now from washington is white house and national security correspondent for "the new york times" david sanger so much for joining us, hi. lovely to see you. i do want to break down these comments from president biden on afghanistan. it's both a domestic issue but also a foreign policy issue that has ramifications for many allies. what do you make of his answer? >> you know, what i thought was interesting, robyn, is while he had said before that it was hard to imagine that we could pull our troops out by the may 1st deadline that is part of that negotiated settlement with the taliban left over from the trump administration a year ago, this was the first time that he had put an outer boundary on how long american troops would remain. he was asked at one point if he could imagine american troops there next year, and he said, no, i couldn't picture that. so this seems to answer the mystery that the white house has until now avoided commenting on, which is if you don't stay -- if you don't leave by may 1st, how long do you stay? and the answer seems to be six, eight months, something like that. no

>> joining us now, david sanger, cnn political and national security analyst and "new york times" whitese and national security correspondent. david, the common thread or a common thread, these were both very public disputes between russia and china, the likes of which we really almost never see. they're also, in my mind, intentional. you don't do it publicly unless you mean to do it for a reason. so why? what is the biden administration trying to do? >> well, i think there are a few things going on here, john. the first is that the biden administration is trying to establish both for its home audience and abroad that it's not going to be a push-over here. and i think you saw that in the president's tone about vladimir putin being a killer. the subtext of that is the days of donald trump apologizing for or ignoring what the russians were doing are over. with the chinese, i think it's a little more complex. the chinese weren't really sure they wanted to have trump stay around. i suspect they probably preferred biden to some degree. but the degree of aggressiveness by the chinese in the p

have an idea of what to expect earlier this week in the sunday edition of the new york times' david sanger and the gang reported that in retaliation to the great solar winds hack and spying operation u.s. government officials are now saying that over the next few weeks the by the administration is planning to quote. a series of claim to conduct a series of quite invest in actions across russian networks that are intended to be evident to president vladimir putin and his intelligence services and military but not to the wider world. because my friends i guess what nothing keeps their clandestine cyber attacks clandestine like telling the new york times about them. naturally the russian government was none too pleased about these secret attacks after reading about them in the new york times kremlin spokesperson to be announced the upcoming clandestine attacks denounced the upcoming clandestine attacks declaring this is alarming information this should this would be fear international cyber crime not to mention is wired senior writer andy greenberg accurately observes cyber policy wonks are q

i talked to david sanger at length about this. he has written several books at the wilson center about cyber. it gives credit to the wilson center. he thinks this is a complicated issue. other more things you can do, again, as ranking member of homeland? rep. katko: there is no question about it. i am heartened to see bennie thompson, the majority leader, and i, we get along very well. we are on force of where we need to go with cyber. it goes back to think of homeland security's mission as a whole. we are to think, what are the vulnerabilities and how are they different and how are they different than before? like i said, it's basically like having someone fromisis in everyone's home. no doubt we will get it done. >> bennie goes way back. either he was the original first ranking chairman. i remember him in my district in southern california, where in torrance california the police wrapped up a terrorists cell, which had plans and maps. they had done a series of gas station robberies. they had all these plans to attack jewish cent

i talked to david sanger at length about this. he wrote several at the wilson center one called the perfect on cyber. >> i've got that book on my shelf. >> give credit to the wilson center. he thinks this is a complicated issue, are there more things you can do, again as ranking member of homeland. >> no question about it. there's no question about it and i'm heartened to see benny thompson, the majority leader and i, we get along very well. we have a great relationship and four square what to do with cyber and homeland security at a whole. it's not a one on off event. we have to think about how are they different and how are they different than before and like i said. basically you have someone from isis sleeping in everyone's home and office and when they wake up and want to smack us, they can cyber-wise and we've got to-- no doubt to get it done. >> and benny goes way back. i think he was the original first ranking member, then chairman, and i certainly remember him coming in my congressional district in southern california in

analysis from david sanger on the front page of the washington post on china and russia.china and russia set the tone for a cold era." he writes "president biden got a taste of what the next four years may look like, a new era of bitter superpower competition marked by perhaps the worst relationship washington has had with russia since the fall of the berlin wall and with china since it opened diplomatic relations with the u.s." he writes "it has been brewing for years as the presidents of russia and china have taken sharp turns toward authoritarianism, but opened up in sharp fashion when biden agreed that putin is a "killer" and someone lectured americans about the arrogant view that the world must replicate their freedoms." alexis in wilmington, north carolina -- good morning -- says end the filibuster. caller: thank you for having me on. it took over 200 dials. it needs to end. i have a comment. we send these people to congress to speak our voice. this last covid bill was supported by 70% of the country and yet no republicans supported it, so the question is, who gets

david sanger wrote about it at the taoeupls. everybody wrote about donald trump. here's a headline from november 13th. trump administration removed senior defense officials and installs loyalists triggering alarm at the pent gone. they carried out sweeping changes, removing several of its senior officials and replacing them with perceived loyalists to the president. the flurry of changes announced by the d.o.d. has put officials inside the pentagon on edge and fueled a growing sense of alarm among military and civilian officials who are concerned about what could come next. and of course we had dick cheney and other members, other living former department of defense secretaries writing that joint letter before january 6th. and so we were warned these trump loyalists would be stooges for donald trump. and there would be far-reaching consequences. so i think it is incumbent upon the united states senate. they dragged them up to the hill and get them to testify. . >> yeah. there are so many important questions to answer here. and we have only begun to scratch the sur