ambassador michael mcfaul was there when russia and moscow hit the rocks and we got his insider take on putin and where it all went wrong. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> welcome to the program, everyone. i'm christiane amanpour in london. it may not be the cold war all over again, but a new kind of ideological war is afoot, this time instead of communism versus capitalism, it is autocracy versus democracy. it is playing out all over the globe increasingly with authoritarian governments gaining places like poland, hungary, the philippines, turkey, all key u.s. allies. some even say donald trump himself remits the strong man syndrome. russia and america are again the main players locked in this struggle. as america's man in moscow under president obama, michael mcfaul had a ringside seat to all this action. he was the architect of the famous reset policy. but by the time he got to russia as ambassador, that idea was going up in smoke. mcfaul's new book about being in the room where it happened, often with putin is called, from cold war to hot peace. he joined me from stanford university in california to dis

i want to turn now to ambassador michael mcfaul, u.s.assador to russia when president obama was in office. cory shockey, as well, adviser when john mccain sought presidency in 2008. cory, you tweeted today you sailed on the ship "john mccain" in 2008 and you're better for it. what was that voyage like, and what made you decide to sign up? >> well, i so admired senator mccain's insistence if we were going to fight wars we ought actually to win them. and so i didn't know him when i hired on to the campaign. and i have to say, i admired him more at the end of that grueling campaign that he lost than i did at the start. >> why is that? explain that a little bit. talk about the evolution that you saw unfold there over the course of that campaign, cory. >> yeah. well, john's fundamental decency. is unwillingness to let some people who wanted to support him in ways he thought were bad for the country, either by trying to make race an issue or trying to suggest that president obama was somehow unfit. and john's insistence that he disagreed with

ambassador to russia, michael mcfaul is here, everybody.e is one of the people president trump almost agreed to hand over to vladimir putin to intergate. yeah, so putin couldn't get him to talk but i will. but first, let's catch up on today's headlines. >> let's start off in europe where the french have officially declared war on leiphone. >> france has banned the use of smart devices in schools, children between the ages of three and 15 will have to sleeve their smartphones and tablets home or turn them off during school hours. students 15 and old ker use their devices. france's education minister says the law protects students from screen addiction. the ban starts in september and fulfills the president's campaign promise. >> trevor: that's right. french kids won't be allowed to have smartphones in school. but don't worry they will still be allowed to smoke cigarettes. i can just see their teachers like pierre, put down your phone an finish drinking your wine. but professor, it is a 2014 cabarnet, that was an off year. i don't care. we mu

named several americans whom they want to question, including former ambassador to russia michael mcfaules the president support that idea? is he open to having u.s. officials questioned by russia? >> the president is going to meet with his team and we'll let you know when we have an announcement on that. >> stephen: of course, the state department... what's the word... went ape( bleep ). ( laughter and applause ) is that the word? is that the word? >> jon: that's the word. >> stephen: not sure. it's two words. >> jon: put them together. >> stephen: one current u.s. diplomat said, "the president has first and foremost his interests at the top of his mind, as opposed to the government's. that's very clear, between ( bleep ) on our nato allies and kissing putin's ass. either he's compromised by putin or he's a pussy, in which case he should grab himself." ( cheers and applause ) >> jon: oh, snap! oh, oh, oh! woo! woo! >> stephen: yeah, i know. and that's from a diplomat-- ( laughter ) --so, by definition, that's the most diplomatic way to put it. but it's not just diplomats who are shocked

[applause] michael mcfaul: hello, everyone.ria duffy: joining us this evening is former ambassador to russia, michael mcfaul. he is a longtime scholar of russia and the other former soviet states. he studied at stanford and then at oxford as a rhodes scholar. he was deeeply committed to bringing about democratic change in the soviet union as it crumbled in the early 1990s. he worked with the u.s. national democratic institute and democratic parties and groups in russia on election strategy and political reform during the time when it seemed possible that russia would become a more that russia would become a more democratic society. he was

ambassador mcfaul's revelations about spy novels. we've had quite a show tonight.u again tomorrow. you can tune into the beat" at 6:00 p.m. eastern tomorrow. i will be joined by john podesta and eddy griffin. something else we're looking forward to, it is time for the last word with lawrence o'donnell. good evening, lawrence. >> i'm glad you covered the jim jordan case. we haven't had a spot to squeeze it into in the show, but i certainly have been tweeting about it. the day will come in these civil lawsuits about it where he is going to find himself under oath in a deposition at some point about this. >> you make that point. and i think the corollary to paterno, which was a cultural moment before the current me, too era is another where if there's as actual process and people have to tell the truth because they're under pressure, the old history comes back and that's what's so fascinating or disturbing about the way he seems at least right now uninterested in doing any of that reckoning. it is an important story. >> yeah. the paterno model has to be what everyone

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joining us now, michael mcfaul, former u.s. ambassador to russia.n't it always been extremely dangerous to be a spy in russia or a source that's close to putin? what's made it more dangerous? >> well, the answer to your first question, of course, is yes. extremely dangerous. and, you know, what has changed, i don't know. i mean, the reporting was quite extraordinary to me. i'm wondering how do we know this, who are these american officials telling this story. it doesn't sound like it was coming from those directly involved. and, you know, i just have to trust that they know that for a fact. i mean, the theory that you just described and what's described in the story could make sense, but there could be alternative theories, too, as to why this line of inquiry, this line of information is no longer producing in the way it did before. >> everything about the story is strange, the fact it is a news story that someone is a source for it. it makes me wonder is it true and what would be the purpose of telling this story. i mean, it's got to be difficult t

we talk a good bit about how putin loathed ambassador mcfaul, but i think if you lined mcfaul's wordsp next to john bolton's, bolton's would be just as tough or perhaps even tougher if we can even imagine that. and then you look at what john bolton said about north korea, basically came out and said, yeah, they're doing nothing on nuclear weapons. they're continuing to move forward and not adhering to any promises they made. that's exactly what you expect from a john bolton outside of the government but we're hearing it from john bolton inside the government. what can you tell us about this relationship, this tough anti-communist hawk, anti-north korean hawk, anti-iranian hawk? how is that relationship working out with donald trump? is donald trump obsequiously says he'll talk to the iranians without preconditions and not from a position of strength. he's obsequious in front of kim jong-un and obsequious in front of kim jong-un? word of the morning, obsequious. >> it's one of the conundrums of president trump and his team of advisers. he seems to be happy with ambassador bolton. you'r