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needs more help. >> much more direct at blaming his political opponents, saying it is their language and rhetoric causing these attempts against his life. ♪ christian: yes, donald trump absolving himself of any blame for just how toxic u.s. politics have become. will get the thoughts tonight of trump's former national security, general h.r. mcmaster. what should we expect from a second trump term, and what does he think of the people surrounding the former president? also, the british prime minister in rome today to see how the italians are tackling illegal migration. and why is microsoft designing ai for the oil and gas giants? is their technology really force for good or a step in the wrong direction?

good evening. welcome to the program. vice president kamala harris says she is deeply disturbed that there has been another attempt to kill her opponent, donald trump. the former president was on the for whole of his golf course at west palm beach sunday when a man was spotted pointing a gun through the fence 500 yards from where he was playing. the suspect, ryan routh, has en charged today with two gun offenses. so phone records showed he had spent nearly 12 hours in the tree line of the golf course and he had previously been convicted in north carolina. there will be a review of donald trump's security as we head into the final weeks of the campaign. president biden thinks the secret service will need more resources. >> thank god the president is ok. one thing i want to make clear.

the service needs more help. i think congress should respond that is what we are going to be talking about. >> they need more personnel, more money? >> i think they may be deciding whether they need more personnel or not. christian: donald trump has been using the incident today to try and regain some political advantage, telling fox news that in his view it is joe biden and kamala harris to blame for yesterday's attack, because they keep referring to him as a threat to democracy for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election. here's our north america editor sarah smith. >> he has been charged with illegal possession of a firearm but considerably more serious chges are likely to follow. and while trump was apparently joking with friends after the incident that he was not able to

finish his putt, he's also been much more direct, more so than he was after the first assassination attempt, at blaming his political opponents, saying it is their language and rhetoric causing these attempt against his life. christian: there are now real, justified fears for donald trump and j.d. vance but also president biden, kamala harris, and tim walz, all of them at risk of a copycat attack. at one point today trump's billionaire supporter elon musk questioned why no one had tried take out the vice president, a post he first tried to defend, but later deleted. so, where is all this going? i have been speaking to the former national security advisor general h.r. mcmaster, who just published a memoir of his 30 months inside the trump white house. the book is, at war with myself, my tour of duty in the trump white house.

two assassination attempts on the former president in as many months. what do you make of it? gen. mcmaster: it does allude to the degree in which the polarized nature of our political vitriol is not only bad for our psyche, it is bad for governance -- it is past time for us to come together and begin discussions on what we can agree on. i also described how the trump administration was at war with itself in a way that reflected the polarization, the vitriol in our politics broadly. the book in some ways is a call to stop this self-destructive behavior. christian: why? do you think the toxicity in politics right now is making washington less effective? i don't mean nessarily less effective domestically, because

we all know congress is not been that effective in recent years. i mean effective as a superpower on the world stage. gen. mcmaster: absolutely. what i described in the book is the tendency in recent administrations to define a new president's foreign policy mainly as an opposition to their predecessor. we have these enduring challenges to our security and prosperity, including two revisionist powers on the eurasian landmass, russia and china. and a coalescence axis of aggressors where they have filled in iran and north korea. in an effort i believe to tear down the existing rules of international discourse and replace them with new rules that are sympathetic to their authoritarian force of government and in china's case, a mercantilist economic model. it is past time for us to come together and generate consensus around these major challenges to

national and international security. christian: but you are going to work for the disruptor in chief. was there something specific in the way america was running foreign policy you also wanted to disrupt? mr. mcmaster: tnks for that question. yes. i think that we had, for many years, been complacent in our approach to foreign policy. a lot of this has to do with a lot of unrealistic assumptions about the nature of the post-cold war war. we believe and guarantee the primacy of our free and open societies over closed and authoritarian systems. and we believed great power marvel reward and think of the past. we believed our technological military prowess would guarantee our prosperity and security well into the future. i believe this was kind of a set up for the strategic shocks and disappointments of the 2000's. christian: do you think you achieved -- mr. mcmaster: yes, we did.

what i saw as my job, you have to remember, in the book i describe, what does a national security advisor do? the national security advisor is the only person in the foreign policy end security establishment less the president has his or her only client. it is my job to help the disruptor in chief, donald trump , disrupt what needed to be disrupted. and he did that. in a 180 shift in all of our approaches across the free world towards the aggression of the chinese communist party. people don't realize, and i tell a story about thi that in the first year of the trump administration, he imposed huge costs on putin, imposing far more sanctions on that one year on russia than the previous eight years of the obama administration, including closing the u.s. consulate and expelling scores of russian undeclared intelligence agents aftethe poisoning and

attempted murder of surges group all and his daughter. so i tell the story about how we framed these issues to help them make the best possible decisions. christian: and yet you write in the book that you told your wife after a year on the job, i can't understand putin's hold on trump . did you ever come to a conclusion as to what that was? mr. mcmaster: i did. the main conclusion is president trump, and everybody knows this, has great confidence in his ability to make a big deal. this was the same sort of assumption that afflicted him, george w. bush, and barack obama. george w. bush looked into putin's soul. obama had a reset strategy. both of them got profoundly

disappointed. this guy is the best liar, the best deceiver in the world, and he will tell you he feels surrounded, he has security concerns. what i have tried to convey to president trump, and i tell stories about this in the book that led to strong decisions by president trump, the only thing that provokes putin is the perception of weakness. and so he was persuaded by that. but of course he could fall back into that trap. you have seen him on the campaign trail, a lot of it is who is the last person who talks to him. so he's so disruptive at times, and i tell many stories about this, that he disrupts himself, and he becomes the antagonist in his own story. christian: with that story of how he approached putin in mind, let me ask you about the way they now are looking to approach the ukraine issue. we have had a plan from j.d. vance, he's outlined what he

thinks the endgame should be. he said he thinks we should have a demilitarized zone where russia will retain the land they have taken. the ukrainian side will be heavily fortified to prevent another invasion. russia will get a guarantee of neutrality so ukraine can never join nato or the eu. do you think that plan whatever work? mr. mcmaster: no. the reason it won't work is putin will not stop. look at what he has done against ukraine going back to assassination attempt's in 2003. the first invasion in 2014, a sustained campaign of political subversion. and how russia has been waging russian new generation warfare across all of europe and the u.s. of course this includes cybettacks, assassinations, and other forms of intimidation. creating dependence on russian oil, and perhaps most of all, the sustained campaign of

cyber-enabled this and information warfare against us. what that would give is it would give putin a rough state in ukraine, and give him the dependency on russia for ukraine's security so he can manipulate ukraine, essentially make it a facile state. of course, the great english philosopher and theologian pk chesterton said war is not the best way of settling differences, but it is the only way to ensure they are not settled for you. i wish that j.d. vance and others would give the same to ukraine. from a ukrainian perspective, as pourable has the war has been, i think that kind of cease fire that places them at a profound disadvantage is higher than the price of continuing the war. christian: you are national security advisor, you were in jake sullivan's position six years ago.

would you now advise the president to authorize the use of long-range weapons? mr. mcmaster: absolutely. how is it ok that russia can continue the onslaught against ukrainian people, including children's hospitals and ukrainian infrastructure, with impunity? if you have weapons that have the range to protect ukrainian people, you have to shoot down the arrows, but you also have to be able to kill the archer. they should have the capability to do that. and the authority to do that with the weapons under their control. christian: you say in the book that there were all different kinds of people in this white house in which you work. there were people there who were merely there to limit the threat they perceived trump could have posed to the country and the constitution. how worried are you that if he got a second term, people like you, people like jim mattis, would not be there, the guard

rails would not be there in a second term? mr. mcmaster: i would be concerned about the abuse of power who did not acknowledge the outcome of the election in 2020. but i tell you, i am confident in our constitution. we owe it to oliver cromwell, because our founders were afraid of an oliver cromwell figure. so what he built into the constitution, checks and balances under article one and article three. donald trump tried everything to switch the outcome of the election. scores of lawsuits. every one of those lawsuits were resolved in favor of the outcome against these false claims of widespread fraud in the election. i have confidence in our constitution. i have confidence that we have those checks and balances in place. and that article two of the president -- of the constitution, the president's authority is counterbalanced by

article one and article three. christian: what about the other people that were in the white house? you talk about steve bannon, for instance. there is the steve millers. the heritage foundation now, and the lower loom ors who are traveling on the plane, conspiracy theorists. do you worry that there are people who surround this president to see him as a vessel to push their own agenda, and you think he understands that? mr. mcmaster: yes, there are. i described many stories in my book of how there are people in the white house who are not there to give the elected president options and best advice. they are there to manipulate decisions consistent with their agenda. they describe in the book on how donald trump based on the be guilty of his ego and need for affirmation and adulation can be an easy mark. so what i am hoping for his people around him read this.

they warned him about these charlatans and grifters and those trying to meet up you let him. but it does not look good right now with this laura loomer figure, and talking about people eating dogs. there is a conversation i am sure right before the debate where this was the last person to talk to him. she should be thoroughly discredited in his eyes, and he should put people around him who are there to help him determine his own agenda. not people who are trying to use him as a cipher or a vessel to get their agenda accomplished. christian: you talk about migration and it is front and center in your politics there as it is in ours in europe. we have our prime minister in italy today about perhaps stopping the gangs coming across the channel. it is a national security issue and it must've been an issue when you were in the white house. do you agree that it is the job

of the u.s. army to be on the border to defend the united states, or is that a border issue? where do you draw the line on the security you have put on the southern border? mr. mcmaster: you want people who are doing that job to have equal authority. they can be reinforced by the military and this is what we have done for a long time. we have always reinforced the border, going back to the banditry of poncho via. it is important to augment order security, especially because it really is a big national security issue. scores of thousands, 60,000 to 80,000 americans are dying every year because of fentanyl poisoning coming across the southern border. this is a national security issue and we have to do something about it. the problem is people now conflate legal immigration with

illegal immigration. the people in springfield, ohio are there legally. they are working and paying taxes. i wish there was a higher degree of clarity in the discourse. we are a country of immigrants. it is what makes us competitive. christian: there's no easy answero this, but the rhetoric certainly does not help. mr. mcmaster: there are answers to it though. there are big answers. i tell this tory of the remain in mexico agreement with mexico. despite president trump's seeming compulsion to insults the mexican president, we came up with some unprecedented agreements for security cooperation with mexico. under president lopez obrador, they have atrophied. i don't think we have been estimating enough of our

neighbor to help stem the flow of this immigration. as well as other countries in the region. we have to be tougher on the border. i guess illegal immigration. and i think what we should do is we should open may be 24 consulates in the western hemisphere and provide work visas and other forms of visas there, so people are lining up to get visas instead of lining up with coyotes organized crime networks that engage in horrible human rights abuses. it is a security iue, but it's also a human rights and humanitarian issue to stop this illegal immigration and migration. because the victims of that are the american taxpayers and all the strain it puts on our society. the greater threat of crime. but the victims of the migrants themselves as well. christian: the book is at war with ourselves, my tour of duty in the trump white house. general h.r. mcmaster, a great pleasure to talk to you. thank you for coming on the

program. thanks to the general for coming on the program. we will talk plenty more about some of those thoughts, particularly as they pertain to ukraine and donald trump later in the program with our panel at 9:00. around the world and across the u.k., you're watching bbc news. let's have a quick look at some other stories making headlines today. the death toll from flooding in eastern and central europe has risen to at least 10. countries including poland, romania, austria, hungary, and the czech republic have been hit by torrential rain and surging water levels. thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes. the polish government has declared a state of natural disaster. the ship building firm best known for constructing the titanic is to enter administration for the second time in five years. after 60 people are expected to lose their jobs, staff employed at the company's four u.k. shipyards are not affected.

an original member of the jackson 5 pop group tito jackson has died at the age of 70. he played guitar and sang backing vocals, performing alongside his brothers. it's thought he had a heart tack. welcome back. the mugshot of hugh edwards was de public today. formerly one of the most prominent faces in bbc news, today he was given a six-month suspended prison sentence after admitting charges of making indecent images of children, one of whom was aged between seven and nine. edwards previously pleaded guilty to three charges after he sent 41 illegal images by a convicted sex offender. edwards said he was profoundly sorry and recognized the repugnant nature of the images. the bbc said he betrayed not just the cooperation -- the

corporation, but the audiences who put their trust in him. our special correspondent was in court. reporter: hugh edwas facing the camera. not his usual one in the bbc studios, but metropolitan police's after he was arrested. this, his custody photo, a far cry from his smart on-screen image. mr. edwards, do you apologize? do you apologize for your crimes? now a convicted sex offender, he came with a suitcase prepared of his punishment was prison. the court heard disturbing and graphic details of his crimes. descriptions of the videos of children including one as young as seven he looked at and money he gave to another sex offender who sent them to him. the images were discovered in the whatsapp messages of alex williams, who sent them to edwards. the police were unable to find the phone he had used to look at them.

edwards's responses to the 41 indecent images are particularly revealing. in one exchange he describes the imag as amazing. williams then says he can try to get more videos. if you like, 13, 14, 15, 16. months later, edwards says, don't send underage. but in another exchange when williams describes images he is offering as young, edwards replies, go on. as the judge sentenced him, he listened intensely, emotional as the court heard about his mental health problems, suicide risk, and an upbringing where his failure to get into oxford left him feeling like an outsider at the bbc. edwards through his barrister apologized. he said he wanted the court to know how profoundly sorry he was, that the images were repugnant, and he recognized the hurt done. that he had betrayed the trust and faith of so many people and

hurt and daged his family. but the police were clear that he exploded the children who -- >> behind every image is a vulnerable child that has been violated and subject to abuse. and the continuing distribution of those images only goes to service that demand. reporter edwards was at the top of his career, and the bbc. the man entrusted to tell the nation the queen had died. >> see television is broadcasting the special program, reporting the death of her majesty the queen. reporter: reading the news until he bece it. initially suspended by the bbc last year in the aftermath of separate allegations in the sun that he paid a young vulnerable man for explicit photos. the bbc, criticized for still

paying him more than 200,000 pounds after they knew he had been arrested, said, we are appalled by his crimes. he has betrayed not just the bbc, but audiences who put their trust in him. >> it is very difficult to see any way that huw can come back. you can never say never in this industry. he will certainly never be employed as the flagship presenter for a major broadcaster. even those close to him had one view of who huw edwards was, which was very different from the one who has been revealed. reporter: it idifficult to think of a more startling reversal of circumstances. from respected news reader to convicted criminal. he will now go on the sex offenders register. as the judge said, his reputation is in tatters. edwards breaking not just the trust viewers placed in him, but the law. lucy manning, bbc news.

christian: i want to show you some pictures i have been looking at in the studio over the last half an hour of a blaze in texas. this is a pipeline fire that has been burning like this for some time now. we are told they have isolated what is in the pipeline, so this is residual fluid that is burning off at the moment. but you can see how close it is to businesses and residences in that area. that fire burning in laporte, texas. we are going to take a short announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided ... financial services firm, raymond james. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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