john kirby, you're a retired u.s. admiral. what do you think?hat are we going to hear from the defense secretary? he's going to be speaking first at this upcoming briefing in the next few minutes. >> i can't remember the last time a secretary of defense went to a white house briefing, a daily briefing, to open it up. that's incredible to me. mr. mattis is not really doing a lot of press briefings in his own pentagon. this is remarkable. i suspect the purpose is to talk about this budget deal and to laud it and try to encourage quick passage of it. he was on capitol hill yesterday testifying about the nuclear review and was very eloquent about the damage these continuing resolutions and sequester has been doing to military readiness training and maintenance. i think that's his main purpose. i don't think he's going to talk about the parade, but i have no doubt that he'll get asked about it. >> when asked about it, i suspect he'll say that he understands the task he's been given by the commander in chief. they're going to work up some options and

i want to bring in rear admiral john kirby, spokesman for the pentagon as well as the state departmentse rear admiral, you've had a top security clearance, top secret security clearance, we should say. also with being able to see additional secure and sensitive information. walk us through the difference between what kushner did have and what he is going to have now. >> glad to do that. we're talking about top secret and secret. as you know, brianna, there are three levels of clearance, confidential, secret and top secret. it's important to remember that the clearance level itself is not enough. you also have a need to know. can you have a top secret clearance but if you don't have a need to know a certain bit of information or material you won't have access to that. that's important as we get a little later on. highest level of sensitive information in the united states government if it's disclosed without authorization can cause exceptionally grave damage to national security, very, very strong language there. and so the -- it's the most rigid storage and handling and access protocol

joining me to discuss, cnn pentagon correspondent barbara starr and military diplomatic analyst john kirbyrbara, you're part of the team that broke this story that at least these discussions are happening. what have you learned. >> we learned that the pentagon is looking for a job for mcmaster, essentially promoted to become a four star. the problem may be this. general mcmaster essentially for months now has been in the equivalent of a political job. there's no question about it. can he come back, take on a four star and offer his best military advice which is what his job would be rather than being seen as continuing to defend the white house, defend president trump's policies? the two men have had tensions between them. it seems to all be coming to a head. the idea is see what can be done to get mcmaster out of the white house. there is always the option that they won't find a four star job for him and we will find out that he has put in his paperwork to simply retire. that still could be out there. what we know is right now they're looking to see if they can find a four star job to pro

. >>> you know john kirby on our air?mebody that we go to to get really great perspective and information on many things, but he is really opening up next with us here with his daughter, sharing the story of survival of her anorexia. a pretty brave conversation coming up. stay close. ♪ the smoother the skin the more comfortable you are in it and now there's a new way to smooth. introducing new venus platinum. a premium metal handle boosts control so you can reveal up to 100% smooth skin. venus. hello. - hi. how's it going? - alright, how ya doing? - welcome! so, this is the all-new chevy traverse. what do ya think? this looks better than 99% of the suvs out there. it's very modern... sleek. maybe the most impressive part of the all-new traverse... is what's on the inside. surprise! what are you doing here? i've missed you guys. i haven't seen you guys in so long! what's happening? we flew her out. it's a family car, we had to put your family in it! yeah, it gets 7 thumbs up! (whispering) with the capital one venture card,

. >> i'm joined now by john kirby, cnn military and diplomatic analyst, former state department spokesmantary of state was very proud that policy hasn't been changed without him knowing, but the news there, it seems to me, was that he had to ask, the secretary of state had to ask if the president was changing policy on twitter because he didn't know. >> yeah, stunning, isn't it? you would think they would have ironed that stuff out as margaret rightly asked in her question before the president gets on twitter and says stuff. that policymaking process should be deliberate, should be calm, should be measured. it should take time. and then once it is developed, and crafted, everybody is on the same sheet of music. the problem with the president's tweets is he's off on his own symphony and nobody else knows where he's at. the other big problem with this, john, is that this might make tillerson feel really good. that the policy hasn't changed and he is good. what about other foreign leaders who are trying to track what we're doing in our world and our foreign policy. it is chaotic and it is no

good explanation, john kirby. thanks very much for that. let's get more analysis on all of these extraordinary developments. joining us now, cnn legal analyst, former federal prosecutor, michael zeldin, and cnn political analyst gloria borger. you look at all the tumult going on, is it worth it? what does he bring to the table that would allow him in the face of this assault to continue? >> well, i think that's up to the president, honestly. it's a decision the president has to make. i think it's very clear that jared and jared and ivanka would not want to leave town right now because it would look like they were under assault and were leaving under assault. you negotiation he know, he is criminal justice reform. he could continue to do that. i spoke with someone at the white house last night who pushed back on me very hard and said, you know, he can continue doing exactly the job that he was doing, but this white house adviser seems to be the only one who was saying that, to be honest. if he's going to be very involved in mideast peace, he

well former cia analyst and whistleblower john kirby told us he believes the elements laid bare some of the f.b.i.'s more on savory practices. this contains some troubling evidence of f.b.i. malfeasance those of us who are critics of the f.b.i. have been saying this for years this is how the f.b.i. does business they do it surreptitiously they do it by stabbing people in the back they do it by setting people up by entrapping them by tricking them and that's exactly what they did with the face of court they played the face of court judge by not telling them the source of this deal does the a they plead that judge by not telling them that this was a a partisan. report and and they got their warrant they got their warrant any way. two people have been killed and over one hundred injured after two trains collided in the us state of south carolina the collision between an amtrak train on a freight train happened to run two thirty in the morning local time the amtrak train was operating between new york and miami with of least eight crew and one hundred and thirty nine passengers on board

joining any now, retired admiral john kirby. k you for being with us, you don't like this idea, why? >> no, i don't john. i worry it's more about honoring donald trump than it is honoring the troops. and it's really about feeding his ego and love of pomp and circumstance and being honored. the other thing that bothers me about it, it just an thet cal to american military culture. we're not against parades, troops march in parade all over the country on fourth of july and not about the parade itself. it's about going down pennsylvania avenue allegedly with tanks and missiles and that kind of aust ten ashs military hardware display, not something we do. we're the world's most powerful military in the world we don't need to show the gear to do that. last thing that bothers me about it is the money. some people say what's a few million dollars when your budget is 700 billion? it's still a few million dollars we could be applying to other more important problems 22 veterans commit suicide every single day, we have gold star families t

retired rear admiral john kirby, the u.s. is gravely alarmed. so what happens next?> that's the big question. these reports have to be confirmed. from that video, clearly, there was some chemical agent. chemicals being weaponized is against the law and that is something that the u.n. security council will have to answer. you saw ambassador haley express extreme frustration that they doesn't even get a condemnation statement out of security council because the russians wouldn't allow it to go forward. the other thing that the administration is worried here is is the assad regime trying to fly under the radar here? in other words, sort of gray zone use of chemical weapons? they know they got hit for the use of sarin. will they continue to use gas to stay under that threshold? >> last april u.s. launched tomahawk missiles against a chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of civilians in syria. is the u.s. about to get to that point once again? >> again, i think that's what they're trying to figure out. i don't know. it was very clear, convincing evidence about the us

let's bring in our military diplomatic analyst john kirby, our cheer correspondent dana bash and ouref legal analyst gloria borger. this is a huge embarrassment for the white house today, that the fbi director together with the intelligence community, on this issue the fbi director completely disputed what the white house has been saying over the past week. >> it makes you wonder, what were they thinking? they knew the fbi director was going to come and testify today. i don't think they should have assumed that the fbi director was going to do anything other than defend his agency and their security clearance process and come with a timeline of his own. the problem now for the white house is compounded here. because his timeline is different from theirs. he makes it very clear that at least by the fall, at least by the fall that there was knowledge in the white house about this. and i think the question that jeff zeleny raises is the right question, which is, who knew what when? when did don mcgahn know? did don mcgahn go to kelly? did don mcgahn keep this to himself? we need to hear

. >>> joining me rear admiral john kirby and laura coates.dmiral, among your many, many jobs, you served as press secretary in both the pentagon and state department. was part of your job to tell white lies for your bosses? >> no, john, not at all. if i had and anybody found out that i did, i would have been fired by the secretary of defense and/or the secretary of state. when you take an oath for the american people, one of those oaths is you protect and defend the constitution. that means telling the truth, being honest both off screen and on screen. think about this, john. this is the communications director of the white house, not just a staffer. where is that line between a white lie and what she considers to be substantive. i think the american people deserve to know that. >> laura coates, is there a case precedent for white lies? is there a difference between a white lie and a big lie? >> not if you're robert mueller. you've already seen at least two to three people, if you're lying generally, then you're going to get prosecuted for it

. >> joining is a diplomatic admiral john kirby forty-seven a pyeongchang, cnn correspondent will ripleye meeting happened four hours ago in pyeongchang at an undisclosed location. the north korean delegation saling their south korean counterparts they are willing to engage in talks with the united states and south korea's president moon jjae-insaying thy need to improve. for it to improve they need to improve the their relationship with the united states and dramatic shift in tone from the north koreans who today put out a state media article threatening the u.s. over the latest round of sanctions and heaviest sanctions ever imposed on north korea target their shipping industry and the transfers of raw material that bring in money for their nuclear program and calling it tantamount to active war in their state media but the delegation on the ground here came with a message and the message perhaps the time is now or at least soon for talks with the united states. before this situation shraits even further. a word of caution here. there is still major issues that divide the us and south k

and rear admiral john kirby is a cnn military and diplomatic analyst and a former spokesman for the u.sstate department. all right, good to see you all. all right, so, doug, you first, you know, on the surface this invitation for a meeting in north korea seems to be pretty big diplomatic development. how significant is it if there's a yes involved? >> well, we always have to remember that north korea is a dictatorial crazy unreliable country. anything they say one second can change the next. there's no reason to believe that they're good faith operators in any way, shape or form. with that said, historians are going to look at donald trump's korean peninsula diplomacy, the name calling, the tweets. maybe it's working. maybe there is some room for negotiation between north and south korea. maybe these olympics will be seen as kind of a healing agent for, you know, no other president who succeeded in recent decades with getting north korea to stop its missile madness. with that said, i wouldn't -- i wouldn't put a whole lot of hope on all of this as the message you just read denouncing vi

pentagon press secretary and state department spokesman during the obama administration, admiral john kirby. david gergen, former individual tore four presidents. you see sarah sanders trying to clean up the president's tweet, foremost his attempt to use the florida massacre to degrade the fbi's participation in the russia probe. any excuse, any valid explanation for that? >> no. none. none that we've heard of, anyway. i thought a cnn viewer put it well this weekend, anderson. our high schoolers are looking like leaders, and our leaders are looking like high schoolers. we're an increasing threat to our democracy because the president, the white house, and the congress have not tried to mobilize the forces of the u.s. government and state and local governments to stop this obvious threat to our new election, which is just seven months away. the lead story in the new york times today is how bots jumped on these stories over the weekend and put out a variety of stories drawing upon extreme views and trying to pit us against each other as a people. they are succeeding at that. this is a russian

i want to bring in john kirby, military analyst, general james "spider" marks and presidential historian, douglas brinkley. admirable kirby, you first. you're strongly against this idea. why is that? >> for a few reasons. number one, this is probably about his ego more than anything else. who is the rocket man now? and number two, the united states military does not need to show off its hardware to show off its strength. this is not the way a superpower behaves. i think it's frankly a little bit beneath us. and if you want to show support for the troops or showcase our important our military is, then get them a budget. do what secretary mattis did today when he was on capitol hill, arguing strenuously to get a budget. that's what they need. they don't need to march down pennsylvania avenue. we don't need to bust in and truck in tanks and rocket launchers to try to show how big and important we are. i think this is just beneath us, as the strongest military in the greatest country on earth. >> general marks, "the washington post" reports that this demand from the president was reportedly

kirby campus. our event is cosponsor idbid real clear politics. and i recognize david, in the back, there he is. the pressurer and john mcintyre who is with us here as well. our discussion deals with a collection of essays m-ed on the 35th anniversary of the new cite tieran ming. the title of the book is "vox poply, the perils of populism." it means the voice of the people. the old adage, the voice of the people is the voice of god, which was often times used in history to attack monarchs and attack people who said such nonsense. the idea of populism is also not new to america. one thinks of will william jennings bryan, roosevelts, andrew jackson, ronald reagan more recently. not surprising in a regime of popular consent based on human equality. there's always been a tension between popular government and constitutional government. that sense of the potential of populist demagogues. hence, promises and peril. so, populism abounds from ancient rome to brexit england, from bernie sanders to donald trump elected president as a populist vote. the speakers will speak four or five minutes. and we'll have discussion. we'll b