all the world states and all the news companies merely players but what kind of parties are in t. america play r.t. america offers more r.t. america personal. many ways the news landscape is just like the field of real news big names good actors bad actors and in the end you could never hear all. of the park and all the world's a stage all the world's a stage all the world's a stage and we are definitely a player. the supreme court sided with top u.s. officials over post september eleventh detentions on this edition.

of politicking ivy holmes in for larry king this week the supreme court ruled that muslim men detained after the september eleventh attacks cannot sue u.s. law enforcement officials in the george w. bush administration it was afforded to a decision that has many wondering if we have the right balance between security and civil rights let's talk about this and much more with longtime washington d.c. and republican party insider former congressman chris shays of connecticut he served as ranking member of the national security and foreign affairs committees and on the house homeland security committee he joins me from our nation's capitol welcome senator congressman thanks for joining us i appreciate it nice to be with you so let me pose that question to you as a former congress person sitting on those committees do you believe that we are striking the right balance between security and civil rights well i think we have to be conscious of the balance but let's just remember we had three airplanes that

had passenger in it and it used as missiles to to attack the united states brought down six buildings in new york city it was a crime that was committed that we could have it was a terrorist act that was committed that we could have prevented had we done a better job in and keeping track of potential terrorists and what the patriot act does and what other acts do is to try to bring a balance. let's remember these individuals by their were american citizens and i believe most if not all were here illegally. yes they were they were actually eventually deported on immigration violations you bring up the patriot act of course there's a lot of debate about it particular when it comes to an essay surveillance do you think that the n.s.a. surveillance is appropriate or too pervasive well n.s.a. surveillance is a little different than patriot act and its n.s.a. surveillance is trying to take public information collected in

a way and combine it to see if there's threads that would have us you know look at certain people and then if we think that they are suspicious. use the patriot act in that case go to a file as a court under oath presenting information of why you need to have surveillance on these individuals had we done that before we the nine eleven never should have happened it never should have been. shifting gears just a little bit with you congressman let's talk about what's going on in washington d.c. where you are and we know that you voted for hillary clinton you were not a supporter of pressure from since he's become president of course is presidency has been engulfed in controversy it seems every single day something new comes out is there anything about president trump that has surprised you positively well first of all he's clueless about how government works and yet he boasted that he

would be able to get a good handle on it he's clueless about his responsibilities and the responsibilities of congress and he continually says things that are not truthful that can be documented by just showing what he just said the day before going back to the transcript or the media so are the things that i like about him i want to deal with regulations and i think he has to we have inane regulations that we need to have less regulations and we need them to be more purposeful so that's one area . well he did he did issue an executive order requiring that to regulations be wiped off the books for everyone that's proposed you think that was a good move on his part i do think it was a good move knowledge of see one of the ones that are wiped off are the ones that are left standing i mean we have regulations governing ethics i don't want to see those go away like him to be an ethical president and understand why you need

ethics in government. so you know his ethics of course have been under attack in particular from democrats on capitol hill and a number of them are looking to try to introduce you know a bill of impeachment and piece of an indictment what do you think about that effort i mean word less than six months into this president i think that's misguided impeachment means that you have reason to believe that you need to take a duly elected president and hold a hearing in. then remove him from office i think what makes sense is to have the investigation that's going on by mueller right now that makes sense but then to leave that president trump obstructed justice when he told the former f.b.i. director james comey that i hope that you can let this thing with michael thing go no i don't i don't think that would be a reason why he would be impeached if he's impeached it will be that there will be some connection with donald trump and his campaign working with

the russians to overturn or excuse me to have you see any evidence of that and have influence elections oh i mean i have you seen evidence of any collusion between the russian government or agents of the russian government and the top campaign but well first off we know they interfered with our elections so that's a given now i'm not losing sleep that they interfered with our election because we interfere with their election we interfere with other elections so i don't want to be hypocritical about it but the question is why were there secret meetings with with the russians before and after the election why is donald trump so oblivious to the fact that they were influencing our election and seems not concerned about those you know when when you open the closet door and money falls over you and you say no just nothing here but money. don't you don't say well you should look at it we should look at it and then we should determine if it's accurate about sure but what about president trance contention that the f.b.i.

director told him three times that he personally was not under investigation and you know even dianne feinstein has said the senator from california has said that she's seen no evidence of collusion with the campaign they've seen and so the question is alternately world there be evidence that proves it and if not they'll do it but they have to let them do their investigation that's what they should do so congressman you said that you believe that trump president trump is clueless. it's about government how the legislative process. so what advice would you give him to try to turn this presidency around you know i don't that's a great question i want to be honest i want him to be straightforward i want him to allow the investigation to go forward without him being preoccupied with that i want him to do his job i want him not to tell him to get off twitter absolutely was give me no i don't want to say that i think he has a right to use twitter to get his message out without having to just go all the

time through the pros so i just like him to be thoughtful about what he says that would that would be my record and well the former the former f.b.i. director he testified to congress that it was because of donald trump's tweet that he went and released this memo through a friend of the new york times which the former f.b.i. director said he hoped would trigger a special counsel which did so the question to you is the question many people have is do you think that a lot of the buzz saw that president trump is running into is his own making oh absolutely it's his own making and it's very sad. you know i think it's let me let me just make this point when you're on an airplane you pray for the pilot i don't want him to fail i want our government to do well i would like him to succeed doing constructive things but you know when he flies

a plane to the right and to the left and up and straight down you get a little nervous and i'm nervous yet so in order for him to do the right things as you're saying he also needs a cooperative congress and so far we've seen the democratic party being very obstructionist when it comes to trying to work with republicans on obamacare for good assholes trying to reform that so you know what needs to happen there are you surprised when he goes to a convention and he encourages people to you know walk or up block or up i mean people are going to start to say about half have to put on their big boy pants too and get to the you know but let me. make my point my point is he can't complain about this when he was so active in doing the very things that democrats were doing so he's he's a misguided voice when he complains about it because he set the tone donald trump is everything my parents taught me to be and everything we taught our daughter not to be that's the real me so now having said that would it be nice if democrats and

republicans worked together one of the challenges is since twenty ten seventy percent of the members of congress have never been elected since two thousand and ten and they've never seen cooperation among the parties and even the staff stone cooperate so yes that i think both sides need to grow up and work with each other absolutely. absolutely congress and we really appreciate you joining us thank you so much you're welcome turning now to the latest in syria i'm joined by courtney keeley she's the u.s. foreign affairs national security expert and former senior reporter for al-jazeera america courtney thank you for joining us appreciate it so sunday arm. military shot down a syrian plane and russia has now announced as a consequence they're going to treat u.s. planes as targets so my question to you is are we about to get into a military confrontation with russia well if it is very very complicated and this

news is quite dramatic so let me tell you exactly what happened is a u.s. fighter jet came flying off aircraft carriers in the mediterranean over syria and and shot out of the sky as syrian regime forces plane that had dropped bombs on coalition forces u.s. coalition forces that are being assisted by u.s. special forces would you say we were within our right to shoot that plane down i wouldn't i wouldn't categorize anything i just i can tell you what happened and what you know six years into a civil war where u.s. hasn't really reacted a lot in with the term administration in the last month we've seen four times the trumpet mr sharon has made it very clear that they're the top administration bomb syria they while they bomb syria after those chemical attacks there have been three attacks within the area that they're fighting against the syrian regime because let's start let's start a little bit backwards right it's an hour ago and it was over all related to. this

headline first air to air combat for the u.s. military in this region in years they did shoot off shoot out of the sky syrian regime forces airplane and there was a parachute evacuation seen reported they did call russia on the hotline before they before they did this which russian now says that they're going to break out of it and i'm going to talk to the united states to avoid mid-air collisions and we have a dangerous can this get into court it's been dangerous for a long time this is happened for several years now with with russian fighters in the air russian planes in the air you've got u.s. coalition. forces that have been flying over syria launching bombs on to isis was a what you have to back up a little bit you've got a civil war that's been going on for six years and that's cause much longer than anyone predicted at the time or act as you know as cause the largest refugee crisis

since world war two it's impossible to dislodge assad but since the civil war has been going on he has been aided by iranian revolutionary guards and shia militias on the ground including hezbollah from neighboring lebanon as well as russia and russia and when russia came in and basically saved a side because you've got a terry aid with a naval base which is the only naval base outside of post soviet territory which is in northern syria all right let me stop you right there it is fascinating i love it we're going to talk more about it right after the break stay right there more politicking coming up. about your sudden passing i phone lee just learned you were yourself and taken your last turn. here at the top to you as we all knew it would i tell you i'm sorry i could so i write these last words in hopes to put to rest these things that i never got off my chest. i remember when we first met my life turned on each breath. but then my feeling started to change you talked

about war like it was again still some more fun to feel those that didn't like to question our arc and i secretly promised to never be like it said one does not leave a funeral in the same as one enters the mind it's consumed with death this really quite different speech because there are no other takers. to claim that mainstream media has met its maker. i'm john harshman and i'll give you what the mainstream media can't help big picture we'll go deeper investigate and debate all so you can get the big picture.

i've got to do just that you're watching all of your. questions. welcome back to politicking courtney keeley joins me in studio and we're discussing syria and how dangerous this might get for the united states of her lot of our viewers they asked the question what is our interest in syria whenever we seems to have wandered or waded into the middle east it doesn't work out well what are we doing there well you know the history of the u.s. middle us in the middle east is not not one it's not filled with glory and nothing whatsoever so i'm sure obama was clearly has it in some said playing out the clock of his ministry shouldn't no one really engaging except going after isis in the power vacuum of the civil war with the charlotte side going after his own people

that were fighting to depose him and his own regime forces fighting those people right iran and russia step down but as well as isis and i understand that isis i mean they were better fighters more organized than they used to rebel and they stepped into a power vacuum in a different area of syria has a huge desert that borders iraq mosul and iraq are kind of like two twin cities if you if you let go of the boundaries you just look at these two places in the where the u.s. is in gauge taking out what i was doing there what is our getting away that i was just taking isis out of mosul iraq do you think we can do that i'm callous well today we can succeed in takes a very very long time clear. really nobody wants to see a prolonged military engagement because we still have the quagmire of afghanistan we have the issue of invading iraq u.s. forces are on the ground in iraq and outside of raka in serious syria you've got special forces advisers on the ground in iraq in syria fighting against isis aided

by coalition forces in iraq there's iraqi coalition forces that some are shia some looking towards iran but we're using those as allies that's in our interest so courtney let me ask you this how does this and syria has been engaged in this civil war civil conflict since twenty eleven far longer than anyone predicted is there a diplomatic solution or is this just going to be a fight to the death well it is a fight to the death and has been a fight it's not going to end with any bad news it's there still going on but if you've ever been endure an airstrike which i hope you haven't been this is out of booms enough to terrorize the population major jets u.s. fighter jets screaming over syria is not what anybody wants but they also don't want to see u.s. special forces how does it how does it end it and eventually first with isis that's the u.s. is goal to get rid of isis but then they have to figure out some to pull out a magic solution and it has to and you have to get into the table with the iranians you have to come to the table to question john kerry's uneasier use our secretary of state he tried that he had these summits you know it seems continually and they

never we don't have a president that's speaking on message with the secretary of state breaking news we don't have a president that's supporting caught our where we're has a house and a huge u.s. military base that is used to i think they're trying this is complicating matters or and it's not doesn't think i can just report that basically matters are very complicated because as you know once you wait wait into this it's there is no muslim world this arab unified world of one idea it's like trying to say all americans think the same it's a crazy patchwork of all different types of people that form a country so is the arab world so is the muslim so do you think that we can succeed in. and our goal demolishing isis it's going to be a long battle musil still ongoing it's horrific battle it's at their human rights abuses on all sides you saw even the iraqi forces going into mosul that were backed by the u.s. . tortured came out video of some people that have been following me around there's

nothing good that's going to come out of iraq and right now you still have civilians that are still taking the toll you have families that have been torn apart you have syrians that can't live in peace in the country they can't work and it's one of the most harrowing situations i've covered and i have covered harrowing courtney in the snow those are so much harrowing and you are thank you so much for joining us and helping explain this very complicated situation appreciate that. joining me now in studio is gordon chang an expert on asia columnist for the daily beast and forbes dot com and author of nuclear showdown north korea takes on the world gordon thanks much for joining us appreciate it thank you so much i mean so we saw that warm air the young american man who was arrested in prison in north korea has just been returned home to the united states after seventeen months of imprisonment and it appears severely brain damaged and in a coma i mean i can't imagine the pain as parents are going through with all of

this but my question to you is what was the point why did north korea arrest him and then subsequently it appears tortured him well touching a propaganda banner which is what he did he tried to take it down is a serious offense and it would be serious not just of a foreigner doing it but especially of a north korean you know we live in a democracy free and could have been arrested should tell the very same thing yeah i would have gotten probably more than fifty years you know we look at the fifteen years hard labor as an excessive sentence where the north koreans would would not have you know because we live in a democracy our government is inherently legitimate and we are not as concerned about symbolism but in our own state like north korea where the government isn't legitimate and you know propaganda boasts posters symbolism absolutely isn't it also is this for domestic consumption for north koreans for the government to project this propaganda where they say something the united states as well well i think was really for internal stability because if somebody could for instance

mockumentary one or tear down a poster or criticize the kim family that could lead to a chain of events where people then decide to go into the streets and that's why the movie the interview in two thousand and fourteen the one talked about the assassination of a north korean leader that i loved that movie and i actually did it in solidarity with the movie makers for you know first amendment purposes but let me ask you this that you know the sort of the raging question is kim jong un the leader of north korea. is he crazy or is he doing things that actually make sense given his government and his position you know i think that makes sense in the context of the north korean political system that regime is very difficult to survive in and so therefore there have been you know hundred fifty five executions lately of seizing his arms uncle his own uncle jang song taek also is elder have brother with the v.x. attack in the malaysian airport in february. is making i

think rational decisions but like the world's worst regime so you could take the pope or whatever and put him in the same position as kim jong un and you get behave i don't know his mother and sister go live in that but how secure is his position i mean is he doing these things because he's being controlled by generals and you know north korean coming it's courses around him that's a great debate among korea watchers most people think that he actually consolidated control quickly after he took over from the death of his father in december two thousand and eleven was he learning at his father's knee how to do that yes he was . also in the regime foundered took more than two decades to teach kim jong il his son how to rule the regime because a very difficult thing to do now kim jong il took just about five years because the regime you know is not a monolith it's a composite of various elements like the security services korean people's army.

and the guard even more complicated and then you have kim family members who are also part of the regime it's a balancing effort on the part of a north korean leader kim jong il and has not only tried to consolidate his own position by putting his own people in place he's also to change the composition of the regime moving it away from the military first policy of his father towards one where the korean workers party is dominant and so that's why there's been so many deaths and that's why i think the regime his own state. out forces that might be opposing his changes and he's killing anybody who might actually be a threat to him and so in the middle of january this year demoted and detained his minister of state security general could warhol a very important figure then there was the execution of five of general kim sr associates then there was the execution or the assassination of kim jong il couple weeks after that there are all sorts of things that are occurring the regime that we don't see but they don't add up to stability and that's important for us because

this guy's soon going to have a long range missile he's going to be able to put a nuke on it and reach the lower forty eight states this is going to turn into how much of a threat is is this to the united states and north korea actually firing off a missile across the pacific ocean landing in california i don't think that they would actually try and do that because we would retaliate but he could use his nukes to try to intimidate us to obtain concessions to work to intimidate us if we don't think he's actually going to use it i mean a threat has to come you know backed with you know severe action we may think that he may not use it but we may not be willing to take that chance and so while i think one of the reasons why they want nuclear weapons and long range ballistic missiles is to extract concessions you know this is going to be nuclear they have it unsuccessfully in the past yes let me ask about this president trump you know he has you know boasted that he now has a very warm working relationship with the president of china when he went in and the president went to our law go to hang out with donald trump how much do you

think the present time will be more successful than previous administrations and getting china leveraging china to pressure north korea. i think the president trample only be successful if he imposes costs on the chinese what he's trying to be doing that now because everyone thinks we need china's cooperation and so the general thought in this administration and in prior ones has been let's try and be cooperative with the chinese because then they'll be cooperative with us that approach hasn't worked in the. yeah so i don't think it's going to work and this one president has said you know what if the chinese are going to help we're going to do this alone so what can we do to pressure china well for instance we could just do nothing morse than just and force our own laws chinese banks have been engaged in money laundering for the north koreans and involved into their illicit converse commerce we have followed european banks hundreds of millions of dollars for a lesser offenses we don't touch chinese banks at all but what about what about the threat of retaliation people say that if you you know get engaged in this

adversarial relationship with china that they could really hurt our trade relationship well you could certainly hurt us but we're past the point of we're going to be any costless solutions so we've got much more leverage over the chinese so for instance all these chinese banks have been involved in north korean activities violation of u.s. law well we could divide them access to their dollar business in new york which means they would be not transacting dollars anywhere in the world that means there be no chinese financial system which means a b. no chinese economy which means there be no chinese political system we have not been willing to use the elements of our national power because we've been so afraid of the chinese once we do it that's going to change that with the trump ministration i think that could very well change and there's reporting in japanese newspapers that trump gave president sieging being in the mara lago meeting you're talking about one hundred days to solve this that means on july sixteenth or at least july seventeenth we're going to find out if the trump administration has the

political will to impose those costs on china and that hundred days is just a rumor but it also coincides with commerce secretary wilbur ross hundred day plan to reduce the deficit with china so i think that there probably is something to it and we're going to find out in july so many quickly before we go last question our secretary of state rex tillerson has said that he may ban americans from traveling to north korea that we don't want another author warm beer or at least a ling's sister laura being to. to them that's a good idea i think it's a good idea because we don't want to give the north koreans any more bargaining chips and also the usual the more use for me tourism for their ballistic missile and nuclear weapons program because money is fungible so every time you see a north korean missile towards a cigar that is tourist dollars at work all right gordon i'll be calling you on july seventeenth about what we did with that devil at a preceded they thank you so much for joining us thank you very thank you for joining me on this edition of politicking and thank you to larry king for letting

me sit in this chair it's an honor remember we love hearing from you join the conversation on larry's facebook page and as always you can share your thoughts on twitter by tweeting at kings things and using the politicking hash tag i also got you to join me on twitter at real amy holmes that's all for this edition of politicking. about your sudden passing i phone lee just learned you worry yourself and taken your last turn. your act right up to you as we all knew it would i tell you i'm sorry i could so i write these last words in hopes to put to rest these things that i never got off my chest. i remember when we first met my life turned on each day. but then my feeling started to change you talked about more like it was again still some more fun to feel those that didn't like to question our arc and i secretly

promised to never like it said one does not leave a funeral in the same as one enters the mind gets consumed with this one to. speak to us there are no other takers. claimed that mainstream media has met its maker. it's called the future we know freedom to. everyone in the world should experience fleas and you'll get it on the old the old. the old according to a gesture. welcome to my world come along for the ride. and

. i do not know if the russian state hacked into john podesta emails and gave them to wiki leaks but i do know barack obama's director of national intelligence has not provided credible to support his claims of russia i also know he perjured himself in a senate hearing planned three months before the revelations provided by edward snowden he denied the deep n.s.a. was carrying out wholesale surveillance of the us. the hyperventilating corporate media has once again proved to be an echo for government claims that cannot be verified you would have thought they would have learned something after serving as george w. bush's useful idiots in the lead up to the invasion of iraq. it is vitally important that the press remains rooted in

a fact based universe especially when we enter an era when truth and fiction are becoming indistinguishable. long. long tom hartman washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture is jeff sessions actually believe in the war on drugs or on drugs or does he just like richard nixon and ronald reagan did want to throw more black people in jail.