phil. i remember we used to read. that does ring a bell. thank you, gentlemen, for letting us know where we are. thanks. thanks to our international viewers for watching. for you "cnn newsroom" is next. for u.s. viewers, "new day" is next. >> president trump facing the most critical week of international diplomacy. >> we need definitive action condemning north korea. >> it is hard not to interpret president trump's statements as a warning. >> if it comes to the necessity to protect ourselves, we always had all options on table. >> wherever the russian evidence takes us in terms of the trump campaign is where we go. >> i will tell people when they see the president use the word "fake" it ought to setoff alarm bells. >> mitch calls it a filibuster. we call it the 60-vote standard.

>> this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. good good morni >> good morning. welcome to "new day." mr. trump raising the stakes before a meeting with china's president saying the u.s. is prepared to act alone if china does not take a tougher stand against north korea's nuclear ambitions. >> the military threat from pyongyang at the top of the president's agenda when he hosts china. it comes as donald trump meets with egypt's president. a key meeting. later this week, he meets with jordan's king. and things heat up in the senate over supreme court nominee. we are 74 days into the presiden presidency. let's start with joe johns live at the white house. >> reporter: good morning, chris. president trump meeting with the leaders of three nations this week as the new administration tries to get off to a good start on the world stage. the first of those meetings

occurring to try essentially to reboot the relationship with egypt. meanwhile on capitol hill, the white house continues to deal with allegations of collusion involving the russians and last election. president trump kicking off a week of high profile diplomatic talks. hosting abdel fattah el sisi at thes white house today ahead of the sit down with king abdullah on wednesday. on thursday and friday, president trump will host chinese president xi jinping for the first time at mar-a-lago resort. for the most important diplom diplomatic meetings thus far. a key point of contention, north korea's nuclear ambition. president trump offering a vague, but head turning assessment to "the financial times." saying he may act unilaterally, quote if china is not going to solve north korea, we will.

the president tweeting he expects the high profile meeting with china will be difficult. particularly after all of the tough talk during the campaign. >> we can't continue to allow whine to rape our country and that's what they're done. >> china is responsible for nearly half of our entire trade deficit. >> reporter: the president's son-in-law and senior adviser jared kushner expected to play a key role. kushner rapidly becoming the foreign policy point man. all of the diplomatic meetings come as the cloud of russia continueses to hangover the trump administration. the president standing behind his unfounded wiretapping claim insifting he does and regret the tweets. >> i would tell people whenever they see the president use the word "fake" it should setoff

alarm bells. >> reporter: the top official at the house committee he says he is treating the issue with michael flynn with healthy skepticism. s as senator john mccain continuing to push for special investigation. >> every time we turn around, another shoe drops from the centipede. we have to do this in a bipartisan fashion. >> reporter: the white house sending signals the president will not press very hard on human rights issues with egypt and china. he will take a private and discreet approach to some of the issues. a big departure from the obama administration handled it. chris. >> big week. joe, thank you. president trump vowing to solve the north korean nuclear threat. here is the key part. with or without help from china. how are these comments going to affect the high stakes meeting

with the president littater thi week? we have cnn's will ripley joining us now from beijing. what do you know, will? >> reporter: i know that so far publicly, chinese officials do not seem fazed from the comments in "the financial times" from the president. they put out a politely worded statement saying there is was a conversation between secretary of state rex tillerson and the top diplomat. they talked about the importance of the meeting. these are two powerful world leaders with different approaching who will get together on a golf course of all places, considering that xi jinping has banned public officials from golfing here in china. the u.s. thinks china is the key to reining in north korea. for a long time, china argued the united states needs to engage with the north. they do not have the economic leverage they feel they do. i can tell you from traveling to north korea and talking to officials there. they say they will not give up the nuclear program with or

without pressure from china. if china doesn't cooperate with the u.s., the options are limited for trump. he could face an imminent nuclear test or icbm launch. north korea is preparing and could push the button on those things any moment. >> thank you, will, for that reporting. fshl now to the showdown in washington. the committee is set to vote on the nomination of neil gorsuch for the supreme court. will the gop go nuclear? we have suzanne malveaux live on capitol hill with more. >> reporter: good morning, the sh showdown in full force as this is president trump's most significant achievement yet. could he get neil gorsuch on the supreme court? both sides leaning over the weekend for what will happen in three hours. the committee will start the heart atta hearing. this will set the stage for three days of debate on the full

senate floor. now republicans, they need that 60 vote to break the debate. how and when that debate is broken is critical. they have 52 in the majority. they need eight democrats to do that. if it does not happen, we have heard from mitch mcconnell who says the nuclear option is on the table and he will change the threshold from 60 to 51 to make sure gorsuch gets the up or down vote. >> neil gorsuch will be confirmed this week. how that happens depends on the democratic friends. how many are willing to impose cloture. >> he refuses to answer the most rudeme rudementary questions. there was a seismic change in my caucus. it is unlikely he will get 60. >> reporter: here is the state of play. republicans all align and they will support gorsuch.

democrats now have three that have crossed the line here. latest happened yesterday. joe donnelly of indiana. he announced he was supporting. and joe manchin and heidi heitkamp of north dakota. chris. >> suzanne, thank you very much. joining us now is anthony scarmucci. former member of the trump transition team. >> great to see you, chris. >> big week. egypt, jordan and centerpiece, china. strong words from the president in "the financial times" interview. i'll go it alone. he said during the campaign china is raping us. strong words. where is his head? >> i think he will have a great meeting. at the end of the day, he respects china. he respects president xi. he recognizes a huge problem with north korea. he wants china's help.

my guess is he will get that help. there are enough things on the table. one of the issues dating back to 1972 is we have a strong trading relationship. my guess is, the president is putting that out on the table. he will probably leave mar-a-lago with a deal in some shape. >> deal on north korea? there is a reason china is slow. $7 billion in trade. shared border. culture ties. >> we all understand that. they also probably don't want north korea to become south korea. if north korea becomes south korea, look at south korea. how wonderful the economic miracle is in south korea. it is too much of a juxtapositi juxtaposition. i believe the president has enough things on the table that are of interest to china where

we can get something done to dial back the security threat of north korea. >> what is your guidance on how real people or how much weight people should put in the president'ss suggesti suggestio could go it alone. that could mean preemptive action. >> i don't think he said military action. >> he didn't say it. do you think that should be seen as a suggestion? >> i do. i think at the end of the day, the president is a bold decisive leader. he is sending a message to the chinese and rest of the world. we will deal with this problem. this is a security threat to not only our allies like japan, but to the west coast of the united states. he's the president of the united states. his number one objective and priority is to protect american citizens. of course, he will deal with it unilaterally if he has to. i predict he won't have to. i think there is enough common interest and common cause between the two nations. these are two very bright

leaders. i think they will come and reach common ground. >> the idea of preemptive strike. do you think the president is aware it is one thing to say it, but if if that, god forbid, scenario, it happens. you have miles separating. >> i didn't see him say that. i read the interview in "the financials times." i don't want to go in the direction. what is on the table is we need to deal with the problem. if i have to deal with the problem myself as the united states representing the american people, i'll do that. my guess is he won't have to do that. >> so, this is a big week. it's a foray into international relations. he has been dealing with merkel and japan. this is different this week. he could have just set the table for this conversation. this weekend, he went back after the russia intrigue. he went back after the media about it. why? >> he doesn't like it. >> i get he doesn't like it.

every time he says it is not legitimate, he feeds it. >> that may be true. he is frustrated by the fact that and people have said this before. there is a conclusion looking for evidence. he is basically saying a lot of this stuff is not true. i know the stuff related to me wasn't true as example. >> you're not in it. you have never been a real player. >> elizabeth warren asked steve mnuchin to investigate me for shaking hands with somebody at the restaurant. >> you are not part of the probe. >> this is an ugly business. you think journalism is bad? i thought wall street was bad until i descended upon washington and realized the nature of the business. the group of people who oppose the president and hurt his administration are bringing up all these russia ties which when i looked at it and i did work on the transition team and sat in a lot of meetings. there were no russia ties. >> did you know when you were doing the transition you had all

these guys talking to sflushz did you know about the problems with flynn and disclosure? >> i actually didn't know that. >> that's the point, right? >> the problems with flynn and disclosure, have you filled out one of the forms before? flynn is an american patriot. i don't like what is going on in the media. he is now part of the political meat grinding process, we are going to chop him up. >> you forced him to resign. they had all of the cover they needed from the fbi. they said no charges. you still threw him under the bus. >> that may be your interpretation of the situation. the general's interpretation of the situation is he did not want to harm the president. he stepped aside as a result of that. most people that are american patriots will do that. what i don't like about thes situation is this an american patriot who served in the military. now us, the media, the

administration. we will throw him in the meat grinder? this is not fair to him. >> this is a fair characterization? he says i'm willing to talk, but it is a witch hunt which is echoed by the president. thats doesn't do anyone any favors. he says he wants immunity. he says it means you committed a crime. he put himself in that position. nothing else. >> he said that maybe a couple years ago. >> when it was convenient. now it is not convenient. >> chris, here's what happens. when you are in the situation, and you know this and i know this. i didn't know this before, but now i worked in washington and had experience in washington, it is a verbally deadly business. what the general needs to do is he has to protect himself and family. i think the president tweeted about it. >> he called it a witch hunt. >> i don't follow his tweets as

closely as you. i guess he is supportive of the general. >> why dpidn't he keep him? >> i think what ends up happening is you don't want to be a distraction. >> that would be fine if the president -- that's why i introduced. when you say -- of course. he calls it a hoax. it's no hoax. you have nunes running around doing all of the gymnastics. it's not a hoax. >> is this a legitimate news story? some people called it watergate and all this nonsense. i don't believe it is. we can define hoax. >> fbi has been looking at it since july. to me it is the beginning of the end of a hoax. how about for you? >> let's let the fbi have the investigation. >> that is plenty against

clinton. >> take the president at his word. i also think i was involved with a lot of different situations. he's calling it a hoax. i would say there is specius evidence and probably no linkage. i think the president will be vindicated in what he is saying. >> right. except, those are two different things. one is will there be proof of collusion? high bar. people should go slowly on that. it is always accurate when we are told there is no proof thus far of that. we haven't been given any. we know they have been looking at it since july. it is important for comey to come out and address it. we know the problems with being truthful about disclosure keep being a problem for the administration. collusion doesn't give you the equation of hoax. there are real questions there. otherwise the fbi would not waste their time. before you say it is political, the president called comey a

star and kissed him on the chief like an italian. he puts trust on this man. why shouldn't you? >> i have enormous amount of respect for james comey. >> how is it a hoax? he doesn't say it is a hoax. >> i think what he is doing is he has to do a process. i think what the president respects about james comey is he is a high evinn ty ri ty guy. i think the conclusion of the investigation is that there is really no there there. >> let it play out. >> let it play out. here we are. we have a couple of big issues going on. number one, situation with china. i predict he will have a fantastic meeting and meaningful results. number two, supreme court nomination this week. we can toss a coin to get to the 60 votes. my guess is he is confirmed. that is a huge win for america

and the president. when you think of justice gorsuch, he is a phenomenal guy. he will be a meaningful addition to the court. we can talk about the other issues, but there are three things that are going to happen this week, chris, that will be positive for donald trump. >> the question becomes will the president let himself succeed with china and gorsuch? this morning, he was tweeting about this with russia. anthony scaramucci. >> are you going to kiss me? >> off camera. >> you can't get in trouble for that. you can take that to the break. meanwhile, an opponent once called donald trump the chaos candidate. now is that an asset or l liabili liability? we have that take next. that. do you have things you want to do before you retire? i'd really like to run with the bulls. wow. hope you're fast. i am. get a portfolio that works for you now and as your needs change with investment management services.

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during the presidential campaign, jeb bush called donald trump the quote chaos candidate. so that chaos, of course, helped trump win the white house. is it now hurting him? joining us now is cnn political reporter chris eliza.

he wrote an article on this topic. good morning. >> good morning. >> spoiler alert. your premise is the chaos is now hurting him. what is your evidence of that? >> look. i did the math. i was an english major in college. i can add up days. from january 20th until today, it has been 73 days that donald trump has been president. i counted two days that you could legitimately say this. the day he nominated neil gorsuch as supreme court judge. that is about 3% of his days. you have just played the graphic. we're three quarters of the way through the first 100 days. >> chris, i have to challenge your premise. i just sat down with the trump supporters. >> here we go. >> they see all sorts of

victories. you see two victories. let's go through the ones they mentioned. they love he is rolling back regulations with executive orders. they love he got carrier to keep jobs here. they love he enhanced the power of i.c.e. they could go on and on. they see the chaos as keeping washington off kilter and they like that. >> they do. i do think that is true. i think it is possible that in four years time or three and a half years time, donald trump will say i did many of the things you just talked about, alisyn. that will both get his base revved-up and win enough to get reelected. i don't think that rules it out. the problem he had, chris did the undinterview with anthony. he said the most important thing. donald trump doesn't let himself win enough. for someone who he made it win and all he knows is cutting good

deals. he under cuts the policy proposals that he has gotten accomplished. health care is not one of them. you are right. no question on regulation. no question on wizari.c.e. environmental things. the problem is he just keeps getting in his way on twitter or ten minutes of speeches. >> whether or not -- you can find trump people all over the country in every stretch. people voted for him in different reasons. disruption was a big part. he will have support. every poll shows it. he is he ask at least 70%. the point of scaramucci is will he let himself succeed? china. gorsuch. what is he tweeting about right now? did hillary clinton ever apologize for receiving the answers to the debate? he just tweeted that four

minutes ago. there's your answer. by the way, hillary clinton never got debate questions from. it was for a town hall. >> he is getting in his way. >> that is true. i mentioned this in the piece. chaos worked as a candidate because other people to get off kilter. whether it is marco rubio. lying ted. attacks on hillary clinton. he made hillary clinton and her team second guess the right thing to do because he is unpredictable. the problem when you are president, particularly for the first period of time, it is you against you. there is no opponent there. broadly speaking democratic party. the chaos boomerangs back on

you. it is not an obvious foe. >> we have seen some of the chaos. maybe it is not boomeranging back on him. look at the freedom caucus. he is now making -- he is keeping them off kilter. >> didn't they just get a big win? >> yes, they did just get a big win. it is the unpredictability of that may keep current opponents or foreign leaders or democrats off kilter as well. maybe that works to advantage. >> it could. i would say, alisyn, you have not seen it do it that much yet. health care was a failure within the republican party. say what you wouldn't about democrats. none supporting it. the republicans have majority in the house. if they get their members to vote for it, they should be fine. gorsuch. we will see. obviously this is a big week for it. let's see where it shakes out. as a relation to diplomacy and foreign relations, he had awkward issues with angela

merkel. he has had a nice appearance with the japanese prime minister. the china week will be difficult given what he said about them. let's see. i think you are right that donald trump believes chaos, unpredictabili unpredictability. that is his m.o. it is what works for him. i think the white house is a different animal than the campaign. that is different from a business and just a public figure and brand face. we'll see. again, it is 73 days in. he has plenty more days. >> it is the pattern. >> throughout his life, chris. not just in the white house. >> true. this is a week where again you could have let it just be about the events happening this week. fine. call the russia probe a hoeax. that means are you calling james comey a liar. you kissed him on the face.

his tweets today. reporting about unmasking. there is no there there in terms of that being the story. this is about russian interference. not about leaks. saying this is about john podesta and his brother. and the most recent tweet. did clinton apologize for the debate questions? he is creating a story on a week that could have been about good news. >> that's what is odd. he got a lot of credit during the campaign. i think rightly so. he was able to deflect negative stories with the twitter feed. this is not more favorable ground. no question, alisyn, the people you talked to will absolutely 100% rally behind this idea that he just tweeted about hillary clinton. no question. they briefed her. of course, the press are democrats. the issue for him more broadly speaking is can he -- is that

enough people to win? it is not enough people to win even in 2016. he won a lot of people on the fence at the last minute who viewed the election of change versus more of the same. he needs to win a decent chunk of these people beyond the people who are going to be for him no matter what to get reelected. >> sure. those fence sitters and we don't know how they are feeling. >> fence sitters. those tend to be people not paying close attention as we are. they dial in much later on. >> all this going in his column with distractions of trying to change the story? >> unknown yet. chris, thank you. check out chris's piece on cnn.com now. we have been hearing about financial disclosure forms and how they fit in with the russia probe. they are a big part of conflicts. apparent and otherwise, within the white house. the big money deals are raising

the eyebrows of ethics watch dogs. who said what? what do the numbers show us? facts ahead. to sit idl we are here...to leave a mark. experience a shift in the natural order. experience amazing.

time for cnn money now. white house releasing financial information for 180 staff members. big take away? they're loaded. romachristine romans is here to break down the millions. >> here are the big names in the disclosures revealed by the white house. jared kushner's filing show he and ivanka trump are worth $740 million. former goldman sachs gary cohn. $611 million. steve ban man in and kellyanne conway worth tens of millions. they are supposed to post a range. that is why these are not exact numbers. there are new conflict of interest concerns this morning. jared kushner's filing shows ivanka trump has a huge stake in the trump hotel in washington.

it could be up to $5 million to $25 million. they earned up to $5 million of income last year. ivanka will file later this month. she took an unpaid white house job. she will have to have financial numbers on paper. it is unclear if the office of ethics will ask her to divest. the other headline, niemichael flynn did not initially include speaking fees from three russian companies. flynn was paid to speak by russia network for a speech in moscow. chris, that first one to the russian television network is something officials said that particular television station is a propaganda tool for vladimir putin. >> you have the big numbers. that's impressive all by itself. you also have what they mean ins

terms of potential conflicts and the need to resolve. we will discuss that with cnn contributor and formers white house czar and ambassador normal eisen. and former white house ethics lawyer for bush is richard painter. good to see you united in purpose and on new day. counselor painter, you were going at it with the social media director with donald trump for this weekend. i want you on record about that. he was suggesting that they may primary a republican who wasn't helping advance the president's agenda. you said that may violate the law. how so? >> you are not allowed to use your official position for influence in an election. that is illegal under the hatch act. he has the personal twitter page loaded up with official photos of him and the white house. lots of white house stuff on there. that is not a personal twitter

page. that's official. he is using that now to encourage someone to challenge a republican congress member in a primary. that's political activity. that's illegal in an official capacity. he can do it in personal capacity without mentioning his tit title. he would have been fired if he were in the bush administration. >> the guy's name is dan scaveno. thank you very much for that, richard. now we have the numbers from christine, norm. he has a lot of rich people in there. it may matter to some. not to others. why does it matter to syou? >> good morning, chris. it matters to me. we made people unload their holdings. sell them. divest them. because of the conflicts they create. if you take jared and ivanka for

example. they are hanging on to major holdings. real estate. trade. financial debt to big banks. that means they have to recuse in all those areas. if they stumble over an issue, they work on an issue in that area where they shouldn't. we are talking criminal liability. why would the president put his son-in-law and daughter in harms way? why do that? >> the other side to you, richard, you know who these people were when you elected trump and his family. they have a lot of money. there would be a lot of hardship if they divest. people understood they were w h wealthy. it is what it is. it is already baked in. >> well, yes, but they have to comply with the law. it's a criminal statute. what this means is ivanka and jared will have to recuse. they cannot participate in policy discussions in a broad

range of areas. including bank deregulation and finance. real estate is so dependent upon the banking sector. they refuse from tax reform because of the real estate goodies in the tax code. they have to stay out of tax reform. and trade. ivanka is making clothes overseas and bringing them over here and slapping her name on them with a label. everyone else is doing that. that's a trade issue. that is why jobs are going overseas. she and jared will be recusing from trade. wilbur ross has a shipping company, the commerce secretary. i don't know if anyone can deal with trade other than the president and steve bannon. i'm worried about the situation. >> how do you police that, norm? at least let's limit it to the

son-in-law jared kushner. he has been high profile with dealing with the international components of the white house. china. we understand he will be part of that. trade. according to the informal adviser, he will be part of the agenda. how does he not involved himself if he is involved in china? how do you police that? >> chris, even in the normal white house, the policing issues would be complicated. remember, all of ivanka's conflicts are attributed under federal law to her spouse. he is stuck with the fact she has all of these china entanglements, including trademarks like her dad. its gives her a lever over here. they can yank the trademarks. in a normal white house, you have compliance system. richard and i both ran them in the white house. here the compliance system is

broken. when you already have actual or apparent violations by so many people around the president, bannon, priebus, kellyanne conway, mr. lidell. appears he may have violated criminal limitations. we need more information to know for sure. it doesn't seem like they care about ethics and are they really going to tell the boss's son-in-law and daughter don't do that or you have done wrong or i'll report you to the office of government ethics? i don't think so. >> let's ask you something else. richard painter, tom price, health and human services secretary was in the congress obviously and in the house of representatives. an allegation he may have made a sale transaction on a drug company right after creating legislation that was favorable to the regulation to the industry and company. what is your take? >> well, i've worked on insider

trading law for almost 30 years. if you have somebody buying the stock on the same day that the developments are happening in congress and not public information, that's a classic insider trading case. i don't know why the s.e.c. is not looking into it. this is not a thing the member of congress should do. move in and out of stocks at the same time they are working on bills that will effect the price of the stocks. there are insider trading issueses and conflict of interest issues. i don't know how he got in the mess. >> we will see if it develops into a mess. you said the infraction is only as good as enforcement. richard painter, ambassador norm and eisen. thank you. >> chris, a dire situation in colombia. hundreds of people killed in the devastating mudslides. we have the latest from there next. your insurance company

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there are new developments in the deadly mudslides in colombia. more than 250 people dead. we have cnn's dave briggs with more. >> good morning. more than 100 soldiers and police officers involved in the ongoing rescue effort trying to find survivor ones when the city of mocoa was effectively washed away. in southern colombia scenes of devastation. avalanche of flood waters in mocoa sweeping away cars and

homes and trees as residents slept saturday morning. >> the flood waters stuck up in the mountain. when it came down, people did not have time to react. >> reporter: the violent mudslides killing over 250 people and injuring hundreds of others. rescuers seen here searching through the mud and rubble for survivors. while heart broken families line up outside a cemetery waiting for answers. >> translator: i am looking for my daughters and a tiny granddaughter. they disappeared when it happened. i haven't been able to find them. i ask the world and society to help me. i need help. >> reporter: the colombian presidents says the organization save the children said 70 were separated from the families. the scramble to reunite the families to get utilities and hospitals back online. >> this will last days or weeks.

dave, thank you. president trump is set to face with china's president this week. how will his stern warning and strong words about china's actions in the past affect their meeting this week? we discuss next. they'll call back. no one knows your ford better than ford and ford service. right now, during the big tire event, get a $140 rebate by mail, on four select tires. ♪

president trump's stern warning to china that the u.s. could act alone if china does not respond to north korea's nuclear threat is setting the stakes for a high stage meeting thursday as president trump meets two other world leader this is week. let's discuss all of this with editor-in-chief of the "hindustan times" bobby goesh and former national security adviser tony blanken. great to have both of you. let me read to you what president trump told the financial times in an interview about north korea and china, here is the headline, he says "well, if china is not going to solve north korea, we will. that's all i am telling you." how do you interpret that, bobby? >> i'm sure the chinese will, as i do, as pure bluff.

the united states has no real cards to play with north korea. we've got sanctions against the country, not a lot more sanctions. >> why can't we use a military response to take out weaponry? >> against a country that has nuclear weapons and highly unstable leader, i don't think that would be wise. i don't think anybody in the u.s. military would advise the president to do anything like that. and we have 30,000 troops is it in south korea, very important ally, another important ally in japan, destabilize all of east asia, major, major trading sort of hub for american goods and services. so no, i don't think the u.s. really has any levers it can exercise in north korea. it sounds to me like pure bluff. >> do you agree, tony? >> well here's the challenge. north korea has relentlessly pursued the capability of a long range missile that can reach the united states with a nuclear weapon. it's something sell rated theerts to get one. if you put the technology in the hands of a leader who acts at

best impulsively and maybe irrationally that is unacceptable for us. the problem is most of their program is buried deep underrouunde underground, they're developing missiles that can be rolled out and fueled in a matter of minutes and launched. how do you get them back to the negotiating table to denuclearize. china does have a unique card to play. its relationship with north korea, its economic relationship is unlike any other country in the world, virtually all of north korea's trade goes to, through or with china. if china exerts real pressure, combined with pressure from other countries around the world there's at least a possibility of getting the north koreans to the table to negotiate. meanwhile the president's right that we have to take every reasonable measure to defend ourselves. and i think hopefully that's what he's talking about. missile defenses that the chinese don't like, for example, we've got to do to protect ourselves and allies that we're also sworn to defend. >> has china shown any appetite for exerting pressure on north

korea? >> in the margins, not seriously, because i think china has some legitimate fears. they fear if not korea imploede they have major refugee crisis on their borders, because hundreds, millions of north koreans will be streaming north into china and that's a situation china doesn't want. >> sounds like what president trump and the white house is saying is that it has to work to try to get china to act as parental xwidance from north korea hasn't work. let's try something different. >> that is the sort of you've captured in a nutshell trump's foreign policy. stuff hasn't worked shall let's try something new. it's a seductive idea but if stuff hasn't worked there's a reason why it hasn't worked, and with north korea i wouldn't go that far. i think north korea has been contained. if you ask south koreans, they'd say this is the best possible under the circumstances. it's not always a good idea to kick in the hornet's nest or the

beehive just because you can. the consequences of getting this wrong are enormous. this is not some obscure little country with no weapons and in a part of the world we don't care about. we do care about it enormously. >> tony, i don't have to tell you, dealing with north korea is not easy and going hat in hand to china once again, how is that going to change anything? >> it's not going hat in hand. it's making clear to the chinese as they have core interests so do we. north korea has become a core interest. we have to take steps that china doesn't like if it can't help us solve the problem. more missile defenses. more military presence in the region, sanctions potentially on chinese companies and individuals engaged with the north korean regime. none of this is directed at china but the point is, china fears bobby is right, instability. north korea has become the greatest source of instability in the region. china needs to do more to deal with the challenge. >> okay, so maybe that's what president trump is going to

spell out when he meets with president xi this week. hard to know because he's not talking about that. how do you think this meeting will if? >> well i think tony is right. if he were to say to the chinese look, if you are not going to get involved a little more with this problem, we'd like to get involved ourselves. we have to protect our interests. we have to protect our allies in south korea. we have to protect our allies in japan. we are going to put more military hardware on, in east asia, that might get the chinese attention a little about the. but the chinese know that it is at the end of the day really a bluff. they do know that the united states does not have any levers against the north koreans. they are the only ones who do, they've always maintained that north korea is not a problem that can be solved like that. it takes a long, slow process. it is the chinese way, it is in their neighborhood. they have much more to lose ifi. i think president trump has to

show a little respect on that. >> meanwhile jared kushner has just landed in baghdad. he was invited by the chairin' ma of the joint chiefs to accompany him and says that his goal there is to express the president's support and commitment for the government of iraq. my question is what role is jared kushner playing in iraq, playing with these china discussions, and how is it different than the secretary of state? >> alisit's a great question. he seems on it the de facto secretary of state, relationships with the chinese ambassador w the turks, with the saudis, now the iraqis. on the other hand, it's good that he's there looking at this firsthand, looking at the progress that we've made, supporting the iraqis in dealing with the islamic state, having real success in mosul, and hopefully continuing that effort. but you know, this goes to a larger question, and the larger question is, up until now, we haven't seen a lot of regular order in this administration when it comes to making foreign

policy. it's supposed to be center around the national security council. the national security adviser brings everybody to the table, they can he bait and speak the policy. there's a lot of freelancing going on. >> we have a republican lawmaker coming up, gentlemen thank you very much. bobby great to have you in studio. we're following a lot of news this morning so let's get right to it. president trump facing the most critical week of international diplomacy. >> we need to see definitive actions by china condemning north korea. >> it's hard not to interpret donald trump's statements as a warning. >> if it comes to the necessity to protect ourselves, we've always had all options on the table. >> wherever the russian evidence takes us in terms of the trump campaign is where we'll go. >> i would tell people whenever they see the president use the word "fake" it ought to set off alarm bells. >> neil gorsuch will be confirmed. how that