senator grassley: yes. atty. gen. barr: i don't know if he viewed his charter that broadly. i don't know whether he did or not. that's something that i am reviewing. again will look at whatever the special counsel has developed on that. senator grassley: in volume two of the report, the special counsel declined to make a traditional prosecutorial decision. instead the special counsel laid out 200 or so pages relating to a potential obstruction analysis and then dumped that on your desk. in your press conference you said that you asked the special counsel whether he would have made a charging decision or recommend charges on obstruction, but for the office of legal counsel's opinion on charging sitting presidents and that the special counsel made clear that was not the case. so, mr. barr, is that an accurate description of your conversation with the special counsel? atty. gen. barr: yes. he reiterated several times in a group meeting that he was not saying that put for the olc opinion he would have found obstruction. senator grassley: if the special counsel found facts suffic

chairman grassley: senator blumenthal. sen. blumenthal: thank you, senator grassley. welcome to everyone on this supremely important topic. attendance by this committee i think a test to the importance of the american -- i attests to the importance the american people give this topic. four years ago, i began a lawsuit because of pay for delay and other tactics that other ,imes seemed obtuse and they are now so prevalent that they have brought, as you have heard, calls and clamoring for reform. the reason is quite simple. the american people are fed up system thatof this give new meaning to the term unintended consequences. these laws may have good intentions in encouraging innovation and rewarding companies that take the risk, very real risk involved in the invention and innovation. but unfortunately, the laws have been abused. and consumers know firsthand that is the reason why every lled this topic is po it is at the very top of consumer concerns. is also the reason why have so many proposals that are bipartisan. this topic truly is bipartisan. senator cornyn and i

. >> mueller today was clear and barr at best misled in the answer to grassley under oath. grassley asked whether mueller would have made a charging decision if it weren't for the office of legal counsel policy at the doj to not charge sitting presidents. barr said mueller told him, no, the olc was not the reason. but today mueller proved what barr said was false. and then there is this claim from barr, again it was under oath. >> if the special counsel found facts sufficient to constitute obstruction of justice, would he have stated that finding? >> if he had found that, then i think he would state it, yes. >> so barr says that if mueller found evidence that trump committed crime he thinks mueller would have said so. thaps he -- injury it's not perhaps. it's pretty clear he put it word think in very purposely. because mueller said he could not charge a sitting president. he added to that. he said if he could not charge trump a sitting president then he would not take the next step of publicly accusing him of a crime. >> it would be unfair to potentially accuse somebody of

how is chuck grassley wrong?r chairman grassley, but in this case, we have seen too often in the past requests from the united states to our allies and neighborhoods around the world in dealing with something have been agreed to verbally and not backed up with actual action. this is a president who breve believes in dealing from a position of strength. he understands this is something that mexico, they understand now how serious he is about this. this is what those emergency economic powers are designed to do so a president of any party can act in accordance with national security, national interests, especially when our economic interests are challenged. >> this is an important thing. let's talk about the other trade war, the trade war with china. the president says all the time that china is paying for the tariffs. u.s. consumers and businesses are not getting hit because of it. we know factualy that is not true, but i recently spoke with a farmer in ohio who voted for the president in 2016. his name is christo

now we are hearing from rob portman, pat toomey, chuck grassley all saying congress must take action. can congress do something to stop the president unilaterally applying tariffs? using a law from 1977 to declare an emergency and then say, here is my remedy to help the economy. it has never been used in a trade sense before. there is some question about whether he can do it. legal experts say he has the power under the law, but congress could change the law. he is much more limited in his ability to impose tariffs. members of the house and senate have criticized him for using national security grounds for the potential auto tariffs, steel tariffs, so this may bring new momentum to that. still a question about whether the republican senate would defy donald trump. amanda: michael mckee, thank you

investors are nervous -- >>> senate finance committee chair chuck grassley was critical of the trump administration's announcement of potential new tariffs on mexico. senator grassley sent out a statement, saying in part, trade policy and border security are separate issues. this is a misuse of presidential tariff authority, and counter to congressional intent. >>> coming up on c-span3, a conversation on pandemic outbreaks, including the recent ebola outbreak in the democratic republic of congo. and then from the navy league sea, air and space exposition, a discuss on maritime security operations around the world. and later, a panel on the u.s. and uk supreme courts. >> june 6th will mark 75 years since the allied d-day invasion of normandy, france. tonight, john mcmanus talks about his book, "the dead and those about to die," which tells the story of the u.s. army's first infantry division, the first combat soldiers to storm the beaches on d-day. that's at 8:00 eastern here on c-span3. >>> watch commencement speeches all week on c-span. tonight, at 8:00 eastern, speakers include sup

an influential senator, charles grassley, said he would not approve the deal going through if the tariffs were still in place. trump used these tariffs as a way to have leverage over these countries. now that the deal was sealed, he is facing more pressure to lift of them. canada and mexico were pressing through the whole process for the lifting of these tariffs, and it is more of a practical measure for trump than anything about prices and the national severity, which is at the heart of this, too. carl: you're talking about this new nafta, the trade deal in place between the countries. this is something that trump campaign on redoing, saying this was a bad deal for the u.s. what about the new nafta? steven: the new nafta for trump, it updates some things. it updates labor standards, requiring more minimum wage manufacturing in these countries. it requires more local components for cars. they will reach the zero-tariffs eligibility, for example. but ultimately, it does not make

congress needs to get it a few days ago a very influential senator charles grassley said that he would not approve the deal going through if tariffs were still in place so trampas use these tariffs as a way to have leverage over both of these countries to get them to make this deal announced a deal is sealed he's been facing more and more pressure to lift them canada mexico have also been pushing obviously throughout this whole process for the lifting of these tariffs and obviously i think it's more of a practical measure for trump than it is anything about prices and especially about national security which as you said was of the heart of this too right so so your time of this new nafta i mean that was that's this trade deal it's in place between the 3 countries this was something that president trump campaigned on basically redoing saying this was a bad deal for the u.s. what about this new nafta what was going on there. for trump you know look at it it does update some things for example it updates labor standards it requiring more minimum wage manufacturing as in these countries it

. >> senator grassley. >> senator johnson and i wrote you about text messages between peter strzok and lisa page that appear to show the fbi may have tried to use counterintelligence briefings for the trump transition team, as intelligence gathering operations. i hope you'll commit to answering the letter in writing, but also providing committees the requests briefing. that's my question. >> yes, senator. >> have you already tasked any staff to look into whether spying by the fbi on the trump campaign was properly predicated and can congress expect a former report on your findings? >> yes, i do have people in the department helping me review the activities over the summer of 2016. >> okay. i suppose it depends on what conclusions you come to, but is there any reason why congress wouldn't be briefed on your conclusions? >> it's a little early for me to commit completely, but i envision some kind of reporting at the end of this. >> the clinton campaign and the democrat national committee hired fusion gps to do opposition research against candidate trump. fusion gps then hired christopher

grassley: i yield the floor. mr. mcconnell: madam president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: yesterday, the senate voted to confirm kenneth lee of california to serve as a judge for the ninth circuit. yet another individual will uphold the rule of law as a federal judge. mr. lee is far from the only nominee to an important position whom the senate confirmed this week. on tuesday, we confidence michael truncale of texas to the federal bench in the eastern district of texas, and today we'll consider three more of the president's abundantly qualified picks to fill vacancies in the executive branch and in the judiciary. first we'll vote on wendy vitter of louisiana who's been nominated to be u.s. district court judge for the eastern district of louisiana. ms. vitter's impressive legal career includes experience in private practice and a decade in the new orleans parish district attorney's office where she handled more than 100 felony jury trials. ms. vitter has been favorably reported twice by the her colleagues on the ju

and letters that ron johnson and charles grassley sent sounds like they're suggesting the leaks were from the cia. ainsley: plural, could be intel community. reporter: that's right. if you go on to the senate web page for ron johnson you can read more about the letter. clearly the implication is if the cia will find out. neil: george papdopoulus said he was spied on. that was led by the cia. he wasn't led by the fbi. maybe "the new york times" will write about it. ainsley: on other side society, you look fantastic, griff. steve: pocket square perfectly matches the necktie. reporter: the brilliant resilient mcgaveer kilmeade. steve: president presented tiger woods with the medal of freedom since he won the extraordinary masters a couple weeks ago. the president wanted to salute him. he brought his whole family. he has had super highs and super lows and yesterday's event was really something. listen. >> you have seen the good and the bad, the highs and the lows. in '97, yes i won the masters i was there to, i ended up hugging my dad and my mom. my dad is no longer here but my mom's her

thank you, chairman grassley, and members of the committee. as i mentioned again, principle has a lot of experience in working with small to medium sized employers and we listen to our clients. what our small employers talk about most is again the burdens of setting up multiple employer plans and the fact that many small employers wear multiple hats. there's a cabinet company in grimes, iowa, that has an owner/employee that provides all of the product development. they create the cabinets, they work with citizens in iowa in terms of what cabinets that they want both residentially and in their small businesses. his wife who is ann owner/employer also wears multiple hats and is is required of taking on the burden of setting up a plan. what we're most excited about in the plans is the opportunity for these small employers to be able to join an open multiple employer plan and these plans are already established. the wife of the cabinet worker only has to join this plan and their administrative burdens are significantly reduced. >> for miss dudley,

are you looking into that or is senator grassley or someone else?, i -- as you mentioned, i think the senate will. the house, urn jer arely nadler, is just not going to do it. there's no inclination. all they want to do is try to defer and deflect on the attorney general. but i think with the senate, that's our hope to get to the bottom of it. and i know lindsey graham, senator johnson, grassley, with what they've done already, they're well on the way to finding out. and they're not going to stop, because it's not fair. and for this crime to happen, it should not happen to anyone else. david: yeah. congressman norman, great to see you. thank you very much. have a great weekend. >>> well, former fbi director james comey now admitting the anti-trump text messages between former officials peter strzok and lisa page made the whole agency look bad. >> do you acknowledge that this whole episode with strzok and page, that it damaged the reputation of the fbi and, perhaps, tarnished the investigation? >> definitely, yeah. very painful. it was important that

china, grassley voiced his concerns at a white house meeting last week.ive other fellow republicans at that meeting lobbied against tariffs that the trump administration is threatening to impose. the mueller report is unifying people in the white house, issues like trade and foreign policy are threatening to tear that union apart. kelly o'donnell, covering capitol hill, covered it a on the in our day together before heading down to the other side of pennsylvania avenue. she is back there today for me. ruth, kimberly and bill are back as well, kelly, let me start with you. we have such a focus on the congressional democrats and the president, mitch mcconnell, everybody is unified around the president on that issue. but he can't get it, yet republicans on his side on a bunch of other issues, i'd argue him trying to get nafta through, new nafta and obviously the tariff issue is if republicans thought they could get away with criticizing the president in public, they'd be criticizing. >> reporter: you can look at construct grassley with iowa and farmers and t

a lot of concern for the farmers on behalf of chuck grassley from iowa. the republican congressman from new york, peter king. does this move help or see it sticky? >> it will be tough. i understand the president's frustration. mexico can be doing more. they're not doing enough. the president feels he has to take tough action. i understand grassley's position. his people could be directly affected by it. i think it has to be thought out and see what all the collateral damage is going to be. the unintended consequences. more of an impact on mexico than on us but many american businesses, that means many american workers could be affected by this. again, the president has the power to do th. he has the right to do it. it may be the appropriate thing to do. i hope as they do it they watch the consequences very closely. on the china tariffs i have had some businesses in my district which have been affected which probably people wouldn't have thought they would be actually hit hard by but they are. again, look at this carefully. if the president wants to do it

especially if you ask chuck grassley.l our next guest how important jobs in manufacturing and the auto industry are to voters in his state. a critical one, by the way, in presidential elections. commentator, former republican governor of ohio, john kasich is with us. good morning, governor kasich. gosh, i mean, chuck grassley is upset. this could really heard the ag industry in his state. you have the result on car prices in this country that would come if he slaps these tariffs on mexico. i don't get it. do you? >> well, i don't know if he's serious about this. one minute, he says x, the next minute, he takes it back. one minute, he says he's not going to talk to nancy pelosi, the next minute he is. you have to follow the bouncing ball. i don't even think this is a bouncing ball you can follow. to say if mexico doesn't solve the immigration problem, something we haven't been able to solve, therefore we're going to punish them economically. what's the result? number one, everything that comes in from mexico costs more. th

ernst: i absolutely agree with senator grassley. those tariffs need to go away. to move ahead with usmca. i'm excited about the opportunity to get it through the senate. >> there has been a lot of criticism on those particular tariffs, not only on republican colleagues like yourself and grassley. what are you hearing from constituents? sen. ernst: i just met with beverage contributors today. as they are bottling, all those go into aluminum cans. these have a huge effect on those, distributing soft drinks and so forth. that is one industry in iowa. we hear from ag manufacturers all the time. the end-use of those products, our farmers, ranchers, they feel the impact of those tariffs. it has been very harmful for the iowa economy. >> if you are outside of washington and trying to figure out the timeline that usmca could get ratified, does that tariff particularly derail the timeline? sen. ernst: i am hoping we get it done this summer, and the sooner the better. that is the joni ernst timeframe. i want to see it done soon. we need to see those tariffs removed. and i

examining other areas where retirement needs strengthening, chairman grassley is correct the we have good ideas coming in from both sides of the aisle. across the country 100 million americans have no pension and no savings and retirement plan. a dignified retirement is out of reach for many working americans. there are a variety of ways this committee can play a leading role in changing that. first the committee works on a bipartisan basis to put together the retirement for the enhancement and savings act. it is about making it easier particularly for small employers to offer retirement plans to the employees. giving them an opportunity to band together and offer retirement plan, simpler and more cost-effective way of helping more americans from sea to shining sea. it out to be easier for older americans to save. this is something i felt strongly about since i was codirector, i think it is absurd to cut somebody off from saving just because they crossed an arbitrary age limit. in my judgment, change is part of ira law. the chairman as i worked with a previous chairman to include thi

-mexico-canada trade deal and chuck grassley saying that can be in jeopardy because of this move.e want to get your reaction to what the president did. good morning, eric. you are up first. go ahead. caller: good morning. something needs to be done about immigration. be a people, we need to priority. to me it seems like the democratic party is putting black people first. 6% unemployment rate is something in the black community . the community i used to live in, they took over. they have jobs, they are working. -- the women are on welfare and stuff. it does not take generations and generations of these people to ine over here and move up class, you see them driving 4, 5 cars and doing different types of things. the money -- you don't have to go along with everything the democratic party does. you are the base and they are going along with whatever you do . they cannot get elected unless they have a high turnout of democrats. host: understood. do you support this move by the president? caller: causing the black community to be suppressed. we are the last and everything. host: do you

just heard from senator grassley. we have taken a look at how they break down by age.t senator grassley at one of the oldest member. -- 67.kennedy, crapo lindsey graham, 63 and thom tillis, 58. ted cruz and joni ernst also knew to the committee, 48. also 48.ee and sasse taking a look at the democrats, the ranking member, senator feinstein is 85. pat lahey, 79 and dick durbin, 74. mazie hirono is 71. senator klobuchar, 58. harris. is kamala younger members on the democratic side, 50 years old. host: that is the senate judiciary committee make up. they will hear from the attorney general today. c-span 3,ge begins on c-span.org, or the radio app. the attorney general is headed over to the house judiciary committee where he will be testifying. we have coverage of that back-and-forth as well. the former chair of the judiciary committee was talking to john mcardle about the negotiations over whether or not the witness, in this case the attorney general can be questioned by counsel for the committee. that is a sticking point between the house judiciary committee led by democr

do you agree with chuck grassley?s this something the president has overstepped on and what are you going to do about it? >> well, when i heard the news this morning, i was stunned. i thought what is this authority to do this? and when i learned it was a 40-year-old bill, i thought the president's idea of an emergency is something he wants to do without the legal authority, just as he did with the wall and now the courts have stopped him. i think this is very questionable legally. it's not -- he doesn't have a lot of respect for the democratic system of government and the rule of law here and i'm glad to hear that senator grassley is also calling him on this. >> i want to talk to you about attorney general bill barr and the comments he made addressing the role of congress. he said the department of justice doesn't use our powers of investigating crimes as an adjunct to congress. now, that sort of contradicts what we've been hearing from robert mueller and pretty much every lawyer who knows about this. robert mueller s

joni ernst, chuck grassley, pat toomey came out against the tariffs. grassley and ernst say it could threaten their support for the usmca trade deal. representatives for the u.s. chamber of commerce, a pro-business groups say they are considering taking legal action against the white house. that could potentially be coming here within the upcoming days. the white house has responded to that this afternoon saying the following in a statement, quote, the president is taking action within his authority to protect our national security. industries should be in communication with their counterparts in mexico to encourage the mexican government to work with the administration and stay off dangerous crisis at our southern border as quickly as possible. by the way i will end here. we found out that president trump spoke today with justin trudeau, the canadian prime minister. of course the usmca falls into all of this. also mexico's foreign minister spoken as well with jared kushner and mike pompeo. a lot going on. send it back to you. melissa: those legislator

chuck grassley, joni ernst, are very critical of this. mick mulvaney's point is they can lift this any time they want, they have not set metrics. president trump has threatened to close the border with mexico and gone out of his way to almost compliment the mexicans on how they're doing on stopping the flow and in 24, 48 hours, says no, the flow of migrants is going back and forth. this is up to the president's own whims, steph. >> this could be a threat but what if they take it as the boy who cried wolf? kayla, let's remind our audience, tariffs are paid by importers, not the mexican companies. so the importers would pass the costs to the american consumers. help us understand the impact. >> reporter: yes, and consumers would feel that when they're going out to buy a new car. vehicles are the top item that companies import from mexico that they make there and then send across the border. it would have a dramatic impact on consumers if this were to go through. as hans notes, this isn't a done deal yet. the white house is allowing a slight

iowa senator chuck grassley joins us right now. senator, good to have you. you think of the idea the president had to help farmers in your state and elsewhere to help absorb the tariff body blows? >> farmers will prefer the market over the aid the president is talking about. if the aid comes, farmers will take advantage of it but, because they support they support what the president is trying to do in regard to china. our farmers know that the theft of intellectual property, trade secrets, particularly manipulating the currency that china does, all of that is very harmful to the entire united states economy but particularly when they make it difficult for to us import into their country by the manipulation of their currency. we need farmers, want that changed and they are going to stand behind the strong position that the president's taken. i compliment the president because they know that china has to live by the rules of international trade, just like the united states and almost the rest of the world does. and they know that china is in the wto, that ther

we welcome senator grassley: good morning. today the committee will continue its work on retirement security and the various challenges facing the u.s. retirement system. ideas on ways to improve the u.s. retirement system. last month introduced the retirement enhancement and savings act which typically goes by the nickname of resa and developed by the committee of the last two congresses. passage remains a top priority. it's centerpiece expansion it's centerpiece expansion of opening other commonsense changes would make it more feasible for businesses of all sizes to offer retirement plans by harnessing economies of scale and reducing unnecessary burdens on employers. i hope the house will send its version over to us at some point this month. i will continue to work closely with the senator and other committee members to reconcile the differences and get this important bill to the president. now for the purpose of this meeting there is still work to be done and there are gaps to fill in the retirement system. our focus today

this is tough for america's farmers which is why senator chuck grassley said, wait a minute, this is a misuse of the president's tariff authority to use it in this way, poppy. >> yeah. look, to hear grassley say that, that the president is misguided on this, is a big deal, right, jim? >> no question. let's bring in margaret talli tcht t. that's not a soft opposition to this from the republican chairman of the senate judiciary committee. trade policy and border security are separate issues, this is a misuse of presidential tariff authority. will the president listen when he hears push back like this from republicans? >> it depends on how much push back and he may be looking at and listening to other factors, too, we will see soon what the markets do. at bloomberg last night as this news hit the start of emails that were going around my internal system, oh, my god, the peso is falling, what about gm and what's going to happen to ford. when this is about the supply chain, there is the idea that there are products brought from mexico that originate in the u.s. or have components or parts

and senator grassley is right. and he's talking primarily about china. and moving the china agreement along. but you cannot make two sides of two important economies just turn on a dime when they're negotiating very important long-term issues that have been neglected for two decades, in my view. >> this is from alexandria, virginia. independent line. al, hello. >> caller: hi, how are you? >> hey, elle. >> caller: can you hear me? >> yes, ma'am. >> caller: okay. my concern is, as a general public, we are not aware of how much is really stolen from us. now when they go to the table, they're refusing not to still -- the loss, is what makes it hard. now we understand how much has been done to us by china. our merchants are the ones who lost. the general public. we didn't know. we didn't feel it. >> yeah. >> caller: but now merchants are complaining. they understood. and my question is, would the president -- is he screaming 20 years about other nations are taking advantage of us. we didn't hear him. we didn't know. >> right. >> okay, thanks, caller. >> elle,

chuck grassley from iowa very important said you're not getting this until i get my way and now he's got his way to senator that is not the president ok so possible progress even if the changes are small petty trump has also been speaking about the ongoing trade war with china where there has been progress. he was giving a speech today and he again reiterated what he's been saying is that they had a deal they tried to renegotiate so he's not going to do that he was very flippant about it and if you talk to experts here in washington they're really questioning the strategy of the president granted his fallback position is to be belligerent to sort of basically beat people into submission but experts here say if you know anything about the chinese culture what he's doing every time he seems to believe all this or say that the chinese tried to renegotiate is putting president thing in a corner because obviously he does want to be seen as losing face the president though thinks that he's got the winning hand that the u.s. economy is stronger than the chinese economy and that he can keep

it would make chuck grassley, right, that's basically what grassley said, it is outside the bounds of what the president is saying, what they have said is that they want to pressure mexico which is obviously true as well, and the spillover benefit here is that you get american congressmen who have districts where dependency on mexican economy really matters, and they will be under pressure to come up with a fix for our immigration system, because look, whether it's mexico or the united states congress, this is solvable. congress, you have lindsey graham just last week, he wants to present this legislation that fixes our asylum system, makes it so we don't have to separate families when they arrive here, we can detain them together, serves as a deterrent and also to make it so that mexico can be considered a safe third country so that when people are coming up from central america, they will be required to claim asylum in mexico, which is safer than the central american countries they are coming from. connell: is there any real chance of rational dialogue or when congress comes back wi

grassley said this is a misuse of presidential tariffs authority. it goes on.resident today. >> corn is a major product of iowa and a major export to mexico specifically. no accident the 2 republicans from iowa are concerned about this. look, the bigger picture worry that the republicans are reflecting is the spillover effect of this on to the other trade relationships that the u.s. is trying to deal with. the u.s. mca, the new trade agreement the president just negotiated with mexico and canada was on a good track. the canadians and mexicans were prepping the ratification. the republicans were for it and nancy pelosi was the only person against it. this comes up and creates the perception with trading partners that the president is undo trading deals. the chinese are watching this closely. they can say, see, we are dealing with somebody, even if we struck a deal with him, would unravel it for other some other reason. >> bret: molly, some analis was this the shiny thinghe attention off robert mueller. it's a crisis on the border. no matter what your party is it

two we wouldn't be in this situation people like chuck grassley would have done their job.f congress would have done their job, trump would need to be putting tariffs on mexico. that is the problem. >> it is precisely that but that is a matter that is now in the rearview here. this is all now about the future with the president taking charge of the situation. >> thank you. >> a woman in florida, awakened to the sound of her kitchen window being shattered but instead of coming face-to-face with a burglar, she found a different sort of intruder. 11-foot alligator in this happened in clearwater, four. the gator went through a kitchen window, started thrashing arou around, knocking over furniture and damaging walls. police and the gator trapper at the gator outside, the wound was at home. she said she's upset about the reptile smashing her good bottles of wine. she should really get over that quickly. don't you think? reaction from attorney general william barr about the deep state attempted overthrow of trump. that and much more after the break. state with us. allergies with s

grassley: i ask that the calling of the quorum be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. grassley: i'm here to discuss with my colleagues issues dealing with the work of the senate finance committee and possible legislation that hopefully will come up this summer to keep health care costs down, particularly prescription drugs. but in the process of doing that, i want to set the record straight on an issue that affects every american who's eligible for medicare. more specifically, i'm here to talk about efforts to reduce the rising costs of prescription medicine. prescription drugs save lives. millions of americans like myself wake up every morning and take their daily medication, but there's something that's become a very tough pill to swallow for an increasing number of americans, and that is paying for the rising cost of prescription drugs. i applaud president trump for turning up the volume on this issue last summer. that's when the president announced his administration's blueprint to lower drug costs for all americans. he

is what grassley had to say. and border security are separate issues, this is a misuse of congressional authority and counted congressional intent. democrats made it simpler. this is asinine. the markets are not happy about this. dow futures indicator overnight reaction ahead of "the opening bell". those are sharply down. rob: certainly getting mexico's attention. jillian: now to the story, donald trump and kim jong un's failed summit may have had deadly consequences was the north korean dictator executing 5 officials after talks celebrate in hanoi according to south korean media. the report accused kim of sentencing mike pompeo's counter port to forced labor and ideological education and sending his translator to a prison camp for making mistake. south korean officials wouldn't confirm the report but we will stay on top of that. the us has evidence linking iran to oil tanker attacks off the coast of the united arab emirates as early as next week. >> i don't think anybody who knows the region has any doubt who st

we heard senator chuck grassley came out right away to say among other things quote "trade policy andcurity are separate issues. this is a misuse of presidential authority. following through on this would seriously jeopardize passage of the u.s.m.c.a., which is what you just said." congress is increasingly concerned . what is the likelihood that mitch mcconnell would get on board, and of that senate republicans could curtail the president's authority? rufus: so far, they have not done that, and we have watched as the president's actions have progressively taken more and more of the trade power away from congress. the constitution clearly gives congress the authority to do these kinds of things, and presidents are supposed to, even if negotiating a trade deal, they have to submit them to congress forehand. certainly, on raising tariffs, the president needs congressional action. but he has used these authorities have given to him so far, the republican senate, has not challenged him, and i have not seen much from the democratic-controlled house either. it is really unclear whether the c

>> i saw chuck grassley, the chairman of the senate finance committee, question the legality of it. we'll see. this is an area where congress can make a clear statement against this. that would require republicans to do something they almost have never done, which is to vote against the president. if he does go ahead with this, as he does with everything else, we would likely see it go to court. i'm not enough of an expert in the trade laws to tell you, whether this will be able to be sustained in court. but it was striking that grassley tonight, was out there right away, questioning whether the president really had the authority to do this. >> this comes on the heels of the u.s. and canada. this replaces nafta. what impact does this have on the u.s. mca, whether it gets ratified? >> that's striking about all this. on the same day the president submitted a language to congress that is designed to set the clock in motion to force the house to vote on his revised, updated nafta, after the speaker nancy pelosi signaled clearly that democrats want more time to consider it. this does kin

senator grassley is now taking the place of senator mccain and we have introduced that bill. finally, we should act to hold drug makers accountable for the opioid crisis that they helped to create by passing the lifeboat act led by our colleague senator manchin who was just in this chamber which would establish a permanent funding stream to provide and expand access to treatment for addiction. it's only fair that the companies made wealthy from addiction be held responsible to fund a pathway for recovery. there are many options and alone none of these will fix this problem. but together along with other legislation that has been proposed by my colleagues, we can make a difference. we can no longer pretend this is happening. it is time for us to make a dent, to bring down the cost of prescription drugs, and to stop coddling the pharmaceutical companies. this is about, as i mentioned, nicole and her son, that she no longer can share time with. he's left us. but she won't let it go. this is about jessica, a mother whose specialty drug costs are $50,000 a year to treat her arthri

iowa senator chuck grassley slammed the move saying trade policy and border security are separate issues. this is a misuse of presidential tariff authority. folks, that is a republican senator. in a letter to president trump, mexican president andres manuel lopez called for dialogue, saying he doesn't believe in an eye for an eye retaliation. >>> there are no words, literally, the big loser in this year's scripps national spelling bee, well, the dictionary. >> o-d-y-l-i-c. >> not just six or even seven but eight winners at the annual competition. they survived 20 total rounds on a historic night. >> over the last five rounds, no one made mistakes. this is the first time more than two contestants won. they will receive $50,000 in cash, a trophy, and a trip to hollywood. merriam-webster tweeting its concession and adding that it is so proud. >> that's all they got? >> congrats, all eight will be on "new day" this morning showing how they can outspell john berman and allison camrerota. >>> attorney general bill barr is putting the burden of proof on robert mueller. the special counsel made

for example, iowa's two republican senators today, joy joni ernst and chuck grassley have said that puts their decision in jeopardy. grassley also questions whether or not the president has the authority to move forward with these tariffs saying "trail policy and border security are separate issues. this is a misuse of presidential tariff authority and counter to congressional intent. by the way, shepard, in the last half hour here, the republican senator from pennsylvania, pat toomey has come forward saying the president's tariffs threat against mexico is misguided and he says it's congress that should be in the driver's seat as it relates to tariffs. bottom line, we await to see whether the u.s. chamber of commerce files its lawsuit. if it does, the courts could have their say on this one and whether or not the president has the authority to move forward. shepard? >> shepard: blake burman live. thank you. so we reported tariffs are taxes and if put into effect, prices on stuff could go up. team fox coverage. jeff paul with more. jeff? >> yeah, shep, across the board tariff will not onl

senator chuck grassley from iowa says the farm belt is still with the president. >> farmers want that change and they're going to stand behind the strong position that the president's taken and i compliment the president because they know that china has to live by the rules of international trade, just like the united states and almost the rest of the world does. >> reporter: the administration is looking at a plan to use some of the tariff money to buy agriculture from u.s. farmers and n send it overseas to other countries for humanitarian aid. the u.s. trade representative office is upping the pressure here. there's a public hearing on junt the items, everything else that china imports into the united states, to be placed under a 25% tariff. the president can put everything china imports in the united states under tariff after that june meeting. back to you guys. lauren: retail sales rose more than 7% in april from a year ago in china, the slowest pace in about 16 years. chinese industrial production, that rose more than 5% last month but also less than expected. new factory orders

i appreciate the work that senator grassley and i have done together along with others, senator leahy and lee, the stop stalling act, which i think is a great name, with senator grassley to prevent anti-competitive abuses that he and i have introduced as well as the preserve access to affordable generics and biosimilars act. so let me start with the pay for delay. mr. mitchell, do you agree that we need legislation to address the problem of anti-competitive pay for delay agreements? the fdc has been doing some work in this area after the court case, but do you agree we still need legislation? >> we. we would be very grateful if you would enact legislation. yes, there have been fewer cases of pay for delay since the activist decision, but congress really needs to codify that decision to deal with what professor carrier says, which is courts make mistakes. the cases are complicated. so we very much hope you will enact the pay for delay legislation that you sponsored with senator grassley. >> professor carrier, you've written extensively about anti-competitive abuse of the fda petitionin

this is what senator grassley as well as senator graham are looking into. how many people within that sphere were actually utilized? because every day we find more and more information that points in that direction. that, our -- >> sean: knowing just what we know -- knowing just what we know does exist, and that is coming out, to what extent will the conscience of the american people in your view be shocked? >> they will be extraordinarily shocked. this is going to be an avalanche of information. people will be indicted because of this. i think that, you know, we could see the intensity with attorney general william barr during his testimony. he would not be that intense, he would not be that adamant if he didn't know something more. >> sean: agreed. >> i believe there are ongoing investigations. the first one we have to see is michael horowitz -- >> sean: that's coming. tick-tock. last question for you, mark penn. every day between now and election day 2020, your party -- i say that respectfully -- you are not your party. they focus on this, they stay on t

i agree with chair grassley. want to re-establish confidence in the department of justice, the fbi, there were questionable practices dating back to the clinton e-mail scandal and needs to be investigated to make sure people stayed within the rules and acted properly. >> neil: couldn't the inspector general do that or does he have a different edict? >> i requested specifically what the scope of the inspector general investigation is. i think they can run in parallel. i think there will be different timelines and different scope. this will give sunshine to the entire process. dating back to hillary clinton, the creation of the dossier and those events which i think are important to take a look at. >> neil: senator, your colleague, richard burr has wanted to hear from donald trump jr. because of some discrepancies that he wanted to clear up. he asked him a couple times voluntarily to come is. the word is that donald trump jr. did not and caused a big ruckus in your party with his dad, the president. how do you feel