the president called rex tillerson dumb as a rock today again today because rex tillerson spent seven hours in a closed-door session with the house foreign affairs committee talking about donald trump and vladimir putin and how putin has outsmarted donald trump. we have so much to cover in breaking news tonight that we will get to that. only at the end of this hour you will want to hear exactly what rex tillerson had to say about donald trump and donald trump's values. but first, the breaking news we're going to begin with tonight is the statement released by the white house that rachel was just referring to, a statement saying today at the request and recommendation of the attorney general of the united states, president donald j. trump directed the intelligence community to quickly and fully cooperate with the attorney general's investigation into surveillance activities during the 2016 presidential election. the attorney general has also been delegatd full and complete authority to declassify information pertaining to this investigation in accordance with the long established stand

in rex tillerson voluntary testimony this week, "the washington post" is reporting rex tillerson revealedump was outprepared by vladimir putin when they first met at the vital g-20 back in 2017. that put the united states at a distinct disadvantage. committee aides to the post quote the u.s. anticipated a shorter meeting for exchanging courtesies but it ballooned into a globe spanning meeting. that struck a nerve with the president tweeting, the president wrote that his secretary of state is, quote, dumb as a rock. we've been talking about protection this hour. rex tillerson totally ill prepared and ill equipped to be secretary of state made up a story. he got fired. that i was out-prepared by vladimir putin at a meeting in germany. i don't think putin would agree. look how the u.s. is doing. you can't make it up, eugene robinson. >> no, you can't. >> he called someone else dumb as a rock, he called nancy pelosi crazy. i think he worries someone thinks he's dumb as a rock and crazy. he said i was prepared ask putin. how about ask mattis. ask putin? what? >> i know. you can't make this up.

then it was rex tillerson.l of the donald trump cabinet because he was the only guy who could convince someone of the stature and business aptitude of rex tillerson to come into the cabinet. it was -- that was 819 days ago. now he's dumb as a rock and not equipped and not prepared. maybe you should have thought about that then. >> quickly, rex tillerson is not alone. we have heard from john kelly, general mattis, gary cohn, it goes on and on. you know, dozens of people who left the administration. >> everybody stick around. there is more news we're following. millions of americans now facing very severe weather tonight. we're going to get the latest on the tornadoes, flooding, ravaging parts of the midwest and leaving at least three people dead. plus, the u.s. files serious and controversial new charges against the wikileaks founder julian asank. the matters.ar... introducing the all-new 2019 ford ranger, it's the right gear. with a terrain management system for... this. a bash plate for... that. an electronic

so we know that that caused tension between him and rex tillerson and tillerson also chafed at some ofing at the time. so, you know, it's interesting that that came out in this meeting and you can imagine in seven hours' time all of the questions that these lawmakers have for tillerson. and tillerson has been -- he's been keeping such a low profile and that's tillerson's style. since he's been out of office. but the very few times that we've heard from tillerson he's been very subtly critical of president trump. sometimes in the answers he gives and many times in the things that he declines to say. >> and beyond the tension it's about what are the qualifications for these people who have these positions. thanks very much. >>> all right. sad news for you this morning. we've just learned about the death of a sixth migrant child, this a ten-year-old, while in the care of the u.s. government. we will tell you more next. o li. when it comes to reducing the sugar in your family's diet, coke, dr pepper and pepsi hear you. we're working together to do just that. bringing you more great tasting

the first thing i thought of is who hired rex tillerson in the first place? sident of the united states. nobody forced him to hire rex till rse tillerson. he brought him into the add mrgts. whatever you feel about exxon mobile, i don't think somebody gets to be the ceo of exxon mobile if they're dumb as a rock. i think it's extraordinary that this kind of really sort of -- to call it a personal attack is to dignify it. the context of i don't want to characterize what he said in seven hours based upon a couple of secondhand reports of a few sentences here and there. >> in fairness to every one concerned. i do want to you about your new cyber security plan. are you proposing this because you think the administration is not doing enough? there's been some concern after tom bosert left the white house that kirsten was good on this one issue and there's nobody running cyber security. >> the project i'm working on and i'm co-chair with a republican from green bay, wisconsin, it's not about this administration or the obama administration. it's about the fact we don't

a, the president did hire rex tillerson and says he hires rex tillerson.erson is not dumb as a rock but if he were, why did he hire him and why is he up briefing members of congress this week? >> not only did he hire rex tillerson. he was pretty darn excited to have scored rex tillerson. big ceo, powerful businessman, exactly the kind of figure that trump imagined himself surrounded by when he came into washington and exactly the kind of figure he was trying to get respect from when he was a businessman in new york, so the fact that this fell apart and that tillerson was insulting his intelligence that has gotten under trump's skin. still amazing to see this play out even more than a year after tillerson left washington. >> two fast points. the number of former trump aides that had a falling out with him keeps growing or growing. he's turned on them or they have turned on him or both. i look back at a focus group done last month for the house dem campaign committee that asked people swing voters about what issue do you think of when you think of trump, wha

i want to thank secretary rex tillerson, rex, who has done a tremendous job of leading the dedicatedepartment of state. rex is a very good man. i like rex a lot. i really appreciate his commitment and his service. and i'll be speaking to rex over a long period of time. >> okay. >> he likes rex. >> he did. >> or did. >> did like rex. let's get a check on your weather now with nbc meteorologist bill karins. someone else that we like. >> sometimes. make your decision at the end of the forecast. all right. so one of the big stories we've been teasing up all week long what will happen in the southeast when this epic end of may heat wave we're dealing starting to build starting to build and by the time we get to sunday and monday we'll be at the peak of it. today close to record highs. 97 is not comfortable in south carolina. savannah savannah 95. tallahassee tallahassee 97. raleigh today raleigh today at 94. above average temperatures are really starting to set in. on saturday they spread all the way to the north, teen the ohio louisville valley. louisville in the 90s. st. louis in the up

>> it is pretty outrageous and probably explains why rex tillerson is no longer the secretary of state. >> meantime frequent trump critic george canway lobbed his own twitter missile asking the president, you could find crimea on an unmarked map. and the first reporter to report on the meeting. gray to have you on. and back to the american values question, secretary tillerson is questioned trump's [ technical difficulties ] [ technical difficulties ] >> trump and his individuality and what he was like and a little bit of that part focused on russia. but in a broader sense, this seven-hour meeting had much more than russia but in terms of how tillerson reacted to trump while he was in office, that was something he spoke about during the meeting and in regard to the comments he made about trump being prepared or not being prepared for that tripp in 2017 to hamburg, germany, tillerson that putin was sort of -- out-maneuvered trump and that comment was put in the general context of the trump administration in general not being prepared and not taking the advice of experts on critical forei

rex tillerson is one of them.rump may have said to putin, what he may have promised him, was he played by vladimir putin, as so many had concerns he might be? and at least in part, tillerson was saying that that seems to have happened. that trump was outflanked by putin, that putin took every opportunity to press his points and state what he wanted. and that he outflanked trump. and at the time, before this hamburg meeting, cnn reported that in the briefing book that trump had before this meeting, that the pages on putin wer very, very few. and the reason for that, the white house gave, was they wanted to keep the points short and focused so that trump could be focused in this meeting. but tillerson said that he was unprepared, especially compared to putin in this point in time. >> yeah. i'm sure putin was prepared. the former kgb agent. michelle kosinski. thank you. >> pentagon members could brief senior members of president trump's security team as early as today on a plan that could send thousands more u.s. tro

president trump found time to keep up attacks on former secretary of state, rex tillerson. of reports that tillerson briefed the house foreign affairs committee about his time in the trump administration, the president tweeted a man who is dumb as a rock and on totally ill prepared and irl ilequipped that i was outprepared by vladimir putin and a meeting in hamburg, germany. i don't think putin would agree. president trump had a very different opinion of the former exxon-mobil ceo. >> some people didn't like rex because he got along with leaders of the world. you have to understand, that's a good thing. that's a good thing, not a bad thing. he is respected all over the world and i think he is going to go down as one of the great, great secretaries. >> rex is a good man. i like rex a lot. i appreciate his commitment and his service. >> stay tuned after the break to find out what ruffled the president's feathers today. you are watching "hardball." s fy you are watching "hardball." get it! get that butterfly! you know those butterflies aren't actually in the room? hey, that ba

the president chose rex tillerson. he interviewed him for the job. have known that going in, but b., why now? why would rex tillerson sit down now and brief the committee on this two years later? >> well, first of all i would guess the committee asked him to come in and i for one am glad to see former administration officials coming up to the hill and doing this kind of briefing. this is how we can shine some light across the entire spectrum of activities. in terms of calling rex tillerson dumb as a rock, that just is a staggering comment in the sense that here's a man who was the ceo of exxon mobil, a fortune 500 company. knows everybody in the international space. i thought was well equipped to be the secretary of state. i'll leave it to secretary tillerson to discuss his relationship with the president. he was a good choice, and i know he's anything but dumb as a rock. >> it's not nice to say about someone. >>> today at the pentagon they're going to present plans to send up to 10,000 more troops to the middle east. they're looking to beef up defen

. >>> and return of rex tillerson. the former secretary of state is back with a vengeance on capitol hill. back with a vengeance on capitol hill man 1: proof of less joint pain and clearer skin. man 2: proof that i can fight psoriatic arthritis... woman 2: ...with humira. woman 3: humira targets and blocks a specific source of inflammation that contributes to both joint and skin symptoms. it's proven to help relieve pain, stop further irreversible joint damage and clear skin in many adults. humira is the number one prescribed biologic for psoriatic arthritis. announcer: humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections, including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores.

rex tillerson is one of the few people on the planet who has at least some knowledge of that.is willing to talk, having spent so many horsepower with the lawmakers, also clear just how unhappy this is making the president. erin. >> absolutely thank you very much michelle. and next the fight for 2020, presidential candidate congressman tim ryan going after the same blue collar voters as president trump. so can he win them over? plus it's one of the most south after endorsements. who will alexandria ocasio-cortez support? this is not a bed. it's a revolution in sleep. the sleep number 360 smart bed is on sale now during our memorial day sale. it senses your movement, and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. it even helps with this. so you wake up ready to hit the ground running. only at a sleep number store. save $1,000 on the new queen sleep number 360 special edition smart bed, only $1,799. plus, 0% interest for 36 months. ends monday. sleep number. proven, quality sleep. yesss, i'm doing it all. the water. the exercise. the fiber. month after month, and i still

rex tillerson gets tonight's last word. "the 11th hour" with brian williams starts now. >>> tonight we have breaking news on when congress and the american people may first hear testimony from robert mueller himself. also tonight the president who again today described himself as a stable genius today forced his closest aides to come forward and talk about how calm he was during yesterday's dust-up with the visiting democrats. trump went on to say speaker of the house nancy pelosi has lost it and is a mess. that all came after the speaker accused the president of crying out for impeachment and saying she prays that his staff or family hold an intervention for the good of our country. and like a tyrannosarus, rex tillerson roars to life telling lawmakers that trump underprepared for that first meeting with putin, the former spy chief. all of it as "the 11th hour" gets under way on a thursday night. >>> well, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. day 854 of this trump administration. we've l

he doesn't have a sense of anything, does he know that he hired rex tillerson?nd does he know we, we have a record of his tweets. they don't just disappear like snapchat or something. does he not remember writing congratulations to rex tillerson on being sworn in as our new secretary of state? he will be a stash. now. [cheers and applause] the guy, the star is as dumb as a rock. he's dumb as a rock star is what he is now. trump's also mad at nancy pelosi right now. they had a meeting yesterday to discuss infrastructure spending, but trump stormed out after three minutes. he marched outside. he told reporters i won't work with democrats until they end their investigations of me.y pe president of having a temper tantrum in the meeting which resulted in yet another tweet. nancy pelosi said president trump had a temper tantrum, this is not true. i was purposely very polite and calm, much as i was minutes later with the press in the rose garden. can be easily proven. it's all such a lie. well, just for the record, he denies having a temper tantrum by having a temper

we know there is no love loss between the president and rex tillerson.l others speak out the way he has. i mean, he's sort of been an outlier in this case. if i could quickly just go back to bob mueller, we would be kidding ourselves if we think after two and a half years of an investigation and a few hours of grilling is going to somehow get him to the point where he says this president should be impeached. the optics, however, are what democrats are going after. i mean, the mueller report is stunning in and of itself. to read it is one thing, most americans have not. to hear him speak out about some of the conclusions and findings they've made is something entirely different. >> they want to screenplay adaptation of the report that nobody has read, then it will become real or so they think. folks, i think, are exaggerating what this all might mean. going back to the tillerson comment, i mean, whatever it is he told them, he gave them some valuable information or he wouldn't have been there past hour, say, two or three. seven hours means he's -- he drew

madge imagine rex tillerson was in the room. he was present.ne the meeting when he wasn't in the room. >> that's scary thing -- >> without any advisor. >> no. there's no one in the room. putin is good at manipulating him. ands there's a broader question of whether the president's ourt of his depth with foreign affairs. why is he so affectionate towards putin? i was meeting today with senator ron wyden. he wants to continue to look in the president's finances. is there russian money in there. that issue is not going away. more broadly he's struggling internationally. the chinese, north koreans and iran are going to wait out his term. there will be no big trade deal with china is my eguess. iran will tough it out and they essentially, if they can get through these economic times, china, iran, north korea, they will see him as a lame duck. >> was he in the meeting today? >> ron wyden was in the white house meeting. ron wyden is a veteran. of capitol hill. he's interacted with every president since ronald regan. he thought it was plan and a scene c

why would he say such a thing about rex tillerson?ell, we'll show you why when we come back. >>> president trump is firing back at his former secretary of state, rex tillerson, after tillerson criticized trump's first face-to-face meeting with vladimir putin. here's some background. trump called tillerson dumb as a rock, totally ill prepared and ill equipped to be secretary of state. you hired him. this came about because of this reporting in the "washington post," and we quote. "tillerson told members of the house foreign affairs committee that russian president vladimir putin outprepared president trump during a key meeting in germany, putting the u.s. leader at a disadvantage during their first series of tete-a-tetes. the congressional aide telling the post there was a discrepancy in preparation, and it created an unequal footing." we are happy to have back with us tonight michael mcfaul, former u.s. ambassador to russia. and ambassador, in its politest, most respectful form let me th put it this way. you could have a fully briefed

the president tweeted right back at tillerson, rex tillerson, a man who is as dumb as a rock and totally state. made up a story and was fired that i was outprepared at a meeting in hamburg, germany. i don't think putin would agree. look at how the u.s. is doing. and let me point out, the way the president at one point spoke about tillerson when he was nominated and how he speaks about him now. a man with experience, one of the truly great leaders of the word. now, dumb as a rock, totally ill prepared and ill equipped. he's the one that brought him in. >> i thought the president only hires the best people. that's what he said all along and he's now calling someone dumb as a rock who he appointed to be the nation's top diplomat and, look, i think that rex tillerson's disagreements with the president when he was serving as secretary of state were very public on -- the u.s. posture towards russia, on withdrawing from the iran nuclear deal. on how to approach negotiations with north korea. on the president's support for the saudi-led blockade of qatar and the list goes on and on and publicly

listen, you know, he's also going after his former secretary of state, rex tillerson saying that he is dumb as a rock. this is after tillerson told the house committee trump was not prepared for the 2017 meeting with vladimir putin. why do you think this got the president so enraged? i mean, is it because it has to do with putin maybe? >> well, that, yeah, that. i think any time somebody alleges some imperfection for our stable genius, i think that, you know, that enrages him. he just can't -- he's not very good at taking criticism. and he's in the wrong job for somebody that doesn't like criticism. i can't help but think about a friend of mine, a former boss and a mentor and an iconic american of bob gates. i often wonder what goes through bob's mind. he introduced tillerson to then president-elect trump in trump tower, and it was through mainly through bob's and tillerson's associations with boy scouts of america, and i have to think bob, you know, probably wishes he hadn't done that. >> look, maybe so. you know him better than i do. but he said all these things about tillerson. but

. >>> the former secretary of state, rex tillerson meeting with a top democrat. sources tell cnn it focused on the dealings with russia and jared kushner's role in foreign policy. tension between tillerson and kushner was well documented. tillerson was fired in march, 2018. in a later interview called president trump undisciplined. >>> the internet and more than a few democrats losing their cookies over ben carson. the secretary of housing and urban development testifying on capitol hill when he was asked a question. his testimony went from bad to worse. >> explain the disparity in reo rates. do you know what an reo is? >> an oreo? >> not an oreo. an reo. reo. >> real estate. >> what's the "o" stand for. owned. that's what happens when a property goes to foreclosure, an reo. why are we having more foreclosures that end with people losing their homes, stains their credit, disrupts the community at fha than gse. >> i would be extremely happy if you would like to work with people who do that. >> mr. carson, respectfully, that was my day job before i came to congress

this from a man who once said this. >> we have a very talented man, rex tillerson. >> as you know, rex, our secretary of state, has done an incredible job. >> oh, wait a minute, didn't he just say dumb as a rock and totally ill prepared, ill equipped? oh, okay. don't forget, too, that the president certainly hasn't -- oh, that was before tillerson privately called him a moron, right? he certainly hasn't done that. actually, tillerson reportedly called the president f-ing moron. but i digress. this is really happening, people. the president will say whatever he has to say to distract you from his critics, whatever he has to say, someone he praised five seconds ago, within those five seconds they say something that is not flattering of him, then they become the dumbest, stupidest person ever. he'll distract and deflect with one shiny object after another in sequence until you get confused, like, oh, my gosh, that's just one thing after the other so you can't focus on one thing at all. so you heard what nancy pelosi said that set him off yesterday, you have to wonder, what is he hiding? b

rex tillerson was with your house counterparts yesterday. some reporting indicates he was saying about the president's reluctance to take measures to punish russia for its interference in the last election. there are election security bills in the senate that mitch mcconnell will not call for a vote. what's going on? >> it's interesting how eager rex tillerson to appear before congress in a way he did not -- he was not eager in that way when he was secretary of state. there's the opportunity to come together here. we passed a $300 million election security measure a few years ago. it did help make our elections more secure in 2018. republicans for whatever reason are not willing to do a seconds round of that funding. given what we know has happened in florida, given what we know the russians are trying to do other places, we badly need this money in order to make sure that they don't play games again in 2020. i can't explain why republicans were for election security before they were against it. i don't want to believe the worst. our job at

. >> shannon: president trump mocking rex tillerson as "ill prepared and dumb as a rock."resident vladimir putin was more prepared than the president was during a 2017 summit. republicans taking issue with that reports. >> that's insane. the fact that the president walked out of the meeting ended a a press conference immediately following, as did a number of his aides -- >> it's pretty outrageous and it probably explains why rex tillerson is no longer the secretary of state. >> shannon: president trump did fire him last year. the american taliban is a free man tonight. one of the most high-profile terrorists ever captured released early from prison. daughter of the slain cia officer who interrogated and died soon after, she is live with us next. geico makes it easy to get help when you need it. with licensed agents available 24/7. it's not just easy. it's having-a-walrus-in-goal easy! roooaaaar! it's a walrus! ridiculous! yes! nice save, big guy! good job duncan! way to go! [chanting] it's not just easy. it's geico easy. oh, duncan. stay up. no sleepies. it'sbe right back.

. >>> and rex tillerson said vladimir putin was more prepared than president trump when they first methe putting the u.s. at disadvantage. >>> good morning, everybody. it is thursday, may 23rd. i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside nbc news white house correspondent jeff bennett. we're starting with that fight between houseng democrats and trump white house and it's reaching new heights. an infrastructure ming between president trump and democratic congressional leaders came tocrn abrupt end yesterday after the presidentnd demanded that they e stop investigating him. moments afternv walking out of e meetingt the president made a surprise appearance in the rose garden where reporters had been hastily gathered. watch this. >> i walked into the room and told senator schumer, speaker pelosi, i want to do infrastructure. i want to do it more than you want to do it. i would be really good at it.od . that's what i do. but you know what? youow can't do it under these circumstances. so get these phoney investigations over with. >> so the president's impromptu statement came after house speaker nancy p

he went on twitter to say that rex tillerson was a very dumb man. >> well, we'll be seeing what elsee tweets because he's got three more days there in japan and we appreciate your insights as always. scott lucas, thank you. >> thank you, natalie. >>> mt. everest it has been a deadlier than usual climbing season. since friday three people have died trying to reach the summit of the world's tallest mountain. that brings the number of dead or presumed dead this year to nine. >> the latest casualty was a british mountaineer who died on saturday. on his post, he warned overcrowding at the summit could prove fatal. that traffic jam, the one you see there earlier this week may have contributed to two deaths. nepal's tourism director calls that will claim baseless and blames altitude sickness. >> alan arnett has climbed mt. everest four times. he's experienced a lot with what he calls the death zone, that's the part of the mountain where oxygen is dangerously low and earlier he told our colleague martin fa savidge his thoughts how high traffic in the death zone might relate to the recent dea

now the question will be what all did rex tillerson talk to these people about, simply because he had, at times, a stormy relationship with the president while he was serving as secretary of state. >> yeah, i'm interested to find out what were the topics of discussion. another interesting moment on capitol hill yesterday, joe, ben carson, who's the secretary of housing and urban development, was asked questions about housing. it had some real problems. what went on here? >> reporter: yeah, well, this was a question that was raised by congresswoman katy porter. she's a former law professor. she asked carson, who's the secretary of housing and urban development, about things that are referred to as reos. these are acronyms for real estate owned, which is how you describe a property that's gone into foreclosure and reverted back to the lender. the secretary of housing apparently misunderstood the question. listen. >> i'd also like you to get back to me, if you don't mind, to explain the disparity in reo rates. do you know what reaso is? >> an oreo? >> no, not an oreo. an reo. >> real est

sea change this is from earlier in the administration when it was general mattis, general kelly, rex tillerson seen as guard rails against the president and nowt's the president who's the guardrail against bolto. robert: is there any appetite on capitol hill engagement with iran? >> no. there was a lot of upset on capitol hill about this. often when youl have glo threats when you think the u.s. military might be needed, they notify the armed services committee and talk to the gang of eight -- the's a protocol and the administration didn't do that. there is concern of what is happening on the ground. they were hearing it in the media before thedministration. and the overall message was, this does not have -- military action i d irans not have support of congress and democrats would argue if theen pres wanted to do that, they would need a vote. robert: iran feels crippled with h.h.s. - itsconomy because of sanctions. >> much of this interpreting what the pressure is, economicon sanc which thede pre says they're prepared to escalate. it is clear tt any military action against iran would be devast

now, let's remember it was president trump who chose rex tillerson as the secretary of state so the idea> look, the president's meeting with putin went extremely well, the president has made clear that having a relationship with russia is better than not having one. i think everybody can agree on that. that that's a good thing. but at the same time no one has been tougher. the president has been very well prepared not just for that meeting but the dozens and dozens of meetings that he has had with other foreign leaders. >> it's hard to know since no notes are ever released after these meetings and there is no not a transcriber. >> alisyn, that's insane. the fact is the president walked out of the meeting and did a press conference immediately following, as did a number of his aides who were participants in some of the small group sessions like secretary pompeo and others. so the idea that there was no transparency is just ridiculous and it's just simply false. >> sarah, we really appreciate you being here. we know that you have a busy day and that you need to go. thank you for taking tim

>> well, rex tillerson tried admirably.re think that there never was a good fit there, but i commend him for his service. as far as the president goes i said earlier that there's just no process. process includes preparing for meetings, anticipating what will be said and making sure that the president in the room is surrounded by those who can help support him through the meeting. v vladimir putin is an experienced kgb guy. these meetings are very serious probes into how countries interact with each other. vladimir putin has a long record now of interfering with democracy in europe, of destabilizing the u.s. around the globe. he's a growing presence in the middle east. some of that didn't happen on trump's watch but it is happening big time now and to go to a meeting with him without that kind of bench seems to me to be a very misuse of presidential power. let me just say a couple other things about process. you know, again, i mentioned we're sending troops now to the middle east. as dave often say, former general pa petrae

top of the list of those of us who are part of western civilization is just what he has you say rex tillerson trumps first secretary of state spelt out that they're from messy said too often promoting our values as an obstacle to advancing of interests well you know that we're just we're human rights we're not we're not doing very well here why don't you ask me about how i feel on these issues instead of thrown at me quotes from other people i don't want to do this i really don't want to debate and i don't want to be here reacting to what other folks said ask me about human rights asked me about nato but asked me about it and how the united states foreign relations committee of the united states senate feels about it and then they are going to and you and i are going to get along really well they've got to see why these comments well yeah but there is a gate here in europe and i could use doubts about which direction the u.s. is going and i'm really sorry that we didn't have a good clear understanding when we started this i always do when i do this in d.c. i really want to do a good interview

that's because just really when the president took over, and then starting with rex tillerson and the secretary of state, there just was a kind of demoralization inside the diplomatic core. >> do you think he'll last? there's no way to know, but? >> you know, it's hard to say. but then you have to wonder if you're the president, who do you pick to replace him? you know, he's running out of -- he's running out of prominent people who will either work for him or who he's going to want. >> yeah, dexter, it's a fascinating piece in "the new yorker," thank you so much. having joined criticism for using a brutal dictator to attack a political rival, vice president biden, the president is at it again, this time either apologizing or gaslighting, you decide, quoting now from his tweet late today, "i was actually sticking up for sleepy joe biden while on foreign soil. kim jong-un called him a low-iq idiot, whereas i related the quote of mr. kim as a much softer low-iq individual. who could possibly be upset with that?" . i don't know what that means. joining me now is dana bash and gloria borg

former secretary of state, rex tillerson meeting with the top democrat and republican. the interview focused on the trump administration's dealings with russia, jared kushner's role in foreign policy. tension between him and kushner on middle east issues was well documented. he was fired then called president trump undisciplined. >>> more than a few democrats losing their cookies over ben carson. the secretary of housing and urban development testified on tuesday. he was asked a question that involved a common real estate term. his testimony took a bad turn from there. >> explain the disparity in reo rates. do you know what an reo is? >> an oreo? >> no, an reo. what does the "o" stand for? real estate owned. when a property goes to foreclosure, we call it an reo. why are we having foreclosures ending with people losing their homes, staining their credit more with the fhr than gre. >> i would be happy if you would like to work with the people who do that. >> mr. carson, respectfully, that was my day job before i came to congress. now, it's my job to ask you to work with

and like a tyrannosarus, rex tillerson roars to life telling lawmakers that trump underprepared for thatirst meeting with putin, the former

. >> i want to ask you one question, your predecessor, rex tillerson was in washington apparently insked about the president, president trump's values and he said that he, meaning rex tillerson, was guided by, quote, american values, such as democracy and freedom but that he could not offer the same assessment for the president. what do you make of that comment? >> it's pretty outrageous and probably explains why rex tillerson is no longer the secretary of state >> john kerry is no longer the secretary of state. >> we have lots of folks still hanging around. >> do you feel confident you're the only one speaking for -- with iran's leaders at this point? is there a cease and desist order there? i mean, now i hear they're waiting for 2020 china is -- everybody is waiting for 2020 before we do anything >> sadly i'm not confident we don't have others out trying to speak on behalf of the united states working against president trump's policies i wish i could say i'm confident of that. i'm not. i saw secretary kerry travel to munich there's a security conference every year he was with the w

people like rex tillerson, mike m mattis. >> it has that feel to it. if something were to happen in the persian gulf now, you would have to look carefully to make sure we hadn't provoked it or wasn't a miscalculation to use as a spring board for our bra greater conflict. it's dangerous at this point. the british foreign secretary said there could be a misc miscalculation by either side. >> said that in brussels right after meeting with pompeo. >> that's unprecedented for a british foreign secretary to say. >> a will tlot of things are no normal anymore. coming up, 19 and counting. another democrat throwing his hat into the ring. stay with us right here on andrea mitchell reports. >> i want to talk about you and the needs of every day americans. >> oh, yeah. pete buttigieg wants s ts to s all your needs. every since he declared his candidacy america has been all hot and bothered for him. now mayor pete is going all in. ♪ going all in >> all in. ♪ he's ready and prepared for a primary battle ♪ ♪ his name is worth 800 points in scrabble ♪ in scrabble ♪ [

here's former secretary of state rex tillerson. >> i could sign on to just about all of his objectiveses were always on tactics. i'd have to say to him, mr. president, i understand what you want to do, but you can't do it that way. it violates the law. it violates treaty, you know. and -- and he, you know, just -- he got really frustrated. >> we can't forget anonymous, who wrote the op-ed for "the new york times" three months before that. quote, it may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but americans should know that there are adults in the room, and we were trying to do what's right even when donald trump won't. we believe our first duty is to this country, and the president continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic. in white house exit interviews, former national security adviser h.r. mcmaster his colleagues are a detriment to the constitution or see themselves as rescuing the country. the white house is described as a place where higher loyalty is sacrificed. he beaked, we schemed, we backstabbed, some of us told us it was to protect the presid