, general mattis, is being circumvented here? people have looked at mattis and others gone from the administration, as being quote/unquote adults in the room, i'm not saying i necessarily agree with that, but we have heard that analysis from a lot of people. >> well, i think if this trend continues and secretary mattis reaches a point where he may feel irrelevant, that that would be, you know -- and takes the plunge, i think that would be a huge, huge loss for the country and certainly for the department of defense. he's a great patriot, a great american, and, you know, it would be terrible. >> from where you sit knowing what you know, would you be fearful if secretary mattis were no longer part of this administration? >> well, i would be very concerned about it, put it that way. of course a lot of that would depend on who might succeed him, but the pentagon, the department of defense, is a huge institution, and it kind of has like a big aircraft carrier, has its own momentum. >> at the very beginning the president bragged, seeme

is president trump icing out jim mattis. the deteriorating relationship between the president and his defense secretary. the 11th hour begins now. as we start a new week, good evening from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. day 522 of the trump administration and while we have an update on the mueller investigation and on the issue of immigration, tonight the president was very much in his element. here is a sample of what he had to say tonight during a campaign rally for a republican gubernatorial candidate, henry mcmaster, in south care lirna. >> sometimes you have to toot your own horn. i have the greatest political instinct in 50 years. i don't think so. i don't think so. i have my own feeling. we are the super elite. we are the super elite. >> this was the president a few hours before that with the visiting king of jordan. >> if the rest of the world just took a little bit of your humility and grace to help us, we would be in a better position. >> here used the word hume ility with me. that's the nicest complim

rex tillerson and secretary mattis. >> i know mattis and h.r. mcmaster. mattis is incredible.his is someone who is going to walk through fire for the troops on the ground. look at what he said you just hold the line i'm going to take care of washington. i think mattis's strength with the white house and the public is his independence. he is going to give the president the best advice he can but if the president disagrees with it he is just going to move on. >> first of all, the president is talking about war gales. he was obviously shooting from the hip. isn't there some peril for a defense secretary not being synced up to the president. >> i'm less concerned formatis than i am for the nation. is president trump going to go to nato, go to the conference, bheet putin and decide we are not going to do nato exercise inside the baltic. not going to do anything that makes our tee ternt effective with the russians. i think mattis from a political standpoint survives. i'm worried about our credibility abroad. mat sis going to bush pack as hard and as long as he can. his relationship

so, clearly it appears that x rate mattis is not having as -- that secretary mattis is not having the influence he used to have, particularly when it comes to the tariffs. i know secretary mattis is concerned about getting involved in a trade war. how it will undermine alliances at a crucial time and you the president is engaging in it. there have been a lot of articles about how the president hill's increasingly empowered to do what he wants to do. so, it seems to be moving in that direction and that has troubling implications for the foreign policy. >> when secretary mattis comes to the hill and gives you assurances, does it make you less likely to take his word, knowing the president could undercut him? rep. smith: i think secretary mattis's influence is definitely waning. putting it in the simplest terms, when it president trump was elected, i don't know that he had a fairly formed idea of a foreign policy. but advisers like steve bannon and his base were all about the end of globalists. the notion that we needed to work with the rest of the world. it would be america first and we

hans, what did secretary mattis have to say about the road ahead? >> reporter: well, mattis is not that optimistic about the road ahead. his quote was to expect a few bumps, that was just this morning. in general, what mattis is trying to do here is frame the parameters, say what is on limits and off limits. what is clearly off limits for the u.s. secretary of defense is removing and having part of the negotiations removing u.s. troops from south korea. so listen to how mattis said it when he was tempering expectations. >> our objective remains as stated by minister madura, the complete verifiable and irreversible denuclearization and the removal of all wmd on the korean peninsula. we can anticipate it best and bump by road to the negotiation. >> reporter: now, the idea that there would not be any sort of conversations about removing sanctions, lifting sanctions until there's the complete and verifiable denuclearization of the korean peninsula is something new. we have heard from president trump over the last 48 hours that he is open to taking this

is mattis at risk of the president being tired of him?as to be very careful to read the signs as much as he can as to whether or not the president feels comfortable, secretary matt is is going to have to watch and see with the president, expressing that even in a subtle way. >> reporter: now many congressional republicans still very strongly support the defense secretary and they point out he has one major victory wiresident trump, he got increased defense spending through congress. >> something trump wanted to say because he wanted to say the military is better to fight today than before and a big plus for mattis on the record books. >> let's bring back our panel and bill crystal you said you were a fan of mattis earlier in the show without knowing this was coming. are you concerned? >> i am. charles krauthammer died last week and a good friend of mine and his last article was the guard rails and the argument was president trump is a bad and dangerous president but the guard rails are holding up. the institution is holding. and thank god

defense secretary james mattis. coming up next what nbc learned about why the president is intent on keeping mattis out of the loop. is the white house going to kmet on the it. >> the press conference was scheduled to start 15 minutes ago. we are waiting for it. you are watching msnbc. i wanted to be clear. i wanted it to last. so i kept on fighting. i found something that worked. and keeps on working. now? they see me. see me. see if cosentyx could make a difference for you- cosentyx is proven to help people with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis... ...find clear skin that can last. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. before starting cosentyx, you should be checked for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms. or if you have received a vaccine or plan to. if you have inflammatory bowel disease, tell your doctor if symptoms develop or worsen. serious allergic reactions may occur. never give up. see me. see

. >>> and is donald trump icing out jim mattis? an nbc news exclusive on the apparently deteriorating relationship between the president and his defense secretary. "the 11th hour" on a monday night begins now. >>> as we start a new week, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. day 522 of the trump administration, and while we have an update tonight on the mueller investigation and on the issue of immigration, tonight the president was very much in his element. here is a sample of what he had to say tonight during a campaign rally for a republican gubernatorial candidate harry mcmaster in south carolina. >> sometimes you have to toot your own horn because nobody else is going to do it. some people have said i have the greatest political instinct in 50 years. i don't think so. i don't think so. but i have my own feeling. we are the super elite. we are the super elite. >> and this was the president a few hours before that with the visiting king of jordan. >> if the rest of the world just took a little

he didn't direct that to mattis.n speaking to people around the president, he has increasingly felt mattis has slow walked things he wants done. one person described it as the president feeling like mattis looks down on him or thinks he knows better. so it's a combination of that and the president feeling emboldened to listen to his own instincts over any of his advisers. >> carol lee, great reporting there. just quickly, robert, do you think there's going to be any change? my own take on mattis is he's going to work and live with this. >> i think you're right. it doesn't seem like mattis is heading for the door and there's no replacement being bandied around. so for now, he stays even though he's diminished in some aspects of the decision making. >> he's on travel today in alaska at a military base on his way to a trip overseas. thank you very much, robert. congratulations on another big scoop from carol lee and our team. >>> coming up, should the administration overall i.c.e. in we'll ask a democratic congressman n

defense secretary james mattis reportedly on the outside looking in. pushed from president trump's inner circle. a stunning report about how president trump has kept mattis out of the loop on critical decisions, a man he used to flatteringly refer to as mad dog. >>> later, back to the border as protesters planning to gather outside a tent city. john oliver points out the tactic probably won't work in this case. >> wait. why are we talking about this? we should be talking about something else. that doesn't work when you deflect from is children in cages. if a realtor selling a house why are we talking about the children in cages? the kitchen has marble countertops. the only acceptable response is because they're chin aldren and they're in cages. what about the world's lowest limbo stick? how low can you go? nice one, carl. hey i've got an idea. just say, badda book. badda boom. badda book. badda boom. nice. always the lowest price, guaranteed. book now at choicehotels.com >>> we have got exclusive new details of defense secretary james mattis and the po

they're saying mattis is as looped in as ever or what? know how these stories go and by the -- on a scale of pushback it's pretty light because the story is true. and so there was more trying to when you talk to senior officials in the white house trying to shape the reasoning behind it. the president, you know, one official said mattis has never been a go-to adviser for the president in terms of his inner circle. and yet he really respects him. >> so the respecting is interesting because given that piece of it, right? even if the president is taking in less of mattis's input, which is what you're talking about in your reporting, do you think, i suspect probably not, that we'll see that level of public shaming that we've seen with, for example, attorney general jeff sessions, somebody else on whom the president has cooled. this is a president who has a deep affinity for people in the military. >> yeah. i don't think that we'll see sort of a sessions level treatment of matt mattis is at . it's not that he's cooled on session, he's furious

i've sensed a silence from mattis, mad dog mattis. he has not been much of a mad dog recently.his positions make more sense than trumps. >> well that. >> don't really agree on anything. even going back to the campaign they disagreed on certain issues like torture, but it was sort of papered over. and what you see in the last six to eight months is that with trump's kind of feeling emboldened himself to make his own decision and listen to his own instincts on top of hiring someone like john bolton who mattis opposed and moving pompeo into the state department, he is listening to those folks. and the other piece here, chris, mattis doesn't have that was in alliance and rex tillerson is out. so he doesn't have a the secretary of state that he is aligned with either in the same way. >> i get the feeling when he hired john bolton, he forgot the rest of the guys. he brought in mr. neo con. why would he stick with mad dog mad tis nims anymore? >> john possibility on the, he is more in sync with trump's view of the world. >> trump is against mr. stupid wars and bolton is mr. stupid war

officials say general mattis keeps getting caught off guard.ns me with some exclusive reporting here. we knew these two men had divergent views on key policy decisions from the start. what's changed now? >> that's right, craig. at the very begipnninbeginning, then-retired general mattis had different views from president trump in terms of torture, in terms of nato and the nato alliance. what we've seen is that once secretary mattis became seco secretary, he wanted troops to stay in afghanistan and to have no time-based constraints on their deployment there. he won out on that. but my colleague, carol lee, and i spent some time looking at major national security decisions made in the last several months. one thing we noticed is that they tended to either be on the opposite side of where second tar m -- secretary mattis' perspective was or in some instances he wasn't even involved in the decision making process. one you mentioned in the lead-in, space corps. a sixth branch of the military, that came up in 2017. in the fall secretary mattis sent a

mr mattis was speaking at a security summit in singapore.arishma vaswani has sent this report. singapore is playing host to the dialogue this week, and is taking no chances with security. after all, defence ministers and representatives from all over the world are attending the event — including from the united states and china. and whenever the two sides are in the same room, they usually argue about the same thing — china's power in the region and the impact on its neighbours. china's militarization of artificial features in the south china sea includes the deployment of anti—ship missiles, surface to air missiles, electronic jammers and more recently, the landing of bomber aircraft at woody island. despite china's claims to the contrary the placement of these weapons systems is tied directly to military use for the purposes of intimidation and coercion. china says it owns all of the south china sea, a lucrative and strategic shipping zone, even though six other countries lay claim to it. it's been building military installations in the ar

it's very different from what the defense secretary, jim mattis, said.t quiet when the president tried to engage him in a discussion about japan and north korea. >> i spoke to prime minister abe, and he is so thrilled. he doesn't have rockets going over japan. that makes him very happy, general, you know that, right, he's very thrilled not to see rockets going over japan. there were plenty of them sent right over japan. >> barbara starr is the one who questioned -- after that questioned the defense secretary mattis about north korea and its denuclearization. of course, none of the weapons are gone at this point. what did he tell you, barbara? >> good evening, erin. the defense secretary once again in the position of playing a little bit of cleanup before and after the president's remarks. when we saw him yesterday at the pentagon i asked him about denuclearization. and he said he'd seen no evidence of it. that it has not begun yet. none of these sites in north korea have been blown up. and he actually said he wouldn't expect to see it right now because t

best friend secretary james mattis has been meeting his south korean counterpart in seoul the two held talks on washington's decision to suspend joint military exercises earlier maddest was in beijing discussing territorial disputes in the south china sea where he was told that china would not give up an inch of territory . but the u.k. intelligence committee has published two previously leaked reports shedding light on the mistreatment of detainees the seven year old consolidated guidance document as it's currently known highlights hundreds of cases witnessed by u.k. security personnel and which detainee rights were violated the report say those responsible for the abuse were british and american nationals the report suggests greater clarity is needed to make sure ministers to not authorize actions which could lead to torture paul brennan has more. these two reports by the intelligence committee of the house of parliament paint a highly critical picture of the behavior of british intelligence services both in the period from two thousand and wants twenty ten and even afterwards what t

or is there a loop if james mattis is not in it? great question because as we've seen the president shift around his national security team he's felt emboldened to follow his own instin instincts, to listen to what he thinks should be done and what his instincts are telling him he should do and then finding people to agree with him and he can do that in any number of ways, you have john bolton who is aligned with the president in certain areas of foreign policy then mike pompeo also aligned with the president on certain issues and with mattis what you saw was it was mattis and john kelly and secretary tillerson, former secretary of state, and they had this alliance and as kelly has weakened as chief of staff and tillerson was fired, you know, that has put mattis in this position as kind of the lone person standing who is part of that original group that everybody felt were the adults in the room. >> nobody seems to be getting to this president. i kind of hoped he would have. nbc's carol lee, thank you so much. we'll be reading your

what did mattis say today? >> reporter: mattis was laying down a hard line. saying there would be no sanctions relief, this idea of maximum pressure, although he didn't use those words, secretary of defense would stay in place until north korea agreed to complete and verifiable denuclearization. mattis said he expects a few bumps along the road, seemed to be not so optimistic. didn't share optimism that was widespread through the three day summit. previously he said discussion of u.s. troops in south korea would not be on the agenda. you see mattis stake out a hard line. he is scheduled to be back in washington, has a lunch with president trump monday. we'll see how this process goes forward. they have a lot of work to do on the ground in singapore. need to figure out just the protocol. who is going to arrive where, when, what sort of photo ops might they have. a lot of work for diplomats to do, but the strategic picture is the same, that is that president trump is insistent, moving ahead with the meeting. >> hans, you mention the details, that includes where

a result mattis did not notify the two commands most directly involved, u.s.h korean military. in fact, mattis found out that trump had canceled the exercises from one of his assistant secretaries early the next morning after the summit had concluded. nbc further reports that u.s. military officials see those joint exercises as "critical to readiness and interoperability in the region." but the president apparently didn't ask them for their opinion. he didn't tell anyone in the white house or the u.s. military including the secretary of defense that he was even thinking about giving this concession. but he did apparently talk to russian president vladimir putin about it. that's who asked him to do it. or told him to. i suppose it's hard to know at this point. but we'll be right back. tom steyer: terrible things happen when you leave a lawless president in power. donald trump is unfit for his office. call congress now. if they won't stand up to him, they're just as responsible as he is. if they won't stand up to him, my mom washes the dishes... ...before she pu

what is mattis likely to be hearing?reporter: chinese president xi jinping told a group of american business men that china will punch back against the united states. $50 billion in tariffs due to kick in next month. we expect an announcement from the trump administration to block chinese investment in american technology citing national security. secretary mattis is here talking about trade and other issues. mixed with national security. he faces a tricky task. the trade situation is escalating this trade clash. some are calling it a trade war with the u.s. and china. he also needs to convince beijing to keep up the pressure on north korea. we know president xi jinping has met three times in the last few months with kim jong-un. their relationship seems to be warming as the tensions with trade and other issues with the united states are on the rise. he is always talking about the south china sea. china continuing to expand in international waters putting what military analysts state aircra aircraft carriers. how does he

defense secretary james mattis saying in singapore just a few moments ago that any discussion around u.s. troop numbers in south korea will not be on the agenda in singapore when the summit takes place so it seems like this will be largely a symbolic meeting between the two leaders if indeed it does happen of course still a very important step towards having a peaceful korean peninsula or perhaps more concrete than simply symbolic is what's going on between north and south korea tell us about the reestablishment of their sort of communication process. yes well there have been concrete steps taken over the past day or so on friday there were high level talks between representatives from north and south korea they met in the demilitarized zone separating the two countries and this was really a practical way of starting to implement some of the things that have been discussed between president moon and going in those two into korean summit so they have agreed to set up a joint liaison office that will be in the case song industrial complex with you which is just north of the border it's

. >>> defense secretary james mattis touching down in china overnight. prepared to do a lot of listening when he meets with chinese leaders. mattis making the first trip to china by the secretary of defense since 2014. let's go live to will ripley. will, what is he likely to be hearing from president xi? >> reporter: i think they will have tense discussions here in beijing. given the fact the united states is saying national security is the driving force why they don't want chinese tech firms investing in the united states. robotics and arrerospace and electric cars. things which could affect national security as china is becoming a global leader. he will have to talk to them about the $50 billion in tariffs that are due to take effect next month. the defense department called china a competitor. you are mixing national defense with trade. some areas that the secretary may not be comfortable in given his military background. he will talk about the denuclearization with north korea. the united states nee china to keep pressure up for sanctions for the lon

and mattis providing housing to disaster victims. >> we have done this, some of you remember, with the vietnamese boat people. refugees were put in u.s. military bases for months as it was worked out and how they would be dealt with. >> senate minority leader chuck schumer asking for a czar to host the families. >>> and the president and first lady are helping to welcome the king and queen of jordan before heading to south carolina to campaign for henry mcmaster. white house is jumping in to save mcmaster with vice president pence appearing over the weekend. >>> white house press secretary booted from the restaurant because she works for the president. she was asked to leave because she worked for potus. her actions say more about her. i always do my best to treat people, including those i disagree with respectfully. >> the owner of the restaurant said she would do the same thing again. she explained to sanders the restaurant has standards she has to uphold as honesty and compassion. days earlier, people shouted at kirstjen nielsen d

defense secretary james mattis has been meeting with the south korean counterpart in seoul the two held talks on washington's decision to suspend joint military exercises which have long angered north korea that happened during the recent summit between donald trump and kim jong un macha says the suspension will increase the chances for peace as ollie. north. on thursday matter was in china's capital for talks on regional security territorial disputes in the south china sea and the presence of u.s. troops in south korea were the main issues but china made it clear it would not give up an inch of territory in the south china sea edge and right as well from beijing. well james mattis said he was here to in his words take the measure of china's strategic ambitions during the photo opportunity before their closed door meetings both sides issued brief statements and it was then the president xi jinping said that china would never concede give an inch of its territory he also said to sort of mollify his guest the china didn't want to create global chaos and would pursue a path of peaceful dev

james mattis in singapore ahead of the summit says, expect a bumpy ride.elcome to you. is there reason to be optimistic about north korea and the denuclearization and an agreed upon definition of what that means on both sides? >> unfortunately, right now, i'm not confident that there is going to be all the vehicles you mentioned. one thing that's been clear about the visit by these high level officials to the oval office last week is that we have not closed the gap on definitions of denuclearization and obtaining the commitment we want from north korea to abandon all their nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs. >> in an article you co-wrote for "foreign affairs" you say the trump administration deserves credit for its unwavering commitment for what -- i'm curious, what has north korea achieved from their charm offensive? >> this is the thing. the things that the trump administration was very good at doing at the beginning of this whole process, going a year now, is they have been very strong on complete denuclearization. in the last week, the presi

defense secretary james mattis has been in china's capital for talks on regional security territorial disputes in the south china sea and the presence of u.s. troops in south korea one of the main issues discussed in beijing adrian brown has more from beijing. well james mattis said he was here to in his words take the measure of china's strategic ambitions joining the photo opportunity before their closed door meetings both sides issued brief statements and it was then the president xi jinping said that china would never concede give an inch of its territory he also said to sort of mollify his guest the china didn't want to create global chaos and would pursue a path of peaceful development that's often a phrase that chinese leaders use on occasions like this both sides apparently discuss the need to maintain military cooperation but the timing of this meeting is unfortunate because the united states is holding a big naval exercise of hawaii at the moment involving the militaries of twenty five other countries china was supposed to have taken part in this exercise but china's invitat

at meeting with officials mattis said that u.s. allies need to keep the pressure on north korea throughout the negotiations in order for them to be successful. >> we must remain vigilant and we will continue to implement all un security council resolutions on north korea. north korea will receive relief only when it demonstrates irreversible steps of denuclearization. >> the white house continues to tamp down expectations ahead of it as well suggesting this summit won't be a one-time deal but instead beginning of much longer negotiation between u.s. and north korea. >> these negotiations take time. everything is on the table during the negotiations but you can't expect that you're not gog cnge rome in a day and i think that's a very realistic attitude, we can't do it, we can't do it, the president says hang on a second, we may be able to do it. >> president trump isn't the only to meet for the first time. bashar al-assad plans to meet, visit north korea to meet leader. no date has been said, with the u.s. summit the meeting is nota

defense secretary james mattis is being in china's capital for talks on regional security territorial disputes in the south china sea in the presence of u.s. troops in south korea with the main issues being discussed in beijing a.g.m. brown has more from beijing's heavy on the smiles and positive statements how much common ground are the two sides actually finding. well i think beyond the diplomatic niceties it's quite clear that there are still big you know strains in the relationship between china and the united states on many fronts right now not just defense of course but also trade which is the principal point of friction between these two countries now matters said that he'd come here to beijing by the way this was his first visit to china as defense secretary he said he wanted to come here to really you know assess the state of the relationship between the two militaries because in the past there has been cooperation between china and the united states in the military severe but this week for instance china was due to participate in war games with the united states off the coas

the south china sea to intimidate and course its neighbors the comments by the fence secretary jim mattis drew a sharp rebuke from a chinese general who called them irresponsible but this was speaking at an international. security conference in singapore where the korean peninsula took center stage ahead of donald trump's planned summit with kim scott had reports. the focus of the high level discussions here at the shangri-la dialogue all came down to one peninsula u.s. secretary of defense jim that is just hours after president donald trump confirmed the u.s. north korea summit was back on june twelfth here in singapore made something very clear and open the number of u.s. troops in south korea is something that will not be discussed if we can reach store confidence building measures with with something verifiable then of course these kinds of issues can come up subsequently between sovereign democracies the republic of korea and the united states but it is that issue is not on the table here in singapore on the twelfth. that adds weight to comments from trump that it's unlikely that a m

defense a great james mattis has been meeting with a south korean counterpart in seoul the two l. talks on washington's decision to suspend joint military exercises earlier matches was in beijing discussing territorial disputes in the south china sea where he was told that china would not give up an inch of territory. german chancellor angela merkel is addressing parliament on refugee policies we're looking at live pictures coming from there now which is threatening to collapse the coalition in recent weeks later on head over to brussels for a key summit with the leaders hoping to agree and wide approach to the issue which is threatening to split the tune. of more than two hundred refugees of reach land of being stuck at sea for six days the charity ship lifeline docked in multi but only after eight countries agreed to take a share of the migrants. now the family of a refugee killed himself in the remote island of nauru are calling for his body to be brought to australia activists also calling for his mother and brother to. to be allowed to settle there for the boers carom easy to

this is the big challenge for defense secretary james mattis. this comes one day after the world learned that mr. trump wants to cancel the joint exercises in the field. the next one already scheduled for august. secretary mattis, we're trying to figure out if he even knew mr. trump was going to make this announcement. we are told he was not surprise said, that he was consulted about it. but we are not told that the defense secretary actually agreed with the decision to cancel the so-called war games. so now this is what the big challenge is for secretary mattis working with allies in the region. what exactly is u.s. policy? what is the u.s. military presence in south korea going to be? how far will they go in defending south korea? the so-called war games are vital to the defense. it is all about being trained, ready, and quickly being able to flow u.s. forces into the peninsula if kim jong-un decides he wants to move ahead with his capabilities some day. alisyn, erica. >> barbara, thank you for that. we have david gregory and "new york times"

. >> nick, i'm going to start with you here, because this appears to be tough talk from mattis and on the other hand you have president trump seemingly changing his tone on the meeting, saying it's a get to know you session, indicating we no longer want to use the phrase maximum pressure campaign. do you feel they're edging toward a watered down deal? >> certainly that's a concern that secretary mattis was trying to address with some of the united states allies when he was speaking there in singapore and he did have a one-on-one meeting with japan's defense minister who had believe previously said on saturday, what are we supposed to understand? is it maximum pressure or are there still sanctions and the japanese defense minister also pointed out that kim jong-un is coming to the table without putting anything on it, as president trump says is getting to know you, the japanese position on this and they're an important u.s. ally here, there should be verifiable -- so there is real concern but the way that secretary mattis shapes this, he said, ok, the strength of our security is in tru

james mattis is back in the united states after talking north korea denuclearization with world leaders mattis making his own trip to singapore ahead of the june 12th summit as syria looks to get involved. garrett tenney live in washington, d.c. with the latest. good morning, garrett. >> the security conference in singapore was separate from upcoming summit, secretary mattis said north korea was what everyone was talking about. despite the progress that's been made on the progress, mattis warned cownts parts that gotiations with north korea would be bumpy road. at meeting with defense officialsm and japan, the u.s. and allies need to keep the pressure on and maintain a strong defensive stance throughout the negotiations so that diplomats can negotiate from a position strength. >> we must remain vigilant and we will continue to implement all un security council resolutions on north korea. north korea will receive relief only when it demonstrates a verifiable and irreversible steps to denuclearization. >> just over a week before the summit, the white house continues to tamp down expectati

how are you working with secretary mattis? >> that's a great question.he range of instrument alitys, the scope of the battle field has changed with the advent of cyber activity. the good news is the united states is unrivaled in our capacity to identify bad behaviors. it doesn't mean we pick them all up or we can't be misled. but we have incredible cyber teams both in the department of defense and elsewhere. who are watching. they're watching what folks are doing around the world in cyberspace. we have the capacity to respond. as a diplomat, one of the fundamental things that secretary mattis and i both agree on is that a cyber attack does not necessarily need to be responded to only through a cyber means. if they engage in something that becomes a true act of war, then the response is that the united states needs to take -- aren't limited to just a cyber response. there will be times when the united states government decides that's the most appropriate place because you can in fact, do it quietly. you can respond in the cyber world by sending a message

that is the minister of defense, their general mattis if you will. i would look at this, loo at g ws leaving. this guy, 68 years old, old guard four-star communist general of the new guy, chol, a 3-star general, only 38 years of age. also, neil a member the politburo. more politically savvy. asian media calling him moderate. that these three new leaders have more quote, flexibility and thinking. they're more savvy. i would point to the minister of defense. people closer, and closer not in certainly closer in age to kim jong-un. neil: you know, i'm glad you pointed out, secretary, this is something happened technically a couple weeks ago here. maybe greasing the skids for this trip but i'm also curious what your thoughts are, what will be busy travel plans on the part of kim jong-un? not only going to singapore in eight days but apparently intent on visiting russia. he has an open invite from vladmir putin, i guess somim this fall. he will eta people in leader assad.luding, syria's what do you make of this? >> always count on putin and russians to eng

defense secretary james mattis. he has been characterized by some as one of the few so-called adults in the room able to constrain some of the president's worst instincts. but nbc reports that in recent months the president has cooled in mattis, in part because he has come to believe the defense secretary looks down on him and slow walks some of his policies. the president may have cared more about the reaction from a different audience. >> we're reopening nasa. we're going to be going to space. >> space force, space force! >> space force. space force. >> space force, space force. in point of fact, nasa was never closed. they're not reopening. mattis is not just being left out of the loop on the president's big plans for space travel, the according to reporting the defense secretary was excluded from the nuclear standoff with north korea. >> we will be stopping the war games which will save us a tremendous amount of money. i think it's inappropriate to be having war games. so number one, we save money, a lot. and nu

today secretary mattis warned there will be consequences for china's actions. particularly given his present recently promised he would not do the very thing that he is been caught doing. >> despite china's claims to the contrary the placement of these weapon systems is tied directly to military use for the purposes of intimidation and coercion. china's militarization of this is also in direct contradiction to the presidents 2015 public assurances and the white house rose garden. >> regarding the upcoming summit, james mattis says u.s. demands a nuclear free north korea. he reiterated that moving u.s. troops stationed in south korea would not be on the table as part of a negotiation. that is something that the north is previously pushed for. president trump seemed to open the door to that last month as well when he ordered the pentagon to come up with options for reducing u.s. forces in south korea. that is just one of the many issues the two sides are trying to work out over the next 10 days before the summit. in both countries they delegations meeting in sing

-north korean summit, mattis said changing the status of u.s. troops in south korea will not be on the table, and he promised agin that the goal is to remove all nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction. >> our objectives remain as stated by minister onodera-- the complete, verifiable andve irible denuclearization and removal of all w.m.d. on the korean peninsula. >> sreenivasan: sociaz st pedro sancs sworn in as the new prime minister of spain today, replacing conservative mariano rajoy, who steppedown yesterday following a no- confidence vote. the 46-year-old sanchez was sworn in by king felipe with his right hand on the constitution, the first timeus bible was not in the ceremony. sanchez's socialist workers' party holds only 84 seats in spain's 350-seat assembly chamber. he is forming a new government with the support of six smaller parties. sanchez faces an unresolved independence movement in catalonia, where a new nationalist government was also sworn in today. late yesterday afternoon, missouri's governor resigned and lieutenant govn

the defence secretary, jim mattis, has been outlining the details.hose will be the two bases, and apple base and fort bliss i cannot confirm the specifics on how they will be used. we will provide whatever support the department of homeland security needs to house the people that they have under their custody. we will work that out week by week, the numbers, of italy, i dynamic, so we will have used a flexible in our logistics support for the department of homeland security. that was two matters. —— jim mattis. 0ur correspondent david willis is in los angeles. we are not clear how these cattle were? we are not. few details for the defence department and the department of homeland security, which looks after immigration matters. the defence secretary, jim mattis, said we saying that he was providing logistical support, as he put it, for the department of homeland security. but these two texan military facilities are ready to receive immigrants. people caught at the border. but followed the executive order last week which demands that families be kept

sanctions relief after it takes verifiable and irreversible steps towards denuclearize ation james mattis has been meeting with the south korean and japanese counterparts in singapore to discuss the upcoming summit between donald trump and north korea's leader. thousands of people in gaza have attended the funeral of twenty one year old palestinian medical jargon was shot dead by israeli forces of the gaza border she'd been volunteering since the weekly demonstrations began in march. pro-government forces backed by the saudi led coalition are closing in on a major rebel held port in yemen a battle that could reshape the course of the civil war more than one hundred soldiers and rebels have reportedly been killed in less than a week of fighting the. government troops are preparing to launch an all out assault on the already driven the rebels from dozens of nearby towns and villages aid agencies are warning of a humanitarian disaster. data lies two hundred thirty kilometers away from santa which the houthi seized in two thousand and fourteen but it's the city's location on the red sea that

>> there's an important clarification that secretary mattis made today. there are currently 28,000 american troops stationed in south korea and in previous negotiations the north has pushed for the u.s. to remove its forces from the korean not even a month ago president trump appeared to be considering that idea as well when he ordered the pentagon to come up with options for reducing u.s. forces in south korea. today, though, secretary mattis said those options would only be considered down the road after north korea makes significant changes. >> -- we can reduce the threat, restore measures with something verifiable, then of course these kinds of issues could come up subsequently, that issue was not on the table here in singapore. >> secretary mattis also had some tough words for china today on the disputed south china sea. he promised there would be consequences. further complicating the u.s. china relationship are the ongoing negotiations over trade and the looming trade war which has been put on hold. those issues are important because china is going

i think a lot of secretary mattis. that said, i also said if you're going to appoint someone out of military life, they have to go above and beyond. they have to be very obvious about the degree to which they're going to go outside their network to bring civilians inside the system. and i think that by that measure, the department's not doing well. all indicators are that it's relying very little on those career people, also patriots, also people who will do capable with a skill set. and that's very worrisome to me. and i think what happened in niger, what has happened in terms of we've had a naval vessel issue in the south pacific. i think there are cases you can point to the see real effects of when you do not have a functioning process that brings in fully those viewpoints that the military right ffully is no trained -- they have a specialty too. i am hopeful with the state department potentially kind of racing its voice -- not getting into the policy from secretary pompeo, but i do think secretary mattis has always