so, david ignatius, let's keep score. i mean, this is not exactly the sort of show we can pre tape for christmas eve in the middle of july. too much going on. >> you couldn't really plan this one. >> no, couldn't plan this one out. so i thank all of you so much for being with us this christmas eve morning, it certainly means a lot to us and i know it means a lot to our viewers. so there is a "washington post" article entitled "a rogue presidency" that stated where we are pretty well. the federal government is shut down, the stock markets are in free-fall, foreign allies are alarmed and foreign adversaries like russia are cheering. so, david, where are we? >> joe, we have used language to try to explain to viewers the chaos, disorientation in washington, the sense of disruption to traditional policies so many times over the last 18 months, it may seem stale, but this week we really experienced it. this week washington was rocked with decisions that shocked even close trump supporters. after secretary mattis' resignation i

you know, david ignatius, again, comparing where we were with george h.w. bush and where we are now, i read so much this weekend, but i think a paragraph in the president's own words, former president's own words, really boils it down that, yes, every politician makes mistakes, every politician is flawed, every politician will fight like hell to get their story out there and sometimes use very sharp elbows, but at the end of the day, you know, they put their country first and they put people around them first. this is part of a note that george h.w. bush wrote to hour recent dowd, he said, i reserve the right to whine, to not read, to use profanitiy, but if you ever get really hurt or if you ever get really down and just need a shoulder to cry on, or just need a friend, give me a call, i will be there for you. i will not let you down. now, if george h.w. bush who was skewered by the media throughout most of his political life had decided to call anybody an enemy of the people it would have probably started with maureen dowd, but he understood that the press

generals joseph dunford, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff talked with washington post columnist david ignatius about how the pentagon is using technology to modernize the armed forces. this hour-long conversation happened before president trump announced his pick to replace general dunford sometime next year.

david ignatius of "the washington post," who you also know very well, and who is a longtime observer has great contacts in washington and in saudi arabia. he wrote a really interesting deep dive into all of this. he also as part of that, he said that mbs, mohammed bin salman, became increasingly anxious to those he considered enemies. starting in the spring of 2017 a team of saudi operatives under control of the royal court began organizing kidnappings of dissidents abroad and at home according to saudi experts and he mentions harsh interrogation and covert sites. let me now play a sound bite from jamal khashoggi after this event 2017 where you were sitting with him and he expressed his fears. >> why are you in, quote unquote, self-exile? explain that. >> simply because i don't want to be arrested. the irony that mohammed bin salman doesn't have an opposition. he doesn't have the tall ban as i have in afghanistan. most of the people, most of the intellectuals -- most of the people in jail are supportive of reform. if they were out of jail, they would be supporting him. there is no ne

joining me is mimi rowka, and ben rhodes, and msnbc national political reporter david ignatius, and also a kcolumnist and contributor carol lee. and so, carol lee and mimi rocah with us, and let e's talk about what we just heard from the judge from gary gromback reporting from inside of the courthouse, and the judge is recommending the sentencing of the prosecutors and why this is unusual is that under the federal guidelines of zero the six moents he would not normally get any incarceration considering the extensive cooperation, and so it sounds like judge emmitt sullivan who s is an outlier and controversial this the past may be actually recommending jail time for michael flynn. >>le we-- well, andrea, i belie that is right, but i don't want to overstate that it is an outlier, the special counsel in the sentencing memo said low end of the guideline range or no jail time. the second time after flynn had made this submission sort of trying to claim that he was duped or trapped the special counsel did not use no jail time they were stand fwig recommendation of something at the low end of t

. >> that has been the case, david ignatius. i wonder if we haven't actually crossed a threshold over this past week. john meacham is so right. confidence in institutions in the united states have been collapsing for some time. with one exception. the united states military. united states military continues to be one of the most respected institutions anywhere and those numbers keep going up and you look at a poll that was released this week from the united states military about what they thought about general mattis. 84% approval rating, only 4% disapproval rating, twice the approval rating that donald trump had and so i'm just wondering, david, what are you hearing from your sources inside the military? what are you hearing from your sources inside the community about the public humiliation, not that anybody knows james mattis, he's just fine, but donald trump's attempt to publicly you hpublic publicly you had m humiliate a . >> that's part of trump's base. trump likes to say he's for a strong military and that he has military

columnist and associate of "the washington post," david ignatius. formerer u.s. attorney for the northern district of alabama advance along with joe, willie and me. >> david, your name was dropped in some documents. tell us about that. >> so my name appeared on page two of the sentencing memo that was prepared by special counsel robert mueller describing how on january 12 of 2017 i wrote wrote that mike flynn, then heading to the white house, had had a call not disclosed with the russian ambassador, sergey kislyak on december 29 and i raised the question on whether that call, which is the same day that president obama announced sanctions on russia for meddling in our elections, flynn discussed whether the new administration would drop those sanctions. and that began a process that led finally to flynn's interview with the fbi, his lies to the fbi, his departure from the administration, all that we have seen. so what's interesting, it feels like a little moment of history to have been with the story. >> for those that don't remember so well about the campaign and f

defense advanced research projects agency, stephen walker, spoke with washington post columnist, david ignatius. darpa's director for the last year and before that he was the acting director and was deputy director since 2012. he has been in darpa operations for a long time. our amazing government ideas laboratory. we credit them for inventing the internet. sorry, al gore. amazing lot of technology achievements. by asking you to talk about this amazing istitution and whether it adapting enough to the way the world has changed. sense, darpa and the internet created a world in which darpa's old mission doesn't fit right, the private sector is so dominant, so quick. cutting edge science and technology is to be in the government, now it is outside. tell us about the new world. stephen: darpa is 60 years old this last year. we celebrated that in september. darpa was all about creating technological surprise. it was created in the sputnik era. we still look at that as our main charter. one of the ways that we understand we can do that best is by creating technological .urprise for the united states i

generals joseph dunford, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff talked with washington post columnist david ignatius about how the pentagon is using technology to modernize the armed forces. this hour-long conversation happened before president trump announced his pick to replace general dunford sometime next year. david: good afternoon everyone and welcome to the washington post. i am fred ryan, publisher. we are fortunate to be joined by two senior leaders from the department of defense to discuss security challenges that america faces in the 21st century. as general joseph dunford observed, the fundamental nature of war remains unchanged. what is new is the evolving technologies and battlefields like outer space and cyberspace. they have dramatically increased the speed and complexity of modern workfare. as a result, the united states faces unprecedented threats to its security from many nations and from terrorists and combatants who follow the flag of no nation. learnfternoon, we will about these new dangers and about the technologies and strategies the united states can employ to defeat them. b

i could not agree more. >> is david ignatius still with us?are, we're an hour into this. and got the entire republican administration -- the entire republican establishment speaking out. you've got even people that aren't part of the republican establishment, those that have been on the outside fighting in, you got mike huckabee, mike huckabee out there telling the president please reconsider. this is a betrayal. american allies consider this a betrayal. as you said shocked. they are absolutely shocked. then you have donald trump -- david, please explain the insanity of this. donald trump is now calling russia a quota local in the middle east. >> i can only cite some more voices for you, joe, and i just want to turn to the people who have actually been doing this fight who i've had a chance to see, just a couple of snapshots. i'm thinking of a sergeant major i met back in february at the front lines fighting isis, still fighting isis. a guy who has four purple hearts, six bronze starks as. i was thinking of a guy flying back with a guy who was

joining me is former assistant attorney general and david ignatius former msnbc contributor and washingtont, and he was the first to the write about flynn's talks of sanctions with the ambassador to the u.s. first to you, david, you feature prominently, and you were the first to write about the fact that he was meeting in the the transition with kislyack, with the the russian, and he was coming at a time when we were noting that vladimir putin was not responding angrily from the sanctions from the obama team about the russian meddling in the election, and so was he promising, you know, don't worry about it, et cetera, et cetera? this is just the beginning of the case. >> this is the first of the dominos to fall, and it was fascinating, and kind of eerie to see your name on page two of a sentencing memorandum from robert mueller, and you would rather be mentioned than sentenced, but that is the beginning of a series of events in what caught my attention at the time, and i wrote the column in january of 2017 before the president's inauguration was that on the very day that president obama an

columnist and associate editor for "the washington post," david ignatius.enator, sam stein. and joining the conversation you list engineer prize winning editorial writer for "the washington post" and msnbc news, jonathan. and a fellow at the brennan center for justice and an msnbc legal analyst daniel goldman. good to have you. >> willie, late night comics were poking fun and poking holes in the president's arguments on these payments that have become the center of obviously prosecutors focus. also last night kellyanne conway went on chris cuomo show and they had a long discussion where she says very little but denies everything and calls him christopher a lot. it's become a bit of a regular occurrence there. after kellyanne conway got off the show, her arguments were undercut and blasted by somebody on twitter who says this, given that trump has repeatedly lied about the daniels and mcdougal payments and given that he lies about virtually everything tomorrow the point that his own former personal attorney described him as a blanking liar, why should we tak

face of truth and facts, i think more the person people are realizing this doesn't add up. >> david ignatius, as i reminded people, you were the first one to sort of blow this story open and get people to google the logan act and learn about it. but, i'm sorry, george popolopodus, his cooperation agreement got hung up by somehow blaming the fbi. paul manafort had been playing games with cooperating, not cooperating and somehow also giving advice to the white house, maybe to attack the apparently -- according to vox, attack the fbi. mike flynn cooperating at times with mr. mueller but helping the president with it. look, one plus one plus one may not equal three here but it looks weird >> there certainly has been a strategy by the administration, by the people you mentioned to get the public scepticism about the fbi to challenge it, question it. i thought was frank just said was absolutely right and disturbing. this is undermining a key part of our national security and lawsuit enforcement. what's fascinating is judge sullivan in responding to this today was really angry at this effort by fly

chairman of the joint chiefs of staff general joseph dunford speaks with washington post columnist david ignatius. using --e pentagon is the conversation is just under an hour. >> good afternoon everyone. welcome to the washington post i am fred ryan, a bush appeared we are meant to be joined i to senior leaders from the department of defense to discuss security challenges that america faces in the 21st century. as one of our speakers, general joseph dunford observed earl yer in this year the fundamental nature of war remains unchanged. what is new are the evolving technologies and battlefields like outer space and cyber space, that have dramatically increased the speed and complexity of modern warfare. as a result, the united states faces unprecedented threats to its security from many nations and from terrorists and combatants who follow the flag of no nation. this afternoon, we'll learn about these new dangers and about the technologies and strategies the united states can imemployee to de employ to defeat them. before we begin, i'd like to thank today's presenting sponsor, northrop grumman, a

. >> david ignatius according to the filing, he kicked thi all off by noting bk in january of 2017 thatisliak had myn with around the time of those sanctions and that it was about telling putin, don't worry once we get in office we're going to pull those sanctions and that's what set mueller on this path. robert: as paul sits insome dare confinement and they're wondering if he's going to break, president trump praising roger stone with having guts and fighting back against investigatorte what's the wouse view on manafort? >> president trump also econtinues to pra paul manafort basically saying that he's being treated unfairly. when president trump talks about the muellen investigat ruining lives. one of the people he's talking about is paulanafort who he -- and also michael flynn but paul manafort who he believes is getting the short stick on this. the view among the white house about paul manafort might be very different from what president trump views it. robert: are they thinking about pardons?al >> he conti thinks about pardons. whether he's willing to do it is a different story we

we'll see. >> so david ignatius, we're going to move from the investigation to russia.appen in the next month or two. i know that mika's brother, eeenneian brazynski, who has worked in this field for a long time is concerned about the possibility of of the coming attack over the next month or two because there's very little reaction to ramming the ukrainian ships last week. you've got theresa may fighting for her political life. you've got mac crone fightinger for his political life. you've got donald trump fighting for his political life and you've got angela merkel stepping off the stage. it's kind of like when putin went into georgia in 2008. george w. bush had more things to worry about than georgia. so what are the fears that he may move on ukraine in the next month or two? >> well, joe, he is a person who we've seen exploits power vacuums. he has a very cynical appreciation of american weakness and disorientation right now. he sees the same thing in europe. what's typical for putin -- i think that pofor putin, conflic isn't an on/off switch. he dials et up as high

to introduce the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff general dunford and "washington post" david ignatius. [applause] . >> it is a great pleasure at "the washington post" to have general dunford with us today for this conversation as all conversations hear we invite the audience in the room and streaming to send us any questions so just to say a word about general dunford. he has been a symbol of continuity in our country in two ways that i want to mention. first appointed as chairman in 2015 from president obama and then reenlisted in may by president trump with the second two-year term so with that continuity that is a symbol of what is enduring in our country. so every few days were general dunford is talking with his counterparts around the world from allied countries and the continuity that reminds me of what is continuous with the daily ups and downs with newspapers so thank you for coming. we began with an area you are focused on with the chiefs and the administration. and that is looking new ad our competitors from the countries that challenge us and renew great power like russia

this whole thing started with a leak to the "washington post" by columnist, david ignatius. who is really for the democratic party. he does that and then, in that week, the prisoner committed two crimes by telling him about the fact of the conversation with kislyak and then that was michael flynn, which was unmasking and leaking. the person also gave him the tidbit about the logan act. you do not think that ignatius knew that on his own. putting up the logan act in that column then allows sally yates and the justice department to say my goodness, this is what we have to investigate. lou: but it is space. and absurdity and insult. to say they are prosecuting under the logan act because it is on prosecutable. and secondly, their conduct with general flynn, this poor man has been -- i mean, the judge basically tried to got this man today. instead of defend him. as a defendant in front of the awesome power of federal prosecutors. i mean it is outrageous! >> that is exactly right, lou. and it is precisely why the judge missed a golden opportunity to at least inquire of the govern

. >> we have mike barnacle, steve ratner, heidi prisbella, david ignatius and retired four star navyin one minute, but rupert

you look at the timeline, you have the david ignatius piece that dropped about the intercepted coordination, the next day, he's directing people to lie to the press, then the conversations, the lies going on and on to the vice president and others. this is a pattern and it is important to look at this because we have seen this campaign of attack against law enforcement, against our institutions of justice saying this person is a victim. he's not a victim. he didn't slip up. this is a lie he planned and perfected over time. the last thing on the campaign is, and this gets a little philosophical, but as i saw the video of him walkin into federal court, i walked into that building in that side door many times, and the reason why i say it's a bit philosophical, despite all the president's attacks, the campaign to attack his own institutions of justice, this is judgment day and this is where it happens. the judicial branch of government. a branch over which the president has no control. this former national security adviser, now a felon, washing in to meet his fate, it only matters what happens

. >> well, as your colleague david ignatius has written today, it looks like he has come all the way through the looking glass and made this complete circle. and his column today complements your reporting. our thanks to greg miller for returning to our broadcast and again to our audience. his book is "the apprentice: trump, russia and the subversion of american democracy." after a break coming up for us we knew it was going to be emotional, and it was, but it was the awkwardness of today that we couldn't predict until it played out in real time. we'll have that when we continue. >>> he showed me what it means to be a president who serves with integrity, leads with courage and acts with love in his heart for the citizens of our country. when the history books are written, they will say that george h.w. bush was a great president of the united states. >> it was moments like that today, a personal and emotional eulogy by a former president about his father, the former president. and it was the sense that a rare kind of peace prevailed for a time in washington today. all of those things

. >> well, as your colleague david ignatius has written today, it looks like he has come all the wayking glass and made this complete circle. and his column today complements your reporting. our thanks to greg miller for returning to our broadcast and again to our audience. his book is "the apprentice: trump, russia and the subversion of american democracy." after a break coming up for us we knew it was going to be emotional, and it was, but it was the awkwardness of today that we couldn't predict until it played out in real time. we'll have that when we continue. not long ago, ronda started here. and then, more jobs began to appear. what started with one job spread all around. because each job in energy creates many more in this town. ♪ applebee's bigger, bolder grill combos are back. now that's eatin good in the neighborhood. man: juggling all the things we do is a challenge. woman: but hey, it's a fun challenge. man 2: and our tempur-pedic helps us make it all work. woman 2: it gives us the best night's sleep ever. woman 3: i recommend my tempur-pedic to everybody. the most highly

the first thing that kicked this off was a "washington post" article by david ignatius where he indicatesere was a conversation that the u.s. intelligence community knew about. and as mueller indicates, the next day, flynn was directing people in the transition team to lie to "the washington post," to lie torthss. you see that pattern starting. i'll say something very important for all of us to understand. i went back and did the math. if you look at michael flynn's career. he started out as a second lieutenant in the army working up to lieutenant general and to the national security adviser. ten times he took an oath to uphold and support and defend the constitution of the united states. and explicit in that oath is your respect for the rule of law. he failed. this isn't something he slipped up and fell into. >> since you brought up the rule of law, phil, if i can close with one question about what rudy giuliani said today where he was talking about campaign finance violations. felony campaign finance violations. he said nobody got killed. nobody got robbed. this was not a big crime. as

the chairmanship of the federal reserve to succeed a balanced view of the carter presidency and david ignatius called carter a small decent and unlucky man that hasn't been covered but lasted for decades so when you write the book about post- presidency has a minimum 8000 pages. [laughter] this morning he will get 15 minutes of opening comments followed by the panel which i will moderate then we go to your questions our goal is to tease out the successes and disappointments of a hard-working president that i want to echo in the prologue of the book she hopes this book will help reframe the carter presidency. soda why please welcome wilson center scholar. [applause] . >> thank you for your friendship and hosting this and thank you to all of you for coming jimmy carter's political idol was harry truman and he placed truman's famous slogan on his oval office desk the buck stops here. both presidents left office highly unpopular truman is remembered much more for his achievements than his faults and i hope my book will lead to a similar reassessment of jimmy carter as president not simply as a wid

looked into this place and probably others, we see that in 2004 the cia held a symposium there, david ignatius from the washington post wrote a brilliant article about it. fbi agents go there and teach courses. fbi, not italian, fbi and american. so basically it is a spook school for western intelligence. but i didn't know at the time because you are not supposed to know these things when you're being entrapped basically. [ laughter ] >> so -- so my contact at the company in london told me, hey, this is somebody you need to meet, joseph mifsud and he disappeared and then my company director disappeared and joseph mifsud supposedly knew everything before me before i got in there. and he's like, so you're the papadopoulos guy joining the trump campaign. and i said yeah, who are you? i didn't know who he was. i know the vietnamese prime minister and this guy and the state department -- he presented himself as a man of the world who could connect me to every country you could imagine, including russia. and it wasn't a secret that trump wanted some connection with russia at the geopolitical level a

introduce the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, general dunford and the "washington post's" david ignatius. [ applause ] >> thanks, david. thank you, general. >> it's a great pleasure for all of us at the woe"washington pos to have general dunford with us today for this conversation. as in all our conversations here, we invite the audience in the room and streaming to send us any questions to t the #postlive. just to say a word about general dunford, to me, he's been a symbol of continuity in h our country in two ways i want to mention. first, he was initially appointed as chairman in 2015 under president obama. he was reappointed in may by president trump for a second two-year term. so there's that first continuity that really is a symbol of what endures in our country. secondly, i note every few days, it seems, that general du nford is talking with his counterparts around the world from allied countries, from potential adversaries and this continuity of military-to-military contacts, again, reminds me of what's continuous. what has nothing to do with the daily ups and downs that we're of