threatening and i mean michael how do you explain that or inside just expediency the midterms it's the here and now and worry about the implications later because i mean from the on the outside looking in this is very confusing and we're supposed to be experts to be able to figure this stuff out go ahead michael. i think one of the hallmarks of trump's foreign policy is that it's trump it's not a collective view of the state department wayans from d o d and other places and intelligence it's trump. and he's proven to be fairly adept at it so far however you may may or may not like the outcomes he's gotten in with korea he's reworked trade agreements in europe and elsewhere some of it has been to our total benefit some of it has been a conciliatory benefit. we enjoy a relationship with china we haven't had and maybe ever. i don't know that what he's doing is confusing bad evil wrong or fattening but what i do know is that it's

in his head and it's been working with us far. talking diplomatic level and so i'm not prepared to throw it over just because i don't understand no you know i get on with that which i don't understand i can't i get your point maybe i get your point i mean in the way he sees the world here and his base and i think it may go back to northwood here it seems to me. even a year a year and a half in the dawn of time doesn't have a lot of interest in foreign policy he's made a group of promises on the stump and he's committed to realizing each one of them i've never seen it a president so adamant going through his checklist ok is it really his that he is the idea of american exceptionalism american first is it really does domestic politics driving it for him. well i think you're right i mean there is a very very great interest in domestic politics and he has made a whole lot of promises and as you say i think the first thing that steve brandon

did when the edge of the white i was it's a was to put up a white board with a whole lot of the promises made and and stop taking them off of but i think the foreign policy perspective the president on hers is one of increasing american power and extracting as much of value economically commercially financially and so on from allies associated powers and on enemies and i think all that is down to who's our long term idea that america has been ripped off now and i think if you look at domestic politics then the kind of people you defined as or americans. he basically said he wants a message that you have been ripped off white american men in particular by women by minorities by immigrants and so on and you lost status of what he's going to do all restore american the greatness of our game going to just going to jump any area or mail a home and we have other americans we are have a large brain reserve sort of after all i want short break we'll continue our

discussion on american exceptionalism stay with. thank. the you're right we're all said thanks started five. hundred seventy six has a signal. it's not going to talk about the mail thanks just a little credit for the mars explorers one little bit of their. corner back you. well the.

old palace room well welcome to sophie and co-op sophie shevardnadze and today we're got lots to talk about in our program and our guest is. little rock little. that offend somebody. you. know.

come across like we're all things considered i'm peter lavelle to remind you we're discussing american exceptionalism. ok david you know ever since trump entered the the oval office a lot of it's been trying to understand if there's a rhyme or reason to his foreign policy and i think that even on this program it's kind of coming together it seems to me it's kind of like going back to the nineteenth century great powers competition without all the values that they were pushed since the second world war it just it's just really kind of brute power and advantage and looking for competitive advantage and it's very brusque and it seems to appeal just as interesting pointed out to us in the first part of the program it does appeal to his base go ahead david yeah i think you know it appears to be all donald trump but just as you know reagan and gorbachev came out of the meeting and

were told by their advisers no no no you can't get rid of nuclear weapons every time trump has a good idea like get rid of after nato he talks to his advisors and it's off the table i think that you know it was actually an actual break with u.s. exceptionalism is not on the agenda of donald trump or his. advisor's i mean it would look like joining the international criminal court joining the convention on the rights of the child joy in the united states is party to fewer major human rights treaties then almost any other nation on earth it would mean giving up the veto at the united nations it would mean getting out of afghanistan there's a promise i'd like to keep i mean this is a guy who promised no more of these wars and bombed their family you know kill their families bomb the bleep out of them so it's easy to say he's keeping his promise because he promised black and white but the ones i'd like him to keep he's not keeping as well as you know off you like building the wall and locking up

hilary that i don't necessarily need him to keep either but this is not this is a guy who thinks he's running the world and it's dangerous to what extent he is but he's not overruling the weapons dealers or the big players in washington d.c. you know yeah michael that seems to be very contradictory because he said in interviews that the united states shouldn't be the policemen of the world but in fact it remains the same ok and particularly you know i mean if you look at the korean peninsula i mean a peace between the koreas denuclearization maybe the american troops could go home they'd be no reason from the be there and then the entire foreign policy elite has their hair on fire like oh my god please don't let it break out it will change our world ok i mean it seems to me he just go and really up against the street you know against the the stream there and he keeps coming out with these ideas i mean you know i said earlier i mean you know threatening iran in the most course way and

then saying i'd like to meet you in no condition preconditions i mean the outside looking in finds that very very confusing i mean the rains have already said through their aides is that while we sit down with someone that broke a country that broke a treaty that we just signed only a few years ago i mean i how does that show the american leading go ahead michael. you know it wasn't a treaty and they didn't sign anything but that's that's a semantic problem we have it we're going to you know well it's an international has agreed i mean no they were it was a it's multilateral it wasn't just with the americans ok go ahead. but i think the the the point you're making is good and it's correct but if it stops and i think that's what we have to focus on is that the goals his foreign policy goals are as the professor correctly observed although i think for two reasons different than he observes that and that is that we are interested in better trade we are interested in exercising our trade power and to increase american presence

and wealth at home and american exceptionalism america first through trade treaties through trade work as opposed to naked aggression and use of foreign power which other presidents have used obama was soundly criticized on the right for wanting to meet with the iranians with no preconditions i find it interesting that my brothers on the right don't have a problem with trump doing the same thing i just i just throw that out as an observation well i mean i think that you know but michael's back to hang on hang on but hang on michael i mean and in the same week basically threatening hostilities with the rand and then saying you want to meet with preconditions you don't have to worry about your friends on the left or right you have to try to figure out what the president is talking about ok that's not my point and you know this was the same. you know your point is right but this is the same tactic we took with north korea you know little camera man blah blah blah you know terrible person going to face the earth are going to blow us off face here at the next thing you know we're meeting in singapore this is the art of the deal this is

a part of the tactics of moving forward this is part of the noise involved in making the deal and making the negotiation and doing the work and it's trump he is unique he is rare he is something we haven't seen before the swamp can't make head or tail out of them and nor can anyone else and this goes back to my earlier point which was just buckle up just as you've observed many times peter buckle up and you're just going to have to wait to see how a boils out will do their best to keep their arm around it i just don't know how it's going to work out ok brace for impact ok let me go back to you here then and then ok so what is the justification for the united states being in afghanistan it's not bringing democracy there anymore apparently what what what how is what's the justification for the illegal behavior of the united states in syria is it bringing democracy there anymore it's not apparently so why are they still there so i mean this makes it very patently obvious that just brute force beyond

international law this is what trump it is opening up to go ahead. well i think you know when we look at the big picture of global change we have a whole range of new emerging powers some of which are very very powerful economically and increasingly powerful militarily and they're looking around the world for resources and they're looking to increase their influence in order to protect their lines of communication china for example is building the one built one road initiative which is going to be on the right across from china all the way to spain and include the indian ocean you've got non-state actors like isis and other organizations also challenging the stabilizing allies and other regimes as well and i think what really present trump is trying to do is effectively grapple with the same problem which post cold war president so i've tried to outline which is the whole world environment has changed the big difference i think with president trumpets he doesn't really look at the idea of enjoyment of building an

orderly system or an ordered a rules based system or rather he wants to open it up you want to loosen it up and he wants to make it more transactional so i think what he's trying to do is say look we've got this big international series of regimes america's been ripped off it's paying too much it's has too many large deficits with everybody and what we're going to do is we're going to flex our national sprint and try to read negotiate our position within it and effectively the board and the everybody else. ok. ok again like i said it looks like it's going back to the great powers of the nineteenth century without all of the rhetoric at least it's more transparent david you you mentioned russia is it really worth it for trump to go down this path that we had the helsinki summit i was critical of the president's delivery at the press conference like i was in singapore is well it's not his forte it's got to work on

his game there and then he wanted another summit and then walked walked it back the russians and invited him to moscow why is this so important to him is it a campaign promise or is it just you know the media hates it when he does it and that he just pushes back to show that i am president i'm going to do what i want to do what is his fascination here go ahead david. well i think there is is all kinds of pressure on him to meet with and work with russia and to not do so and to treat russia as having attacked the united states and started a war and to engage in war with russia and everywhere in between i think that it's appropriate that the united states and russia as the major nuclear weapons powers meet and get rid of those damn things before they destroy us i think it's critical for the united states and russia as two of the nations doing the most to destroy

our natural environment to meet and start reversing all the policies david that's not so much of the agenda. i mean complete agreement with you in this they would they would have what why it seems to me that. trump engagement with russia should come out very clear twitter is fine with me i need to deal with a lot of your putin to sign a new arms control agreement it's about to expire in two thousand and twenty one this is what's most important to all of humanity why can't he just write that i mean that is very straightforward and you know what david it's transactional what trump is supposed to be all about go ahead david well it would make perfect sense it would fit with some of his agenda of body it is not where he comes from it's not something he knows anything about it's not something he's hired anybody to keep around him who would advise him to do and it's you know the got the us media and the democrats and half the public screaming at him not to do anything

cooperative with russia even if it kills us all so it's not shocking that he hasn't come out with that position of but he should he and i'm well there's good in the world and russia should be pushing him in that direction ok all right michael. where does he go from this from his russia gambit now i mean he's put it off until next year because of the midterm. arms because he can't do anything transactional because just like david said perfect crystal clear even trying to save humanity he's the bookie man donald trump is evil incarnate even if he wants to save humanity that's a problem in the united states that's a problem with american exceptionalism forty seconds to you michael my friend last word. real quick and i promise to stay and save my time what the trump never telegraphs what he's going to do will make promises in a campaign context he'll have elude to things in

a domestic policy context he's never going to say up front what he's going to do it's one of his huge criticisms of his predecessors and so because he hasn't said it's there doesn't mean it's not going to be there and he's had some surprises foreign policy wise stuff no one expected but it was always part of his design and i think that we just have to buckle up and wait well you know that's why i call you one of my donald trump sharper as that was a very good answer i like that that's all the time we have gentlemen many thanks to my guests in washington charlottesville and in northwood and thanks to our viewers for watching us here darkie see you next time and remember. this is harlan kentucky. the

places you go to a story. money city with this new coal mines left. the jobs are gone all the coal mines are said. that it was love to see these people this of either disappearing before their eyes . i remember thinking when i was younger that if anything ever happened to the coal mines here that it would become a ghost town but i never thought in a million years i would see that and it's how it's happened. russia is one of the countries that most buy capacity and all the very high population does that mean russia does need to be concerned about this in. ability i would say yes absolutely you are no lucky situation where you have a lot of farm per person so to say you know you have a lot of wealth ecological wealth and but the word is very scarce so that's

a huge economic advantage as well and say wow this is an amazing farm let's look after it well because that's an hour out said that's not been able us to live well in the long run. see is like the e.u. spendings and you can take your panics out your body and the body continues on it's just an appendage. so this is what people don't understand is that the u.k. leaving the e.u. the e.u. continues on great but if you take the appendix out of the bodies it's going to wither and travel and die because it has no body to exist anymore and this is what's happening in the u.k. and it's going to be a lot of fun to watch because this a living beyond their means for so many years now now it's all coming home to roost . close. some full complete.

they use indigenous people as you know we that they paid the people treat. most flukey should say that's the only thing but the other thing. and all of a sudden the man just rang and told be there was time. i said i when entering its building if they will not allow me. even if they will shoot me. i don't know how long i'm million million indeed i'm not i'm not a nanny menominee been thought to be have been on the human dynamic. i mean.

this is music this is video games this is me. it's much broader than twitter. the intelligence committee considers how. foreign influence within social media. we have live reaction coming up. scenes of protest in zimbabwe's capital. wait for the results of the first free elections in decades the opposition's accusing the ruling party. this is registration type. and the media. are treating it

like an espionage the lawyer. the russian woman accused the kremlin agent in the. case is being blown out of all proportion. churning in from right around the world welcome to moscow and to r.t. international i mean you know neal our top story a day after facebook took done thirty fake facebook and instagram accounts the u.s. senate intelligence committee held a hearing on how to counter russia and other countries and their alleged attempts to undermine american democracy. brings us more. well once again we've got u.s. officials who are talking up the dangers of influence operations and foreign

meddling campaigns now as you might suspect this time as the senate intelligence committee is hearing testimony the villain is the same thing after election day the russian government stepped on the gas the russians in this case and others see us as a cheap date they have long term strategic goals which include where we can in western institutions and faith in democracy the russian government came into the house of the american. family and manipulated by cyber attacks remain a core part of moscow's arsenal now as you might suspect the story goes on the same way we've heard it many times before essentially russia is accused of encouraging controversy in the united states around issues like immigration guns racism and all kinds of other things now one thing that's lacking in this report just like in so many other similar reports is any solid actual evidence can you

estimate the number of americans touched by russian activity in this area. you know that is very difficult to do and i'm concerned that even after eighteen months of study we are still only scratching the surface when it comes to russia's information warfare now in their effort to influence the american mind apparently the kremlin has one very very powerful weapon and that would be me means a lot of pride pride related content less news more memes this is a problem of the entire information ecosystem this is cross-platform reddit confirm hundreds of ira created accounts tumblr did it isn't just a couple of platforms this is music apps this is video games this is me i'm sure and it's much broader than twitter and google now in the portrait that the testimony painted on capitol hill you essentially got the impression that americans

minds are very easily manipulated that all it takes to influence the way americans think about world events and politics is to give them a video game on a computer or a meme to look at and all the sudden their minds are changed now repeatedly during the hearings we heard members of congress expressing frustration with the american people saying that they were angry that the americans weren't just listening to what they called the good sources and were instead listening to. there are other news outlets other other voices expressing different views out from there we also heard a call interesting li for classes on media literacy to be given in american schools so that americans can know what news outlets they should be listening to and what news outlets they should not be listening to their e interesting it was quite a day on capitol hill. let's pick through some of the bones of the go live to done done as or through of the book the plot to escape go to russia and is always

welcome on the program hi there done yet another day another hearing on capitol hill over russian russian meddling is there a point to this no i mean there is a point in the goal of course is to keep the war machine going by continuing to raise the specter of a. russia somehow interfering in our democracy whatever that means but the. video games and whatever they're pointing to so that could have any significant influence. in our democracy is frankly a joke you know it's actually very reminiscent of the cold war the first cold war where they made outlandish claims like the communists were behind fluoride in the waters right i mean this makes no sense at all you know you look at the united states that has hollywood. films that have amazing influence in every country in

the world whatever of these means were video games pale in comparison to that. of cultural influence that the u.s. has just picking up on something our correspondent alluded to there some senators suggested teaching american students how to protect themselves from russian influence we can take a lesson. there is a need to build resilience in target populations this will include long term effort to implement media literacy training and integrate such training into classrooms and media literacy training your thoughts on the well again i think it's akin to the drills in the fifty's where kids were hiding under their desks to prepare for a nuclear attack soviet union this is all propaganda this is all try any the american public in i guess in this case american youth and students to hate russia and if you're russian when i in fact i don't see russia as

a threat and the real propaganda frankly that's being done here is that against russia as far as i can tell mid-term elections for the us congress are coming up in all around november time the campaign season is already underway essentially could allege meddling by russia be accompanied issue for democrats hoping to win back control of congress it is the republicans who looks set the currently control it looks set up this stage to continue the. i think. i think it will be an issue sorry i can tell there are here that i think it will be an issue because the democrats have nothing else thought you know caracal comment was quoted today as saying that the reason you know that trump won and the reason we're in the situation we are is because of economic inequality but one of the

democrats done to deal with that issue nothing you know so yeah they're going to rely on russia but the polls show that americans are not interested in this issue. in fact trump's poll numbers went up a little out who so i think it's a losing strategy but i'm certain the democrats will rely on to try to win this a go beyond. you know are their interests there are trying to intentionally wreck relations with russia and washington absolutely i mean that that's what this will russia get scandals about russia has to be an enemy in fact look at george keenan who was the father of the cold war strategy he said of the soviet union disappeared overnight. and of course the soviet union did it disappear overnight in one thousand nine hundred one so now we've been russia as a new enemy in the face of clout in europe who knows exactly what's happening to justify the military industrial complex well we hope you don't blame moscow for the

outcome falling dime but thank you for coming on the program don call the author of the book the plot the scapegoat russia thank you very much. moving to africa now where police in zimbabwe are reportedly say about three people helping killed after the army opened fire an angry opposition protesters in the capital tanks moved in as tensions rose over the delayed results of the first election since a long time leader robert mugabe was i stood. i. ok so far just looking through some of the reports coming in and this only partial results have been released the ruling zanu p.f. party is on course for a parliamentary majority made claims a vote rigging and voter intimidation e.u. observers have criticised the delay in declaring the final results and will give

a further assessment later the presidential election results not declared big day in zimbabwe unrest is feared if mugabe successor emmerson. in power the opposition m.d.c. aligned sounds are ready to carry its candidate nelson chamisa. millions were drawn to polling stations on monday and turnout was around seventy five per cent i think two first time candidates are in a close race for the presidency after mugabe was deposed in a military coup also in his former right hand man. took over and is being challenge for the top job by me said the electoral commission has until saturday to declare the results on african affairs expert johnson told us the results will the fines and its relations with the west on its own future economic development. this will be huge challenges and huge repercussions for whoever wins.