>> brennan: welcome back to "face the nation." i'm margaret brennan. andrew pollack is the father of 1-year-old meadow who was killed last month at the marjorie stoneman douglas high school shooting in parkland, florida. he joins me here. we are so sorry for the loss of your daughter, sir. i know that you've become active. you've been at the white house a number of times including this week. what happened in that meeting this week? >> well first i just want to tell everyone in america that is passionate about school safety like i am, to follow me on remembermeadow.com and they would be able to help me in my cause of what we're going to do moving forward to help every other state move forward towards

making their schools safe so i can be the last dad that ever had to bury a kid killed in a school. >> brennan: you have spoken passionately about this. and americans heard that cry when you spoke to the president directly on camera. you wept back to talk about school safety this week. do you have any pledges from the white house to follow through on some of what you're talking about with school safety? >> well, i went twice to the white house within the last two weeks, the president and everyone of his staff was very compassionate having my family in the white house. what could you say to a murdered kid's father, you know? there's not much anyone is going to say that's going to make anything better for me. but he listened to things and suggestions that i had and what we're working on in florida. and that's my agenda what we're going to move forward and fix these things. i'm not looking at any other

type of agenda right now. and that's why i came here because it's not really -- i grew up -- when i grew up in long island, my father instilled in me, if you wanted something done right, you do it yourself. so right now i'm trying to do things my way and help -- i'm not leaving it up to the president. i'm taking it in my hand with a lot of people behind me and we're going to focus on school safety and that's one of the reasons i'm here today. i have a message that i'd like to get out. >> brennan: you're going and taking that message to tallahassee, florida, i understand, this week. >> yes. one of the reasons why i'm here is because there's been 200 shootings already in this country and there's a reason why it hasn't stopped, because after every shooting the media they focus on gun control. gun control, that's a big problem. but i feel that if we all come

together as parents, grandparents, uncles we just work on this, let's make our schools safe, all the mars that are going on, the kids, i understand the kids' pain. my kid was murdered in that school. if anyone understands it, i understand how angry they are. but i'm here now to talk to them, to say, let's focus on one thing first. let's get our schools safe. then after every school is safe in the country that you can drop your kid off you don't have to worry that some murder ser going to kill your kid on the third floor, they can focus on any gun laws they want. but first, let's come together, we can march right through this country, who is going to stop us? who doesn't want our kid safe? stay focused. stay focused, okay? i'm you can talking to you, you reach out to me. let's stay focused, reach out to me, reach out to my sons who buried their little sister a

couple of weeks ago. let them march with you in dc. let's get the right message across. let's make these schools safe. >> brennan: this weekend the state of florida the state senate rejected to ban assault weapons. some of the classmates of your daughter are among these activists. one of them, jacqueline tweeted, the florida senate has rejected the ban of ar-15 weapon of choice used at my school to kill 17 souls. this breaks my heart but we will not let this ruin our movement, this is for the kids. what do you think your daughter, meadow, would be doing in the wake of something like this? >> that's the problem, again. they're focusing on something that's not achievable. gun laws right now are not achievable. my daughter was murdered by a gun. she should have been safe in the school. that's the problem. that's the first thing i want to address.

i'm not saying don't go after gun laws i'm not a gun expert i'm saying, that's the problem. we need to -- there was 200 shootings, always getting twisted into gun laws and gun control f. we all focus together, one nation, no political affiliation, we could work together and make the school safe. then go fight it out whatever you want. >> brennan: you want armed guards in schools or more bullet-plated glass, what do you want to see? >> i want to see what is in this florida bill passed. that's what i'm for. i'm going to go to tallahassee, i'm leaving tallahassee and i want florida to set an example for the rest of the country. because i went over the bill. i've met with governor scott, governor scott came to my house like twice already, came to the fun ram, calls me on daily base to check up on me. he went -- he showed me this bill, the speaker of the house went over the bill with me.

and we need to get the bill passed in florida that's why when i leave here tonight i'm on a mission, i'm going to tallahassee and i'm going to make sure the bill passes, whatever i have to do. >> brennan: mr. pollack, thank you for coming on and sharing your story with us. we'll be right back with our panel. always go for 100. bring out the bold™ so we know how to cover almost we've anything.st everything even "close claws." [driver] so, we took your shortcut, which was a bad idea. [cougar growling] [passenger] what are you doing? [driver] i can't believe that worked. i dropped the keys. [burke] and we covered it. talk to farmers, we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪

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margaret talev is senior white house correspondent and ed o'keefe for the "washington post" also cbs news contributor. susan, turbulent week, how do you rate this one? >> i think this has -- we've gotten accustom to a level of chaos, it's been untraditional but this week reached a new level. is raising new concerns about the operation of the white house. i think what's different, we've had previous administrations have had rough patches and hard starts. clinton administration had very tough first year. what is different, things are not getting smoother they're not working things out. things if anything are getting more chaotic and with the personnel changes we're seeing and difficulty the president may have in getting experienced people to plan on, may get worse not better. >> brennan: what do you think is the single most sort of defining issue for the week? the security clearances, got a lot of scrutiny, some of that was the fascination with jared kushner as son-in-law. is that something that really

rises to the level of defining a crisis at the white house? >> i think the defining cruise at the white house is the russia investigation. because that is the issue that has the greatest long term consequence ahead. i think that is driving some of the sense of turbulence in the building. >> brennan: margaret, it was a surprise to many on capitol hill, on wall street and some within the house when president made the trade announcement at that cabinet room gathering. no one was quite prepared for him to unvail what he did. why is that a surprise inside the same administration? >> i think when you're talking about defining issues, rush is a the biggest long term pressure but biggest short term development of the week other than that nra was this move on tariffs because when the president is trying to rush to expedite things around half of his own team, that shows -- the possibility for -- there is a

major and ongoing disagreement inside the white house about whether the tariffs will be good or bad for the economy. good or bad for consumers. >> brennan: and against the treasury secretary, against the secretary of state. >> in terms of ongoing stability, there is a sense that gary and couple of those figures that they are going to try to stabilize things when hope hicks, departure, questions about jared kushner how long he can remain in the job, unsettled. that dynamic of family and trust that so important for any president to have. whether jared kushner should have the portfolio is a different question from the president can have couple of close trusted family or friends or confidantes around or close by. to disrupt his own dynamic, which is part of what the president did by expediting the aluminum announcement.

>> brennan: before it was figured out in detail. >> absolutely. it's disruptive. it is a campaign promise, he is following through on something he talked about that's all true. but nonetheless disruptive. >> brennan: caught a lot of republican leadership by surprise. >> absolutely. >> brennan: not your typical pro-business position. >> not at all. the fact that you saw the speaker's office say that we hope the president sort of considers what this could mean to see guys like own hatch and most of the republican lawmakers at least were reached in the wake that they have concerns about it that is pretty telling. it was a week where he once again stuck it to members of his party, both by doing this and to their face at that dramatic meeting at the white house where he told majority whip, a guy who took a bullet last summer and trying to enact changes in gun laws, wants to do it in a way that is more conservative, one of the proposals he wants to handle is not going to pass. on concealed carry.

then says that, you know, assault weapon should be considered which is something that is with the republicans for the last 20 years. it's an incredible week. fact that we still don't see many republicans standing up to him and saying, hold on a second here, you're a leader of this party we have some principles, you're clearly not following them. says a lot about highway fearful they still are of him and power that he can -- >> on the two issues we did see some republicans push back say, consider this or -- i'm not sure that will work. >> but words is one thing. are they going to take votes against him? are they going to block legislation he wants from getting the vote which they very well could do. that would be bolder, certainly. >> brennan: do you think just that there is going to be implication for congressional races over this flexibility or inability to pin the president down on what he's actually asking for, standing for on these issues?

>> no one knows what he's standing for at any given moment. we know at any given moment but if that moment will continue. he does have a popular sense of where people's anger is, right? and if he can convince people that what he's doing is prevent can america from being suckered by am lice and adversaries alike on trade, then he might actually do well on that. on the gun issue it's a little bit harder. but i don't have much expectation that anything really is going to shift on guns at the end of the day. his basis is base and he's going to coddle his base and republicans on the hill are going to be very -- >> brennan: it's his party now. republicans think it's their party, it's not. if you look at issues like russia or free trade or fiscal discipline this is a party that has been redefined by donald trump and may not be a majority party, may not be good for republicans you have to run in november, donald trump now defines. >> it's so interesting i was on the hill this week i ran into a

republican senator we were talking for a few minutes about some of the broader foreign policy issues. this is a week remember in which vladimir putin has a missile that can attack florida, china's leader just became absolute dictator for life, praised of course by the president trump. in which intelligence community has said that openly now that the president is not supporting their efforts to combat russian meddling and this is a senator i know has strong feelings about all of those issues not trump's feelings. but he said, you know, what's the use of me going out and saying these things when everyone knows that the party is his party. best thing to do is embrace him to try to shift the dialogue a little bit rather than go out in public, saw what happens with jeff flake go out in public and excoriate. >> if they don't understand the foreign policy, voters will start to pick up on all the other things going on across the government.

what else is happening this past week while we've been focused on west wing drama. three cabinet secretaries facing questions about their spending habits, ben carson and $30,000 hutch he wanted to -- >> $31,000. fact check. >> you had the v.a. secretary and epa administrator spending tens of thousands of dollars first class travel not only between dc and new york but dc and europe. then a brain drain going on at the state department, north korea specialist left this week. you have pentagon now being forced to spend $30 million on veterans day parade they don't want. up a these things are going to start to sort of snowball in addition to the other problems. if they don't get bothered by what the president is doing and changes he's making in the party ideology they may just look at government run amuck, time to put the -- >> the u.s. ambassador to mexico resigned. >> that's right. >> brennan: going back to the foreign policy. you were referencing the comments and testimony by admiral rogers, about say can basically u.s. isn't prepared

not doing enough. >> president tells them to do something. >> haven't given them the authority to do much. putin has been undeterred. those are deliberate comments made to that committee, what are they actually asking hem to do? >> what he wants trim top do. what we know underneath this is that the intelligence community is itching to fight back. with -- we have plenty of ways. american government has plenty of ways to not only defend but actually go on offensive against a radical cyber actors. and from what i understand the intelligence community and defense establishment both are sitting there, it's dramatic, sounds dramatic what they're saying we are being attacked and we're not defending. they don't go to motive, they don't try to sea scribe, don't involve when they're talking about this the mueller investigation. implication is clear. the president has a soft spot

for putin just as he's shown a soft spot for xi the chinese leader and other autocrats. they are thinking the world has gone upside down. >> it's interesting we did a poll, usa poll about what is top issue affecting your vote in november. we polled a thousand voters, five said russia meddling in the election. not 5%, five individuals of the thousand. number one issue by far was combination of school safety and guns. so when you have mr. pollack on, if you want to talk about a powerful political statement that could affect what happens in november, listen to him. >> brennan: he he talked about wanting to support of join that march at the end of next month. saying that need to be more inclusive and redirected towards school safety is that where the white house is shifting now? no more gun safety, it's about hardening schools? >> when president trump gave these remarks a few days ago extraordinary remarks, if you

were a student, a parent, someone outside of washington watching that you would think the president is going to go to the mat for background checks, possibly to raise the age, take on the nra, to do gun control. and what you have seen sort of publicly in the last few days is real shift away from that position. i think the president on the one hand showed everybody in that moment that exactly what people who want those sort of limits were saying that he actually has the capability, if he really cared about it and wanted to stick with one or two of those issues to possibly push those through. but to the extent that he doesn't follow up on that, i think has potential for backlash against him and against republicans in some potentially key districts. not in a lot of places, not in certain primaries but when it becomes general election time, it's dangerous to have sort of captured the emotions and hearts and minds of so many people who want that if you are not going

to follow through on them. i think he may have taken a risk in doing that. >> important to remember, nothing expected to happen on that on the floor or house of the senate until just before or after easter, you got two-week break in the mid of easter. we're not looking at action until april probably if its ever comes. no guarantee that it will. to your point on school safety, i was struck, i had interview with dianne feinstein who spent most of the last 20 years pushing for assault weapons ban have it renewed. she repeatedly for the first time, we've had conversations like this after almost every shooting as she tries to push for the ban again. has changed her arguments, school safety is the number one issue here, i want to make sure we are protecting schools. hear someone like that even acknowledge that that is what the focus should be on and that's where they think could be bipartisan agreement is telling, suggesting, yeah, maybe this time because of the students and parents who so quickly and forcefully have spoken out chance something could happen. >> brennan: on the issue of

north korea the president at the gridiron made jokes sort of saying yeah, open to direct talks, sort of. about engaging kim jong-un directly. this issue seems to be dividing some within the national security apparatus around the president. is that what is behind the issues of h.r. mcmaster? >> i think a lot of issues. i think this sh is one of them, i think the problem with h.r. mcmaster he's not empowered as security advisor you have secretary of defense, secretary of state who by the way would like to -- >> brennan: we'll have to -- on north korea they're on one side very divided administrati administration. >> brennan: indeed. we'll be back in a moment. fire fighting is a very dangerous profession.

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doane filed this report from damascus he was there under the supervision of the syrian government. >> syrian and russian force are trying to strangle the militant groups who dug in to the damascus suburb. but they're also suffocating hundreds of thousands of civilians. activists have released images from inside. the bombs keep coming this man said, there's nothing left. destruction in eastern area is widespread more than 600 civilians including about 150 children are believed to have died in the last two weeks. syrian soldiers are taking us to what is now the front lines in this fight for eastern guhta. there in the distance we could see the prize for syrian forces, the rebel held area they would like to recapture to solidify control of the capital. this is one of the actual

humanitarian corridors ha has been set up, it is a pathway designed to allow civilians to flee eastern guhta and aid to get in. the u.n. has said the daily five-hour pause in hostilities is not long enough to effectively distribute aid. fearful residents haven't crossed. the patchwork of militant groups vying for power leaves no clear negotiating partner. it's impossible for us to travel to the heart of eastern guhta so we reached one doctor by telephone. he told us his hospital was bombed, that he's been doing surgeries underground. what is most difficult for you? >> everything is most difficult. difficult for me to see my patients die and i cannot do anything to help. >> here on the government side of this conflict which is all we have access to, support for the president is strong. we keep hearing how after seven

years of war, people are weary and just want this war ended. rebels have fought back with what they have, often mortars fired into neighborhoods that back the government. this house was hit. you can come upstairs to see. >> we wondered what he thought about civilians trapped in eastern guhta. i don't worry about them, he told us, they hit my house. they are terrorists, not civilians. >> this is your sob? >> at a hospital we met a man recovering from a rebel attack who killed his 4-year-old son. his doctor. >> difficult to see this. >> either side to you. >> it was a glimpse of humanity and civility in a conflict that has torn this country apart,

killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions. amid all of that, civilians are forced to live with the consequences and find some way to cope. >> brennan: seth doane reporting from syria. we'll be back in a moment. hey allergy muddlers: are you one sneeze away from being voted out of the carpool? try zyrtec® zyrtec® starts working hard at hour one and works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. stick with zyrtec®. muddle no more®. starting sunday save up to $14 on zyrtec® products. see sunday's newspaper. outer layer of your enamel tooth surface. white, the thing that's really important to dentists is to make sure that that enamel stays strong and resilient for a lifetime the more that we can strengthen and re-harden that tooth surface, the whiter their patients' teeth are going to be.

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>> brennan: that's it for us today. up till next week for "face the nation," i'm margaret brennan. captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org ♪ harmonica tune plays

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