ends up polluting a river that causes cancer and other illnesses they put all the health risk all the dangers out to the american public those are stories that we tell every week and you know what they're working. political chess in the white house is the president rearranging his cabinet the ultimate goal of getting a new attorney general will take a look at that on this edition of politics. well going to politicking on larry king on monday berean general john kelly assumed his new position as white house chief of staff this after he left his cabinet post as secretary of homeland security so the question remains who will the president the point to fill that now vacant position as some talk around washington the president may want to move attorney general sessions from his post and put him in

is no one and that of course would be even opening for a new attorney general so there's all of this reshuffling new hires and recent firings and resignations all come back to the ad misses the administration's so-called russia problem we'll get into that with kendall coffey founding member of coffey burlington attorneys that law he formally served as u.s. attorney for the southern district of florida and he joins me from my old bailey wick miami kendall first what do you make of mr skaro move should leave ng well from everything i've heard it tells us that the new chief of staff or the president ited states is going to be very decisive and when you think about how quickly that came about what a surprise it is to everyone maybe it tells you there's going to be a reset in the white house maybe things will get in a different direction which i think frankly leaders people on both. sides of the

political aisle that would really really welcome what do you make of the public criticism of sessions i am a little bit confused by it in the sense that. i've not clear if it's just the president speaking his mind expressing some frustration cities got or whether it's part of of a strategy that seeks to basically push the attorney general out and as we know the president has unbridled discretion to dismiss an attorney general doesn't need any reason whatsoever to do it but there are plenty of people signaling that to push out jeff sessions at this point without any real reason to do so is something which could come at a significant political cost this is a gamble that this administration is totally unpredictable. it's definitely unpredictable and you know i would add wouldn't when we look at it a jeff sessions scenario he is not running the the russian investigation so

whatever the president's frustrations may be with the russia and. there are legitimate questions larry as to whether this russia investigation is starting to look at years old business dealings of donald trump the billionaire and whether that is really directly related to the scope of the investigation into whether there was collusion with the russian government so it's easy to see that there could be sequestered at the white house is raising there could be some frustration but pushing jeff sessions out of the way isn't going to solve any of that we all know who's running that investigation now and it's a guy name robert mueller now you're a federal prosecutor once you open the door as we learned with what more open the door to monica lewinsky he didn't go anywhere candy potentially yes because we all know that whitewater was a name of a real estate company in a real estate transaction that led all the way to impeachment on something that couldn't have been more distant. from the original source of it but larry i don't

think that means it's a good thing to wander from the original premise of an investigation i don't think the whitewater episode was good for this country and frankly i would think it is a productive discussion point to say is this the time to be looking into everything in the history of everybody that ever did business with donald trump or does this country have a very serious issue about whether there was interference on our election whether our election systems are subject to being compromised whether somebody could actually manipulate the tally at the polling place and if so and if something happened what was responsible and what can we do in the future and who should be held accountable for what happened in two thousand and sixteen i'm just not convinced that it's the best use of resources and attention to go wandering into everybody who's got a complaint about a past dealing business dealing of donald trump and right now we don't know what the real scope of this investigation is legally now and that's your expertise on

jared kushner donald trump jr a e-mails having meetings is anything illegal about all of that. well the question is whether he failed to disclose that's one set of separate issues and could affect his security clearance what we know so far about the for example the meeting that donald trump jr was involved with doesn't establish a crime by itself but what prosecutors are legitimately considering in examining a meeting like that is whether that provides some linkage that they can put together with other elements to show in effect that there was some kind of illicit conspiracy between somebody and the activities of the russian government collusion itself larry we know that's not a crime what you have to show is an intention to conspire criminally was somebody who is committing a crime such as hacking into a computer so the fact that there was at least briefly we don't know whether it was

a long term willingness to consider getting dirt on hillary clinton and that that willingness to consider getting dirt on hilly clinton was was manifested a pretty high level of the trunk campaign campaign manager was there donald trump jr the son in law the president that is it is a legitimate source to include but let's be careful here the fact that somebody in a political context is willing to sit down and find out of somebody else has during their opponent that is absolutely nothing new i think that happens in most campaigns and in this country nevertheless it's relevant and what remains to be seen is whether that can be pieced together with other evidence that meaningfully and compelling way connects a trunk campaign to so-called russian collusion that evidence hasn't developed yet but it's something that is obviously being examined as we as we speak what do you think of mr mohler i've a high regard for him. i think although i know the president's frustrated with him

and perhaps others in the white house i think it was a good thing for this country that somebody who really is not political who is a true you know get it right do the right thing law enforcement kind of guy is is running this thing so he may not be appreciated right now by the by the president but i believe he's going to do a conscientious job he knows he's writing pages in history and i don't think he's going to worry about whether some of the attorneys on his team gave to democratic party causes or not bob mueller is going to want to get this thing right in retrospect was a little mistake the donald trump jarrad tension to go to those meetings at all it was clearly a mistake because there was enough to indicate that they would be meeting with somebody that could be connected to a foreign government and while i would certainly say that as a legal matter i'm not convinced that

a crime was committed i don't think this country likes the idea of people in our elections no matter how nasty they get reaching out to foreign governments to to get assistance and you know op research sure that's an everyday thing and sometimes it gets pretty ugly but enlisting foreign governments to help in political campaigns i'm not sure that that sits right with the american people kelly can change things a lot as a stance if anybody can do it he can do it he's a kind of guy that president trump really admires and he's shown that he's got considerable litters leadership ability i think just like. was is the right guy at the right time i think general kelly is is the right guy for this very difficult position can always good talking to you thank you so much for your time today hey larry thanks for inviting me joining me now from washington d.c. is bob livingston former republican member of congress from louisiana founding partner of the livingston group. ok where do we start what's your reaction to

what's going on at the white house star emotions now kelley's in what's going on well it's been a busy week i think we're looking at a version of the apprentice. the fact is people are hired people are fired and now we have a new game but up in the final analysis i think that things are working out all right i know john kelly from way back in a different incarnation when he was a bird colonel and i was in congress and he's a wonderful man and just a great marine with a terrific war record. unfortunately lost a son in the service as well but he's just a terrific guy and i think if anybody can bring some stability to the white house he's the guy to do it will the president let him have the go. i think what it does just recently happened with the scary movies. interview with the new

york times and that falling back on him and now it is his departure from the white house i think that strengthens. the generals hand and i believe that he's going to have a clear field in getting hold of everything at the white house and people are going to have to go through him through john kelly in order to get to the president if that's the case i think it's going to be a lot smoother than it has unless six months during the primaries jeb bush said that the donald trump presidency would be chaotic this fall that's simply probably correct what do you make of it bob you've been around washington a long time known as never been anything like this. well not really but we've never had a president like this i mean the fact is nobody expected him to when you and i have spoken during the campaign i think when we last spoke hillary clinton was going to

be the next prez the united states then turned out so well at least for her i think it did turn out well for the country and when you look at the agenda that trump has had when he when he ran for president and says that despite all the noise despite all the so-called chaos that's been going on he's been checking his list and with the exception of obamacare everything else is worked out he named a wonderful man to the supreme court he's got tax reform well on his way in according to chairman brady of the house ways and means committee we expect that that will pass in the next couple of months he's provided for energy regulation relief other regulation relief and the stock market's an all time high so what's not to like. what do you make of the public criticism of jeff sessions. well i know senator sessions then that the now attorney general says as well

he's a good man he's a decent man i don't think he deserved the public criticism but clearly president trump was very very unhappy when the attorney general recused himself on russian matters and then all of a sudden out of nowhere we've got director muller who's a now a special counsel who is supposed to be hired to investigate all things russian that is collusion between the trops and and the russians turns out that's absolutely nothing it's what they keep calling it a nothing burger i would say it's a lot worse it's just ridiculous but most are still going because there's a special council and that's what special councils do i think that trump has a right to be upset about that. but you know if i had been he i would have taken it

out with the attorney general in private rather than public bob levey reasons our guest stay right there we'll have more politicking right after the break. about your sudden passing i have only just learned you worry yourself and taken your last term. we all knew it would i tell you i'm sorry. 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 time. but then my feeling started to change you talked about more like it was again still some marshawn to view those that didn't like to question our arc. and i secretly promised to never be like it's one does not leave the funeral the same as one enters the mind gets consumed with this one to. speak to you. never know what they take. to claim that mainstream media has met its make.

here's what people have been saying about redacted in the night to us it actually does belong awesome the only show i go out of my way to launch you know what it is that really packs a punch oh yeah it is the john oliver of r t america is doing the same we are apparently better than blue things that seem to see people you've never heard of love redacted tonight president of the world bank take. me seriously send us an e-mail your launching our team got special report. basically everything that you think you know about civil society have broken down. there's always going to be somebody else one step ahead of the game. we should not be. normalizing finally. we don't need people that think like this on our planet.

this is an incredibly tense situation. politicking i'm talking with former republican member of congress from louisiana bob livingston you think there is nothing there on ball with regard to russia. actually larry i think if you really if muller does a good job he's going to find far more russian collusion with the democrats with hillary clinton with deborah wasserman schultz than elaborate fine with the tribes we've got some really weird things going on that are being investigated and we know that hillary clinton and former president clinton sold twenty percent of the united states you're am to a russian company we know that former president clinton while she was secretary of state he was collecting big fees from the russians to speak to them we know that

deborah wasserman schultz was rig in the election in the d.n.c. for hillary clinton and frankly now we know that there's a problem with her. information technology people who have been on her payroll for the last six months and that there may be some code luzhin between her or at least them and the russians i think that that is much fertile ground for mr moller to investigate and for the attorney general to investigate than anything that's turned up there's been no evidence of any collusion with the russians as far as the president trumps concern republican senator bob corker oh i'm sure you know very well said it would be a major miscalculation and fired you agree yeah i do i think politically that would just be an unwise thing to do i don't think he. just got rid of scarab i think he better let that rest now not fire anybody else. what when what what went

wrong with health care what's a seven years you guys from a state. well i think you could say in the house it was it was tough in the senate it became tougher and it didn't happen i think reply. frankly they are too independent for their own good democrats by and large get their own marching orders and they follow in lockstep and and it's their policy or nothing at all and usually they they go for where their ball is in fact you remember obamacare passed with all of the democrats and zero republicans sense then it's been an absolute disaster and people are hurt in the health insurance i would have thought that the republicans immediately would have solved that problem but again they had difficulty in alice and then they didn't pass it in the senate i think it's

a matter of all of the republicans simply not coming to the table and saying we've got to do this for the good of not only the party but for the country and i'm disappointed that they weren't able to have more success in the last week or so bob obviously there's some things good about obamacare couldn't they take the good throw out the bad improve it and come to a conclusion well they had already decided to let. young people take keep their policies with their parents until they were twenty six and they'd already decided to cover preexisting. conditions so that was a concession along that line but frankly they couldn't agree on anything else and until they do we've got a disaster has fact is obamacare is collapsing it and there are many states in which it's it's not even the people are not able to get any health insurance let it go on from one company it's got to be changed and if they've got to bring in the

democrats in to work with them that's ok but i'm not optimistic that shucks rumors about wanting really wanting to do that without keeping what's there on the table it's got to be changed i think the republicans have got to go back to the table and take the next few weeks and come up with a solution you're a veteran of the navy right. what's your reaction to the announcement that transgender individuals would no longer be allowed to enlist and serve in the military. larry when i was eighteen years old. we didn't have women on the aircraft carrier in which i served. but i knew what was uppermost in my mind as a young single guy and nowadays there are a lot of women on ships and a lot of people who ride in an e-mail me and say well. livingston you're just a massage just in your problem the purpose of our armed services whether it's the

navy the marines the elders is to provide a strong national defense for this country and by injecting sexual politics whether it's transgender sexual politics or any other sexual politics into the cohesive force frankly risks the possibility that our armed services won't be able to do their job this is a very dangerous world look at north korea look at china look at russia all moving now with advanced weaponry it's extremely dangerous we ought not to be bogged down with issues like trans gender politics so i support what the president did but it is some people might say the bogging down is done by the was it a great problem that there was so many there are transgender troops there are heroes as a navy and i i don't know how big a problem it is that i would imagine it's very very small and for those that have

already lived within the rules as they existed since president obama changed the rules i would say live and let live i'm not going to dismiss them but i think that from this point forward it's probably best just to not have that issue is a distraction you once you are in the seat now held by house with steve's khaleesi right that's exactly right a good man how's he doing. well he's in rehabilitation days out of the hospital he went in for of numerous. operations and i.c.u. and they had to get the infection out he was it was terribly wounded he was lucky to be alive but those people at the med star spittle did a terrific job they put him back together they got rid of the infection and now he's just got to learn how to maneuver and walk and get stronger from everything i hear he's going to be back on the job within the next two or three months certainly

pray and hope that he is he is really a terrific guy great to hear thanks bob always good talking with you thank you very much larry good to be with you with the president saying he'll sign congress and sanctions against russia and president putin's promise for talent or action where does the hope that russia in the united states might be able to solve the syrian crisis together along with myriad other problems plaguing the middle east let's check in with courtney keeler us foreign affairs and national security expert and correspondents she joins us via skype in istanbul what are you doing in istanbul. and of course on him for two years he world now i'm i'm i'm not in the states because there's so much foreign coverage here and we're not even seeing that because there's so much going on at the white house more confusion it seems at the white house these days the middle east so i'm here to clarify what's going on in for here. the american stuff going on what do you make of what's going on the

united states in russ's the president's going to sign that putin is throws out seven hundred fifty five people where is that go on. well what's going right now is actually baltic relations a vice president is on a tour of key baltic countries that see the russians is sort of still the soviet foe that they once were places like a still anea and georgia and montenegro old new nato allies hopeful nato allies so it's really interesting when you see the vice president reaffirming their can the u.s. his commitment to the baltic states and you see congress reaffirming their commitment to sanctions against russia and it's very unclear what the u.s. foreign policy is according to the president of the united states right now president and what about all of that these in these serious. well syria

is you know one of the most complicated crad meyer's the word quagmire used to belong to act yes and syria is literally taking over that as it involves so many different allies and so many different players and it was seen maybe right after the election that trump had some kind of relationship with russia and they could sort of broach some kind of deal and they'd have tried to make deals on cease fires but it also involves iran and also invite involves the shia sunni proxima list as the see it's sunni global war for power and it russia and the u.s. are clearly not on the same page the only clue often we get to u.s. foreign policy is president trumps tweets and you have to remember sure as i'm sure you do that all of the leaks are the notes or the comments that presence in the past is said we're always hints to allude to what was coming and he or they're sort

of oprah copper marks their world leaders keep reacting to ucas they're used to the word coming out of the way house is being some kind of tip off for what's coming next but right now it's just confusing for all sorts of world leaders who don't know what trump and his foreign policy team are actually doing in the situation in turkey the failed military coup it's a little more may year ago was a situation now. well i was deathly more a year more than a year ago at the rate that the adversary actually was just a few weeks ago but turkey has also look into ours united states and wondering i would say what's happening they're also looking at making overtures to china in terms of economics and enter and maybe possibly engage in an and it's and by missiles from russia which also just as another indication of a country that has been a nato ally and a firm allied us that hosts a military base twenty five hundred u.s.

military approximately your has engaged in the fight against syria as an against isis and a syrian civil war. and there's just a lot of confusion about what the relationship is for president not just with the turkish leadership here but with many other countries. can you put in a nutshell what american foreign policy is. i hate to say it larry but i would say i'm am right now or just unclear. we all know what it's been we all know what it's been for years we had different allies but people are quickly turning leaders in countries or are hedging their bets because they just don't know where the us is going to go next and it's not because they think congress is creeping out of control or the real or virtual nobody can really make sense of what trump is saying because he's kind of gone above his own communications team he uses twitter they're not planned out you can't tell if this is inside information from russia harks

russia does in the government iran harks it's very unclear where the security council stands and where pretty much. of the state department stands and which is also not fully developed so like i said i hate to say may happen but you see what's happening in syria you see what's happening with relations with russia and it's it's very i think it's very excuse for a lot of countries right now courtney i thank you so much always good having you with us. thank you i really thank courtney keely and the rest of our guests thank you too for joining me on this edition of politicking hey remember you can join the conversation on my facebook page or tweet me at kings things and don't forget use the politicking hash tag that's all for this edition of politicking. about your sudden passing i've only just learnt you worry yourself in taking your last wrong turn. your act right up to you as we all knew it would i tell you i'm

sorry. 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 bank. but then my feeling started to change you talked about more like it was again still some are fond of 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 the same as one enters the mind gets consumed with death this one quite different to speak to now because there are no other takers. to claim that mainstream media has met its maker. is a real irony going. to show what a player brings a responsible choice new people and there is always all that's what goes on is because it was always meant something else again we're dealing with the ordinary no

wholesale surveillance you feel you have already while there's room to move to show she doesn't trump has used the social media like boyle are always our lead story because it's garbage and real genuine.

that. night. cap. that i actually bother the congress to put these sanctions in place from the way they did not to the president nor i are very happy about that we were clear that we didn't think it was going to be helpful. the u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson says both he and donald trump are unhappy about new anti russia sanctions but respect the decision of congress. french government is to open to new migrant centers near the port city of cali this comes less than a year after the infamous jungle camp was cleared. and three members of an a tory a street gang have been killed in a shootout with police at.