jake sullivan, thank you forjoining us. jake sullivan, thank you forjoining us.key adviser to hillary clinton, can give be objective about the trump administration? not entirely objective. i would have to put my bias on the table. i spent two years trade to stop him from getting into the oval office. but i think a lot of the things that we predicted during the campaign about his lack of it as though others have borne out over the last six months. soi borne out over the last six months. so i have tried to take a step back and tragedy is fair—minded as possible and assessing what he is doing. but the zeitgeist was or with within, wasn't it? he was much more injune within, wasn't it? he was much more in june with within, wasn't it? he was much more injune with what within, wasn't it? he was much more in june with what the voters' proteas were. i would argue that he had a lot of a shawville, but when a came to what they cared about, i think it came to what they cared about, i think i do more with hillary clinton and her approach. —— tuned in with their priorities. so

jake sullivan, welcome to hardtalk. thanks for having me.a key adviser to hillary clinton, can give be objective about the trump administration? probably not entirely objective. i would have to put my bias on the table, that i spent two years trying to stop him from getting into the oval office. but i think a lot of the things that we predicted during the campaign about his lack of fitness for office have borne out over the last six months. so i've tried to take a step back be as fair—minded as possible in assessing what he has done. but the zeitgeist was always with him wasn't it? he was much more in tune with what the voters‘ priorities are. you know, i would actually argue that he had a certain emotional appeal, but when it came to voter priorities, to the issues they cared about, they lined up more with hillary clinton and her approach to the issues. so it was really a battle between a guy who had the number of the media, and could very effectively carry out a political campaign, and the person who had the ideas and the substance. in the

joining us now jake sullivan who served as senior adviser to hillary clinton and joe biden.anks for joining us. what was your reaction when you saw the tweet released just before 1:00 p.m. eastern the president saying that he didn't have -- i did not have such recordings. >> nothing should surprise us this is not normal behavior. he has known for weeks that there were no tapes, that he didn't make tapes and yet he strung the american people along misleading them, going all the way back to may 12. he comes clean today. it is time to move on from this tapes thing. there is one important aspect that we need to remain focussed on. why did he send the original tweet in the first place? he did it to intimidate jim comey and try to obstruct the investigation and that needs to be looked at by bob mueller. >> presumably they are looking at that. in this tweet he raised the possibility that there was some sort of surveillance that maybe u.s. intelligence community was monitoring what is going on. he says with recently reported electronic surveillance intercepts, unmasking, illegal lea

. ♪ charlie: history will probably look at that secret mission that you and jake sullivan i'm not , sure else was there -- explain that to us. what happened? mr. burns: in the first term of the obama administration, we worked hard to build up a fair amount of pressure and leverage against iran. by the beginning of 2013, the value of our oil exports had dropped by 50%, the value of their currency had dropped by 50%. so there was a moment where you could use this leverage, and president obama decided that, the best way to test, given the baggage on both sides to the iranian revolution in hostage crisis, was to do it quietly. irani government had achieved the release of three. they had a track record. in march of 2013, we met on nine or 10 different occasions with an iranian delegation. charlie: what would you do? do you show up at a hotel and nobody knows who you are, and on the floor above you are a bunch of iranians? mr. burns: we used marked -- unmarked u.s. government aircraft, so we did the best we could in this day and age to keep it quiet, and we met in what was an old omani officer

>> rose: history whether, i suggest, probably look at that secret mission that you and i guess jake sullivan, not sure who else was there. explain that to us. >> what happened? >> well, i mean you know, in the first term of the obama administration we worked hard to build up a fair amount of pressure and leverage against iran. so by the beginning of 2013, you know, the value with the oil exports had dropped by 50%. the value of their currency dropped by 50%. so there was a moment when you could use this leverage and president obama decided, i think rightly, that the best way to test whether the iranians are serious, given the baggage on both sides of the iranian revolution, the hostage crisis and everything else was to do it quietly. the omani government had a track record of working with the iranians, they helped with the release of three. >> which government. >> the omani government, they had a track record so we, starting in early march of 2013 met on nine or ten different occasions with an iranian delegation. >> rose: what would you do, show up at a hotel and nobody knows who are you and