john podesta. thank you for showing up tonight. i know you watch the speeches as close as i do. >>> the white house's bungled response. this isn't right or wrong. it's about incompetence i think. guess what we're going to talk about? reince priebus. we're going to talk to him and some of the crazies mitch mcconnell has been saying. the president's proponents and their baseless charge. >>> also virginia republicans clearly haven't got the stay away from divisive social issues memo. if anybody wrote one on that side. wait until you catch this act. he says planned parenthood has been more -- he compares black voter support for democrats to, of course, slavery. is this the talk of somebody who wants to win an election? by the way, good luck, cuccinelli. >>> call it what you want. i don't believe that. getting rid of the filibuster for appointments to your own cabinet. seems like a reasonable idea. harry reid is talking about it seriously. you don't have to get 60 votes in the senate just to make your commerce secretary. are we going to

john podesta, he was white house chief of staff during president clinton's administration. "mother jones" washington bureau chief david corn is an msnbc political analyst. first, the unexpected. the president was twice interrupted, actually more than that, by a very loud protester. let's take a look. >> we will insist that judicial review be available for every detainee. now, ma'am, let me -- let me finish. let me finish, ma'am. this is part of free speech is you being able to speak, but also you listening. and me being able to speak. [ applause ] >> well, the president obviously didn't let it throw him. however, he ended a very strong speech, i think, on a powerful note about what victory in a war on terrorism would actually look like. he even managed to tie in, as i said, that woman who was interrupting him. she's from code pink. let's take a listen. >> our victory against terrorism won't be measured in a surrender ceremony at a battleship. or a statue being pulled to the ground. victory will be measured in parents taking their kids to school. immigrants coming to our sho

joining us now from washington is john podesta, chairman of the center for american progress and formerf staff in the clinton administration. john, it's great to see you and especially on a day like today, you've been pushing the president to be more transparent about the drone policy and our counterterrorism strategy. were you satisfied with his speech yesterday? >> i thought it was actually one of the most important speech, maybe the most important speech of his presidency. as you noted i've been highly critical of the secrecy that surrounded particularly the legal justification for carrying out the targeted killing program. i could not understand why the president didn't lay that before the congress in the american people. but he certainly did it yesterday. he made very important turn, i think away from an unbounded global war on terror. to a more targeted program that was aimed at dismantling terrorist networks. he firmly established the law under which he was operating. both nationally and internationally. and i think it began the process of real open discussion with the american p

john podesta is chairman for the center of american progress and he was clinton's chief of staff.thank you for your time. i want to ask you about an op-ed you wrote. you called for the president to go public with the justification of the drone program and swroit beyond dispute that some information must be closely held to protect national security but protecting technic means human sources, operation at details and intelligence methods cannot be an excuse for creating secret law to guide our institutions. how do you draw the line between security and transparency. >> the details of the operations will remain secret and probably will after the speech today. as you noted i was highly critical under the secrecy in which they were developing the law that undergirds both the ability to conduct those strikes, but also the public support for them an the international support for what the yiel the united states is trying to do and i think the president sees this in his initiative today. >> why does president obama make the speech now? >> my own view is it is better late than never but rig

chris van hollen was joined at the head of the government accountability office and john podesta, chair of the center for american progress. it is moderated by bloomberg columnist, >> first of all, it's nice to be here. it is tough for us to talk about the deficit and does these days than it was years ago on ice cover and ronald reagan. they asked president reagan one time if they worried about the size of a huge debt in a set know i figure it's big enough to take care of itself. unfortunately we don't have that luxury today. when i first came to washington we measures candles. and then a member of your institution, powerful chairman result was a tax or it ended up running around with a stripper named fannie fox. he went into the tidal basin. today the scandal is to ken rogoff and carmen rogoff and carmen reinhart cheat on their excel sheet? i really prefer fannie fox. let's start with the rogoff ran her controversy today. what did the premise that the great peril and priority that we all -- that many people expected for five years ago. with exaggerated? and they stay with you, mr. cont

we were blessed with a remarkable transition chairman in john podesta, and you could not have asked for someone who better understands how the government works. and in addition to that, we had a group of senior folks working on the transition, as chris said, folks -- some folks from the private sector, some folks who had worked in government before. and we really benefited from people who had served in the clinton administration. i remember carol browner, who was epa administrator, was helping us with energy and environmental policy on transition. and carol recounted her experiences getting binders and binders full of materials as an incoming cabinet nominee and saying, you know what? i don't need all this stuff. and that really helped us refine what we were asking the agency review teams to go out and find and report back. >> i'll just add we learned from that. i thought that was a very impressive improvement on previous administrations, and we resod to do -- resolved to do the same thing, to keep ourselves narrow. >> so, governor, to follow up on your notion, if there are other folks