mr. tillerson is a decent man. probably not the right man for the job for a variety of reasons but humiliating someone actually not only humiliates the person but it can send a signal to the rest of the government about the instability in the white house. host: we are joined by gary schmitt, the codirector of the atter for security studies the american enterprise institute as well as the former executive director of the white house for an intelligence advisory board. we are talking about the national security team. and the shakeup within. democrats can call 202- 748-8000. you talked a little bit about whether or not rex tillerson was right for the job as secretary of state in the first place. he had the backing of former republican officials such as former secretary of state condoleezza rice, former -- formerly head of exxon. why was he not a great fit at the top of foggy bottom? >> first of all, he had never been in d.c. being inside the beltway experience does matter. i do not think he had a particularly strong f

mr. tillerson as a decent human being but he was probably a fish out of water. host: let's take a look at a bit of secretary tillerson's fail where -- farewell address after news of his firing broke. [video clip] much work remains to respond to the troubling actions on the part of the russian government. how itsust assess actions are in the best interest of the russian people and the world more broadly, continuing on their current trajectory is likely to lead to greater isolation on their part, a situation with just not in anyone's interest. to my colleagues in the state department, much remains to be done to achieve our mission on behalf of the american people, with allies and with partners. by thanking -- for the privilege of serving by you. the 300 million americans, thank you for your devotion to a ofe and open society, to ask kindness toward one another, to honesty and the quiet hard work you do every day to support this government with your tax dollars. all of us want to leave this place as a better place for the next generation. i will now return to privat

guess that the relationship between russia and the united states is likely to get worse given that mr tillerson replacement mike pompei o agrees with the cia's assessment the russia did interfere in u.s. elections in twenty sixteen. yeah i agree with you i think mr when you when you ask here people who work for the family and they just say he is a cold warrior he things that russia is not apartment to solve international problems of syria in the ukraine and in other parts of the world. mr peo thinks that russia is the enemy the enemy number one and for that reason i don't think that the rationing ship is going to improve and i think the russians on the stand very well that president trump may still want to improve the russian ship with russia this may still be his aim his goal but on the other hand the russians understand that the mood in congress right now is. not. operative to put it in a nutshell it's not likely that the relationship between russia and. the u.s. is going to improve just because of congress the congress is still. the vast majority of congressman still don't think that. russia

mr. tillerson: for those of you gathered here today, i truly appreciate the opportunity to bid you a proper farewell. first, i must thank each and every one of you for the role you play in enabling the state department to lead our foreign policy efforts and conduct the steady diplomacy that is the work of the department on behalf of the american people. none of this is possible without your daily contributions. from the mailroom to the seventh floor and all points in between. and all of our missions abroad, our local employed staff, our e.f.m.'s, eligible family members, to our ambassadors and chief of mission. everyone is important to the delivery of the mission of the state department. in preparing for the transition to the secretary designate, i compiled all the policy decks that were developed by you and your colleagues that were first the basis for discussions at the national security council and ultimately with the president. these decks of which i counted 13 since february 1, 2017, provide not only the policy basis but the strategies and tactics which guide the department's execution

jerry of state rex tillerson there was no phone call from the white house mr tillerson found out just like you and i did tonight terminations by tweet america's top diplomat sacked and blindsided europe in asia are their eyes open for what could come next i'm broke off in berlin this is the day. i really didn't discuss it very much with them honestly i made that decision by myself really it was a different mindset it was a different take but you look at the run deal i think it's terrible i guess it was ok. or like the time. prevented you from and this is the last always on the same wavelength. relate to this very day that secretary of state i think record will be much happier now. or we begin the day with this headline from the news magazine the atlantic from one week a good how did it rex tillerson manage to keep his job well the headlines today he did. if you were wondering what the letter of terminations from the oval office of u.s. president trump looks lie well this is it a tweet cia director mike on pay it will become the secretary of state and the third sentence there mentions

in terms of policy mr tillerson advised mr trump on issues that by and large had an establishment linelomacy of aggressive statements, he worked on that hard, especially with the north korea campaign to isolated diplomatically. but his successor has quite a different approach. he has quite a different approach. he has been hawkish on iran for example. this is mike pompeo. he has also been more belligerent rhetorically on north korea, so he will handle those files now as secretary of state. we will see how key changes but his pass suggests he will have a different approach, one more in line with mr trump's instincts. and how do you imagine that the run—up to this incredibly important north korean summit will go? that is the question, even before rex tillerson left there was the question of how this could be prepared in such a short time with no ground work done on diplomacy, even as rex tillerson was coming back from a trip to africa, he arrived this morning, just hours before he was fired, talking about that, saying he had great experience in these negotiations, he knew how to get disp

on a flight back from africa, mr tillerson appears to have gone further than that. while he was talking to reporters, he basically said that he was extremely concerned about russia and said having spent the first year in office trying to reach agreement on various things with the russian government, it appeared that those efforts have really come to nothing and that, as he put it, what the us had seen instead was a pivot on russia's part to be more aggressive. for more on this i spoke a little earlier to oleg kalugin, a former member of the kgb, overseeing counter— intelligence activities in the 1980s. i asked him for his reaction to the uk government's response. it is too early to judge about what really happened. when i worked for state security in tehran for the kgb for many years a number of things happened in my time. in my post kgb life i recall the death of litvinenko, alexander, in london, who was poisoned by the russians and i know the reasons why.

theory of state rex tillerson there was no phone call from the white house mr tillerson found out just like you and i did tonight terminations by tweet america's top diplomat sacked and blindsided europe in asia are their eyes open for what could come next i'm breaking off in berlin this is the day. in real. life really didn't discuss it very much honestly i made that decision by myself really it was a different mindset it was a different thing but you look at iran i think it's terrible i guess you don't. like something. like the. tremendous energy for this. this. relates to people's job well the headlines today he did it if you will wondering what letter of terminations from the oval office of u.s. president from books line well this is it a tweet cia director mike pompei will become the secretary of state and the third sentence there mentions i think you to rex tillerson for his service now tillerson have never been very tight last year the secretary of state was quoted calling his boss the president a moral tillerson never denied that report but rumors of tiller's ins imminent sacki

the state department said mr tillerson had not spoken to the president and was "unaware of the reason is philipj crowley — former us. assistant secretary of state and author of red line: american foreign policy in a time of fractured politics and failing states. we will come to the method of the dismissal in a moment but can i ask you first about the significance of the sacking in itself is far as american policy and its status in the world is concerned. american policy and its status in the world is concernedlj american policy and its status in the world is concerned. i do not think we were surprised that the break—up occurred. there was tension in that relationship and it has been visible in washington for months. i think that the timing is remarkable given that it comes on the heels of the president‘s and bolts of decision to meet in the coming weeks with the north korean leader. — impulse of decision. i think mike pompeo has been clearly focused on north korea and he could make the lea p north korea and he could make the leap from langley to foggy bottom. but in terms of assessing

gary of state rex tillerson there was no phone call from the white house mr tillerson found out just like you and i did tonight determination by tweet america's top diplomat sacked and blindsided europe in asia are their eyes open for what could come next i'm broke off in berlin this is the day. with. like really didn't discuss it very much with them honestly i've made that decision by myself really it was a different mindset it was a different thing when you look at iran i think it's terrible i guess it was ok. with my pump now or like the time. prevent this energy from and this is the lack of going to save weight like. the relationship is a very good that was the secretary of state i think rick will be much happier now. or we begin the day with this headline from the news magazine the atlantic from one week a good how did rex tillerson manage to keep his job where the headlines today he did. if you were wondering what the letter of terminations from the oval office of u.s. president from looks like well this is it a tweet cia director might bump a will become the secretary of state

by your prior commentator mr pompei always had disagreements with mr trump every bit as much as mr tillerson especially on russian involvement or attempt to influence the two thousand and sixteen elections now mr trump said he parted company with mr tillotson over iran but if there's anything that tom's been more emphatic on than any other issue in his entire presidency that there was no collusion that he believed that it bled a mere putin when he said we did try to be involved so we already have the stage set for perhaps another fiery because we know this issue. russian involvement is not going away it's not only before the special counsel mr mohler it's before the house and senate committees even though one all right seems to have concluded a prius let me let me jump in may be called as a witness let me jump in there and let me get you to focus in on that on the north korea meeting because apparently it is because of the proximity of the date by which this meeting needs to take place that the shuffling of the cards has taken place if you're from what you're saying it's actually a rather le

correspondent in los angeles, david willis, gave me his assessment of donald trump's reasons for sacking mr tillersonfavour, rico, for months. he and president trump didn't agree on a whole range of issues, among them, the iran nuclear deal, how to deal with north korea, trade tariffs, the paris climate accord, and so on and so on. and then, of course, mr tillerson was forced to give that press conference a few months ago following reports emerging that he called president trump a moron, basically reaffirming that he was supporting president trump. well, now, with those important negotiations with north korea coming up, and indeed negotiations with iran over the nuclear deal, president trump has somebody who basically shares his worldview, to quote him this morning, "someone with a different mindset in office." so, what kind of mindset will the cia director, mike pompeo, bring to thisjob in terms of foreign policy issues? well, mike pompeo is a tea party congressman from kansas. he's said to have won the admiration of donald trump delivering the morning classified briefing three or four times a week.

mr. tillerson was able to come back on the plane.rtually every major issue they've been on opposite sides. whether it was the paris climate dale dieh deal, the trade deal, ttp deal. there may be no one to held him no, to contradict him, to tell him he's not going down the right path. that's problematic not having a team. >> we just got word that rex tillerson will make a statement at the top of the hour at the state department, presumably his own reaction to the president's firing. >> i would like to know what that is and whether he takes questions. don't forget, there was the whole controversy -- it seems like yesterday, not too long ago -- where rex tillerson apparently privately called the president a moron. i was told the president never got over that, and rex tillerson, as you know, in repeated interviews, refused to dre directly address it. i've also been told that the president believes that tillerson has been disrespectful and arrogant towards him, and he doesn't like it. whereas somebody like jeff sessions whom he doesn't li

the washington post is saying that mr tillerson was informed last friday and has to cut short a tripa tweet. but to attributed to his comments about russia are perhaps jumping to attributed to his comments about russia are perhapsjumping to conclusions. as worth noting that mr trump himself said in the same press appearance you gave a glimpse of that that he was due to speak to theresa may sometime today. and once the fact been laid out to him, he would decide whether or not it was fairto would decide whether or not it was fair to accuse rasher of being behind it. there has been an assumption when boris johnson behind it. there has been an assumption when borisjohnson i were today was saying he welcomed the strong international support. there is an assumption that he was talking about rex tillerson rather than the white house, it is the white house is notably not named russia so far. indeed, borisjohnson went out of his way to cite what rex tillerson had said about it, and mr tillerson's endorsement of britain seems to be wholehearted, in stark contrast to the deafening silence from

the director of the cia, mike pompeo, has been named as mr tillerson's replacement, as our north americarts. after a long trip to africa glad—handing and promoting the us, rex tillerson flew back to washington overnight. but unbeknown to him, the president had signed his death warrant, and it would be death by tweet. "mike pompeo, director of the cia, will become our new secretary of state. he'll do a fantasticjob. thank you to rex tillerson for his service." but tillerson isn't on twitter, so excruciatingly it fell to his chief of staff to inform him of his demise. there was no contact from the white house, only this afterwards from the president. i think rex will be much happier now, but i really appreciate his service. happier, he didn't seem it. in his farewell statement, he never mentioned donald trump by name, didn't thank him or wish him luck. instead, there were these pointed remarks on russia. much work remains to respond to the troubling behaviour and actions on the part of the russian government. russia must assess carefully as to how its actions are in the best interests of t

mr. tillerson would be repctced by cia di mike pompeo. mr. tillerson famously refused to deny that he once called his boss a moron. he spoke today of maintaining continuity at the state department. issecretary tillerson: wha most important is to ensure an orderl during a time that the country continues to face significant policy and national security challenges. laura: rex tillerson speaking earlier. the buildup up to his departure been aetary of state has long one. our north america editor jon pel explains. jon: rex tillerson was flying back overnight to washington from a long trip to africa when the normally buttoned upet sey of state cut loose with journalists. but unbeknown to him, the president had signed his death warrant, and it would be death by tweet. mike pompeo, director of the cia, will become our new secretary of state -- he will do a fantastic job. thank you to rex tillerson for his service." but tillerson isn't on twitter, so, excruciatingly, it fell to his chief of sff to ring him to inform him of his demise. only this after th

mr. goldstein and the white house. he tried to get tillersont more and he's been on-the-record spokesman for tillerson on these trips. he's been seen as tillerson's voice. when tillerson pushes back on the the president it's usually in steve's name. it doesn't surprise me this has happened. i can speak for experience. i worked for secretary chuck hagel when he worked for president obama. guess who was on the street looking for a new job? when you're a spokesman in this town, you're tied to the principal. when your principal goes, you can expect you're going to go. this was pretty fast, but given the tensions that existed, i'm not surprised. >> i want to read the statement again because it is unusual. mr. goldstein clearly expressing his loyalty to secretary tillerson here and paying a price for it. the secretary had every intention of remaining because of the tangible progress made on critical security issues. he established and enjoyed relationships with his counterparts. the secretary did not speak to the president this morning and is unaware

mr. tillerson: good afternoon, all. i received a call from the president of the united stat to whitehave spoken house chief of staff kelly. what is most important is to assure an orderly and smooth transition during a time when this country faces significant policy and national security challenges. i'm delegating all responsibilities of the office of the secretary to secretary of sullivan.uty stainal day of secretary of 31.ill be march will move and an orderly and smooth transition for secretary mike pompeo. i am ordering those confirmed and in acting positions to stay up there po -- stay at their posts. i will be meeting some members of my front office team to thank them for their service. they have been extraordinarily sion whichto our mis includes promoting values that i see as important. accountability, which means treating each other with honestly and integrity --honesty and integrity, address recently to issues of sexual harassment within the department. i would like to speak to our interagency colleagues and part

mr. tillerson, the president said was not. but here's what mr. tillerson said was one of the issues that the united states has to deal with. it has to deal with china. and fox business last week confirmed that the administration is looking at imposing new tariffs against chinese products as a retaliation for the theft of intellectual property. here's what rex tillerson during the briefing today around 2:00 p.m. >> much work remains to establish a clear view of the nature of our future relationship with china. how should we deal with one another over the next 50 years and ensure a period of prosperity for all of our peoples free of conflict between two very powerful nations. >> now, there was also a statement that was put out this morning by an undersecretary steve goldstein in which he was talking about mr. tillerson had been planning to remain on the job. and was a bit caught by surprise. mr. goldstein was fired for contradicting the white house events. back to you. melissa: wow. adam shapiro, thank you. here to react to all of that, former georg

mr. tillerson was. -- than mr. tillerson was.like the fresh voice in his secretary of state, but in the end, he did not want him to be at odds with himself. he said in the press conference yesterday that mr. tillerson had a different mindset than him. mr. pompeo has a similar mindset. he is a hawk on trade. he has supported the tariffs the president implemented. he is also somebody who will go along with what the president wants. he will not be taking his own views to the world stage, or not being seen as someone who will do that. he needs confirmation from the u.s. senate. matt: is that the key that markets are concerned about, that pompeo goes along with donald trump's protectionist strategy, and that the president surrounds himself with yes-men so that no one disagrees with him? jodi: yes, that is a concern. there are people in this administration who are going along with the president, particularly on things like trade and tariffs and the america first-ism. this is something markets are concerned about. there may be more tari

mr. tillerson wanted a smallerbe michelle's question at a different angle. sure mr. tillerson wanted a smaller staff, but i believe that there are multiple, multiple positions on the state department staff there is no ambassador to south korea right now as i understand it there is no assistant or deputy secretary for east asian affairs. the senior official who knew the most about the bilateral relationship between south korea and north korea recently quit. aren't those absences concerning or are they? >> they are very concerning. and look, it is symptomatic of the larger problem that the secretary had. his board so to speak is the white house. he did not have the confidence of the president or his senior advisers he couldn't get miss ohis own personnel through the political clearance process, so they just allowed to stalemate that makes absolutely no sense to me it didn't really make business sense it certainly doesn't make political sense. and when you are focusing on a r reorganize, that is in the what the secretary ought to be doing. he ought to be outreaching out

differences between the president and his secretary of state the question seemed to be not whether mr tillerson would go but rather when that is absolutely true this speculation that was on his way all it's have been around for many months now having said that the timing of the firing. is all votes surprising even to many observers of the political scene here in washington apparently it had been in the making for a few weeks and we heard today from some insiders with said well we saw it coming but it was a bombshell when it became public today and it was also not the best timing when you look at it to listens trip to africa because he was on a mission to mend fences with important allies such as nigeria kenya and ethiopia after the president himself had been sunsets and african countries and it looks like that the all the branch that rex tillerson had been holding to the african leaders now has been burned by trump i don't think that he cares a lot but definitely this is an all it's timing to fire your secretary of state just hours after he returns from an important foreign trip you know the ve

mr. tillerson. says he thinks mr. tillerson will be much happier now.was a short but tumultuous tenure. kevin: to say the least. according to the public by the state out department, secretary tillerson was caught off guard by president trump's announcement that he would no longer be serving as the nations top foreign diplomat. cia director mike pompeo now takes over that role. this is someone who has a close personal relationship with president trump. there are experiences they bring to the table that are different. source told me that pompeo's experience in the intelligence committee will be leveraged into the findable medic world. in secretary tillerson's case, he brought experience from the corporate world with his business ties. a varied different path in a very different alignment when you talk about policy items like the iran agreement as well as the korean peninsula developments. president trump said that he wants a team in place, a new team in place for the new round of negotiations. we know morale is pretty low with the state department. do we

mr. tillerson. she'll now meet with the deputy secretary of state john sullivan, saying it is important at this time when you have two massive summits coming up, the north-korean summit, u.s.-north korean summit, to keep meeting despite personnel changes. dave? >> a massive agenda for mike pompeo. >>> gina haspel stands to take over the agency. she's a 30-year agency vet and would be the first woman ever to lead the cia. key republican senators want answers about her role in the cia's interrogation and detention program. haspel ran a cia black site prison in thailand in 2002 and later played a role in the cia's destruction of tapes of the interrogations. >>> senator john mccain, a former prisoner of war, says haspel needs to account for her role in what he calls one of the darkest chapters in american history. democratic senator dianne feinstein praises haspel calling her a good deputy director, but says she will wait until confirmation hearings to determine how to vote. the nomination would be in j

mr. tillerson will be taking questions from reporters. but, again, 2:00 eastern, roughly 20 minutes from now, we will hear from rex tillerson for the first time since he found out that he had been fired via twitter by the president of the united states. representative ryan costello is a republican from pennsylvania's sixth congressional district. perhaps you've heard there is a special election that is happening in pennsylvania today. more on that in just a moment. but congressman, let me start with you on the news of the day. does president trump's firing of the secretary of state, does it strengthen this idea that democrats have put forward that this is a chaos president and that their candidates are stability candidates? ultimately making republicans even more vulnerable in races like the ones we're seeing today in pennsylvania? >> well, i think the early news reports may feed into that narrative. more recently in the last couple of hours, craig, i started to gather more news that perhaps former secretary rex tillerson was advised previ

mr. tillerson and the president had a different said.t as president trump it is expected that mike pompeohe is confirmed will hew more to the line that president trump has said in terms of trade him foreign policy. basically with north korea and tariffs. guy: the since is that pompeo is more hawkish. let's take the we can see. he is more aligned with the president. does that mean we are going to see -- how does that affect the north korea story? in theory, the president is on board with talks. the trade story. can we talk about the fact that pompeo is going to be tough on trade? be?tough could he tariff andpports the he is a loyal footsoldier to the president. loyalty is extremely important to donald trump and one of the problems he had with mr. tillerson is he had had made some comments that the president had not cleared such as on north korea. the president was not happy about that. pompeo is someone who's very loyal and who will go along with what the president wants. hisas given the president daily intelligence briefings since he took office and has been a strong bond that has formed.

broke the surprise news on twitter announcing cia director mike pump his new choice and thanking mr tillerson for his service cia deputy director general hospital is the president's preference to take over the agency mr trump has been explaining the changes. i've worked with mike bomb failed now for quite some time. to amend this energy amended in the last year always on the same wavelength. the relationship has been very good that's what i did as secretary of state i wish rex tillerson well gina by the way i know very well who i work very closely will be the first woman director of the cia is that outstanding personal also i have got to tell very well so i've gotten to know a lot of people very well over the last year and i'm really at a point where we're getting very close to having the capital and other things that i want but i think mike pump aoe will be a truly great secretary of state i have total confidence in him and as far as rex tillerson is concerned i very much appreciate his commitment that his service and i wish him well and good bad. rex and i've been talking about this for a l

mr. tillerson's criticism of the closure of the tv stations received?by the kenyan public, it has been received well. it seems the government is still time -- trying to defend its actions. the foreign cabinet secretary said it was a one-off event and overplayed by the international and local media, saying only four of the maybe 10 stations shut down, so it was not really a big deal. but when you look at it, it is the four most critical stations that are most critical to the government compared to the others because the others are owned by the government or play music. they did shut down critical channels of information. the government seems to be defending that move still. phil: not a big deal, despite the fact i recall the kenyan courts ordered the tv stations to be reopened? >> it did. they are still justifying it saying this was a matter of national security given the inauguration. there does not seem to be much remorse. the fact they said it was a one-off event probably shows the government will not try that again given the pressure that came from t

mr. tillerson for his management of the cia, but keep in mind that this white house loves the cia, loves the military, and sees it as part of their political dogma to criticize every other public servant, no matter what kind of sacrifices they've made. >> because, john brennan, that is part of the deep state that the president wants to convince america is going on. you know gina haspel, by the way, the person who will be nominated to be the new cia director. she's going to have a bit of a rough ride, just because of her role in enhanced interrogation or torture. but what do you know about her and what do you think about her? >> i have great respect for gina. she has 33 years of cia experience, both abroad as well as at headquarters. she's somebody who understands the challenges associated with cia work. she has overseen some of the covert action programs. and i fully expect that the senate intelligence committee will give her background appropriate scrutiny when they go through the nomination confirmation process. but gina is somebody who i have great confidence in, can steer the ship of

tillerson and cia director mike pompeo will take his place. michael hanlon is a senior fellow at the brookings institution. we welcome mr. o bloomberg. spend a minute on rex tillerson. he was only there for a year or so. what did he accomplish? michael: he was a steady hand. that's the most positive thing i can say. is in stinks turned out to be pretty good. this was quite a to mulch was year -- his instincts turned out to be pretty good. this was quite a tumultuous year. president trump feels tillerson was off message -- that was usually the president's doing because he would change his own message. we have to give tillerson credit for being a pretty calm hand for avoiding an exacerbation of any ongoing problems. things could have been a lot worse given the way the president wanted to turn the u.s. trade policy claimants trade policy- commitments upside down. i get tillerson credit for stabilizing policy in that area. that: does that mean that influence may be gone with mike pompeo? critics can expect a more radical approach to foreign affairs? michael: tillerson is closer to the centrist view them pompeo -- than pompeo.

remember that earlier on mr bolton interviewed mr trump for being deputy secretary of state under mr tillerson and mr tillotson said no and mr bannon who was the last voice in the trump administration who had any sense of restraint on our military projection of force is now gone and he was the one who killed the bolton nomination to be deputy secretary of state and i think that with mr bolton now taking the national security adviser we're just going to have one policy which is going to be confronted everywhere at all places and all times and diplomacy is going to. say that with the . talks assuming they happen are at that meeting between north korea and the u.s. supposedly a few weeks away what kind of influence do you think john bolton will have over that process. well it may well be that there are no talks that there are no agreement says to the venue or to the circumstances in which verification of any kind of restriction on the nuclear program of north korea occurs it may all fall apart and mr bolton i'm sure is against having the meeting whatsoever and when mr trump just the other day sai

remember that earlier on mr bolton interviewed mr trump for being deputy secretary of state under mr tillerson and mr tillotson said no and mr bannon who was the last voice in the trump administration who had any sense of restraint on our military projection of force is now gone and he was the one who killed the bolton nomination to be deputy secretary of state and i think that with mr bolton now taking the national security adviser we're just going to have one policy which is going to be confronted everywhere at all places and all times and diplomacy is going to take a backseat tell us from says he's open to testifying before u.s. special counsel robert mueller who's investigating possible russian interference in the two thousand and sixteen presidential election the comments come just hours after president's personal lawyer also announced his resignation john dowd had reportedly clash with trump over his handling of mahler's probe patika hayne isolated from washington d.c. . u.s. president donald trump's lawyers have reportedly warned him not to talk to special counsel robert mueller apparen

remember that earlier on mr bolton interviewed mr trump for being deputy secretary of state under mr tillerson and mr tillotson said no and mr bannon who was the last voice in the trump administration who had any sense of restraint on our military projection of force is now gone and he was the one who killed the bolton nomination to be deputy secretary of state and i think that with mr bolton now taking the national security adviser we're just going to have one policy woods is going to be confronted everywhere at all places and all times and diplomacy is going to take a backseat beijing a setback at the u.s. president's order to impose sixty billion dollars worth of tariffs on chinese imports it's planning tariffs on three billion dollars worth of american products including pork and steel trump said on thursday the deficit with beijing was out of control and call for reciprocal trade arrangements trading in u.s. and asian stocks has been volatile because of fears of an all out trade war some people called a mere a tariff or a mere attacks just use the word reciprocal if they charge us we char

mr. tillerson have had a rocky road lately. >> reporter: absolutely, this started last summer when nbc first reported that president trump was called a moron by tillerson. now sources tell nbc today president trump never really got over that. and it's kind of served as this underlying current for the rest of their relationship, making all of their other disagreements that much worse. president trump announcing a major cabinet shakeup. firing his secretary of state, rex tillerson. >> we got along actually quite well. but we disagreed on things. >> reporter: tillerson addressing reporters at the state department today, took no questions, showering thanks on his colleagues but notably not president trump. >> i close by thanking all for the privilege of serving beside you for the last 14 months. >> reporter: white house officials tell nbc news chief of staff john kelly called tillerson over the weekend to break the news while the secretary was touring africa. but the president's twitter announcement today reportedly caught tillerson off guard. the move sudden, but not unexpected, after months of

the director of the cia, mike pompeo, has been named as mr tillerson's replacement. rts. after a long trip to africa glad—handing and promoting the us, rex tillerson flew back to washington overnight. but unbeknown to him, the president had signed his death warrant, and it would be death by tweet. mike pompeo, director of the cia, will become director of the cia. but tillerson isn't on twitter, so excruciatingly it fell to his chief of staff to inform him of his demise. there was no contact from the white house, only this afterwards from the president. i think rex will be much happier now, but i really appreciate his service. happier? he didn't seem it. in his farewell statement, he never mentioned donald trump by name, didn't thank him or wish him luck. instead, there were these pointed remarks on russia. much work remains to respond to the troubling behaviour and actions on the part of the russian government. russia must assess carefully as to how its actions are in the best interests of the russian people, and of the world more broadly. i, rex wayne tillerson, do s

down today except gold including oil and even bit kalina i'm not sure that that's a result of mr tillerson on the other fellow or not anyway danielle de martino booth the author of fed up thank you as always for joining us really much appreciate it my pleasure part thank you. time now for a quick break but hang here because when we return caleb often joins us to talk china in light of a constitutional change which will allow president v. jinping to serve for life and a longer term monumental project known as the built in role that initiative plus manila chair and looks at the infrastructure deficit as it relates to rail and as we go to break here are the numbers at the closing bell. in the heart of the swiss alps this is a place probably more secretive than the pentagon more mysterious than the cia and better guarded than forty six swiss customs place all the site is controlled by them and they impose the opening times. the possibilities from these all plus the procedures in place of the strictest in all europe must to pieces by artists like pecan so i'm modigliani i can't boards and sold

on a flight back from africa, mr tillerson appears to go further than that. said having spent the first year in office trying to reach agreement on various things with the russian government, it appeared those effo rts government, it appeared those efforts had really come to nothing and that, as he put it, what the us had seen instead was a pittayarat on russia‘s part to be more aggressive. —— a pervert. russia is a very heavily involved in us day—to—day politics —— a pivot. early on we had a report from republicans in congress about russian involvement in the last election, it appears as if americans just can‘t get rid of russia? absolutely, yes. in actualfact, the conclusion, or the conclusion anyway by republicans on this particular committee, the house intelligence committee, the house intelligence committee, that there was no collusion between the trump campaign and russia in attempting to sway the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. i have to say that democrats on that committee, which has been very divided along partisan lines, do not agree with

speaking ahead of a visit to six nations on the continent, mr tillerson said chinese investment had theructure, but its approach had led to debt and created few — if any — jobs. additional troops are being deployed to the streets in sri lanka, after reports of further tension between muslims and the buddhist sinhala majority. muslim—owned property has been attacked by buddhists in kandy and the town of ampara. earlier the government announced a state of emergency. a town in the rebel—held enclave of eastern ghouta, near damascus, has reportedly surrendered to syrian government forces. it's thought civilians in hammouriyeh put pressure on the rebels to evacuate the town. it follows reports of a chlorine gas attack in the town overnight. you might remember this photo of a little girl staring up in awe at a new portrait of michelle obama. it was taken by a tourist at the national portrait gallery in washington, dc. well, now the former first lady has met little parker curry. and they had quite a party. mrs obama posted this clip on her twitter feed, saying: "parker, keep on dreaming big fo

and fired us a good theory of state rex tillerson there was no phone call from the white hells mr tillerson found out just like you and i did tonight terminations by tweet america's top diplomat sacked and blindsided europe in asia are their eyes open for what could come next.

mr. tillerson learned of his fate by a tweet. tillerson and the president have been at odds for a number of issues including the iran deal and north korea. there was a perception that tillerson had been disloyal.>> if you go back a little bit when tillerson may have called the president a moron, donald trump will issue out.>> he has nominated mike pompeo to fill his place.>>> there are many wet roads. how does a look? >> i was listening to some radio traffic, there was some flooding has subsided. things to -- seem to be settling down. it is not as bad as yesterday. we will see this commute on the northbound 101. it is a looking good going into logan hill and driving into san jose. people are getting on the road early. morgan hill it looks pretty good as you move -- drive into the main part of the valley. there have been minor accidents. this is 280 at san jose, traffic looks good. as you drive on the westbound bay bridge, ed has been a little bit dicey. traffic is okay -- it has been a little bit dicey. traffic is okay. extra time

the european union's role as european union in all of this has always been very weak even on the mr tillerson. a lot of contacts going on at the moment to see how we can reach some sort of understanding as to how to flank the iran nuclear deal but i think it's very very clear and you've heard this from paris from london from berlin and from brussels for more than of the principles that europe is committed to doing all it can to stick by the deal we do believe in it and i think there's a very robust common foreign policy approach from europe when it comes to the j c p a. now it's important to try to find ways in which we i say we can flank it in the raw things i know that are being worked on at the moment but in terms of aggregating the deal or undermining the deal the hope has got to be that mr pompei a will bring let's say some solid military civilian thinking one thing i would just add to this to what the others have said in this been made the point has been made elsewhere that may be a difficult language with diplomatic language speaking to the u.s. administration now as all of the princip

mr. tillerson was very outspoken and very tough talking about russia, he had a long history in russia.derstood the country and the people. that was viewed as a positive rather than a negative. it's also understood in moscow that the proposed sanctions threat has not been driven by the white house, is coming from congress. that is not going to change with a new secretary of state. they will be nervous until they get the measure -- mark: the relationship between the u.s. and russia at a low. it is certainly at a low. do you see it coming off those lows anytime soon? the repercussions for the investment community. no, i don't of all, see it coming off the lows. it's likely that we will reach new lows. one thing we've heard from the u.s. treasury secretary, that the u.s. is planning to come with new sanctions against russia in the coming weeks. there will be pressure from congress to continue tightening sanctions. that's coming. there's morethat conflict over the nuclear treaty. that could lead to new tensions. of course, this crisis with the u.k., again, that could reinforce the hardline

mr. tillerson for not fighting enough for his own department.e didn't fight the budget >> he tried to hire people that were totally at odds with a lot of the stuff that maybe was coming from -- coming down from the white house. he was a ceo a lot of times you think these guys are operators, managers, they know what they're doing they get in there, someone is telling them what to do, they haven't been told what to do in 40 years >> yeah. >> then they disagree with them, and they sort of work around it, try to do it any way i'm not sure that's -- when you're working for someone, it's hard to be a ceo because you have not worked for someone for so long. >> this depends from case to case i've known a lot of businessmen who came into government we are had a lot of political appointees in the state department some get it. some don't it's a matter of each individual case i just don't think he ended up -- he wasn't comfortable with his governmental kind of approach to things the inner agency process and particularly what it is to recognize that the pres