ambassador to china max baucus weighs in next right here on "closing bell.lways pay your insurance on time. tap one little bumper, and up go your rates. what good is having insurance if you get punished for using it? news flash: nobody's perfect. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. switch and you could save $782 on home and auto insurance. call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™ liberty mutual insurance. >>> last hour president trump warning north korea they will be met with fire and fury if the threats continue joining us now is former ambassador to china senator max baucus and we did see a mini jolt in the stock market and a little bit of volatility after this how did you interpret the president's comments >> well, i was very, very disappointed and discouraged i think that the president should stop tweeting generally and specifically stop tweeting inflammatory rhetoric which essentially pours gasoline on kindling this is a very dangerous situation and he should stop the amer

the former democratic senator from montana max baucus. mr. ambassador, thanks so much for joining us. first, let me get your reaction to the breaking news we're following here. the "washington post" reporting that the u.s. intelligence community now assesses that north korea has produced nuclear weapons for ballistic missile delivery to include delivery of these icbm-class missiles. are you surprised? how dangerous is this situation right now? >> i'm not terribly surprised. i think we americans tend to underestimate the capability and intelligence of people in other countries. we're a bit arrogant, at least on the margin. second, i think it's noteworthy that china is stepping up its role as a potential leader in trying to resolve this. joining russia at the u.n. that's noteworthy. these are very great additional sanctions as noteworthy. the foreign minister of china made it very clear, how upset they are with north korea. next, it's important secretary tillerson is signaling we're not intent on regime change. kim jong-un, in my judgment, is n

vonnie: thank you, max baucus. 40 years of a career and also ambassador to china.oming up, oil looking like this. weekly oil inventory data in the u.s. .5%.s lower down by about this is bloomberg. ♪ mark: live from london, i'm mark barton. vonnie: i'm vonnie quinn. this is bloomberg markets. the world's largest theater chain is suffering from a lingering box office slowdown. julie hyman is here with details. entertainment. the company is basically suffering sequels that are just not getting the same demand from theatergoers. other issueso some within the industry including the rise of things like netflix that are trying to get people to stay at home. amc shares are down 25%. they are at a record low and down by the most ever with that 25% drop. we have a look at the domestic box office figures. the big drop this summer, 8% in mysticallyrevenue to here this summer. amc saying today it's going to see a 1.5 percent decline in the total north american box office billionr to 11.2 dollars. this is really what is sparking concern here today. the company also forecasting f

and former senator max baucus. and ned price a former special assistant to the president, a former cia analyst and a national security analyst. the president will be giving a briefing at this hour and we're expecting a comment from him afterwards. but you just heard the pent gone is preparing to strike if necessary. but this bomber, not capable. but a bomber that could strike north korea. what is your feeling on this? >> it might as well be called the department of con ttingency planning. they present proposals to policy makers in case they are needed. it is what they do. it would, however, be an extraordinary step, and i think reckless, for the pent gone to -- pentagon. >> what do you mean when you say larger scale? >> this is a question to the north korea regime. if they see the united states moving closer to a mill their attack, if they see the pentagon spring into action, it is likely they will respond in a disproportionate matter. there is tens of thousands of americans stations in south korea, not to mention

having covered lots of tax reform and spent a lot of time with dave camp and max baucus, they workedor five years and tax reform. the problem with tax reform is a couple of things. it is very hard to pay for if you want to do it in the way the president wants to. the president is following the same pattern he did with health care, promising the moon. huge tax reductions and growth and it will add up. that is what he did with health care. it will cost less, you get to see her doctor. they were not able to fulfill those promises. this is setting up the same way. there are swarms of lobbyists engaged in the tax question trying to get their pieces of the legislation put in. everybody wants to pass tax reform. it is just very hard to do. it cannot be done at the levels the president wants in terms of cutting the corporate rate as much as he wants because it costs so much money. trillions of dollars more with the rates he wants. you have to fill that up with andcuts -- spending cuts, congress is not going to support those. they will go for it, but it will not be as easy as everyone is sayi

. >> in his first steps, he reached across the aisle on the tax bill with max baucus. to ted kennedy on the education. all of those circumstances, he understood that he didn't win the popular vote. he was under -- he was questioned as a legitimate president and sought to figure out how to get through that. donald trump has decided do the exact opposite. >> it seems he's more interested in securing his base than expanding it into a governing koeg what is your sense of the atmosphere that is causing inside the white house right now? we saw gary cohn speak out. you heard tom bossert there. a loft churning inside. a lot of relief that general kelly is there. >> the stretch after charlottesville, the staff responded to that. some people really on edge. none of them have left. you can't give people too much credit. there's a lot of tension about the future of this administration. whether the president can get in on track. and they feel like the best way he can do that is have accompli accomplishments. >> which may be why dpgary cohn stayed. >> tax reform. tax cut. that is go

with me now is former ambassador to china max baucus and jim dement.dor, what do you make of president trump's comments today? >> during my several years of experience as ambassador to china, the chinese are very respective of strength. and they probably respect -- [ audio breaking up ] when president trump vacillates and issues contradictory statements, that's not strong. the chinese see that as weakness. and that emboldens them -- second, they definite hi want some stability in the peninsula at all costs. i think that's partly why they have lots of troops massed in the region. it is entirely possible, i'm not say thing is going to happen, but it's entirely possible that we, the united states, if we attempt a preemptive strike, and all you know what breaks loose in korea, china may enter. that's a very real possibility. we don't spend enough time thinking about china's reactions. >> oh you're thinking that china would militarily enter north korea? obviously china doesn't want a militarily unified korea angling towards the u.s., which is on their borde

bush in his first steps reached across the aisle on the tax bill with max baucus.aisle to ted kennedy on the education. all of those circumstances, he understood that he didn't win the popular vote. he was under -- he was questioned as a legitimate president and sought to figure out how to get through that. donald trump has decided do the exact opposite. >> it seems he's more interested in securing his base than expanding it into a governing coalition. you cover the white house every day. i wonder what your sense is of what kind of atmosphere that is causing inside the white house right now? we saw gary cohn speak out. you heard tom bossert there. a loft churning inside. a lot of relief that general kelly is there. >> absolutely. the stretch after charlottesville was one of the most extraordinary stretches in any white house that i have seen. in terms of how the staff responded to that. some people really on edge. none of them have left. you can't give people too much credit. they're saying things privately and what they're trying to push behind the scenes. there's

with me now is former ambassador to china and democratic senator max baucus and jim demint. do you make of president trump's comments today and north korea's threat to look at guam as a possible target of attack? >> during my several years of experience as ambassador to china, the chinese are very respective of strength. and they probably respect -- strength. they can smell weakness from a mile away. when president trump vacillates and issues contradictory statements and insendry rhetoric, that's not strong. the chinese see that as a kind of weakness. and that emboldens them -- china for actions they may want to take. second, they definitely want some stability in the peninsula at all costs. i think that's partly why they have lots of troops massed in the region. it is entirely possible, i'm not saying that this is going to happen but it's entirely possible that if we, the united states, attempt a preemptive strike and you know what breaks looses in northern korea, china been potentially enter north korea. china will want to maintain control. that's a very real possibility.

signed the tax reform with max baucus next to him.made an effort to work across the aisle and then obviously when the nation was faced with this extraordinary tragedy and test, the entire country criticized it. but if this white house is tested there have been no efforts not only to tell the truth, but there have been no efforts to build credibility among democrats or republicans. >> no credibility to build credibility only among those who support him. there's a hurricane you need to tell people how to handle or a national security crisis it will be a big problem. what i worry the most about is the impact -- you know, health care we were able to stop. right, we were able to stop the repeal of obamacare, but the impact -- >> but a big assist from john mccain. >> right. but the impact of having a president of the united states who consistently lies and the impact that has on the standing of the united states and the post trump era, whatever that may be, the impact it has on the standing in the united states and the impact it has on the