i was sitting next to it when it stopped and i didn't. know fifty fifty feet behind me there were people people going sites down on the floor terrorists who killed fourteen people in spain were planning an even bigger attack according to police the country is in mourning often vehicles were driven into crowds in both alone and the result of cam broke the attacks in the latest in a series of instance in which vehicles have been used to strike terror across europe echoing deadly events fronts germany and the u.k. since last summer. also a knife wielding man stabs multiple people in the finish city of turku killing two

before being shot and detained by police. and the psychologists behind the cia so-called enhanced interrogation program agreed to settle a cold case for. victims. kevin and will be live from hand almost a studio in around an hour's time but up next crosstalk examines whether donald trump can manage to define his own position and succeed as u.s. president they with us. hello and welcome to cross talk we're all things are considered i'm peter lavelle it's probably fair to say no other american president is more controversial than donald trump. with so many powerful forces arrayed against him can he succeed even

stay in office we will see however legitimizing the destructive means employed against him may be the lasting damage. across talking the state of trump world i'm joined by my guest. in washington she's a columnist and political scientist in new york we have brought up he is a political pundit in journalist contributing to the huffington post and in seattle we have callers he is a writer activists and progressive you tube are all right crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want and i always appreciate it zach i always go to the person that gets up early is for this program and you got out really early probably not too much traffic that's the that's the upside here is that what is the state of trump world six months into this presidency go ahead oh the state of trump world is we are kind of surprised to be uniting against him as

he takes on the challenge that is the alliance between the democrats the clintons the obama and the mainstream media and never expected to be behind him with so much solidarity but he is facing an uphill battle and we are seeing that loud and clear ok so here in washington how do you assess it six months because on my introduction kind of echoed from what we just heard from south go ahead. well i don't agree with the liberal portrayal of trump is uniquely nefarious i think it's wholly inaccurate and it whitewash is the crimes of obama and bush presidencies. we definitely need to have legitimate criticism of trying but sadly the democratic party and the liberal elites are blocking us from doing that with their analysts russia has stereo. you know kind of reflect upon that because you know. because it's my job i have to watch m.s.m. b.c. i have to watch c.n.n.

and you know it's almost for me it's fun watchable i'm not learning anything oh i'm all i get is this diatribes you know. i think we're adults here and i think we need to deal with facts and we have to deal with other stories because we don't have a whole lot of facts to grab on except well he had a meeting and then they had a meeting and and that embassy and you know over and over and over again it's rehashing it here i mean how is this doing your party being a democrat any good go ahead. it's not doing the democrats any good i'm going to quote robert deniro from raging bull i'm disgusted with the two of you is. what's remarkable to me is ok i'm sixty one years old so i grew up. with a journalist father as well and i knew all the great newspaper men in new york city we call them newspaper men the news news people and here would be my advice to

c.n.n. and them as n.b.c. report the news you really want to have some compelling shows report the news i don't want to hear a pundit just ramble on endlessly be a story to death there's nothing there anymore i'm now on what my grandmother yeah . that's all you're here yet but that's the point zach that but that's it that's exactly the point here is that it seems to me and i have some distance quite literally on this topic it seems to me it's all booming run a boomeranging back at the people that are at war with with donald trump and i and don't get me wrong in my viewers and my guests here i am not you know a dyed in the wool trump supporter i am not i've there's many things that infuriate me about him and many decisions he made i make very much it's agree with but the way the media and the deep state and the democratic party is treating with treating

him is just unconscionable and it is damaging to the republican and to democratic process and the image of america in the world go ahead zack. well and thank you for showing leadership on this from a media standpoint because the american media has completely dropped the ball not only are they not covering the crimes of the obama administration the clinton campaign the democratic party but they're also the mainstream media basically through the press the e-mails who are confirmed authentic by john podesta himself the mainstream media has been directed by the former president clinton to cover the crimes of those two entities to protect them to use the media to shield them from criticism the media should be protecting the american citizens and holding power to account and in fact they're doing the exact opposite where they're running on these ridiculous narratives that are not based on fact when we have thousands upon thousands of protests the e-mails and other leaks that show indisputable proof of pay to play of massive corruption scandals in the american media thinks the

americans just don't just are going to ignore this the the media is complicit in the fraud they were directed to help clinton and obama continue his odious warmongering legacy in the media is the a major problem and i thank donald trump for tweeting about the the negative affects of media the d.n.c. fraud lawsuit is exposing the underbelly of the establishment in this country and it is not pretty and we need all americans to stand up to their local media entities and say why are you not covering the implication of the d.n.c. every american citizen in the world is affected by this matters to their voting in the future every american media and to d. should be reporting on this do to flee not helping the people who told them not to report on it in washington one of the things i think it's very interesting we all know that bernie sanders and his wife have been facing some legal issues here but if we kind of step back a little bit here i get the impression and i'm not going to be the like c.n.n.

and fake news i'm going to give you my impression i don't have any facts i'm going to be really honest about that but it seems to me that the democratic establishment is trying to squeeze the most. popular politician in america off the scene and that is bernie sanders here and it seems to me also the clinton clan wants to maintain its strong hold on the democratic party and i think that's not that's not good for the republican even good for the democrats at the end of the day go ahead dear in washington. absolutely i am in complete agreement the democratic party ever since they're suffering a miserable loss to donald trump they have they have joined with the liberal elites and the corporate media and concocted. this myth of russian interference purely for the office cation of the democratic party's own deficiencies and to rationalize their defeat to triumph of course and at the end of the day it's harming all of us because this does not force the democratic party to change and

they have to change the policy the policies that facilitated that trumps rise to leadership. can you weigh in on that because it seems to me it seems to me that you know pushing this russia gate when you look at there is a special investigation going on right now that should take its course ok we don't need drip drip drip drip ok. we have molar out there let him do his job here but can you speak to the fact that this russia gate thing is the policy of the democratic party because it has one goal and that is to deal legitimize donald trump and it's not working and it's and i think we've already mentioned you know it's undoing the legitimacy of the media and it's undoing the the legitimacy of the democratic party i mean they have to simply move on or that this is going to be a crushing blow for them in two thousand and eighteen go ahead. well call donald trump's whole operation i'm going to quote jimmy breslin that one of the great news

about of all time the gang that couldn't shoot straight you wrote the book it's a blistering bunch of incompetence there deal of juda model. themselves so i'm going to agree with you yes let's let the investigation take its course because we have too many journalists and the democrats are trying to be judge dredd you know you can't win if trump is blatantly guilty then let justice take its course because if we follow the rules of law it's going to take a couple of years to impeach him if he's wrong what we should be really dealing with is health care right now and i'm going to the movie quotes to today the journal of wire show me the money i want to know who's going to pay for all of this obama lied and said it was a tax or wasn't that it wasn't a tax it's a tax obamacare so is that tax going to be canceled we have these partisan polarized divisions here between republicans and democrats that are not dealing

with this issue properly and you have an angry people we've got a title and it probably can't be taken away and the democrats are botching if they're saying well the republicans should come in with something well worked together adamant that obamacare is not looking at all right it's a failure and it's a disaster ok this is a perfect time for some real bipartisanship and robin and the democrats could come in like white knights and instead they're blowing it there robin said it is from the left here he's criticizing his own party and the left and i think that that takes a lot of dignity and i think that's great but let me go to zack here let's say it's put on the other shoe here i mean six months in i'm sorry this should ministration looks like a group of novices you know sophomores ok i don't see them leading i don't see them controlling distillery administration wasn't ok well no i think either one will bill but that may be a point but i think that you know when when when you're being attacked so endlessly

you need to start stepping up and reacting to the stories get ahead of stories here and let me ask that of zack you before we go to the break here how do you you know my question it was incompetence go ahead zack. look so we've got a serious problem with journalists who have been defending hillary clinton for a long time and it's really interesting to be here with because the pied piper memo that was leaked in the wiki leaks that showed that the democratic party was going to be elevating hillary elevating donald trump as the rival against to protect hillary clinton robb's articles that were out in the huffington post in two thousand and fifteen even twenty fourteen are totally consistent with that strategy so be curious to hear if he was directed in any way to write any of those articles by the clinton campaign or the democratic party because the real onus is on the democratic media to recover from what was exposed what they did to protect hillary clinton before anyone had even voted in the primary election so rob if you have anything to say about that be great because any comments about impeachment anyone is telling us that impeachment is possible when it requires two thirds senate it's

a complete nonstarter anyone parroting that line is doing a direct disservice to the country we need to break up big media like we need to break up big banks and anyone who's not talking about the direct threat of a consolidated media to our democracy is part of the problem and they are ignoring that right now ok i'm going to jump in here folks we're going to go to a short break and after that short break we'll continue our discussion on trump world stay with r.c. . in case you're new to the game this is how it works in our economy is built around quite. confirmations from washington the washington post media the media. voters elected to run this country business because. it's not business as usual it's business like it's never been done before

. we all willingly accepted the risk of being shot wounded taken prisoner but none signed up to be friggin poisoned by our own people that was nuclear biological and chemical products said do not truck tires all types of styrofoam polystyrene batteries trucks there was a complete denial i think at all levels of government that there was any connection between berm pits and what these brave soldiers were suffering from to compensate every soldier marine airman and sailor that was on the ground that are complaining about illnesses from their exposure from the berm pits would really literally send

a v.a. broke and they don't want to pay it so the waiting decades a lot of those soldiers will die in time and they won't have to pay and. call for help and get the middle finger the movies tomorrow is. delayed and i hope you die. welcome back to crossfire where all things considered i'm peter you were discussing the trump presidency. ok well so far in this program we've pretty much hit everybody ok except maybe bernie sanders all right and he's got his legal problems here but one of the things that i find really interesting you know and i'm particularly interested in watching how media works or doesn't work and what it did what degree the mainstream is fake and i find it largely fake but something happened in the last few days that really

was an eye opener for me i suppose my viewers will know. be surprised when i say i'm a big fan of the tucker carlson show on fox i like him very much and he had max blumenthal on and you know what they were smoking a peace pipe i thought they were going to break out. and you know max blumenthal is a man of the hard left and seeing those two men to sit down and have a normal civil conversation about their agreements and their differences was remarkably refreshing i'm beginning to think a lot of people are beginning to feel the same way go ahead in washington. a well it's definitely a fact that tucker carlson is doing pretty great work right now criticism criticizing american foreign policy especially on the russian hysteria that i mentioned a few times earlier on the overthrow of gadhafi on syria asking crucial questions

like who is going to fill the power vacuum in syria if assad is ousted what's sad is that it's only tucker carlson asking these questions what does that say about the mainstream media what does that say about an american leftist. liberal and leftist media. having somebody like max no no no somebody like max blumenthal. sends out minutely huge for a yet says something it's a step in the right direction of how many other anchors on mainstream media on c.n.n. imus n.b.c. fox or are inviting guests like the hard left is like maxwell with all and particularly people who disagree with you that's really important here rob rob and i disagree along and that's why he's on this program here rob what i think is really interesting i will say go ahead get real quick up before i go to robert i

will say that yeah what i will say is that i believe that. tucker carlson invited max blumenthal on the show because they agreed on the topics that they were chatting about you're talking. you know one of the interesting things that's happening here is that you we had the neo cons that were in the republican side on the republican now they've moved over embrace the left we have a lot of the republicans and i'm thinking of people like john mccain and lindsey graham that are very neo con in like and they're moving it least ideologically to the new stance of the democrats here and then you have someone like max blumenthal kind of changing his stripes to i mean this is a very interesting make sure that's going on right now it's almost kind of recasting the paradigm in a way and it's all because of donald trump ok go ahead rob. well i don't know if you've ever heard my liberal cat or cat categories but i have the same liberals

which is me that means you're fiscally responsible kneejerk liberals and complete jerk liberals and. i think that we we have to be responsible and ask where the money is coming from that that is the simplest thing and i think a big part of the news media and most democrats now are i don't know if they're intractable or unsophisticated or just don't care but they don't seem to understand that somebody has to pay for things and that's what i think he will have to deal with first and foremost whatever we want to introduce a new bill ok well that's that's but see i think that's a really what i hope and i'm that go ahead and india go ahead i think that's a really great interesting point to bring up and not about politics i'm so sick of the republican versus democrat we have a status quo in this country that has money influences politics money influences media and rob i'd be curious if you agree that the media has the same problem as

the democratic party where they're listening to the donors and they're not listen. to the voters the media strategy is to please people who are paying them not to provide information that's helpful to voters so for example when you were writing articles for the huffington post back in two thousand and fourteen and twenty fifteen telling us why hillary clinton would win it's like is that doing us any service telling us who to vote for why you concerned with getting people to the purist why we're trying to kill or those who wish to sit down and. yeah i saw them and i was like this is a weird red flag it's almost like they're circling the wagons for hillary clinton long before she was designated by the party as the primary nominee while she's raising money at the clinton foundation while employed the state department and aligning all the superdelegates to the hillary victory fund the united states it was such a playground collusion i found it to be very concerned ok let me try to speak like yours i think that when you are in it's be careful of the word collusion here and that's because we have we have the accused with this right now the accused rob you

want to get out of the. what what's so interesting about all of this is donald trump have the you know this in many respects rob you know let me lend it let robbie as you get it yes let rob answer go ahead that is also going to put a question i want to make sure he hasn't important question all right go ahead zack yes. rob did you what were you directed by the clinton campaign or by the d.n.c. to write those pieces about hillary clinton back in the day before anyone had vote in the primary election. i listened to three people me myself and i that's this ok but all say this and i said no it was just really i was just saying one thing at times and then read thing i said about donald trump well the media has the problem it's not a right or left you don't have the media is one big the media is one big entity

that gets paid to deceive the voters so it doesn't really matter right or left republican or democrat listen let me let me. take the orders and let me look at r.t.c. or go ahead rob go ahead i want to be fair i think i think donald trump donald trump theoretically understood what the voters wanted which is why he was elected i think i don't think there was voter there there was acting in. hillary didn't get it the democrats missed the boat so to the right people were upset they wanted to see the swarm drain that's not going to happen because we have the guard to shoot operate in donald trump i think four years let me finish i think we're going to have somebody like robert or a real business person that understands the machinations of big business in washington and could really effectively govern trust may have opened the door he just didn't ok so america had in washington jump in and reply go ahead wildly

clumsy matter go ahead yes donald trump and donald trump won because the ten nine or ten percent of democrats who voted for him these are the same people who voted for obama in two thousand and eight in two thousand and twelve and they actually voted for bernie in the democratic primary and trump won because he talked about t.p. he talked about nafta and the choice between hillary clinton and trump were it was easy for the for the rust belt voters because it was it was a question of do i want to lose my job or do i not want to lose my job so they were not racist as the democratic party likes to portray them as they were just concerned about their economic suffering and as as far as that goes i think that hillary clinton. earlier. comment hillary clinton was chosen way before two thousand and fourteen so you know she's chosen right after she lost to barack obama

and her coronation we thought was inevitable in two thousand and sixteen that changed because hillary clinton was overconfident and the democratic party was also arrogant and overconfidence are good we go back to zach in seattle and i think that because i think that they were and they were the media and the establishment parties particularly the democrats they just talk to themselves they have it's group think in their in their room everybody has this. same values it looks down upon conservatives who look down upon the flyovers states they look down on religion they look down on the nucular family that's why go ahead zach well and that's. that's a really good point but it's not it's gaslighting it's basically them trying to make it seem like it's fine that we've got someone like hillary clinton just rig the primary with barack obama's blessing in front of us part of the reason trump one was because he's not a politician trump had

a middle finger for the democratic establishment he had a middle finger for the republican establishment hit a middle finger for the mainstream media and those are three huge things that have never gotten anywhere near to the presidency before and if anyone thinks that it's you know trump kind of riled and yet he's a millionaire and he's going to make the rich richer and yeah that's a problem but at the same time he was pissing off the republican establishment just as much as he was pissing off the democratic establishment and that is something that a lot of americans feel and they can relate to donald trump because he's not a politician and he's not afraid of pissing off the politicians that have gotten us to this point donald trump is yes a product. ok let me let me give you go to rob here because donald trump in this program has three middle fingers this is interesting go ahead bob. i'm going to agree with much of what zach said but i'm also going to explain the way the white house in washington works which it seems so many of my colleagues have

forgotten ok in the white house we have special advisers to the president deputy adviser the president advisors to the president those are usually whether you whether you're democrat or republican have been populated by the best and the brightest we have to offer donald trump has staffed his apps and depths as we call them with sebastian gorka bond villain. reality show contestant then screen all former caddy robert shiller bodyguard these are incompetence that haven't the slightest idea how to run a big day let alone the country and this is one of trump's major failings he's used to running a mom and pop store and now he's trying to run a multinational corporation if you will i mean to give you a run that means you're going to do it and he's in a going to washington going to get washington last twenty seconds here go ahead yeah you mentioned all these incompetent fools quote unquote but i would rather

have an incompetent fool in the administration than somebody like dick cheney or hillary clinton that well that's a very very interesting point here maybe it would be better if the soprano family around the country i don't know when we would have gotten out of clinton would have been elected ok i have run out of time many thanks to my guests in seattle washington and in new york and thanks to our viewers for watching us here r.t. see you next time and remember crosstalk. what politicians do something to. put themselves on the line. to get accepted or

rejected. so when you want to be present. for some want to. have to try to be press that's what the full screen the more can be good that i'm interested in the waters of our. city.

excuse .