the middle east better than just about any other american, va vali nuss is at johns hopkins, elliott abrams oversaw u.s. middle east policy in the george w. bush administration and is now at the council on foreign relations. in other words, we've got a lot of brain power and a lot of experience in the middle east to discuss the president's speech. robin, i want to begin with you. the speech, and we have some excerpts now, speak of something of a different message than we've heard from donald trump before on islam. certainly not saying islam hates america. how is that kind of message likely to be received in saudi arabia today? is it a credible message? >> well, it will depend a lot on what happens after president trump leaves the middle east. does he stick to the kind of language he's using in the kingdom that tries to reach out to the islamic world, tries to heal divisions, tries to create a new coalition with which the united states can engage on its big foreign policy challenges dealing with isis, dealing with iran, helping promote the arab/israeli peace process. but it is clear that thi

elliott abrams, you have advised american presidents, republican presidents. did you see president trump's message here as consistent, as a new direction for the u.s. approach to the middle east? >> generally consistently. these are our allies, saudi arabia, the other gulf countries, the emirates, so i don't think there is anything new here except for one thing. he is treating the terrorists as if they kind of came from outer space. we have to get our armies together and defeat them. but they didn't come from outer space, they came from inside these muslim societies. and the president really isn't addressing that question or asking these heads of government to address that question. he's just saying defeat them. and without really an explanation of what it is that gives rise to them. what are the conditions, what are the problems in these societies that produce so many terrorists. so whereas predecessors frequently talked about reform within those societies, freedom within those societies, the president said i'm not here to lecture, although he did use the wor

elliott abrams served in the reagan and george w. bush administrations.s now a senior fellow at the council on foreign relations. and robin wright is fellow at the u.s. institute of peace as well as a contributing writer for the "new yorker" magazine. we welcome all three of you back to the program. beef talking 'little elliott about the president shifting language how he talks about terrorism extremism. what i want to ask the three of you is how much of a shift in policy is what president trump is saying in his, particularly in that speech in saudi arabia. how much of a shift in policy would that be? >> there is a shift, i would say from the obama policy which was much more open to friendship or better relationship with iran and was not casting iran as a central problem in the middle east. in saudi arabia, the president said very much, iran is the problem, the king of saudi arabia then said the same thing, iran is the problem. now of course we're hearing it from prime minister netanyahu. this isn't a change i would say from bush policy actually but these

. >> lou: it is stunning stuchlt most people think that cox was fired bu elliott abrams and richard simyidea. >> the truth of it is, nixon cut a deal to turn over transcripts or some reason his tapes so he would not put all of the garbage in there and vetted by john stens, and given to everybody except to cox and he said we'll subpeona all of these tapes and on friday night. they asked if elliott was on board and next day elliott was not on board and i sent nixon a memo and i said you have are to fire elliott and i was in the oval office, lou, and he talked about the russian and yom kippur going on and henry was in moscow. and nixon said i will fire him and if p i have to go down to a gs seven to fire that guy i willo it. elliott is coming in the other door and there was elliott and how are you doing? and he looked like he was leading somebody be to execution in there which is sort of what he was doing. >> lou: the metaphor would have been. >> he bet on nixon not being being the future. >> lou: and alexander ha ag was in control. at that point, you needed a turnstile in the white house.

most people think that archibald cox was fired by elliott, you know, abrams and -- >> richardson.. they forget the whole process. they have the vaguest idea. >> nixon went and chopped their heads off. the truth of it is can you tell a deal to turn over transcripts or some reason of his tapes, so they wouldn't have to put all the garbage in there as well. i'm talking about some unfortunate language by john and give it to everybody accepted it, so archibald cox said, no, we're not going to do it. we're going to subpoena all of these tapes. and richardson on friday night, i said al, is elliott aboard? he said, yes, the next day, elliot wasn't a board, and i sent nixon a memo, and i said you're going to have to fire elliott. and he said come on over. and i was in the oval office, lou. and i was sitting there, and he talked for an hour about it. the russia and all of that was going on. henry was in moscow. and nixon said after he said he's going to fire. he said if i have to go down to a gs7, i'm going to do it. and so he said you better go this way because elliott's coming through the

let me -- i want to start by echoing a point elliott abram made because i think the overarching questionere is what are our interests. what are our expectations with respect to our relationship with egypt and what do we actually get for this investment? the aid program, the relationship has been based on a long-standing assumption that egypt is an important player in the region, and with that assumption comes another, that our long-term interests in better government, respect for human rights sometimes comes into conflict with our immediate national security interests. we certainly in the obama administration operated on the assumption that there was a lot that egypt could do for regional security and for us, and we tried again and again and again to engage them on a variety of common interests. i would say the reality is we were frustrated in the vast majority of cases. more and more it looked to us that egypt is becoming a country that sucks up aid, a lot more from the gulf states than from us as you know, while contributing very, very little to regional security and treating the aid a