t the china hostile to there were fraudsly about 400 the chinese companies that raise equity capital here in the united states. these are companies from u.s..that came to the of hundreds ofue them going to other capital expatriated to the country. lost eddie howe much was -- any idea how much was lost? maybe 30 to $40 billion. it is important to understand there are companies that are not that whilehe u.s. they may not be completely like their predecessors, have real cap, look at that market it is massive. biggeris there this point? >> i would argue we should start since stocks where it is something more alligators shoulde asking themselves. fraud. beyond chinese actors can lis fraud end ofnother is at the the day, i would argue this is a fact. there is no such thing as a purely private company. we are at this very strange moment in history where we are strugglingthe governme to the private sector. is largelychnology in the hands of private companies. you don't know if they are acting