there are these three guys in mar-a-lago.adership for the department of veteran's affairs. they don't have any official role in government, they've been doing this without any accountability or transparency. very few people outside the va had any idea this was going on. >> who gave them the authority to do this? >> the president. you think back to the transition, there was a period where trump was asking a bunch of his rich friends to get involved. there was a time where carl icon was going to do deregulation, and rudy giuliani was going to do cyber security. perlmutter said, i'll help you fix the va, so then perlmutter got sherman and moscowitz involved. unlike these other guys who sort of tide away, this one has not only continued but deepened to the point that they managed to stack the leadership of the agency with people who were loyal to them because anyone who didn't get along with them got pushed out or pushed over. >> what expertise do any of these men have, in veteran's issues or running of the va. >> that is the exa

officials traveled to mar-a-lago at taxpayer expense to hear their view.through any kind of confirmation exerting some policy role. taking place at the private business the president owns. taxpayer. >> a lot of this speaks to chief concerns that you have in the administration. close long standing ties with many of these billionaires. the question is does that get to overlap. you know, or can be spoken to by the american people. that seems fairly undemocratic, but this is part of what democrats are trying to do in painting this administration as people who are grifters and only about their fellow elite. >> it is interesting too, nick, the question is how many people are going to notice a story like this. i'm thinking about ten years ago a previous administration, there was a va scandal and it got constant week's long attention in this country. we live in an age where the president can tweet five provocative tweets by the time i finish my sentence. and we are now on something else. everybody moves on to something else. >> possibly, but one group that will pa

so the va secretary wasn't even going to the meeting at mar-a-lago about the va. it seemed odd to me. except it won't. we now know about the true rulers of the va. there is ike perlmutter. bruce moskowitz and wealthy attorney marc sherman. none of them were veterans, none of them elected. and none of them confirmed. yet because they are friends with trump, and pay dues to his private club, they have been allowed to run the department. take us through the details of this absolutely insane example i am joined by isaac. this is one of the nuttiest stories of the trump era i have read. how involved really are these three gentlemen in overseeing the va? >> they are involved with everything. they speak with va officials every day on the phone. they have a hand in all manner of policy and personnel decisions that have been coming out of the va for the past year and a half. >> every day? >> as often as every day or multiple times a day. >> this is like how everything about the policy for the largest health care system in the united states. >> yeah. this is like how much h

how do things happen at mar-a-lago? we have maggie, we'll ask her. g. commanded armies... yielded to no one. when i found you in my dna, i learned where my strength comes from. my name is courtney mckinney, and this is my ancestrydna story. now with 2 times more geographic detail than other dna tests. order your kit at ancestrydna.com here's a trip tip: when you search hotels on tripadvisor... enter your destination and the dates of your stay. tripadvisor searches over 200 booking sites... to find the best deal on the right hotel for you. tripadvisor. >> the charges that have been levied against me are meritless and i will mount a vigorous defense in court to clear my name. i look forward to being fully vindicated and exonerated ending any and all question to my affiliation. >> chris collins defiant in the face of insider trading charges vowing to clear his name and run for reelection in the fall. maggie. the indictment itself is fairly damning as most legal minds have said but when you look at what's happening with chr

reports that three men are influencing e veterans affairs department from mar-a-lago. the west coast tries out an early warning system for earthquakes, and much more. >> brangham: less than 100 days out from the november ection, primaries were held tuesday in four states plus a special election in ohio. we take a look at how those contests played out and what they signal for both parties in the fall. last night, ohio republican troy baldersocarried on as if he was a winner. he said he'd work hard for his columbus-area house district, s en sent a gesture of tha the head of his party. >> i'd like to thank president trump. >> brangham: but while balderson leads in the current tally for this special election, it's a razor-thin lead-- over democrat danny o'connor in thisna tradity republican district-- 50.2% for balderson, 49.3 for o'connor, still too close to call. last night, democrat o'connor matched the energy of his supporters, and there was no talk of conceding defeat. >> we' not stopping now. tomorrow we rest and then we keep fighting through to november! >> brangham

only the people and i include congress that go to mar-a-lago to golf or up to bedminster. question on where these criminal aliens are coming from. can you talk through the nationalities of the folks that come through? guest: absolutely. the majority of the criminal aliens are coming from mexico. the other countries of the federal level are honduras, guatemala, columbia. it's relates to the state very similar. at the state level the majority is from mexico. also el salvador and germany. host: how many of these folks end up free incarcerated and come through the justice system several times after they are released and not deported? guest: when we talk about arrest and convictions we are talking about over the period of time we estimate it has been about one million transfers arrests and convictions. we put those together because it's really difficult to track. this is an issue with the database. how the data are collected and tracked. we use arrest and transfers together. host: explain what a transfer is. guest: from one law enforcement body to another. in the are arrested b

one example the insane story of the three mar-a-lago lawyers. should there be hearings on that? >> absolutely. you know, the oversight and government reform committee basically, for years wasted millions of dollars on hillary clinton's e-mails which was a fake scandal designed to undermine her presidency but refuses to do anything at the corrupt, at the corrupt instance that has arisen. it is shameful. and you are not going to get them to act as constitutional check and balance as devin nunes disclosed to his donors. >> i want to play one bit of tape. before you guys went on recess, they filed articles of impeachment on rod rosenstein. listen to what he had to say. >> also, on things that came up in the house on rosenstein impeachment thing. yeah, yeah, well, so it's a bit complicated right and i say that because you have to, so we only have so many months left, right. so if we actually vote to impeach, okay, what that does is that triggers the senate that has to take it up. well, you have to decide what you want right now, because the senate only has so much time. you want them

you mentioned when president xi was at -- with president trump at mar-a-lago. the issue also at hand was north korea. he was very interested in getting the help of the chinese to see that north korea would come to an agreement, perhaps make some progress on denuclearization right now i think he probably needs the chinese less because the united states is dealing directly with north korea. that process certainly in president trump's mind has made huge steps forward when president trump looks out there, there are only two leaders he really plays a kind of complicated game of give and take with, that's the chinese president and the russian president. so i do think that time will come, but it doesn't seem imminent >> it's interesting how you say complicated relationship it's been noted that china can't match the 200 billion worth of tariffs and keep on escalating from there it's running out of u.s. goods to target, but it can stop licensing approvals, make it very difficult for american companies to do business there and there's lots of american companies doing bus

amy: you put that information out because mar-a-lago is pretty much down the road. >> absolutely.the way, that invitation was in all media. he got that. he ignored it. i am not a pro trump have -- onll and i amy: can you share any of joaquin's -- >> i have something right here i can read you. it is pretty impactful. amy: ok, guys, i've had it. i want to ask everyone of my true friends who support donald trump if they could live without me. if i vanish today, would you be happy? would you be ok with that? not just me, but anyone being discriminated by your president. would you guys be 100% ok with your immigrant friends never existing in your life? and those who choose to stay out of it are just as bad. if you stay quiet, you are supporting him. so fight for us and we will fight for you. love us and we will love you. take us in with open arms and we will make sure we make the best out of our stay here." amy: and that is the words of your son joaquin oliver. >> so who ever thinks that me are leading our own fight, they should know that we are leading joaquin's fight. and ago that wa

then, an exclusive club-- a new port sheds light on how members at mar-a-lago are influencing how president trump runs the department of veterans affairs. and, an inside look at a new earthquake warning system and what it could mean for people living in high-risk areas. >> we believe we can prevent half the injuries. we can reduce losses. we think it's a great cost- effective measure. >> brangham: all that more on tonight's pbs newshour >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> knowledge, it's where innovation begins. it's what leads us to discovery and motivates us to succeed.th it's why we astough questions and what leads us to the answers. at leidos, we're standing behind those working to improve the world's health, safety, and efciency. leidos. >> babbel. a language app that teacheser real-life cotions in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. babbel's 10-15 minute lessons are available as an app, or online. more information on babbel.com. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfo

each of them is a member of the manag mar-a-lago club. they're known as the mar-a-lago crowd.ver the va and have not broken any laws. they are not denying they're calling the policy shots. this is a seemingly unending drum beat of headlines of trump-connected sometimes just weird access, outright corruption, grift, graft, and it's starting to make you wonder what's going on with some of the people in the president's inner circle. "forbes" reported wilbur ross siphoned millions, called grifting. his first supporter in congress, chris collins, was just charged with insider trading. not to mention the campaign chief, paul manafort, is on trial. paul gal rick gates is testifying about crimes he admitted too. the prosecution said manafort tried to leverage his trump connections to get one of his lenders a job in the white house or get on the short list. by the way, all of these examples are just from this week, and it's only wednesday. this is your wake-up call. if you have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, month after month, the clock is ticking on irreversible joint damage

david: did you convince him to take up bicycle riding at mar-a-lago?e did not seem interested in that? dennis: he has his own hobbies. [laughter] dennis: we respect each other's hobbies. david: what about supersonic transport? there was a plane called the concorde. dennis: it is the economic hurdle that goes with it. that airplane was never economically viable. we will see high-speed airplanes that connect any two cities in the world in about two hours, and we will see that span up to space tourism. you will see the intersection between commercial air travel, high-speed travel, and space travel, and that we evolve over the next couple of decades. ♪ david: airbus is your main competitor, is that right? dennis: in commercial airspace. david: have you ever tested out an airbus? dennis: i have flown on them. it is not something i spend a lot of time pursuing. [laughter] dennis: i would suggest that if you were to survey the crowd, people who have flown on both, people like flying on boeing. david: how many people here prefer boeing? ok. ok. i guess you are

david: did you convince him to take up bicycle riding at mar-a-lago?did not seem interested in that? dennis: he has his own hobbies. [laughter] dennis: we respect each other's hobbies. david: what about supersonic transport? there was a plane called the concorde. dennis: it is the economic hurdle that goes with it. that airplane was never economically viable. we will see high-speed airplanes that connect any two cities in the world in about two hours, and we will see that span up to space tourism. you will see the intersection between commercial air travel, high-speed travel, and space travel, and that we evolve over the next couple of decades. ♪ david: airbus is your main competitor, is that right? dennis: in commercial airspace. david: have you ever tested out an airbus? dennis: i have flown on them. it is not something i spend a lot of time pursuing. [laughter] dennis: i would suggest that if you were to survey the crowd, people who have flown on both, people like flying on boeing. david: how many people here prefer boeing? ok. ok. i guess you are r

president trump stood in mar-a-lago for the golf game. the north koreans used that opportunity to launch missiles in japan's direction and it was the first opportunity trump had to make a statement for japanese defenses. he came out and said we are behind japan 100%. that was the most emphatic statement at the highest level of the u.s. government in terms of the strength of the alliance in determining aggression against north korea. it was an opportunity created by the north koreans but a statement the pipe -- despite the campaign rhetoric of the previous year. it was another moment for the lands to make sure we were on common ground. less visible was the u.s./japan military exercises, the push forward to trilateral eyes of demonstration of capabilities in northeast asia. they were also synchronizing with south korea because to convey to pyongyang that do not take these two alliances as separate. we would both be ready to respond. that was a new phase as well. granted, we did not see south korean military on japanese soil. but we did see

then, an exclusive club-- a new report sheds light on how members at mar-a-lago are influencing how presidentrump runs the dartment of veterans affairs. and, an inside look at a new earthquake warning system and what it could mean for people living in high-risk areas. >> we believe we can prevent half the injuries. we can reduce nksses. we tt's a great cost- effective measure. >> brangham: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour

leaders who are at odds with the mar-a lago crowd were pushed out or passed over included were the secretary deputy secretary chief of staff acting undersecretary for health deputy undersecretary very well chief information officer and the director of electronic health records modernization but it was only that. other key personnel physicians see these unaccountable shadowy figures have been able to hold the v.a. to their will they've been forced to say in the mother answer for this at all well overall so far they've all the klein to be interviewed but they have fielded questions that are a crisis communications consultant and author and another says in a certain misunderstanding like hiring a crisis communications consultant. they don't knock it till you try it my crisis communication consultant has gotten me out of many a tight spot. john are you getting much better straight from the jar to answer that maybe a little ship or anything including peanut butter is merely a construct of the capitalistic bush crime scene. i don't like that could be a right good line that. this . was not. every s

"wall street journal" breaking news that franklin haney has club membership of mar-a-lago, and reportedly boasted about his dinners with president trump last year also agreed to pay 10 million to the president's then personal attorney if he successfully helped obtain funding for a nuclear power project including a $5 billion loan from the u.s. government according to people familiar with the matter. joining me now is michael rothfeld. i thought we knew all of the gigs, the michael cohen influence side gigs but i guess we didn't. >> we didn't know all of them and there may yet be more. we had reported before that cohen had arranged a meeting for the nuclear power plant. >> so there is a few things here that are striking and i should take a time to read, neither mr. haney nor nuclear development llc ever entered to into a contract with michael cohen or his affiliate for lobbying services. you got to register to be a lobby. you can enter into a consulting contract. >> that is what this contract most likely says. consulting or strategic advice. and we reported today that cohen had in fact cal

at mar-a-lago, let's settle this and make a deal. we slept them. this is not a way to deal with this culture. to -- what is a way to deal with in terms of equities? u.s. equities continue to show they have broken out. the chinese equity market has felt the pain. where do you stand in terms of how you paste your portfolio in terms of what u.s. equities you are in and what to avoid. portfolio, the one that is an etf construction, we have a cash reserve, we have maintained a cash reserve and are continuing to do so because we are dealing with a great uncertainty. the construction of that domestic is focused on , u.s., small and mid-cap, less international exposure. if you take the stock market and take out a couple of the high-performing with good reason , others get hurt and we see what happens when they do. market itself does not have the underpinnings that you would like. the breadth is shrinking. i think it's is a worrisome town. -- tone. the portfolio has to be protected in a domestic way. that is how it looks to us. >> this is david kotok of cum

they have requested those for the mar-a-lago property.e saying they are having a hard time squaring those two things. on the other hand, it follows the rhetoric we have heard from the trump administration all the way back from on the campaign trail. emily: chris with a bloomberg law. thank you for that report. xiaomiartphone maker reports results wednesday in hong kong for the first time since going public in july. the company has raised 5.4 billion dollars by selling investors on its promise. of being a high-growth internet company. some are losing faith. bloomberg's chief north asian correspondent stephen engle has a preview. more than a month after its billion-dollar debut in hong kong. xiaomi is still trying to convince investors it is more than just a handset maker. a high-growth internet company facebook, alibaba or tencent is what they want you to believe you in a 70% of fromue comes from's -- selling smart phones. investors need more convincing as it has traded lower from what many say was an overpriced ipo. the quarterly results

he's a guest at mar-a-lago, he's had a decades long relationship with trump so they're very close -- or whether, i should say. >> so he was willing to bury negative stories and there had to be a business upside for him. was the feeling that i'll wash your hand if you wash mine that donald trump was feeding him information that would end up in the pages of the "national enquirer"? >> i don't know the answer to that but they have tried to justify the purchase of one of the playmate's stories as a business decision. he can say that we did this for editorial reasons, we are protected by the first amendment in doing this. michael cohen cannot put on that defense and so for months and months and months meamerican mea has told us we didn't buy karen mcdougal's story, we did it for editorial reasons. >> but what? she was going to write columns? >> part of the agreement was they would put her on magazine covers and publish articles with her byline. and she was on the cover of the september issue of "men's journal" which is an american media magazine. >> nicole hong, thank you for sharing your

multi-millionaires from marvel comic books is running the va from mar-a-lago. stop, this is in violation of the law. you can't have your kitchen cabinet running the department of veteran affairs from people in your club because all these laws and rules who dictate who is on a committee that advises a committee like the department of veteran affairs. we're going to take this out of the dark and put it in the light and put veterans into the conversation and basically stop this right now and tell us everything that's happened and we pushed it over to the courts and we'll wait for a decision from the judge. >> veterans should be at the front of any conversation that has the word military in it in this country far earlier than jets. >> absolutely. >> thanks very much. thanks for being here. that's all for this evening, but make sure to stay right here because we have quite a lineup. john brennan makes his first >> reporter: it's graduation day in a new york suburb a rite of

donald trump's private club, i mar-a-lago had been sued with violating zoning restrictions having to do with its flagpole. when that lawsuit got settled and trump had to pay money, trump said, pay that out of the charity funds, that's not coming out of my pocket. you cannot use your charity for that. barbara underwood caught him doing it and filed this blistering lawsuit with lots of evidence including literally embedded in the text of the lawsuit, a civil lawsuit she brings in new york state but she forwards all this evidence she gathered to the irs for them to investigate as potential criminal tax matter and to the election commission to investigate as a set of campaign violations andss it to the integrity division at the new york justice department. within new york state the state tax department starts investigating that evidence as well as laid out by barbara underwood to see if in addition to the civil lawsuit there should be a state criminal referral against the trump foundation and president trump personally and each of his three eldest children personally. that's where the su

star payoffs, there are things about ethics compliance, classified information being passed around mar-a-lagoresident is actually playing golf with all the time and what he's talking to them about. the trump organization from definitely benefiting from various dignitaries who are staying in their hotels ending their restaurants. >> do you think those questions, they start giggling and it happened before the president was running or became president, could that block things down for the democrats customer >> one of the fault lines for this electoral campaign is that the democrats when the house and in particular with that subpoena power, what do you think they would do? there would be a slew of investigations into all sorts of things, some serious and some frivolous. there was a poll that "the wall street journal" pointed out just this weekend that showed that and concerned that the democratic would be overly asked and i think you'll see those arguments made by both political parties with democrats like jerry nadler saying, these republicans will help them get away with anything, they won't ho

i thought nato was letting in mar-a-lago! ( laughter ) damn it! ( cheers and applause ) oh, well.ng." ( piano riff ) but-- "we've got to get those rocket launchers away from the caddies." ( laughter ) but rest assured, while all this is going on, the trump administration is tackling the serious questions facing our country like, "what is milk?" well, they're gonna find out because they've just pledged to crack down on the use of the term "milk" for nondairy products, like soy and almond beverages. from now on, if it ain't from a mammal, you can't call it milk. it has to be soy juice and almond sweat. ( laughter ) even the movie "milk" now has to be called "inspiring non-dairy sean penn product." ( laughter ) f.d.a. commissioner scott gottlieb explained the move, saying that "the agency's current standards for milk reference productions from lactating animals. and, "an almond doesn't lactate." ( laughter ) it does if you're doing it right. >> jon: hey, hey! ( applause ) ( piano riff ) >> stephen: what does that mean? that means nothing. that means nothing. that has no meaning. don'

>> that often happens whether it's bedminster or whether it's mar-a-lago. when he is in his natural habitat at one of his properties where he feels comfortable, he often gets a little restless. it's also the case he is less likely to be surrounded by the formal cordon of white house aides. rather he tends to be surround by friends and family, a lot of his informal advisers and they tend to egg him on. i think that's why we get a lot of his most memorable twitter rants on the weekends when there isn't a john kelly at his elbow, not that his formal aides do such an incredible job of restraining him. but if anything, he tends to be less restrained and more relaxed, and that is when he tends to cast off some of the shackles and tell us what he really thinks. >> part of it, pick up on what molly said, he gets bored. okay, he plays golf. but you can't play golf 12 hours a day. so he is basically knocking around on these giant resorts, and he gets bored. and he basically wants to fire off some of this zing they're will make all of us talk about him, because i thin

in our timeline a few days later, march 4th, sessions goes to mar-a-lago where trump objected to him recution himself and said he needed a loyalist overseeing this investigation and demanded sessions resign. let's take this all together. there are many people, i'm sure you know many people that say this, that donald trump is somehow ignorant or clueless or dumb. you hear that from time to time. donald trump may certainly be ignorant of all kinds of things, certainly things he doesn't care about. but the evidence in this mounting case shows he is very informed and very kani about using a whole range of tactics to get what he wants in this criminal probe. here is how that is key where this probe is heading. donald trump deploys both public and private means to do these things that look like evidence of obstruction of justice. that's key to what is the disturbing news tonight. let's go back into the timeline. donald trump presses sessions and that became part of mueller's probe itself because he had an inquiry that demonstrates mr. sessions overlooked role as key witness in the time its

when he goes to mar-a-lago, he's surrounded by everything that has his name on it and surrounded by friends. he gets revved up. we saw this is where he made the final decision to fire james comey and this is where he unleashed his tweet yesterday. >> the evolution of that talking point, is that a valid argument in your view. do you think that holds work? if not in the court of legal opinion or public opinion. >> rudy giuliani came out hard with that talking point. i would say that we in the media have all the term collusion. robert mueller have not used the term collusion. it is sort of a straw man and false narrative in that regard. the word collusion is not in sort of the heading of any criminal statute. free a fair election would come under the collusion-like idea. conspiracy to violate campaign laws or conspiracy for antihacking laws. that's all under this rubric of collusion. >> there is a lot of stuff that the president could be talking about, china firing back on tariffs of u.s. goods. a judge ordering resources of the daca program. this is not a test for cnbc. this message from "fox

the trump organization asked for 61 h2b visas for low skilled workers, requesting those for the mar-a-lago. some folks are saying, they are having a hard time squaring those two things. on the other hand, it follows the rhetoric we have heard from the trump administration, all the way back to the campaign trail. emily: chris opfer with bloomberg law. thank you so much for bringing us that report. chinese smartphone maker xiaomi reports results wednesday in hong kong for the first time since going public. they raised $5 billion with the promise of being a high-growth company, but some are starting to lose faith. stephen engle has this preview. stephen: a month after the high profile $5.5 billion debut in hong kong, xiaomi is trying to convince investors it is more than a handset maker, but a high-growth internet company in the rarefied air of amazon, alibaba, tencent, even the 70% of revenue comes from selling smartphones. investors need more convincing, as the stock has traded flat to lower from what many say was an overpriced ipo. the quarterly results will give billionaire -- the billion

it is a mar-a-lago dining room where they have their iphones outlo out looking at classified information. >> i want to read trump's tweet on omarosa. >> while i know it is not presidential to take on a low-life like omarosa, this is a modern day form of communication, i know the fake news media will be working overtime to make wacky omarosa to look as legitimate as possible. sorry. david, so the president of the united states says he does not care if he looks presidential or not. >> well, i think that's one of the more obvious statements out there. there was another tweet that i thought was more revealing. there was a segment in another tweet, he wanted things to work out because she said great, in all caps of great things about me. the president can be won over by flattery. it is one of the reasons why you see a lot of his allies flattering the heck out of this guy because they know that it works so well. it works so well that flattery will get a person like omarosa in the white house. if there is any silver lining in this cloud it is that at least once again we have some addition by su

discussion of classified information at mar-a-lago, jared kushner's ethics law compliance. travel ban family separation policy, hurricane response in puerto rico, election security and hacking attempts and white house security clearances. republicans may hope that the list will scare the trump base to the polls to protect donald trump from any of those investigations, but as democratic congressman tweeted today, house gop went so far to make a list of objectionable conduct by donald trump. so if they know, why won't they investigate this stuff? joining us now congressman eric swallwell. that was one of your angrier tweets about this, but it is kind of extraordinary to watch the republicans basically draw up the preliminary outlines of an overall indictment of the ethics of the trump administration, the trump family and then say the danger to the country is that this will be investigated if democrats are elected. >> good evening, lawrence. you almost went into brian william's hour there going through that list. but what was so concerning for me was that they know. it is as i

>> reporter: she also describes president trump as behaving like "a dog off the leash" when at mar-a-lago events without his wife. the white house punched backwi a statement. "this book is riddled with lies and false accusations. it's sad that a disgruntled former white house employee is trying to profit off these false attacks." >> some other news, michael en ti, attorney for stormy daniels, made this appearance at a democratic dinner in iowa last night. is michael avenatti really layihe t groundwork for a presidential campaign? >> reporter: he's certainly hinting. this is one of those dinners where often candidates debut to the all-important iowa voters. avenatti was talking about some of the political work he' done in the past but also urgingat demo to be tougher against a re-election campaign where donald trump would be a efighte, asescribed it. avenatti also told democrats to sort of put aside michelle obama's advice that when they low, we go high. avenatti said when they go low, we should hit harder. craig? >> thank you. a programming note, omarosa i going to be joining chuck todd f