admiraljames stavridis in florida, welcome to hardtalk. good to be with you, stephen. years in the us military. i wonder what was your overriding emotion when you saw that mob, a violent mob, storm the us congress and apparently, to all intents and purposes, egged on and incited by your president, donald trump? i was angry, and it felt to me a bit like 9/11. i was in the pentagon on 9/11. i literally watched the aeroplane hit the pentagon. and the day after the next morning, president bush came to the pentagon, he assembled all the admirals and generals, our very senior military leadership, and he was angry. and he said, "i want you to remember this day, to remember what it feels like, what it strikes you as as you smell the cordite in the pentagon." today, i suspect in the capitol as the work of congress returns, there must be anger by many as they smell that tear gas lingering. this was an absolute desecration of the highest temple of democracy in our nation. and it was hard to watch for someone who has spent 37 years in the military, and at every rank i swore an oat

joining us now to discuss this is admiraljames stavridis, who served as nato supreme allied commanderer let me talk to you about something i heard today from the house chair of the rules committee. he said today there is a clear and present danger to the country, and to the world. this president should be removed now. do you agree? i do. ithink that we have internal challenges and extreme passions raging in the country, and you've been covering them very well. but there is a big world beyond the border of the united states of america and our enemies move a pace. and high fives in beijing, in moscow, in it's a window of a for mischief and we're seeing it from the chinese cracking down on hong kong, rounding up more than their usual suspects. we're seeing russia and pose immense cyber attacks discovered in this period being followed by additional attacks. there is a great deal of mischief afoot, and as you correctly point out, we're not on the a—team or the b point out, we're not on the a—team orthe bteam, point out, we're not on the a—team or the b team, we're point out, we're not on t