joining me is bill griffith and david jolly and jeff mason, reuters white house correspondent. welcome all. bill, first of all, this is the jackson hole annual meeting, the fed chair gives a speech. what set off the president today? is this more scapegoating? >> to some extent. i mean, that was supposed to be our top story, this speech by chairman powell. he's been under intense pressure to cut interest rates to shore up our economy to protect it from the global economy, which is slowing down right now. and as you well know, andrea, a fed chair never explicitly says what they're going to do. they only hint at it. he only hinted this morning that he is open to the idea of cutting interest rates. the president wants him to cut by a full 1%. wall street is expecting .25% when they meet next month. the fact he's only hitting did not sit well with the president, hence he becomes an enemy at this point. >> it does seem that the trade war is a bigger factor overall, the overall climate. david jolly, as a former republican and former republican congress member, what is your take on the

jeff mason, brittany sheppard, great to have you both o. still to come this hour, anti-government pro-democracy protests are flooding hong kong. the peacefulness by and large is really remarkable. chinese leaders have now launched a dramatic now propaganda video in response. [ crowd chanting ] >> look at the soldiers marching. plus senator elizabeth warren takes her progressive message to native americans, but could her past comments claiming native american ancestry come back to haunt her there? we're going to take you there. and today california's governor is expected to sign a bill limiting police use of deadly force. cnn asks him about it. we'll have his answer coming up. (ding) hey, who are you? oh, hey jeff, i'm a car thief... what?! i'm here to steal your car because, well, that's my job. what? what?? what?! (laughing) what?? what?! what?! [crash] what?! haha, it happens. and if you've got cut-rate car insurance, paying for this could feel like getting robbed twice. so get allstate... and be better protected from mayhem... like me. ♪

jeff mason, that is a tough editorial. and also you're getting backlash from tim kaine and others. long time supporters of israel, but israel is the largest recipient of military aid. and these members vote on that. >> this is a president who has been very comfortable with just bursting through norms. and this is another example and that "the new york times" editorial really puts it in a very blunt and very harsh terms but it's true. that's what the president has felt he can do on this and other issues and as nancy pelosi said in her reply to this, she believes it's un -- it's beneath the dignity of israel and beneath the dignity of the office of the presidency. that shows the bipartisan nature of u.s. support for israel could be threatened by this entire thing. >> jeff, ashley and kristen, stand by for a few moments because we want to bring in illinois democratic congressman brad schneider. he lobbied u.s. diplomats here to allow rashida tlaib and ilhan omar to enter israel. thank you so much. when you were talking to israel's ambassador and other diplomats and trying to persuade

i want to just live in this moment and go to jeff mason on this breaking news. jeff, your reaction and let's take a step back and put this into a broader context. because as kelly points out, this is yet another major shakeup for the president. this is a hugely significant post. we are entering yet another election season. election meddling at the top of the list of what the dni director could be focused on. talk about the significance of this and the fact that there were signs it might be going in this direction. >> i didn't last very long. he just -- just a few days ago announced this as his pick and there was some criticism right away about ratcliffe. there were some question marks about whether or not he would be able to be confirmed. the president in the tweet that kelly just read out loud to all of us was starting to blame the media and that's a scapegoat that he uses often. but probably if he's done it so quickly, he must have gotten some signals from congress and perhaps his people here in the legislative affairs department at the white house saying this

let's bring in jeff mason, the white house correspondent for reuters. jeff, highly unusual for my president to get involved in a situation a foreign situation like this. what do you make of it? >> it is highly unusual. i think in this case, it's another sign of the president busting through norms. he's shown during his 2 1/2 year presidency and his 2016 campaign that that is something that he often delights in doing. he's done it again and done it in a way that some people believe will harm the bipartisan support for israel, certainly harm relationships between the democrats and this white house. he's gotten some criticism from fellow republicans as well. >> but israel says look, this ban happened solely because ilhan omar and rashida talib were working to impose these boycotts in israel, which they believe are damaging to the country. >> sure. that is the reasoning that israel sided. but before that, the ambassador to the israeli ambassador to the united states had a sured the congress woman that these women of congress would be allowed to come in. unde

joining me right now is jeff mason, a white house correspondent for reuters, and elana plot, a white t for the atlantic. also both cnn political analysts. jeff, you first. so is his tweet the president's bizarre way of getting people to look the other way? what would be his motivation? what's behind him doing something like this? >> well, it's a tough question to answer, fred, to figure out the strategy if there is one behind president trump's tweeting sometimes. i think in this case it's just another example of the president engaging in and spreading conspiracy theories. in particular this one that would cast some kind of a shadow over his former what he still sometimes seems to believe are his current political opponents. this is part of a trend that we've seen with president trump since long before he was in the white house. as you obviously know, the president was one of the main proponents of the false idea that president barack obama was not born in the united states, which he was, of course. he was born in hawaii. that birtherism conspiracy theory was one sort of wave that pres

to sort this out, joining me is ann thompson and jeff mason. welcome both.s the advantage here from the administration's perspective? what is the justification for rolling back this methane fix? >> reporter: it's about saving the oil and gas industry money. by rolling back these regulations, it will save the oil and gas industry anywhere from $17 million to $19 million a year, as much as $123 million by 2025. but it admits that it will add more methane into our atmosphere. as much as 370,000 short tons of methane. that's like keeping 1.8 million passenger cars on the road for a year. my question to the epa when they had their press conference today is how in the world does this protect the environment? and what the official on the call said is that they are not withdrawing the regulations around something called volatile organic calm pounds, v.o.c.s. she claims that by regulating v.o.c.s it helps regulate methane. they admit it will put more methane into the atmosphere. that's bad for climate change because methane is a much more powerful greenhouse gas. 80

reason, it's hard to see the rationale for why he did this. >> peter alexander, robert costa and jeff mason, we're going to leave it there. >>> the head of the farmers union joins me with how trump's policies are hurting some of the very voters who helped him get elected. elected. worry free. boom! ha.ha. boom! now save $249 on this lenovo ideapad, plus total tech solution at office depot officemax or officedepot.com. when i needed to create a better visitor experience. improve our workflow. attract new customers. that's when fastsigns recommended fleet graphics. yeah, and now business is rolling in. get started at fastsigns.com. the business of road trips... ...adventure... ...and reconnecting. modernized comfort inn's and suites have been refreshed because our business is you. get the lowest price guaranteed on all choice hotels when you book direct at choicehotels.com. woman 1: this is my body of proof. man 1: proof of less joint pain and clearer skin. man 2: proof that i can fight psoriatic arthritis... woman 2: ...with humira. woman 3: humira targets and blocks a specific source of inf

joining me is elise allen and phil rucker and jeff mason. elise jordan, there was a tweet from the president today, he was quoting from fox news from their morning hosts about how president george w. bush never came after president obama. president george w. bush also was really noteworthy when you were in the bush white house for the way he embraced the muslim community after 9/11 for his acumenicism, his understanding of the immigrant border situation coming from texas as he did. talk about the comparison between president trump and his predecessors. >> president trump should be careful what he encourages or invites, because by acting that way about president obama's comments, he's almost inviting president bush to step in and remind president trump that he in the aftermath of 9/11 encouraged americans to embrace diversity within the country, not to demonize the muslim community. to work together to combat extremism, that muslim allies were our partners in the fight against terror. and the message was the exact antithesis of what president

a brief time ago i discussed it with jeff mason of reurs. ople were laughing at the beginning of the week. it became less funny, of course, yesterday.u what do ke of all this? is this part of the strategy? jeff: people always ask me and ask g strategy. there is a the answer after two and half years of president trump i don't know if it is strategic. it may be partially strategic. i think it is largely just who he is, and there arees when like this week you see a lot more happening and a lot more things coming up thae eyebrows, and some weeks where it is less so. sophie: quite a lot more this week. jeff: for sure. for sure. sophie: there has been speculation that he is trying distraction and trying to distract people from the ongoing talk of a potential recession on the horizon. any truth to that?k jeff: i there is concern at the white house and in republican political circles about the economy, for sure. that is one reason why the president talked a little bit about potentially doing something on tax cuts and thenha pulled back on he says he

. >>> i want to bring back into the conversation jeff mason here and this is, as we talk about the victims, as we talk about the process of laying these victims to rest, or praying, in some instances, they are out of the hospital safe and sound at some point there's also the political component to this and that's something you heard president trump talk about. there's reaction now from several of the 2020 democratic candidates and people who represent them, including a spokesperson for joe biden's campaign. who tweeted just moments ago that somebody who spent years pouring gasoline on a terrible fire for their own gain doesn't get to turn around and decry their own fire. as we speak to the city manager saying they're happy to hear the president decry racism and bigotry, versus the juxtaposition with things the president has said in the past. >> going forward we've already talked about consistency for the president. on the democratic side this could end up politically being something that really rallies them. i remember, in president obama decemb 's -- >> awful to have to think about. >> 10

a white house reporter interest the post, and jeff mason joins us. jeff, let me begin with this. up until a few hours ago, so overnight last night, hashtag trump rusession was trending on twitter. and axios was reporting this morning a source close to the president told jonathan swan there i'm very worried about the latest economic data. all of us are concerned with the narrative. he can't win. >> there's reason to be concerned. number one, if the president has made the economy and the stock market in particular one of the measures of this success, so the fact the market took such a dive yesterday and the fact there are concerns about a recession just hangs over his message, his sort of main this is my go-to reason for urging people to vote for me. on top of that, if we get into 2020 and the economy really does get a lot weaker that's just a boost for democrats who say, hey, it's time for change. >> when you talk about the economy looking at our polling, the president is polling at 53% on the economy. but his overall job approval rate is 44%. most presidents who have a strong eco

joining me as jeff mason and editorial director of the daily caller. talking about how we have to learn about new is like inverted yield curves and that kind of stuff, how are you keeping up, the president had a couple days with lengthy q&as with the press, he seems to enjoy that back and forth but he's getting a lot of questions on a slew of topics. >> he doesn't he is. i was in the one outside two days ago -- was a two days ago? >> the news cycle is so fast. >> we talked about greenland and afghanistan. i think he does enjoy engaging with the press in that way and ripped on some reporters very specifically but he's making a lot of news, every question he answers makes news and he does give mixed signals. is talking a lot about the economy, headlines about a recession have been getting under his skin, he says the economy is great but rips on the third are not doing more to reduce interest rates which would help the economy even more he thinks. shannon: what is his biggest supporters on hell congressman mark meadows had this to say, it is not economic

matthew continetti, mollie hemingway, senior editor at the federalist, and jeff mason, correspondentis there a deal to be had, and a new inf treaty down the road? >> the president likes to talk about a potential nuclear deal with russia and china. he's mentioned it today on the south lawn, i was out there when he was talking, but he's done it before and it seems like something that he would like to be involved in. but that talk is never translated to an actual process, any kind of infrastructure, and he kind meetings. this withdrawal, this other idea, the inf is much more real. >> mollie, is there wisdom of the withdrawal today? >> it was drafted at a time when china was not considered a key player in it. but china should be part of any nuclear arms treaty now. russia had violated it. they'd agreed russia was in violation of the treaty, but it was not in on the interest but there is a reason to be part of treaties if we can and avoid nuclear proliferation. a good reminder of how we have hyped threats about russia while not taking seriously or not realizing how hyping this russia coll

with me now april bryan, who is correspondent for urban radio networks, and jeff mason covers the white house for reuters. >> hi, brooke. >> when you hear that these talks are informal and not substantive, according to one official. how serious are these conversations? >> not substantive is the key piece right there. we've been hearing about these talks forever. i've been in washington for 22 years, there were shootings, columbine, so many things that happened. they were talking about closing the gun show loophole. now hr-8 that is in the house, is to close the gun show loophole as well as the online loophole for buying guns. we're talking about assault weapons bans. it's a lot about a lot that's not moving. the problem is people are dying and hr-8 has passed in the house, but the senate won't do it. not only that, you have the nra that is telling the president no. remember parkland? the president was all for background checks when he heard the people in that town hall, those young people pushed the president of the united states. >> he's made promises -- >> the nra -- >> how about ivan

we'll bring in our panel, fox news contributor steve hayes, mollie hemingway, and jeff mason white house reuters. >> this is a interesting report, it confirms what my publication began reporting two years ago, he disseminated information that was not his to possess, he shared it with people he was not authorized to share it with and he directed the information be leaked to the media, all of these things are shown in this exhaustive report which usually inspector general reports are pretty restrained and how they talked about these things, the language used by the inspector general to describe the actions taken by comey really speaks to how seriously they considered it. they did make a criminal referral based on his behavior. >> bret: it's just one part, we are waiting on the second part which is the fisa abuse part and the substance of what people are looking at >> i think lindsey graham is right, there's a lot more coming for the fbi and the doj. if you think about the tweet, the second tweet you showed on showed on the is neither a liar nor a leaguer -- it's really hard to justify that

jeff mason, white house correspondent and fox news contributor steve hayes. welcome to all of you.ous fascinations of who was responsible for this and what happens. is it something at the root of our culture? there is a lot of finger-pointing. >> there always is a lot of finger-pointing. i think you've democrats claiming certain cultural phenomenons, guns and republicans talking about video games and rhetoric, all of these things contribute to this environment and we ought to be careful to talk about all of them. you have to be mindful to talk about all of them. with the president said there was good. the rhetoric was good. i'll be more convinced that he means that if he uses the same thing in a rally. it would be great to have donald trump in a rally talking about hatred the way he did. more convincing if you would launch a full-time campaign against white supremacy. that would be persuasive i think two people. they would say this is different. he is taking off after this problem and that could be a valuable contribution. >> shannon: i want to play something. it talking about poss

if jeff mason, white house correspondent for reuters., he has talked about a time and time again, he has asked about it time and time again about the possibility of a slow down. >> he has asked about it because of indicators, he is confident, he keeps expressing his confidence in the economy and yet he does give a bit of a mixed signal because he also has been complaining about the federal reserve for not lowering interest rates more and saying he wants the federal reserve to back him up. he continues to say, i was outside for that long gaggle yesterday and he said we don't need tax cuts, the economy is doing fine. he's thinking about it and it's a concern if there were to be a recession or slow down of any kind next year. >> bret: he has tweeted about the federal reserve chair, he has talked about it here, he talked about yesterday. >> jay powell and the federal reserve have totally missed at their call -- i was right and just about everybody has missed that. he raised interest rates too fast, too furious. if the fed did what they were

. >> jeff mason, thank you. good to see you. defrancesco soto and shermichael singleton, thank you to you as well. >>> taxes taking a brand new turn. deutsche bank saying they have at least some of the president's returns. could lawmakers now be a step closer to getting their hands on them? ...and lower your ability to fight them. before treatment your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. tell your doctor if you have an infection... ...or symptoms such as fevers,... ...sweats, chills, muscle aches or coughs... ...or if you plan to or recently received a vaccine. i feel free to bare my skin. visit skyrizi.com. the business of road trips... ...adventure... ...and reconnecting. modernized comfort inn's and suites have been refreshed because our business is you. get the lowest price guaranteed on all choice hotels when you book direct at choicehotels.com. >>> deutsche bank in court this week admitting it has copies of president trump's personal and corporate tax returns. in a court filing related to subpoenas fro

joining me democratic strategist and former senate leadership aide and also jeff mason.s standing in the polls frankly is about electability and if democrats start to perceive he's looking tired or he's giving donald trump a target, is it a problem? >> it's a problem if it becomes a tearatinarrative that starts out and has taken hold in some circles. i think it's about the endurance of a long campaign which by the way even people 15 or 20 years younger than joe biden who may not be at the stage of their career he is would probably struggle as well. this is long distance marathon. one of the things i will not stand for is donald trump talking about anyone's mental fitness to be president. that is laughable. that should be rejected outright. so donald trump has no standing to question anyone's mental fitness to pea president. >> anybody who actually becomes the nominee is going to be a twitter target for donald trump, that is given. does it make it any less effective his twitter bully pulpit when he is the guy who as "the washington post" puts it spouts exaggerations both

mollie hemingway, senior editor at "the federalist" and jeff mason, white house corresponded for writersaid he's going to do these press briefings more regularly, sort of like that defense secretary rumsfeld used to do back in the day. we will see, but on afghanistan, what about what was said? >> well, the first thing to remember is we are in the 18th year in the war in afghanistan. that's just kind of crazy on the face of it. so what you see here is this update on the talks that are going on in which the taliban, which now controls more territory than it has since 2001, it has been gaining from this insurgency. the taliban is supposed to promise to be good and not to support militancy inside afghanistan and not to let afghanistan become a haven for terrorism like it did before 2001. when you listen to general dunford, he said we're not going to -- he didn't want to use the withdraw word. we're not going to withdraw, we currently have 14,000 troops, meaning some number of troops will still be there, and this is a president who promised to get us out in the last campaign and to keep us ou

with us we have reuters white house correspondent jeff mason and politico congressional reporter melanie we've all covered these caucuses, right? they last for a long time. they can be boring, but with moments of sort of excitement or drama. and this would have fundamentally changed really the turnout of voters or caucus goers in iowa and thus the results, right? >> right. the whole point of this was to comply with these new dnc rulesmerules meant to sort of increase participation among these disenfranchised communities. keep in mind these caucuses take place in the winter in iowa. i'm from the midwest and know how brutal those winters can be, they're time consuming, so the whole point was to get more people out. candidates were already campaigning and strategizing under the assumption that these rules would be in place. ultimately the dnc decided it was just too much of a risk. >> so you have iowa. you also have nevada where they have caucuses. now you have this shift. i wonder what does this mean for those states and what does it mean for the candidates who have now -- they're getting

joining me now jeff mason and laura basset. welcome to you both. jeff, you first in terms of what you make of the messaging coming out of the white house, what it tells us about how seriously the president is taking reports of an economic downturn. >> well, to me it says they're concerned. i don't think you put all those people on the sunday shows with that message and that very distinct message unless you really want to get across that they don't see the economy as being a risk, and they want to tamp down the discussion about that. but mike is right to say that there's a reason the stock market dropped as much as it did last week. the u.s. economy is interconnected with the rest of the world economy. it may doing well. it is. kudlow's statistics aren't wrong when he talks about the good figures from walmart last week and when he talks about unemployment. that's all true, but we are interconnected with the rest of the world, and other economies such as germany and china are suffering from this trade war, and that will have an impact or could have an

. >> while we continue to watch these pictures, reuters white house correspondent jeff mason as wellon correspondent for bloomberg news the president kind of weighed in on all of this this morning. saying that he's considering naming antifa an organization of terror. what do you make of that? >>. >> the president has gone back to this before, draws reminisce ens of the saying there's good people on both sides. i suspect he's trying to demonize the organization and not put as much focus on the other side, i think it's important to him and to some people on the right side of the conservative right side of this discussion to say, look, this had is an organization that does not deserve support or positive feelings. >> and kevin, why? any idea why the president would try to demonize antifa as opposed to other groups that are there in portland? >> president trump has consistently tried to raise antifa in terms of a defining who his opposition is, that's the strategy you're seeing here, i think collectively, when you look at the top line of you, to see where everything is at this moment. an

. >> joining me now to break it all down, journalist laura bass and jeff mason. from 2020 democrats. this is how counselor to the president, kellyanne conway defended the president's retweet of that conspiracy theory. take a listen. >> i think the president wants everything to be investigated and trying to connect the president to this monster from years ago where they were seen dance inningg in a video and ot flying around with him. perhaps there's a public interest in knowing more about that. this is all speculative and it's not for me to go further than where the doj and fbi are now. you do hear different people asking questions and they want to know who else was involved in epstein's crimes or even just activities and i guess that will be revealed in time. >> jeff, what does conway's defense, some may call it spin, say to you? >> reporter: well, all white houses are good at spin and certainly this one is no exception. kellyanne will often come out and defend what the president has said or done. in this case it's important to remember for context the president

jeff mason, reuters wright has reported. good money to all of you. us off here, jason, first on what we are learning. the details on the cards that were on duty and what they were supposed to have been doing it, what they said they did come and what never happened. >> a bunch of media is reporting that the two guards who were assigned to be checking on epstein every 30 minutes or so apparently fell asleep or did not make those checks and then afterwards, after about three hours of not going into see him, falsify the records suggesting they had. that is certainly putting more pressure on the justice department, certainly putting pressure on that prison and they've been put on administrative leave while the warden has been reassigned. >> is a lawyer i am appalled that this was even able to take place. you had obviously warden who did not have control over the institution. and then you have the falsification of records after the fact. i think william barr has gotten a lot more to do with to convince the american people that he will clean this up and mak