decades later kissinger remains bitter about leakers within the government. >> my view is that if you disagreed with the government -- >> a month later the times divulged information. jack anderson published top-secret minutes from nsc meetings held days earlier. in response the nixon white house formed a special unit which burglarized the beverly hills offices of dr. lewis fielding, the psychiatrist who was treating daniel ellsberg. a new study, nixon's back channel to moscow, traces the fall from power and watergate. >> it started off in terms of having a legitimate national security concerns but quickly descended within about a year of the plumbers creation into political espionage. >> the plumbers uncovered the most serious offense of all, a pentagon spy ring that diverted 5,000 classified documents from kissinger's nsc into the hands of admiral thomas more, then chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. >> admiral's reporting to the chairman of the joint chiefs and enlisted men. charles radford who was kind of a body man for kissinger and al haig and stole documents from the nsc off

charlie: you just received the kissinger fellowship.e that allows you to surround the table and learn smart things. george: from the john mccain -- i will be in london as a member of parliament and henry kissinger and john mccain are two american heroes, but also people who can teach us that force and the assertion of western values is sometimes necessary to keep the peace and keep us safe and secure. charlie: thank you for coming. george osborne, thank you for joining us. see you next time. ♪ >> setting up for a showdown. trump name system cream court -- supreme court nominee. >> the fed holds their first meeting of the year. >> we have earnings from the biggest lenders. it shows the impact and gives us clues on the austerity measures. should india stick or twist?

not so much with kissinger. here you are writing a biography of a very compelling living person, up close and personal with him in 40 interviews. how does a biographer maintained that necessary detachment that you can enjoy just by not getting to spend time with einstein or franklin? walter: when steve did his stanford speech, he said limit three stories. you become a storyteller, you don't try to preach. i just try to let the stories tell themselves. one of the things i discovered by having so much time with him and so much time with 150 other people who work with him was how much more we know or i could know about him than i did about benjamin franklin or einstein. einstein, they are so compelling his papers. -- compiling his papers. we have one little journal entry here, maybe a newspaper clip. with steve, everything that happened, i hear about it at great length. then i hear other people possible versions of it. i probably ended up knowing 100 times more about him and a story in the book then you would doing

. >> what about using the logan act against nixon and kissinger? >> not kissinger but there was briefly some talk of using it against nixon. very brief. there is another chapter in my book from 1968 that nixon was worried johnson would start to talking about peace in vietnam to help home free win the election. he was conspiring to reject any peace overtures from johnson. johnson found out about this he actually did use the word treason to describe this talking to was senator on the phone who was an ally of nixon you do learn that he snorts a lot when he talks. [laughter] but lbj did consider using the logan act but they did not have fully the evidence they needed to go public at that point in he decided it would be bad for the country with a new president coming in over his head so they kept it to themselves. maybe the americans knew what they were getting into had that come out. >> joseph mccarthy era then named roy cohn comes to mind did you write about him? because it turns out he was a big time mentor to the president-elect. >> i believe he wis

and henry kissinger was there. i always say meeting with the chinese with henry kissinger is like going with a demigod. i would say forget the "demi," [laughter] they really treat him in a different way. in the 35ou learn years of normalization in terms of our relationship? he made a big point of saying how he had admired and understood america because he had spent some time in iowa. he had a relationship. the fact that president trump is , as i understand it, going to name the former governor of iowa to be the ambassador to china is very smart. because of that personal relationship. i do think that the basis of his power is that there were less than exciting chinese leaders before. he is also playing the nationalist card by saying that in fact, china was not respected properly through many parts of the early 20th century and even before that, that they are a major power, need to be respected, and that he in some ways is going to reverse that, and he has done that in many ways by playing more and more international

highlighting the longest term was henry kissinger. during the term of george h.w.ush about one of national security adviser. under the clinton administration -- george w. bush, condoleezza rice . under president obama must is an rise served the longest -- under president obama, susan rice served the longest. linda in texas. you are on. caller: thank you for taking my call. i've been watching the selection very closely. i think the democrats are very short memory on this one. we went through all the mess openedllary clinton, she her private email to the russians to walk right in and nobody's making any comments on that. and how she committed treason with her secret information. they want to gloss over that. they even sabotage their own candidate and nothing was ever done about it. if michael flynn did something wrong, he should pay for what he did. stop actingould like a bunch of rabid dogs because they lost the election. they are not being fair. trump has not been treated fair. he's been under attacks and he took office. -- since he took office. they should look at

the national 30 staff that kissinger had at his disposal was approximately 40 people strong. current lee over 400 people. >> the pitfalls of rushing reforms. >> they rushed it out very quickly even they recognize the problems in implanting this and it created more trouble. then dealing with the problem he was facing. >> false flag operations offer another option period wikileaks revealed that when hillary clinton's campaign manager suspected internal leaks, he asked that a false rumor be planted among the staff about when clinton would announce her candidacy to see if it would leak and the leaker could be identified. a tactic president electron seemed already aware of. >> i said i won't tell anybody read i'm going to have a meeting i won't tell anybody about my meeting. nobody knew, not even my executive assistant for years. she didn't know. i didn't tell her. the meeting with tad, it was over, they left and immediately the word got out i had a meeting. >> sources say the white house is aware of its problem with leakers and reviewing ways to combat it and that the president a

could steve kerr play henry k s kissinger and broker peace? draymond told radio he's ready to bring them together. >> looking forward to being the ice breaker. we're all stars. steve kerr is coaching all-star game and everyone here earned opportunity to be all-star. don't take tension or anything from regular season into the all-star locker room. >> i'll be there, asked to bring back a po 'boy and ben 80s. going to squeeze in some reporting too. >>> college hoops. trying to beat con gag z-- gonz. up over the high ranked team. williams-goss, a game high 30. 96-61 win. >>> women's basketball, alanna smith, career high 27 for the cardinal. tied at break. third quarter three, she had 13 points. brittany mcphee, big collision and goes. final minutes in this game. carly samuelson with lay-up for the lead. 10th ranked stanford pulls it out. >>> great prank on chris brian of the cubs. audio guy volunteers to throw batting practice, turns out to be hall of famer greg maddox. >> not too bad actually. good curve ball. what is this? pretty good. no. >> th

could steve kerr play henry k s kissinger and broker peace?ond told radio he's ready to bring them together. >> looking forward to being the ice breaker. we're all stars. steve kerr is coaching all-star game and everyone here earned opportunity to be all-star. don't take tension or anything from regular season into the all-star locker room. >> i'll be there, asked to bring back a po 'boy and ben 80s. going to squeeze in some reporting too. >>> college hoops. trying to beat con up over the high ranked team. williams-goss, a game high 30. 96-61 win. >>> women's basketball, alanna smith, career high 27 for the cardinal. tied at break. third quarter three, she had 13 points. brittany mcphee, big collision and goes. final minutes in this game. carly samuelson with lay-up for the lead. 10th ranked stanford pulls it out. >>> great prank on chris brian of the cubs. audio guy volunteers to throw batting practice, turns out to be hall of famer greg maddox. >> not too bad actually. good curve ball. what is this? pretty good. no. >> that's a strike. >> mi

and there was henry kissinger across the room.nd i shot over to henry kissinger who was talking to a bunch of people and i just stood there. --n i ran into the bathroom i don't have the best memory -- and i wrote down a bunch of names. and my cocktail napkin little purse. i had a place card from the dinner and i wrote down a bunch more names. one of the service -- secret service guys makes a joke about my small bladder. then they ring the bell for the dinner and that was a problem. it was a seated dinner. it was going to be musical chairs. i went to the payphone and i called and said i have a lot of names, i know who is here, basically can i go home. he said it would be great if you stayed for the toast, go get more. it is good what you got, but go get more. which is a great journalism lesson. i go back into the room. everybody is sitting down. they start giving toasts. i run back to the bathroom and i write down the quotes. i go back and i see a woman who works for the one-a-day looking at me suspiciously and she says, is everyth

i shot over to henry kissinger who was talking to a bunch of people and i just stood there. iran into the bathroom and i wrote down -- i don't have the best memory, i wrote down a bunch of the names. i had a reporter's notebook in first and their workplace cards for the dinner and i wrote down a bunch more names and one of the secret service guys makes a joke about my small bladder and then they ring the bell for the dinner and that was a problem because it was a seated dinner. it was going to be musical chairs, so i go to the pay phone and called woodward and i said i have a bunch of names and i know who is here and basically can i come home now? he said it would be great if you stayed for the toast, that is woodward -- it is good what you got, but go get more, which is a great journalism lesson. i go into the room and everybody is sitting down. they start giving toasts and i run back to the bathroom and i write down some quotes. i go back and see a woman who lookingr the watergate at me suspiciously and comes over and says, is everything ok? sitting.why are you i said i ha

henryld go after kissinger or the catholic church. he did not care if he smelled authoritarianism.he moves of donald trump to suppress journalists would drive hitchens mad. he would also see this as a grand opportunity living in .ashington he would have loved to have warred with people like steve bannon or kellyanne conway because you would knew they would be able to double state them. he would have picked up on the cause of the press, would have questioned all of trump's seeming fascist tendencies. >> although, because trump has an opportunity to lambaste traditional liberalism in washington, d.c., and because of clintonsmpt for the christian religions had. the election, it is hard for me to know where he would have come down on this election. what do you think? >> i think christopher would p,ve been appalled by trum but he also would have said, who gave us trump? hillary clinton. christopher was not a big supporter of hillary clinton. i feel he would have said it is because of the way they ran that campaign that we ended up with donald trump. i think he would have laid a lot of r

i'll turn to my other friend and colleague, how branch, henry a kissinger distinguished professor of global affairs for his comments. and we will turn to the office, to elliott and then opened the floor to you for your questions, and go from there.so with no further do, eric. >> thank you, great to be here. >> i think it's important that every book event remember the important part of a book event is to sell books for the authors so i think all of you need to get a copy of the big stick, particularly our television audience, you need to get a copy available on amazon. >> is a very important book, particularly important at this point in time. we are meeting today on groundhog day. and i think that's very apropos. by the way, those of youdon't know , punxsutawney phil saw his shadow so we're in for another six weeks of winter. but the movie groundhog day is one of my favorite movies and for those of you seen it, bill murray wakes up every day in a groundhog state. and in some sense i think that the metaphor is for what professor cohen is writing about because it seems every so often, t

bank and henry kissinger was a member of the counterintelligence corps. as they moved in, it wasn't .ntil april until april that roosevelt finally made his decision that we are going to actually -- we are going to go after these war criminals. he was concerned that american troops and allied troops would be taken out by the germans and executed. we can give the order, counterintelligence cores are going to do these investigations. what happened was these men and women who went into concentration camps were overwhelmed by what they saw. it was at first fairly chaotic. was is to say the beginning a chaotic pursuit. by the time occupation takes place we see several things happening. that is a photograph of the counterintelligence court. --se are all for the graphs all photographs we have in the book. intomay officially december of 1949. established.e allprogram was set up by the allied powers, in which those members of the nazi party were vetted. some were sent to prison, some were dismissed from their jobs to teachers, to business, to whatever. pow camps fr

but i think one of christopher's most successful endeavors was calling henry kissinger a war criminal. that took brave riand he stayed on it with a steady drum beat. there is a book called the great shark hunt. the shark was richard nixon, and the press came and went after nixon and got him, and i think hitchens would be proud of investigative journalists, people like leslie who get out there, do stories, break news. being in washington, d.c., not new york, he would have been the grand man to hav of the party ad people coming to his place. their apartment would have been the hub. it was the salon of washington a decade ago and i would still be now. it would be what is the press doing. he had the spirit to rise above and say look what they're doing. >> he would have joined in solidarity with the press. when one journalist is shouted down by trump, all the other journalists, i am spartacus, they should all ask the same question. they've got to be confrontational with him because he's going to be confrontational with the press. that moment where he said, we caught them in a real beauty t

kissinger checked with the f.b.i. before he went to the embassy. do you think flynn checked with comey before talking to the russian ambassador? no, because mr. flynn knew or should have known he was the subject of one of the biggest counterintelligence investigations this country has ever seen and that concerns the kremlin's ties to the trump campaign. >> hockenberry: when did that counterterrorism investigation begin? because it was certainly a conversation throughout the campaign early on. >> that counterintelligence investigation began last summer and included the targeting and the dismissal of paul manafort who was then mr. trump's campaign manager. general flynn was on board chanting "lock her up" at the republican convention and rewarded with the post of national security advisor. we've seen national security advisors get in trouble with the law before during the reagan administration. we've never seen one get tied up to a major counterintelligence investigation involving espionage by a foreign adversary. >> hockenberry: the vulnerability he

, things like chattering class, seem to come from gorka who i think fancies himself a modern day kissingeray. >> michelle goldberg and sam seder, thank you for joining us to close out this week. that's "all in," the rachel maddow show starts right now. good evening. >> have a great weekend my friend. >>> thanks at home for joining us at this hour. nice to have you with us on a friday night. >>> george "the animal" steele died today. if you, like me, watched wrestling in the 1980s, you will remember george "the animal" steele. his whole this shtick was that he was hairy, he would act in an animalistic manner, he would tear things up with his teeth, he'd stick his tongue t at a weird angle and make crazy eyes at the camera. it made it out like he was almost -- half animal after man or like maybe half having a seizure but just angry. george "the animal" steele. one of the great lovable wrestling bad guys. and he died today at the age of 79. 79 for for a pro-wrestler, that is a ripe old age.

him the last word so first turn to my colleague a practitioner and residents for his comments and kissinger distinguished professor for his comments then we will turn to the author for your questions and go from there. >> is great to be here. think it is important to remember it is to sell books i think all of you need to get a copy for the television audience and it is a very important book at this time. we are meeting today on "groundhog day" and i think that is very apropos by the way punxsutawney phil by the way saw his shadow so we are in for another six weeks of winter. for but the movie groundhog day is one of my favorites so sometimes i think that is a metaphor that every so often in the united states needs to learn their lesson with of military power after world war two, correa, of vietnam, and in some sensein som that is part of his book and now having ben a practitioner i associate myself with the comment thatadds in 1946 have no idea of magic contributes to diplomacy and the mere existence is single instrumentality of foreign policy and i thoroughly agree that is not to say not

[applause] you've probably heard this before but one of the wonderful expressions of henry kissingerone why are the fights on college campuses so vicious, because the stakes are so small. fortunately, colleges or four years of life and i do not disagree about prejudice than what is happening on the college campuses. my guess is they remain sublimely in different to the sort of debate and it's backed by a fair amount of evidence. if you are jewish and your kids are sick of this you think it's the whole world but most college students are too stoned to know where these places are much less whose side it is to be on. but i think the subject this ought to be about rather than getting into the core of the question is what is the character of liberalism. that's what the movement raises and what the campuses suggests. i mean the democrat and republican are we going to be a liberal society and will we be able to educate or choke them oe and have conversations that reflect in the classical sense of the term the liberal virtues of openness, reason and logic. one of the reasons be owned its ant

>> not kissinger but there was talk of using the against nixon leather is that chapter of 1968 that lyndon johnson was going about peace in viet nam and hubert humphrey and he was conspiring to tell them to reject any overture. within the was talking to a senator on the phone as the side note if you listen to the johnson white house that is something that will always stand out for that reason but lbj did consider using the logan act but did not have the full evidence that they needed at that point to be very bad of the country had that come out. >> the year of joseph mccarthy did you write about him? because it turns out he was the big time mentor to the president-elect. >> i believe he was mentioned only in passing of the mccarthy era with the decency and is only mentioned in passing. >> with that assertion he met with iranian agents meeting with hostages until after the election? >> that was under consideration with the potential logan act and is still a bit murky did william casey that became the director under ronald reagan this was all going on during the iran hostage crisis. and that

and he would go after-- whether it's henry kissinger, the catholic church-- he did not care if he smelledm. so i think the moves of donald trump to suppress the-- suppress journalists would drive hitchins mad. >> although, it's hard for me ton where he would have come down on this election. lesli, what do you think? >> i think christopher would have been appalled by trump, but he also would have said, "who gave us trump? hillary clinton." i mean, christopher was not, as you know, a big supporter of hillary clinton. >> no. >> and feel that he would have said it's-- it's because of the way they ran that campaign that we ended up with donald trump. i think he would have laid a lot of responsibility at her feet. >> what do you think he would say about the people who support donald trump versus the people who have contempt for him? >> i think he would be very active in the resistance. i think he would sense that this was, you know, a moment that has chosen him. i don't-- i think he would have more or less ignored trump himself. and he-- he that you want bill clinton was a "titanic" vulgainer.

the sense is he has a strategic idea that he going to do a version of nixon in the 1970s with kissinger the way nixon opened up china, the president trump candidate as he was had sense where he got it from. he don't know. he was going to change the world diplomacy with president putin. two strong men in the world would create an understanding which would open up a lot of other doors and facilitate policy on the front. it may be president trump has not articulated it. we don't know. there's sense a europe that we're seeing this being played out in the early days of the trump administration of the it's worrying for the european allies. >> thank you for joining us. appreciate it. >>> earlier fa reek talk to done lemon about why trump is so soft on russia. >> let's go back to the campaign, during the campaign, donald trump otherwise seeming to be a hard line republican on foreign policy accusing allies, accusing the chinese of raping us, every kubt country is bad except russia. then we have the puzzle where people allege business ties with russia and he wasn't reveal and release his taxes.

the -- [applause] >> probably heard this line before but one of the wonderful expressions of henry kissinger, he said one of fights on college campuses so vicious in and answer, because the stakes are so small. and fortunately college is just four years of life. don't disagree with dennis about the miseducation that so many americans are getting. at least if they're so unfortunate to be in the department of jewish studies. firmly giving the lie by the way to that prejudice that the jews are smart. but there's more to life and more to intellectual life than what is happening on college campuses mitchell -- my guess is most college students are sub limely indifferent to these debates which is a -- actually, it's backed by a fair amount of evidence. if you're jewish and your kid in think of this you think it's the whole world but most college kids are too stoned so to -- to know where these places are much less whose side to be on if think what we're -- the subject this ought to be about, rather than getting into a -- the real core of the question here is what is the character of liberalism? th

henry kissinger, director of global affairs for his comments. then we will turn to the other, eliot cohen and open the floor to you for your questions and go from there. with no further ado, eliot cohen. >> great to be here. important that every book event remember it is to sell books. a copy of the big stick, television audience, a very important book. on groundhog day we are meeting and that is very apropos. by the way those who don't know punxsutawney phil saw his shadow, we are in for another six weeks of winter. the movie groundhog day is one of my favorite movies. those who have seen it know that bill murray wakes up every day and it is groundhog day again. and some sense, that is a metaphor for what eliot cohen is writing about. every so often the united states needs to learn the lesson that military power is important. we had to relearn that lesson after world war ii, korea, vietnam, we have to learn it again after the last 15 years. in some sense, that is the subject of eliot cohen's book. as a lapsed diplomat having been a particular -

you talk about the -- helpingry kissinger has a wonderful line in which he says the challenge of american statesmanship is to find some middle course that's going to cause a disastrous -- in american policy between overcommitment and isolationism, and the argument of my book, the poster american retreat, which is still marvelous, is -- >> host: let me say all those books are marvelous. go ahead. >> but is to make the forthright case for pox americana. in 1947 and 1948, the united states came up with not only the bureaucratic instrument structures and intellectual for framework how to deal with the world. but is a world in which the united states as a benign -- a benign hegemon or leading power, assumes a man tell for maintaining the -- mantle for maintaining the global common, for giving sucker to endangered outposts of freedom from west berlin to tie one and south korea that stands up deterrence against aggressive and revision ist regime where its its foreigns norms like chemical attacks by al say sad and the norm has serves remarkably well. we complain but we are an extraordinary countr

. >> henry kissinger said what is in god's same is superiority?n agreement that runs until 2026. >> there is any strategic advantage in investing in nuclear weapons? >> other than modernizing our arsen arsenals. >> why would we do that? because some things get old. >> are you saying some are saying the quality is not adequate? where he is getting this from? mcmaster say to him, you know, we have sort of gotten lazy when it came to nukes? >> in my experience people in uniform are worried about the adequacy. number of ships, number of planes, whether we have enough equipment for our army. training. all of the manpower issues is where defense dollars needs to go. no one virtually has wanted dollars to go into nuclear weapons. you don't fight wars with these forces. these are the things on paper. we got a framework, given a new start agreement. it goes until 2021 or 2026 as a five-year extension option and brings down the number of warheads on both sides and brings down the number of bombers and missiles on both sides. allows you to keep certain numbe

. >> do you think this is nixon and kissinger? >> bill: i think it is a bit that way.gned with the devil sometimes. to get what you need. what else jumped out? >> i was struck by, i think this was a headline from tonight that president obama shared a private concern with him that president trump did not enunciate or explain. >> bill: you know what i think it is? you don't country it is? >> i have a guess, but what is yours. we will you make yours first. >> north korea. >> bill: i think it is pakistan. pakistan is bordering on being out of control. has relationships with isis, and that's what i thought it was. both meacham and i are speculating. the question was, when he is sitting side feet away and ripping at him, but i guess is politics in washington and you got to get used to it. >> they are. trump is a dealmaker, rate? whatever you want to say about the past three weeks now, he has done what he said he was going to do. i remember george to bush when he pushed the tax cuts that he campaigned on and the elite world went crazy about ite said weren't you all listening?

instead of out -- outing myself and i said there is henry and i would over to henry kissinger and i justtood there. ien i ran to the bathroom and don't have the best of memory, so i wrote down a bunch of the names. are back out and there place cards for the dinner, i write a bunch more names down. makes ahe service guys joke about my bladder. that was the problem, it was a seated dinner, it was going to be musical chairs. i went to the payphone and i called and said i have a lot of names, i know who is here, basically can i go home. he said it would be great if you stayed for the toast, go get more. that is a great journalism lesson. i go back into the room, everybody is sitting down, they start giving toasts and i write down". i go back and there is a woman who works for the watergate looking at me suspiciously and she says is everyone ok, meeting why aren't you seated i said i don't want to interrupt i have a cough. she gives me cough drops and i take one, i run back to the bathroom and i write another quote. then i see her talking to somebody else who looks like hotel security and the

argument for that is that he wants to, as tim's old subject, be like richard nixon and kissinger anda in new balance of power. that's possible but there's a reason the law enforcement agencies, the press, i for one hope there's a select committee in the congress that will look into this, because that's how we've gotten out of these big national moments before, watergate, iran-contra. i think we're headed into that scale of question. because there's really no other plausible explanation but that there's back channel contact as russia attempted to hack our election. >> douglas, i have a host of questions for you but ask you right after this break. we knowt anything. even a "truck-cicle." [second man] how you doing? [ice cracking] [second man] ah,ah, ah. oh no! [first man] saves us some drilling. [burke] and we covered it, february fourteenth, twenty-fifteen. talk to farmers. we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ so how old do you want uhh, i was thinking around 70. alright, and before that? you mean after that? no, i'm

to paraphrase henry kissinger, he said if an idle threat is taken seriously, that can be helpful.a serious threat is not taken seriously, that can be catastrophic. the question is, if you issue a threat and don't intend to follow up with what is implied, then you run the risk, as we saw with president 0bama, trump having a red line and then being called on it. if he takes military action, have the calculated how that goes up the escalator? how do you manage the escalation of the conflict in an area that is article to the world economy? hopefully they have a plan for that. they have looked at the options. in coming out with the white house press secretary and then the president this morning, unilaterally against iran like this, the white house has missed an opportunity to act multilaterally, to bring american allies on board, which has been the work we have negotiated with iran in the past? the president has taken the attitude that the united states is big enough work can be big enough to take on the world without any friends. to insult the australian prime minister, to level criti

henry kissinger said very intelligently, he said iran is not merely a country.ch more of a cause, more of a cause in the country. it is global domination by their grand radical islamic beliefs. it is more than that. they believe that they are destined to governmo the world, anyone who does not agree with them, they will kill. they are working on the means to achieve that. their greatest enemy they think is the united states.. they think everyone else is a derivative. they are developing the capacity to deliver on their slogans, death to america, we have a grand mission. it is not a mission that we invent. we did not invent these icbms. we did not invent their nuclear programming. we do not invent the terrorists that they send throughout the middle east and the world. iran has a terror network of dozens and dozens of countries. they operate with their own operatives and instruments. >> sean: they have been fighting proxy wars for decades. >> terrorists themselves, they are building, planning, preparing them throughout the world and asia, and africa, and europe, i

this is how henry kissinger accomplished the opening to china.lf-defeating for state or any other bureaucracy to -- >> neil: isn't that what north korea is liking, iran is liking? they see a system turning on itself and, you know, churning away at self and they're willy-nilly going to keep doing what they're doing? >> their strategy is not content on disarray in the administration. it won't take long if not corrected for our adversaries to take advantage of it. the last eight years, they saw weakness with obama. they will certainly take advantage of it. disagreement within the administration is something that unfortunately you can see play out in the newspapers. it's not helped by the partisan warfare that we've had from the minority party in congress that has had this incredibly slow pace of confirmations. it's not just the cabinet level, let's not forget you have literally hundreds of appointments to subcabinet offices, most of which have not been made yet and god knows how long they'll take to get through the senate. >> neil: finally, we focus

let's bring in republican congressman adam kissinger from illinois.e's a republican and a member of the house committee on foreign affairs. congressman, you and i have talked about legislation that you pushed forth on russia. i'm familiar with that. where are we? >> look, there's a lot of questions in this administration in terms of where we're going to go with russia. i thought the president's words in the interview yesterday were very unfortunate. his actions as president have been pretty good. you saw nikki haley re-affirm america's commitments to sanctions as long as russia occupies crimea. they occupied georgia. so the actions coming out of the administration, getter tougher on iran, making it clear they're not going to bully their neighbors is very good. it's things like yesterday that you say what are you trying to say in that? is there a better way to put it? it's unfortunately to put the united states in the same equivalency of russia. >> harris: i always try to dial things back to what the american public may see. i don't know that they calc

>> i'd like to quote one of his pred is saysors henry kissinger who said "the illegal we do immediately the unconstitutional takes longer." we have now three and a half weeks into this administration. under nixon -- and i remember this, i lived through this -- it took them three and a half years to break into the democratic national committee headquarters at watergate. we are three and a half weeks into the administration, the russians broke into the dnc for them. that's done. mike flynn has fallen farther faster than any powerful official in any government in the 20th century in america. we are watching in realtime very quickly a powerful counterintelligence investigation run by the fbi with the assistance of the cia and the nsa that is targeting the top of this government. >> james comey, head of the fbi, was just mentioned by congressman schiff, the top democrat in intelligence, just mentioned as a factor here, a question mark that it seemed i think congressman schiff implying there or suggesting that we don't necessarily know whether director comey is likely to lead an impartial inv

kissinger who was going to be the guy that the contact made and he had the meeting and reported on itc. there was nothing unusual about that. >> is there anything unusual? the back story is russia is hacking. >> i have been wearing about the connections throughout the election and skeptical, but a lot of times the headlines read like there is constant contact and you say there is not prove that they are colewding. that's a big part of the story. that concerns me and i think the trump white house is in a weird situation where they have to prove the negative. they have to come out with explanations and not all of them are innocent. this is all classified information and will happen with the briefings. you end up in the situation where no one knows the truth. that's a tricky situation to be in. the whole time we have been falling on the russian side. >> if we don't know what it says, it's enough to make mike pence think something happened. >> i'm talking about that. >> the flynn thing in itself is damaging. the flynn issue itself. >> why did mike flynn lie about this? >> i don't know abo

like his great love -- i disagree with ferguson on a lot of things, like his great love of henry kissinger. but that is actually a very good smart book about the economic stakes of the war. if you read that book, it came out in the late 1990's. he said, what is the worst that would have happened if the british and french had lost the war? we might have this large, very prosperous, pre-democratic state -- pretty democratic state right in the middle of europe, basically able to determine the policies of the european union to take control. oh, we have that. it is called germany. so i don't know if that is counterfactual, but when you talk about you read a book like this, some of them were overlooked, these coalitions, which may have had a majority of americans outside certainly seems at least to be holding the national security league and teddy roosevelt and some of those who wanted the u.s. to go to war at bay, but also was able to stop the military from being expanded very much until the u.s. does declare war. you can't avoid this kind of question, because you do keep wondering. if they had