unconstrained arrangement which is a huge problem for us for europe and for the world but hold on mr blank you may have forgotten but it was the administration you worked for the obama administration which was very proud of forging the so-called european consensus on sanctions against russia back in two thousand and fourteen and the rationale back down was that. russia in your eyes violated certain norms of behavior and needed to be signed a signal that this is not the way you conduct yourself on the international arena now we now have the united states which clearly violated its obligations to reach is involved in behavior that you clearly disapprove of you made it very clear throughout this program which also leads to an increase in confrontation in the middle east should the united states be sent a similar. signaled that this is not the kind of behavior that. its european allies welcome on the international arena. leaders around the world including from our closest allies have condemned this decision and the very fact that europe has now shifted from negotiating with the united states t

state department chords in a dairy free run you claim plantation mr blank it's so good to talk to you thank you very much for finding time for us thank you now i'm sure you are greatly disappointed by present trends decision to wire walk away from the day c b o eight but hopefully there is still some room for damage control how much of a do you believe can still be salvaged well i suppose you can call damage control there from the u.s. perspective no good outcomes here one possibility is that the path that we're currently on the successful and that's that immediately after president trumps announcement president rouhani said ok we're going to stay in the deal for a little while and give time for the other participants mainly the three european countries to see what they can offer us to make it worth our while to stay in long term that could succeed it would be good from the perspective that would keep her on the nuclear program under control and under inspection but it would leave the united states very isolated and europe for the position to confront other problematic iranian policie

state department coordinator for iran equally implementations mr blank just before the break we talked about the european the reaction to trump's decision and let me ask you a few questions about russia as you may. magine many people in moscow are very very skeptical of all the speculations about trump's supposed collusion with the kremlin but given where we are with the reigning nuclear issue trumps rebuke of both american obligations and to your european allies don't you wish moscow had some leverage sumber of poor with this administration well if you. on the collision question i'll just say. we don't know whether or not laws what specific laws might have been violated in the united states we don't know what president trump himself knew what is out in the public though obviously demonstrates that the trump campaign colluded with russian actor is in a way that is deeply disturbing for for america i don't want to make it have this discussion about the russian collision but what is out in the public at this point of time is the indictment of thirteen russian nationals who tried to do so

to have to look at this and decide how to respond in order to protect their own console and yet mr blank you suggested before that in the event of troops pull out your of will likely side with the united states even if it blames the current administration for ruining this deal and if it does i think the european leaders will essentially have to accept that their level of credibility is the same as trump is that they are moral equals and i personally don't think there's much trouble on that side of as far as the u.k. is concerned but when it comes to germany when it comes to france do you think they can afford it from a moral point of view do you think chancellor merkel for one can bring herself to be seen as standing shoulder to shoulder with trump and that well first of all i think that's a little bit unfair trump is the trump is the actor he's. the decision maker in this terrible decision the european leaders are now stuck with a series of very uncomfortable dilemmas that they will need to resolve but but they're not the ones who created this disaster what i wrote though is that if ira

state department chords in a very very raw new claim from mentation mr blank it's so good to talk to you thank you very much for finding time for us thank you now i'm sure you are greatly disappointed by president terms decision to walk walk away from the j.c.b. zero eight but hopefully there is still some room for damage control how much of it do you believe can still be salvaged well i suppose you could call damage control there from the u.s. perspective no good outcomes here one possibility is that the path that we're currently on the successful and that's that immediately after president trumps announcement president rouhani said ok we're going to stay in the deal for a little while and give time for the other participants mainly the three european countries to see what they can offer us to make it worth our while to stay in long term that could succeed it would be good from the perspective that would keep her on the nuclear program under control and under inspection but it would leave the united states very isolated and europe for the position to confront other problematic irani

to have to look at this and decide how to respond in order to protect their own control and yet mr blank you suggested before that in the event of trying to pull out your of will likely side with the united states even if it blames the current administration for ruining this deal and if it does i think the european leaders will essentially have to accept that the level of credibility is the same as trump is that they are moral equals and i personally don't think there's much trouble on that side as far as the u.k. is concerned but when it comes to germany when it comes to france. do you think they can afford it from a moral point of view do you think chancellor merkel for one can bring herself to be seen as standing shoulder to shoulder with trump and that well first of all i think that's a little bit unfair trump is the trump is the actor he is the decision maker in this terrible decision the european leaders are now stuck with a series of very uncomfortable dilemmas that they will need to resolve but but they're not the ones who created this disaster what i wrote though was that if ira

mr. stephen blank. ask your opinion, what do -- [inaudible] the first question? what is -- [inaudible] what is russian influence in south africa and what is the russian presence in djibouti. >> in djibouti, they are part of the international naval flotilla that is conducting anti-private operations under u.n. mandate that many governments have naval forces out there and they're working -- antipyretic -- working to clear the indian ocean of pirates. that's an internationally recognized mandate. i haven't seen any real evidence of what they're doing in djibouti. the americans are there and the chinese are there, those are the two biggest participants. in south africa, as you know the bricks meeting just finished in south africa last week. they have a lot of economic influence, trying to gain more, try to sell them nuclear power. they have economic deals and probably a lot of mining and dine operations going on involving russian cooperation as well. south africa and russia are very friendly. i would not be surprised if there are operations, commercial operations goi

mr. blake, blank, you mentioned that russia's unlawful influencing very much in latin america picky mentionargentina. i like to know if you know what of the countries this is happening? >> okay. venezuela for sure. they tried this in ecuador. i think it is still in ecuador. nicaragua and, of course, cuba. >> south america. >> venezuela certainly large russian presidents although it may have been this fashion may have diminished because there's not much with the gdufa. they have tried in ecuador. they tried ten years ago, for example, they had this major program that was one that was caught trying to run weapons -- columbia but they're trying to get intelligence cooperation and information networks with venezuela and ecuador was about the leftist government against colombia, our main ally in the part of water in terms of argentina, 2014 they had the networks on argentina television rt. i think this all of the present in argentina but the code is completely different and the circumstances are not much different. >> thank you. not that much all over south america. one more question. to the gen

so don mcgahn is filling in the blanks that donald trump has left out there on the advice of mr.ani. secondly, it's really important because, and perhaps most important because of the effect it has on others. people no doubt who have been involved in all these matters are observing the white house counsel himself giving testimony. if there's anything untoward going on, and i'm not suggesting that mcgahn's testimony proves that, but if there is, others have to be standing by watching this and thinking, i don't want to be the last one standing. i don't want to be the last one to cooperate with the special counsel. i think what you're going to see here is frankly a rush to the door of the special counsel so that people who may have concerns about what they know, what they've observed are themselves being forthcoming with the investigation. >> so when rudy giuliani says, you know, he thinks he knows how don mcgahn would have testified and he believes that he is is a strong witness for the president, is that wishful thinking? because don mcgahn is under oath when testifying or being q

showed him just like them bangs the rings and up to one seemed to go blank i'd snipe at benson as no goalie but called my pa looking young. mrs non-bank i was there because this is going to be said to be among a growing number of victims the banks do. when all these knocks out never. never broke the endless why. are these banks. the commandoes paghman in the us neville names on david's mannish do not like his dementia to. be puzzled died from session million mobile data and nods. no i don't like a in our survey is not a poll darvon alida put out but all books basic. knowledge may be homebodies and. they'd sell it out in a zombie take skimming business novels lego's but never actually going to conduct. interpol's by getting a big public event of both noses and. destruct enough not a quick google. promise on bad just now. biceps again mostly because the got close to get that supper together was in one extent. calls the sleds guys. these mannish. mining because the north it's what i sent out on the in the among. them there was that a boy with long slacks. let me some lesson task be time for connla you must notepads evolving pass

mr. director, do you remember that trip to islamabad back in '07. do you recall the meeting with and fill in the blank, because the historical record, the written record isn't quite clear, and they want to kind of plum your memory to make sure they have a good position when it comes to talking to pakistanis. in other case, i've called folks in and said this one's got me stumped. have you ever seen this before? is this new? or is it just new to me? and you ask these good folks who offer you advice. >> the recording by jim sciutto that the president did not consult with the current director of national intelligence, dan coats on this, does that surprise you? i mean is that -- if this really is a legitimate review based on national security issues, is he somebody who could be kind of looped in? >> let me give you an odd answer, anderson. it shocked me and did not surprise me. it shocked me that this would be done without any sense of process, but it did not surprise me because frankly, i -- i don't want to imply anything with the current leadership, but frankly, i can't imagine senator coats or director

blank. >> he's trumped on power, he really is. and i think he's abusing the powers of that office. i think right now this country is a in a crisis in terms of what mrle to do. >> what is most interesting in the rebuke from all the former intelligence issues is many of them actually take issues with john brennen. many of them thin he's a paid contributor now on msnbc, but they think the big question is not what john brennen says but this is america and he has a constitutional right to free speech and the white house says it's because of the things he says on television. the president may clear that interview with you but it's got nothing to do with that or it's secondary. brennen was there at the beginning. >> my colleague peter nicholas gave him a broad open ended question that pulled him into the oval office. this was announced today, what do you think about it, and what was striking the president immediately went to brennen's connection to the russian interference issue which has frustrated him from almost day one and continues, you know, this morning. when the announcement was made there was a lot of criticism that this was made in order to dive