as america's man in moscow under president obama, michael mcfaul had a ringside seat to all this actionas 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 discuss this. >>> ambassador mcfaul, welcome to the program. >> thanks for having me. >> so, hot peace, describe what you mean by that. i ask you because other than saying perhaps we're on the brink of some kind of hot war. >> i don't think we're on the brink of a hot war. thankfully both vladimir putin and president trump want to avoid that and i think what we saw in syria showed real de-escalation and trying to avoid that. but as you just said in your introduction, it is a very confrontational moment. i call it the hot peace to echo that there are elements like the cold war, but there are some new elements in this confrontation that are even more sin tister, would argue than the cold war. du

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

specifically, obama's ambassador to moscow, michael mcfaul, a nemesis of the kremlin because of his criticismsrussia's human rights record. that idea is obviously ridiculous... so, they're thinking about it. >> russian authorities yesterday named several americans whom they want to question, including former ambassador to russia michael mcfaul. does 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."

[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

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michael mcfaul, former ambassador tore russia under the obama administration joins me.ss we should start with, when did you first learn about this and based on your knowledge of this embassy, where does this person fit? >> well, i only learned about it when press reporters started poking around about it. i did not know about it when i was ambassador. it sounds like this woman worked for me when i was there. i don't remember her or recall her. obviously, this is not good news. we don't want to have people working for the fsb inside the embassy. interacting with people, having access to information. there is good news. i think it's highly unlikely she had access to classified information. that are just does happen in the embassy for russians for foreign nashs working there. but because she worked for the secret service as you just alluded to, she probably would have access to the schedules of people like the vice president and president. that obviously is not good. >> walk us through where this fits on the spectrum of expected, possible, low risk, impossible. you operated

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

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