also joining me is scott jennings who served as special assistant to president george w. bush. welcome to the program. >> thank you. >> good evening. >> good evening to you. let me ask you, the premise is right, right? this is a very big week for president trump on all sorts of levels. very important business overseas. very important political dramas taking place at home. scott jennings, what do you think will be the president's reaction to this and how do you feel this week will go down? >> well, i think the president continues to deserve a lot of credit for trying to engage with the north koreans. this has been one of the biggest foreign policy issues he's tackled. it's obviously been left undone and open ended by several previous administrations. he's trying something new and deserves credit for that. he needs to be prepared to be disappointed by the north koreans. it's good to engage and tamp down tensions on the peninsula, but these folks so far have not shown a willingness to denuclearize which is what he's pressing for this week. on the home front he needs to be prepared

discuss for and against it with van jones, the former white house adviser to president obama, and scott jennings, former assistant to george w. bush. welcome to the program. let me first ask you, scott, your takeaway from last night. was it convincing? was it strong? was it coherent? >> i think it was a good speech. there were a couple of moments he could have done without in my opinion. i don't think the talk about the caravan works for him. i thought the line about war with north korea was misplaced and probably didn't belong in the final draft. however, everything else i think would sound reasonable and the snap polling conducted showed most people responded positively to what he had to say. he threw nods out there to groups he needs to talk to, the independent voters who don't love either party. he cast himself above that. he ca overall, i think conservatives and republicans are happy. if he can stick with this kind of a message it sets up nicely r him. >> van jones, was this a kickoff to the 2020 campaign? do you think the democrats, your party, came out thinking that this was good for them

back now with susan glasser, scott jennings and max booth. let's put this up on the screen.on, the organization -- the organization, the transition, the inauguration and administration are all under some form of investigation. his charity, the trump foundation agreed to dissolve the investigation. after investigation. is there even anything else that can be investigated at this point? >> well, it's hard to imagine what is it. pretty much every organization that trump is associated with, don, is now under criminal investigation as you showed on this screen there. this is pretty extraordinary. there are more investigations of this president than his organizations than any other occupant of the oval office in history. you have to ask why is that? now if you listen to president trump, it's because there is some kind of nefarious deep state conspiracy against him. but that's ridiculous. the reason is simple. which is that donald trump is deeply unethical. he has been cutting corners his whole life. he operated every organization in a sleazy and underhanded fashion. you see it in

susan glasser and scott jennings and max booth, author of "kro s "corrosion".e. susan, hello, everyone. susan, chairman adam schiff made the house intel committee's investigation into president trump official today. do you think the president is prepared for this? >> well, you know, he should be. this was inevitable the moment that democrats won the house in november. and in fact congressman schiff has made it very clear what his agenda is and how he proposed to begin or to restart, i should say, the house investigation of this. for example, the vote to send the transcripts of the interviews to special counsel mueller's office to look for possible perjury. that's something that schuff said in interviews with me and other journalists going back to a cup months ago when it became clear that he would get the chairmanship. so if donald trump is surprise now, i don't know why. i think clearly the white house has been scrambling, cannot have a fully staffed counsel's office and, of course, they have a very difficult client in the form of president trump who as we kno

bush, scott jennings, and former presidential adviser to nixon, reagan, ford and clinton, david gergen trump is not the first president to declare a national emergency, but how does this one stack up? >> well, he's not the first. there have been nearly 60 national emergencies declared in recent years. but this is the first that really is about a declared emergency over a border. and that is as controversial as this one is. most of them have been fairly -- most of the past emergencies have been straight forward. this one is causing a storm, causing -- as scott will say, i think, that it's causing heartburn within a republican party. because there are a number of senators who think this -- and indeed, many in the house -- who believe this is an unprecedented and inappropriate, if not illegal grab of power by the president. >> scott, you worked for george w. bush. he declared 13 national emergencies, notably in the aftermath of 9/11. trump declared this national emergency and spent the weekend playing golf. what message does that send? >> well, i actually think these kinds of -- you know,

. >>> i am back now with scott jennings and april ryan. >> scott, you are funny as hell. >> i want tois said at the breakfast club how people are questioning whether she's african-american. >> another question says kamal is not black enough and she was raised in canada. >> i was born in oakland and i was raised in the united states except for the year i was in montreal for school. >> this is the same thing they did barack obama and this is not new to us. they're trying to do what's happening the last two years which is powerful voices trying to sell hate and divisions among us. we need to recognize when we are being plagued. >> what do you make of her answer? >> good for her. >> you know there is a lot to unpack here. what does black enough mean? i don't want to go down the road of the stereotype when people say we are black. she's a black woman, she's a mixed race woman. when you see her, you see her blackness. she's also south asian. her dad is jamaican. >> more power to her and i think it is great. that should be enough. listen, >> no, no, no, no. i think you're not hearing what pe

to bring in associate editor and columnist for real clear politics, cnn political commentator scott jennings and joe lockheart. he served as white house press secretary under bill clinton. stephen miller acting as a white house spokesman today. he was asked about president trump saying this. >> i could do the wall over a longer period of time. i didn't need to do this but i'd rather do it much faster. >> i didn't need to do this. how does that justify a national emergency? >> well, the president was saying that like past presidents he could choose to ignore this crisis, choose to ignore this emergency as others have, but that's not what he's going to do. >> as a former white house press secretary was steven miller effective in that answer? >> no, because that's not at all what the president said. what the president did undercut his legal position. he basically said that this isn't a crisis but i just didn't get what i wanted from congress and that's not what other presidents have used the presidential authority that they were given. they're saying the president was trying to fulfill a campai

outfront joan walsh for the nation and scott jennings, former special assistant to president george w expect the incumbent president to sit back and watch the food fight that eventually does play out on the other side but proactively trying to sow chaos and division, this far out from the general, is this a campaign strategy you would recommend? >> absolutely, i think more than chaos and division it's a campaign to go ahead and define whoever the democratic nominee is going to be as the reporter point pointed out. >> all 175 of them. >> that's right. if the incumbent -- the incumbent presidents have a huge advantage, time, resources and the power of the oval office to change the news of the day. they have a lot of advantages and one of those advantages is is to shape the narrative of our national politics and to use the pulpit of the office to start to define the opponents and he wants every single democrat and all the worst things as he sees it about those democrats to stick to whoever the eventual nominee is. they've settled on this idea that it's sort of freedom, free market, capit

"outfront" now, keith boykin, and scott jennings, former senior adviser to mitch mcconnell and formerssistant to president george w. bush. so keith, the president is calling on omar to resign, even after she gave an unequivocal apology. hypocrite orn not? >> of course, it's hypocritical. donald trump is quoted in a book as saying he doesn't want black guys counting his money, he wants short guys with yamakas. back in 2013, he speaks to the republican jewish coalition and says he doesn't need their money so he probably won't support him. in 2016, he does a tweet where he talks about hillary clinton says -- has a star of david on a pile of cash. and in 2017, after the charlottesville incident, where nazis are marching and saying "jews will not replace us," trump says, there's good people on both sides. and last year in 2018, when the tree of life synagogue massacre takes place, trump blames the synagogue for not having armed guards there. and then to top all of that, just last month, donald trump quotes a tweet supporting and embracing a tweet by pat buchan buchanan. donald trump is the

jen was talking about. northam has lost support of just about everyone, mark warner, congressman bobby scott, dnc chair scott, they are all among those who have joined in on calls for him to step down yesterday. so if pressuring him to resign does not work, what are the chances that the next step will be state impeachment proceedings? can you talk about that one? >> virginia is actually one of the states where it's very tough to recall a governor. it's one of eight states that have tough laws in terms of making it a difficult thing for citizens to do, but it is something that's possible. it's one of the reasons i point to what i said earlier, his inability to actually do the job. no one will be willing to work with him on the legislative side, so it is going to hit that point where he may hit the inadequacy law. regardless, he's going to be out of office. whether he realizes it or not, he's going to be leaving office, and i think it's going to be through resignation, and i think it's probably going to be very soon. >> joe, let's talk about someone who is not out of office. there are comparisons being drawn b