captioning sponsored by cbs >> dickerson: today on "face the nation", plagued with personnel problems and drowning in damaging leaks to the press, president trump goes back to being candidate. >> one month into office, president trump held a campaign rally last night florida. but the president had an comforting ending to uncomfortable week in washington. >> i am here because i want to be among my friends and among the people. >> dickerson: and he gave a status report on his presidency. >> the white house is running so smoothly. >> dickerson: but is it? we will talk to white house chief of staff reince priebus and then turn to key republican voices on foreign policy. south carolina senator lindsey graham and house intelligence committee chairman devin nunes,

plus maryland democrat elijah cummings and there is, as always we will have analysis on all of the news, coming up on "face the nation". >> dickerson: good morning and welcome to "face the nation". i am john dickerson. it has been another bracing week in washington and we talked about it earlier with president trump's chief of staff reince priebus. >> mr. priebus, welcome. i want to start with a little business before we get to the substance of things. there has been a debate about when to take the president seriously. he recently tweeted that the press was the enemy of the american people. should we take that seriously from him? >> well, i think you should take it seriously. i think the problem we have got is that we are talking about bogus stories like the one in "the new york times" that we have had constant contact with russian officials, the next day the "wall street journal" had a story that the intel community was not giving the president a full intelligence briefing, both stories grossly inaccurate, overstated, over blown, and it is total garbage, so we spend

"48 hours" on bogus stories and the american people suffer. so i do think it is a problem and i think that the media needs to, in some cases forks, not every case, john, but in some cases really needs to get its act together. >> dickerson: the enemy? >> it is serious is that the press is supposed to be a free forum of information to speak to the american people. i think it ought to be accurate and i think we have gotten to a place, john, where the media is willing to run with unnamed sources, apparently false leaked documents, to create stories. i mean, we deal with one after the next. i think that the media should stop with this unnamed source stuff, put names on a piece of paper and print it. if people aren't willing to put their maim next to a quote then the quote shouldn't be listed period. >> the court:. >> dickerson: what you are describing in all of the presidencies i have covered is a very familiar complaint from the white houses going back a very long time, and no previous white

house has called the press the enemy. >> well, i think in our case we have a total feeding frenzy and something that has gotten so out of control when you look at the president's accomplishments why don't we talk about we pulled out of tpp, we did a deregulation executive order that takes two regulations for every one that has been put in plaim place, we nominated neil gorsuch, we signed a bill the president is saving our coal mining jobs and met with the uk. we met with canada, we have met with israel. we have done so many things that are noteworthy and an accomplishment, and one day after the next, the storyline should not be about bogus russian spy stories. they should be that this president has accomplished more in the first 30 days of this presidency than people can possibly remember in a very long time. >> dickerson: let me ask -- >> it is a story of accomplishment. and that is not what we are talking about. >> dickerson: well, we are talking about the declaring that the press is the enemy and i

just wanted to ask you this. in the past when the president, when he was a candidate and he targeted people, say, protesters at a rally, some people found that an opportunity to take license and target those people. as a spokesman for white house here with us today, what would you say to anybody who might take license with the idea when the president says the press is the enemy and act on that declaration by the president? >> well, i don't know what you mean by act on. i mean certainly we would never condone violence but i do think we condone critical thought, and i think if americans put critical thought which i think they will into what they are reading in these newspapers and actually what is being accomplished by the trump administration, they would realize that the press in many cases a not been doing their job in reporting the truth. and the truth is, day after day after day, we have good stories to tell, great accomplishments, businesses coming back, the stock market is at an all-time high, companies like gm, ford, chrysler, intel,

all across this country are adding jobs by the thousands, and it is because president trump is doing the things every day to give confidence to business owners and workers across america that things are getting done positively, instead, we are talking about stupidity and intelligence reporting that is based on facts that are not coming out of the actual heads of these intelligence agencies and we are sitting here talking about it and it is a shame and it needs to end. >> dickerson: let me, let me ask you something about senator john mccain said in front of a group of european leaders at the munich security conference, he said the audience would quote be alarm by the growing inability and even unwillingness to separate truth from lies. your response to that criticism of the administration. >> well, i think it is a good criticism of the media. you know, it is very difficult to separate the truth from the lies. >> dickerson: mr. -- he was not talking -- >> i get it, john.

i understand the question. and i am just asking you to do the same thing in regard to the media and what we have been dealing with lately in responding to 24 hours a day, seven days a week of cable news with one tirade after another with a lie from another source that doesn't want to actually name a single person in these bogus stories. and so we would rather talk about the truth and what is happening instead of these bogus stories. and go through the litany of things we have accomplished, the hiring freeze, deregulation, protecting americans from terrorists. i think it has been an police department. >> dickerson: i understand, but if we could get back to the question from senator mccain of arizona, who made that claim about truth from the white house. what is your response to that? >> my response is that i don't even know what he is referring to. i mean, i didn't see his statement, but he would be wrong

in regard to that statement and the white house and president trump. the fact of the matter is, the level of accomplishment that he has put forward so far in the first 30 days has been remarkable. >> dickerson: let me ask you -- >> and we have already gone through the litany many times with you. >> dickerson: let me ask you about that litany. in conversations i have had with members in the administration, and also republicans on the hill, they have said that while they are on your team, they are on your side, they recognize all of those accomplishments you talk about, that when the president says the white house is "a fine-tuned machine" and when steven miller in the white house says it is an understatement you are in control, what they worry about is, that not everything is in control and there is such an effort to show how things are in control that there may be a blind spot at the white house of the things that naturally with any administration need to be fixed. for those people who are worried about that blind spot, about the, about the things that do need to be fixed what are your words to them? >> well, first of all, there you go again. you are talking about some people, those people, them,

they, who are these people? >> dickerson: you have not -- >> well, let me ask you and put it this way -- >> no -- >> dickerson: conversations you have, with say speaker paul ryan and lots of other leaders on the hill. when they talk to you, do they express no concern that things at the white house are maybe a little ragged on certain issues? is it constant praise that you get from your allies on the hill? >> look, i think what we hear from people on the hill is the same thing i am telling you, that is media is obsessed with a lot of false, hollow stories without sourcing, that we have to track down and deal with. you have -- you have constant -- > >> dickerson: let me ask you this. >> go ahead. >> dickerson: so in every answer you have turned it back to the media. so i guess the question is, is is the strategy now to answer any question by just turning it back on the media and using a fight with the

media as a way to try to control the storyline? >> von, the last few questions you asked make no sense. i mean you are talking about people you are not named and whether some things need to be improved and what would you say to some people that say some things. what things? what people. what are you referring to give me a specific question with a specific accusation and i will answer the question. but you are asking me a vague question without any specifics and you want me to give you a specific answer. it is ridiculous. >> dickerson: i guess the president is the one who said the administration is running line "a fine-tuned machine" so i am referring to a comment he made and people i talk to on the hill don't agree with that comment and so i am wondering whether you think that there is a disconnect there and whether you have to address that with your allies who again have your interests at heart but think there are parts of the administration, and what your evaluation is the person who is the chief of staff is in terms of improvements you have to make in the administration. >> well, look, i mean, i think

for one thing, it is a finely-tuned machine but i also think it is a machine that is -- the longest administration without a full cabinet, and as those cabinet positions are being filled, the positions underneath those cabinet secretaries are being filled, and i do think that things get more robust and they become more built out as you move forward and i think all of those things are going to help the entire trump administration, but as far as what we have done on a daily basis, whether it is meeting with retailers, whether it is talking about women empowerment or meeting with foreign leaders or whether signing an eo or is a saving the coal industry, those are things we are doing day in and day out and i think that the media and not necessarily you, john, but people like you spend more time on the actual substance of what is happening as opposed to hollow stories about what might be happening out there across the world which is not based on any fact or any actual specific information.

>> dickerson: well i was just asking for a response, did, to something the president said but let me ask you about michael flynn, another thing the president said, he said that the president said that it was good for michael flynn to be in conversation with the russian ambassador. did he mean it was good for him to be in conversation about sanctions with the russian ambassador when he talked to him about sanctions before the inauguration? >> that is not what he said, john. i think what he is really referring to is the fact that michael flynn is nsa director, his job is to talk to foreign leaders, yes, including the russian ambassador and other ambassadors across the world and other people, other experts, also have said the same thing. there is not a darn thing wrong with what he is doing by communicating to these other leaders. he didn't get into the dash. >> dickerson:. >> or whether he was saying -- telling the vice president the truth or the whole story or whether he forgot, that's a totally separate issue. but as far as his job of speaking with world leaders, that is what general flynn was

supposed to be doing. >> dickerson: but the president believed it was correct for him to be talking about sanctions with the russian ambassador before the inauguration? >> the president didn't -- the, didn't make a comment on that. what you -- there is nothing wrong with talking to the foreign, with the russian ambassador about the current sanctions being put in place in by the obama administration. i just answered the question. >> dickerson: so there was nothing wrong -- i am just trying to get a straight answer. there is nothing wrong with having that conversation about sanctions? >> no. there is nothing wrong with having a conversation about sanctions, and there is nothing wrong about having a conversation about the fact that the obama administration put further sanctions in place and expelled some folks out of the united states. there is nothing wrong with that topic coming up in a conversation. >> dickerson: some people argue that it was the undermining of ongoing u.s. policy by somebody who was not a spokesperson for the administration. one other question on mr. flynn. has anyone asked him whether he had contact with the russians before the election?

>> i am not -- before the election? what do you mean? before november? >> dickerson: did mr. flynn before the votes in november have any contacts with the russians, if anybody asked that -- >> i think he gave a speech in russia so he must have had some contacts before the election. >> dickerson: did anybody, though -- >> there has been no specific conversation about that particularly, no. >> dickerson: i just wondered, the president said nobody he knew of had any contact with the russians during the campaign and there was a report in the "washington post" mr. flynn did in fact talk to the russians during the campaign and i just wondered whether anybody had asked him, so as to not to send the president out with incorrect information. >> i never heard that and i never heard he had any other contacts before the election. i don't think the president has either. >> dickerson: all right, mr. priebus, we appreciate your time, thanks so much for being with us. >> thank you, john. >> dickerson: and we will be back in one minute. >>

>> dickerson: while the president hit the campaign

trail, vice president pence attended the munich security conference, where he reassured allies that they could rely on the trump administration. >> the united states of america strongly supports nato and will be unwavering in our commitment to this transatlantic alliance. [ applause ]. >> dickerson: a number of high ranking u.s. officials also attended the conference, including south carolina senator lindsey gram. we spoke with him earlier from munich. >> senator, you were there with foreign leaders from all over europe. what is their view of the trump administration? >> i think they feel better after vice president pence spoke, and general mattox, america first has been a little hard to understand, a lot of people believe it is going back to the 20 or 30 it is isolation where america sort of retreats from the region. vice president pence's speech was terrific, we are going to be more involved in nato, not less. we are going have more troops supporting our friends in europe

against aggression by russia. there seems, the theme america first is not withdrawing from nato or the world but asking our partners to do more and they should. >> dickerson: the defense minister of estonia where you were in december and which feels some pressure from russia says russia has become more aggressive since the election. what is your sense of that? >> that is right. russia has interfered in every democracy in their backyard. they are coming after the french and the germans. they tried to interfere in our election, even though they didn't change the outcome, they did interfere. they hacked into the democratic national committee, podesta's e-mails were leaked to wikileaks, they were there to hurt clinton, the bottom line is now to punish russia. >> dickerson: in the press conference president trump was given all of the things russia has done recently to provoke the united states, there is a russian trawler 30 miles off of norfolk, he said he wasn't going to say what his response would be. what was your response to his

posture with respect to russia and those recent provocations? >> i can understand why he may not want to show his hands but let me say this. if we forgive and forget about what russia did in our own election, it would invite more aggression by the chinese and, it could be republicans next time so congress is in a different place. i am leading the charge with senator mccain and others to pass a bill to sanction russia for enter fearing in the 2016 election, to hit them harder. i think it will pass with overwhelming bipartisan support and will be a symbol, a pushback to russia that if you keep doing this you are going to pay a heavy price and i hope the president will embrace this. >> dickerson: on to the domestic policy front there is a lot of issues coming up with replacement of obamacare and also comprehensive tax reform. when you look at this white house a month in, what is your assessment of the operations, the way things are running at the white house so far and based

on what is ahead? >> they have done some good things. the keystone pipe line, reviving the coal industry, the executive order rollout about the seven countries, extreme vetting did not go very well. they are going to fix that. general kelly was here, homeland security secretary, they are going to roll out a new executive order. the nsa is firing, firing of general flynn, these things happen but here is what i am feeling better about. the people around president trump, his cabinet is terrific in terms of quality, matt tucks, tillerson, general kelly, we need to get a good security advisor, reince priebus i have known for years he has a good relationship with the hill .. so he had a good team around him, they have stumbled but let's see what this year holds. the congress is stumbling. the republicans in the congress, we are all tied up in knots, the, we are talking about tax plan that won't get 10 votes in the senate so it is not just the

administration that has got problems. republicans in the house and senate have problems, and i hope to get our act together. >> dickerson: senator, what do you make of the president's comment that the press should be seen it is a enemy of the american people? >> the backbone of democracy is a free press and an independent judiciary a and they are worth fighting and dying for. the bottom line here is, america is not becoming a dictatorship, senator mccain was right to say that we need, as politicians, to understand the role of the press and jealous liguard it but i will say this to the american press corps. when it comes to trump, you are over the top, you are acting more like an opposition party. every president has had problems with the press. you need to do your job, but from a republican point of view, i think the coverage against president trump has been almost to the point of being hysterical and you all need to do some self evaluation, in my view, but the enemies of democracy at the end of the day

are not the press, it is russia, it is iran and radical islam but i think our friends in the press need to up their game because it really is hard to watch from a republican point of view. >> dickerson: and senator, you wanted to add something? >> yes. when it comes to russia, the one thing that bothers me most about president trump is he never seems to forcefully em face idea that russia's interference in our election in 2016 is something that should be punished. i am a republican, it happened to the democrats. it could happen to republicans next. when one party is attacked, all of us are attacked, and one thing i am looking for s'more forceful response from president trump when it comes to what russia did in our elections. >> dickerson:. >> putin is not a friend of democracy. george w. bush miscalculate who putin was, obama was weak and indecisive in the face of russian aggression, and my advice to president trump is

don't repeat obama's mistake and for god's sake don't empower russia, by forgiving them in terms of what they did in our election and if we don't hit them hard, you will be empowering russia. >> dickerson: thank you, senator. and we will be back in a moment. stay with us. .95 per trade? uhhh- and i was wondering if your brokerage offers some sort of guarantee? guarantee? where we can get our fees and commissions back if we're not happy. so can you offer me what schwab is offering? what's with all the questions? ask your broker if they're offering $6.95 online equity trades and a satisfaction guarantee. if you don't like their answer, ask again at schwab.

>> dickerson: and joining us now from his district in california, the chairman of the house intelligence committee, devin nunes, mr. chairman, let's start with these leaks that the president trump has been so angry about coming from all kinds of different places. help people understand the difference between a leak that is just kind of something that an administration doesn't want to see and a leak that is illegal or would be the subject of investigation as you have asked the fbi to investigate. >> well, there are three very specific leaks i have a big problem with. one is the transcript with the discussion that donald trump had with the mexican president. two is the conversation that he had with the australian prime minister and then of course

three is the leaking of mike flynn's name to the press shortly after the first of the year. these are all against the law, and you can't operate a government like this if you can't even have the president of the united states or his national security advisor able to have conversations in private with foreign leaders. >> dickerson: explain, mike flynn people heard his name so much in this conversation or conversations he had with the russian ambassador. give us a little more detail on why that bothers you. >> well, if this was picked up as incidental collection because perhaps they had a warrant on someone else, typically an american citizen wouldn't be unmasked. somebody decided to unmask that name, somebody within the either the department of justice or others within the administration. if that happened, why did that happen? with what would be the purpose of unmasking an american citizen's name in this case at the time he was a private citizen. so if his name was unmasked

somebody made that decision and we need to know who made that decision. did they really use a 1799 law called the logan act as the reason for unmasking his name? if that is the case, we have bigger problems in this country than what we even realize. >> dickerson: why do you think these leaks, the one you just described and others, where do you think they are coming from? and why? >> well, this is why i think that the fbi and others need to investigate this, because the number of people that would actually have known that mike flynn, general flynn, who was the national security advisor designee was having conversations with the russians had to be very, very small number, and it had to be the highest, at the highest levels of the obama administration. >> dickerson: and mr. chairman, what do you think, does that say anything about the relationship between the intelligence communities where this leak and other leaks may have come from and president

trump? >> well, let's get this straight what we are talking about with the intelligence agencies because i think there is a lot of innuendo out there that the intelligence agencies have a problem with donald trump. the rank and file people that are out doing jobs across the world, there difficult places, they don't pay attention to what is going on in washington. that we have is we do have people in the last administration, people who are burrowed in, perhaps all throughout the government, who clearly are leaking to the press. and it is against the law, major laws have been broken. if you believe the "washington post" story that said there were nine people who said this, these are nine people who broke the law. >> dickerson: all right, mr. chairman we are going to take a break and we will come back with you, so nobody go away and we will be right back. >> i got it. hashtag "mouthbreather." yep. we've got a mouthbreather. well, just put on a breathe right strip and ...

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people would ask me that we traveled,ntries what is your nationality and i would always answer hispanic. so when i got my ancestry dna results it was a shocker. i'm from all nations. it puts a hunger in your heart to want to know more. >> dickerson: our, some stations are leaving us now but we will be right back with more "face the nation". stay with us.

>> dickerson: welcome back to "face the nation". i am john dickerson. we continue our conversation with chairman of the house intelligence committee devin nunes. mr. chairman, i wanted to get back to you to what you said about those who had burrowed in in the intelligence agencies, maybe holdovers from or supporters of president obama. is that something you are going to look into with your committee in terms of those who are burrowed in? >> no, no, we won't, but one of the things on this russia issue, john, that is important is that the house intelligence committee has long been conducting ongoing investigations into russia, and, in fact, a year ago i publicly stated that the biggest intelligence scare since 9/11 was our failure to understand putin's plans and intentions, at the time the administration balked at that, the ic ignored it and it wasn't until after

they lost an election that they started to pay attention to russia so i am happy they are paying attention to russia now, i am happy the american people are paying attention to russia. there are russia hawks now, i think there are more russia hawks in congress than there are congressmen and senators, and so we are happy to expand this investigation. i welcome it. however, we are not going to go on witch hunts against the america people, against american citizens. and, you know, basically putting names of people in newspaper outlets, that is not real credible evidence that an american citizen has done something wrong, but if there are american citizens, from any political party that are communicating with russia, russian agents, i want to know about it. bring it to the committee, because we would like to investigate. >> dickerson: and you are referring to the stories that the white house said have no merit to them, which is citizen whose are involved in the trump campaign had any contact with the russians, is that what you are referring to? >> that is correct. as far as i know, our law enforcement agencies don't have

that information, so if there is someone else that has this information, you know, i would think -- i would like for these people to bring this information to me so we can investigate. >> dickerson: is your committee going to investigate michael flynn? the senate intelligence committee is investigating this. will yours? >> well, we will investigate -- what i said is we will follow the facts wherever they lead. so if there is credible evidence against general flynn that he has done something wrong, we would love to do that. but the fact of the matter is, i don't see any evidence that he -- that he actually discussed russia sanctions dealing with the annexation of crimea and the invasion of ukraine. if michael flynn, if general flynn was talking about obama's pettiness that he did after the, right after christmas kicking out a few russian diplomats and telling the russians not to overreact and if the fbi used the logan act, i think we have much bigger problems here than michael flynn. he is the least of the problems we have in this whole issue.

>> dickerson: i will ask you a taxes about issues. pettiness you 19 penalties based on meddling in the election. >> when i talk sanctions, we are dealing, we are talking about sanctions of foreign governments, the eu and others, the economic sanctions. what presiden president obama dr christmas was a joke, and the russians laughed at it. >> let me ask you quickly about taxes. comprehensive tax reform coming, senator graham said the house and senate are not on the same final, he said you couldn't get ten votes for what the house republicans are putting forward in the house. what are your prospects for tax reform and when do you think it is going to happen, you think? >> so one of the things with tax reform is, it is very, very difficult, so we spent the last decade looking at every possible reform, and one of the things we are going to have to do is we are going to have to educate the american public. currently, right now, nobody can understand the tax code. the tax reform that we are talking about is one that actually the american people once they understand it will

like it, and they will be able to implement it and it really is the way that donald trump can make america great again. and so we have a lot of education to do, including in the house of representatives, including with the united states senate, and so, you know, at this point, i would expect that a lot of senators if they don't even know what is in the plan, they don't even know how it works, you know, there is just a lot of work that has to be done, including a lot of sales that have to be done by the president of the united states. but i do believe that his -- the fate of the american people and our economy relies on us getting fundamental tax reform done, blowing up this existing tax code and moving to a clean, transparent system that is there, fair for all americans. >> dickerson: we will have to leave it there. thank you very much, mr. chairman and we turn now to the top democratic on the house oversight. >> good to be with you over. >> dickerson: you called on jason chaffetz, to allow the committee to investigate michael flynn, the former national

security advisor. where does that stand? >> he has been very reluctant to look at anything having to do with russia and their interference with our elections. as chairman nunes has said, they seem mohr anxious in looking for leakers than dealing with the issue of our elections being interfered with, which i think is phenomenal. >> dickerson: in terms of you look at the whole elections being interfered with or michael flynn in particular? >> i want to look at michael flip and any interference with our elections. john, we can't have people in russia taking over our elections. first of all, it takes away from the credibility of the elections, it makes people feel uncomfortable, that is the voters and we have to have the integrity of our elections. and they seemed very reluctant to do that a. >> dickerson: let me ask you about leaks. you wrote last year in august, you said reporters have an obligation to ask why these sources demand to remain anonymous while refusing to provide copy of the documents

they are providing. it sounds like what chairman nunes says about these liens and no names attached. >> i am always concerned about leaks, i really am, our committee gets leaks and a lot of whistle blowers, john. when we address the secret service, chairman chaffetz is welcome to whistle blowers and leaks, we are getting leaks with regard to this issue, somebody once said attack the leakers, think we have to look at leaks but at the same time there are some things we can't change unless we do have certain information. other than that we wouldn't even know that flynn had the kind of interaction and enter, as with the russians, if we didn't have leaks, we wouldn't even know it. >> dickerson: let me switch to, your name came up in the president's press conference very prominently. and it was about with you are going to have a meeting with the president r you going to have a meeting? >> yes. i am looking forward it to. i think it was just -- he apparently was not in contact with his staff properly but we will meet on prescription drugs

and we will be out this week so i expect it to be the next week. >> dickerson: what are you going to talk about a? >> i want to talk about the high price of prescription drugs and he has made it clear that he wants to do something about that. i am also going to, john, talk to him about voting rights, he talks about a this voting fraud which is nonexistent but he doesn't talk about all of the people who have been the denied their right to vote because of suppression, so i want to talk about things like that also. >> dickerson: and what about the agenda for the urban communities? >> definitely. i understand that he will be -- that the congressional black caucus wrote him on january the 19th, he never answered the letter until a day or so ago. but they have laid out an agenda where they will be meeting with him and trying to resolve some urban issues and issues throughout the country. >> dickerson: and you think you can work with him? >> i think we have to work with him. i have got people who -- i keep telling people, this is our president. he is going to be our president for the next four years. i have got people in my community who are suffering from cancer and need treatment. i have people who need jobs and i have got to work with this

president but at the same time there is nobody that has been tougher on this president than i have been. >> dickerson: there is a feeling among democrats that i talk to, the lawmakers in the grass roots that there is a feeling that no democrat can work with this president because the grass roots will say you are working with the enemy and the passion against this president is so hard and democrats, is it really realistic that democrats will work -- >> john, it is very, very hard, but, john, we are only in in these jobs for a short period of time and i have to represent the people, the 700,000 people that i represent n that four years. i have got, i have kids who need schooling, people who need medicare and work with him on the things i have. but when values clash we will have to go toe to toe, period. >> dickerson: thank you so much, representative cummings for being with us. and we will be right back with some analysis. >> you know, geico can help you save money on your homeowners insurance too? great! geico can help insure our mountain chalet!

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>> dickerson: now for some analysis, tom donilon served as president obama's national security advisor, and mike morell was number 2 at the cia, advised the the hillary clinton campaign and who is now cbs news senior security analyst. tom, i want to start with you, president trump is looking for a national security advisor. >> yes. >> dickerson: you know something about that job. what should he be looking for? >> first of all, you know, we had a lot of discussion with the national security council in the last couple of weeks. it is the center of policy development and crisis management for the u.s. government. and if it is not appropriately staffed, and functioning effectively, if it doesn't have the trust of the cabinet and working together with the

cabinet, you can not make policy, and you cannot manage crises in the united states government. with respect to the job, it is essential that it gets filled quickly. you want to have someone who can bring a sense of teamwork. you have a model for this job in scowcroft who was even handed and calm under george herbert bush, 41, and president ford, he served twice, right? to have some of this calm, steady and can run a process. you need to give the national security advisor all of the authority that he or she needs, and you need to have an exclusive process you can't have alternate and parallel processes, it is not going to work, right? so you need, the national security council is supposed to engage the issue, get the necessary input, develop the options and bring them to the president for decision and then also oversee implementation. >> dickerson: and not have back channels. i want to add another very important aspect. is to bring together the views of the national security team to the president and not drive those

views to what you the national security advisor believe. that's really important. >> dickerson: so meaning don't precook it? >> exactly. >> dickerson: mike, tell me what is your assessment of the relationship between the president and the intelligence community as we talked about that a lot this morning, something you know about? how is it? >> -- when the president was openly critical of the intelligence committee and cia, it had an impact on more -- morale. it quieted down once the president got his team in there, mike pompeo, things quieted down but heating up again with the president's criticism over the leaks. just because it is intelligence information that was leaked doesn't mean it was leaked by the intelligence community or cia, right? big difference. but he is now criticizing them. i think ultimately the morale will depend not on the public criticism, the morale will depend on whether the intelligence community believes the president is listening to what they have to say, has an open mind about what they have to say, he doesn't have to agree

but he has to listen. >> dickerson: tom, in picking a new national security advisor, i mean the president has somebody in an interim position there. but how much of the job can an interim period do when they are not there for long-term? in other words, tell me why this has to be filled so quickly. and then on top of that, tell me where the big area in the country, in the world that concerns you right now. >> yes. it is exceedingly difficult to do this on an interim basis, right? you can make the trains run on time for pa period of time but you can't really engage the issues, and as mike said bring the cabinet together and develop long-term strategic option force the country and that is what is needed right now. the world is looking for president trump to, definitive views and there is a high degree of uncertainty and anxiety in the world and the place where that happens is the national security, is the national security council and led by the national security vis sorry so you need to have a permanent leader who can take on these challenges. >> dickerson: mike, in terms

of russia and the american position with respect to russia, an expert i was talking to was saying that one of vladimir putin's hopes may have been to med until the election but also to create chaos in american institutions. do you see it that way? >> one of his primary goals is to weaken the united states in the world so he works that a whole bunch of different ways. i think what struck me sense the inauguration is he has taken a number of actions. i think to actually challenge the president, to test the president. he has -- he has increased the fighting in eastern ukraine, just yesterday he announced that russia would accept the passports of people from eastern ukraine. that sends a very powerful signal and they have deployed a cruise missile that is contrary to an arms control treaty.

so three things, three very significant things in the last three weeks, and i think it is important for the president to stand up and say something about it. >> and we with a, we should talk about russia and things we know, respectfully and the things michael went through are things we know,. >> right but we also know there was russian interference in the u.s. election in 2016 and the intelligence committee did unusual, with high confidence, that needs to be investigated in a nonpartisan basis. that is another, i think another important addition to the list, michael, that needs to be addressed, which is what happened in 2016 election? how can we prevent it from happening again? and how can we work with our european partners to ensure the that russia doesn't interfere in their series of elections in 2017. >> dickerson: michael, let me switch to north korea, the president is concerned about that issue, a miss still launch last weekend. i am sure i asked you this before, but what can the u.s. government really know about what is happening in ne north

korea? >> we know quite a bit and the situation has become much more dangerous over the last five years or so, for two reasons, one is the stockpile and number of nuclear weapons that north korea has has become much larger, they keep on adding to it. and, two, by testing missiles over and over and over again, those missiles are becoming more capable, and they have more time to be able to mate a nuclear weapon to one of those missiles. so the situation is more dangerous. there are three significant risks, john. one is that they could actually launch one at the united states. i think that is the lowest risk. two, the regime could fall, there is a real likelihood at some point this regime will fall and the nuclear weapons will be out of control. somebody, they will be out there, and they will be able to to be able to grab them, and three, north korea could sell one of those nuclear weapons one day. those are the three risks we

face. it is significant. we haven't had a crisis yet. this could be the first crisis in 2017. you know, i want to finish up on this. said something this week he is the head of the special operations command one of the most important command in other words the army, the government continues to be in unbelievable turmoil, we need to deal with this to deal with the 0 orth korea missile crisis. >> dickerson: we will have to leave it there. we will be right back with our political panel. >>

>> dickerson: and for this week's political panel we are very lucky to have the "washington post"'s bob woodward to join us and along with the editor in chief of the atlantic, jeffrey goldberg, bob i want to start a with you. the president has said that the press is the enemy of the american people. you know something about that kind of language. what do you make of that? >> the press is not the, is not the enemy and the concern in the press is that we will have secret government, that government does things that we should know about that we don't. and the judge who said it got it right. democracies die in darkness so we are working against the darkness. trump is right on some of these stories have been out of bounds.

i think most of them have been quite good, and he is just going to have to learn that there are leaks and that there is criticism and so many things he is not going to like, and the key is to get the big things right. what is the policy in the middle east going to be? with russia? with north korea? what is he going to do with the economy? cyber security? counterterrorism? those are the big issues. the press should be thinking about them, so should he. >> dickerson: jeffrey, it is clear part of the white house strategy is to use the press as a foil and we are helping with this back and forth. so how do you see that? on the other hand the press is the enemy is a powerful statement, so how do you sort this? >> look, we all know that any time the president of the united states opens his mouth it is newsworthy so we have to report on his attacks on the press. on the other hand we don't want to create a feeling like this is completely unprecedented. i am going back to a story bob

knows in 1973, walter cronkite don't told the atlantic he said the nixon white house is very deliberately has used the press as a foil to enhance its own credibility. this is a strategy that is, that has some precedent in american history so we have to keep our journalistic composure about this as we go forward. >> dickerson: yes. absolutely. bob, let's talk about the president's press conference this week. i want to -- you noticed something. let's run a clip here quickly and get your reaction to it. >> north korea, we will take care of it, folks what is going to happen when i am dealing with -- well, really, really important subjects like north korea. i don't have to tell you what i am going to do in north korea, wait a minute. >> dickerson: so, bob, what did you make of -- >> three times -- he brings up north korea himself, saying, you know, i don't have to tell, i am clearly worried about leaks about north korea, saying, hey,

look i am going to take care of it, folks. this is on his mind and rightly on his mind. i think president obama told him north korea i can't is one of these things you really heed to worry about, maybe at the top of the list, and so it is logical and, again, where obama apparently said this, i don't sleep because of north korea, and it is quite logical, because north korea has a leader that is unstable and they have nuclear weapons. >> dickerson: jeffrey, what did you make of the press conference? >> well, i mean -- 77 minutes, after just arguing that, you know, we have precedent for various aspects of the trump administration there are some things unprecedented and this performance art we see at these press conferences, at that press conference in particular was quite striking. i think about this in the prism of how the world views us, and the world depends on our

sobriety in a kind of way. people resent the united states and its global power but also reassured in many ways by the president of the united states and by very stable, sober minded person at the helm of the united states and those kind of performances are actually quite unnerving, i think, to me and they are quite unnerving to people around the world. >> dickerson: bob, there have been two ends of the spectrum with respect to how the president trump is doing, on the other hand there is the chaos idea and then the other is the president is "a fine-tuned machine". senator graham kind of came down in the middle, on big things he is doing just great and the other things are just part of getting your eggs underneath you. how do you see this? >> i have listened to senator graham and i thought it was wise. i come down in the middle on this, there are some good things, some things that are not working, but we don't want in the media to set ourselves up as the opposition. i know trump a little bit. i don't think he really believes that the press is the enemy of the people, frankly.

and we have to do our reporting in a very aggressive, careful way ten months ago with bob costa, we interviewed trump and it was tough and he came out and he said, well, it was fair and accurate. so i think you can be tough and fair and accurate. >> dickerson: and there is a lot that republicans like in what he is doing, not just the supreme court, but the affordable care act, getting rid of regulations, and also comprehensive tax reform. >> right. it is interesting in some ways, not giving political advice here, obviously but in some ways they have a better story to tell than they are telling, and that is because in part, in part because of these personnel sort of -- this personnel chaos that is going on, national security down is sill, in particular, but in part because the level of unnecessary attack on the media, the statements about the independent judiciary that are quite troubling. if he would get out of his own way on occasion, you could see a plausible case to be made that

he has something good to sell to the people and obviously the base seems to continue to appreciate what he is doing. >> dickerson: they sure did in florida yesterday. bob are, what is your view when we look back some years now on the michael flynn is a garks, saga, what should we take away? >> i think there are many unanswered questions. i am not sure it was a firing offense, quite frankly, and two and a half weeks before the inaugural, i met with flynn and went through a number of things, like russia, and he made the case, said, look, we are going to have a two track strategy, reach out to putin, and at the same time build-up our military in a way that putin is going to hate, and it is going to be very tough. we have not seen that side of it, so if there is some strategy in all of this, and i agree with jeffrey on the economy. they have so many points they could make and just not. >> dickerson: i am afraid we have run out of time, bob, jeffrey, thanks to both of you and we will be back in a moment.

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>> dickerson: that's it for us today. thanks for watching. until next week, for "face the nation", i am john dickerson. captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

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