wonderful relationships also have human rights policies. we have this selection policy, that seems to work on the whim of how the president feels on a given day. >> you have a policy that says to me that the military option is always the first option, the military option should be the last option. when you look at increasing the military budget from 67 billion to $17 billion when you look at rolling back the gains we have made with just normal relations with cuba. when you talk about the president really pulling back on the neuclear deal, you see an america that's more mill tarristic. >> we have a lot more to discuss and luckily we're on a special extended edition of state of the union. >> this is cnn breaking news.

and we are following breaking news this morning, north korea claiming it has successfully tested a hydrogen bomb. the north koreans also released pictures of leaders kim jong-un inspecting a hydrogen bomb that can fit on their intercontinental ballistic missiles. as for president trump, he's going to meet with his national security team later today and the president also sent a series of sunday morning tweets. north korea has conducted a major nuclear tests, their words and action s continue to be ver hostile and to the united states. south korea is finding, as i have told them is that their

talk of appeasement with north korea will not work, they only understand one thing. will ripley is in tokyo, he's one of the only american journalists that has spent time inside north korea. you just returned yesterday, your fourth trip, what do you think this test means? >> this test is sending a very strong message to the united states and the trump administration, dana, it's a message of defiance, it's a message that north korea will not back down, and that was the message that was reiterated. the north koreans continue to be furious over a number of things. they're furious about the joint military drills, regularly scheduled that wrapped up last week, two week drills that north and south korea engage in every year, and every year the regime is infuriated about that. and then when the u.s. conducted a missile intercept test, when

there were bombing drills over the korean peninsula, the united states decided to act. north korea is re-north korea wants to be recognized as a nuclear power. the united states has said that north korea must denuclearize or it won't sit down and talk. and they're still furious and have been for many weeks about president trump's fire and fury remarks, talking about raining down destruction on their country. and north korea was strategizing and seething and this is their most provocative act ever. >> thank you for joining us from tokyo, and joining me now here

in washington is the top democratic on the house intelligence committee, congressman adam schiff of california. thank you for coming in. >> you bet. >> first question is about what north korea announced, that they detonated a hydrogen bomb and that they have the capability to place it on top of an icbm. do you think that claim is legit based on what we know from our u.s. intelligence sources? >> this was a much more powerful weapon, it will take some days or weeks to determine whether this was a boosted physician device. we also, i think, have some skepticism about the claim that they can only mount this on an it's icbm. i think at some point during this president's terms of office, so it is a grave threat to the united states and one we're going to have to respond to. >> but you do think that the

north korean claim that they tested a hydrogen bomb is accurate? >> they have tested more icbms than they have tested in the past, it could be a -- it certainly heightens -- start imposing secondary sanctions, that is sanctions on other countries doing business with north korea. we ought to be aiming for a sessi cessation of these programs and hope that will lead to a negotiation where we can actually roll back these programs. but certainly another very disturbing sign. >> let's talk about south korea, while all this is happening,

"the washington post" is reporting that the president has instructed -- in addition to that the president is accusing south korea of pursuing a policy of appeasement. this is what the president tweeted this morning. south korea is finding as i have told them that their talk of appeasement with north korea will not work, they only understand one thing. is that the right approach? >> no, i mean i'm sure that pyongyang enjoys seeing us fight with our own ally in the region, i'm not sure what the president e 's point is, especially today, that south korea is feeling threatens, we need to be working hand in hand with south korea and japan and other core ur oth. that's the only prospect for a peaceful path to this, so why we

would want to show -- >> he is not the first president to deal with these very tough choices, and that is the nuclear process that's going on in north korea, try to ing to deal with diplomatically, when he talked about fire and fury, like he did in the past few weeks, do you think that's the right approach? >> i think those kinds of statements are counter product give with a regime that already fears we are going to invade north korea and have imperialist ic -- to look at the lessons we learned and how we dealt with iran and how we dealt with the soviet union in terms of getting

a cessation or roll back of their nuclear programs, there are some good templates for us to use, but none of them involved the fiery rhetoric that's appropriate for pyongyang than washington. let's strategy with our allies about how we can maximize pressure. at the end of the day, it all starts with china, the test is as much aimed at china as it is the united states. china is hosting, president xi is hosting this summit. they ought to be heavily motivated to do manager, they want to see a collapsed of the north regime, but nonetheless, there's a lot more china can do if we give china the right incentives. >> and the trump administration has been trying with china, just like again his predecessors, he hasn't been that successful, but we'll see if that changes. congressman, we have a lot more to talk about, a whole host of

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from the same company? that's why xfinity mobile comes with your internet. you get up to 5 lines of talk and text at no extra cost. so all you pay for is data. see how much you can save. choose by the gig or unlimited. and ask how to get $200 off the latest devices. xfinity mobile. a new kind of network designed to save you money. call, visit, or go to xfinitymobile.com. welcome back to the "state of the union." i'm dana bash. i'm joined by democratic congressman adam schiff, ranking member of the house intelligence committee. i want to turn your attention to what you have been spending most of your time on and that is the russia investigation. the long-time attorney of the trump administration, michael

cohen, during the beginning of the campaign, during the primary season reached out to the kremlin about building a donald trump tower in moscow. this was while president trump's campaign was under way. how does that factor into your investigation? >> we had requested documents from mr. cohen. it means among other things that the president was dishonest when he said during the campaign that he had no business in russia, was pursuing no business in russia, so i think yet another misleading statement about the administration's business with russia. if they were pursuing business in russia during the campaign, that might have influenced the steps that the candidate took. if they were going to criticizing putin, criticizing russia, that the dmin tissimini

chances that this deal would go through. i expect we will have mr. cohen come in and severtestify, we'll mr. sadder come in and testify. >> felix sader who was born in russia, but also was trying to coordinate this for the russian -- how to find out during those deal talks the financing and where the financing was going to come from? >> this was a broader concern and that was a whole range of else about money laundering and if there were any kind ofeither --

could be leveraged on the president's future actions. >> and congressman, you have started to get a lot of these documents that you have subpoenaed, is there an early answer to that question? was there an attempt to money lauchbder? >> that was one of the more serious allegations that we need to look at, that i think bob mueller needs to look at because anything that could exert continuing influence could -- >> special counsel robert mueller has a letter or document that appears to show the real reason why president trump fired james comey, it was a document that president trump worked on, allegedly with stephen miller, one of hiss top aides, have you seen that document? >> i have not seen that document and we wrote to the white house after the president claimed that there were tapes with comey, any

tapes that memorialized conversations with comey. and if they have such materials they need to turn them over so we have all relevant documents. >> you're an experienced prosecutor and you have been investigating this. if president trump said he was firing james comey because of the russian investigation, is that obstruction of justice? >> it's potential obstruction of justice, and it's something that mr. mueller would have to consider, it's something our committee needs to get to the bottom of, but it's consistent, or would be consistent with something the president himself admitted. and it's in contrast to what he initially said that this was about his handling of the clinton email investigation. it's a further attempt to

conceal the real motive. so yes, it is evidence of obstruction of justice. >> thank you for coming in and especially on the north korean news this morning. appreciate it. and our breaking news is north korea, claiming it tested what it claims to be the most powerful nuclear bomb so far. we're going to speak with the former cia and nsa director, michael hayden, stay with us. ♪so nice so nice ♪so nice so nice ♪st. croix full of pure vibes ♪so nice so nice ♪virgin islands nice ♪so nice it's time for the biggest sale of the

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welcome back to state of the union, i'm dana bash and we are following the breaking news, north korea claiming it has successfully tested a hydrogen bomb. this just after the country released photos of kim jong-un examining what the north koreans are calling a hydrogen bomb being loaded on to an intercontinental ballistic missile. and michael hayden is a former cia and director of the nsa. thank you so much, general

hayden for coming in. first question is, what every american waking up wants to know, how much dangerous is the united states in right now? >> we're on that predictable arc that most people watching this problem expected. the timing may have been a bit of a surprise. the north i believe was going to do this. this is their plan, this is where they were going, they're doing it for their own purposes, i don't mean to criticize the current administration, i think some of the things they have done to amp up the pressure on north korea is absolutely appropriate. but you realize, the turtle, after severen -- seven months after north korea's nuclear program, while president obama

was president and while president bush was president. >> you believe, they said this on august 9, that trump has a coherent plan on north korea and it was inartfully executed. a lot johas changed as you just mentioned. do you think that the white house has a plan to deal with north korea? >> i think you have to watch the tweets. i think we had an unforced error when we brought up our trade agreement on our south korean friends on whom we rely for this problem, the president indicated he wanted to renegotiate that policy. so still, unartfully executed. but again, i think our policy is to impress upon the chinese how seriously we view this.

north korea is the longest predictable arc. the unpredictable actor has been us. we have actually acted with more sound and fury than i think the chinese are accustomed to. i think we have done that with purpose, which is in essence to discomfort the chinese with the situation. >> in all fairness, this is what you were pointing out with the part of the trump policy on north korea that you like, that everything you have tried in the past few decades has not worked, why not rattle the cage of the chinese. but it's not worked. >> 18, 24 bmonths ago, we would probably be on this arc with the north koreans getting more capable and more dangerous, we would be there almost certainly within our current definition of acceptable risk. and clearly what the trump

administration has decided to do is to embrace a bit more risk, to be a bit more activist, a bit more destabilizing of the peace of the peninsula, not influence the north koreas, they're not influenceable, but to amp get t chinese to amp up their -- there's a difference between a int intercontinental ballistic test than a -- that gives us an opportunity here to get the chinese to get the region to do more. >> president trump is going to meet with his national security team today. if you were in that meeting, what would you be arguing for on how to act right now? >> so first of all, the military options are all bad. they're not zero, and the chairman of the joint chiefs has pointed out, there are never no military options, behawe have g

them but nuone of them are good. this may be the time now to really hammer home, we're definitely serious about your performance, china, on sanctions, not just the ones that were recently passed by the security council, but amping up the sanctions between china and north korea. north korean is dependent on china for their energy. >> what do you think that trying to do that now with china is going to be any more successful than it was yesterday. >> as bad as you and i view what the president did with kim jong-un yesterday with the nuclear test. on balance, i don't think this was aimed at us. i think this was aimed at the chinese, think that was lil' kim saying to xi jinping, you can't

make me stop. and i think there's a proposition that mr. xi might not be able to accept. >> do you have confidence that president trump can handle this? >> i'm confident that he has a very good team. but the tweet that goes out at 5:00 a.m., that unintentionally makes this go to a place we don't want it to go. the other one is this, we just got into a duel with the north korean leader, kim jong-un, i think it was a bad time to get into a hyperbole contest with that guy. the only think i fear is this is a national security issue. don't get your pride get ahead of wise policy here. >> that is very sound advise.

>> few very much, we hope people are watching in the white house. general hayden, thank you for coming in with this breaking news, we appreciate it. and we're going to continue to watch developments on north korea, but also ahead, some republicans are warning president trump to end obama era programs especially those for thousands of young immigrants. stay with us. because i get a safe driving bonus check every six months i'm accident free. and i don't share it with mom! right, mom?! righhht. safe driving bonus checks. only from allstate. switching to allstate is worth it. i enjoy the fresher things in life. fresh towels. fresh soaps. and of course, tripadvisor's freshest, lowest prices.

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what about the dreamers? what about people who came here when they were children? >> the dreamers are a tough situation. but they have to be legal. if they're with their parents, it depends, it sounds cold, it sounds hard, but we have a country, our country is going to hell. we have to have a system where people are legally in our country. >> more than two years ago when donald trump was starting his presidential run, you saw him

vowing the program known as daca, but he also wants to treat dreamers who came to this country with their parents with great heart. let's discuss, our panel is back with us, thanks for coming back and sticking with us. senator, you were involved in a lot of intrarepublican fights. how do you see this playing out? >> i hope that the president abides by the rule of law. the rule of law does not allow a president to uniformly just stop enforcing the law, hopefully he will enforce the law and say that there's an opportunity here for some sort of deal to be worked out where the president gets something he wants and i think the american public wants, which is better border enforcement, whether that means a wall or increased funding for

border security, maybe in exchange for border security on these, quote, dreamers, but for the president to act unilaterally is wrong. number two, you have heard members of congress, both parties say we need to do something about this, but we need to do something that the american public wants which is no change in our immigration policy until we secure the border. >> i want to understand the c context that you worked for water main bre president -- >> the idea of daca being unconstitutional. a lot of presidents have used the idea of constitutional action. if you want to make it a law, let's fix it. as some people are working today, passing a dream act, or passing a bridge act that will

get you to a dream act. we had our 1924 immigration quotas. we had the chinese exclusion act. i think this decision is, if the decision is, let's deport these kids, i think this would be one of the most notorious immigration policies in our history and it would be a permanent blemish on the u.s. forever. >> the republican house kpeeker -- speaker is trying to get the president to act unilaterally without congress, let's listen. >> i obviously don't think he should do that and i believe this is something that congress has to fix. >> okay, let's get real, the reason why this program is in place in the first place, done by executive decision, by president obama is because congress can't get its act together on immigration.

how realistic do you think it is? >> to present and pass legislation for comprehensive immigration reform, actually in 2010, i believe, we passed the dream act for our young people and it got stalled in the senate. first of all, this decision should be weighed in on the president very, very heavily. it is wrong to create this kind of anxiety, these mixed messages, first of all is creating fear, anxiety, our young people here, 800,000 of them are worried to death about what's going to happen to them, they have played by the rules, they have gone to school, they have contributed to the economy, and they have legislation, two congresswomen have presented lessati ati legislation, we know we can get this passed in a bipartisan way, but we should not allow the

fears and an kxiety of these children. >> there are thousands of children who are worried they could be uprooted because of their family. for most of them, this is the only country that they know. so it would be heartless in fact to take them away. just to respond to senator santorum, is issue here is ever president has made decisions that the priorization of what they're going to do as president. if you listen to donald trump, he says he wants to get rid of criminals, these are not criminals, these are people in school, these are people are contributing. 90% of them are working. so they're contributing. courts have upheld it. we're deal with an artificial

deadline. this is only with ags who are threatening to sue. he should get behind that action. >> prioritization is not saying you should remove someone. >> the court -- >> the reality is that the president can in fact prior tite who he's going to remove. >> you can have this argument that it's not constitutional. but we agree we need to save these kids, these kids are americans, they don't know how to speak spanish, they have american values, they play little league just like everyone else. we can't kick them out. so let's change the law, is it a matter of we don't think it's

constitutional. or are there people in this country that are threatened by people who look different than we do? >> with all due respect that people who want to limit immigration in this country, and we have record legvels of legal immigration. we have the largest percentage of immigrants, almost tied with the historical high as the percentage of immigrants in this country. to suggest that anyone who wants to have a policy, we need to examine this to see the impact of working men and women in this country whose wages have been depressed for 20 years. >> that's no it the issue. >> this is the issue. >> you can't blame it on immigrants. >> i'm not blaming it on immigrants, but it's rational for us to have a discussion, and to imply that you can't have a discussion on it and if you do

you're a bigot -- >> there are people who are -- they are using this as -- >> if i can just say one thing, an economy grows with the number of workers in the economy, and the number of jobs in the economy, our native born workforce is not growing fast enough to support the economy. without immigration, we cannot grow. >> wait a >> we have to suggest that the immigration patterns that we have today is a legitimate discussion. >> hey, you guys, wait a minute. we have a moral and ethical responsibility to keep families together, not tear themmi apart. i'm thinking do unto others as you would have them do unto you. so minimally, we should say no,

we're not going to -- >> what if there is a deal in the works to say, let the dreamers stay and in return, the president gets his money for the wall. >> heavens no. >> first of all, young people should not be held hostage by -- >> it's a bargaining chip. i appreciate that rick santorum and donald trump want to use 800,000 people's lives as a bargaining chip for an unnecessary wall or other things. but leadership is saying what's actually right or wrong to do. the fact that if you think it's wrong, don't use them as a bargaining chip. if you think it's right don't use them as a bargaining chip. >> this is a leadership moment for the president. and if he makes a tough decision to get rid of daca, then he's showing leadership. real leadership for the

president would be to go up against his base and says my sense of american values says this is wrong, this is would be leadership. >> what about the president enforcing the law instead of seeing himself as above the law. this president hopefully will obey the law, if the president wants to aford an option to go to the congress to fix this. president obama had a democratic congress and my democratic colleagues, president obama had two years, we had complete control of the house and senate. and don't move any daca. so the idea that there's this outrage that the republicans are not cooperating. border security first, republicans have said that from the beginning. >> both democrats and republicans have tried to get the daca through. >> when the president had control and when democrats

controlled in 2009 and 2010. the president did nothing on this issue. >> neither have other presidents. >> doesn't matter, we didn't have control, they had control. bush didn't have control. president obama had control and he did nothing. >> the reason we have undocumented workers is because our laws do not serve our economy and that is problem, and unless the congress acts and the executive branch works, we don't have farming. our laws don't work, we don't have enough immigrants coming in. >> daca is actually about people who were brought here, kids who have been brought here, they have gone through the system, they have given their addresses, they're not living in the shadows, they have said i'm going to register, essentially with the federal government and now president trump is threatening to use the information they have voluntarily given to the

administration, to the executive branch to kick them out of the country. >> i'm a compassionate man, i have seven children, i'm concerned about children. why am i opposed to this? the reason i'm opposed to this is that when we give amnesty to a group of people, what do you do? you encourage more people to come over. >> you deserve a path of citizenship. >> it's three on one, i have seven kids so i know all about this, there are unintended consequences to what sounds to be a very humane act, which encourages more people to come over here, the only way they know that once they get here, they will get amnesty.

>> the only way to discourage illegal immigration is to change our laws. >> just open our borders. >> let me give you an example. >> how many more do we need? 2 million? 3 million? >> the marketplace will tell us. hold on, we need 1 million farmers. we need 1 million farm workers in the country. oh, stop it, we need 1 million farm workers in the country. let them in legally. [ all talking at once ] >> you don't understand how the economy works. >> i think the audience can hear you better if you speak one at a time. >> let me just tell you one example, okay? we need about 1 million farmer workers, people 20 go out and pick lettuce. and because we don't have a program, hundreds of thousands

come in illegally. >> what about feamily values? what about amnesty. >> we're talking about a policy that destroys families, that keeps families apart. we need to make sure that whatever decision the president makes, hopefully he'll do the right thing is a way to keep families together, keep our young people here who have played by the rules and support , and i think we do have bipartisan support to pass a bill that would -- >> i want to ask you this, if president trump doesn't keep his promise, what will your base, the conservative base do? will they retaliate against him? >> i can't predict that. i think there's a lot of folks that will be very disappointed because the president has made the focus on immigration to be about making sure american workers have the opportunity to

get the good paying jobs and see their wages increase. it's not been as robust as the president likes, like it or not, about 700,000 of these dreamers are actually working in the workplace right now, you can make the argument that they're taking jobs away from people who are here legally. >> if anybody had any doubt, why this is tough, they don't know after watching this discussion. we have agent more to talk about, stand by, up next, we're going to see some advice from one president to another, cnn has obtained a copy of the letter president obama left for his successor, president trump. i am totally blind. and non-24 can make me show up too early... or too late. or make me feel like i'm not really "there." talk to your doctor, and call 844-234-2424. you know win control? be this guy.

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i just went to the oval office and found this beautiful letter from president obama, it was really very nice of him to do that and we will cherish that and we will keep that and we won't even tell the press what's in that letter. >> that was president trump talking about the parting letter president obama left for him on the day of his inauguration, president obama seen through the wind window of the oval office slipping i -- for the first time cnn has an exclusive look at the contents of that special letter in which president obama offered some congratulations and words about the office. congratulations on a remarkable run, millions have placed their

hopes in you and all of us regardless of party should hope for expanded pro eed prosperity secure during your office. i don't know that any advice from me will be particularly helpful. here are a few reflections, first we have both been blessed in different ways with great good fortune. not everyone is so lucky. it is up to us to build ladders of success for every child and family that's willing to work hard. and american leadership in this world really is indispensable. it's up to us to sustain the international order that since the cold war. and upon which our own wealth and safety depend. third we are just temporary occupants of this office, that makes us guardians of those democratic institutions and traditions like rule of law,

separation of powers, equal protection that our forebearers fought and bled for. and finally take time in the rush of events and responsibilities for friends and family, they'll get you through the inevitable rough patches, michelle and i wish you and melania the very best as you embark on this great adventure and know that we stand ready to help in any way we can. >> i think that the letter was very gracious, it was a clear road map for a new administration coming in, and also i think it was especially magnanimous of president obama given the fact that donald trump led the birther movement in an effort to delegitimize our first african-american president.

he chose to rise above that and give words of wisdom that should be listened to. >> some of these sentences are kind of looked at with a different context now. and one of them, and mr. secretary i want you to respond to this. i want to highlight, we are just temporary occupants of this office that makes us guardians of those democratic institutions like rile of law, separation of powers and equal protection and civil liberties that are our forebears fought and bloed for. >> you go in and you make decisions and what you say becomes a mandate. all of a sudden he's got congress and all these institutions, so i think there's a wise message there as well. i think this is a job that ends in four years or ability years, but don't settle in so much. i thought it was a very good

message, actually. >> senator? >> i was just going to ask, actually, looking that you were originally one of his opponents for the republican nomination for president, and you ran as many others did, as somebody who knows the ways of washington. here you have president obama, now we know for the first time, trying to explain in this private letter to donald trump who had never been in washington, worked in washington at all, the ways, do you think that he, president trump is heeding this advice? >> i think what president obama did, you're probably right, to give a rude rude men try understanding of someone who -- i don't think president trump has necessarily heeded a lot of that advice.

it's pretty obvious that he's chosen to do things differently. that's shaken up a lot of people in this town for good or evil. i still believe that we're too early in this process to make a decision on how donald trump is doing. i think there's a lot of things he's done through his administrative actions that has gotten the economy going and there's more things that he has yet to do. >> let's talk about the human and personal part of this, you just saw that it was about eight months ago, that president 2rtrp was genuinely touched by president obama reaching out and for about a week, it seemed to be a good working relationship as president and former president. it didn't last long. >> i think it was within a few weeks that president trump accused president obama of spying on him or using the deep state against him and i think more importantly, i think the

rule of law issues are incredibly vital and actually i have been listening for years to conservatives argue how the presidency is, a president si of limited powers, there is no king. but here we have a president who attacks judges, who attacks the press, those are all ways that we limit the power of office holders and i think he has done everything to ignore the advice that a president actually is not a king, that a president has limited powers, congress is a co-equal branch and republicans as well as democrats show that he thinks he's their boss. i hope he sees his letter on cnn to see that he's a president of the united states, but he does not have unlimited powers, but to attack judges and say no

accountability on me. >> we have to leave it there, thank you for joining us this morning on this extended "state of the union." "reliable sources" starts right now. >> i'm brian stealth lter, welco our viewers in the united states and around the world. let's get right to it. the breaking news about another escalation between north korea and the rest of the world. the appearance of this woman on north korean state television dated a big announcement from the rogue regime. this north korean investigation of a propagandist claims that this was the most successfully tested of a hydrogen bomb