factor. >> matt miller, clint watts, thank you both. we'll be watching the manafort story play out today. >> no doubt. willie, final thoughts on is in the bat-- on "the bachelor"? that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks it up right now. >> thanks, joe, thanks, mika, hi there. i'm stephanie ruhle. we start with access denied. jared kushner loses his top security clearances, sparking questions on how exactly he can do his job. >> he's effectively in the same status as the people who work in the white house kitchen or mow the lawn. >> work in the white house kitchen, wow. hope hicks' appearance before the house intel committee drawing mixed reactions. >> this is not executive privilege. this is executive stonewalling.

>> i think she's been very forthright and open to all the questions we have. pump up the volume on this. unloading. dig's dick's sporting goods will stop selling assault rifles, sending a clear message to congress, hey, boys and girls, thoughts and prayers are not enough. and the slow, slow road to recovery. students return to classes at marjory stoneman douglas high school. >> i do want to go back, because staying home would be letting fear win. >> those kids are amazing. we begin today with the president's son-in-law out of the loop when it comes to america's most classified information. chief of staff john kelly was the one who made the call with the president's blessing. i have a great team here to break all of it down. but first i want to explain exactly what happened and what it means. for starters, jared kushner is not alone here. dozens of people working at the white house may have seen their security clearance downgraded

from top secret to just secret. that means materials with the most classified information will now be off limits. for kushner, that includes the pretty's daily brief, the most classified document trump sees, assuming he actually looks at it. jared's security clearance had been in limbo for more than a year in large part because of issues stemming from his family's financial empire and his contacts overseas. remember, jared kushner, not just has a complicated business. he had to change his federal disclosure forms multiple times because he, quote, inadvertently omitted millions of dollars in assets and forgot to include more than 100 foreign contacts. those contacts have long been a source of concern in the white house and for good reason. today "the washington post" reports officials in at least four countries, china, israel, mexico, and the uae, talked about ways to, quote, manipulate the president's son-in-law by taking advantage of his complex

business arrangements, financial difficulties, and lack of foreign policy experience. remember, jared's family has a massive real estate empire, and an even bigger debt burden. 666 fifth avenue, a building they have here in new york, is crippled with debt. they need to find an outside investor that will most likely be a foreign investor. and where do those foreign investors come from? places like the uae, qatar, israel, russia, and china. it's pretty complicated. it's bring in nbc's kristen welker live from the white house. kristen, officials say this will not impact jared kushner's ability to do work for the president. the president could declassify info any time he wants. but is it going to change the kind of work he's doing? he's got a big portfolio. >> reporter: well, the white house says it won't, steph. but let me just give you the reality check here. i spoke to a senior administration official overnight who said that the president still has full confidence in his son-in-law to

carry out the broad portfolio that he has been given. steph, remember, part of that portfolio is dealing with the middle east. and in the statement that john kelly released last week when he first announced that these interim security clearances would likely be revoked, he said that jared kushner will continue to follow through with his work in terms of trying to get middle east peace. but the reality is, steph, when you talk to experts, they say it's going to be difficult for kushner to have the same type of information, and that could potentially hinder his effectiveness. now, let's just take a look at the various different levels of security clearance to, again, understand what we're talking about. top secret, if that intelligence is disclosed, it could cause grave damage. secret, which is what jared kushner now has, means that the intel could cause serious damage if it were to be disclosed. then confidential means the intelligence could cause some damage. so jared kushner not seeing that top level, again, some experts

say could be problematic moving forward. it means that he likely won't be able to sit in on the presidential daily brief. it means that he won't have the same amount of information that a number of his counterparts would have, steph, in other countries. it's important to stress, though, ultimately president trump gets to make a decision about who sees what. could he override this in some instances? he could, but again, experts stress, that would be difficult. so this is a major step back for jared kushner, one of the president's closest advisers who has a very broad portfolio here at the white house, steph. >> this portfolio, he's got china, peace in the middle east, office of innovation, and he's been very clear that criminal justice reform is something he's passionate about. but the thing that is the most for jared kushner is humiliating. the president didn't have to sign off on this. we know that john kelly has had somewhat of a contention relationship with jared and

ivanka. some people in the white house, i know from my sources, feel that jared and ivanka have overstepped. the president could decide to share whatever information he wants to with jared kushner, but within the white house and outside, this is clearly embarrassing. i want to bring my panel in, johnathan allen, nbc's national political reporter. matt welch, editor at large for "the reason," and jonathan capehart, an opinion writer for "the washington post." johnathan allen, does this actually mean anything practically speaking? jump can declassify whatever he wants. >> right. probably not, stephanie. i think you hit the nail on the head with what you just sailed there. there's no penalty for the president to share information with jared kushner, he can give him that information. you're absolutely right that it's humiliating. it sort of highlights again the incredible anomaly of jared kushner's role in this administration, a member of the

president's only family and somebody who has never been through these vetting processes before. most people who would be doing the types of work that jared kushner is doing internationally would have been confirmed by the senate before or at the very least held jobs in an administration before that required them to be vetted as political appointees. there are any number of things that could be entanglements for him in terms of business, all the way down to personal behavior. i'm not saying that's part of this vetting failure. i'm just saying there are a lot of things that can snag a potential nominee or somebody trying to get this clearance. >> we have to remember, jared has never worked for anyone except his family and his family is a private business. so he's never been in a position or accountability to employees, customers, or a board. it's a family business, he only had to answer to his dad. this stood out to me. quote, officials in the white house were concerned that

kushner was naive and being tricked in conversations with foreign officials, some of whom said they wanted to deal only with kushner directly and not more experienced personnel, said one former white house official. and of course publicly john kelly says he has, quote, full confidence in kushner's ability to handle foreign relations policy. the people i speak to in the white house have said over and over, the biggest risk to jared kushner is he doesn't know what he doesn't know, and that is danger. >> right. yes. you're answering your own question. he doesn't know what he doesn't know. and yet he is the son-in-law of the president of the united states. and i think you said in your intro the most important thing i think that people need to remember. donald trump is not the only real estate magnate in the white house. jared kushner and the kushner family, they have significant real estate holdings. >> and they're crippled with debt. >> yes, because of 666 fifth avenue, just around the corner from here. there's a huge balloon payment

coming up and he's been looking for financing. the family has been looking for financing for years now and can't get it. in "the washington post" story it talks about the moment jared went into the white house, the financing dried up. so it makes sense that foreign powers would try to only talk to -- >> let's make something clear. nobody was lining up to finance 666 before that either. >> right. now it's exponentially more difficult. it would make sense that china, uae, israel, mexico, would all want to try to talk to jared kushner with no foreign policy professionals around, because he doesn't know what he doesn't know, he hasn't been in politics, he doesn't know anything. so what better avenue to manipulate the united states than through this person? >> we do need to remind our audience, when we talk about financing and foreign policy, remember early on in the administration, jared kushner's sister, who is part of the family business, and i believe jared's portion of the business, he divested or has in a trust

run by his sister and her husband. she went on a road show throughout china trying to raise money for a building they're working on in new jersey, and in it, had a powerpoint presentation and in that powerpoint presentation had a picture of her brother jared in his senior position in the white house. i'm pretty sure she wasn't simply offering tours of the rose garden, without a doubt that was an important news story and one we can't forget about. matt, h.r. mcmaster, president trump's national security adviser, learned that kushner had contact with foreign officials that he didn't coordinate through the national security council or officially report. special counsel robert mueller is asking about the protocol that jared kushner used. it's clear he had meetings and didn't report on them after. >> it shows there's two different turf wars that jared kushner is on the receiving end of right now. there's the preexisting one with john kelly and steve bannon,

different centers of power within the white house, who has access to the president. then there's the foreign policy turf war. no one really knows who runs u.s. foreign policy right now, which is kind of a detail. is it rex tillerson? kind of, kind of not. is it nikki haley? or is it jared kushner? h.r. mcmaster says, i'm the head of national security, i should have something to do with what's going on here. the words "naive" and "manipulate," which flash out to the trump family when they're watching the television all day long, this came from h.r. mcmaster. clearly he was shocked and appalled to see that jared kushner had been meeting with people he didn't even know about. this became part of his daily briefing. this clearly came from mcmaster's office even though he's saying, we've kissed and are playing nicely now. >> i don't have time to get to the axios piece that says that

jarvanka and john kelly are in a death match. i know someone who would like that to be true, and that's steve bannon, who is clearly watching this, possibly promoting it while eating popcorn and laughing. let's turn to the major move by dick's sporting goods. turn up the volume for this because this is a very big move. the nation's largest sporting goods retailer is taking a bold stance, the company will medial stop selling assault rifles. dick's says it will also end sales of high capacity magazines and it will not sell any gun to anyone under 21 years old. here is ceo and chairman ed stack explaining the company's decision. >> as we looked at what happened down in parkland, and we were so disturbed and saddened by what happened, we felt we really needed to do something. so we've decided not to sell these assault weapons any longer in any of our stories. >> this comes of course as

students of marjory stoneman douglas high school returned to class for the first day since the mass shooting two weeks ago. nbc's tammy leitner joins me now from parkland, florida. tammy, give us the latest from parkland. i'm guessing a lot of students will be going out to dick's. >> reporter: yeah, stephanie, school started 90 minutes ago. teachers are trying to ease the students back in today. they're having a short day, only about four hours. not a lot of schoolwork will be done today. this is really about reuniting the kids, reuniting the students together, reuniting them with their teachers. not a lot of schoolwork will be done. there are going to be grief counselors on hand, emotional support dogs, really just about bringing the kids together and starting that healing process, stephanie. >> what is fueling sort of the students here? you would think this is a time, it would be so hard for them to go back to school.

>> reporter: yeah, there's no doubt this is going to be a tough day. everywhere these kids look, there are reminders of this shooting that happened just two weeks ago. as they walk into the campus, there are flowers and signs and pictur pictures. there are going to be a lot of empty desks for the kids killed in the shooting. there will be flowers on those desks, i'm told. also one of the most visible reminders is the intense security presence here. there will be armed police officers, security officers at every entrance and exit here at the school. we talked to the kids about this. let's go ahead and listen to what they had to say. >> i feel like i'm on an army base with all the cops and the media is here, and it's non-normal at all. i do feel really safe, seeing everyone here. but i have a couple of classes in the freshman building, but luckily we are not going back in

there. still, it's so overwhelming. >> reporter: look, all of the kids that we talked about, they say they're uncertain what the rest of the school year looks like. the one thing they did say is they all want to be back here at school, they want to get on with their lives, stephanie. >> that they will. all right, tammy, thank you. i want to talk more about dick's. this is a huge deal. we've seen companies in the last few days say they'll end their partnership or the nra discount. this is the first company that has made a move that's going to directly impact their bottom line in a negative way. they also could lose customers. this is a pittsburgh-based company, trump country, and they've got loyal customers who might not like this. so what kind of statement, what kind of move do you think this is? >> they did this before, after newtown. and they made it sort of temporary. as soon as people stopped paying attention to that, they reversed it. they've said this time it's more serious, i think it's more widespread in scope.

so it is a significant move. i think their customer base will just go around them and buy guns. this is what happens when you ban any type of gun or clip or whatever, people get around of existing regulations as it stands. but we're seeing this week something we haven't seen in the wake of almost any other shooting, mass shooting, is that people on the gun side of the equation are finding areas to wiggle. republicans are suggesting -- >> ed stack is a republican. >> donald trump has said a couple of times this week in the white house, hey, look, where is the nra going to go, they have to go to me, don't be afraid of them. he's talking about it trying to raise the age limit to buy certain types of guns to age 21, and the nra aren't in favor of that at all. we're seeing for the first time that kind of popular pressure and feeling right now is affecting the way normally staunch gun rights people are looking at the gun issue.

>> dick's is making a cultural move here. ed stack said as soon as they heard about the shooting, the company went through their retail efforts and saw nikolas cruz, the shooter in parkland, did buy a gun, not an assault rifle, from a dick's. it wasn't the gun used in the massacre. he said, it came to us we could have been part of this story. we said, we don't want to be part of this any longer. this is difficult, for ceos across the board, in the charlottesville riots, you saw the rioters wearing adidas and polo, and those companies are saying, what are we associating ourselves with? >> what we're seeing is business has a conscious. ed stack saw he was a part of something, unwittingly, that he didn't want to be a part of. and i think more importantly, and i think he said this in this

interview, that those kids were being so brave in speaking up and speaking out, within minutes or hours of the situation, of the massacre, and haven't let up. so, you know, gun owners and folks who want to buy guns, they can go around dick's sporting goods, that's fine. but the fact that ed stack and dick's sporting goods have stood up and taken a stand, we'll see if they hold to it, because as you pointed out, after newtown -- >> in newtown they said it was temporary. here they said they're doing it indefinitely. >> right. i think what's happening now, ed stack talked about it and we've been seeing it now for more than a week, these kids are not having it. these kids are speaking up in ways that -- i mean, when i was 15, 16, 17 years old, i don't think i could have stood up in front of a television camera and spoken so articulately about something so painful, about something so tragic that i had

experienced. and yet here are these kids who are pushing, pushing hard. the nra has never faced this kind of opposition before and i'll go out on a limb and say the nra is going to lose this fight. >> think about what this means for members of congress. members of congress have talked a big game. they haven't done much, because this could affect them monetarily. guess what, ed stack just did something that could certainly affect him monetarily and he didn't care. so congress, what are you going to do? up next, white house communications director hope hicks answers questions or at least sits there for nine hours yesterday. this as any minute now former trump campaign manager paul manafort will be arraigned. admiral mike rogers testified to the senate armed services committee, are you ready for this, that the u.s. is not doing enough to stop russian hacking, and the president has not directed him to take any, zero, none, measures to change that.

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welcome back, i'm stephanie ruhle. you're watching msnbc. there are not one, not two, but three new bombshells in the russia investigation this morning. first, just moments ago, former trump campaign manager paul manafort arrived in federal court in d.c. where he is set to be arraigned again in just a few moments. second, a federal court in virginia has granted a request by special counsel mueller to dismiss, that's right, dismiss more than 20 charges brought against former trump campaign associate rick gates as part of his plea deal. what does that mean? gates now working for mueller. third, white house communications director hope hicks reportedly refusing to answer some of the questions by the house intelligence committee tuesday. "the new york times" reports she said her work for president trump occasionally requires, that's the word that sticks out to me, requires her to tell, quote, white lies." hope hicks, in case you're watching, here in the united states, in a free country,

absolutely no one can require you to lie. it's a choice. joining me now, seth waxman is the former u.s. solicitor general under president clinton, and chuck rosenberg, msnbc contributor, former u.s. attorney and senior fbi official. these two gentlemen are serious business. seth, you first. hope hicks and her white lies. "the new york times" says she insisted she had not lied about matters material to the 2016 presidential election. what do you think about that? a little lie here, a little lie there, no biggie? >> yeah, so first, i wasn't the sli solicitor general, i was the federal prosecutor here in d.c. in any event, the way she characterizes her lies are self-serving. bob mueller has already met with her once for a period of hours.

when i hear that, if i'm bob mueller, i have to bring her back now and find out which of those things she talked about were white lies or real lies or whatever way i want to characterize it since i'm the prosecutor leading the investigation. >> large and small, seth, no one is required to lie. >> absolutely right, of course she wasn't under oath in front of bob mueller, but there are federal agents in the room. that's how martha stewart went to jail, she lied to federal prosecutors. if she says she gave white lies are and some of those white lies were to bob mueller, she could be in trouble. >> exactly right, that's what martha stewart went to jail for. chuck, the white house ordered her not to answer questions about her time in the white house. apparently she did not exert executive privilege like steve

bannon did. walk me through what that means. does it end in a subpoena? >> it might end in a subpoena, we'll see if congressional investigators have any interest in putting some teeth behind their demands. i can tell you this, stephanie, it's not going to fly in front of bob mueller. there's big team pitching and little team pitching. whatever nonsense they're pulling in front of the house investigators isn't going to fly in front of mueller. >> little white lies aren't cute with bob mueller. seth, mueller's request to dismiss 20 charges against rick gates, that's been granted by a federal court in virginia as part of the plea deal. so what does gates have that's so valuable? >> well, he has a ten-year career with paul manafort, know of their relationship intimately. i would almost assume and can be certain that bob mueller has e-mails, bank records, other documents, and now rick gates as a cooperator can breathe life

into those documents for bob mueller, walk him through that relationship, tell him where the bodies are buried, and frankly, that is a huge get for bob mueller, to try to flip one of the three key people in my opinion he's trying to flip, paul manafort, don junior, and jared kushner. he gets one of those three people, he's right there in the room in trump tower and everything else key to that 2016 election. >> yikes. if rick gates is breathing life into those documents, could it be a death sentence for someone el else? could we see paul manafort, chuck, change his tune? >> most folks charged in federal court end up convicted one way or the other. most of those end up convicted because they plead guilty. if you read the indictments in which gates and manafort have been charged together, and you accept them as true, and i do, then you see that gates has a ton of stuff on manafort.

so i think seth is exactly right, i think gates could be really important in other aspects of the case, but frankly, if nothing else, if nothing else, he absolutely can stick it to manafort because he knows everything manafort did because they did it together. >> they did it together. it's certainly going to be a very busy day in washington in federal court. gentlemen, thank you so much. i know you'll be focused on this and so will we. up next, we told you earlier that dick's sporting goods has pulled assault style rifles from their shelves. so companies are responding on guns. will congress? and a woman who represents sandy hook, that's newtown, connecticut, congressman liz este, joins me hours before she meets with president trump.

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you didn't cut off the light. the teachers, they would call us the energy patrol. so they would be like, here they come, turn off your lights! those three young ladies were teaching the whole school about energy efficiency. we actually saved $50,000. and that's just one school, two semesters, three girls. together, we're building a better california. welcome back. i'm stephanie ruhle. a small group of lawmakers are scheduled to meet with president trump today. this move is the latest in congressional efforts to make any possible progress on gun control legislation. democratic congresswoman elizabeth esty of connecticut will be in that meeting.

she's also a member of the problem solvers caucus. congresswoman, this issue is so important to you. you know what the people of newtown have gone through. i want to get your reaction to the stance that dick's sporting goods has taken, because they're making a move that will directly impact their bottom line. >> absolutely, and i'm really proud of them. i think it's an important acknowledgement of the power of these students. young people stopped the vietnam war. when i was in college, young people changed the u.s. policy towards south africa. and i really believe that these students can be a voice for change in the halls of congress and all across this country. >> we should note that while it could affect their bottom line, they won't be selling assault style rifles, dick's stock is already up a bit this morning. they're possibly making a brand move, a cultural move, because they've got these teenagers, millenials, who are making lifelong brand affiliations and have made a decision that these

things matter. you'll be meeting with president trump today. what do you hope to hear from him, realistically? we know what we've heard so far. >> i hope to hear consistency and i hope to hear leadership. >> well, you aren't going to get consistency, we haven't heard that so far. >> i know, but he needs to lean in and press the republican leadership. let's be clear, what's been deadlocked in congress is the republican leadership has refused to call up common sense legislation, background checks or anything else. we have an opportunity here now with the leadership of these students and a president who is finally attuned to media attention. he understands that these kids have the attention of the american people. and face it, gun owners are parents too. and it's pretty hard to look your teenager in the eye and say you're unwilling to do anything to help them. i hope the president is thinking about that and steps in to challenge and do the tough stuff. >> it would be extraordinary. there's a lot of bills floating

around, though. and it's somewhat confusing. do you think there's one clear bill that people could get together on and get behind? because there's a lot out there. >> there are a lot. i'll tell you the top two that i think would very much appeal to the president, are common sense, and could make a meaningful difference right away. one is background checks on every single gun sale. closing that gun show loophole. every single gun that's sold has to go through a background check. you've got a ton of bipartisan support on that. it would pass. it would pass the house if called up today. if they hadn't cancelled votes, because i think they're afraid of these kids. the other one actually has to do with these extreme risk orders. what the president has referred to as the red flags. >> the eros. >> exactly. gvros, the gun violence restraining orders. that would give law enforcement the authority, the power to take guns away from people like the shooter in florida. in florida, they had no authority to do that. it would also help save the

lives of her veterans. there are 20 veterans who commit suicide a day, most of them with their service weapons. a lot of time family members and friends are aware that this veteran is at risk. in most states they don't have any authority, there's nobody they can go to who can do anything about this. that's why i'm championing that bill as well. >> we're in a situation where people saw something, they said something, and they didn't have the law on their side to do anything. i hope you have a productive meeting with the president today. >> i hope so too. up next, fights and arrests. as a building owner tries to take the trump name off his property in panama. you have got to see this story to believe it. we've seen the trump name taken off of buildings in new york city. but not with so much dramatics.

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welcome back. time for my favorite part of the show. money, power, politics. drama unfolding at a trump property in panama. "the washington post" reports a majority owner of a hotel tried to fire the trump organization employees. you must check out this video. put your coffee down. it captures the moment. opposing security guards confronted each other, yelling "get out, get out, get out of my space." amazing. i want to bring in, a special debut to our show, msnbc's new

political analyst and reporter for "the washington post," david farenthold, who co-wrote this story. david, welcome aboard. i'm so glad you're leading with a story this bizarre. your colleagues obtained this video. what in the world is going on? >> it is a little complicated. so donald trump has his name on this hotel in panama city, it's the only trump hotel in latin america. trump doesn't own it, he just has a contract to run it. the guy who does own it, he's decided that the hotel is losing money, it's losing customers. it's got empty rooms. he blames the trumps for what he says is bad management and for a toxic brand in latin america. he decided to show up and kick the trumps out, end their contract many, many years before it's supposed to end. that's what set this all off. there's been this ldays-long standoff that's turning more

confrontational as the trump people refuse to leave. >> he strolled over to the piano? >> this is one of the more bizarre pieces of the story. they wouldn't let the owner into his own hotel, he couldn't even get a room. the thing to do to show how defiant he was was to play a tune on the piano. he comes back with the police, the police arrest one of trump's employees, to celebrate he sat down at the piano again and played a happier song. >> take the bizarreness out of this. what do we know about the dispute and what's at stake? could the trump white house put pressure, given that he is the president of the united states? >> that's what's truly interesting here, the owner has asked several arms of the government of panama,

prosecutors, justice of the peace, to assert his rights in this case and kick the trump people out. this is the government of panama working against the private interests of trump who manages the hotel. we've seen no evidence so far that the white house is putting pressure on panama. but there is that potential. this is the kind of thing that people were concerned about, that you might have a case where the president's private business was being investigated by a private government. here it is, we'll see how it plays out. >> the temptation would surely be there if you were a part of the trump organization. the problem is with reporters like you continuing to focus on it, it will be very difficult for them to try to maneuver their way through this. >> thank you. we'll see. >> we'll see. up next, another story in money, power, politics. you must pay attention to this.

hud secretary ben carson, remember i talked about his son possibly using his father's office to advance his business? carson reportedly spent 31,000 bucks on a new dining room set for his office while his department faces massive budget cuts. remember, housing and urban development. raising serious questions, like why exactly did he need a dining room set for his office? how do you chase what you love with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis?

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in a double money, power, politics, the administration has touted itself as being responsible stewards of your tax dollars. does a $31,000 dining room spent qualify as money well spent? housing and urban development secretary ben carson is under serious fire for reportedly purchasing lavish items for his office. "the new york times" says the agency spent 31,000 bucks late last year on a custom hardwood table, chairs, and a hutch for carson's office. that purchase came at the exact time we heard about plans to slash hud's programs for the homeless, the elderly, and the poor. ready for this number? by more than 6.8 billion, with a

"b," dollars. my panel back with me, john wells, jonathan responded cars quote, didn't foe the table was purchased but do foe the cost was too steep and does not intend to return it custom made is that physically prudent? >> no it's not. it's insane. so what he didn't know, he's the secretary of hud, a purchase that big should have gone to his desk, he should have said no, 100% this is not going done, do not do this. and the fact he's not going to return it, it's just galling. i'm sure there are people out there watching who are seriously offended and probably irate. >> the president might be. >> okay we'll see about that. >> he might be. >> he might be but i doubt it.

these are folks who ran saying they were going to be fiscal stewarts that they know what they're doing and they're fwin to run the gust the way they run the business. >> i don't doubt it, i'm not saying president trump's going to comment. i cannot imagine he's going to defend ben carson. he dechbds no one. hud, not just saying ben carson didn't foe but they didn't seek congressional approval for this purchase even though federal lausman dates lawmakers that quote, furnish and redecorate if the total cost is more than 5,$000. >> it's explanations is great, it's not for the department head it's for the -- >> who are the building. so the whole building's going to be using that? >> this is a dinning roam set in his office. there are other things that are troubling about this. one is there's a woman who's

filed a grievance. >> a whistle blower. >> who said she was repeatedly asked to look for ways to get around that $5 thou. >> by ben carson's wife. it's candy who said we need more money to redecorate this office and to look for ways around the law. and remember, he's got his family all over that office. his daughter-in-law has got a $500,000 consulting gig. she just got that, nobody else was up for the job. >> and when the guardian first broke the story and said, hey are you guying spending a bunch of money, no, that's inaccurate. the $6.8 billion that's a number that's the white house's budge. that's not going to pass the budget. ben carson has submitted a budget that increases spending by hud by 1%, that's the thing

that's gung to get passed. >> okay, but even if it's fictional. you have elected officials and the idea is trust that they are putting country first. wen you're floating around budget cuts and dropping 38 grand on a living room set. hud has agreed to spend $165 for lounge furniture. lounge furniture, homeless shelters are their business not lounge furniture. >> it seems as though hud and secretary carson is following the lead of the white house. an administration that doesn't care about custom or tradition, wen it comes to hud, doesn't care about the law, so much so, as matte just said, they were looking for ways to fete around regulation and laws that would require them to report to congress what they're doing to get approval. this is something i think should outrage every american. laws are in place for a reason,

there are customs and traditions if place for a reason. not just so they can be good stwaurds of the american people's tax money, but also so that the government runs well. people send their tax money in, one buzz they have to, that money is supposed to go to help them, not create furniture for -- >> $31,000. i believe $30,000 is the starting salary of teachers in west virginia. teachers who have now been picketing for four days because they're forced to be on government assistance. they actually just won. glad to hear there was progress there. quickly before we go, mat, if he ways in what do you think the president's going to say? let's remember we've seen other members lose their job after taking private flights. >> he has been critical when this has happened in the past. i would be surprised to see a critical comment. i don't think it'll rise to the

level of getting rid of ben carson. >> we'll find out. up next, voter registration systems if seven states compromised by russian covert op tufts before the '16 election. was your state on the list? president trump hasn't given any directive to address these issues going forward. how come? so that's the idea. what do you think? i don't like it. oh. nuh uh. yeah. ahhhhh. mm-mm. oh. yeah.

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there's always good news somewhere. around these parts we think good news rules. today we are talking about the one, the only, one of my favorites, the amazing dolly part ton. you know her as a singer song writer and actress. she's spent the last 20 years giving away free books to young kids around the world, as part of a nonprofit she started called imagination library. on tuesday she donated her 100 million book given it away to congress. she started the library honoring her father who never learned to read or write. what an amazing legacy. dolly parton, extraordinary woman. that wraps up this hour, i'm stephanie ruhle. you can fine me anywhere on twitter. now, coming up with halle.

halle i don't want to tell you to do with a big picture but that picture of dolly parton was so good. >> she is an extraordinary woman as are you. thank you so much. it is deadline day over at white house, the oversight committee wants more about security clearance. we learned jared kushner has been cut off from some classified secrets. plus, manafort in court right now, his first appearance since his former right hand pleaded guilty. manafort, breaking right now has pleaded not guilty. they have set a september trial date. speaking of russia, what about that testimony from hope hicks? we saw her live yesterday. as of today we are learning more opinion what she said and those white lies, she reportedly