here with more, marc thiessen, former speech writer for george w. bush.cohost of "the five" ." gentlemen, welcome. good have you here. juan, do you think susan rice should testify? >> at this point, her argument is that because a democrat on the senate intelligence committee did not request, said that he thought it would be a distraction, a political move by the republican majority on the committee, she decided not to testify, not to participate. >> martha: marc, does not hold water? >> i spent seven years working on capitol hill and that is not how it works, juan. they don't have to have bipartisan agreement on witnesses. the chairman can call whoever they want, the democrats could call whoever they want, and they have to testify. the reality is, that is a big back fire for her. number one, her excuse for not testifying is that yet another susan rice misstatement, the woman who told us that benghazi was because of an internet video, that syria gave up with chemical weapons, she said i don't know anything about it when the unmasking came up. she has been

marc thiessen, former chief speechwriter for president george w. bush. to hillary clinton's presidential campaign. welcome, gentlemen. zach, let me go to first on this. why do you think there is widespread criticism for president trump for suggesting that he would be willing, and he said under the right circumstances, as you note of, president obama said with no preconditions. he would be willing to talk. why do you think he is getting so much heat for it? >> i don't think that is where the criticism is coming from, that he's willing to meet with these guys. i think the criticism is coming from the fact that he had praised these dictators, the strong man. he said he would be honored to meet with kim jong-un, not that he would meet with him, but he would be honored to do so. a murderous dictator, a human rights abuser. this is the first time he has done this. he is praised the leadership of duterte from the philippines, lcc of egypt, vladimir putin, and several others. there is a big, big difference between saying that you will meet with these guys, as pr

joining us now with more, marc thiessen, former chief speechwriter for president george w. bush. marie harf, former state department employee. in karl rove's back, someone who has spent quite a bit of time in the white house. let's get the new folks to weigh in. you listen to the story tonight, what do you make of it? >> it looks like donald trump is paying a really heavy price for his mishandling of this whole comey firing. he should have had come at the start of this, you should have have a replacement in mind, plug this out, a simple announcement which said, james comey has served this country with distinction for many years, have decided to make a change. he is being replaced by filling the blank and announced to the person who would have gotten lots of plaudits from people from all sides, somebody was qualified, career law enforcement person, and pulled him out there. instead, he had this fake story about how he was responding to the doj, then, he did an interview with lester holt, denigrating his character. then, he threatened them, putting out this tweet saying he better h

here now with more, marc thiessen, former chief speechwriter for president george w. bush.zach buchanan, former c dnc. welcome to all of you. good to have you here. we just heard from congressman desantis. i want to start with a zach on this. your thoughts about this appointment of the special prosecutor? do you think this was a wise move? do you feel like it will get resolution? >> i think it was a very wise move. i think it was a long overdue move. i think it was a move that took basic evidence of interference by this white house into the investigation, to light a fire under this department of justice, to have a special prosecutor, sorry, special counsel, something we have been hauling core for a long time. i do think it is only a first step, though. we have to remain vigilant, a special counsel is different than a special prosecutor. it is still within the chain of command of the term department of justice, we have to make sure that we -- there is not any further interference, got to make sure they don't cut off resources. we have to continue pushing for an independent c

richard fowler is a radio host and marc thiessen. this is what the president has to say.ey lost the confidence of almost everyone in washington republican and democrat alike. when things calm down they will thank me. we heard last week from hillary clinton that he cost her the election and now he is president nixon. >> i wouldn't go that far. the timing of this is why people are alarmed in washington and throughout the country. in donald trump had a problem with comey, he could have fired him on january 21st. when he fired -- when jeff sessions fired all the assistant u.s. attorneys across the country then. we don't want you, you have to go. the fact they waited so late to do it and also we learned yesterday from other networks reporting that there has been -- grand jury subpoenas issued for colleagues of mike flynn. this is all leery to me. i think the best way to solve this problem for the trump administration. i said it over and over again and house and senate republicans is to ask for a commission, three democrats, republicans three folks, put someone like condoleezza

let's bring in marc thiessen, good morning to you. >> good morning. >> shannon: folks who voted for theresident -- i remember thinking this out there on the campaign trail that the president had made so many big, bold promises and people were excited and got on board and i worried those people were disappointed if he was elected. it was a bold agenda and they expect it in the first 100 days. is it fair to say he isn't draining the >> no but it's hard to drain the swamp. it is very big and thick with corruption and bad policies and all the rest. it is a hard job. we shouldn't have expected him to do it in the first 100 days. he got a lot done in the first 100 days. he did something more conscious quensal in his first 100 days than roosevelt. get gorsuch on the supreme court. it's huge. he started the work on obamacare and the budget. it took barack obama 17 months to pass obamacare and we shouldn't expect it to be repealed in 100 days. i think he is doing well. the budget deal was a pretty good deal that he cut. so i don't think people should be upset with it at all. >> shannon: those ar

. >> bill: marc thiessen is with us, too.ant to share with our viewers the tweet that the president sent out upon leaving italian airspace. i'll get chris and the colonel to react to this. honor of a lifetime to meet his hollyness, pope francis. i leave the vatican more determined than ever to pursue peace in our world. peace was in all caps. how do you gauge the significance when a human being has a meeting of that magnitude for the first time in his life? >> well, we'll never know the full internal dynamics of it. but the pope, that's the big leagues. there is that spiritual dimension. and as a soldier i'm all for peace. we're all for peace. the problem is how you get there. that goes back to nato and the g7 meeting. so i think it's healthy that the president is exposed to a wide range of views. it's especially interesting to me the meeting with pope francis because these are two men who as different as they are in virtually every respect, nonetheless, have in their own ways given voice to the people, to those who previousl

marc thiessen, good morning to you. want to squeeze in a couple of points here.said some want to harm the president. we won't rush to judgment. we need to hear from f.b.i. director comey. what did he not report at the time? as we see air force one touching down in connecticut. marc. >> paul we saw there encapsulates the problem they face. the beginning part of that press conference they all walked out and four house leaders talked about their plans to have a big hearing on tax reform tomorrow and all the questions that came after that were about trump, comey, russia, investigation, subpoenas, etc., etc. they'll have a hard time pushing through their agenda with the distractions generated from the white house. >> bill: the first comment he made was that we need to seize the moment. when it comes to tax reform, healthcare reform. they know they have the majority. we see the president in a matter of moments here, speech at the coast guard academy. there are distractions and questions will come from reporters. however, they can continue their meetings. they can conti

marc thiessen in washington. >> take care, bill. >> bill: shannon, what's next?ossible shakeup in the mainstream media. scott pelley could be on his way out. we will look at why and what it means to the landscape. >> bill: also comedian kathy griffin facing massive backlash of her photo with a bloody mask of president trump. howie kurtz breaks that down next. >> i understand how it offends people. it wasn't funny. i get it i have made a lot of mistakes in my career. i continue. i ask for your forgiveness. there's nothing more important to me than my vacation. so when i need to book a hotel room, i want someone that makes it easy to find what i want. booking.com gets it. they offer free cancellation if my plans change. visit booking.com. booking.yeah. whattwo servings of veggies? v8 or a powdered drink? ready, go. ahhhhhhhh! shake! shake! shake! shake! shake! done! you gotta shake it! i shake it! glad i had a v8. the original way to fuel your day. ♪ ♪ >> i sincerely apologize. i'm just now seeing the reaction of these images. i'm a comic, i crossed the line. i mov