Ross Contradicts Navarro on Country Exclusions, Tells Todd “We’ll See”
Ross on Trump Tariff Announcement: “I Don’t Know Why Anybody Should’ve Been So Shocked”
EXCLUSIVE: Obama Chief of Staff Says Administration’s Russia Response Was “Watered Down on the Insistence of Mitch McConnell”
EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Angus King (I-Maine): “There is Concern” About Tariff Decision
EXCLUSIVE: Putin Tells Megyn Kelly He Will “Never, Never” Extradite the 13 Indicted Russian Nationals to U.S.
MARCH 4, 2018 – When asked by “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd if President Donald Trump will reverse his controversial tariff announcement this week, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross wouldn’t commit: “Whatever his final decision is is what will happen.”
“The president has announced that this will happen this week. I have no reason to think otherwise,” Ross said. “The markets started recovering on Friday as it began to adjust to the realities that this is not the end of the world,” when asked if the decision will hold on Monday should the markets continue to be affected.
The secretary also addressed the timing of the announcement: “It wasn’t sudden,” he said, adding: “With a whole year of preparation, I don’t know why anybody should’ve been so shocked.”
Contrary to White House trade adviser Peter Navarro confirming “there will be no country exclusions,” Ross told Chuck: “We’ll see. The president makes the decisions.” Watch the full interview.
Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), in an exclusive interview, addressed the tariff announcement: “You can’t make a change of this significance and assume that nothing else is going to happen as a result.” He added: “There is a concern. This is a very, very important decision and it’s one that could have long-term ramifications. And it was announced in this kind of shorthand way.”
On the Senate Intelligence Committee’s Russia investigation, King said it’s “worlds apart” from the House’s investigation and the “hardest part and the most contentious part, frankly, is the final piece, which is … to talk about connections between the Trump campaign and officials surrounding the president with, with foreign entities leading up to the election and after.” Watch the full interview.
In an exclusive interview, Denis McDonough, White House chief of staff to President Barack Obama, told Todd, “yes,” the administration’s response to Russia’s election interference “was watered down on the insistence of Mitch McConnell.” McDonough also said that he believes he “sounded the alarm enough” on Russia. Watch the full interview.
The broadcast also aired an excerpt from NBC News’ Megyn Kelly’s exclusive sit-down interview in Russia with President Putin, in which he does not deny that Russians and Russian companies were involved in 2016 election interference but says there was no Russian government involvement. “I know that they do not represent the Russian state, the Russian authorities. What they did specifically, I have no idea. I do not know what they were guided by,” said Putin. When asked if he would extradite the 13 indicted Russian nationals to the United States, Putin told Kelly: “Never, never. Russia does not extradite its citizens to anyone, just like the United States.” Watch the exchange. More of the interview to come in the days ahead.
NBC News’ Tom Brokaw and Katy Tur, Republican strategist Al Cardenas and presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin joined this morning’s roundtable to discuss the week in politics, with Tur noting that “the Mueller headlines this week alone were staggering.”
Read the full transcript of this morning’s “Meet the Press” on MeetThePress.com.
For more from moderator Chuck Todd throughout the week, sign up for the “First Read” newsletter, and subscribe to “1947: The Meet The Press Podcast” for on-demand interviews.
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