back to jeff white. people were scanned over six months. a facial recognition trial that led tojust one positive identification. the trafford centre scheme was halted, after the uk's cctv commissioner raised multiple legal concerns. other businesses though are pushing ahead. facewatch‘s customers include the british supermarket chain, southern co—op. their aspiration is to build up one of the uk's largest databases of facial images of alleged criminals. the company started in a london bar. gordon's claims to be london's oldest wine bar — it's more than 100 years old — but inside here is some cutting—edge facial recognition technology and the company that supplying it has some big ideas for where this stuff is going to go next. this is the main camera to the bar, so everybody who comes into the bar comes through this entrance and that's where you're hoping to catch them? yeah, yeah. here we go. he comes in, he looks around the bar, sees where he wants to go. right. he clicks the monitor. it says it's seen

for the last year, jeff white has been following the uk police‘s deployment of facial recognition.ntline in facial recognition. police cameras in an east london street — everyone gets scanned. if you refuse, here is what can happen. if i want to cover my face i'll cover my face, don't push me over... this man didn't want to be caught by the police cameras, so he covered his face. police stopped him, they photographed him anyway, an argument followed. how would you like it if you walked down the street and someone grabbed you? officer: calm yourself down, or you're going in handcuffs. woman: what's your suspicion? the fact he has walked past a clearly marked facial recognition thing, and covered his face... i would do the same, i would do the same. ..gives us grounds to stop him. no it doesn't! the police said this was disorderly behaviour, so they gave him a fine. the chap told me down the road, he said they got facial recognition. so i walked past like that, it is a cold day as well, soon as i have done that, the police officer has asked me to come to him. i have got my back up, i

for the last year, jeff white has been following the uk police deployment of facial recognition.s in an e. london st, everyone gets scanned. if you refuse, anything can happen. this man didn't want to be caught by the police cameras so he covered his face. police stopped him, photographed him anyway, and an argument followed. what is your suspicion? the fact that he walked past... i would do the same. it gives us grounds to stop him. the police said it was disorderly behaviour so they gave him a find. —— fine. behaviour so they gave him a find. -- fine. i walked past like that, it is also a cold day. the police officer came past. i got my bike up. isaidi officer came past. i got my bike up. i said i don't want my face shown. ifi i said i don't want my face shown. if i want to cover my face i will. i have got to pay a £90 fine. thanks, lads. £90. well done. he was caught up lads. £90. well done. he was caught up in the last of ten trials carried out by the metropolitan police. they have had successes, three arrests from facial recognition on this test day. but the trials have prov

for the last year, jeff white has been following the uk police's deployment of facial recognition.lice cameras in an east london street — everyone gets scanned. if you refuse, here is what can happen. if i want to cover my face i'll cover my face, don't push me over... this man didn't want to be caught by the police cameras, so he covered his face. police stopped him, they photographed him anyway, an argument followed. how would you like it if you walked down the street and someone grabbed you? officer: calm yourself down, or you're going in handcuffs. woman: what's your suspicion? the fact he has walked past a clearly marked facial recognition thing, and covered his face... i would do the same, i would do the same. ..gives us grounds to stop him. no it doesn't! the police said this was disorderly behaviour, so they gave him a fine. the chap told me down the road, he said they got facial recognition. so i walked past like that, it is a cold day as well, soon as i have done that, the police officer has asked me to come to him. i have got my back up, i said to him, (bleep) off, basic

the last year, jeff white has been following the uk police's deployment of facial recognition.in facial recognition. police cameras in e. london st, everyone gets scanned. if you refuse, here is what can happen. don't take my photo, don't... this man did not wa nt to photo, don't... this man did not want to be caught by the police cameras so want to be caught by the police cameras so he covered his face. police stopped him, they photographed him anyway, an argument followed. what happens if you walk down the street... what is your suspicion? the fact he has walked past a clearly marked...” suspicion? the fact he has walked past a clearly marked... i would do the same. they are just grounds. .. the police said this was disorderly behaviour so they gave him a fine. they said they have facial recognition, so i walked past like that, it is a cold day, i have done that, it is a cold day, i have done that, the police officer has asked me to come to him. i have got my backup, i said to him, (bleep) off, basically. i don't want my faith in anything. if i want to cover my face, i will c

for the last year, jeff white has been following the uk police‘s deployment of facial recognition.cognition. police cameras in an east london street — everyone gets scanned. if you refuse, here is what can happen. if i want to cover my face i‘ll cover my face, don‘t push me over... this man didn‘t want to be caught by the police cameras, so he covered his face. police stopped him, they photographed him anyway, an argument followed. how would you like it if you walked down the street and someone grabbed you? officer: calm yourself down, or you're going in handcuffs. woman: what's your suspicion? the fact he has walked past a clearly marked facial recognition thing, and covered his face... i would do the same, i would do the same. ..gives us grounds to stop him. no it doesn't! the police said this was disorderly behaviour, so they gave him a fine. the chap told me down the road, he said they got facial recognition. so i walked past like that, it is a cold day as well, soon as i have done that, the police officer has asked me to come to him. i have got my back up, i said to him, (blee

for the last year, jeff white has been following the uk police's deployment of facial recognition.t to be caught by the police cameras, so he covered his face. police stopped him, they photographed him anyway, an argument followed. how would you like it if you walked down the street and someone grabbed you? officer: calm yourself down, or you're going in handcuffs. woman: what's your suspicion? the fact he has walked past a clearly marked facial recognition thing, and covered his face... i would do the same, i would do the same. ..gives us grounds to stop him. no it doesn't! the police said this was disorderly behaviour, so they gave him a fine. the chap told me down the road, he said they got facial recognition. so i walked past like that, it is a cold day as well, soon as i have done that, the police officer has asked me to come to him. i have got my back up, i said to him, (bleep) off, basically. i said i don't want my face shown on anything. if i want to cover my face, i will cover my face. no—one is going to tell me not to cover my face. i have a £90 fine, look at that. £90, t

. >>> joining us now, former federal and state prosecutor and jeff mason, white house correspondent for reuters. jeff, first with you, this is part of a broader strategy because the white house is basically saying no to everything and making a political calculation. the question becomes how does the house response? is the judiciary going to take it all the way, declaring barr in contempt. do we see the sergeant at arms walking up to the doj? >> this is something democrats really, really want, all those things we've been talking about, the tax returns, getting mueller to testify. their options are to go the legal route. that seems to be the direction they're moving. >> the question, poppy, is there political backing for it? >> totally. that's the question. it certainly depends who you ask. on the legal front, ellie honing, to you, how ultimately gets to decide, not just if mueller can show up before the house judiciary, but how much can he say? how much say does the attorney general have and ultimately the president? >> the president and the attorney general don't have much to go on in t

joining me jeff mason white house correspondent for reuters.s ruling was categorical just as the previous was this week. the president must be feeling pretty embattled. sgh rig >> right. the house counsel used the term the president regard s congress as a nuan clrce. we're seei inin ining vindicati congress is a co-equal branch of justice. courts are not likely to be receptive to the arguments the president is making. the judge's decision was pretty unequivocal. it was ruling on injunctive matter. not only do you not win today, i think you're not likely to win in this case down the road. that's very strong. that's not uncommon when you kind of have a census to what the outcome will be after you researched the law. it's clear the law would lead to this outcome. they probably have their order written in advance. waited to see if anything would come out that shifted their decision. clearly they didn't and wrote the ruling right there. >> jeff mason, i'm inferring this has been troubling to the white house because this was his red line. the same ti

mollie hemingway, senior analyst at the federalist, and jeff mason, white house correspondent for reutersl start with you, what's the sense at the white house about these talks? >> that's a good question, bret. that sense is that we did not get where we thought we are going to get at least over a week ago. not too long ago, the secretary of the treasury steve mnuchin and larry kudlow were saying that a deal was close, they were getting towards the final lap. there was a big setback a week ago when china pulled back on some of its commitments within the draft agreement, nearly 150 page draft agreement they've been working on. that, of course, was met with a lot of dissatisfaction by ustr, trade representative robert wright hauser, and the rest of the team. that because the president to increase tariffs and the talks ended today without a deal. likely to continue on talks, but at the same time, likely to have those tariffs continue, which means a longer trade war. >> here's number four and number five tweets today. over the course of the past few days, china has held constructive conversati

jeff mason, white house correspondent for reuters, robert ray former white water independent counsel.hanks to both of you. listen, jeff mason, this is quite an internal disagreement here, right, among democrats. you have the house speaker who has been pushing back against impeachment proceedings for some time, but a growing sliver or slice of her caucus differing with her. who is going to win out? >> well, and the key word there is growing. it certainly didn't start with a huge majority and it is still a small minority of people who are pushing for impeachment but they are increasing and it's coming a at time when the president and the white house and the people around him are continuing to stone wall and that is creating a lot of frustration among democrats as they are looking to ways to hold this president accountable. i don't know the answer as to who is going to win. i think that it's clear that the white house strategy is not going to change, so the challenge right now is for speaker pelosi, whether she's successful in tamping down some of that frustration and focusing on 2020 an

white house view is that, no, it was not. that's likely have to be litigated. kristen? >> kelly and jeff, with the view from both sides of pennsylvania avenue, thanks to both of you on this friday. >>> and the story the white house is watching, breaking news this morning, a blockbuster april jobs report that's giving the white house plenty to crow about today. take a look at these numbers. huge numbers. labor department says 263,000 jobs added last month, easily beating expectations of around 190,000 more jobs. the unemployment rate, 3.6%. that's the lowest rate since 1969, folks. hourly wage growth saw gains up more than 3% from a year ago. this strong jobs report comes a day after the president dealt another setback in the effort to influence monetary policy at the federal reserve. stephen moore withdrawing his name. i'm joined now by contributor ron asana and anita kumar for politico. thanks to all of you for being here. really appreciate it. ron, i have to start with you. how significant is it and for the president? >> significant both for the economy and the president i think. if yo

jeff. well, the white house today says it does expect china to retaliate over new tariffs. president trump is warning beijing to act now on a trade deal, tweeting it will be far worse for them in his second term plsm trump today took a new hit at an old target. nikole killion is at the white house. >> reporter: president trump stayed indoors on a soggy sunday, lashing out over the mueller probe. on twitter he called it a "sick and unlawful investigation," claimed his campaign was "seriously spied upon by intel agents and democrats," then declared "this must never be allowed to happen again." >> i think it's fair to say that we're looking at a crisis, not only of confidence, but potential lay constitutional crisis. >> reporter: democrats sounded their own alarms after holding the attorney general in contempt last week. >> those in favor respond by saying aye. aye. >> reporter: it was part of an escalating battle with the white house, which exerted executive privilege to block access to the full mueller report and key documents from former white house counsel don mcgahn. >> t

i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside nbc news white house kroert jeff bennett.e bottom of the hour. >>> the stock market is set to start the week on a low note as u.s. and chinese negotiators appear far patient in resolving a twrard. as the president continues to needle china via twitter. nbc news correspondent has more from beijing. janice, what is the feeling in china surrounding all of this? >> reporter: 11 rounds of talks and things have ground to a halt. today president trump is expected to give instructions to start the process to have tariffs on all chinese goods. beijing has already said it will retaliate. it hasn't said how. it has a number of options before it. there's every expectation they will follow through on them. farmers and farm exports are likely to be first target because they know it can cause some political pain for president trump as well. while president trump is saying that it will be china that will bear the brunt of the trade war his top economic adviser larry kudlow suggested on fox news yesterday that both sides will pay the price. f

i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside nbc news white house correspondent jeff bennett. we'll start with the fight over the trump administration's stonewalling of democratic investigations escalating. the white house has directed former counsel don mcgahn to defy a congressional subpoena to testify before the house judiciary committee this morning. in a letter to chairman jerrold nadler, white house counsel said the justice department has quote advised me that mr. mcgahn is absolutely immune from compelled congressional testimony with respect to matters occurring during his service as a senior adviser to the president. he went on to say the president has directed mr. mcgahn not to appear. a lawyer for mcgahn said the former white house counsel would respect the president's instruction and not appear today. chairman jerrold nadler says the committee will still meet this morning adding mr. mcgahn is expected to appear as legally require and if he did not testify quote the first thing we're going to do, we'll have to hold mcgahn in contempt. president trump was asked by repo

i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside nbc news white house correspondent jeff bennett. we're starting with that fight between houseng democrats and trump white house and it's reaching new heights. an infrastructure ming between president trump and democratic congressional leaders came tocrn abrupt end yesterday after the presidentnd demanded that they e stop investigating him. moments afternv walking out of e meetingt the president made a surprise appearance in the rose garden where reporters had been hastily gathered. watch this. >> i walked into the room and told senator schumer, speaker pelosi, i want to do infrastructure. i want to do it more than you want to do it. i would be really good at it.od . that's what i do. but you know what? youow can't do it under these circumstances. so get these phoney investigations over with. >> so the president's impromptu statement came after house speaker nancy pelosi told reporters earlier in the day that democrats t believed the president is engaged in a quote cover up. one administration official told nbc news the president's ro

i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside nbc news white house correspondent jeff bennett. yesterday morning president trump delivered a furious response to special counsel bob mueller's remarks after the veteran law enforcement official took to the justice department podium wednesday and contradicted several claims from the president and his allies. but that didn't stop president trump from continuing to put words in mueller's mouth. >> he said, essentially, you're innocent. i'm innocent of all charges. and, you know, the thing that nobody brings up, there was no crime. >> but here again is what mueller said for himself. >> if we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime we would have said so. >> the president was emphatic that there are no grounds for impeachment. >> it's a dirty word. the word impeach. it's a dirty, filthy, disgusting word. it's high crimes and not with or. it's high crimes and misdeamnor. there was no high crimes and no misdeamnor. >> unresolved matters do remain. besides the ten episodes documented by the mueller report under

the national political reporter from bloomberg news and jeff mason, white house correspondent for reutersboth with me to dig in. this guy is known to be a pri e principled independent but not known to be a thought leader and certainly not known on the national stage even a couple weeks ago. he's not just taking a position, he's now out there publicly defending it. are there real consequences? does he have a game plan, or is this going to be just a blip on the radar? >> i think, stephanie, he's speaking his mind as he often does. justin amash is a caucus in the sense he's the least partisan republican in the house and senate as well. he's the most willing to criticize president trump. he is reading the mueller report and seems to be following to his logical and substantive conclusion here. he pointed out it's not a immediate conclusion, especially for him in a red district, and the question are other republicans going to come along with him? the answer appears no but are there other moderate republicans in tough districts and looking at him saying if he can speak out on this issue, i can s

also with us, anna palmer from politico, jeff mason white house correspondent for reuters. as we have been juggling a lot of action both from the white house and from thrilcapitol hil we're watching christoph wray talking about that word spying. i want to play what he had to say. >> when fbi acts conduct investigations against alleged mobsters, specificsuspected ter other criminals, do you believe they are engaging in spying when following investigative policies and procedures? >> well, that is not the term i would use. >> so there is chris wray distancing himself from a term that the attorney general most certainly did use. >> absolutely. the attorney general has shown over the last few weeks that he sees it as his job to essentially defend the president and construe the mueller investigation and the mueller report in the way that most helpful to the president rather than to accurately construe it. spying is not what you call it when federal investigators get appropriate permission from courts to perform surveillance and do it in a way that is in accordance with the rules.

i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside nbc news white house correspondent jeff bennett. let's start with congressional leaders demanding answers from the trump administration on its plans regarding iran amid escalating tensions. lawmakers from both parties are calling for administration officials to brief them on the white house's claims of rising threats in the region. and its decision to pull non-essential staff from iraq yesterday. >> senate foreign relations committee is charged with writing the laws that towards the use of military force. and of the oversight of the state department and the safety of those who work there. and yet the trump administration has not provided any information to this committee on the intelligence behind their decisions or what they plan to do in iraq or iran. mr. chairman, i hope you'll join me in asking the inauguration to immediately provide this committee with a briefing on the decision to order the departure of embassy staff, intelligence on what iran may be planning to do and any plans to go to war with iran. >> the president shot dow

white house deputy press secretary steven groves. but first, the team is here with that story an the other headlines to watch at this hour. i want to get to jeffonnell at the white house. jeff, what are democrats' options right now as

i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside nbc news white house correspondent jeff bennett. we'll start with more than a trillion dollars wiped outyesterday from the market. the dow jones and s&p dropped 3%. the meltdown was triggered after chunsed announced it would retaliate by raising tariff rates on a wide ranging of american goods. president trump who once labelled himself as tariff man and asserted trade wars are good and easy to win down played and later joked about the situation. >> we're in a very strong position. our economy has been very powerful. theirs has not been. we've gone up a lot since our great election in 2016. we have a good relationship. maybe something will happen. this is a very positive step. i love the position we're in. so our farmers will be very happy. our manufacturers will be very happy. and our government is very happy because we're taking in tens of billions of dollars. i think it's working out very well. so we're in a very good position. and i think it's only going to get better. >> can you guarantee a trade deal by china by june 1st. >> we

i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside nbc news white house correspondent jeff bennett.. let's start with the morning's top stories. former vice president joe biden kicking off his 2020 campaign saturday with a rally in the heart of philadelphia. he spoke about party unity as well as continue to look beyond the crowded democratic field and general election fight against president trump. watch this. >> i know some of the really smart folks say democrats don't want to hear about unity. they say democrats are so angry, the angier a candidate can be the better chance he or she can win the democratic nomination. i don't believe it. i really don't. i believe democrats want to unify this nation. that's what our party has always been about. folks, let me tell you something. the single most important thing we have to accomplish to get this done, the single most important we have yet to accomplish is defeat donald trump. >> today senator kamala harris is set to release plan that aims to lessen the disparity in pay between men and women. yesterday harris rallied for more 4,000 fire

i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside nbc white house correspondent jeff bennett. we start with president trump on his way back to washington this morning. after spending the memorial day weekend in japan. there he met with u.s. troops and also down played the recent missile test by north korea. even praised that country's leader for the move. during the course of his visit, trump suggested that he was not personally bothered by the short range missile test carried out by pyongyang earlier this month. in a tweet on saturday the president wrote this, north korea fired off some small weapons which disturbed some of my people and others but not me. i have confidence that chairman kim will keep his promise to me and also smiled when he called swampman joe biden with an a-n instead of an e-n. the president made that claim despite those missiles pose a potential security threat to allies in the region including japan. during a press conference yesterday following hours of talks between the two leaders, japan's prime minister, shinzo abe, standing next to trump disagreed

i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside nbc news white house correspondent jeff bennett. we're starting with president trump continuing to erupt last night because the house speaker said he threw a temper tantrum tweeting after 9:00 p.m. the president shared a video edited to show nancy pelosi stammering during a news conference with anchors suggesting the speaker is in mental decline. fake videos of pelosi altered to make it sound like she slurred her words. the president sent another tweet last night with commentary that falsely claims pelosi quote cannot put a subject with a predicate in the same sentence. all of this because pelosi questioned the president's leadership and competency earlier in the day. >> sometimes when we talk with him he agrees. then i said one time who is in charge here? because you agree and then all of a sudden something changes. what goes on there? who is in charge? and he says he's in charge. and i suspect that he may be. and i suspect he may be even more since yesterday because i don't think any responsible assistant to the president of the u

i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside nbc news white house correspondent jeff bennett. on wednesday special counsel bob mueller stepped away from what appears to be in his final job in law enforcement ending a long career in public service that includes combat duty in the u.s. marine corp, multiple postings as a federal prosecutor and 12 years as the second longest tenured fbi director in history. yet mueller used his last detain office to break his two years of silence, making his first comments since his may 2017 appointment to lead the russia investigation. the special counsel cited the constitution all but suggesting it is up to congress not the department of justice to hold the president accountable. and gave voice to the written findings and decision-making in his report. after more than two months of spin from attorney general barr, president trump and the white house. listen to this. >> we investigated efforts to obstruct the investigation. the matters we investigated were of paramount importance in which critical for us to obtain full and accurate information f

kristen welker at the white house. jeff bennett in the newsroom. kristen, what exactly did this republican congressman say and help us understand how the president's responding. >> justin said he believes the president did, in fact, commit impeachable offenses. he said he read the entire 448-page mueller report and he's basing that on what he calls several examples of the president obstructing justice. so president trump firing back fiercely over the weekend tweeting contrary to -- well this is amauj, contrary to barr's portrayal, president trump engaged in specific actions that have impeachable offenses. never a fan of amash, opposes me for the sake of getting his name out there through controversy. if he read the biased mueller report composed by 18 angry dems he would see that nevertheless strong on no collusion and no obstruction. a little bit of a fact check there, steph, amash did say he read the entire report. what the report says, says there was no conspiracy with no russia, but it didn't make a determination about the issue of obstruction.

white house. also with us, former federal prosecutor and chief legal analyst jeff toobin.the white house argument to push back about them actually testifying? >> i think their arguments very weak. as a substantive matter. but as a practical matter, their ability to delay this testimony perhaps into oblivion, for so long that it becomes essentially irrelevant or, you know, swallowed up by the campaign. i think that could easily happen. >> delay it because it moves through multiple courts? >> right. and even getting contempt, you know, it's not just the committee that has to vote on contempt, it's the -- it's the full house of representatives and then there has to be some sort of legal proceeding that begins the process in the district court. then the circuit court. and then perhaps the supreme court. none of that works very fast. even if the merits of the argument are pretty strong -- are pretty clear, which i think they are here given the fact that mcgahn turned over these documents to congress. there is -- i think there is a clear waiver -- to mueller. >> to mueller. >> a

jeff mason reuters white house correspondent. there has been so much talk about this.n campaign? are they doing anything differently in this third run to avoid controversial moments? >> it's interesting. joe biden just taking the stage as we speak for the first event here. this is a full circle moment for me. the first time i covered joe biden he was a senator from delaware and trailing in the polls here in new hampshire. back then as you would expect for a candidate not in the front runner position, he was very available to voters and reporters. he entered as the front runner showing him with a very clear lead over the field. what you are seeing is a front runner strategy. he is limiting his engagement with the public. he is taking only a handful of questions from local media. they are trying to protect that lead. that is going to begin to change here in new hampshire. just spoke with campaign advisers who said we will hear him take voter questions here. you also have the house party where he will do the same. that is unique to new hampshire with they expect that kind

jeff zeleny, senior white house correspondent joining me now.ted, who is steve bullock? >> reporter: he's a 53-year-old lawyer, elected three times in the deeply red state of montana, once as attorney general and twice as governor, and he is pointing out and will do so again and again, he is a democrat who can win, at least he could in a governor's race, in a state that president trump won by some 20 points back in 2016, so, look, he's been eyeing this race for a long time. if you're wondering why he's getting in now. the answer that he says is that, look, he was the governor of the state. his legislative session was just ended at the month -- at the beginning of may, so he was waiting for all the work of the state to get done to jump into this presidential race, but, kate, he's been eyeing it for a long time, so he's jumping into a very crowded field, but he's trying to present himself as a pragmatic democrat who just happens to be about 25 years younger or so than bernie sanders and joe biden. >> and real quick, jeff. as you mentioned, he one

. >> joining me now, jeff mason, white house correspondent for reuters. being welcome to you both. as the president last said, he's not going to stand in the way of mueller testifying. does the white house still stand by that? >> well, i mean, as recent as just a few days ago, i think kellyanne conway said if mueller wants to testify, he should testify. at this point, the white house hasn't changed its tune on that. on the other hand, we've seen the white house sort of put up roadblocks or the president indicate he does not want further testimony from members of his own administration and that he feels that this investigation went on long enough. he feels that it exonerated him despite some of the details in the report that do not suggest that. and he's ready to cut it off. so whether or not that might impact mueller, we'll have to wait and see. at this point, they haven't changed their tune. i think the question will be whether or not the committee is able to arrange a date with the special counsel and make it happen. >> what kind of insight could mueller's testimony provide that w

president trump was pressed about this by my colleague in the white house, jeff mason, about how the president could feel comfortable or appropriate siding with the north korean dictator over an american citizen, a former american vice president. president trump said he believed kim jong-un's attack on biden were correct. this shows how the president has his eye on domestic politics even as he's dealing with thorny foreign affairs issues in japan. prime minister abe has spent the last four days trying to shower president trump with ceremonies, with praise, full of golf and sumo and a royal visit and a hibachi style dinner. president trump was supposed to feel comfortable here, that was the goal as prime minister abe tried to reinforce that friendship with an important ally. that said, president trump was clearly thinking about 2020. the attacks on joe biden have drawn criticism not just from democrats, including, by the way, some of biden's primary rifles like pete buttigieg, but also from republicans, congressman adam kinzinger, overnight from congressman pete king, who is not someb

jeff. >> glor: ben tracy now reporting for us from the white house, by the way, ben, it is good to see youre, my friend. >> thank you. >> glor: thank you very much. secretary of state mike pompeo made an unannounced visit to baghdad today. he spoke with iraq's prime minister about what are being called credible threats of an iranian attack on american forces in the region. the pentagon is sending an aircraft carrier, the "u.s.s. abraham lincoln" to the persian gulf region in response. it will be joined by four b-52 bombers. now to the capital where the fight continues over the mueller report. republican leaders have changed course, now trying to convince the special counsel not to testify. nancy cordes joins us with more on this. so nancy, some republicans earlier said they did want to hear from robert mueller. what's changed? >> reporter: what's changed is the senate's republican leader, mitch mcconnell, jeff, got the president's message loud and clear, and so he went to the senate floor today and said point blank, the case is closed. the 450-page muller report is out, he said, it doesn't

i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside nbc news white house correspondent jeff bennett. of the hour. let's start with the morning's top stories. president trump appearing to have backed off his statement that special counsel bob mueller should not appear before congress. this past sunday the president tweeted that mueller should not testify but while speaking to reporters yesterday, the president left the issue in the hands of a.g. bill barr. >> do you allow robert mueller to testify before congress? >> i'll leave that up to our very great attorney general, and he'll make a decision on that. there was nobody that was in the history of our country more transparent than me. i said give them every document, give them every person. leapt the white house counsel testify. i think he testified for 30 hours. i guess they must have asked him the same question because it wasn't very much to testify about. i gave them white house counsel. i gave them other -- anybody you want you can talk to. at the end of the testimony no collusion and essentially no obstruction. >> mr. barr told

i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside nbc news white house correspondent jeff bennett.ottom of the hour. let's start with the morning's top stories. >>> president trump has unveiled a plan to overhaul u.s. immigration by changing the system to a merritt based one rather than family based. his proposal includes new security measures at the southern border and increased educational and skill requirements under the plan. immigrants have to pass a civics test and get points based on their age, ability to speak english, education and job offers. >> companies are moving offices to other countries because our immigration rules prevent them from retaining highly skilled and even, if i might, totally brilliant people. we discriminate against genius. we discriminate against brilliance. we won't any more once we get this passed. if for some reason, possibly political, we can't get the democrats to approve this merritt based high-security plan, then we will get it approved immediately after the election when we take back the house, keep the senate and, of course, hold the presidenc

even when pressed by white house colleague jeff mason elaborate on what that exactly means.'t explain what the disciplinary mechanism would be. >> what was the question that he responded with, we'll see what happens to? >> i asked him, are we going to war with iran or are you seeking regime change with iran? that's how the president answered that speaking less to the question himself but on the topic of iran. the president tends to hear the piece of a topic and sort of rift on that as you heard him do in the oval ofls there. >> i was going to say because it's a rather open-ended response about going to war with iran. >> the president is clear, though, and as you have secretary mike pompeo even today meeting with european leaders blowing thoof chld, where you know this is r -- what he's portrayed before or tried to with iran many. this yfd strength, we may believe. they're spelling out what those consequences would be, kase. >> let's go back to tariffs for a second. many the president said we've never taken in 10 cents in tariffs until i became president. doesn't that represe

pete williams is with us along with nancy cook and reuters white house correspondent jeff mason. so, pete, some important timing context here. it sound as though the u.s. attorney from connecticut had been in charge of this for the last couple of weeks. we're just now finding out more? >> that's what i'm reporting this morning, hallie. this was actually done nearly a month ago and the fact that this is going to be done, that the review was going to happen is something the attorney general has been saying for several weeks. he wants to know whether the intelligence assets of the u.s. were properly predicated when they were applied against the trump campaign in the period leading up to the inauguration. so, this is strictly during the campaign period. he has said that he's been around before when intelligence assets were abused. looking into civil libertarians without the necessary predicate he wants to make sure it was done right this time. since he made these comments initially, you know, you've heard from several former leaders of the fbi, the former fbi director james comey, th

>> well, let's recognize, wolf, that the mueller report details communications between the white house and jeff sessions, when he was attorney general, and attempts to interfere with the ongoing then special counsel investigation. that is part and parcel of one of the key claims in the mueller report about obstruction of justice. for william barr to be having those same kinds of conversations raises the specter of this ongoing political interference in the department of justice. >> do you have any evidence that he may have done any of these things that you're asking about? >> i have no specific evidence, but we are going to be looking for it. and i think our committee has pan obligation to find it. and that's the reason that i also asked for the notes that were taken when he and bob mueller had a conversation after bob mueller wrote his letter, objecting to barr's mischaracterization. >> well, he said he did confirm there was a memorandum of that conversation that was put down on paper. but he also said he's not going to make it available to you. >> well, let's see whether he does or not, becau

," the story set in 193s, alabama, jim crow era, atticus finch, portrayed by jeff daniels, robinson accused of raping a whitethe themes and issues are very real and emphasized recently in an op-ed, every night, racists kill me, then i leave the theater for a world of danger. in it, he writes, i look out to all of those white faces with enough disposable income to be able to see the show and see jeff daniels as atticus finch ask me the same age old question. why did you run. if you didn't do anything wrong, why did you run. i think after all this time and so many dead innocents do they not understand why we would run? in that moment, like so many moments in the play, it is no longer a play. it is no longer a role. it's not theater. and it's not safe. gbenga joins me now. thank you for writing this. i saw you on opening night in your play and it is remarkable. but you were surprised, as a black man in america, you were surprised how that role seemed so real. like it gave you something that even you hadn't thought about, even though you have obviously thought about safety and race. >> i was surprised. we had wo

does anybody know that the boston red sox have done is win since coming to the white house, the national inquirer piece, jeffwn by competitor. the reality show producer to have center of every daily drama and that has the washington post points out makes him inescapable, supporters love it because they he's popping off on stuff they talk all of the time and distracters find annoying and distracting. nobody can ignore him. meanwhile "the new york times" calls trump the profanity president and says he's cursing more than ever. >> certain anchor on cnn fake as hell cnn. sleepily eyes chuck todd sleeping -- >> if word, be s, perhaps trump should ease up in public with cursing, other politicians do off mic, remember joe biden calling obamacare bfd. even new york times found it fit to print bs word 14 times in many years but 26 times since, that's no bull. in media buzz michael avenatti, coverage of the economy, tensions with iran and trump's constant clash with the my digestive system used to make me feel sluggish but now, i take metamucil every day. it traps and removes the waste that weighs me down, so i feel l

jeff. >> glor: ben tracy hits the ground running on the white house beat. ben, thank you very much.turn now to what some military officials call an enduring and pressing emergency, the rise in veteran suicides. a congressional subcommittee held a hearing today on military suicide prevention. on average, about 20 veterans die this way every day. since 2017, at least 25 veterans have taken their lives on the grounds of v.a. facilities-- seven this year alone. dean reynolds has more on these "heroes in crisis." >> this is my favorite picture of us together. >> reporter: when was this? >> this was about two years before he died. >> reporter: alissa harrington's brother, justin miller, died by suicide in february of last year in the parking lot of this veterans' administration hospital. a marine veteran, he was 33. gregory miller is justin's father. >> he wanted to be in a military band. >> reporter: justin made the band, but the marines thought he could make another contribution, ns a marksman in iraq, manning a checkpoint with bomb-sniffing dogs. >> if the dog sat down, pull the trigge

given the opportunity several times by my colleague in the white house press corps here jeff mason to try to spin it. try to come back away from it, walk it back a little bit, but the president instead leaned into it. essentially siding or agreeing with kim jong-un over joe biden blasting, you heard, biden and obama both as disaster going after them on the iran nuclear deal as we've heard the president do before. i imagine throughout the day those on the campaign trail will be asked about this and something they'll respond to as well, craig? >> admiral what do you read what he heard from the president. >> start with the joe biden comment. we 2e7tend to think of vice president joe biden as the vice president. before that the chairman of the senate relations committee a couple of decades and knows the world extremely well. i watched him come to nato and work the room with all heads of state and government in europe. he is very well liked internationally. i don't think those comments will go down very well with our allies, partners and friends, and that's a shame. in terms of shinzo abe,

seem to state the facts and the law as they exist seem to not do well, as we saw with jeff sessions and on down, the white house counsel as well. i served under christopher wray when he was head of the criminal division of the doj. he has a reputation for being a prosecutor. look, attorney general barr ought to have known what he was saying when he used to word spying. >>ia don't believe it when we heard from sources around barr who said he uses that word, he didn't think it meant anything more than surveillance essentially. >> that's a big word to use in congressional testimony. as a prosecutor, as a former prosecutor, a current prosecutor, knowing full well what the connotations of the term spying are versus legally authorized surveillance, we're not talking about rats and godfather stuff here, you're talking about courts having authorized this surveillance. it's a very imprecise word to use at best, and perhaps even worse than that. >> also, chris wray, he also said in his testimony that he personally doesn't have evidence of illegal surveillance of the 2016 presidential campaigns. but barr, again, bac

jeff sullivan with voa. the white house and the pentagon have confirmed that another 5000 troops will be sent to the middle east, not iraq or syria as force -- the pentagon plane iran for the attacks and attackers. what message is that going to send to iran? how will iran respond? will it be asymmetric or something or public? something that people will say is that you have to separate some of the rhetoric from the administration's policy. if the policies are often very good and don't pay as much attention to the rhetoric of the policies will get things done. the iranians capable of doing that communications in that way and if not, what is the next step, it's their way for u.s. diplomats and others to get around that? >> this issue of the inouncement today of troops, think that goes on the side of ver measuredy . calibrated pieces this is not escalation. i don't think the iranians will necessarily react to this. the larger point to go back to for me is whether they understand how that rhetoric matches what the steps ar