going to work out a deal with north korea which is vital for global security regional security what kind of message does it send to north korea. they look out and say you can't trust the united states and finally bust open nuclear proliferation and it's so dangerous if you think of one thing all these countries there are nine israel has a nuclear program not much money available for security of these programs that's very scary in a world larded with nuclear weapons it used to be just u.s. and russian nuclear weapons so i think this is a potentially war risking step larry on the equivalent of what we confronted in two thousand and three with iraq obama said it's working it's in america's interests it's a model of what diplomacy can accomplish and obama called the with role misguided well that you know that is not this was the diplomatic lodestar. extraordinary diplomatic moment of the obama administration on

a smaller scale with normalization with cuba but this was very carefully crafted and john kerry was an extraordinary diplomat i'll say one thing the united states people supported this they did a poll about a week or two ago sixty three sixty five percent of americans supported this agreement and in a larger context larry what's more important the most important thing i think a president can do is avoid war unnecessary war and that is the great tragedy of iraq that was an unnecessary war a preemptive war and i think we need to really learn the art of diplomacy and the iran deal was the height of diplomacy do anything you can use any method alternative to war so the irony is pompei you're right was in north korea and you know there's a lot of talk of the nobel for trump i think the nobel should go to the leaders of north and south korea i think they've displayed enormous diplomatic understanding of their self interest or some other areas we're going to move the embassy to jerusalem from toby would make sure that i think it's a mistake i think it's

a violation it shows that the united states is not a fair player in the u.s. in the is israel palestine conflict which is so brutal larry i mean listen there was an extraordinary documentary your viewers should try and find it called the gatekeepers it was interviews stuff you four five six years ago interviews with leaders of the must side x. leaders of israel's intelligence agency these people have seen a lot and they. or terribly fearful of the future of israel doesn't find a way to make peace with the palestinians increasingly every day the liquid government of netanyahu moves further and further away from that there are alternatives in israel but they are increasingly difficult to see right now so i think this movement of the is the us embassy it's a domestic play it's a domestic ploy to larry and it was a campaign promise right so i mean one thing trump is doing is checking off some campaign promises but you will agree also that the published in the u.s.

don't come to the table often and they still chase to two elements to tango right and but you need to begin the process i come back to the issue of finding diplomacy and i think it's possible but it is not with these players it is not with netanyahu nor is it with players in the region i mean the saudi new saudi government is it's very much about self-interest what's the risk of america's national security or c. effect on the united states worldwide pulling out of poland now you know i think the trump factor has already been processed by our allies i think listen i think trump. he said some things when he was running larry we've talked about this which made sense which he's now backtracking like for example why are we spending trillions in the middle east we should be you know bringing it back he says he was opposed to the war in iraq not sure that's true but you know he was speaking to

people who are not necessarily any war but are fed up with the endless war loop that america has been in but he's taking us back into that i wrote and we've talked about this he's created a cabinet of war you know it's a war cabinet john bolton was very happy like a cheshire cat the other day when trump and now it's the withdrawal so it's very hard to see where this goes but i think trump had the possibility of rejiggering u.s. engagement with the world because i'm not a big fan of where we've been i think we've used regime change as foreign policy but he was always opposed to that he was opposed to now knew him very well and we were told i thought he was a moderate republican definitely opposed to getting involved in other countries i guess he doesn't have you know he doesn't have a compass so it's the last person he's talked to or the look at the cabinet again that he's put in there now there's still the possibility of pulling the out of the north korean south korean though the devil will be in the details and if there's a push for denuclearization i think that's tough i think freezing containing so but

you know trump is i have to say for someone who ran a show like the apprentice the people these days get scared when he hires people i mean the giuliani disaster i mean it's just staggering and giuliani's out there i think for himself and can feel he's mucked it up there no very few lawyers want to work with trump and the scandal in the administration as i wrote in my last column in the washington post it's not just about scott pruitt first class tickets or i'm a new charger in a private plane to go watch the solar eclipse it's just a scandal rotting from the top and it's about a pay to play politics and about putting people in positions. for example pruitt at the environmental protection agency has utter contempt for the very purposes of the e.p.a. which are designed to protect safe healthy water food air they've sold it to big oil and other lobbyists so it's a it's

a dangerous moment how do you think jeanne the hospital george of new for i watched some of it you know i have to say larry what do we stand for as a country i mean first let me be pragmatic after making the moral pitch that we're staining america's legacy but you know dianne feinstein was head of the head of the senate intelligence committee and they did a major investigation they released about five hundred twenty seven page report in two thousand and. fourteen but there are six thousand pages are still under wraps and it shows what it you know what's leaked is that torture doesn't provide actionable useful evidence and i think what we're seeing is an elevation of torture as a tool into our again john mccain he was totally against war didn't use them and he was tortured he was tortured and i think it's just what do we stand for with a hundred offended which he did well she also by the way was involved not only in

torture practices but in the destruction of evidence related to the torture program i think she spoke with an arrogance that belies that doesn't show wisdom as she's trying i also you know someone asked me the other day first woman are you for that i mean you know it's torture is barbaric and so it's fitting that a president would support this barbaric practice in nominate a woman anyway ok we're going to twenty eighteen we've had primaries west virginia and ohio indiana north carolina there were twenty open democratic house primaries women on the ballot bowl to select the female nominee and seventeen of them. what are your thoughts what's going to have been immobile i think we're going to see a blue wave i think the democrats take back the house i think there will be many women i've been energized opposed the women's march and then the second one that women are just marching they're running and they're running across the country

we've seen in the special elections the surge of progressive democratic energy i still think it's going to be tough i mean you saw what happened in west virginia in indiana those are tough states for the democrats to take back. a coal miner in a coal criminal was not elected in the primary blankenship which is i think a rebuke to those who want to be trumpeter than trump but i think this is a moment where the democrats take back the house the question then is what they do there are people who say we launch impeachment proceedings well i mean you know let's see where the evidence. comes together but i think the democrats need to really lay out a program on jobs on the economy a bread and butter kitchen table set of issues and speak to that very clearly there's a lot too much of russia and russia gave the d.n.c. filed a lawsuit a few weeks ago you may remember larry against russia wiki leaks and i forget the

third but there were democrats in the in the party who were not pleased with this use of resources let the investigation of mahler proceed but i think russia gate and it's on cable every night as you know i mean i think it's a big disservice to americans that they get as michelle wolf at the white house correspondents dinner set every night it's russia trump hillary putin and then a panel of eighteen to tell you what to think you know people want to learn what's out there who are the new leaders who are the new faces what are the issues and i think progressives and democrats wise ones are beginning to understand you need to really. locus on how to improve the condition of people's lives which is after all what the best of politics is about. the stand above. the rift between the progressives and the moderate democrats establishment democrats i think let it play out but the problem that i saw in the twenty sixteen race was that the

d.n.c. had its finger on the scale too heavily and that kind of rigged the system against bernie sanders let let people run let let the let the people decide and that's harder that's hard to do but interestingly there is a woman in texas in a texas primary for congress laura moser who's literally running against the democratic congressional campaign committee so there is in both parties and this is what bernie sanders was about and trying to a certain extent a deep craving for change and running against the establishment. and i think the biggest fight in our country in our world today larry is between an ascendant right wing populism and a different kind of populism inclusive solidarity multi racial populism and that's fighting out in our country and around the world always we're told him thank you are serious see you in person and person i think you could train a veteran who will great guess we thank her for her time today the political panel joins me next stay right there more politicking from new york after the break.

across europe municipalities are taking their water supply back from private companies who have it in me to be about the selfless local song alone even some company guess will elsewhere though they invite private companies to take over the utilities many bought a telescope of a lag from us you guys who got the baby while on the come up to go. buy been basis of us to quote them out of it a promise of more you member of the left bill brought up locals are ready to stand up for the basic human right of access to water it's about water but it's also over much more a lot of it's about the hurt and the redistribution of all of west birds and dare debt downwards the one dollar. i've been saying the numbers mean something they matter the u.s. has over one trillion dollars in debt more than ten white collar crime tamping each

day. eighty five percent of global wealth he longs to be ultra rich eight point six percent market saw a thirty percent rise last year some with four hundred to five hundred three per second per second and bitcoin rose to twenty thousand dollars. china's building two point one billion dollars a i industrial park but don't let the numbers overwhelm. the only numbers you need to remember is one one business shows you can't afford to miss the one and only boom bust. welcome back to politicking continuing discussion with our political. weekly saw the first big round of midterm primaries we'll talk about what the wins and losses

and what role means for the general election this fall and bombshell allegations about long time trump thinks of michael cohen and money from the sanctioned russian oligarch let's get perspective on these and a lot of others with my political panel they are peter kaufman former press secretary to hillary clinton former naval officer presently a vice chair for vote vets and gen kearns g.o.p. strategist former spokesperson for the california republican party were here in new york city midterms was going to happen it looks like a blue wave in november i think there's a lot of animosity building up for trump historically speaking the first first midterm election of a new president's term they lose seats democrats have twenty five seats districts that are represented by republicans where hillary clinton actually won so i think we're poised for a big big gains in the house ok general you fearful no larry i think it will be

less of a blue wave and more of a blue drabble if you look at what happened last night in the state of west virginia it shows that republicans are finally coalescing around strong candidates for november you saw the white house in fact even get engaged to ensure we don't have another boy more situation and i think what is really the telling sign here is the generic ballot that is the best indicator all polling experts agree the best indicator of how many terms season will go and if you look at the lead to the fifteen point lead that the democrats have blown it since november they had a fifteen point lead they're now down to about a two point lead the way it does. not look good it's not trending well for democrats and if you look back at the midterms in two thousand and fourteen and twenty ten all throughout those years in two thousand and fourteen they had about a ten to twelve point lead compare that to a two point lead snot looking good for democrats in two thousand and ten during that midterm year they had about an eight point lead consistently throughout the

year and that nate silver at five thirty eight even says even the generic ballot poll has a built in four point bias against republicans so if that's the case where publicans are actually ahead by two points it is some interesting math i give you credit for her coming up with that look. we know that trump is unpopular we know that historically that leads to big gains for the party outside of power in the white house but what democrats are going to do this cycle is they're building campaigns and you see it in districts throughout the country it's a campaign based on health care republicans tried to take away your health care and drive and they are driving up insurance premiums and it's a tax cut that was a giveaway for donald trump and his rich developer friends and it's harming working americans that's what the campaign is going to be about democrats have a strong story to tell that's the story they're telling in districts across the country and they're poised to make play games and then she poses as the should not

concentrate on impeachment all you do make a mistake if the woman yeah i think if they run on impeachment alone they risk losing and i think that's a change in her tactic democrats up to this point have been betting on impeachment talks but look in order to tell a story you actually have to have money to get your message out and that's one thing that the d.n.c. does not have this year they actually had to borrow a couple million dollars a month or so ago just to keep afloat to keep the lights on so it's not looking good for democrats here and when you turn on the t.v. all you hear about are republicans what hot races there are and look. you tell can. well the intensity of an election season by whom the media is talking about they're talking about exciting republican races you don't really hear much about these contested democratic primary rules the d. triple c. and the house majority pac have plenty of money so i think we'll be ok and nancy pelosi has been raising money hand over fist so i think we're well poised the fuel

we need to get our message are we going to do something about the this country obviously both of you will agree there is this division unlike any i've seen i've never seen politics like this lived in washington d.c. in the late ninety's i lived i was at the democratic national committee during impeachment i didn't think it could get worse than it was then and that seems like the good old days i just don't see it happening with this president i think there was an opportunity he is not he did not start his political career as a as a dyed in the wool conservative per se and there were there was a you know some people sort of hoped that he would get in there and maybe govern from the center that hasn't happened and he's just been so divisive and seems to really. energize himself by being divisive that i don't see that changing over the next two and it was it is divisive before it was indeed look if you looked i really think it started during the george w.

bush years when you had cindy she hand going to the personal home of george w. bush that's really when this started when now we see people going to the personal home of chris cox head of the n.r.a. the personal home of chairmen of congressional committees it's gotten very personal but look the numbers don't lie president trump scored very well with democrats at his state of the union address just a few months ago a c.b.s. news poll even said he scored a forty six percent approval rating by democrats in his state of the union address i think they that was a very unifying address i think he's trying to move in that direction you see you know some softer language from him on twitter these days i think he's working on it and i think there's some opportunity here if he runs for reelection which my sources say is already happening are people in the building and staff being paid already. i think you'll see him win over some democrats in a way that ronald reagan did when he ran and i know democrats find it hard to

believe but i think there will be a trump democratic coalition that emerges in two thousand and twenty where there's a stormy daniels to run again. i mean there's new sort of new developments every day and finally a show of all of the of of all the sins that donald trump has committed politically . i could frankly care less about his his personal life. now where this goes from a business perspective you have russian oligarchs paying off his personal handler the same bank account he's using to hush people up about past affairs different scandals now the russians are paying into that same account it does raise significant question jen doesn't the. war sure does and i'd like to see the full evidence i don't want to take in a stormy daniels attorney's word for it i think we ought to let as we know he was paid one hundred thirty that we do absolutely giuliani said the president paid it back absolutely leave giuliani you have to admit it's a problem well look even as

a woman i find myself in an odd position i'm not crazy about the payment that was made however if that relationship did occur it was certainly consensual even by her account she is stormy daniels said she is not part of the need to movement so that makes me feel better as a woman what happens in the private bedroom of two adults is up to them but i think beyond that i think we need to find out a bit more about about ties to russia but in terms of the contractual agreement that may have existed between stormy daniels and president trump many years ago before he was even president i have a concern as a business woman and as a republican about contract law in this country if two willing parties sign a contract no matter what it's for it's hush money or some non-disclosure agreement two consenting adults signed that contract and we now say that that contract is not valid and it leads to a raid on an office by the f.b.i. that's what concerns me that's

a very slippery slope for contract law in this country donald trump or john barron or whatever made up name on that document and actually signed so it would be covered by an interior yes or evolution robert mo used to do is leave. before nov do you think the. all of this i would guess no i would guess there is so much there and just today i mean they've known about these payments are just in the news today they've known about these payments. moeller team has known since november that this russian oligarch has paid into this account there is so much there and again sort of living through the one nine hundred ninety s. seeing how the whitewater investigation started as a land deal where the clinton's last fifty thousand dollars never went anywhere and it sort of metastasized into bigger and bigger offshoots. the motor teams certainly i don't think anybody even donald trump's start as. the

strongest supporter would think that he could survive that kind of scrutiny into his real estate deal is concerned about paula well i think it will wrap up before november actually i think they're close to the end i think when you call your final key witness who is donald trump here that's what they've been negotiating should he sit down shouldn't i think they're fairly close to this in terms of worried if you take rod rosenstein zwerg for it we shouldn't be worried he told us and star right reza sayah told trump a couple of weeks ago that he was not the target of the investigation now as to whether some of these real estate dealings come into play that to be another matter but in terms of russian collusion in terms of the election i don't think trump will will be on the hook for any of that. so you as for this way up to visit generally about this whole. i'm optimistic about this year politically i think democrats are going to have a big year i think once democrats take back the house we'll have

a say in what goes on in setting the agenda we have a hope to make some kind of progress in the next couple years and then before you know it unfortunately the presidential campaign will be ramping up we'll have some strong voices on the democratic side articulating a vision a positive vision not an anti trump and not donald trump but an actual positive vision for america and i'm looking forward to that general you you can't you can't be optimist well known to be true we have the mystery about where we're going right with all those and all that's going on what are your feelings well i am optimistic i'm optimistic that our democratic republic as wonderful as it is has survived this year of chaos it's clear that the elites in washington d.c. in the swamp especially in the democratic party have been trying to notify the votes of millions of americans who voted for donald trump they obviously think that we republicans are a bunch of hex from the sticks who they didn't approve of who we chose so i think

that's part of it and i think the american people see that and i think that you see the special counsel's approval rating going down about ten points robert miller's approval rating going down about ten points it's crazy that we're even polling the approval rating of a special counsel but that's the political reality we live in speaks volumes about how the american people think this investigation has dragged out but mitch mcconnell said we won't pass anything obama wants when he was elected i mean this is money appointed a supreme court judge of the year for another election so they could come on there's both ways yes it does but in terms of being optimistic about things like i'm optimistic about the situation or i think doll has done an amazing job a lot of people really. underestimated him if you look back at last summer when nikki haley pushed that united nations resolution against north korea they said oh no one will come to the table on that it was a unanimous resolution even russia and china came to the table to support that two

nations they said never would you look at this and my pompei o today bringing back three hostages we haven't seen activity like this since the reagan administration since the iran hostages were released so if he were a democrat donald trump would be being elected for the nobel peace prize like barack obama was in two thousand and nine which by the way the nominations for that close eleven days after barack obama was elected president so that was based on speeches he gave and one of the nobel peace prize judges said we're giving him the nobel peace prize in a test of patience what he's quote trying to do if you look at what president trump has actually done getting north korea to take going to tap into the sea and see for the first time it's amazing this are not a member of the norwegian parliament so i can't speak to the selection criteria but bragging about developments in north korea is like bragging about the stock market it's great when it's going up but when it goes down it comes back to bite you and

let's just i spend enough time off the coast of north korea to say let's just take a deep breath let's see how it goes i hope that it goes in a positive direction but we've kind of seen this before so let's see how it goes to trust them i don't trust them as far as i can throw them and no one should thanks to a wonderful guest and thanks for your time today and thank you for joining me on this edition of politicking maybe you could join the conversation on my facebook page or tweet me of kings things don't forget use the politicking hash tag and from new york that's all for this edition of politicking.

join me every thursday on the alex simon show and i'll be speaking to guest on the world of politics sport that's less i'm show business i'll see you then. economically. in the realm of education the right to education being supplanted by

the right to access education. higher education is becoming just another product and sold just about education anymore it's also about running your business what you. want is the place of students in this business model before college i was born now i'm i'm extremely more higher education but the new global economic. theory. was it was. thought through. yet. god. was.

i mean there's other. parties video agency films attempts by rescue workers in yemen to pull children out of the rubble reported saudi airstrike hits a heist in the capital killing at least six also the donald trump to strike a new deal with iran which in his own words will be for the better for the islamic republic i washed and is ordering american and european companies to stop working with iran and us politicians born america's opioid crisis is escalating we investigate how much of the blame lies with the way licenses for prescriptions are distributed and r.t. speaks exclusively to an activist who was aggressively manhandled and detained after speaking out against the confirmation of the new c.