. >> larry kudlow is the director of the white house national economic council. thanks for being with us. mr. kudlow: i appreciate it. >> we continue the conversation with a reporter from the washington post. let me begin with you on china. what is going to happen next? larry kudlow presented a very optimistic view of the administration dealing with china and wanted to make the point that the talks were going well. he made a little bit of news in saying the meeting with president trump and president xi, we thought it would originally be at the end of march. that signaled there may be some sticking points, which he talked about over enforcement. it is a little more slow-growing than the administration thought. the $22emed to downplay trillion debt. >> the other thing he downplayed was the idea that the markets and how they would've reacted of the deal didn't come together. that is a huge understatement, if there is no deal on china and there are tariffs, the marckets will be hugely disappointed. deficit, those concerns he downplayed. i think he is mirroring his ow

. >> larry kudlow, director of the white house national economic council. thank you for being with us on "newsmakers." >> we continue the conversation with damian paletta of the washington post. nancy cook, let's begin on china. if you could read the tea leaves what is going to happen next? ,where do things stand? >> larry kudlow presented a very optimistic view of the administration's dealing with china and wanted to make the point that the talks were going well. he made a little bit of news in just saying it seemed like the meeting with president trump and president xi, the possibility of it slipping until april. we thought it would originally be at the end of march. that signaled there may be some sticking points, which he talked about over enforcement. it is a little more slow-growing than the administration thought. >> he seemed to downplay the $22 trillion debt. did that surprise you? >> the other thing he downplayed i the train at talks, which thought was interesting, was the idea of how the markets would react if a deal did not come together. he als

that's the worst month since 2017 joining us over at reaction from the white house today, national economic councilr larry kudlow great to have you back, good morning. >> good morning, carl. i was there in the roman empire, wasn't all that great. we should put -- have some perspective on it. >> yhelp us understand 20,000. how did this happen? >> i think it is a very flukey number it is interesting that 20,000 there, the household employment number from which unemployment comes was up 255, a great number the unemployment rate fell right .2 from 4 to 3.8 wages were up, actually a big wage number year on year, 3.4% look, i think you have timing issues with respect to the government shutdown. winter, seasonal issues, very flukey i wouldn't pay attention to it to be honest with you. >> well, larry, it is jim. i want to -- i share your view i want to be able to defend the number as a way to be able to say there was weather and this time you got to take weather seriously. but i wonder, larry, at what point are some of these woes from overseas are we imported. i know we're going to import a lot from that d

white house council of economic advisers, mr. kevin hassett. kevin started at his the 29th chairman of the council, being confirmed in september 2017 and is one of our nation's foremost economists. he's been a professor at columbia business school, worked at the federal reserve board, he's been a consultant to the treasury department and advised numerous presidents and presidential campaigns on economic issues. we are fortunate to have him here today to give us his expert view on the economy and it's future. today, he will be joined by mr. byron brilliant who will lead the conversation and i tell you it will be good judging by the greenroom of what they've got planned for you. byron is the executive vice president and head of international, which means he leads a team of policy experts here at the chamber working on investment issues around the world. most importantly, he is my boss and we all will give him a good round of applause. please welcome chairman kevin hassett to the stage. ♪ >> good afternoon on a monday morning. as kevin was saying, and has he said before in his career, whether you have a full room or not, depending on the weather and the speaker

the white house's top trade negotiators are planning to leave in the coming weeks that's according to three associated with the plans. clete williams is the director of the national economic councilans to leave the white house he's the lead negotiator for the g7 and g20 and he's been traveling in place of larry kudlow for talks in beijing. it's unclear how or whether his departure will coincide with china trade talks. though people familiar with his plans cite twear of travel on hi young family there's a replacement in the works. that person's appointment is not yet finalized. certainly it is a major personnel change for the china delegation as these talks enter potentially their final weeks, guys >> is he someone who takes a hard line on relaxes tariffs or more open to finding a middle ground >> he's not an ideological adviser in that sense, wilf. his background is as an attorney so he focuses on the fine print and exactly what these negotiations say he's one of the most detail oriented trails on this. certainly would be a big way in these talks in the coming weeks. >> thank you, kayla. we'll watch the reaction to all this it's just under an hour now to the opening bell dom chu