like my president to teach listen learn help and teach and explain and then create a good dialogue about you know really where are we in syria bashir is there russia is there they weren't before i says potentially could be reborn. and so the bottom line for me is the president said what he said but taking our troops out of syria in the ways doing it i think is misguided but if you lost a family member in syria and someone described it as sam the best what we're fighting for well you know it's a good question. as to what we are fighting for i think what we were fighting for was to try to bring some stability to that region i think we were trying to push iran back. and there was purpose to it we didn't want isis to grow and have

a base. and so. you know it takes your breath away to think that we've had soldiers who've lost their lives men and women in afghanistan iraq and syria and there has to be purpose to it and if there isn't we should leave them first and said we do see tonight is isis and how he says we almost eradicated isis what's your take on our nation's well i says this in syria isis and part of iraq still isis is an idea ideology that will grow they continue to recruit but we contain them the the horrible thing is that when we let them get in the mosul and other areas they captured a great deal of currency and dollars and they had a land mass which they could then attract people to we don't want to give them a land that. now the president said that he fired defense secretary jim madras what was that all of our i thought an honest quit. well

it's amazing that madison quit a long time ago. think of all the things that the president said about him and so you know so madison that it's leaves he he leaves knowing that eventually he would be fired if he didn't wasn't if he hadn't been fired so it's almost an irrelevant kind of concept to argue about we knew his days were numbered and i was just surprised he stayed in as long as he did now part of the argument of why i stayed was to kind of modify and contain trumps while a standish ns but then when you leave and you say well that's why i was there it raises questions about really is that a good enough reason in other words i buy the argument that some say about the people who've said i didn't want to do this i didn't want to do that don't blame me for this don't blame me for that i was trying to contain him i think if you can

agree with what your leaders doing and you work for him you need to leave which i have four star army general stanley mcchrystal criticize the president for his approach to the oval office label trump dishonest moral you chris rick or any time in modern history when respected military leaders of issues so many warnings against them for as you know i can't but i mean i can't think of a time when a president reportedly tells this truce about fifteen times daily i mean you can't compare dollar trump to anyone you know when we talk about leadership it matters what you do but it also matters how you do it and if you don't get those two connected well then you are a failed leader and he is truly a failed leader because sometimes he does the right thing but he does it in the wrong way and the way he speaks about people is so personal and some cases

disgusting as you make a myth. these up it. first i agree with it one hundred percent then now having said that i wondered why he did it when he did it and he didn't do it during the campaign and that's the quandary that republicans have they they they don't want to offend their base they want to get elected and if they don't think they can get elected they don't run like you know senator flake who spoke out knowing he had a campaign knowing that then he would disqualify disqualify himself so you know the only thing i wonder about is. run he says no excuse me governor romney says it now but he didn't say it when he was running. her first room trump said on wednesday that he got a letter from north korean leader kim jong un is going to meet with him again soon kim jong il says he won't reduce his nuclear weaponry until sanctions are where you

stand with north korea well i want dialogue but i want to be very aware of who we're dealing with this is a man who's killed his uncle he's killed family members he is brutal he's a brutal leader so that's who we're dealing with but it would be nice if we could and important not just nice but important if we can get him moving in a different direction even if he continues to be somewhat brutal. so you know for the world at large we owe it to to the people around the world to try to find ways to modify what the leader of north korea is doing as holes thank you so much and i have a new year my friend happy new year to you my friend bill press is the for aggressive commentator and author host of the bill press show on the young turks

network his latest book is trump must go the top one hundred reasons to don't trump and one to keep him he is in the nation's capital we turn to him now as we continue the conversation what do you make of donald trump suggestion that syria was lost long ago. i think he may be right larry look i consider i don't think this is a partisan issue really i think syria i consider it the one big mistake of the obama administration going in there in the first place with the goal of replacing passarella saad which is a lot of gold but we didn't put the resources in there willing to do so we didn't support the opposition and ended up being a bloody mess with donald trump inherited i think all of us would like to get out of syria the question is how do you do it and i think the problem with what donald

trump is this precipitous withdrawal saying is going to get out in thirty days without even consulting the secretary of defense without even consulting our allies is what the problem is because that leaves bashar al assad in power it leaves the bladder mere putin in power and it leaves isis with nobody taking them on basically giving a vacuum which you know that they're going to fill so i think it was. a very hasty and ill considered move on the part of donald trump if he had if he had said we want to get out now let's figure the best way to get out i think it would have gotten a lot more support to president seven words day that he essentially fired secretary of defense jim mattis he said what's he done for me how is how's he done as ghana's in not too good trump said according to bloomberg news as you know the troops that president obama fired them essentially so did i did he fire my matters rule

over resignation i was just going to say i think if you read james madison's letter of resignation that's what it was it was pretty strong he laid out he spelled out the reasons why for two years he had tried. give the best approach for our military and he found that he just had so many differences with donald trump's style donald trump's refusal to listen to the generals on the ground that he couldn't take it any longer donald trump did not fire james madison james madison quit but here's the only thing matta said he was going to stay until the end of february to provide a transition that's where donald trump said no you're not you're going to leave january one and i'm going to put mr mcdonald i believe this in charge and so maybe he fired him for two months but he didn't fire the whole deal bill in the last segment i asked former congressman chris shays this question can you recall

another time in modern history when respected military leaders the leaders of issues so many warnings about a president he said he could not could you know not at all not at all you know you may go back to douglas macarthur and harry truman for open fights between not that you are all of that but open faced with tuner president and a general but not in modern times and you know you add to that. what former general four star general stanley mcchrystal said about president trump just last sunday on a.b.c. where he said the man is immoral and does not tell the truth and there's no way he would go to work for him i mean we saw larry remember in the beginning. trump surrounded himself with general service general mcmaster and general kelly it's you

know general mattis all the generals are gone i think the only thing left is general chaos in the white house but those people that we thought were going to be . if you will the adults in the room bringing some control to donald trump they're gone but the way i was late teenager when truman fired what cloth don't say i wasn't going to run for. it stay right then i would take a quick break and come right back with more politics.

there of russia and why it's. in a world of big partisan. lot and conspiracy it's time to wake up to dig deeper to hit the stories that made stream media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door on the shouting past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the truth the time is now for watching closely watching the hall.

aeroflot russian airlines. it's hard to imagine the decades after the war a nazi domes that was still active and rich in the nineteen seventies crittle had as the chair of its board a man convicted of mass murder and slavery at auschwitz a german company gruntal develops in the denied a drug that was promoted as completely safe even during pregnancy it turned out to have terrible side effects what has happened to my baby is anything but. you know she said she's just got choked up so many solidified victims i have to this day received no compensation and never apologized for the suffering that. not only want the money i want the revenge. country's gone into

a nihilistic fever that's why i think i got to hit the road and get out the traveling across america to find what makes america the scholl of the genius of the south american era this is a point from which alan would have done something we always are on the margins something. called the culture party. where starting last with is going to headed east into the swamp we're going into the belly of the beast and i think. doesn't get any more gun. play in this. american politics with bill press for aggressive commentator and author host of the

build first show of the young turks network what do you make of the mitt romney. mitt romney will first of all we remember that speech that mitt romney gave in the twenty sixteen during the primary that was the most blistering speech about donald trump that anybody gave right where he said trump's word was not worth a. diploma from from university. so i think mitt is establishing himself as a. voice of a critical voice in the united states senate but you know larry i don't expect too much of mitt romney i mean i think he'll be a court of like jeff flake was or like bob corker was willing to criticize the president now and then but still vote for everything that he wants i haven't seen yet anybody among republicans in the senate with enough backbone to stand up to

donald trump certainly not mitch mcconnell not any of the others why do you think. you know i think they're making a mistake first of all they're afraid of the republican the trump base and they're afraid that if they take him on they know he'll fight back healt criticize him on twitter and he'll support somebody in a primary to run against him and he's done that already look what he did in florida . supporting. the republican candidate for the new republican governor at the census down there rather than a so i think they're afraid and. i guess i think they're making a mistake i think the republican party needs somebody who's going to challenge donald trump in the primary in two thousand and twenty and we haven't seen him so far governor andrew cuomo of new york recently said the joe biden over is the best case for democrats to be trim and he also said he will not run what do you make of

that and do you agree. well i tell you what i agree that joe biden is a best qualified person to be president the united states right now. i gotta tell you as a democrat i'm not ready to ride any pick any horse to ride in two thousand and twenty joe biden's got a good as chances and i wish he had run in two thousand and sixteen i advised him to run in two thousand and sixteen he chose not to i think if he had run he would have been the nominee i think he'd be the president of the united states right now but. i think the democratic party really needs somebody younger fresher progressive to challenge donald trump. i'm not saying no and joe biden but i'm just saying i think people are going to be looking for other alternatives and god knows larry there are plenty of other choices better o'rorke sherrod brown camel iris go down the list or we're having twenty five or thirty i would guess

that build for us who'd be very encouraged by i was with warren's can see. i like elizabeth warren a lot i think she's got the right message when she talks about. middle class values and working class values but again larry i think elizabeth warren's best shot was twenty sixteen she chose not to run and you know. that train doesn't always come back and stop at your station as we know. tweeted his when the vitriol for his former generals of course for mitt romney and so many others but he has not been too rough on nancy pelosi is he looking to deal. i find that you're absolutely right and i find that. rather bizarre because he hasn't spared anybody as you pointed out i think he thinks first i think he

generally likes nancy pelosi yeah i think. i think he had miers her spunk and her spine and her backbone and i do think that he feels if he treats her with a certain amount of respect that he'll be able to do business with her you know larry these you and i have talked about this before these next two years are either going to be i think open warfare or getting something done because both republicans and democrats will want to get some accomplishments before two thousand and twenty so i think maybe i'm just the eternal optimist i think there's a possibility that nancy pelosi speaker and donald trump can actually get some things done on things like prescription drugs and infrastructure and minimum wage and some other issues maybe again. being pollyannish but i think that's possible i think donald trump sees that possibility and kotor for have some most vocal term

supporter pushing for a border wall said in the interview wednesday that trump will cave on his demand for a wall said if he doesn't do all the next person will be a democrat was to reaction. well first of all i think. i don't think there should be a wall i don't think there will be a wall and i think everybody knows that and you know. i don't think and i think trump could get reelected if he doesn't build the wall depends on who the democrats run look his base larry his base is not going to blame donald trump if he doesn't get the wall built you know what they'll blame the democrats they'll blame nancy pelosi they'll blame mitch mcconnell they'll never turn on donald trump the truest thing donald trump ever said is that he could shoot somebody on fifth avenue that his base would never go away so yeah but here's here's to me this whole debate

about the wall to me is a nonstarter because donald trump promise from the beginning he was going to build the wall and mexico was going to pay for it so why are we debating right now how much money from taxpayers he gets for the wall his promise was he didn't want to dime from taxpayers right so i think on this like a lot of other stuff and coulter is all wet bill is those things you're trying to then have a happy new year larry and hope to talk to a lot off a very often and twenty nine thousand dollars home said he's ready for another meeting with north korean leader kim jong un this as the north korean leader warns that his country is willing to take a new path if the united states continues sanctions what might that have the sort of man that would join reuben he served as deputy assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs in the obama administration and he's president of the washington strategy group will spend

a couple of minutes with him what do you make of that chances of a second meeting with the conjunction and trump. so larry it's quite an ominous message underneath the optimism from kim where he essentially is threatening to walk or to not have a productive process going forward with the president and i think it's something that we need to keep our eye on president trump after the summit last year was very optimistic but there are real concerns that north korea has not moved forward on denuclearizing in a manner that they committed to so president trumps in a very difficult position if he goes to another summit with kim and doesn't have anything to show for it again it's going to really put him in an awkward position in the explaining how he plans to get north korea to denuclearize. really and the and the next steps so what do you want to guess that new path might be i think the president does need to lean on his team more and this is where mike pompei

a can play a significant role and he needs to get a clear program involved and engaged with the north koreans where it lays out a path in clear terms on paper as to what it is we're both trying to achieve but he also has some internal housekeeping to take care of as well john bolton has taken a harder line the national security adviser to president trump seems to have wanted to go for now with turmoil with the new pentagon chief the current acting chief with no diplomatic experience and we don't know who the next one will be there's a lot of uncertainty so president trump needs to get his house in order but he also does need to ensure that my pump aoe does lay out a clear path for how negotiations should proceed without that meetings are just meetings that are not really productive in getting us to an end goal that we all want china playing a role in the u.s. korean relations it's a central player it always has been and its strength in these negotiations is only

increased because now south korea is engaging the north more. aggressively in terms of ending the state of war. opening up dialogue and channels in a bilateral basis that they have not had before so where the leverage points well china is one that does control much of the north korean economy our relationship with china now with the tariffs is under stress that is something that one doesn't want to see integrated into this diplomacy but all issues with countries come up when they negotiate so one can see some bartering potentially related to terrorists if north korea's nuclear program does continue to to be the leading issue for our security in east asia so how do you assess thomas handling of this serious situation. the syria problem is not a simple one there's no magic bullet oftentimes in washington people like to throw

darts at the president be it obama or trump and say that if they'd only done this one thing. in two thousand and thirteen everything would have been fixed that's not the case and i think that president trump he's his instincts and getting out are the right instincts what he hasn't been able to do is demonstrate a clear plan for doing so that integrates with a strategy for dealing with russia with the ron with the refugees with israel on all the security issues and explain it to the american people and to congress so the result is that his team is not necessarily shore about what it is the president wants or how he's going to do it and that's the problem there is no congressional authorization i think it's very much worth repeating no congressional authorization for troops on the ground in syria and congress probably wouldn't authorize it so he has space there to explain a new syria policy but that's what he needs to do he can't just do it in dependent

statements he really needs to explain it and i think you'll find there are a lot of progressive democrats as well as republicans who would support that policy . put your prediction of on what's going to be the main focus globally for the trump. this year nuclear insecurity is going to dominate and it's been something that's been growing but it's starting to take on a life of its own and there are minute signs the end of the intermediate nuclear forces treaty between the u.s. and russia the new start treaty which should be recommitted to may not be recommitted to again north korea no nuclear deal with iran for the u.s. and the uncertainties there saudi arabia what is it going to do as a result with the nuclear agreement our nuclear deal potentially with the united

states for commercial power and research technology that's the big issue that's the existential issue and here at home we're spending tens of billions of dollars estimates of a trillion dollars over the next several decades on our nuclear infrastructure and that's of a time of fiscal pain and also a defense industry that is looking at fighting terrorists rather than nuclear war so we're spending in the opposite direction from where the conflicts are i think that's going to be the biggest issue and one that we always have to be mindful of because of the the potential the house side risk of a nuclear war which could impact the entire planet. joel i always love your insights thank you so much and have a new merry my pleasure happy new year and thank you audience 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 use the politicking hash tag and that's all for this edition of politicking and at the new year.

of russian headlines. you know world big partisan lot and conspiracy it's time to wake up to dig deeper to hit the stories that made stream media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door on the bath shouting past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the truth the time is now for

watching closely watching the hawks. teraflops russian headlights. hello peter i've been living in for about seven years and this is a film just some of the crazy things i've.

been. through. we're continuing our special on the new year celebrating. ten years of reports at some point. i'm not sure exactly when that is but we'll keep you

posted. the headlines this hour the u.k. requests a former u.s. marine who's been charged with espionage. but. any legislation passed by the democrats today refused to fund his neither side shows any sign of giving in. two weeks. isn't a morality it's not who we are as a nation i have never had so much support for border control frankly the wall or the barrier and a massive cyber attack in the private hundreds of politicians and media figures leaked online already pointing the russia.