walls of shame on al jazeera. hello i'm maryam namazie and london here's a quick look at the top stories now a group of opposition political parties have rejected the results of pakistan's general election following allegations of vote rigging and interference by the military. the ruling party conceded defeat paving the way for cricket to politician imran khan to become the next prime minister but this opposition alliance says that they will take to the streets until a new vote is held high and a has more from islamabad. for an order gone friends. his party along with other opposition party the new thirty will be. who ever had complain complaints about the election. agitation brought the remake

the election and ward and even threaten their day were barred in the order that many of parliament however within the open have been able to be there but some division two palestinians including a fourteen year old boy have been killed in the latest friday protests at the gaza israel border both were shot in the head by israeli soldiers gaza health ministry officials say at least another two hundred forty five people were injured seventy dec reports from gaza. they keep coming eighteen weeks into these protests and even though the numbers may be decreasing their demands remain the same lift the siege let us live like everyone else why not be. where suffering there is no electricity no water people are going hungry it's painful or cape standing we will come here to show the whole world we want our rights snipers and

bombed and turns against as a civilian be wanted in gaza strip we are to be ball. no there is yes this is the. key to this is goes is. yes and this is. this is military this is below thirty dollars. this sets for you are going to this is an annuity from from the road from you can you get the director. of. israel's been using these drones to drop tear gas further back into the crowd closer to the fence israeli snipers keep watch and sporadically open fire. there is a well established pattern now similar scenes playing out every friday what is different now however is the escalating tensions between israel and hamas and there been intensive diplomatic efforts underway by egypt and the united nations to try to find a solution everyone we speak to says the same thing the only solution is to improve

life for the people here israel's demanded that hamas put an end to the burning quite some balloons that were born out of these protests they've burned thousands of acres of land on the other side of the fence amasses they are a legitimate form of resistance against a suffocating seach there's been less however over the past few weeks now as these fridays come and go a political solution that benefits the people of gaza remains elusive stephanie decker al-jazeera gaza a gates of the last compound in occupied east jerusalem have been reopened a stun grenades and tear gas we used to disperse worshippers had gathered for friday prayers all entry into the mosque one of islam's holiest sites was prevented for three hours following the violence. saudi u.a.e. coalition aircraft of launched as strikes on the yemeni city of data a day to host a strategically important seaport which is one which is the main entry point for

most of the countries food aid it's in. this follows thursday's attack by yemen's hoofy rebels on the airport rescuers in laos is searching for more than one hundred people still missing after monday's dam collapse twenty seven people are now confirmed dead as water levels recede people are returning to their homes and questioning why they won't move to safety earlier . sky gazers around the world are getting ready for a celestial spectacle the longest bloodmoon eclipse of the twenty first century moon is expected to turn a red brown color as it rises coming up next it's head to head.

it was perhaps the most stunning upset in u.s. political history. donald j. trump property tycoon reality t.v. star and demagogue with zero political experience rousing angry nationalistic psyche the us electorate to become the most powerful man. to get there we will make america great again but since his election victory trumps gone from threatening nuclear war with north korea they will be met with fire fury to piling around with kim jong. un has escalated conflict across the middle east from syria to yemen to palestine meanwhile a special council continues to investigate whether the campaign colluded with russia to win the president. my guest tonight a vocal supporter of donald trump has called the russia investigation a witch hunt and a hoax but the retired u.s. navy commander and former pentagon spokesman is himself

a former top campaign official who's become entangled in them on the investigation . is trump really succeed to make america the bull great again. i'm in the house and i've come here to the oxford union to go head to head with j.d. gordon the trump campaign's director of national security i'll challenge him on the president's alleged collusion with russia and also whether donald trump is really fit to be the so-called leader of the free world. tonight i'll also be joined by mark porter president of republicans overseas in france another advisor to the trump peds twenty twenty reelection campaign. karen meyer senior policy fellow for the. at least and north africa program at the european council of foreign relations and david cay johnston a pulitzer prize winning journalist and the author of the trump biography the making of donald trump it's even worse than you think what the top administration is doing to a. very

diligent please welcome j.d. gordon. davey gordon currently runs for two communications for based in washington d c and the service of national security and foreign policy advisor to three republican presidents. j.d. gordon do you believe donald trump is president of the united states today because of collusion between his election campaign the campaign you were part of and the russian government no not at all as far as collusion with russia the collusion with russia narrative is a hoax it's the witch hunt of the century it's basically been a shakedown and. it's ruined a lot of lives frankly and it's basically an excuse from the democrats for losing the election when hillary clinton was heavily favored to win just to be clear then

when you say it's a hoax are you saying the allegations of the trump campaign that you were part of working with the russians or russian government officials or cut out is a hoax or are you saying that the idea that the russians interfered in the american election campaign in order to try and get their preferred candidate donald trump elected that sucks because the second view is the view of the u.s. intelligence community is the view of the u.s. senate intelligence committee so i just wonder where you stand i do believe that the russian government interfered in the u.s. elections so that is not a hoax to investigate that however the russians didn't impact the election that i know of as far as swinging the vote i just think hillary. and was not a very good candidate and she didn't go to places in the midwest where she should've went it's not a national election it's a fifty state election and president trump won handily in the electoral college what i don't get is this is an investigation that's produced in just over a year more than thirty indictments five guilty pleas including the president's

former national security adviser his deputy campaign chairman his campaign foreign policy adviser it doesn't sound like a hoax or a witch hunt it sounds like you were working with a bunch of confessed criminals to get donald trump elected. well what i had said was that the collusion narrative is a hoax i say it's like that because it's rounded up a bunch of people who are innocent at least collusion of the charges so you have people going to jail ones in jail now as we speak his photo in a box i was just really almost a man of the world i am benjamin has extensive ties to russia as we know correct however he was not put in jail because of collusion with russia there was no collusion whatsoever once you get put under investigation everything's on the table and several people are going to prison for a couple lying to the f.b.i. general michael flynn from an interview yes i live in korea now we're also them to lie to the f.b.i. he made a mistake he didn't have a lawyer with them he got stronger by the f.b.i. george papadopoulos wrong moment a former three star general who ran a u.s.

intelligence agency and lied to the f.b.i. about his conversations with the russians secret conversations he got stronger and i think he made some mistakes or a little general you say there was no collusion you say it's a hoax and a witch hunt the problem is that this seems to be so much evidence that suggests otherwise for example let's talk about the trump tower meeting june twenty sixth when donald trump jr son of the president gets an e-mail telling him that russians have information that would quote incriminate hillary clinton as part of quote russia and its government support for mr trump he doesn't say oh i better call the f.b.i. and report this he says quote i love it and then he and jerod couche and pull him out of fort invite those russians to trump tower one of whom later admits to have ties to the kremlin and if that wasn't bad enough at that meeting don't trump jr asked them for dirt on hillary clinton and her foundation if that's not collusion

if that's not working with russians what is well that's not collusion basically don trump jr took a meeting he should not have taken he was a political novice just like george papadopoulos page two guys who are on the national security advisory committee which i was the director so you have people. doing. things they should not have doing taking meetings they should have taken traveling to places they shouldn't have travelled to but that's not collusion it's poor judgment but it's not collusion when you say it is poor judgment but that goes to the heart of it people on your campaign said they were asked nope no contact whatsoever never happened never have none zero and then suddenly one after another after another think by one count more than twenty four twenty four something meetings have been between trump officials and russians more than eighty odd contacts texts e-mails d.m.'s if there's nothing to hide why are these senior people of a senator a general why are they lying time and again why are they getting caught lying if there's nothing to hide i just don't get it well speaking for attorney general

sessions who was my boss on the campaign and a senator when he was testifying for the senate who are the attorney general position he basically had said that he wasn't aware of russian contacts. he had a very long hearing i think he was rope a dope a little bit so he was just so tired wasn't remembering shaking the russian ambassadors hand in the crowd you know he made of a more than one occasion more than a hunter and couple time difference basically so far as we're novices we're tired we're incompetent that's the difference it's a conspiracy not me are you a part of the canberra was well it's over you're going to have and you even knew you told business insider that you did nothing at the republican national convention that anything to do with changing the party's platform on military aid to ukraine was a huge criticism that donald trump and soften softened the republican party's position on the ukraine and russia thrown seventy years of g.o.p. foreign policy out of the window you said i was sitting at a desk never moved and then months later you admitted actually you were involved in

phone calls in negotiations in changing that party platform was given you were one hundred percent. forthcoming according to the media but business insider they lie like the best of them that's not what i told business insider what i told business insider was that i disagreed with the characterization from a delegate from texas and each year old woman named diana denman who was adamant about going to the g.o.p. platform and introducing an amendment to arm ukraine of which i advised the delegates that that was a bad idea inconsistent with the president's view mr transworld at the time and inconsistent with the policy at the time under president obama however that got spun in the business insider and other media to say i denied being involved that's not what i said i just said i discussed disagreed with dana demonstrate collection but then you know who did you know you were involved for your boss the campaign chairman he said nobody from the campaign was involved in changing the party's position on russia and ukraine turns out someone else involved

a golden that was very unfortunate it was memory it was made the list was bad memory incompetence this unfortunate yeah there you know nothing there's some that are well ok but that's the that's the argument for all of these called tech so we're headed all of these conversations that happen that whatever reported all of these ties i mean the trump tower meeting is a fascinating one because even steve bannon who last time i checked wasn't part of the liberal media wasn't a democrat served loyally under donald trump for a long period even he said it was unpatriotic and treasonous to take that meeting in trump tower did donald trump jr and did they take that group of russian lobbyist one of whom has ties to the kremlin to see the president you working for the campaign and not that i know of but the internet story about that is that was in june of twenty sixteen i was a director of national security but i was based in washington isn't there a problem with your narrative on the one hand you'll say you're in the campaign it was incompetence you know i knew these people etc etc on the other hand when i'm asking about a quite damning media that well i wasn't in town and i didn't know about it but i

wasn't and i don't know how are we going to weigh the weight of that we don't know about the levels of collusion well i don't know about other meetings that may have gone on. he maybe should say yes to getting to the bottom however i do know many there has been an investigation multiple investigations going on starting in the summer of twenty sixty two years including but by the f.b.i. there has been no evidence that shows collusion judgment yeah plenty of evidence for that ok let's go to our panel david cay johnston is a pulitzer prize winning journalist author of the trump biography the making of donald trump and the book it's even worse than you think what the trumpet ministration is doing to america david the reality is that the pro trump side is right in saying that there is nothing so far tying donald trump himself to any kind of collusion is it you would have to concede that well donald has spent thirty years deeply involved with russians and russian criminals but one thing the two of you didn't discuss is the jerk kirshner

a white house paid employee and bumped up someone went to the russians and asked to use their secret diplomatic communications in the washroom embassy to have a secret channel to the kremlin if that doesn't tell you there was collusion going on i don't know what does imagine you have any other president that would happen. let me put up went to mark porter is here from paris president of republicans overseas over there he's also been an advisor to the prince twenty twenty reelection campaign well i've got a question for you before i also get you know you're kind of exasperated you're going to. respond to what you heard from david cay johnston. well first of all you make it sound like this is the first found this is ever happened you guys are sounding like they're amateurs up here because we know how this works inside of campaigns every campaign does this every campaign goes on has to use pain russian secret diplomatic immunity if you had your target that first of all this kind of thing is not unusual and collusion is not illegal let me explain what collusion is

the reason they're using collusion is because they can't find anything else there is no corruption there is no collaboration which is illegal the indonesians way want to slow down let me finish here because this idea of collusion being something that's really horrible we collude all the time in terms of communicating i speak with russians all the time everybody does including the hillary campaign and if you guys would spend as much time looking at the other side of the campaign as you do with us you will see that you're making a big thing out of it and if we're wasting our time to take different there just to check yes isn't it odd that you find out you know donald trump don't you find out that this is a man who has an insulting demeaning nickname for everyone that he never says anything critical about vladimir putin everyone in the wold you criticize that we have putin of praise of our you talk you tell me what he said critical about you didn't ask him directly about how the let me also my question he's called putin a strong leader a better leader than obama he would give him an a plus grade could he be my best

friend i've got a long list which is the critical remark about funny when you only hear half of the this is also is also a little surprising as it was what he said about are you kidding me are you really serious now if you've only done half your homework i'm not going to do the rest of it for you let's bring. he's been waiting very patiently gary meyer is a senior policy fellow for the middle east and north africa program at the european council on foreign relations how much has donald trump's seemingly pro russian policy undermined the atlantic alliance the nature of the european union or are we blowing this russia stuff out of all proportion or messy what is a real shock at least in europe who are you know european allies of the united states is the degree of demeaning nature and tone that's being used towards leader after leader in the alliance structure the way that nato is being attacked by by words or pressures which creates this image even if it may not be true but

certainly a strong impression that president trump does favor a much more transactional relationship with someone like mr putin then keeping in line structure in place and we've seen recently with the meetings of the g. seven with the meetings of nato leaders with his hopes of. well north korea last time i checked isn't an ally of the united states and we're working out well i think this is where the real worry years is that will mr putin have more of a sway on us foreign policy decision making and trade policy etc then european allies will and this is a huge issue and very good why do you think putin want to trump elected well i think that hillary clinton as secretary of state was trying to destabilize russia in twenty fourteen i think that he saw her as an enemy and i think that he felt he wanted to attack the united states and this is the way they did it's not just the united states or russia attacks our european allies to really want to have more in

line with issues i mean that's cheaper than fighting a war i'm glad you can concede that and we've got to move on but i do want to ask you this just on a personal point you've been interviewed not just by congressional committees but by robert muller a special counsel to him as well do you worry that he may end up sending you to prison to no not at all but don't think they have to try. anybody who's been before a congressional committee or the special counsel and there have been about fifty trump associates who have been before these that's why i say it's a hoax and which i because it takes things like shaking the russian ambassadors hand in the crowd after i give a speech and then the media turn that into some nefarious activity and you get asked about it of course let's talk about north korea let's not forget to see did you go to you said that north korea has been quote a top threat to america and our allies you said the threat from north korea is very real so do you now agree or disagree with the president the united states your former boss who says quote there is no longer a nuclear threat from north korea i think he was trying to talk in the strategic macro sense like he's had this great talk with. john on right now and so there is

no longer a threat not in a technical sense because in the technical sense that's true there is a nuclear threat from north korea in the strategic sense he says all we're getting along now he tends to talk in very broad sweeping term and i admire your ability to draw and defend the strategic and technical it's not true to say north korea's not a nuclear threat that's just demonstrable a false statement in the technical sense in the trust because he just says he is trying to act according to u.s. intelligence north korea's actually quote increased its production of fuel for nuclear weapons at multiple secret sites and is considering ways to conceal its weapons one u.s. intelligence officials that there is absolutely unequivocal evidence that they're trying to deceive the u.s. president trump is trying to do something different that we haven't had other presidents have the ability to do and that is to rein in the nuclear program of north korea the missile program at all so so far since president trump has made this outreach and has basically met with kim jong un we haven't seen any nuclear test we haven't seen any missile test just six months ago we were at the brink of a war but then you have iran with donald trump pulls the united states out of the

iran nuclear deal against the advice of his defense secretary against the advice of a secretary state against the advice is national security adviser against the advice of his european allies against the advice of america's leading nonproliferation experts how are you ok with a one page document of empty promises. from north korea which is hailed as the end of the nuclear threat while tearing up one hundred fifty nine page document of verified inspections negotiated over two years with iran and backed up by the i do you square that because north korea basically just wants to survive the kim dynasty he's the third one now his grandfather was the founder of the regime his father carried it on he's the third one he just wants to pass it on to his children someday he wants to survive iran wants to conquer the rest of the middle east they want to be the regional powerhouse in one nine hundred seventy nine the whole revolution was about exporting revolution or islam it's a shia version of islam and they're sworn enemies or people like our allies like you we like the saudis and so iran has a very different view it's

a view of the conduct of north korea's enemies are also your allies japan south korea here's my question to you. we can all agree that meeting with dictators and despots is a good thing if you're going to avoid war i think people should reach out against negotiations other people want to negotiations what they don't get is ok trump wants to meet with these people but why does he have to slobber over them when he does it why does he have to why is he such a fan of tyrants and despots why does a heap such praise on them in a way that u.s. presidents who met with dictators have never done so publicly this kind of embarrassing hugging and well barack obama bow down to the king of saudi arabia so to donald trump just for the record on the story with them as well he went to surgeries or if he went to saudi arabia before any other countries i think that's a bit of prisoner of obama i guess let's ask the question he says kim jong un is a talented man who loves his country very much do you believe the oppressed persecuted starved people of totalitarian north korea quote love kim jong un with

a great fervor because that's what donald trump says i you're talented man who loves his people very much i think he loves his people very much as you are as people love him well they're taught to because it's a cold in north korea however you're not willing to criticize the president told you what he says if you can't agree with well. i'm trying to put it in the right perspective i think the right to surprise what they love in a cult like way it's unfortunate but it's the reality that sounds familiar talking of people who live in a cult unless you're going to take them out by force what are you going to do ok well let's let's go to our panel here. do you know agree that the republican party's position is that the chairman of north korea isn't brutal and heartless as george bush once called him but he's smart he's talented he's got a great personality that's donald trump's view of him maybe that's not his view that's a negotiating position and you know it so this is barack obama who had gone to north korea hugged kim jong un put out a coin and said he was a talented man who was loved by his people republicans would be impeaching him by

now. the reason is and the reason that we have opposition parties and live in a democracy is that we do keep people in alignment i want to go back and answer your question that you asked me before trump is not insulting putin because there's no reason to do so now in the go see ations you insult people you put them in their place you position them so you had the best advantage in negotiating good and has not insulted trump so therefore there's no need to do that now ok ellie here and i was hearing a lot from j.d. gordon about the difference between north korea and iran apparently north korea just wants to survive iran wants to conquer therefore you do a deal with north korea and the deal with iran is how you see it well first i would say messy that the last time i checked because iran doesn't have a nuclear weapon they haven't been able to threaten the united states with a nuclear weapon in the same way as north korea was so if we're taking mr trump america first gravity you'd see a clear line of why the north korean threat needs to be dealt with much more

significantly so i think the real problem at the moment is that president trump violated and exited a nuclear agreement that was in shrine by un law the u.n. security council resolution without an alternative and really the only answer that the republican establishment has given is bomb iran. vandana respond this is their response and if there is a dis ingenuous offer to negotiate a grand bargain with iran whereas the opening unconditional offer seems to be a total capitulation of the regime and this is not how you negotiate certainly not with the middle eastern part that frankly most most of the u.s. most ration officials that worked on it didn't even read the deal until six months into it because i've checked because i've checked a number and so this is this is i think the real point is that what does president trump want to do from here i need to bring in david you've written about donald trump for decades now you've known donald trump for decades from new york days let me ask you this on a kind of on a personal level why do you think it is that trump likes these strong men and

dictators and forms over them is it a negotiating strategy or is it something the envies about they want to be like what is your assessment well donald is a man who has thumbed his nose at the wall his entire life he is the third generation of a white collar crime family his grandfather was a pimp his father was a thief who stole from the federal government donald has cheated workers he's cheated vendors he's cheated governments he's gone to extreme lengths to cheat. it is donald's nature to see him other people who are strong bosses who thumb their nose at convention that those are the people he wants to be like this is a man who when he was asked in the debates about nuclear you know what would your strategy be regarding the nuclear triad what's awesome it's awesome but what's your strategy about the trial oh it's awesome it's just it's not he doesn't know what he said he knows a lot about nuclear because his uncle was a nuclear and he doesn't know jack approach and so what he's done is he's elevated kim to his own people he has given him propaganda devices he has helped him to

solidify his control judy go to let me ask you this before we go to the break how worried should we be about the prospect of nuclear war in the donald trump presidency senator bob corker republican chair of the senate for. relations committee has said that trump could be leading towards world war three how worried should we be that this kind of impulsive erratic president with a lack of foreign policy experience and who likes the idea of nuclear weapons not one not worried in my view but i think maybe it's important to understand that a lot of people miss the forest for the trees on president trump president trump and the make america great again slogan is really a movement if it wasn't him it would be somebody else because there's a lot of anger in resentment in the american population it's a very divided country russia helps stop that division by the way but if it was a mr trump it to be somebody else in part two when we come back we're going to talk about donald trump the man who he is how we should judge him how worried should we

be and some of the controversies surrounding what he said and done we'll also hear from a patient audience here in the oxford union so join us from head to head after the break. for the first time since robert mugabe was hoarse from polyp by the army the people of zimbabwe will elect the next president but a struggling economy and frustration amongst many young voters means the result on the thirtieth of july is still hard to predict follow the bubbly election. as armenia's velvet revolution has forced the ruling party to step down you have to russian twice you've just got back from brussels how are you going to balance the relationship between russia and the us i mean his new prime minister told

challenges era. hello i'm maryanne demasi in london a quick look at the top stories a group of opposition political parties have rejected the results of pakistan's general election following allegations of vote rigging and interference by the military earlier the ruling party conceded defeat paving the way cricket to turn politician in iran contra become the next prime minister. but the opposition alliance is saying that they will now protest on the streets until a new vote is held high has more from islamabad. for nord party gone friends. his party along with other opposition party the new thirty will be going to all the opposition party who ever had complained complaints about the election. agitation brought the to make the election nolen ward and

even third in their day were not in the order to get that many of parliament however within the open and we have been able to be there with some division. two more palestinians have been killed in the late his friday protests at the gaza israel border in separate incidents a forty three year old man and a fourteen year old boy were both shot in the head by israeli soldiers hundred fifty one palestinians have now been killed since the weekly protest began at the end of march meanwhile the gates of the compound in occupied east jerusalem have been reopened. only a stun grenades and tear gas were used to disperse worship as it gathered for friday pres all entry into the mosque one of islam's holiest sites was prevented for three hours following the violence. rescuers in laos is searching for more than one hundred people still missing after monday's dam collapse twenty seven people

are now confirmed dead as well as a levels receive people are returning to their homes and questioning why they won't move to safety earlier are conflicting reports on when the cracks in the down will first spotted in the so cold blood moon eclipse is underway it's the longest eclipse of the twenty first century the moon has gradually turned a red to brown color with a total eclipse last thing for nearly two hour as part of the spectacle is visible from europe the middle east australia asia and africa. there's the headlines i'll have more for you in the news hour in twenty five minutes time said do join me then head to head now continues. thanks welcome back to head to head here at the oxford union my guest today is j.d. gordon former national security advisor to the donald trump election campaign former pentagon spokesman we've been talking about russian collusion in north korean

nuclear weapons let's talk about donald trump himself you were advisor to trump during his bid for the presidency you met with him you spoke with him can i ask you on behalf of millions perhaps billions of people around the world what was it like working for this former reality t.v. star who if you wanted to you would say is unorthodox unconventional perhaps if you weren't being so polite you might say is a deluded narcissistic man child. well i'd say he's a brilliant man he became the president of the united states he had a very successful career in real estate casinos i grew up at the jersey shore and when i was a preteen he was already famous you know he's a guy who's been around in the public eye a very long time and he basically is an anti-establishment character like i was mentioning about i'm just to get to the bottom but i do you know going to tell people if you're going to have your perspective of this guy you come from this military pentagon background you come to work for a guy i mean does he know anything about the world because he doesn't seem to when

he speaks about the world he does he thinks arland is in the u.k. you think israel isn't in the middle east he thinks germany owes the u.s. money for nato he doesn't understand how nato works he thinks nambiar is a country in africa he can't tell the difference between the could force and the kurds as governor because all know anything about the world he does he does governor huckabee said and he's right this is the best chance we have for a fresh vision for the united states the united states is twenty trillion dollars in debt and we can't be the world's policeman forever and that's typically a democrat position but not in general terms or increase the debt by record margins but we'll leave that discussion for another day is another problem of working on foreign policy with a man like donald trump is that he doesn't like foreigners he's kind of racist mary . you know i would disagree with that he does like foreigners malign years from sylvania ok so i say like i do you realize you're right you're not ready like i don't know who it is you're right he likes white foreigners yes. i mean let me ask

you this because getting upset will come to market a moment when he compares syrian refugees to snakes says everyone from haiti has aids calls african countries s. whole countries accuses mexico sending over rapists and drug dealers called immigrants invaders who are infesting the united states blames terrorist attacks on the muslim mayor of london retreats white nationalist praises neo nazis as very fine people singled out black athletes for abuse attacks a hispanic judge a mexican none of that's racist well i would tell you that he did the. sword dance as you said with the saudi leadership saudi king writes your response to what i just wrote but i don't think that saudis let me get to that point he also said nice things about kim jong un just now so how could he be racist against foreigners who are not whites and basically just made an argument i just inserted how we won the race is how would you define ok let me ask you this do you share the views that i just read out no i don't want you think he said those things i think president trump says whatever he wants to say definitively human race is sorry to break that no i don't think he's a racist whatsoever if you think my comments ok do you think the comment he made.

illegitimately perceived as racist i think he makes comments that he probably shouldn't make i wouldn't make those let me ask you this why shouldn't he make them because they're racist. thank you. i would just say that president trump is is own man and people are missing the force that you can be your president and i don't have to say things you shouldn't say and still be a racist i don't hear a good defense here of anything the issue is we were called racist so many people that are conservatives who are not racist were called i get that by him but i'm not holding up that conservatives are other conservatives have called racist paul ryan house speaker said his comments about judge richard curial judge with a textbook definition of racism that's the leading conservative accuse donald trump of racism he's had a lot of enemies enemies in congress but you have to remember everything else in the united states is that the congress has the approval ratings around twelve percent thirteen percent you're going to do polls j.d.

go to the store according to the polls a majority americans think donald trump is racist well i would tell you you know we had a poll going to the majority of i want to tell you that congress all the time democrats republicans because i was like him all the tokay it's not just his racism he also doesn't seem to. well come to you and you will make the difference i'm sure very well or your question back it's not just his racism though he's also a serial congenital liar the washington post has kept a count of three thousand false or misleading claims he's made since come into office to try is that two thousand false things he said that's around three and a half lies a day a day how we supposed to believe anything he says about anything how did you believe anything he told you about anything well the issue is he was elected because the american people don't care do you think he just started saying whatever you want about a lot better now is the best defense. is that people don't. it's always a lot of people are going to be american if you don't the he was elected do you think he just started to say whatever he wanted when he got elected no he was long

before he was elected he's been in the public life for decades they know. what my point is the american people don't care this issue as i want it i saw it i did also with the. how can you take anything he says seriously given he's a liar and you've conceded he's a liar how can you take him seriously as the president of the united states and that's what i mean i said if you to ask you something he tells you to do something about family if he makes a promise that we will do x. x. do you believe him when you tell a story in our flies at minimum a day well first of all i would disagree with that statistic because a. new body tells lots of lies as you've conceded how can you trust a. working with mr trump is basically rolling with the punches so. you have to be able to say ok i'll do my best is a luxury i euphemism rolling with the punches we are ok with the law is but no he's on a lot of great things for united states where twenty trillion dollars is that great sorted out the fact that you towards it really does does nothing to do with the fact that he's alive oh you're getting very agitated you're jumping in here tell me why don't trump is not a liar and a racist you take it all those comments out of context look you have cherry. and

you did it on purpose to make this sort of little argument here and that's why the first person accused over of racism to me there's not been as i said a majority of americans think so according to the page of argument because that is absolutely not true. ted cruz jeb bush mitt romney mocked marco rubio last i checked republican all called him a liar a fraud a con man do you understand that that was during the primaries when they were fighting against each other they didn't hold each other as they are you have i do you ever worked in a campaign before i did so you have not let me tell you what happened. they didn't call each other lies they certainly did call each other was you know they're not meant to be liars but they made it clear that any other candidate a con man a fraud in accounts run conservatism those were only reserved for your kind no it's not true what you're saying i want to know what you're saying don't trump lies just like every other politician is that your position i'm saying that if one top trump is saying is intended to get results ok and if you look at the results and start

playing in a defensive zone well i want to say i do enjoy the gold as position is kind of does lie but he gets elected he gets things done that's your argument because you are a medal politician before you sound like you let me tell you but i mean there's another politician who lies like donald trump and i've interviewed people from across the world in that seat and i've never met a politician like i don't think you come to austin texas to the republican national convention and i will show you some people that working a plea this is the disapproved of my favorite just in love ever heard of a republican president from a republican come. the republican budget world law is over there. thank you thank you thank you to she was ok i took that back to texas and said that you are a liar i would also have all these coaches and all of these things just just out of interest when he says the head of the boy scouts called me up at the head of wisconsin he didn't call me up and sarah's on that he didn't what is that maybe why didn't you tell me this yesterday you know i could call them up and really you know

you can make it more or else you're the first to go there i was thinking you would offer the difference you want to go right here and make a phone call to say you were. going to early next year and myra's from the european council on foreign relations from a foreign policy suspect one facet of it we could talk about trump lies all day long but what's the impact on international relations how we talked earlier in the show about his impact on allies versus putin how do our governments around the world how do european governments when donald trump the president can they take him seriously do they take him seriously and if you look i think they take him very seriously but i think there has been significant damage done to the trust relationship alliances welcome trust and solidarity and i think both of those have been significantly tarnished in the last year and a half when you have a statement that's released and within twenty four hours president trumpery meigs on that to the g seven when you have the same after statement different world leaders saying that he will do one thing but at the end of the day ends up doing

something else it creates a very unpredictable chaotic situation i think it's significantly dangerous because the last you know since world war two these alliance structures have managed to prevent significant conflicts happening around the world let me just add one more thing because i think i heard that the united states doesn't want to be the policemen of the world what we've seen in the last year and a half is essentially the united states being the most of the world in terms of threatening our allies in terms of pressuring through duress to keep raising the. our and this is how this is how we are and let me put marks point to you that you know politicians lie you've been studying world leaders foreign governments foreign policy for many years now have you come across any other politician who behaves in this way to go about this why does it go where you post in the same way as donald trump what i can say is that speaking at least soon many european policymakers in the last year and a half people are baffled they may not say this publicly but in private people let

me put the same question to david cay johnston who is a trump biographer award winning journalist let me ask you this politicians are donald trump lies a bit more than the rest a lot more than the rest is that something different about donald trump when it comes to this kind of dollars in a class all by himself and for the thirty years i've known donald he creates his own reality there are plenty of video and audiotape of where donald says something in two minutes later denies that he says that he said that donald has willing to lie in amazing forms he has twice been tried for income tax fraud and lost both cases he's a confessed sales tax cheat that's law this is a man who has testified under oath that he didn't know anything about who the faculty were of the scam called trump university when he in the nab said i will personally pick the faculty and he was shown every name he didn't know them donald trump lives with them even if you only did i agree so you can mention

a few lies there i mentioned if you know him let's get to that let's get behind the odds when i ask dizzy tell these lies does he say these things his own reality because he's a cynical politician who is making you know he's not afraid to make brazenly false statements in order to get things done get elected whatever or is he just deluded as he kind of lost his mind i always wonder is this a kind of deliberate folds of the resists just remember there are there are there are occasions in which i've dealt with novel in which is wise for strategic and i could see the logic of them but he literally. delusional at times in my books i lay out his own statements that show their delusional member that donald trump says i am the world's greatest expert in all time about taxes and then demonstrates you know jack about taxes he doesn't know accounting he doesn't know net present value if you don't know that you can't know taxes he has said in the new one is forums things that make clear that he doesn't know anything one of his professors at penn you know called him the damn dumbest student i ever had in my life. and you do you

recognize that picture of donald trump just to get to the bottom of someone who worked with him and given him advice yeah in my personal interactions i'd say he was very brilliant very sharp and give me an example can you give me an example of the brilliance sure he had very insightful questions about relationships with nato with europe bar alliances dollars and cents he's a very big dollars and cents nato works well he does he understands it was germany it was american money that's not how nato works you're a former soldier you know that he says things that will prompt a reaction from our allies to get them to pony up more money because i just prefer when he's lying just pretending not to know i was not a disease repeatedly claiming a false thing he tries he tries to make a point and says sometimes it's not exactly that i'm a lawyer technically correct sometimes it's pretty we've got leaders appearing to you only technically o. is trying to make your persistent let's go to a very patient audience when you work for the union the gentlemen the front row here and then we'll go to somebody the back so my name's i'm with i'm a graduate student here on the campaign trail president called for the total and

complete shutdown of muslims entering the united states then as president he introduced executive order banning entry from those from seven muslim majority countries do you believe it is compatible with the america's core ideals that we welcome all people regardless of religion research background given the policies roots ok thank you for the question i should respond yes please well basically of those seven countries you mentioned ones north korea and ones venezuela which are not muslim majority countries the other countries on that list have a problem with security. they can't do the appropriate background checks we're talking about libya syria yemen places that are undergoing civil wars right now or at least. low level conflict and they can't that terrorists from those countries that's why they're on the list right now it makes perfect sense it's not a muslim band it's a band against countries that don't that people the way we would like them we can have a debate about whether this order is a muslim bone or in the supreme court has decided it isn't to be fair but here's

what i don't get you worked on the donald trump campaign and doing the company it was a muslim ban he said no muslims from anywhere me can come into the u.s. my friends can come into the u.s. any muslim cannot come into the united states will you support that while you work through no he said something that i would have said no i didn't support how you are just as a good you got to wash your hands of some of the we don't know what we did or said ok well how's that going to work and i mean you reined in the bigotry i wouldn't characterize it that way and then burning all muslims in the states is bigoted it wasn't a good thing to say in he didn't he doesn't say that now he's changed his position ok let's go out to the audience i said i've got some about yes lady in the red jacket well my name is isabel dimming as i come from a family of venice one venice one family that is immigrated to miami florida which is a refuge that countless the disciplines have fled the severe political and economic conflict there. mr trump reason he suggested using military intervention to alleviate the conflict there despite some federal opposition what is your opinion

mr gordon and mr trump's remark and says about i'm very sorry to see what's happening in venezuela it's horrible i was there in one thousand nine hundred nine since then about four million that as well and have left the country it's a tragedy unfolding every day but what i would tell you is that allegedly what happened is mr trump asked his advisors about it so number one there's no shortage of things president trump won't say or want to ask no shortage of that number two there is no shortage of people better disgruntled around him for a variety of reasons who quit get fired so then they tell the press which is number three there are no shortage of people in the press will spin any little nugget of information into a sensational story so do i believe you asked a question i do do i believe you suggested it of course not you he asked a question you didn't suggest it no no it's fine to ask a question you can ask anything you want you think you know that's not i wanted to invade venezuela i don't i don't you don't you just put out there well known but it's not that i have some experience on the campaign with that where he'll ask a hypothetical question and then someone will leak it in a very under he laid into several latin american leaders maybe you shouldn't tell

foreign governments of all the world you want to invade ok let's go back to the audience let's leave it here in the second row. once again we've heard the view of russia being an international pariah influencing that and meddling in elections so i want to toss the panel and i guess to perhaps name two important benefits that russia has gained was likely to gain by influencing the election so the united states. just out of interest are you skeptical of claims that russia interfered in the us election i am skeptical as to whether it was the russian state because i am not sure that there is sufficient proof that it was the russian state that it was kremlin itself that was meddling in the elections was it the kremlin itself those meddling we've seen recent indictments of twelve g.o.u. intelligence assets by the investigation do you believe it was the kremlin itself that was interfering i do but that said i don't believe that it impacted the election to have president trump when i think that a candidate was deeply flawed and hillary clinton ok but he beat her in three

states by eighty thousand but i know you did if there wasn't exactly a big margin of victory that any any any little help any little. lady here second row i. think questionable policies aside do you believe that someone who has been accused of sexual assault multiple times and has essentially admitted on camera does the united states he deserves leave the united states because he was elected by the american people so the american people have to decide that they did and he won do you think someone like that is an appropriate role model the young people. well certainly had bill clinton as mark points out he had sex in the white house with monica lewinsky no no. i don't want to get into what about his him however that's exactly what you're doing as i was getting into what about is that i mean mark shouting out bill clinton is true you didn't work for the clinton. did you work for credibly accused of sexual assault by dozens of women well i

personally didn't see that my interactions with him were entirely professional i thought he was very sharp on his game and so i didn't see that and so what i would tell you is that you're only going to get things you see well did you see bill did you see bill clinton never going to far in the way as you how do you have a call now moment ago thank you thank you very much. that's what you would do just about the just over there in the black jacket how much of the negative media coverage concerning russia do you think is down to dinner. personal hatred for donald trump rather than legitimate evidence well it's not just democrats there are a lot of republicans too there was a republican senator who had one of his aides come here to london to get the from christopher steel the x m i six agent his assistant colleague brought it back to washington and that senator senator mccain gave it to the f.b.i. director james called me to me that's not very ethical it's not just democrats. from republicans overseas you hear j.d.

wouldn't write the show has been actually quite forthright on the kind of russian role the kremlin role as he put it i just want the same question to you that the audience member asked how much do you accept the know there's a legitimate bubble that should be investigating this there is a legitimate investigation even if you don't agree with some of the indictment or how much is it all just a democratic left conspiracy in your view well the thing to consider here is that the results of the election so the election in my opinion in the middle in the most americans is that their russian influence is whatever they were whatever they did did not influence the outcome of the election they very briefly let's assume that the russians were not successful in their efforts and didn't have any influence that has nothing to do with the fact that unregistered for i'm agents of the russians people on the russian payroll when the national security advisor or the campaign manager that we've had five guilty pleas that we did we recently had thirteen g.r.u. officers indicted by the moeller campaign there's lots of evidence that there was a conspiracy going on gentlemen to be working for one want. mr gordon on the

campaign trail president trump was a determined isolationist and he's now a changed to be every inch a belligerent and my question is why has he put straight his vote is could it be because. with his election the populist rise of left wing politics has taken hold in the us and he sees left wing governments in north korea and venezuela as easy targets or is it because he's engaging in the bill clinton exercise of bombing other countries to distract from the sex scandal well i disagree with your premise i think it's a good question but i disagree with your premise that he's turned into a belligerent president he had to limited strikes against syria in retaliation for chemical weapons use killing children women and children innocent civilians and so evocative showed those pictures when he realized the civilian death toll in syria in iraq in pakistan in yemen in all of these places american higher civilian

casualties are higher even than obama's and obama was a pretty belligerent president that's a saudi coalition and that's that's not is being us which is being fueled unarmed by the us and the iranians again or in yemen causing the whole problem ok but i'm not. going to donald trump supporters i'm asking about donald trump donald trump is trying to mitigate some of the things being done by countries like iran i mean but he's being belligerent in doing so we're going to go to the audience and take the lady at the front yes my question is do you think donald trump will get reelected in twenty twenty great question he very well may depends on when he runs against we need russian help in twenty twenty. global. i was going to. use because you said you said the kremlin helped him you said it not me it really was going on who runs against him because if a person is very well qualified can get the votes going to qualifications matter i mean there's a donald trump approved the color going is don't matter how do you define qualifications you can i mean if you can be on home alone to be president you can be president you're going to be in the glass. briefly as an american base in

northeastern nigeria would partner on a daily basis with one hundred ninety million jerry and i think very simply i just have trouble squaring the forest for the tree argument how does calling the country increase our national security well thank you for your service and i'm sure i know it must be very difficult over there i think he's a plain spoken guy he says whatever he wants let the chips fall where they may and besides that was a comment that was supposed to be among senators got leaked out who knows exactly what he said there's been a lot of debate about that but here's the get here's a guy who says whatever he wants and like i said i think the west should get used to that more reality t.v. stars will be elected because that's all it takes is to win the majority of the votes but not everyone in the electoral college i realize that not every reality t.v. is a race is to be fed to reality t.v. race i wouldn't say he's a racist but i know you wouldn't say that but i don't know if you told me one get us this morning going to we're getting used to it that's the problem let me ask you one last question you advised donald trump during

a critical period of his campaign you didn't get a job in government you've got masses of debt relief from all the russia stuff and donald trump seems to have hung people out you out to draw you are you just another one of the president's many many victims well that's a good question too from what a lot of people see in the press and what they know but i did get five figure legal bills of this which fortunately my campaign colleague michael cluedo raise a third of the million dollars on a legal fund that he was able to pay my legal bills off entirely thanks to him but you know president trump just basically moves forward and if people quit or they get fired or something happens to them that's just the nature of the business and give it a problem it's what happens it's kind of unfortunate that a lot of people been scooped up in the which what i can tell you is if you work for president trump there are there's no shortage of people who want to crucify you and come after your scalp i think this is a great opportunity to come to oxford to speak with you because of my role in the campaign and you'll still as loyal to trump a fan of trump as you were in some. twenty sixty well i would say that what still

turn of hillary clinton she would've been a lot of us already a good dose of that i'll be able to draw i think that a lot of trump what's the alternative i'm a fan of what mr trump is doing for his policies no i can't support everything he does or tweets but overall i'm supportive of his policies and i defend them all the time j.d. gordon we'll have to leave it there i want to thank our audience here in the oxford union i want to thank our panel of experts and i want to thank j.d. gordon for joining us as our guest here in the oxford union tonight thank you for coming on and ted thank you very.

cost how the concentration of internet profits in a handful of companies is impacting everyone else africa's blue economy about the lack of doctor and protections grow the diamond mining becomes a reality counting the cost on al-jazeera. have a bit of wood to walt is on its way through south australia and then probably we're down towards a city through victoria's that little. little system which will knock temperatures off it is a bit so you probably get some work seventeen degrees and with adelaide and melbourne come saturday with the showers a little bit further north back really sixteen in person the sunshine but there's a cold front in the box on its way through the attention.