the national book festival, live, saturday. journalists and former white house officials examine the relationship between the news media and the trump administration. in a discussion hosted by the american political science association. this is an hour and 30 minutes. >> all that stuff i said? that was off the record. [laughter] >> i think we will get started. thest want to thank american political science association and sees in for foriding -- and c-span providing a broader environment for what is clearly a very important and relevant topic in 2019. that being this roundtable on the tropic of the trump white house and the white house press corps. cohen. is dave i am a professor of political science -- an actual professor of political science at the university of akron. i'm an assistant director of applied politics. i'm also a board member of the been press club and have over a decade. and i'm a member of the white house transition project, which for those who don't know, it is a nonpartisan effort to provide -- by presidency scholars to provide information on presidential trans

to cnn's sarah west wood. she is at the white house this morning. sarah, the white house portrayed a very different reception. they even released a sort of propaganda-like video on social media showing a warm reception, but the facts seem to counter the white house messaging here. >> that's right, jim. the white house did try to portray the president's visits to dayton and el paso as sort of a demonstration of the president's ability to act presidential in these kinds of situations. for example, his social media director, claiming that trump had been refused like a rock star at those places. and president trump, as you mentioned, had disputed the characterizations of local officials in dayton while he was flying from dayton to el paso to visit the scene of the other mass shooting, saying that they had mischaracterized his visit, even though democratic mayor of dayton, nan whaley, ohio senator sher odd brown, both of them had been dmikplitry of the visit itself. the eight surviving victims still being treated at the university medical center in texas did not want to meet with presiden

in the white house and the iraqi people elected someone who is a businessman and now he's president of the united states. it is a lot work. we work nonstop. the president drives the new therefore itand affects us everyday penthouse, quite an exciting place to work right now. >> how is it different? import a photographer's -- standpoint, we get a lot more access. sometimes three or four times a day, sometimes five times a day. bill signings, executive orders, things like that. involved.ravel exhausting, but it is great. i love what i'm doing. i have the greatest job in the world. every time i see somebody that i have not seen in a while, that is the first question they asked. it is very different. and thereng on top are some more differences. i think photographing barack obama for eight years, he was probably the most photogenic president in my generation just thed i look at past year of photographing. and he is probably one of the most iconic no matter whether it back, front, side, the you know who is immediately. it is challenging and fun, but i love photographing. photo that he to

. bush white house invited the president of china hu jintao to come visit the white house. it was clear this would not work. it was clear it would be tense from the beginning. i mean in the first instance t chinese wanted hu jintao to get a full state treatment. george w. bush says no, it won't be a state's visit but an official visit, in terms of protocol and poms and circumstances. the chinese wanted hu jintao to have dinner at the white house. george w. bush says no, we want you to come but we are not going to giver y you dinner but how at lunch. the bush's administration, disaster rousley botched to the hurricane. it had to be called off the last minute because of katrina and got postponed until months later. april, 2006, they were at last able to do this difficult thing. it then turned out to be a nice day. jintao got his 21 salute and they brought out the drum cord which was a cool thing to see in the colonial drum core outfit. quickly things start to go off the rail. you can tell that in part. the archive ap footage summing up that day is slugged with this title. "announcer mis-n

we have a president who is not a politician in the white house and the american people elected a businessman who is now the president of the united states and things are drastically different for us. it is a lot of work. we work nonstop. the president drives a new cycle hourly. therefore, it affects us everyday. the white house is quite an exciting place to work right now. brian how is it different? : doug: from a photographer standpoint, we have a lot more access to the president. i see him more on a daily basis than we did with president obama. sometimes three or four times per day. sometimes five times a day. we are able to photograph him in different situations. some meetings, will science, -- some bill signings executive , orders, things like that. there is a lot of travel involved. not a lot of weekend travel other than to mar-a-lago or bedminster, new jersey. it is exhausting. it is great. it is very exciting. i love what i am doing. i have the greatest job in the world. being in the white house right now, every time i see someone that i haven't seen in a while, that is th

house adviser said a short time ago. >>> new today, the white house insisting economy is in great shape. this morning the president's two top economic advisers appearing on every sunday talk show. their message? do not listen to warnings the economy may be slowing. their mission, to calm wall street and the public after a tumultuous week in the markets. >> i don't see a recession at all. i sure don't see a recession. >> there's no evidence whatsoever that american consumers are bearing any of this. >> we're doing pretty darn well in my judgment. let's not be afraid of optimism. we should not be afraid of optimism. money is flowing into the united states. we're the hottest, really the only game in town. >> we are winning. >> but this week the american farm bureau federation warning that in the last year china has bought $1.3 billion less in u.s. farm products and a new nbc news wall street journal poll shows the president's approval rating is around 34%. and his gun control activists across this country take to the streets. 89% of the voters support background checks. 76% favor red

white house under president bush. in that role, he oversaw the integration of dozens of military security and operational agencies all involved in presidential travel, including the u.s. secret service. today he serves as a global director of business development for a show called inc., in international event production company. we had planned to have former secret service agent kathleen, but due to a medical issue she is unable to be here. all of us on the stage tonight wish her a speedy recovery. we are so grateful to joe, nick and larry for making a time as our former agent experts to be with us here tonight. let's welcome them on to the stage. [applause] >> we have a fantastic program tonight, and some really interesting information on the secret service, how it runs at a lot of back stories that you will find fascinating. let's get started. joe, director clancy, i should say. as a former director of the secret service, ku at set the scene of the secret service history. it was not always about protection. frm. dir. clancy: it is unusual for agents to sit on stage. typically,

teams covering every leg of the president's trip. first, let's to go our chief white house correspondent, jim acosta. the president has been meeting with shooting victims behind closed doors. what's the latest? >> reporter: that's right. president trump just arrived in el paso, texas about, an hour ago to meet with law enforcement officials and some of the survivors from last weekend's massacre. he is at the hospital in el paso. we're waiting to find out whether he will come to the cameras. he did spend most of the day blasting on twitter while flying on air force one, even when the cities of el paso and dayton are yeefg. the president is airing his grievances. facing what is going to be a critical moment, president trump arrived in el paso, texas to try to comfort another city traumatize bid a mass shooting. earlier he spent time in dayton, ohio, where he was pressed by lawmakers to do something about gun violence. >> we can't get anything done in the senate. mitch mcconnell and the president of the united states are in bed the gun lobby. >> reporter: the president was live tweeting a s

relevant topic in 2019. that being this roundtable on the tropic of the trump white house and the white house press corps. my name is dave cohen. i am an actual professor of political science at the university of akron. [laughter] time. back in i'm an assistant director of applied politics. i'm also a board member of the akron press club and have been over a decade. and i'm a member of the white house transition project, which for those who don't know, it is a nonpartisan effort by presidency scholars to provide information on presidential transitions and white house operations to those who are transitioning into the white house. it's a very important organization that happened to be -- one of the founders of that organization is martha kumar, who i am happy to introduce right now. she is an emeritus professor at towson university and director and creator of the white house transition project. she is the author of numerous books and scholarly articles, including "before the oath: how george w. bush and barack obama managed the transfer of power." she's also the winner of the apsa 2008 b

moment. but first, we are also following news out of the white house on a number of fronts this evening. earlier today the president tweeted about a failed rocket launch in iran along with an image of the launch site. quote, the united states of america was not involved in the catastrophic accident during final launch preparations for the launch in iran. i wish iran best wishes in determining what happened. the photo, according to outside experts, would only be available to a government source, so it was classified. earlier today the president was asked about his tweet. >> reporter: did you release classified information by tweeting that photo about iran? >> no. i just wish iran well. they had a big problem. and we had a photo. and i released it which i have the absolute right to do. >> reporter: where did it come from? >> you'll see what happens. you'll have to figure that one out for yourself. we'll see what happens. they had a big mishap. it's unfortunate. so iran, as you probably know, they were going to set off a big missile and it didn't work out too well. it had nothing to do wit

white house invited the chinese president at the time to come visit the white house. and again, this is just one of those times in life when it was clear this might not work. i mean, it was at least clear it was going to be very tense from the beginning. i think it was maybe even clear from the beginning that it was going to go badly. i mean, in the first instance the chinese wanted hu jintao to be given the full state treatment. george w. bush said, no, it will just be an official visit, which is one big wrung down the ladder in terms of protocol and pomp and circumstance. the chinese wanted hu jintao to have a state dinner at the white house. george w. bush white house said, nope, we want you to come, but we're not willing to give you dinner. how about lunch? then an even bigger problem. hurricane katrina blew ashore in the gulf coast and devastated the great american city of new orleans and the bush administration, of course, disastrously botched the response to that hurricane. huh jintao's visit had originally been scheduled for the week new orleans had almost been wiped off the map

minutes president trump will welcome the president of romania to the white house. now the official agenda includes energy, security and trade, but this is also an opportunity for the president to talk to the press with questions almost sure to be asked about new reporting on white house economic worries. "the washington post" reports that several senior administration officials are keenly aware of the risk of a downturn. those officials have, quote, begun discussing whether to push for temporary payroll tax cut as a way to arrest an economic slowdown. it's one of several ideas the administration appears to be considering as the post puts it, the internal discussions reveal growing concerns about the economy among president trump's top economic aides. a reminder that both trump and his economic advisers have spent the last two days denying there's a risk of recession. and they claim they weren't preparing for one, although they also admit they're not ruling anything out. it's the kind of bizarre push and pull we've seen play out with this president time and again. especially when it

, nixon administration officials describe events inside the white house in the days before the apollo 11 moon landing. we will hear from two former presidential aides who were in the oval office when president nixon spoke to neil armstrong and buzz aldrin while they were on the moon. >> good evening ladies and gentlemen. as people continue to wander and we will get started because we have a hard q at 8:48. hello to our audience watching at home. i am the president of the richard nixon foundation. we would like to begin as we always do, please rise for the presentation of the callers and the singing of the national anthem. >>> [ music ] oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, what so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming? whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight, o'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming? and the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there. o say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? [ applause ] >>

double-double talk. the first when the president confirmed he and the white house are considering a payroll tax cut. yesterday, when "the washington post" reported the white house was considering a payroll tax cut, the white house denied it. they denied it to us and to "the wall street journal." the president just confirmed what they have been busy denying. at this point it's not clear if we should believe anything a white house spokesperson says or what the president says for that matter because they just contradict each other constantly and themselves. we'll have more on the double talk in a second. because a lot of it is on camera and you have to see it to believe it. one spokesperson denied it and confirmed it in the same interview, which is, i mean, that takes skill. that's the best people. i want to begin by discussing and focussing on the other presidential double talk we saw today about background checks for gun buyers. after the mass shootings in el paso and dayton, the president was talking about meaningful background checks. confirmation he's not looking at background che

and the fight for the vote. the white house historical association hosted this discussion. stewart: my name is stuart, the president of the white house historical association. it is my privilege to welcome many of you back to the historic decatur house and the white house historical association for another one of our wonderful lectures. tonight is one of the annual national heritage lectures that we do in partnership with the u.s. capitol historical society and the u.s. supreme court historical society, and we have our wonderful colleagues from both tonight, and we would like to welcome you here today. on june 4, 1919, the 19th amendment was passed and sent to the states for ratification. the silver just used the white house as a backdrop to challenge inequity and bring attention to their cause. tonight, we look forward to hearing more about their successful efforts to secure women's right to vote. speaker,introduce our i have a couple of other introductions and things i would like to share. first of all, we have guests from smith college tonight, the washington club of smith college.

arrives? >>> plus exclusive reporting today on how the white house snubbed its own administration officials who thought combatting white supremacy should be a higher terrorism priority. >>> plus president trump being accused of weaponizing hate by a potential 2020 democratic opponents who called for tighter gun restrictions at the site of a rampage. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. >>> welcome to "the lead." i'm jake tapper. and we begin with breaking news. in minutes we expect president trump to arrive in el paso, texas. he will make his second visit today to an american community devastated after two men committed horrific acts of carnage and violence, murdering 31 people in two mass shootings speaker pelo -- shootings 13 hours apart. today he visited a hospital that treated multiple victims where nine people were killed. protesters greeted the president there in dayton and more protesters are awaiting the president's arrival in el paso, where the accused domestic terrorist echoed some of the language used by the president when talking about latino immigrants. particular

a plan. i got to go first to jeff bennett at the white house. jeff, tell me about this messaging. we know that the president is an extraordinary salesman. he gets people excited. it's what drove business and consumer sentiment up after he won. but that's very different than a plan. do you think a plan is coming out of this white house? >> reporter: if there is a plan to deal with any economic slowdown or recession, steph, the white house isn't emphasizing it. what accounts for this message? in large part the white house knows the way in which americans view the economy matters at least in terms of perception. when it comes to the economy perception can affect the reality. i think the question for this white house for trump's re-election campaign is, will he or can he successfully continue to project this message of positivity as it relates to the economy all the way through november, 2020, come what may. we just heard the president say he sees no signs of a recession on the horizon and that point can be debated but this is one of the things that what the president says publicly m

john boehnd fight him. he did not replace him at the white house. at the state department we of a small team, two small worrying about international norms and control negotiation someday and really need cyber norms and international norms so on paper the strategy looks good and very little going on to implement and in terms of regulation, the turbo ministration literally says any new regulation has to identify two regulations to abolish before you can have one new one. and i'm sure that's a scientifically formula the anymore, the regulation and frankly to a lot of people in congress. so they say no regulation but the federal government does regular and cyber government all the time. we list 12 different government agencies have cyber regulations at the federal level. they're all inconsistent, they were never developed ballistically. what we call for is a clean slate on the federal regulation, let's have all the regulators come together and together figure out an architecture that makes sense in different industries you can of different feature sets but you not have differences tha

ently, to his kind internal advisors, the people in the white house about how frustrated he is thatthis is making him look foolish, undedeining his authority, that it is costing him politically with his bas anou so ynow, part of what we've seen over the last 2 1/2 years is him trying as you said, to do anything he could, executive authority, push the -- one of the reasons that people ar gone from the -- from his administration in these roles that have todo withmmigration are because they stood up to him and id mr. psident, we can't do the things you're saying that you want us to do. it's against the law or it's not practical. and he's become sonfuriated by that that he's pushed them out. robe: what about now? to icel's point, thall money is being redirected from fema disastereliefo border projects, is there pushback inside the administration is or from republicans? shawna: the's a lot, especially with regard to taking away money from fema. the timing is everything. timing could not have been worse. this president has already been accused repeatedly of neglecting puerto rico. the storm w

white house and their leadership to vote yes for it. but it's true. republicans have become big spenders. at least the house and senate leadership republicans, just like the democrats. and the tea party started out as an independent group. they lined up with republicans because they were smaller government, but they were suspicious of politicians, and i think that sentiment is very much alive. >> if you had to describe it today, how would you describe president trump's fiscal legacy? david: my view is president trump worked hard to reduce spending and they were ignored by republican allies in the house and senate, and couldn't get better deals than what they got. so right now, it's building debt. and that's going to be a big problem for our country. we've been saying that for probably a decade now. the economy, fortunately, is expanding, which i think is the trump legacy. that expansion lets you absorb more and get a chance to get to a balanced budget. but you have to put the brakes on spending to do that. >> you put the responsibility on the part of republicans in the house and

white house. president trump is about to head out once again, which means he could very well head to the cameras once again. will he cancel another state visit? will he explain why he really canceled his visit to denmark? will he explain why he's backing down from supporting stronger background checks for gun owners? and will he lay out how seriously he really is about pushing new tax cuts as fears grow about an economic slowdown? this just as a new cnn poll shows for the first time in trump's presidency americans' perception of the economy is on the decline. let's get to it. cnn's sarah westwood is in louisville, kentucky, where president trump is headed today. sarah, first on greenland. are you hearing anything more from the white house on the president's decision to postpone this meeting with the prime minister? >> reporter: well, kate, president trump's stated reason for not heading to copenhagen is the fact that the danish prime minister had signaled that the government was not interested in talking about the sale of greenland to the united states. in fact, the danish prime mini

the house impeachment investigation. we're learning how the white house may brazenly try to block lewandowski from testifying. >>> philadelphia standoff. police reveal new details on the man accused of shooting six police officers during a harrowing gun battle that lasted for hours. we're told he had an assault-style long gun and a long rap sheet. >>> and nascar star plane crash. dale earnhardt jr. was onboard during a fiery runway accident in tennessee. we're going to tell you what we're learning about his condition and the crash. >>> we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. >> we're following breaking news. president trump is firing off new attacks against two democratic congresswomen while praising israel's stunning decision to ban the lawmakers from entering the country. top democrats are rallying behind representatives ilhan omar and rashida tlaib. members of the so-called freshman squad calling the move underneath the dignity of israel. >>> also, the ju

back to white house officialofficials. i don't know if it was tiffany westerhout herself or reporters blabbing a little bit. the sad thing is what the content of those communications supposedly were, and the fact the president seems motivated to affirm his love for his daughter. that's pretty sad. >> yeah, that's pretty sad. would it not be cool if a reporter were the one that leaked it at an off-the-record dinner, john? >> well, the staffer at the off-the-record dinner is the one who disseminated the information. reporters should not take information they receive off the record and report it. they should not share it with other people. but we don't know that that's what happened. ms. westerhout could have recounted what happened at the dinner and others decided that's not appropriate. >> you had mick mulvaney saying an ambivalent mr. trump had to be persuaded throughout the day thursday that ms. westerhout, who was on vacation in california, needed to resign, which she did that night. >> staffers need to have a reputation of not leaking the madeleine has had access to the g

white house, at this hour, another reason for president trump to be worried about his re-election chances. a new associated press poll shows more than six in ten americans are not happy with the job he's doing. a disapproval rate of 62%. and it isn't just the president's tweets or behavior fueling it. trump earns weak marks on major issues from immigration to health care to guns. a bad sign for a president already under growing pressure on the economy. with new numbers showing both that the jobs picture isn't as good as we thought and that his tax cuts, while less effective at creating jobs, was highly effective at growing the deficit. now expected to hit $wool trillion for 2020. perhaps blood in the water. another republican has raised the prospect of primarying the president. >> he's a horrible human being. a bad, bad guy. and every single day, every single day, you, i, and everybody watching us right now is reminded of how damn unfit he is. >> if you feel that way, are you running against him? >> i'm strongly, strongly considering it. these are not conventional times. look at t

this is the business briefing. i'm victoria fritz. cleaning up the internet. the white house calls a summit with big tech firms to counter online extremism. and uber disappoints. shares are down sharply after reporting its latest results. and on the markets, trade in asia nudging up cautiously — following a tumultuous week. and wall street posts its biggest gain in tow months. —— two months. big tech is under the spotlight today, with leading firms summoned to the white house for a meeting on curbing violent online extremism. it comes just days after two mass shootings in the us, which left 31 people dead. the suspect in the texas shooting posted material on the controversial 8chan online message board before the attack. pressure was already mounting on tech firms after the christchurch shootings in new zealand, which were livestreamed on facebook. 51 people perished in the attack. the global internet forum to counter terrorism, set up by firms like facebook and twitter, have already pledged to do more to identify and remove extremist content and says it's rolled out a "cross

command its president trying to build the new defense into d n a ceremony at the white house today analysts predict space may become an area where future conflicts are waged many believe space command is a precursor to donald trump's plans for an entire new wing of the u.s. military called space force here is part of what trump had to say today the dangers to our country constantly evolve and so must we now if those who wish to harm the united states to seek to challenge us in the ultimate high ground of space it's going to be a whole different ball game are going to stay here on earth good washington d.c. our bureau chief there alexander phenomena she's on the story for us tonight good evening to you alexander i mean this does does sound a little bit like star wars tell me what is the difference between space command and space force. well space force is the future at least according to president trump he wants to create a totally new and potentially independent branch of the u.s. military military to oversee all military operation in space but to achieve this goal he needs congres

, one day after the white house said this was not a thing, president trump today saying his administration is looking at a new tax cut. >>> are the president's recession worries being revealed at 2020 gets closer. >>> as a new cnn poll shows joe biden cementing his top spot in the 2020 race his wife's candid moment seems to reveal the campaign's clear strategy. >>> plus gangsters stripping the jungle of gold and leaving a trail of blood behind. a cnn exclusive on how one dictator is mercilessly trying to -- [ inaudible ]. welcome to "the lead" i'm erica hill in for jake. we have breaking news in the money lead. president trump declaring the oval office moments ago he is considering a payroll tax cut. something white house aides repeatedly denied over the last 24 hours. but he's not considering it because he's worried about the economy. the president insisting that move would have nothing to do with increased fears of recession. instead use the opportunity to once again slam federal reserve chairman jerome powell. pamela brown starts us off today from the white house. >> repo

hampshire, it's a state that has historically played a key role in the race for the white house. >>> president trump is trying to talk up the economy despite mixed signals from the markets. white house officials are down playing talk of a possible recession as democrats running for the white house, they are opening a new line of attack. doug luzader has more on that from washington. >> reporter: the white house is asking for some optimism here but democrats see an opportunity. president trump preparing to are up to the white house from his vacation and diving in on the economy. >> we are doing better than any country or even area, anywhere in the would. we are doing great. our consume ser consumers is really strong. >> defending the tough nee negotiating staps with china that fueled a sell-off on wall street and reversal, desiteing tof tariffs >> a goal is the men consumers. so far it's been virtually zero. >> reporter: at risk for the president, his strong suit this national polls. when it comes to handling of the economies our most recent fox news poll put his approval at 53%. >> this curren

. i get to go first. remind me, my first time i was ever in the white house, bill clinton was president and i was a young prosecutor. i had done a lot of work on hate crimes and he invited me to introducedim when he that important bill. as i stood outside, i had never been in there before. i have the president on one side outside the east room. i have janet reno on the other. -- bandtary bland starts playing hail to the chief. i start walking in and i feel this hand on my shoulder and it says i know you're going to do great out there. when they play that song, i usually go first. that was my first time in the white house. it won't be my last. few daysent the last on a 20 county tour. after the tragedies of this weekend, it reinvigorated me. it reinvigorated me as i stood with the flag and i thought to myself, you know what? this flag is flying over el paso today and it is flying over dayton today. that is because we are one america. there are america and not two sides. there are not when the other side is the ku klux klan and there are white supremacist. there is only one side

to get to over the next 350 minutes or so, including the white house insisting the economy is not heading to recession. we'll tell you what the team may be doing behind the scenes to avoid a slowdown and what it might mean for your paycheck. >>> also, why planned parenthood is choosing to lose millions of dollars in government money rather than comply with the new trump administration rules. >>> breaking news in new york. the state attorney general, looking at it live right now, announcing a lawsuit against the white house. what's the deal? it's a suit against the administration's change in what is called the public charge rule. we're watching that for you live. we'll have more coming up. l hav! (excited squeal, giggling/panting) gotcha! (man) ah! (girl) nooooooooooooo! (man) nooooo! (girl) nooooo... (vo) quick, the quicker picker upper! bounty picks up messes quicker, and is two times more absorbent than the leading ordinary brand. (man and pirate girl) ahoy! (laughing) (vo) bounty, the quicker picker upper. since my dvt blood clot i was thinking... could there be another around

and transformed the white house into a production studio. and to do that he worked very closely with hollywood figures and madison avenue television executives and companies to navigate the new mass medium of television that ultimately really transformed american political communication during the 1950s. so this post-world war ii era is really a key moment to understand the rise of entertainment, advertising, television and hollywood in american politics because television really does drastically change the political scene during the 1950s. so the questions that i want us to think about today as we study this particular period are how does television change leadership styles? how does it change strategies of political communication and qualifications needed to succeed politically? and the key question that we're going to come back to at the end of class is does television revolutionize the american presidency, or does it build on trends that are already in place? so to get at that question we need to start by thinking about what are the trends that are already in place. does tel

the white house and president trump. and by the way another example of the failure of the white house vetting process. congressman john radcliffe, a texas republican who the president chose just a few days ago to be the next director of national intelligence. well, he was forced to withdraw his name from consideration even before he was officially nominated. sources telling cnn trump was privately voicing concerns about whether radcliffe would be confirmed and with good reason. not only were senate democrats lining up to oppose his nomination but one republican senate source told cnn there was no support for radcliffe on their side of the aisle either. there were concerns about his lack of national security experience and questions about whether he'd exaggerated his professional background. but incredibly president trump ignored those concerns at least publicly. instead blaming radcliffe's withdrawal on his target, the media. and stories that were being reported. >> i said you want to go through this for two or three months or would you want me to maybe do something else? and he thought about

gilroy, california, shooter. >>> for more than a year white house officials rejected -- that's right, they rejected efforts by the department of homeland security to make combating domestic terrorism including threats from white supremacists a high priority. one source tells cnn the trump administration wanted to focus solely on the jihadist threat. cnn's justice correspondent jessica snider joins me now. what's amazing about this, first of all it's department of homeland security run by a trump appointee here and it's based on numbers because they saw this being a growing problem and the trump administration said we don't want to focus on it. >> they did. and we heard a few weeks go from the fbi director chris wray it's a growing problem. and really what we've learned over the past year dhs officials have battled with the white house to really recognize this growing threat of domestic terrorism. this is coming from several former and current senior administration officials. this is what they're telling jake tapper. and while dhs officials wanted to surge these resources to combat th

the economy. on monday "the washington post" reported that the white house was considering cutting payroll tax to temporarily increase americans' take home pay and in turn goose consumer spending. >> according to "the new york post" the talks are still in the early stages and included a range of other tax breaks. shortly after the story broke a white house official responded, quote, as larry kudlow said yesterday more tax cuts for the american people are certainly on the table but cutting payroll taxes is not something under consideration at this time. >> joining us now cnbc editor at large john harwood and "l.a. times" white house reporter eli stoke els. john to you first. larry kudlow in the past specifically 2011 was highly critical of the payroll tax, saying it didn't work. whether it is the payroll tax or any other tax cut why should we believe it? the president was out there just before the midterm saying get ready for a middle class tax cut. we never saw it. why do we think we'll actually see one now? >> we don't. we have a trillion dollar deficit. the administration has ver

president has been briefed on the situation in midland, texas. the white house is monitoring the situation. i believe we have james gagliano with us. given that the white house has been informed, does that give you any idea about how serious the situation is? >> absolutely. ana, i cannot imagine that the department of homeland security is not all over this. the fact that each of these incidents that i just mentioned, the one in california, el paso, texas, and ohio, now this one. whether or not they're interlinked or not, it still shows a pattern here of these incidents that involve either one or two people, and ana, i can only describe it this way, these type of situations like this where somebody takes a weapon and then randomly and indiscriminately shoots people, it's the definition of terror whether or not we can call it terrorism or not and i got to be careful here because police are trying to right now sort through what the motive is because that helps them in the response to

. >>> speaking of which, there are reports tonight that white house aides are looking at a payroll tax cut to help offset a weaker ecomy. this is big push to ease fears of a possible recession. eamon rsja reports tonight from the white house. >> reporter: the white house went into full messaging this weekend to try to push back j the idea that there's a recession comint around the corner. call it all the president's ecomic menace the economic team here swarmed the broadcast and cable nets with their upbeat and economic message. between them lar kudlow and trade advisor peter navarro r appeared on f television networks in two days in the wake of an extreme volatile week on wall street. >> i'll tell you what. i don't see a recession. we had some blockbuster retail sales conmer numbers towards the back end of last week. really blockbuster numbers. >> reporter:ro navisputed the widely held idea that the yield curve inverted. >> technically we did not have a yield curve inversion. an inverted yield curve means a big spread. >> reporter: president trump said it's not the white house at's limitin

china trade war and the tortured white house clarification. for inside and analysis, we have all of these folks right here, a number of correspondents and analysts in place for us. we'll begin with bill neely, our global correspondent on the ground in france. bill, it's a big deal this ir iranian plane's arrival. who was in it? >> the g7, the plane landing about three hours ago. he's been in talks with the french foreign minister. i say gate crash, but the french know about it. macron has been working quite hard over the last few weeks talking on the phone to iran's president and, indeed, directly to the foreign minister himself. what he wants to do according to statement from the presidency a short while ago is to deescalate the tensions between washington and tehran. and the iranian foreign ministry saying the foreign minister will not be having any discussions or negotiations with the american delegation. what's it all about? president macron sees a narrow window. he wants to create space so that the iran nuclear deal which europe supports and the united states has pulled out of,

you just heard. kaitlin collins is at the white house for us. there seems to be a bit of a mixup here. what can you tell us? >> reporter: the president is claiming that he has strong congressional support on strengthening these background checks, something he mentioned multiple times as he spoke with reporters before leaving the white house and cited conversations that he'd had not only with democrats like nancy pelosi and chuck schumer but going back to mitch mcconnell who in a radio interview just yesterday said he was not going to call the senate back despite those calls from dem rats to pass that universal background checks bill that has already passed the house but that republicans have voiced pretty fierce opposition to. now, mitch mcconnell yesterday did sound a little more open than we've heard him in the past when he's been opposed to any background checks expansion. he did sound open to that yesterday, but as his office noted after the president's remarks today, he did not endorse any kind of specific legislation there. although they are facing pressure, it's still uncl

actual plans to be presented by this white house in terms of gun control measures? >> at the moment there seems to be a few of them. white house officials have prepared a range of options for president trump to consider. he's been briefed on those options, but there's no clear timetable for rolling out those gun control proposals, although white house officials do say that they aim to have something ready to go by the time congress comes back from their august recess. that of course is fast approaching. president trump as you mentioned, he's been all over the map when it comes to gun control measures in the wake of theback-to-back mass shootings. behind closed doors, he's been cooling to the idea of tougher background checks, because lawmakers and the nra and allies have been telling him he could actively hurt himself with his base and score few political points where he were to back the expansive background checks. the white house issued a veto threat for a house democratic bill that contained those back in february. but yesterday as he was leaving the white house, president trump then t

app and all over social media. thank you for watching. "deadline: white house" with nicolle wallace starts right now. >>> hi, eaveryone, it's 4:00 in the new york. it turns out there is something worse for donald trump's political brand than the mueller probe, which he described as a cloud hanging over his presidency. it turns out being under investigation for including with russia is more popular than wittingly or unwittingly tanking the economy with loose and erratic tweets about a trade war with china and public displays of behavior ranging from weird to brutish in what "the washington post" aaron blake described as donald trump's worst poll, the brand-new quinnipiac poll shows donald trump getting wiped out in a head-to-head race against joe biden. if the election were held today, joe biden would get 54% of the vote to donald trump's 38%. the news goes from bad to worse for the president. bernie sanders beats donald trump 353% to 39%, elizabeth warren 52% to 40%, kamala harris, 51% to 40%, and mayor pete buttigieg beats him too, 49% to 40%. president trump reacted to the polls w

champion of the nra and the second amendment. >> you have a true friend and champion in the white house. no longer will federal agencies be coming after law abiding gun owners. [ cheers ] no longer will the government be trying to undermine your rights and your freedoms as americans. your second amendment rights are under siege, but they will never ever be under siege as long as i'm your president. there's no bigger fan of the nra and these guys are great patriots. they're great people and they want to do something. they're going to do something. don't worry about the nra. they're on our side. half of you are so afraid of the nra. there's nothing to be afraid of. >> today's big question is this. will the president retreat on gun control this time as well? joining me to talk about this, white house correspondent hans nichols. political white house reporter gaby orr and aaron blake. hans, let me pick up on that last theme. the president said remarkably similar things about gun control last year after the parkland shooting. we had some of that in our montage that we played. in fact, here's the

shooting's victims remain in critical condition in the icu. oddly, the president and the white house communication team tried to hype this hospital visit in el paso today as if it was like a poll or a rally or something. the white house communications team today tweeting about how they thought everybody they saw at the hospital was very pro-trump and very happy to see president trump there. the president literally came out to talk to reporters in el paso about how wonderful he thought it was that everybody in the hospital loved him so much. and had so much respect for him as president. that was his remarks. those were his remarks to the assembled press about what was important about that hospital visit. the president talking about how much people there liked him. it was just truly a very strange display from the president after this hospital visit in el paso today. just down the street from that hospital in el paso's washington park, this was the scene today. >> trump is responsible and he's part of the problem! he's not welcome! >> we live in a country where we have a president who demonizes comm

committee. this is bloomberg. ♪ emily: the white house close the week holding a summit with various tech associations and companies. the goal? trying to find ways to fight online extremism. the white house press secretary tweeted that the conversation focused on how technology could be leveraged to identify potential threats. he added, we urge social media companies to continue their efforts to address violent extremism without compromising free speech. i would like to welcome congressman bennie thompson. he is the chair of the house homeland security committee. he joins us on the phone from mississippi. congressman thompson, how productive do you think a meeting like this could be between the white house and these companies in this climate? >> well, i think it's very difficult. first of all, you need all the stakeholders there. you have to have members of congress. you have to have the companies. you have to have advocates who monitor systems. we have to have all the players in the room. i just hope the white house is not trying to give the impression that they are concerned with i