view on immigration or any other issue. >> it just shows your cosmopolitan bias for basketball, john harwoodve french cuffs on right now? >> i do not. i do not. >> okay. very good. thank you all very much, congressman pete aguilar, thank you. olivia, thanks for stiscking around. john, as always, thanks. >>> we explore ferguson three years later. what's changed since the death of michael brown and the chaos that followed. but also the updates that have happened in a positive way for this city. after this. how your clothes smell can say at lot about you. that's why new downy protect and refresh conditions fibers to lock out odors. so clothing odors don't do the talking for you. lock out odors with new downy protect and refresh. can make anyone slow downt and pull up a seat to the table. that's why she takes the time to season her turkey to perfection, and make stuffing from scratch. so that you can spend time on what really matters. marie callender's. it's time to savor. for over 100 yearsaking like kraft has,al cheese you learn a lot about people's tastes. honey, what do you want for dinner t

. >> joining us in washington is john harwood. john, is this going to spawn more ceo resignations or comments? >> yes. this will increase pressure on ceos to separate themselves from president trump. i expect more and more of them to be looking at the admonition from former treasury secretary larry somers today when he said aural ceos should leave the presidential advisory councils because they are ineffective and they are associating themselveses with a president who is not united statesing the country. >> does the president have a budding problem with business? >> he does. he has a budding problem with the american people. his ratings are below 40%. job approval. in gallop he hit a record low of 61% disapproval. that's the backdrop. more specifically many people in business have been accepting things they didn't like about trump in the belief that he was going to be able to do things they did like. deregulation, tax cuts. all of these things become more difficult the more toxic donald trump gets on a personal basis. that's exactl

john harwood joins us now. john, last week you told us about the growing economic implications of this crisis. does this make those implications even a little more close to home? >> reporter:, certainly the threats from north korea this afternoon at least raise the f some sort ofconfrontation. i don't think north korea would hit the united states unilateral un i think the united states would like tr military at all cost it they can avoid it. now, on the other hand, one risk was probably diminished by the sanctions issued by the united nations and that is the risk that the united states was going to try to pressure chi in ways with respect to trade that would cause china do retaliate. china went along with this resolution, so that was a step forward for the u.s. and china working in cooperatively on this proble the challenge is nobody knows what will actually make north korea stop its nuclear program. nothing's worked for a lot of years. >> but i was impressed, though, john, that china did go along with the vote.

. >> let's talk about the potential agenda let's bring in john harwood. when i think of steve bannon and what he tried to do, attacking the rich, an isolationist, and also a much, much tougher line with china so there are potential changes going on here, depending on the degree and what he had to say. >> you erie right, michelle. one of the things that steve bannon was enthusiastic about was what mr. trump was excited about. their shared view had nr influence. this something donald trump's talked about for a very long time he's talked about immigration and matters relating to race for a long time. now i do think you note the forehandle on tax reform he talked about trying to counter those democratic facts he appears to have that lost that internal fight. the fact that he floated the campaign, several iterations of them all had the top rate coming down significantly for them for both taxpayers and business. >> when i think about trade, there's still peter navarro in there. so it's still -- when it comes to the trade agenda, very, very hard on china. >> i s

john harwood is following the story from washington. john, you know, the president kind of took a mulligan today i would call it. what's been the broader reaction in business and politics to his handling of the charlottesville violence? >> reporter: well, ceos like ken frazier, tyler, decided that they weren't going to need a mulligan, they were going to act more quickly so you saw in addition to his resignation, you saw people like lloyd blankfein of goldman sachs putting out statements saying they were going to denounce the intolerant groups, white supremacists and the kkk that the president had been reluctant to. they have their eyes on a broader constituency than the presidents seem to this weekend, though he did step in today under pressure and make that t. >> you know, he was around -- the president was roundly criticized by both parties over the weekend. what does that tell us about the state of the republican party in particular? >> reporter: sue, donald trump executed a hostile takeover of the republican party last year. he beat

john harwood who was just on is exactly right. they're ignoring him. you can't get things done simply by yelling at glenn thrush. and i think they're badly mistaken if they think this the s going to help them get out of the hole. >> one thing that is striking to me in watching this is, and i'm in touch with a lot of folks who work in immigration law and immigrant communities, and the one place that they have delivered in some ways on the trump agenda -- a lot of stuff has been stonewalled -- things have really changed if you're an immigrant in this country, if you're related to an unauthorized immigrant. >> yes. >> it's really changed. >> oh, yes. >> this may be performance, but what is happening on the ground is quite dramatic. and they are delivering. >> they're delivering in terms of the attitude. the i.c.e. agents feel completely unshackled. they're delivering on the detentions. they're not necessarily delivering yet on the massive deportations. but chris, "latino usa" this weekend, we're going to feature a whole hour on i.c.e. well start with the

john harwood, bob could you sack. thanks so much coming in on a summer friday afternoon.hank you so much. >>> up next, shocking video of a near disaster at a parking garage. a park plungs seven zoers to the ground. what happened? and you have to be in it to win it. people lining up for not one but two chances at massive multimillion dollar jackpots totaling close to a billion dollars. what are your chances of winning? during our made to move 2017 clearance event, you can do endless online research. or, you can take advantage of our best offer ever on an xt5. don't wait. our 2017 models will be moving fast. you can drive a car... or you can drive a cadillac. come in now before the end of our made to move 2017 clearance event and leave with the perfect cadillac xt5 for your next adventure. choose a low mileage lease on this xt5 for around $339 per month. ahyou the law? we've had some complaints of... is that a fire? there's your payoff, deputy. git! velveeta shells & cheese. there's gold in them thar shells. when this guy got a flat tire in the middle of the night, so he go

joining me now is john harwood john.re are very, very few things that have affected this market over the last seven months. i seem to remember two things that cause investors to have some pause, one is if the stuff in washington looks constitutional in nature, investigations and things reaching to the president on that level and obviously war. >> exactly right. you know, when you look what markets have done since the election, ali, they have been in two distinct faces, there seemed to be a surge in confidence among investors and business community about tax cuts and deregulation. then the further we got into 2017 when results were not coming from congress and there was dysfunction in the white house and relationship with congress, then people said, well, we're not expecting anything from washington, they don't have to cut taxes or achieve deregulation or achieve the repeal of obamacare, they just have to not avoid an external shock. now we're in a case where nuclear conflict is about as big a shock as you can possibly ha

jason johnson and john harwood are joining me now. jason, donald trump has a reputation that far proceeds steve bannon. >> right. >> was steve bannon the reason donald trump seemed to truck with racism and sooen phobia? >> not really. who you hire is a reflix of your values. you had bannon, miller. trump was racist enough before he brought bannon in. he didn't need bannon's help. he provided him with a cover in media so trump could pretend it was okay. >> i want to play what bannon said at c-pac. this was a thing donald trump didn't have when bannon joined up. this is him talking about globalists. >> it's not only not going to get better, it's going to get worse every day. here is why. the logic makes sense. they are corporatists, globalists media that are adamantly opposed -- adamantly opposed to an economic nationalist agenda that donald trump has. >> john, is there a case to be made that the racism piece in the sort of, you know, allowing white nationalists to march saying they are good people. he didn't need bannon for that. what

let's bring back jeremy peters and john harwood. jeremy, what is mueller's team looking for? is any type of widening involvement with the direct inner circle around trump during the campaign which would include reince priebus and the russians. i mean, we already know that his campaign manager at the time paul manafort and his son met with the russians and failed to disclose that. so i think it's -- it kind of all boils down to what is manafort telling -- or through his attorneys, the investigators, and that would suggest that this net is widening. >> how forthcoming do you support a former official like reince priebus is going to be with investigators? >> it's hard to say, but now that he no longer works for donald trump, he certainly has more latitude to speak his mind. i think that the fact that bob mueller is squeezing people both who are in the white house now and who have left the white house is an indication of deepening legal trouble for president trump and it's where the charlottesville episode that we've been talking about earlier in the hour is relevant. i talked ev

got actor cal penn tweeting 16 members of the president's committee are resigning, all but one john harwoods watching all the defections in washington. >> what we're seeing is a dawning on corporate america that the trump republican party may not be good for business after all. they've been counting, as you know, ever since the election on tax cuts, deregulation, a pro business environment but there are a couple things that i think are worth talking about that underscore the difficulty of that first of all, on the blue collar populism that is taking over the republican party has changed both parties if you summarize the trends, it will be republicans have gone down scale in their base democrats have gone upscale. what that means is a majority of republicans now say free trade is a bad idea. you also see that reflected in president trump's desire to cut legal immigration. as well as illegal now you also have a republican party that remains aligned with business on things like tax cuts and deregulation but the republicans have not shown the competence to run the government adequately to deliv

. >> john harwood joins us with more. john, what was the secretary's messe overall there? >> the overarching message was we want to talk. we want to negotiate. this has been a rolling crisis across multiple administrations that's gotten worse over the last few months and we've seen some displaced saber rattling, moving military assets, exercises, that sort of thing. but this is rex tillerson at a moment where concern is rising, stepping in and saying let's talk about what we can do to defuse the situation. that's a different tone. >> it was a very blunt does it change though the administration's policy? >> well, not fundamentally yet, although there was a nuance difference he offered. he said we don't blame china for this situation. remember, president trump said in the beginning of his potsy, it will be b easy for china to solve this problem, then met with president xi and said they tried, but couldn't get it done. just over the weekend, in his frustration, he said that china had not done anything but talk. now, this is rex tillerson trying to remove the idea of blaming c

. >> john harwood is following the story from washington. what prompted the president to issue his statement today? >> tyler, after the united statesed nations voted sanctions unanimously over the weekend including support from china and russia, this was a victory for then saw the north korean leaders say that there would be physical reactions from the north koreans. didn't really specify it beyond this general statement, but it sounded like a threat. we know that president trump does not like to be threaten et. he is a personality that favors dominance, so he responded sharply. >> we know some of the documents about developments about north korea, but advancing a nuclear threat. >> they're getting closer, faster than most american analysts had expected. first, you've got to show the nuclear weapon, then have a missile cableabcape bable of delivering and then you've got to make it small enough to fit on the missile. it appears t cle to that step and we saw the recent test of anint intercontinental ballistic missile and suggested they have th

. >> john harwood coming out of a briefing john, what did you learn >> director mulvaney cleared up aple of points of debate within the administration. said the administration now supports a clean debt limit. this is has been the treasury secretary's position meaning that the congress should raise the debt limit without conditions attached to it. mulvaney in the past said he wanted to see negotiated spending cuts with it. now he says he's lost that argument and steve's position is prevailing and that's what the administration is going to try to get in september when congress comes back. the second is that the idea of raising tax rates on the highest income members of the population, which steve bannoning. white house strategist talked about at some points in the tax debate, that is no longer alive, that the administration is not going to raise any of the tax rates in fact the administration's position they put out is the top rate will be 35% but haven't formally unveiled the plan. director mulvaney said that john kelly, the former homeland security secretary now white house chief of s

cnbc's john harwood points out three major obstacles for democrats.tisanship diminishing the ability of democrats to attract republican voters. the combination of political jerry handering with the residential concentrations giving the gop the ability to win a share of house seats that outpaces their share of the overall population. and democrats are increasingly reliant on younger voters. a group that traditionally shows up in lower numbers in the midterms. i want to get back to my panel and here loni, steve joins us, andkornaki and evan bayh. even more so if his approval rating is below 50%. but could history be wrong here? >> one of those situations by any historical standard the president with an approval rating in the high 30s, even into the low 40s and a party that controls congress. there's a lot of low-hanging fruit there for the other side. that party is going to suffer badly in a mid-term election. if history holds up, you're looking at a big democratic year next year at least based on the numbers we're seeing right now. you think about what

during me is eliza collins and john harwood. big welcome to you both. john, you wrote this new article headlined "amid washington dysfunction: lack of accomplishments, trump clings to his shrinking support." does that strategy have any chance of improving his approval rating, john in it's now down to what, 33% in the latest quinnipiac poll. >> it doesn't. he's been going backwards. we talk a lot about the trump base and people do a lot of interviews with trump voters and talk about how they're sticking with them through the tough times. some of them are, but some of them are not and that's why if you look at his approval rating since january, they have slowly drifted down from 44 to 38, when you average a bunch of polls together, and then you cited that quinnipiac poll down to 33 and more significant with that, even with his core demographic group, those white non-college voters who propelled him to the nomination and to the white house, his numbers have shrunk among that group, he's now net negative in the quinnipiac poll and in terms of the intensity o

john harwood in washington. >> there reall been a summer slowdown, but even as would be home buyers crowd into open houses, some are actually giving up. diana oleic tells us why. >> demand for housing is still high. but the number of available listings continues to drop. even now in summer, when housing is supposed to slow down. not the case as demand index from red fin shows the same number of buyers requesting home tours in july and june, but number of offers written dropped , down 11%. that is showing up in the mortgage demand as well. applications for a loan to purchase a home dropped last week and have been down three out of the past four weeks, this as mortgage interest rates hover near five-week lows. it's not the rate, it's a lack of everything affordable to buy, and not just in the hottest markets either. the national supply is now at the lowest level sin1982. that's because homebuilders dropped off the map during the recession and have still not returned to even normal historical levels of production. even the number of vacant homes nationwide is at a 17-year low. again, not dem

. >> john harwood is following the story for us from washington and program, that a division could emerge between t mea for tax reform and infrastructure spend iing and the like? w seen a president who has gotten to the august break without major accomplishments. who is katrina icasting blame o leaders of his own party who have been trying to help him. this is not going to help him on infrastructure. that's not an easy situation. democrats have no incentive to help him. re interested. i think tax cuts are a different story. republicans have a strong survival instinct. they've got midterm elections coming up in the 2018. republican lawmakers on the hill want to cut taxes, so does president trump. i think despite the bickering, they're going to find a way all right, he also talked a lot today about north korea. he had an extensive cabinet neat meting today. north korea was one of the major top ibs and some strong language coming from the president. perhaps he said not strong enough. what more do we know? >> we know ha that the president t t us.age wd the back and if so, you're going to be m

john harwood we'll keep an eye on into the dow.ow down close to a point and secretary of state rex tillerson speaking with russian foreign minister sergei lavrov and the two reportedly discussed the issue in north korea among other issues coming on heels of a public statement that secretary tillerson made tuesday listen. >> we do not seek an accelerated reunification of the peninsula do not seek an excuse to send our military north of the 38th parallel, and we're trying to convey to the north koreans we are not your enemy we're not your threat, but you are presenting an unacceptable threat to us, and we have to respond. we've been very clear with the chinese. we certainly don't blame the chinese for the situation in north korea, only the north koreans are to blame for this situation. >> chinese foreign minister wang yi responded to secretary tillerson's words this morning saying that beijing attaches great importance to tillerson's remarks on north korea and hopes all sides could meet each other halfway to find a fundamental plan t

. >> i asked john harwood, is this a moment, and you have been a speech writer in the white house, is this a moment where the president needs to speak to the country and actually take some of his words back >> the president has misused and abused the bully pulpit, which in many respects is the most important tool he has, his ability to lead the country through his words and the sentiments he expresses. he should try to give an oval office address to the nation and to the world in which he comes closer to explaining what the ideal of the american people is and how he is aligned with them, if he can do that. it has been very clear since this particular crisis erupted and frankly throughout the course of his presidency. >> could you write that speech for him? that's a tough needle to thread. >> there are good writers who could work to do that. whether or not he would accept the words and sentiments, it is anyone's guess >> if we go back to the billy bush tape where he came out and his wife came out, that is not who i am, et cetera. tla wou that would appear to be the greatest crisis mome

joining us now is john harwood. john, i guess this is an important question to get to.hy do you think ceos are leaving and what's the consequence of the rest of them leaving because we haven't seen too much movement. we've got five groups that have left the manufacturers council so that leaves 20 something. >> reporter: because they are embarrassed as you said. they are embarrassed to be associated with president trump. now it depends where you are situated, what industry you're in. walmart is located in arkansas. that is a state that is, where donald trump remains pretty popular. so that might explain why their chief executive didn't leave. but the reality is that large numbers of republicans, large numbers of business people are embarrassed by the president, but for the reason that you said. they are scared, they are reluctant to come out and say so and that's what makes it notable when kevin plank or others make the decision to separate themselves. i got a text this morning from a republican member of congress who said oh, boy we're doing a lot of soul searching now

john harwood, thank you. the press briefing, it would cut legal levels and have a big impact steve leishman has more. >> economists in general don't give high marks to this bill which would cut immigration in half and make the system more skills-based let's listen to what the president said about the raise act. reforming american immigration for a strong economy >> the r.a.i.s.e. act ends chain migration and replaces our low scale system with a new, points-based system for receiving a green card this competitive application process will favor applicants who can speak english, financially support themselves and their families, and demonstrate skills that will contribute to our economy. >> economist are most concerned about the decline in immigration. that would reduce the labor force growth and overall economic growth. group of 1400 republican and democratic economists in a statement in april said quote, the benefits that immigration brings to society far outweigh their cost and smart immigration policy could

[laughter] john harwood at cnbc -- >> have you seen john harwood's hair? it's perfect.e not. my point is they went through all these names, and no one thought, oh, neil cavuto. i think there's an fbn bias. >> how about joe kernan, did they mention him? neil: they did not among the 58 names i saw. i think we at fbn have to let the world know that grudging as it is for the media world to accept the force that we are, i think it's safe to say we are a force. you came here when we weren't a force. >> listen, i came here when we were like, you know, we were throwing -- we were like the israeli army in the first war. we were throwing, like, molotov cocktails -- neil: right. not elegant. >> we still won though. neil: yeah. but i think that shows you a little bit of a bias, not to even think of any, you know? >> well, it shows a bias, neil, because our debate was hands down better than cnbc's debate, it was probably -- if you talk to not just donald because he thinks he won, donald will say we were great no matter what. but if you talk to some of the other people there who i go

. >> the john harwood, what do you make of the president's statement about leader mcconnell?iving him a little bit longer of a lifeline at this point. >> it doesn't really make any sense for president trump to be attacking leader mcconnell, who, of course, is a fellow republican and is trying to move through his program. in fact, if he keeps suggesting that mcconnell will lose his job if he doesn't accomplish those things, he may ensure that they don't accomplish those things. and on north korea, we just haven't had a president talk like this in ways that is so susceptible to misinterpretation. i think brian was on to something in the sense that president trump was trying to walk back a little bit, but he couldn't quite pull it off because then the part of him that wants to be tough took over and he mix that had message. he said there were, as kayla just indicated, he said there weren't mixed messages from the administration but there have been you had the cabinet aides walking back the statements the other day and just this morning sebastian gorka, who is a white house aide,

we're bringing in john harwood how much pressure do these resignations put the president under or ist still recoverable for him because it's not members of his own administration? >> i don't think it's recoverable, wilfred don't know what that means it's difficult for this administration to function an get things done. they had not done well with congress before this but i think it's useful to step back and think about why in the past executives have disagreed or agreed with the white house there's two sets of things narrow policy things, as sara was referring to earlier what's my tax rate going to be what level of regulation do we have business and politicians always thought about things like that underpinning that has been the assumption that everyone shares a common set of american values. right now you have people questioning whether president trump at his core shares those sense of american values that's why you're seeing not just business executives but also foreign leaders react ga s against what the president displayed about himself. that has a business aspect, too. american

john harwood joins us from washington now with more, john, on whether the president was able to squarelysm that has swirled since this weekend, the manufacturing council members who have stepped down the president clearly trying to turn a page. >> reporter: well, he squarely addressed it, but he hurt himself in the process for example, when he said about those executives who left is plain lip not true had it been true, he wouldn't have invited them on to his manufacturing council in the first place. it was obvious that he has a hard time processing the fact that the moral instincts that he displayed over the weekend are being criticized and seem to have fallen short by most americans and, therefore, he's looking for ways to justify them, and he continued to do that stunningly about the protest and counterprotest again, he cast an eke lens between white supremacists and neo-nazis and people who were on hand to protest those people now, set aside for a moment the individual interactions between some of those people you -- and whether violence was instigated by some individuals who were pro

significantly flawed that he's signing the bill for the sake of national unity our kayla touche and john harwoodg both of these pots boil today. john, we'll get some reaction from you >> well, first of all, on the raise act, which david purdue and tom cotton have joined president trump to introduce, keep in mind, this is something that would reduce current levels of legal immigration this is something that has the potential who slow down and inhibit u.s. economic growth because one of the long-term limit takesations on growth is supply because of the aging american population so that is something that does appeal to his base, but it also presents a potential problem for business second thing is, his statement on the russia sanctions bill is remarkable consider that yesterday vice president pence was overseas saying the united states government, president and congress, speak on one unifying voice on russia. that was not in the statement president trump put out today. in fact, there were two of them. one was sharper saying there were unconstitutional provisions in the bill to say it was significan

president obama held a town hall on cnbc y with john harwood and the first question was, president obama, i'm a strong supporter of yours but i'm exhausted by defending you. the question is at what point do donald trump's supporters get exhausted in defending him? only seven months in. >> we shall see. that does it for thus morning. thank you so much for tuning in to the commentary variety act. chris jansing picks up the coverage. >> thank you, joe. hello. i'm chris jansing. for stephanie ruhle this morning, new strategy, no details. president trump promises victory but is silent about how many troops he's putting into afghanistan. >>ly not say when we are going to attack, but attack we will. >> and he put pakistan on notice. >> pakistan has also sheltered the same organizations that try every single day to kill our people. >> the president's next stop, arizona, where he may decide to pardon the most controversial sheriff in america. >> doing this campaign-style rally openly teasing that he might be pardoning the criminally convicted sheriff joe arpaio. >> joe arpaio. let's be ginn with

cnbc editor at large, john harwood, looks at the potential political fallout of this move john >> kellyold one is, less friction for h.r. mcmaster, the national security adviser, gary cohn, the national economic council director. this is the so-called globalist faction within the white house, that bannon's been battling with means a somewhat clearer field for someone like gary cohn to design a tax reform plan in conjunction with congressional republicans. on the other hand, on the negative side, steve bannon, as you alaluded to in the previous segment, if he decides to return to breitbart and turn up the heat on those globalist adversaries, even if he doesn't attack mr. trump personally, that could create a big problem for republicans, especially republicans on kmcapitol hill, h are both trying to get some legislative accomplishment, but they also fear a primary challenge from the right and breitbart speaks to that conservative right and finally, it does not change anything about the behavior or views of president trump the most problematic things that we've seen from this president or

john harwood, cnbc editor at large. >>> ladainian tomlinson was inducted into the nfl hall of fame on spoke openly about his heritage and the unique ability that pastimes like football have to transcend normal political boundaries and bring us closer together. his former team tweeted out a portion of the speech saying, ladainian tomlinson spoke, you should listen. we did and here's a portion of the speech that's been deemed the best of the night. >> i'm of mixed race and i represent america. my story is america's story. all our ancestors unless we're american indian came from another country, another culture. football is a microcosm of america. all races, religions and creeds, living, playing, competing, side by side. when you are part of a team, you understand your teammates. their strengths and weaknesses and work together toward the same goal to win a championship. in this context, i advocate we believe team america. in sports -- in sports we're evaluated on our desire, ability and given a chance to compete. america is the land of opportunity. let's not slam the door on those who m

. >> and you know, michael steele, john harwood had a great piece out today where he talked about the private disgust of republican lawmakers and calling it really remarkable, the personal disgust. and yet publicly you've had a lot of, you know, strong denunciations of the neo-nazis but still this reluctance to make that disgust with donald trump public. i mean, do they get any credit for being privately disgusted? >> hell no. come on. no. not at all. because this is the moment. this is the seminal moment for the republican party. you're going to be defined by the stench that comes from this. the country's watching. the country wants a response. and you cannot have this both ways. you cannot on the one instance say oh, my god, this is terrible privately and then publicly hem and haw and figure out a way to sort of smooth over hurt feelings in the white house. that's not what this is about. this is about how you hold a country together. this is your lincoln moment as a republican, mr. president. this is not something that is part of reality television because this is real for a lot of

joining me now nbc contributor national reporter for the "the new york times" and john harwood, cnbctor at large. ladies, first. what would this war look like the one that bannon has said? based on his comments, is it safe to say the president would not be their direct target? would the war focus perhaps on jared kushner or gary cohn. how you interpreting this? >> if steve bannon feels as though he's been heard by the president, being listened to, if he's still someone that becomes an outside advisor to president trump, then he will probably be going to war with people like speaker paul ryan or mitch mcconnell or gary cohn or any of the people he sees stepping in the middle of donald trump's ability to really carry out this nationalist agenda. he's already told the president that if congress somehow balks at the idea for paying for the wall on mexico, he should issue a veto and trigger a government shutdown. essentially, steve bannon if he isn't able to shut down the government, he's going to war with all the people around him and all the people in office. if president trump stops li

. >> cnbc's john harwood joins me. is that a risk? say, i don't see it as starkly as michael does. i don't think our democracy is in danger and i think, in fact, we're seeing in the response of ordinary americans, and many politicians and business leaders a reaction spontaneous and also encouraged against the sentiments the president was expressing. and he's becoming more isolated by the moment. i do think michael is right that the courts have a responsibility and the congress has a responsibility and i think we have seen that, to some extent -- >> john, you -- >> -- on issues like the travel ban, et cetera. >> i take your distinction on the democracy front. but the criticism is medium from the top leaders of the republican party. paul ryan basically only putting it broadly. mitch mcconnell, putting it broadly that he's against white supremacy, but not addressing the president. so we're in a twitter era. is it enough to only deal with neo-nazis via subtweet? >> ouh, no, it's neo-nazis via sub tweet? >> no. you have a bunch of republic

. >> we've got too more voices joining the conversation john harwood, in terms of change and the whiteouse, what do you want to say on that? >> i don't think it's going make a whole lot of difference in the sense that most of the problems that donald trump has experienced lately flow from his own personality and character and values rather than steve bannon himself steve bannon wasn't running tax policy for the administration. in fact, as we were looking to tax reform, he had been talking about a higher rate, raising the top rate, trying to defuse the tax on the rich. he lost that argument. they're not going to go up don't know if they're going to do on or if tax reform will pass at all other than to the degree that there's pressure with a trade war with china he said he was menaiically focused on it the other day. i'm not sure it was going to make a difference. >> you've been following from capitol hill what are your thoughts on this news >> i want to pick up where john left off about releasing this wage war where bannon had been one of the loudest voices on that consider all the inve

joining us with more, john harwood.ave to read something that you wrote about this, it says fresh evidence arrives every day of the government treating the man elected to lead it as someone talking mostly to himself. >> ouch. >> like your crazy uncle. >> reporter: well, look, this is a situation where more and more we are seeing officials move independently of the president. look just at the news we got this morning, first of all, the conversation with the mexican prident suggests that the president was making statements that he knew couldn't be fulfilled. the vacation news you just reported, he said at the white house when health care was hung up, we should stay here until that's done. if what the president says cannot be taken literally by anybody, that leaves his officials to govern themselves without him and leaves fellow republicans to govern without him as they did on the sanctions bill that passed and they in he is sense shoved down his throat. >> there's something that the ap put out that was extraordinary, spec

john harwood joining us from washington >>> and we have just about half hour left to goin the trading session today. a lot has been made of how this all is affecting markets, everything from trying to figure out what happens if trump pushes out steve bannon to wondering what would happen if gary kohn >> oh, by the way. dow is up about 30 points right now. s&p hangingen to small gains is the president losing the support of the business community, period, after disbanding his two key councils? we'll hear from two top executives with different points of view. >>> and then hear from one of the people who quit the president's manufacturing council. former deputy chief staff, thea lee will join us on closing bell stay tuned from at&t you can get unlimited data and live tv. the channels you love. your favorite shows and movies. making your iphone into more of a... oh my tv is ringing. hey...i'm in the middle of a...a second iphone from at&t? okay! right now when you buy a new iphone 7 from at&t you'll get a second iphone 7 on us. and power both with unlimited data and live tv. looking for a

. >> all of those things thank you so much, john harwood. bill and kelly when the fire and fury statement happened the other days the markets took it lower. today, not so much >> well, it's not just stocks, as you well know, michelle, and you guys have been itemizing this the vix, almost a three-month high the 30-year treasury yield, a six-week low gold, two month high so the safety trade is still very evident in all of this as well thank you. we'll pick it up from here i'll bill griffeth along with kelly evans here at the new york stock exchange as we watch the selloff continue in equities, and we want to address one of the other side bar issues that's been getting the market's attention. president trump, not just on north korea but he's also been raising eyebrows on those comments about senate majority leader mitch mcconnell and the widening rift that continues to grow ylan mui joins us with more from washington and more comments he just said. >> reporter: the president signaling he does not have confidence in senate majority leader mitch

president obama held a town hall on cnbc y with john harwood and the first question was, president obamawhat point do donald trump's supporters get exhausted in defending him? only seven months in. >> we shall see. that does it for thus morning. thank you so much for tuning in to the commentary variety act. chris jansing picks up the coverage. >> thank you, joe. hello. i'm chris jansing. for stephanie ruhle this morning, new strategy, no details. president trump promises victory but is silent about how many troops he's putting into afghanistan. >>ly not say when we are going to attack, but attack we will. >> and he put