to respond to what you have heard from the former director of the cia and secretary of defense, leon panetta protect our democracy don't seem to be speaking up or doing what needs to be done if this president is not, as panetta indicated, living up to his responsibility to lead this country. >> it's a very significant statement from leon panetta. you are right to point out, he was director of the cia, secretary of defense. i worked for him for two years, he is a brilliant boss. he was also the chief of staff to the president. he knows the white house. he knows the system. he was in the house of representatives. hard to think of anybody with a greater span of experience. he is precisely right. we have ourselves upside down here on strategy and tactics. you want your tactics to be surprising. you want to surprise your opponent. you want your strategy to be stable. in this instance on syria, we have it backwards. we have the president who massively telegraphed a strike that's coming, but our strategy, as secretary panetta says, is nowhere. we haven't connected the dots. if we strike with a bunc

leon panetta was america's defense secretary under president obama and joins me from california. cretary panetta, welcome to the program. >> nice to be with you. >> actually, i'm going to refer to your last administration position as director of the cia. in that, given that you were there in 2012 when president obama drew a red line and in 2013 when he didn't, what is your analysis of what the over-the-weekend strikes might have achieved? >> well, i would have thought that president trump would have been careful about using the same words that president bush did during the iraq war because we really don't know whether or not this mission has been accomplished. on the one hand it was a very effective strike in coordinating the efforts of both the united states and our allies to go after a specific set of targets. it was done well. it was done precisely, and, hopefully, it was done effectively. i think the bigger issue though is whether or not this strike is really tied to any long-range strategy in dealing with syria. assad still remains ino questios to have an arsenal ofhemical we

distinguished citizens at its annual gala tonight including former secretary of defense and cia director leon panetta and his wife sylvia. as a commonwealth club board member, ways honored to moderate a discussion with the panettas tonight on a wide range of topics including higher education, philanthropy and presidential politics. and larry wanted to know if i asked if he had any government secrets for us. i was trying. >> spill something. give it up. >> give it up. leon, come on. >> no secret how this game was going to go with the warriors. they get the win. turned out to be painful, though, in san antonio. two more sprained ankles, including kevin durant going down. tell you how bad it is next in sports. pstop messing with your sister! hey! hey! don't make me come back there! so? feels really good.... yeah, i'm gonna buy it. (vo) customer service that goes the extra mile. enterprise makes it easy. >>> abc sports brought to you by river rock casino. >> good evening. this might have been the least enjoyable game that steve kerr ever won as a coach. the warriors beat the spurs to take a commanding 3-

distinguished citizens at its annual gala tonight including former secretary of defense and cia director leon panettaealth club board member, ways honored to moderate a discussion with the panettas tonight on a wide range of topics including higher education, philanthropy and presidential politics. and larry wanted to know if i asked if he had any government secrets for us. i was trying. >> spill something. give it up. >> give it up. leon, come on. >> no secret how this game was going to go with the warriors. they get the win. turned out to be painful, though, in san antonio. two more sprained ankles, including kevin durant going down. tell you how bad it is next it's gonna be a good day. because at ross, you got the trends everyone wants... for a fraction of what you'd pay elsewhere. ross has all the latest looks for so much less, but you can get the styles you love and still save big. so to get more trend for less spend, you know what to do- you've gotta go to ross. visit our newest stores in fruitvale and in serramonte center. if you'd have told me three years ago... that we'd be downloading in se

joining me now is leon panetta, the former defense secretary and cia director under president obama. thank you for being with us today. >> nice to be with you. >> what is your reaction to this revelation that the cia director, mike pompeo, met secretly with kim jong-un? >> i think it's a very important step to take. i was a little concerned when the president agreed to the summit without very much planning or preparation. and in a short time from time to time, it's a little bit of concern as to whether or not you can lay the ground work for that kind of high level summit. the fact that you now have director pompeo meeting with kim indicates that they are discussing, hopefully, some of the key negotiating terms that would be part of a summit between kim and president trump. >> what did you think about the fact that he went with just intelligence officials? it sounds like you feel like the ground work is being laid. maybe not enough? i would be curious to see what you had to say about this, but how he executed this. intel officials, no one from the state department. >> well, the proble

joining us now, the former defense secretary, former cia director, leon panetta. mr. secretary, thanks so much for joining us. in light of what we now know about the mueller investigation, at least so far, how important is this new information that roger stone had an e-mail in which he said he had dinner with julian assange. this was being reported by "the wall street journal". >> well, there's no question that the mueller investigation has reached crunch time, in the fact that they are now looking at just exactly whether or not there was any kind of conspiracy between members of the trump campaign and the russians. we've already determined that the rnussians attacked our election system, indictments have been issued on that fact, and now the issue that mueller has to turn to is what -- whether or not there was any activity here, that involved any kind of deliberate conspiracy. and having this information on the e-mail, indicates that mr. stone, who was somebody involved in the campaign, obviously was contacting someone to determine whether or not they could get infor

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i'll speak to david gergen and secretary leon panetta about all that next. >>> there's a lot on the white plate tonight to say the least. the raid on the president's attorney michael cohen clearly upset the president who's once again dangling the possibility of firing mueller with a we'll see. based on all the president said tonight, would be easy to forget that the setting was a meeting with his national security team, military top brass, a meeting about the suspected chemical attack in syria. and what the united states' response should be. there's a lot to get to. joining me, cnn senior political analyst david gergen and former white house chief of staff, cia director, leon panetta. senator john mccain said in a statement yesterday that assad and his russian and iranian backers were, quote, emboldened by president trump intimating last week he wanted to pull u.s. troops out of syria. i'm wondering if you agree with that. is that what happened? >> it's hard to say just exactly why the syrians did what they did. you could argue on one hand that if they thought that the united states, in f

tribes former chief strategist steve bannon former cia director david petraeus ex defense secretary leon panetta just to make it clear foreign money gulf arab money used to make a fake propaganda film by professionals and then shown to millions shown to some of america's most influential figures to promote international conflict on fake grounds this is psyops the big time league of propaganda the film was released on a time when gulf states cut diplomatic trade and transport ties with qatar accusing it of supporting terrorism something doha has repeatedly denied back then the arab states also urged qatar to close a turkish military base and shut down the cable news network al-jazeera so the arabia took the lead in the isolation campaign well the kingdom's foreign minister is now warning that the tory government could collapse if it doesn't pay for washington's military presence in syria. could starr should finance the u.s. military's presence in syria and send its own military forces there before the us president american protection for qatar if the u.s. is to withdraw its protection represented

just steve bannan former cia director david petraeus ex defense secretary leon panetta just to make it clear foreign money gulf arab money used to make a fake propaganda film by professionals and then shown to millions shown to some of america's most influential figures to promote international conflict on fake grounds this is psyops the big time league of propaganda we've contacted the firm and associates which produced the film as well as the dubai based company lapis communications we've asked for their comment on all this but so far we've had no response we'll let you know when we do the film was released last summer when gulf states cut diplomatic trade and transport ties with qatar accusing it of supporting terrorism something doha has repeatedly denied back then the u.s. president sided with arab nations saying carter had a history of funding terror at a very high level saudi arabia took the lead in the isolation campaign. and condemns foreign ministers now warning the qatari government that it could collapse if it doesn't pay for washington's military presence in syria could st

leon panetta served as white house chief of staff, secretary of defense, head of the cia, and director of the office of management and budget. today, we tackle cyber security, syria, and the prospect of major changes for congress this november >> we're leaving because you don't want to deal with trump anymore. >> i'm grateful he's given us this chance with the election. >> and leon panetta is live today from monterey, california. thank you for your time. >> nice to be with you >> i want to begin with you just heard joe leave off there, speaking with current speaker paul ryan this morning how much of a risk is there that our republicans are about to lose control of congress in the midterm elections, and what are the threats to the president and his agenda if democrats claim it, do you think >> well, i don't think there's much question that usually two years into any administration, you'll see an impact in terms of the party in power, and i think that, from all the polls you look at, that that looks likely for november how much, how big a wave it is i don't think anybody really knows at

trump's former chief strategist steve bannon former cia director david petraeus ex defense secretary leon panetta just to make it clear foreign money gulf arab money used to make a fake propaganda film by professionals and then shown to millions shown to some of america's most influential figures to promote international conflict on fake grounds this is psyops the big time league of propaganda so far and associates which produced the film as well as the base company lapis communications and yet to get back to our request we can tell if a comment on the matter in the film was released last summer when gulf states cut diplomatic trade and transport ties with qatar accusing it of supporting terrorism something doas repeatedly denied but then the u.s. president sided with arab nations saying that katter a history of funding terror at a very high level so the rape it took the lead in the isolation campaign became the foreign minister is now warning the qatari government it could collapse if it doesn't support washington's military operations in the middle east. kids are should finance the u.s. militar

leon panetta has a unique perspective on this. >> where do you think daca stands right now given thes this weekend declaring daca dead and blaming the democrats. >> i don't think the president's rationale is working at all with the american people certainly with latinos and more importantly with the congress. the president is the one who got rid of the daca program and created this crisis. he has failed to be able to work out any kind of approach on capital hill that was acceptable to him to try to fix the situation and now he is standing back and basically blaming everybody else for the problem and i don't think it is working. >> you now have a situation where it seems like, you know, people still read the president's tweet and reporters report on them, but it doesn't seem like anybody on capitol hill pays them any attention. is that your impression as well? >> yeah, i don't think there is any question that one of the things that has happened over the course of these last many months of this administration is that the congress has gotten to the point where it simply doesn't take the

well, leon panetta was able to put a stop to that and take control of the process. they say in hollywood nobody knows anything. in washington nobody learns anything. this is especially true of presidents who are ignorant of history and who do not read. and i think if donald trump wants to be jimmy carter, if he wants to be a one-term president or worse he should just keep doing exactly what he's doing and try to run the white house himself. >> douglas i see you nodding your head back there. >> i couldn't agree with what chris just said, meaning donald trump, it's almost impossible to work for him. i don't think anybody could fulfill the job of white house chief of staff. and if this hard marine there's nobody to do it, because donald trump is lone wolf. he's paranoid. he's got a lot of heat and pressure on him right now, and he has one big play he's got to decide. do i knock off people like rod rosenstein and let jeff sessions leave and take this whole mueller investigation by the scruff of the neck and try to beat it by being almost marshal in approach, or do you j

joining me now is richard haas and jeremy bash, former chief of staff to leon panetta at the cia and pentagon. richard, your book, this is what we're seeing now, the world in disarray, except for perhaps a north korea possible breakthrough. we are expecting netanyahu to give a speech at 1:00 eastern. he is going to be announcing major new concerns about cheating on weapons or the nuclear program in iran. this only days away from our next deadline, where the president is expected to not continue waiving sanctions on iran and is facing pressure from iran and allies to continue the iran deal. where do we stand on that after macron and merkel's visit? >> we have an unsettled nuclear situation with north korea, and there's hopes that may be on its way to get resolved. emphasize "hope and may." the optimists i think are getting way ahead of themselves. and with iran, we have what i would call a parked nuclear situation, which we seem well on our way now of unraveling. and the israeli government is no fan of this agreement, nor is the american president. but israeli intelligence leaders, at

insight from leon panetta. >>> plus republican congressman jim jordan and tom cole reacting to news ofer's retirement. child: bye, grandpa! and if you have heart failure, entrusting your heart to entresto may help. entresto is a heart failure medicine that helps improve your heart's ability to pump blood to the body. in the largest heart failure study ever, entresto was proven superior at helping people stay alive and out of the hospital compared to a leading heart failure medicine. don't take entresto if pregnant. it can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. don't take entresto with an ace inhibitor or aliskiren, or if you've had angioedema with an ace or arb. the most serious side effects are angioedema, low blood pressure, kidney problems, or high blood potassium. ask your doctor about entresto. and help make more tomorrows possible. entresto, for heart failure. the kayak explore tool shows you the places you can fly on your budget. so you can be confident you're getting the most bang for your buck. alo-ha. kayak. search one and done. we're on a mission to show drip coffee drinkers

>> that's a scathing quote from leon panetta who is one of the most well respected white house chief-of-stafftry. i don't know. i think i've been on the show with you four or five times where we talked about whether john kelly is going to get fired or quit. this seems to be an ongoing saga. if i was john kelly, i'd think about quitting at this point but any time senior destination officials seem to be under fire by president trump, nobody quits. so, you know, i'm not sure exactly what happen in the future. we might be talking about this in a couple weeks from now or months from now, maybe he'll quit this week or be fired this week. we never know what's going to happen in this trump administration. >> do you think the reason he's still there is because he's a general, the president has shown respect for those in the military? >> he has, but, alex, i have to ask, a lot of the individuals that have reported on are going to quit or be fired by the president, you have to ask why do those individuals stay around? do they stick around because they believe they have a duty and obligation to the count

see what leon panetta said this morning. >> we want to use that to get to an objective. that was the mistake last year. we hit them. there was no follow up. the result is we have the same situation now. if we hit them militarily now without any kind of strategy, what will happen is in a few months he'll do it again. >> i was told about 90 minutes ago after i put the question to the president that he has not yet made a final decision. it's likely, shep, after this meeting that he's in with the current secretary of defense james mattis, that he will have more clarity on that issue. we're not likely to hear what will happen until either just before or after the operation has commenced. >> shepard: thanks, john roberts. only if it were assad. it's not. it's the russians, remember? the russians have the force there. the russians have the jets there. the russians have the anti-aircraft there. the russians have the defense there's. it's the russians and the iranians and the syrians against the united states and saudi arabia and the 50 or so groups of moderate syrian rebels that

>> i adopted the leon panetta motto, which was more time, more cups of coffee, have real interactions. whether you agree or disagree with a particular member to do that and provide the committee the documents. i'll promise to do that for you. >> that's refreshing. >> do you agree the u.s. national security, our national security depends in large measure on a vibrant and growing economy? >> i do. >> in your prepared testimony you mentioned the systematic policies of stealing our intellectual properties. a force technology transfer and associated activities. you also mentioned moments ago that china is using mostly economic tools against us to achieve broader geo political ends. do you believe these policies have already undermine and if they continue unabated will continue to undermine our community as a country to realize our potential for economic growth, to incent vise investment and sustain the wherewithal to depend our country. >> i think those risks are real and honest today. this is not some future risk. i think we have to confront it today. most directly is the enormous amount

baker iii or leon panetta who helped reagan and clinton respective live figure out how to govern, how to build coalitions. donald trump has no idea how to do that. >> do you think that is the goal though, to govern? or is it a continuation of the 2016 campaign in order to campaign for 2020? >> well, but if your definition of governing is being a human wrecking ball and simply tearing down everything obama did, then i suppose you could say that trump is governing successfully without a white house chief. my definition of governing would be getting things done. if you voted for donald trump, and you're wondering what happened to "the art of the deal" -- >> people will see he got tariffs, he got neal gorsuch in. syria. >> if you ever wonder what happened to renegotiating nafta, renegotiating tpp, what happened to renegotiating the iran deal, what happened to the wall, you have to ask yourself what has he accomplished? a white house chief of staff, it's his job to help a president figure out how to do that. bill clinton was able to get budget surpluses done because he empowered irskine bo

that's how former clinton chief of staff leon panetta put it tonight.any democrats and republicans see it, some proudly so. mike shields before the break said that this president is different, and that's a good thing. he is. someone who agrees is newsmax ceo chris ruddy, who happens to be a friend of the president. i spoke with him earlier this evening. >> chris, the president's chief of staff wasn't with him for the weekend down in mar-a-lago. i know you were down there. the president also talked with jeanine pirro from fox news, sean hannity, fox news executive bill shine. do you just have a sense of what went on this weekend that ended up in the tweets we saw coming from the president, whether it was about daca, the department of justice, or, you know, even sinclair? >> i don't think any of them are related to the visitors he had. it was easter weekend. he was spending most of the time with his family, who were all down here, melania. he seemed in a very good mood. in fact, we were talking quite a bit about the economy and the fact he was touting the

former secretary of defense, former director of the cia and former white house chief of staff leon panetta joins us onset. and the the big implications from paul ryan's announcement to retire. will the gop be looking for a new house speaker or perhaps a new minority leader. chris jansing has more coverage on that right now. >> i'm chris jansing. and as you just heard, two big breaking stories this morning. nbc news confirmed paul ryan will not run for reelection this fall. and president trump taking a hard line on syria tweeting missiles will be coming. let's begin with capitol hill and the news about paul ryan. joining me now is garrett haake. we have seen this long line of people deciding not to run ag n again. >> no name bigger than paul ryan telling staff and frebs and others in congress recently he decided he will not seek reelection this year. this is a big blow to the republican party and their chances of holding on to the house in thov. ryan has been a prolific fundraiser and has despite how fractious the conference has been largely been able to hold them together on the big issues

unclear how long he'll stay, but i remember talking to leon panetta when general kelly went into the white house and panetta who was a chief of staff, give him six months. you can't judge a chief of staff you can't judge a chief of staff in six months after that you can tell if it's working and gelling. i don't think we can make a call on whether or not this is a great chief of staff or terrible chief of staff but i think a lot of people around the president hope he'll be there a lot longer. >> it raises the question, too, if not general kelly, if he were to leave for some reason, beside general kelly, is there anyone else in the administration who the critics outside are looking for the calming stabilizing force, whatever you want to call him, that role that's been assigned to him in the court of public opinion, is there anyone else to do that? >> if they don't find that unicorn, i'm sure they'll find somebody else. there's always somebody else this administration manages to find somewhere in the corner of the universe who's willing to take on these jobs for the short time they're d

>> yes, that was a pretty strong remark from leon panetta. they worked together at the pentagon a few years back. look, i interviewed panetta and he made it clear that he thinks kelly has lost that sacred bond, that trust, with the president. now, look, president trump hasn't fired kelly, at least not as of this hour. our reporting shows kelly is probably going to stick around for a while now, just with this diminished standing. you know, clearly current white house officials, many of them no longer trust him. they don't view him with the same sort of level of integrity that he had when he first came into the job eight months agoing. >> we're two minutes into the trading day. the dow is up close to 200. i want to talk a bit about the reporting we're seeing this morning. that there were no discussions among officials and the president before he announced the china tariffs. axios reported, quote, there was not one single meeting in which senior officials sat down to debate the pros and cons of this historic threat. trump didn't even ask for adv

you've had people like leon panetta on your set, wolf, talking to you to say, if you don't have completechief of staff between the link of the staff between the president and the flow of the information and the decision-making process, if not the ultimate decision-making authority, you are no longer effective in that. >> samantha, you worked in the white house on the national security council, you look at the disruption going on, what do you think? >> i think that john kelly needs to resign. i don't see what part of his job he's able to do well. the train is fully off the rail. either somebody leaked something that was true, which means the chief of staff is not leading by example, he's calling his boss names, or someone leaked something false about the chief of staff, which also means that he's not able to control these leaks. he was supposed to have a security clearance process to deal with this kushner issue. jared kushner is still in foreign meetings above a secret level. i would like to know what part of his job john kelly's doing well. >> a lot of these people who don't resign, and

leon panetta, a former white house chief of staff himself and someone who has been speaking out forcefullyed dreamers. secretary, where do you think daca stands right now, given the president's tweets this weekend, declaring daca dead and then blaming the democrats? >> well, frankly, i don't think the president rationale is working at all with the american people, certainly with la tee knows, but more importantly, with the congress. i think the reality is that the president is the one who got rid of the daca program, and created this crisis. he has failed to be able to work out any kind of approach on capitol hill that was acceptable to him to try to fix the situation, and now he's standing back and basically blaming everybody else for the problem. i don't think it's working. >> it is also interesting, because you now have a situation where it seems like people still read the president's tweets and reporters report on them, doesn't seem like anyone on capitol hill really pays them any attention. is that your impression, as well? >> yeah, i don't think there's any question. one of the thing

that's what the really good white house chiefs could do, the jim bakers, leon panettas and other.p desperately needs his own version of james baker iii to tell him what he doesn't want to hear. >> interesting to read your book. thank you for joining us. one more thing before we go. for weeks we've been watching a caravan of central american migrants making their way to the u.s. border. for 150 of those migrants, it's just the beginning. there's no telling how long it could take to process all of those applications. members of the caravan are fleeing violence and poverty in their home countries. president trump has repeatedly criticized the caravan and called it a disgrace at one point. at the white house he asked how many migrants at the border deserve asylum in the u.s. >> i won't get into percentages, but we're a nation of laws. we have to have borders. we don't have borders we don't have a country. i've been watching for weeks as the caravan came up. >> we'll keep an eye on what happens at the border in the coming days. that will wrap things up for this hour. now ali velshi wil

director, i adopted the leon panetta model which was more time, more cups of coffee, have real interactions. whether you agree or disagree with a particular member to do that and provide the committee to the documents that they're duly entitled. promise to do that for you. >> that's refreshing. thank you. mr. director, do you agree that the u.s. national security -- our national security depends in large measure on a vibrant and growing economy. >> i do. >> in your prepared testimony, you mentioned china's systemic policies of stealing our intellectual property and forced technology transfer and associated activities. you also mentioned just moments ago that china is using mostly economic tools against us to achieve broader geopolitical, geostrategic ends. do you believe these policies by beijing have already undermined and if they continue unabated will continue to undermine our ability as a country to realize our potential for economic growth, to incentivize investment in key technologies in key sectors of our economy and to sustain the financial wherewith all that is required to defend o

. >> the former secretary of defense in the obama administration, leon panetta critical of the president's statement a couple weeks ago he wants to get troops out of syria. he came close to linking that statement with last saturday's suspected chemical attack in syria. >> it is important for the united states to have a presence there and to indicate that we have a role to play. by saying what he said i think he may have sent a signal that somehow the united states would not care whatever happened in syria. i think that was dangerous. >> the pentagon is still working with its allies to confirm whether, in fact, it was a chemical weapons attack. russia insists the whole thing was staged by the rebel emergency response group, the white helmets. the white house not putting a lot of stake in the russian denials. also happening today confirmation hearings for mike pompeo to be secretary of state to begin at 10:15. a couple of highlights from his prepared testimony. indicating that u.s. policy is going to change. pompeo will say russia continues to act aggressively enabled by years of soft policy

pompeo: senator, as a cia director, i adopted that leon panetta model which was more time, more coffee to have with really directions. whether i agree with a member or not to do that, provide the documents to which they are entitled as elected officials, i promise to do that. sen. young: refreshing. mr. director, do you agree that the director of national security, our national security depends on large measure on a vibrant growing economy? mr. pompeo: i do. sen. young: you mentioned china's systematic policies of stealing intellectual property, technology transfer and associated activities. you also mentioned moments ago china is using mostly economic tools against us to achieve broader geopolitical and geostrategic ends. you believe these policies by beijing have already undermined, and if they continue unabated will continue to undermine our ability as a country to realize our potential for economic growth, to incentivize investment in each technology and key sectors of our economy, and to sustain the financial wherewithal that is required mr. pompeo: yes, i think those risks are re

pompeo: i adopted the leon panetta model, which is more time, more cups of coffee. whether you have disagreements or not, you work together as elected officials. i promise to do that for you. ourtor young: do you agree national security depends in large measure on a vibrant and growing economy ? dir. pompeo: i do. senator young: you mentioned china's systematic policies of stealing technological property and associated activities. you mentioned moments ago that china is using mostly economic tools against us to achieve broader geopolitical ends. these believe policies by beijing have undermined or will continue to ability as a country to realize our potential for economic growth, incentivize investment in key technologies, and sustain the financial wherewithal that is required to defend our country and advanced our values worldwide? dir. pompeo: yes, i think those risks are real today. this is not a future risk presented to the country. confront it today. the enormous amount of intellectual property taken out of hands. the imagination and creative the of the u.s.the

former secretary of defense, former director of the cia and former white house chief of staff leon panetta announcement to retire. will the gop be looking for a new house speaker or perhaps a new minority leader. chris jansing has more coverage on that right now. >> i'm chris jansing. and as you just heard, two big breaking stories this morning. nbc news confirmed paul ryan will not run for reelection this fall.