john mclaughlin, and ap white house reporter, such thanks to our lead-off guests. we appreciate you joining us. >>> coming up after the break, will steve bannon stay or go? "the washington post" quotes, by saying he is like a terminally ill family member moved into hospice care. that is ahead when "the 11th hour" continues. for years, centurylink has been promising fast internet to small businesses. but for many businesses, it's out of reach. why promise something you can't deliver? comcast business is different. ♪ ♪ we deliver super-fast internet with speeds of 250 megabits per second across our entire network, to more companies, in more locations, than centurylink. we do business where you do business. ♪ ♪ >>> welcome back to the broadcast. if you thought president trump's comments to the "new york post" about his chief strategist steve bannonpainted a bleak picture for bannon's future, just wait. yesterday trump said he was his own strategist, and that bannon came onboard after the hard work of defeating all the senators and governors in the primary was over. to

we're joined now by john mclaughlin, former acting director of the cia, a 36-year veteran of the cia.,his is the area where donald trump has had some successes, at least from the public's view of things. for example, on the action he took in syria, the military action, the poll shows 62% support that action. 33% oppose that action. let's start first with your scorecard of how the president has handled the situation with syria. >> well, the cruise missiles strike was popular, but they always are popular, unless there is some civilian casualties associated with them. it's not a difficult thing for a president to decide. very little risk involved. the broader issue in syria is well beyond cruise missile strikes. in fact, all of the problems with the middle east converge in syria, and we're not doing well there overall. let me just run through two or three things that i think we have to work through if the administration decides to develop a broader approach to syria. first, we have to work against some of the facts on the ground that russia and iran have established. russia has 4,000 tro

john mclaughlin will join me here on susan rice's first comments on the unmasking claiming here on msnbc. t me! somebody will get it... ♪ (dog barking) anyone can dream. making it a reality is the hard part. from the b-2 to the upcoming b-21, northrop grumman stealth bombers give america an advantage in a turbulent world. and we're looking for a few dreamers to join us. all umm...ed. you wouldn't want your painter to quit part way, i think you missed a spot. so when it comes to pain relievers, why put up with just part of a day? aleve, live whole not part. you want this color over the whole house? can make any occasion feel more special.ie so she makes her pie crust from scratch. and sprinkles on brown sugar streusel. so that you can spend more time making special moments with your family. marie callender's it's time to savor >>> the trump white house lead by tweets from the president and donald trump jr. today are trying to shift the spotlight on the russian hacking investigation to charges of improper spying by susan rice. we just watched her strong rebuttal. >> the allegation is that

thank you, mark jacobson, john mclaughlin, ayesha ras co-and michael steele.inish tonight with our hope for our country. it is the presence here in this land of people who quietly and with dignity show us how to do a job and do it well. in professional sports i think ofou gehrig, jackie robinson, cal ripken. in business, it's michael bloomberg and too many to count. in space travel, it was the man buried today at arlington national cemetery, john glen, soft-spoken, fighter pilot, united states senator. i love the fact that the movie hidden figures played tribute to the good will of the man who insisted on getting the okay before takeoff from that african-american mathematician, the woman saluted so well in that important film. and this is a culture, by the way, that gives much of its attention to those who step out in front, ask us to hear them, and generally make the story about them. john glenn made the story about this great country itself. he stood there for all the people we used to call squares, those who show up, do the job, don't ask any more for thems

want to welcome to our broadcast a 30-year-plus veteran of the cia, intelligence professional, john mclaughlin. former acting director of the cia, among other posts. and from washington, vivian salano, white house reporter for the associated press. andrea, start with you. this is not your first rodeo, not your first secretary of state or president. but you were there today to witness secretary of state tillerson meet with his counterpart, the big question, going into last night, would putin meet with the visiting american. what just happened? >> reporter: tillerson was a lot more confident than many people might have been expected for a newcomer to diplomacy. escorts in the past have been on semi equal standing with vladimir putin, as an oil executive doing the biggest of the oil deals. of course, this very rough patch, of course. what i find is the new confidence that the secretary of state seems to have. i think both by general mattis, certainly, and mcmaster. in speaking his mind about where russia is right now, he seems to have a pretty centered view on it. and that may have something to d

. >>> joining me now, john mclaughlin, former act or and. so john, north korea. they were supposed to test a missile over the weekend. it did not work. there is a lot of talk whether or not had the hand in. do we have the capability to do that? >> we have the capability to do a lot of things in the cyber field. i have no idea whether we did that over the weekend. it's conceivable. the important thing is whether we did or didn't. some of us who have been around for a while have followed this for years. i've looked at this since the mid-'90s, and i recall in 1998, they actually got two off the launch pad, and did the same thing with a third stage, although the third stage blew up. so the real cause for concern here is that they learn from all of these failures and they're inching gradually toward the capability of eventually be able to get one of these things to work and travel across the pacific to the united states. >> there wasn't -- there wasn't talk. would you read much into that? >> no, i wouldn't read much into that. there's a positive sign here yart in md y

a former pollster himself john mclaughlin. there any truth in this? >> look. the president is doing great and people know it rasmussen poll tracks very close whether i ours. think have a 50% a3r5068 rating going up. media polls should be ashamed of themselves. same polls that said hillary clinton was going to be president, you are getting these polls like quinnipiac had only 23% republicans last week. only 23%. gallup 26% republicans. it's like we have gone away. we were 33% on election day. there is a pew poll and pew must stand for stinky poll because they had 51% democrats. so they are biased, skewed polls that the media is not holding accountable that they are accurate because they are undermining republicans. then don't have trump voters in it. they don't have republicans in it. rasmussen poll is right because it's based on a model from last november which had 33% republican 37% democrat. he is going up again on the strength of his security issues. brian: 42.4% is the real clear averages which is the average of those poll