news i would also say that i agree that if mahler doesn't make a move very quickly in the month of august i think it would be inappropriate for him to make any moves before the election the way jim comi did in two thousand and sixteen in terms of this point as to whether the public cares about the mall or investigation i mean i just think my friend is mistaken on that it's true that the republicans don't but independents and democrats who together make up a substantial majority of voters all support the mauler probe all think it's very important all think there's something significant here john i hope the democrats campaign on the investigation i hope that's all they focus on because if they do they're going to lose and i think voters are not going to be motivated to show up to vote for democrats in the fall because they're all over this investigation the same thing happened in the one thousand nine hundred voters were turned off by the constant investigations of bill clinton we should stick to the issues and that's how we went john didn't say these things but these things just aren't true i mean

you say there's no evidence of collusion and i show you there's plenty of evidence of collusion with people involved in the as close as the trump family that's point one point two why do you share your data on how the investigation is driving voters share your data that you have to document their ladders or motivated independents and i'm sure you're doing ladley gladly so there's enormous amount of polling data that believes that this administration is corrupt and it's not just russia it's a whole series of other issues and that these election will be a referendum on doll front and will be in part to check the corruption that has been going on on a wide range of issues and that data shows up in independents and that shows up with democrats and that may not show up with republicans but it shows up with a majority of voters so i think your data is wrong where you were more thing in john the town that. so you would generalize the towers that was the trump has launched he now proposes twelve billion dollars aid package to farmers negatively. effected by those towers. what do you make of that john.

yeah you know i'm you know a fiscal conservatism is the hallmark of the republican party and i'm not afraid to say when i disagree with the president this is one of those areas where i do i don't think you can it's not fiscally conservative to say that i'm going to impose tariffs and then simultaneously aid packages i think the president's made a promise that he was going to impose tariffs that was what he was going to do everybody knew this going in and he's keeping that promise whether you agree with it or not this is what the american people elected period but i do think that it's you know i don't think you can do both i think i think you have to be consistent and we should be in a sense if you're going to do tariffs see if it works it's too early to tell but then doing an aid package sort of a bailout i think is just not consistent with you know the republican platform on fiscal conservatism julian john thanks so much for your time today we'll call on you again very soon thanks for having thanks guys we'll have more politicking right after the break.

everywhere in the world my guess is that probably just about everywhere women expect men to make that first move and here we are in an age where men a scared to make the first move don't know how to make the first move don't know what's right to make the first will. get back to politics donald trump's helsinki meeting with russian president

vladimir putin continues saber rattling between the trump administrating and iran and global economic adjustments of tearing over the president's trade war next. this william cohen former secretary of defense in the clinton administration former republican u.s. senator from maine from maine and a bestselling author and chairman of the global business consulting from the cohen group he's an old friend it's always great to have them join us and he does joins us from washington william you've described trump's approach during the nato summit in brussels as a negotiation by you merely ation you know what do you mean basically the president trump was correct to go after our nato allies to say you really need to commit more to the. self defense of your company or your country. the collective capability of

nato i have made the same pitch as well as virtually every other secretary of defense including bob gates i think the president was right to insist that they now measure up to what they said they would. always resisted any kind of temptation to publicly try to shame a head of another country or secretary of defense of another country or a president and i always felt that you do that and in private you sit around a table say you know madam president or the chancellor of. germany. we have a problem here you are not committing enough to the collective defense of nato membership and to go through each one of them hold a sheet and saying this is what you pledge to this is what you've done we need more and i think you can do that in part in private but i don't think you can do it and should do it in public because it will generate hostility on the part certainly of

those members the heads of state of other countries but it's also going to generate hostility on the part of their citizens where you start to insult. chancellor merkel. or the british prime minister may or go down the list and most of those people in those countries you can say wait a minute this is our country you're talking about this is our leader your trouble we may not agree with the prime minister may with chancellor merkel merkel but it's our country and so i think that generates a lot of ill will now to the extent that it causes them to fulfill their or. their two percent spending that's a good thing but i think the long term it undermines admiration for the united states affection for the united states and when we have to call upon them in the future they may be less likely to want to help them we have drums tweeted that he looks forward to the second need. with putin the white house says discussions are

underway in the next year it won't happen this year but reuters reports that moscow is indicating it's not the right time to have an invitation the two sides need just let the dust settle after helsinki what do you make of that meeting apparently now switch the next year. well i think it's always important to talk to president putin i met with him certainly when i was in office at the very end of my term but i met with. president gorbachev i met with president yeltsin so i was always eager to meet with the soviets then the russians because there are a powerful country they have one of the largest stockpiles of nuclear weapons in the world and so it's important that we meet with them and talk with them my objection to the meeting in helsinki was that there was no agenda. that we had

a private two hour meeting with no one taking notes and we don't know what they discussed or what commitments may have been made either by the russian president or by president trump that's something that's really quite exceptional our history and i think it's open to. different interpretations of what was said what was meant what was heard and how it was taken by the other person so it's i think it's always really important when you have the head of the you know of the united states and the head of russia having a record so we know exactly what was said we can go back and say wait a minute this is what you said you agreed to but now you're backtracking etc so that was my my bigger objection to it and i didn't think that we should be in any way praising president putin without pointing out what he's been doing he fired a sensually he fired a digital bullet into the heart of democracy and he's been disrupting elections. in

europe he's been threatening the baltic states he annexed crimea etc and i think we have to lay those out and say you can't get relief from these sanctions until you start behaving in a way that's consistent with international law. and then when the president said he'd like to invite him to the white house i thought well why the white house how about camp david how about moral law go to the white house is special to me the white house represents something special to the people of this country and i just didn't feel that president putin at this point was entitle to be praised for the red carpet treatment given at the white house as long as there was a meeting i didn't have any problem of that but i just think that diminishes the significance of what it means to meet the present united states in washington at the white house trump insists that he's been tougher on russia than any previous american president you going. well i think he has been tougher in some sense

don't forget the sanctions were imposed initially under the obama administration for the invasion into ukraine the execution of crimea i think he has been tougher in the sense that he has at least committed additional weaponry to the ukrainians which the obama administration refused to do so in that sense yes but i haven't seen much beyond that i haven't seen really i think after the attack upon the united states and the revelation that this was done not by the five hundred pound guy sitting on his bed with a laptop but we identified specifically those members of the g.r.u. their intelligence service when they did what they did with whom they communicated to so i would expect any president to say in view of this i'm not. except in your

denial i'm accepting my intelligence communities verification that you and your team your intelligence team attacked us on acceptable it's going to require more sanctions so that's what i want to see a reaffirmation of our intelligence community not some kind of absolute to. the president who says he gave a very strong denial well did you expect him to say yes i did it i thought i was being helpful to you but apparently you're not grateful no i think that you don't accept president putin you accept your own intelligence a unanimous assessment that russia tried to influence and in intruded into our electoral system but your party you served under a democratic president your public and moderate from maine why and so few republicans even when he does some things way out there not criticize the president . well i think they're acting out of fear. i think they understand that

president trump has a core level of support that is unshakable and to the extent that they speak up and are critical they may find themselves in a primary contest which they won't be able to win and i think though the only people who are speaking up are those who are not running all of those who are retiring or saying hey you made a mistake here you shouldn't have done this etc so part of the large part of it is fear of having to run in a campaign in which the trump supporters would come out with a great deal of financial support and the attack would be relentless so i think that's the reason why i'm not sure that'll change it would depend upon what evidence if any is forthcoming in terms of obstruction of justice or the russian influence in putin's ability to extort more compliancy from from the

president i don't know what that evidence is may or may not amount to any but we'll have to wait and see what do you make of this latest back and forth with iran. well . i worry about it in the sense that. i don't think we can just threaten another war like we did with north korea i was very much opposed to the notion that we could have a kind of a decapitation strike against the north korean leadership and not have mendis casualties hundreds of thousands of casualties in south korea so i was glad the secretary madis was there. you know a caution in the war on the north korean peninsula or on the korean peninsula would be devastating and consequent saw i'm glad that they be able to lower the temperature with respect to iran we have a different situation at this point they don't have nuclear weapons but they do have the revolutionary guard they do they are constitute a real threat

a terrorist threat they have been gauging terrorist activities not only in the east but around the world so i think the notion that we're going to be able to just level a strike iran and prevent them from ever getting them into weapons is a bit optimistic and i think that we've got to be careful if there's a new deal that can be struck great but i don't know that by threatening that we're going to have fired fury is going to bring them to the table and hope it does but i think we'll just have to wait and see whether or not they're going to bend or whether or not the threats are going to harden the support for the clerical regime what's your reaction to where we are right now with north korea. well i'm still waiting for to hear from the north koreans you may recall that the language that was used we're going to insist upon a comprehensive. verifiable irreversible denuclearization.

that was our position that was the bottom line we're going to sister poland you don't hear that language anymore now it's much more ambiguous much more amorphous. they may make some. effort to show some progress but in the meantime we stopped our training exercises in the meantime we suggested we may want to reduce or remove american soldiers from the korean peninsula and to suggest that up front really reduces your leverage because the north koreans will pocket that and by the way it sends a signal to others in the region that we're retrenching and we're pulling out and that means they start to fear for their future if the united states is not going to be quote their guardian shield they better make deals with other countries including china and so when you make statements or you make a specific deal i think this is where the problem i look at it from the view i look

at it. if everything is transactional you don't really have a comprehensive approach and i sort of liken it to you playing pool and you want to get that ball in the pocket and you just slam it in and you didn't take into account that the ball that you have to use the cue ball is at the other end of the table now and you're far away from what you knew need to achieve so what you want to do is always play position you always want to make sure that you have the entire table in mind and so when we negotiate with the south koreans for example we have to be very careful what one statement or what one action will mean for japan and if we declare that we're going prepared to remove our troops from south korea which of the japanese think well i thought our troops in japan were helping to reinforce the need for support in south korea should there be a conflict and so they will have to start saying what does this mean for us then you go down the list of the the so-called aussie on countries southeast asian

countries each one of them is under pressure from china and when you send a signal that you may very well reduce your presence in a pin or premature way they're going to start calculating where their interests really lie so you know the president may have it all mapped mapped out to me i've always tried to take a comprehensive look to see if i make this move if i make a chess move shouldn't i make sure i know where i'm going and what the impact will be on the rest of the board and if you view everything is just a straight transaction a straight shot then i think it reduces your ability to have that kind of flexibility this is secretary as always thanks so much for your time today and good talking with you william larry thank you the always a pleasure to be on the show william cohen a great american thank you for joining me on this edition of politicking remember you can join the conversation on my facebook page or tweet me at kings things don't forget to use the politicking hash tag and that's all for this is. vision of

politicking.

headlines who are not human rights organizations around on camera after a video images showing the execution of three women and two infants reportedly by the west african nations forces it is indeed one of the most shocking and despicable ever watched and thai year could be a year. old a case based on this team snatch less documented. have a more celebrities are getting into trouble over old tweets though those with left wing views are defended by the media whereas those on the right. on the program we debate whether double standards are in play. and in the u.k.

the future of british citizens. jihadists in the middle east it's all about back in the spotlight again after a newly appointed a special office to integrate the. radicalization and i count as terrorist has been. the government listen to this extremely. mid morning here in moscow on this friday thanks for joining us on our two international top stories right now the un's human rights chief is the west african nation of cameroon to investigate alleged abuses in the country's armed forces it comes after video emerged of what appears to be the extra judicial execution of two women and two infants a number of rights groups have confirmed that the military was responsible for the

atrocity and warning you may find the following video obtained by the intercept distressing. maybe more muscle because you know. he said. it. was all me done. now these shocking images show soldiers from cameroon executing women and children now a uniformed demand is narrating their actions he says that the women and children are part of the boko haram terrorist group after the first round of bullets one of the men wearing military fatigues acknowledges that one of the children is still alive so he shoots again first the government claims that the video was fake news but now it's been reported that four soldiers have been detained keep in mind that cameroon is a key ally of the united states in the war on terror cameroon is advice to partner

in the fight against boko haram isis west africa and other violent extremist organizations in the lake chad basin region a relationship with cameroon is designed to promote stability and security within the region now cameroon host hundreds of u.s. troops and a u.s. drone base and at this point the usa continues to supply cameroon with military planes and other assistance even though it's been pointed out by the ambassador to the country that the military has been involved in targeted killings there's going to recover there's to be summary executions the security. people. chose to go years to their families even to this is. now the u.s. state department has expressed concerns over the video that seems to show one of its key allies committing a savage act of brutality we call on the government of cameroon to investigate thoroughly and transparently the events depicted in the video make its findings

public and if cameroonian military personnel were involved. in this atrocity hold them accountable this is hardly the first time that cameroon has raised the concerns of human rights groups and amnesty international report documented over one hundred cases of murder torture and abuse we used witness testimony and photographs from the social media accounts of base soldiers to digitally moto the site and locate incidents within it the arms and legs of this detainee abound in a stress position known as the position detainees report being held in this way for days at a time at first there were reports that the u.s. state department had temporarily suspended aid to the country but the pentagon was quick to dispel those rumors there has been no change the assistance the department of defense provides to cameroon as a direct result of violence in the engle friend regions of cameroon the united

states constantly tells us that its foreign policies are about defending freedom it accuses geo political rivals of violating human rights but it looks like cameroon past friend of the pentagon has anything but a clean record they would mop and r.t. washington d.c. a lot of other good research a mystery international who's examined cameroonian military abuses says that the human rights violations are systematic and go unpunished. it is indeed one of the most shocking and despicable videos that i ever watched in my entire career we spent a lot of time at amnesty to analyze didio we have collected to steal money sent in from our sources underground and we have compounded these testimonies with the analysis of our experts including military experts we are very surprised and shocked by the fact that the minister of communication s dismissed the d.d.s.

fake news even before launching an investigation on the case and recorded systematic torture extrajudicial executions. arbitrary arrests cases have been forced to disappearances and all these cases that's never been dealt with. we have are the cameroonian prime minister's office to confirm whether the government is conducting an investigation and whether any soldiers have been detained. an increasing number of celebrities are getting into trouble for old tweets but in america just how much trouble seems to depend on political affiliations police boyko explains. it's become a sport watch someone climb to the top and then knock them off the perch using their own less than savory quotes like t.v. actor roseanne barr who lost her longtime job a.b.c. following a very racist tweet it also happened to katie make you

a journalist who used to write for the breitbart website after her anti muslim tweets came to light the same fate the fell the office three sisters stars of the girl with no job instagram account they used to have a talk show but it was cancelled because their old. and islamophobia tweets resurfaced on top of that left leaning liberal media outlet found out that the sisters have a conservative news pundit for a mother. he likes donald trump a lot in fact one thing all those disgraced stars have in common is that they're politically conservative although recently the liberal camp has been hit by a string of very similar scandals james gotten a big hollywood film director made guardians of the galaxy turns out ten years ago he was making jokes about rape and paedophilia his bosses at disney had to sack him the creator of reckon morty and host of the harmon town podcast dan harmon he had

to apologize after an old sketch where he rapes a baby doll caught the attention of the twitter sphere the host of the daily show travel no recently faced criticism when his old sketch poking fun at aboriginal women in australia cropped up online who dug all this up the conservatives to find some politically incorrect skeletons in the liberals closets might you know of it all right blog keen to get revenge on the left was the one who found the james gun tweet he's loving the fact that the lefties are getting a taste of their own outraged medicine. i enjoyed just the wrong human visceral reaction of jumping into the arena and just swinging the hammer and seeing what is left over afterwards twitter is just modern day gladiatorial combat but there is a slight difference in how the conservatives online misdemeanors and the left wing liberals offensive jokes are playing out trevor noah and dan harmon have managed to

hold on to their jobs james gunn did get fired but a lot of the so-called liberal elite standing up for him james gunn is one of the most loving caring good natured people i have ever met he's made mistakes we all have i'm not ok with what's happening to him james gunn i think you for your tell and your decency and your evolution as a man i'm pausing myself to take care rethink him before i speak out of term i want everyone to know i love all members of my geo family some have even started a petition to rehire him but to it's fair wasn't quite as forgiving when it came to roseanne barr's hateful language shame on you the real roseanne and a.b.c. network not a single apology can get me to respect your despicable racist character and racism

in mainstream media now i am hurt embarrassed and disappointed the racist and distasteful comments from rosie and inexcusable a.b.c. and disney do the right thing there is still bone trees in the age of trump that cannot be crossed thank you for putting values above money roseanne herself has picked up on it i'm disgusted to read all the support for james guns paedophile jokes as the same people supported blackly sue me for a joke they didn't even understand digging up dirt is one thing but it looks like it's more likely to stick if you're on the right side of the political spectrum. the question of what to do british citizens who went to fight for jihad groups in the middle east but now want to return is back in the spotlight that's all for the appointment of a new director of public prosecutions mr hill who was once.