Lavetta stoking fear of an escalating trade war the Trump administration
announced Thursday that it is moving ahead with a 25% tariff on steel and a
10% tariff on aluminum imported from the European Union Canada and Mexico the
president first announced the tariffs in March but granted exemptions to some
major trading partners while the u.s. continued negotiations those exemptions
expired on Friday the renewed trade tensions come amid some good news with
US economy adding two hundred and twenty three thousand jobs in May bringing the
unemployment rate down to an 18-year low of 3.8% we're back with Bill McGurn and
James Freeman and Wall Street Journal editorial board member Mary Kissel in
London so Mary you're over there what's the reaction been from our allies and
they are allies in Europe Canada and Mexico to this unilateral trade action
well I think it's what you would expect Paul it's complete disbelief that the
United States would punish such close and important trading partners and I
think the individual country reactions are what you would expect the Germans
were pragmatic I think the British were measured and the French were disdainful
and the EU announced that they would take immediate counter action you know
look the EU supplies about 17 percent of steel imports a to United States a lot
of it is high-end going into cars into Detroit they say they're gonna take
counter action and you've got to believe that they'll put their money where their
mouth is they're gonna file a WTO case also so Mary one question is Canada a
national security threat or do city in the the invasion from Mexico coming
anytime soon how can you justify that imports from those countries are really
a national security threat yeah well the the short answer is that
you can't Paul it's absolutely indefensible and you know the real
tragedy of all of this is that President Trump is doing exactly what he said he
wouldn't do which is to reward the swap he's rewarding certain interest which is
the US and the steel Purdue seeing industries steel aluminum
industries rather and everybody who uses that stuff downstream is gonna get hurt
not to mention us consumers who are gonna pay ten percent or twenty five
percent more for their goods and it comes in a terrible time also I'd add
for our European partners who were dealing with brexit the terror threat
Iran Putin on their doorstep and I guess the big question bill is how much
economic damage will this will this hit us with well I think it could be a lot
and the problem with the trade war is that a lot of innocent casualties and
the reason for that is that supply chains are very complicated things come
from all over so when you launch one of these things you hit people that you
don't intend for example when President Bush put the steel tariffs in in 2002 I
think the estimate is that it costs do more jobs and jobs more than actually in
the steel industry which is why they were ended early the other the other
risk here James is retaliation I mean all three of these all of the EU Canada
and Mexico all said we're gonna retaliate Japan I think it's coming
because there are also not exempted and what they're doing is they're targeting
precise areas that are going to do some political damage to the Republican Party
and their Senate candidates and potentially their house candidates Paul
Ryan's Harley Davidson in his district for example bourbon and Kentucky you've
got Republican in Washington state citrus fruit and not citrus but apples
and grapes so there's some downside political risk here - yeah and it's
especially frustrating you mentioned that great Friday jobs report I think
all the evidence is that so far the Trump plan to cut regulation and taxes
is working within the United States so now he's saying but I think more
regulation and more taxes that our borders will somehow benefit the United
States it won't as you mentioned a lot more people consume steel than produce
it so you're talking about a lot more jobs in the industries that make things
out of Steel than in the actual producer so it's a strange idea to fight with our
allies I think what do you ought to be doing is getting together with them to
say how do we fix that Chinese intellectual property theft
problem he also seems concerned about I think
there's a problem going a danger marry going forward and that is what happens
with nafta on the cusp of a deal where we've been negotiating a renegotiation
redoing of the agreement modernization for some time but this really is a thumb
in the eye of the Canadians of the Mexicans and they were already kind of
approaching a deadline in Mexico with its presidential election I don't know
if that can be salvaged it may not Paul I hate to say that but it may not be
salvageable you know the other thing that we should worry about - when it
comes to Mexico is that Mexico's next leader may not be very pro-american so
you might see additional measures that could hurt US consumers hurt the US
economy from the Mexican side but do you see over there in Europe any I mean is
this is this kind of tariff decision they had been asking for exemptions as
hardening the response is unlikely to say we're going to retaliate and and
Trump might say look okay you hit me I'm gonna hit you back again he's already
threatened 25% tariff on German cars for example on British cars that could
escalate this and won't them the more you escalate the more economic damage
you get well look negotiating trade deals are going to trade Wars is not
like buying a condo in Manhattan or erecting an office building and these
leaders over here Paul have their own domestic political constituency so take
Britain their steel industry is in a lot of pain right now and the idea that
Prime Minister Theresa May can do nothing or will do nothing in response
to this is just fanciful they have to respond briefly bill yeah
no one behaves responsibly in a trade war because of the political thing so
you kind of assume that the other side's gonna respond back and and this is the
way a lot of innocent people get hurt and let's remember the American
consumers the kind of people dumb Trump wants to be benefited enormous ly from
the lower prices that come from trade and let's face it I mean this economy
has been doing very very well and this is a real risk to that progress
president Trump causing a stir this week with another controversial pardon and he
more to come is the president trying to send a message as his critics claim
president Trump issuing another controversial pardon this week this time
for conservative commentator and author Dinesh D'Souza who pleaded guilty in
2014 to violating campaign finance laws in connection with illegal contributions
to a Republican Senate candidate in 2012 the president tweeting that D'Souza was
treated very unfairly by our government mr. Trump also telling reporters
Thursday that he's considering pardons or commutations for Martha Stewart and
former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich who is serving a 14-year sentence in
federal prison on public corruption charges we're back with Danone Inger and
bill McGurn so dan just as a constitutional legal matter there's
really no limit on the pardon power is there no there really isn't it's one of
the great powers that a president has there is a process there's a part an
attorney a Justice Department there are several thousand people who feel they
were wrongly accused or convicted trying to go through that process
Donald Trump has jumped over all of that to can pardon these individuals and I
don't think we should be too doubtful about this Paul Donald Trump feelsies he
is in a war with the Justice Department and Robert Muller and he is going to use
pardons like this to send them a message every one of these individuals Dinesh
D'Souza and the two proposed for Martha Stewart and Rod Blagojevich arcum are
connected to prosecutors who have been who have had donald trump in their
crosshairs one way or another Preet Bharara in New York Comey prosecuted
Martha Stewart and a Patrick Fitzgerald a friend of commis prosecuted rod
Blagojevich okay bill the is that a proper use of the pardon power you can
use it legally that's one thing right but is it I mean you usually would think
we want to use the pardon power if the President to enhance justice right not
an undo in justices not to undermine the rule of law yeah I'd say a few things
one is it is one of the least fettered powers and that's a reason there was a
debate by the founders of what they should do and they they rejected ideas
of having Congress have a check on it they gave it to a president for a reason
I don't think it's about guilt or innocent
strictly as a legal matter the people I think a lot of it is the idea that a
president would have a discretion to redress something that might be legally
right someone might be legally guilty of all things but in some ways it's it's
out of whack it's a check for that so I think you know I think the president can
do it the one check that there is on the pardon is public opinion sure it's the
politics and that's what it was meant to be which is why presidents usually wait
until the end of their term to give out the controversial pardons right well I
really think that the Scooter Libby pardon Dan was was a terrific act I
think it was deserved we've been urging it for a long time I think it undid a
mistake that President Bush had made but then you get to Joe Arpaio he had
essentially refused to honor a court order that was a different thing what
about these individual cases you list them I think the I agree with you that
he is sending a message but are these justifiable cases do you think just as a
man the standard of you know this increased respect for the rule of law
well look Paul this is a complicated subject Dinesh D'Souza was convicted for
campaign finance violations Martha Stewart for securities transactions
insider trading rod Blagojevich for political corruption now in every one of
those cases we have editorialized that there are there are not clear lines on
some of these issues you want to respect the rule of law right but as attorney
Harvey silverglade has written there are thousands of ways you can now break a
federal law without being aware of it you can get into trouble very easily and
the pardon power is one way one sort of thumb on the scale to try to correct a
balanced against prosecutorial abuse and you know you'd have to go into the
details here but I think there's a legitimate issue raised of just how the
public the people including celebrities find some sort of compensation against
what prosecutors can do to them briefly bill you wrote about the Martha Stewart
case right do you think that the partners just I think it is justified
and I think as dan said it's a it's a redress
and I think for example I thought the scooter libby pardon was just fine but
it's a message to prosecutors and it's and sometimes it's not about the crime
but about the punishment that is disproportionate right okay thank you
very much gentleman when we come back primary voters get set to head to the
polls Tuesday in California a state that could make or break Democratic hopes of
taking back the house why the primary system there could leave them out in the
cold in some key races come November
as primary voters get set to head to the polls in California Tuesday Democrats in
the Golden State are feeling the heat all eyes are on three battleground
districts in Orange County a one-time conservative bastion that backed Hillary
Clinton in 2016 once seen as promising pickup opportunities for Democrats as
they seek to take back the house a crowded primary field as well as the
state's unusual top two primary system could leave Democrats without a general
election candidate in these key races we're back with dan yeager kim Strasse
and Alicia Finley so Alicia 53 House seats in California how many are held by
Republicans 14 only 14 great they're endangered species out there seven of
the seats held by Republicans are expected to be competitive
this cycle those were won by Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Sunland Democrats
actually have a voter registration advantage a huge one David validates
district up in the Central Valley are most of those seats that are competitive
where are they in the Southern California in the back mainly in
Southern California in the Central Valley which is very agricultural okay
so how does the jungle so-called jungle primary where the top two vote-getters
get to go on the ballot in November regardless of party how does that figure
in here well I guess the worry for Democrats right now is that in some of
the seats like there are Isis who is retiring it's an open seat you'll get to
Republicans who will go to November so they're trying to put their thumb on
certain candidates in order so that outcome doesn't happen and this has
happened in the past and out and the problem is that so many Democrats are
running such an open seat and it's very divided in many cases they all kind of
stand for single-payer they're all very progressive and there's nothing
distinguishing them so and there are fewer Republicans running so that
Republicans could pop up and Republicans have you know some name recognition you
know you have Diane herky down in Darryl ices district who is a Board of
Equalization and member and ran against high-speed rail and that made that made
a name for himself in in in that district now if they don't take
the those any seats in California Democrats they're going to have a harder
time picking up the house aren't they well I think that's where I think
they're still counting on the Pennsylvania and the redistricting there
by the state Supreme Court but California is really their hope they
need to pick up at least probably for their Kevin McCarthy is from California
he's the majority leader in the House of Representatives he is trying an
interesting maneuver he wants to push John Cox the Republican who's running
for governor to finish second so he can get into the final race in November and
you think okay well that makes sense on the in on the other hand you disagree
with that well I think the world of peace for us to disagree I think the
worry there is that you have two Democrats Gavin Newsom Antonia veer goes
to the former LA mayor Gavin Newsom has really styled himself as very
progressive you know a wholly owned subsidiary of the public unions if you
get John Cox in the top two in November Gavin Newsom is just sure to win you're
probably getting get a lot more left work tilt of the party so the state goes
for the last lap more spending probably higher taxes where Antonio Vieira
Grossman may actually you know there's a chance you get more pension forms and
you know proach school reforms charter schools or charter schools but McCarthy
Kim figures that if you don't have a republic on the governor's race then
government Republican voters might not turn out in those House races and you
lose more House seats yeah I'd push back on that a little bit
I'm not really sure it's possible for California to go more or less and so I
look at these candidates and and it's not clear to me it could get much worse
but I think McCarthy's got a really good point that you get a Republican on
statewide ballot for that big top governor's job and you inspire some more
turnout for Republicans because that is going to be key in many of these
districts Hillary Clinton won in some of them but very narrowly as ELISA said
there's a lot of voter registration and balance and some of them the Republicans
biggest challenge in California is to get their side out to vote that day and
Dan what do you make of this jungle primary idea do you
like this idea of of just the top two Mike Bloomberg pushed that in New York
for a while didn't go through the idea is that somehow it's gonna make our
politics move to the center it won't have the polar they won't be as
polarized I don't see a lot of evidence that California is becoming less
polarized oh well no but I'll got to tell you Paul
I love the jungle primary this year in California because what a spectacle it
is and a state as Kim said they can't move any further left typically in some
of these congressional districts you've got a couple of Republicans running and
say five Democrats why because of these tremendous anger at Donald Trump
Democrats left-wing Democrats have come out of the woodwork to run for Congress
and get to Washington to impeach him this has driven the Democratic National
Committee absolutely crazy because the Democratic voters out there can't
distinguish between the five candidates and they're worried that ultimately the
Republicans will put their two candidates at the top of that ballot all
right thank you all we have to take one more break when we come back hits and
misses of the week you
you
For more infomation >> Trump shouldn't pardon himself: Mike Lee - Duration: 4:39. 
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