national political reporter for action yo, jonathan swan. white house reporter for the associated press kathryn louis i and nbc correspondent jeff bennett. welcome all. after i know what has been quite a weekend. jonathan swan -- >> went very well, didn't it? everything was perfect. >> i heard that. pitch perfect. >> we'll talk more about that in a second. i know you had been doing a lot of reporting on ronny jackson. this is somebody the president very much liked personally. what's kind of been going on behind the scenes? i know you're still working on confirming this report. >> i can't confirm the specific report, but what i can tell you is one of the reasons why jackson didn't withdraw immediately was there are a number of people inside the white house, including the president, who saw political advantage in them kind of leaving him there, hanging sort of in the wind because the more that democrats pile on, they thought a lot of these allegations were false, particularly the one about him getting drunk and crashing a government vehicle. >

jonathan swan, thank you so much with that reporting for us exclusively from axios. charlie savage, not necessarily new, right, based on the headlines that have been coming out of the white house, jonathan making the comment that the power, the influence of this chief of staff has gone down in recent weeks. >> that is right, and general kelly has been this restraining disciplining force on president trump since he came in as chief of staff and one of the things that trump has said to hate is that same thing i just said, he doesn't like to be managed or be seen as being managed. there's been instances in which he's chewed out kelly and kelly has gone away grumbling he doesn't have to be there and as a general he was never spoken to that way and doesn't like being spoken to that way. that's been a baseline in the tense relationship between these two extremely different people at the heart of power in the white house. but in recent weeks there's been a growing tension. trump has been floating ideas of getting rid of kelly and not having a chief of staff. more recently ta

jonathan swan reporting white house chief of staff john kelly threatened to quit acourting to sources familiar with the event. kelly reportedly blew up at the president at an oval office meeting the same day. a senior administration official tried to pour cold water on the report and said calling it a

joining us from washington with a look at axios am, jonathan swan. good morning.t ax i don't say' one big thing today. >> my colleague mike allen reports about how james comey felt in realtime yesterday as the excerpts of his book were leaking out and the republican national committee launches a website branding him lying comey. mike reports that comey feels, quote, a sense of mission ahead of his coast to coast media tour which kicks off sunday night with george stephanopoulos. i think that phrase "a sense of mission" should chill some people in trump's orbit. >> i have a feeling this book is going to dominate conversation and headlines for a few days to come. >> more so than the michael wolf book do you think? >> probably at the same level if not more. let's hone in on some excerpts if you can. his book obviously describes how he felt president trump was sitting on a throne. break down what he meant for us by that. there was that infamous moment where they were in the oval office, had to go shake the president's hand. he described that. >> one of the most intere

. >>> coming up -- axios jonathan swan has a look at one big thing."morning joe" an intimate look inside the trump white house. details from the publicly released memos from former fbi director james comey about his one-on-one conversations with the president. >>> plus, filling out his legal team bench with the addition of rudy giuliani. what it may signal about the strategy of the mueller probe that it is trying to bring to an end. "morning joe" just minutes away. shortcut, which was a bad idea. [cougar growling] (passenger) what are you doing? (driver) i can't believe that worked. i dropped the keys. (burke) and we covered it. talk to farmers, we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ where we're changing withs? contemporary make-overs. then, use the ultimate power handshake, the upper hander with a double palm grab. who has the upper hand now? start winning today. book now at lq.com. the smoother the skin, the more comfortable you are in it. and now there's a new way to smooth. introdu

i want to thank jonathan swan and tim alberta for being here. we're lucky to have you on the show. thank you, sir. i appreciate it, jonathan. thank you, tim. >>> up next, we want to talk about president trump sounding off off on twitter not just about paul ryan but the possible strike on syria. telling the kremlin to be ready. there's a lot more news to break down on what this all means, critical geopolitical headlines when we come back. s for stocks, $0.50 options contracts? $1.50 futures contracts? what about a dedicated service team of trading specialists? did you say yes? good, then it's time for power e*trade. the platform, price and service that gives you the edge you need. looks like we have a couple seconds left. let's do some card twirling twirling cards e*trade. the original place to invest online. we know that when you're spending time with the grandkids every minute counts. and you don't have time for a cracked windshield. that's why we show you exactly when we'll be there. saving you time, so you can keep saving the world. >> kids: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace ♪

and jonathan swan. two guys who i used to be sort of a breaking news guy and now have the luxury of being a magazine writer and now get teased by those writers. it is hard to break news. you stand in awe of josh and jonathan. >> i think swan was here from an alien planet. he showed up and started scooping everyone. thank you very much. back with another award winner tonight. jake tapper will be honored at the white house correspondents dinner along with some of his other colleagues. stay tuned. just listen. (vo) there's so much we want to show her. we needed a car that would last long enough to see it all. (avo) subaru outback. ninety eight percent are still on the road after 10 years. come on mom, let's go! so let's promote our spring travel deal on choicehotels.com like this. earn one free night when you stay just twice this spring. allergies. or, badda book. badda boom. book now at choicehotels.com ...most people. but on the inside, i feel chronic, widespread pain. fibromyalgia may be invisible to ot

let fption bring in jonathan swan, is he a national political reporter for ax zos. , you hear 2,004,000 troops going down along the border. he is going to keep them there we don't know what their job is yet. he plans to keep these men and women down there until the wall is built. he got 1.6 billion in the budget for the wall. he needs 25 billion. they could be down there for a while. while. >> they can be. and the reason that trump is seconding them reflects more than anything, you cannot emphasize enough how frustrated he was and actually shaken in some ways by that spending bill that he signed. sources who have spoken to him say that at the time they didn't think he really processed exactly how bad this is their terminology this bill was. it was only when he actually watched the coverage and saw conservative allies of him on fox and other networks tell him through the television what a terrible deal this was, that it really sunk in. he obviously threatened to veto it. he ended up signing it and, he is now just looking to see whatever he can do through the executive

jonathan swan of axios, some new reporting on this. i understand you were on the phone with victoria toensing as the news broke. >> yes. so people were trying to figure out, you know, behind the scenes what happened here. one thing that no one seems to have picked up on is that scooter libby's pardon lawyer is victoria toensing, who is the wife of joe digenova and the two of them, the president recently considered adding them to his legal team. ultimately decided not to. she, i just got off the phone with her and the minute before that, she had been on the phone with president trump. she told me that president trump said to her he's followed this for a long time and quote, he got screwed. so slightly different language than they used in the official white house press release. then she said hold on, scooter's calling. she had to get off the phone to talk to scooter. but she said scooter's delighted about this and she submitted the letter last year requesting the pardon. >> so jonathan, it's safe to say victoria toensing, we have known fo

let's bring in axios political reporter jonathan swan. one of those stories that you knew it was coming. there was a book release date and it was going to come out sooner than later and here we go. it's the weekend when all of washington will be talking about this. what's the scuttlebutt down there? >> all of that is true that you just said. but the white house did not prepare for this in any serious way. >> dana: really? >> no. >> dana: it seems to me the rnc is really quite organized with all of their lyin' comey takes. >> they have got a website that had some quotes from some democratic officials. the white house internally was very slow to kind of get their act together on this. their strategy to the extent that one exists is portray him as a partisan political figure and to use two words he's a liar and a leaker. you will see that theme repeated over and over and over again. i will say in terms of the concern level that i'm picking up in the white house, it's not intense as you think from watching tv. there is nothing in this book th

joining us from washington with a look at axios, jonathan swan. this morning, jonathan. what is axios's one-big thing. >> a tale of two leaders. we take you inside president trump's personal relationships with the two foreign leaders visiting the white house this week. president emmanuel macron of france and german chancellor angela merkel. these two european leaders both internationalists or globalists in trump's lexicon, but they have a strikingly different relationships with the president. >> jonathan, i wanted to follow up with the president and mr. macron really two very different leaders, as you said, but axios sources point to the fact that they get along really well. what has led to these two men having such a strong bond early on in their terms in office? >> a source who watched them in the room very close had a very memorable description of what he saw. and he said that it was like watching an investment banker sweet talk a prized client. and remember -- >> can we ask which one is the investment banker? >> macron was an investment banker

to jonathan swan's point earlier, what tester is being very careful what he's saying. when asked about the charges, he's saying this is what i've heard. this is what i've heard from the people that have come forward. again, i do think what you're seeing on the hill, senator rand paul saying is so far it sounds like gossip. lawmaker who's say they do have cause for concern do say they want to make sure the allegations are investigated before some of them jump to any kind of conclusion related to ronny jackson. >> these are amazing it accusations. >> can i bring this back to veterans? we interviewed a bunk here in washington. we've spoken with veterans groups and others. let me point out the broader picture here. which is as one veterans group put it to me earlier, a group full disclosure allies more with progressive leading causes and opposes jackson's nomination before the accusations made the point it's not the accusations, it's concerns that is relate to his experience overall run agagency that this is this huge, running the second biggest federal agency basically. i

thank you, jonathan swan. >>> michael cohen and the russia investigation. the weekend fuming about the raid on michael cohen's office. maybe that's because he seeing the cohen investigation as the biggest threat to him. you're watching "hardball." don't make a first impression... or a lasting impression without it. ♪ ♪ don't turn your house into a home without it. ♪ ♪ don't go live... or even share a moment without it. and don't watch her dance like nobody's watching without it. whatever you do, don't forget that the more you live forward, the more you need someone at your back. ♪ ♪ the powerful backing of american express. don't live life without it. he'let's see whatll forensics thinks.. sorry i'm late. what did i miss? wanna get away? now you can with southwest fares as low as 49 dollars one-way. that's transfarency. and a baseball diamond... ...a mythical castle... and a grand banquet hall. this is not just a yard. it's where memories are made. the john deere x350 select series with the exclusive one-touch mulchcontrol system. nothing runs like a deere®

jonathan swan for axios, and jeff bennett, white house correspondent for nbc news. there a danger in trump being trump and simply waving the banner of populism and anger and resentment, all the elements that got him elected in 2016 in the electoral college? how does that clash with a sort of on-the-ground effort by republicans to hold their seats? susan? >> republicans are trailing in fundraising in a big way for these -- in these house contests. and the energy level among democrats is very high. it doesn't mean the democrats are without problems. they could have divisions. we're going to see that next week in the ohio primary for governor where the energy is in the democratic party. but t there are places where trump will do some good for republican candidates. but there are a lot of places in this country where he is going to cause perhaps a lot of heartburn. >> jonathan, where is he going to be a problem? >> well, there are a lot of these swing districts, house districts in california, up the east coast where the members of congress don't want trump anywhere near

. >>> joining us now, national political reporter for axios, jonathan swan. l get to jonathan in just a moment. >>> but first, we must go to hong kong to the tweet desk. willie geist is standing by. hope there's not a delay. willie is it. >> clean feed this morning. i wanted to add a point to what you just said. >> why does he always look to the right -- >> off your newt gingrich comments. here's a tweet from 11 months ago from newt gingrich. he writes this. this is a quote. robert mueller is a superb choice to be special counsel. his reputation is impeccable for honesty and integrity. media should not calm down. so it makes the whole thing worse, what you just explained is that he knows better. >> what happened? >> are we still doing this -- is that newt gingrich knows better. he knows who bob mueller is. he knows that he is a man of integrity. he said he was a man of integrity. so now he's going to compare him to the gestapo when he passed information along to the southern district? he knows who bob mueller is, and he's out spinning now. >> from a fantastic

jonathan swan said in the word in the white house if nothing else is there he will probably survive thislly and mr. goodstein, thank you very much. coming up, president trump just signed a proclomation for troops to go to the mexican board. the first wave could arrive tonight. details next. for leisure. so i go national, where i can choose any available upgrade in the aisle - without starting any conversations- -or paying any upcharges. what can i say? control suits me. go national. go like a pro. >> president trump signed a proclamation deploying the national guard to the border of mexico to stem the flow of illeg immigration. the last two presidents did the same thing. the home depot secretary explained why the move is essential until congress approves funding for the board wall. >> the threat is well. we see unacceptable levels of illegal drugs, and dangerous gang activities and illegal immigration across the board. the president directed that the department of homeland security deplay the national guard to the southwest border to assist the border patrol. the president will sign a pr

. >> 15 second, a new development, jonathan swan's reporting on john kelly, chief of staff. blowing up, unhappy, muttering or saying underneath his breath he may or may not quit. your reaction? >> i think that there is a lot of motivation on his part to leak that a lot of outrage in this white house. i take it with a grape of salt unless he is it willy willing to do it. >> president trump is his chief of staff and communications director all in one. the purpose of that job is to set up everybody, including the president of the united states follows, donald trump does not do that. kelly has threatened or suggested he wanted to quit. i would take it with a grain of salt. >> thank you so much for trying to get all of that into the seven minutes at the top of the hour. good to hang out with you. >> new details this hour on breaking news from germany. police in the city of munster ruling out terrorism in this incident, a van blowed into a crowd, leaving three dead. 30 injured. police say the deceased suspect was a german-born citizen. as for a motive. the man was suicidal. lookin

jonathan swan, national political reporter for axios. jonathan, is the white house firm in the pushback, seems so. behind the scenes, are they saying the same thing? >> the white house is conflicted in the sense that they almost unanimously, i have yet to find anyone who doesn't think he's a good man who is being unfairly -- allegations are out there. we don't know if they are true or not. some of them have become personally, those close to him feel upset to see this happening to a guy they consider to be a good man. on the other side, it's very hard to find a senior white house official who thinks that he's the right selection for the job. and beliefs trump unannounced him in the correct way. trump tweeted it out without any vetting over john kelly's objections and almost no one in senior staff that that was a good idea. >> bret: sarah's point is that he had been vetted for his job as physician to the president. very closely. the fbi checks and all that stuff. >> doctor to the president is quite different from running the second largest

i was listening to jonathan swan over the weekend. he didn't report them because he couldn't report if they were true. my question is, ronny jackson, i would argue, is one of the most trusted people in washington d.c. he's in charge of the president's health and that is a very serious responsibility. and if these allegations are true -- i say if because there's no evidence if they are -- we won't get a hearing to have him defend himself in public now that he's been smeared across the country. if the allegations are true, there's serious questions why nobody said anything because he is the most trusted person to the president. why is that? one more point. this is political for a lot of reasons. but david shulkin is a political holdover from president obama. there's consequences for bad behavior and privatization is on the table. >> this is a message from democrats to the trump administration. anybody that you nominate, if you think about taking a job in this administration, we will wreck your life. we will wreck your life with very spe

but he still wants to write his name in the history books in a big way and axios jonathan swan's reportings to do that on north korea at that summit that is coming up. >> so, mike, sources close to the president are telling axios that he genuinely believes he that he and he alone can overcome what's been happening on the korean peninsula. just president trump all by himself could do it. could you explain his thinking to us? >> tall order. >> tall order. explain the president's thinking for us. >> i can tell you the president's thinking, i can't necessarily explain it, but i can tell you what it is. you remember the president said i fix things, that's what i do. that's the way that he looks at his upcoming meeting with north korea. what he says when he's behind the scenes is just get me in a room with a guy and i'll figure it out. >> let me ask you about that a little bit. i'm curious to get your thoughts about the president treating the summit with north korea as a duel of personalities of sorts. how will this play with how he deals with kim jong-un on a personal level. what the intelligen

let's go for the inside scoop from yamiche alcindor and jonathan swan. both of you for joining us. yamiche, you have some reporting about this book. obviously it is being read closely inside the white house. what particular passages are resonating, maybe particularly negatively, over there? >> the sources i have talked to say the passages that are really resonating are the personal attacks that comey launched on the president and that is the talking about the fact he was smaller, shorter than he looked than on tv, the fact he looked ovr orange, the fact his hands were small. these are things comey didn't have to put in the book. people expected legal bombshells but they didn't expect a personal accounting of what the president looked like and his kind of disgust with that. even though the president is also upset about the idea he's characterized as someone from the mob and that he's characterized as someone unethical, sources i talked to says the personal accounts are the ones that are really bothering him. >> the president certainly responding in very a

jonathan swan of the axios says the word in the white house is there is nothing else there and he probablyurvives this. we'll see if he helped himself tonight. molly and mr. goodstein, thanks so much. >>> coming up straight ahead, president trump signed a proclamation directing national guardsmen to be deployed on the u.s./mexico border and the first wave could be arriving as early as tonight. details, next. >>> all right, here we go, president trump tonight signed a proclamati proclamation deploying the national guard to the border with mexico to stem the flow of immigration. the last two presidents did the same thing. the move is essential until funding is approved for the border wall. >> the threat is real. we continue to see unacceptable levels of illegal drugs, dangerous gang activity, transnational criminal organizations across the border. the president directed that the department of defense and the department of homeland security work together with the governors to deploy the national guard to assist the border patrol. the president will be signing a proclamation to that effect tod

. >> so i know that you and axios's jonathan swan, you've been speaking to your sources inside the whitet, his negotiating views. what did they tell you about what the president's tactics may by in all of this? the market is in a little bit of a frenzy. how is all this helping his objective? >> well, what he thinks is he's applying maximum leverage on the chinese and that ultimately they'll buckle and that they will create a deal that is favorable on tariffs for the united states. that may or may not happen. the fear, remember when gary cohen was in office and he was sitting there advising the president, he said the minute you slap those tariffs you're in a trade war and you're going to lose a lot of market value. that's exactly what's happened. and that's what worries a lot of people on wall street and some people inside the white house that we're now in this territory of unpredictability and you have the market getting pushed down and it really is the president's fault. he chose to do this. he chose to have this war. so it is a war of choice. >> so we've seen the president obviously so

>> jonathan swan went up with a scoop late last night. we'll have more details this morning.nt in terms of how he escalated the trade war with china, said there will be more tariffs. remember, this decision tank the markets and really shook a lot of global confidence this could be easily resolved. he did it with no policy process. he did not talk to barely talk to his incoming economic adviser. he largely froze out his own chief of staff. and he kind of did this on a whim. he's sort of winging our way into a trade war. yes, we were kind of accustom to that with this being president trump's style, but you're talking about a potential trade war with really unpredictable consequences that's already rattled the market and eaton away at a lot of the gains that the president has bragged about for so many months. so the consequences of this are huge. it's arguably one of the biggest strategic decisions he's made as president and he did it almost on a whim. >> but it seems like treasury secretary steve mnuchin is being blamed in addition to president trump for the roll out of these t

jonathan swan said i won't print the allegations because i can't prove they're true and neither can jonutrageous. >> wait a minute. wait a minute, scott, we both know admiral jackson. >> yes. >> and the -- he worked in both administrations. trump never -- and you and i have had this conversation with anderson. trump never should have improvised. that's what's causing the chaos in this administration and the chaos for the country. he never should have improvised this nomination. you do a vet and you know this full well. >> i just said that. >> let me finish the other part of what i'm going to say. you do a vet to prevent these allegations from being aired for the first time in public so you can make an informed judgment. and it was not just senator tester. the chair, the republican chair and the ranking both went to the white house and said, hey, some bad stuff is going to come out. and let me tell you something, you're wasting your sympathy on admiral jackson. you know who i feel sorry for? i feel sorry for the millions of veterans who have had a head of the va wiped out bought trump mo

and sources close to the situation told my colleague at axios, jonathan swan that chief of staff john really upset that trump and his team didn't properly vet ronny jackson and didn't vet him at all as you mentioned before he was announced to be the replacement for david shulkin. you know, after the rob porter situation happened where it was clear that either he wasn't vetted properly or his allegations of domestic violence and his past with his wives wasn't properly vetted throughout his tenure, that situation cannot happen again. especially with someone who is leading such a critical agency such as the v.a. that has 300,000 employees and is something that trump has advocated for reforming since he was running for president. it looks sloppy. it is sloppy. and now out v.a. is still without a new leader. >> shepard: the president stood by rob porter up until and including the time when he was tossed. and now the president made an even bigger embrace metaphorically if you were listening to him there. he stood by dr. jackson in a very serious and huge way. >> he did. this is a pattern of

jonathan swan, axios. a.b. stoddard, real clear politics. host of "no labels radio." mollie hemingway, senior editor at "the federalist" ." a lot to cover, jonathan. the main things really what we talked about, north korea and what's coming up. especially standing alongside the japanese prime minister. >> the japanese are anxious about this. they not only, we talk a lot about intercontinental ballistic missiles here in the united states. they are worried about short-range missiles. this is really in their neighborhood. it's an existential threat in their neighborhood. a bit, there was a lot of communication from sources on both sides that was not being translated necessarily through the nsc to the president. he wanted to get in front of the president and have a direct conversation. >> bret: the other thing we may find out is the disconnect about whether or not sanctions were moving forward against russia and what happened with nikki haley, u.s. ambassador to the u.n. she announced the sanctions were coming. the back-and-forth, that she doesn't get confused. the reporti

jonathan swan reporting white house chief of staff john kelly threatened to quit acourting to sourcesvent. kelly reportedly blew up at the president at an oval office meeting the same day. a senior administration official tried to pour cold water on the report and said calling it a threat was "probably too strong. it was more venting frustration." this coming amid the president reshuffling his cabinet and escalating trade tensions with china. president trump tweeting today the u.s. is losing $500 billion a year and has been losing billions of dollars for decades, cannot continue.

for more i'm joined bid jonathan swan, axios and mieke eoyang, the think tank third way.e's the tricky question. is this a wag the dog situation? >> is he likely to be more militant, more hawkish to shift the headlines? i noticed the head lines are about two-thirds syria despite the story yesterday the fbi entered the offices of his attorney. and yet, it is the main story, the main story in the major papers right now is right now not syria, it's the going into the offices of michael cohen to look for stuff on trump. is he going to try to rejiger the headlines? you know the guy. >> if he was trying to distract from that, i don't know that he would have opened up that session yesterday and talked about the mueller thing and the cohen thing and made it the blanket news coverage for that evening. i think the other data point is look, trump is very contradictory on syria and has contradictory impulses. he's been telling them we need to get out. >> no stupid wars. >> waste wasting our money and lives. every time he sees ins of these children, it has a different effect on him. t

. >>> jonathan swan, congrats on your scoop today.nks to the rest of you, too, for being here, we're grateful for having all of you here. i'm micolle wallace. "mtp daily" starts right now. it is a rare day that i'm on time. >> a little bit early. do you want to keep going. david jo jolly got one more thing to say. throw him a quick five seconds. happy wednesday. i guess this is wednesday. it's just another chaotic day in our lives. if it's wednesday, republicans are reeling after ryan's retirement. >> tonight, the fight for the soul of the republican party. >> look you all know me i didn't take this job to get the gavel in the first place. >>> how speaker ryan's retirement signals the president's victory over the party's past. >>> plus, why the michael cohen fbi raid still has the president so fired up. and who may be in the line of fire next. >>> and what would that president trump -- >> militarily i don't like to say where i'm going and what i'm doing. >> --

joining us now, national political reporter for axios, jonathan swan. good morning.t some new reporting on the future of rod rosenstein that includes the line rosenstein possibly about to be spit-roasted. what's going on here? >> there's been some reporting recently, particularly in the last 48 hours, that suggests that rod rosenstein, the president's cooled off on rod rosenstein. i'm told that's not so. that he still very much wants to get rid of him. one of the problems is that internally, they have not settled on or don't believe that there is a clean -- that was the word used by a source who has discussed this with the president -- a clean way to get rid of him or a clear idea of how to actually orchestrate it within the department of justice. and i can tell you there's a lot of confusion about what was actually said in that room with rod rosenstein and the president in the oval office. there was a bloomberg report that rosenstein told him he wasn't a target of either the mueller investigation or the michael cohen situation. but two sources have told me that that

jonathan swan broke the story, here's what he said. >> i broke that stupid story on sunday. concerns about him in the white house on the hill. his confirmation is in peril. i said there have been allegations taken to tester. i knew what these allegations were. but i didn't know if they were true. i have no earthly idea if they are true or not. i'm not just going to go well it is alleged and i'm hearing that this guy, you know, did all of these terrible things and these, you know, because i have no idea if it's true or not. and like clearly neither does john tester. eric: isn't that the point of an allegation? versus a conviction? >> when a reporter shows more care than the chairman of the senate -- ranking member of the senate committee concerning this, you have a problem. john tester went off on this. if the allegations are true, someone should be willing to step forward. the only people who have stepped forward with the secret service who say we have no record of any complaints. eric: what do you think this would mean for tester? you say he could face a potential uphill ba

when we first wrote trump was excessive amazon, my colleague jonathan swan assured of coin-op that there'ssinesses in enzi that is playing unfairly in the retail investors. a lot of those places went out of business in shopping center so he sees the impact they are. do your second point absolutely. to read the president street come he conflates the two issues. amazon "washington post." if we read those at face value there's a personal element here and how he views jeff bezos. utterly separate. it is jeff bezos personally. stuart: the only thing the president could actually do would be to unleash the justice department and the antitrust division to really hurt amazon. is that roughly accurate? >> either in the administration of actual concrete steps to takedown on amazon. they are to pay sales tax on estates that collective. and the retailer against this. we see in our reporting that makes that in the work. legislatively on the hill there is no desire. for the moment they are focused on facebook right now. stuart: next time you're one of our best guess you have excellent sources in the admi

. >>> welcome back jonathan swan reporting that paul ryan has told confidants he will not run for re-election the announcement is reportedly expected soon. there's been with yes he's not going to and then yes he is, yes he's not, yes he is. but this is at least three, four, five months old in he was telling some of his confidants he was -- you know, wasn't that pleased with -- >> one of the worst kept secrets in washington. >> i look at everything, andrew. >> i know. >> mother jones i start with then "huffington post. >> uh-huh. >> spend awhile there. >> i finally get to drudge there's a piece on kevin mccarthy >> and breitbart when? >> breitbart i kind of just live, eat, and breathe >> okay. >> actually, breitbart is so against any intervention -- did you see this >> that is true. >> in syria. you never know you need a score card now to figure out where everyone comes down like nick burns wants to do the thing in syria normally he's -- i don't know. i need help. we know that know. let's get back to the broader markets. the futures are now down now we're down 216 on dow. down 48 on the nasdaq

sources are telling jonathan swan and mike allen, he might get out while things are frustrating and aitol hill, but doesn't mean his political aspirations are necessarily over. stuart: sara, let me ask you this, does he say to speaker in november and resign speakership let somebody else take over so some progress can be made on president trump's issues before november? >> it is unclear right now. as you mentioned in fox's reporting there could be republicans planning to make a push to have him leave the seat so that could have a more expected it policy making by the fall. paul ryan at the end of the day led the house through tumultuous times and big house stories. he was big instrumental player getting tax reform move. we'll see what his absence means for other issues like infrastructure. stuart: move on to facebook. senator ted cruz took suck -- zuckerberg, over facebook bias. to me looks like censor in chief for 2 billion people am i on track or way off base? >> there were allegations about bias in the trending topics feature. they were not including conservative sources in sending

brian: all of sudden this story comes out last week and jonathan swan of axios says there is some problemsian, especially senator tester going on national news, yeah, we have a problem, you wrecked three cars, he is called the candy man, he has a problem with other leadership around too drunk to answer president obama's call. i don't know if it is true or not. is that a problem? >> it's a huge problem. what senator tester did is absolutely disgusting. you have an admiral with amazing career. he worked for president obama. he worked for president trump. he worked for president bush. if these allegations happened during obama's watch why didn't they come up then. but the fact they were not facts. they were fundamentally wrong. and senator tester would require a moral compass that he obviously doesn't have. steve: right. >> that's a huge problem. >> jason, is this the swamp? they didn't want him in that job. is this swamp? >> it is the swamp. politics of personal destruction. the resistance movement democrats represent. take down anybody at any cost. will destroy his family. even the secret s

one report in axios from is jonathan swan says house speaker paul ryan reportedly decided not to runhy? we'll ask steve scalise. steve: grab the hedge trimmer. it is spring cleaning time. she is here to make your life a breeze. i don't know that is such a good idea giving her that. net ♪. for powerful claritin-d. while the leading allergy spray relieves 6 symptoms... claritin-d relieves 8, including sinus congestion and pressure. claritin-d relieves more. ♪ what is it? the next big thing in food was once a little paper box. now we can easily take out food from a restaurant. let's stay in and binge-watch the snow. genius. now, the next big thing is the capital one savor card. good choice babe. oh, wait, hold on. earn 3% cash back on dining, 2% on groceries, and 1% on all other purchases. what's in your wallet? brian: fox news alert. house speaker paul ryan may be ready to leave congress. axios says he will not seek re-election the "politico" have two sources saying that he is not running for another term. steve: axios reporting that the likely replacement might be our next guest. join

i'll tell you why i thought about this earlier because you saw the jonathan swan piece that trump juste up with this 100 billion, it was like a half ass decision here's the thing when you start with the car decision and you say the car and the intellectual property. we're going to do a few things then they go nuts over china how dare you do this this is so unfair. you're being so -- so then the guy who has a temper and a thin skin decides, you know, fine me another 100 billion. i can see how you would do that to light hiezer. they're going to play this game, fine me another. i don't need to ask jimmy carter style for consensus. tariffs are difficult. he's the president, he's the decider. he was elected >> i'm sorry, this is something you have to do, andrew if he wants to broach 100 billion in tariffs, that's his prerogative as the decider in chief, right >> but the implication of what it means to say that privately to lightheizer or to say that publicly or privately is -- >> this is the way it works. get used to it. >> 9 implicatioeion -- the implications for millions. >> i know. he wa

jonathan swan, thank you very much. keep us posted.s on the phone. i think he's getting out of his apartment and putting his tie on. speaking of putting his tie on, joe, what is your gut? paul ryan announcing at this point that he's -- or he hasn't announced it, but he's going to, say, today that he is not running again. he's done. >> as we said before, mika, i guess earlier this week when we were talking about the possibility of paul ryan making this announcement in the coming days or weeks, this is a job that he had to be pushed into. he had been -- he had gotten the job of his life, at least his public life, when he became chairman of the ways and means committee. he's always been focused from, you know, the time i first met him when he was in his early 20s and then when i went out and campaigned for him in 1998, which really was seen as a swing district then. paul ryan was focused on taxes. he wanted on to pass a sweeping piece of tax legislation that looked a lot like the bill that was passed earlier this year. and for a guy who s

jonathan ferro. bloomberg surveillance can be heard in washington, the bay area, washington, d.c., live from new york, this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪ is bloomberg daybreak. coming up on bloomberg markets, robert swanoomberg business flash. take mobil failed to advantage of the rally in oil prices. they fell short of projection targets, earning less than expected. they have been posting their best early results in years, thanks to higher prices from opec cuts. the european airbus company handed over the fewest claims in the quarter since 2011.delays avenging providers of the problems. they are delivering 800 planes this year, but it will require better performance from engine makers. is believed the bank of .cotland is well stored they posted higher earnings and rbs is going to settle a mortgage securities investigation. there are estimates that it could cost of them $9 billion. that is your bloomberg business flash. david: thank you. it is the final day of our series that has looked at five aspects of amazon. today, we will take a look at amazon's cloud business, specifically collecting data and how to eavesdrop on your conversation on alexa. we see from the pie chart that that 11% in the blue is