i was going to i believe that mr bolton is going to take us back to the cold war era and mr trump i think is just going to decide he may say nice things about mr putin but i believe that he will not be able to resist mr bolton in what i call the military industrial complex insistence that they thrive in a cold war atmosphere and that's what we're going to get all right first fine thank you so much for joining us we appreciate it beijing is hit back 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 called for reciprocal trade agreements trading in u.s. an asian stocks has been volatile because of fears have an all out trade war some people call it a mirror tariff or a mirror tax just use the word reciprocal if they charge us we charge them the same thing that's true it's got to be that's not the way it is for many many years for many decades it has not been that way and i wil

john bolton in that position as mr walsh jim walsh in our boston guest suggested. when there are already so many who might see hawks in the continent. the given the set that could give the president the same advice again i think jim walsh was absolutely right on this. to some degree of trump was was going to play the skillfully when he meets with kim jong un in may he bolton's. appointment will be sort of lingering in the background and may provide him with more bargaining leverage right you agree with me or i'm going to start listening to. john bolton and take his advice so if trump is a sort of a skillful deal maker which he's not he says he is but he's not or at least not proven to be thus far then bolton's appointment might conceivably provide some leverage to the administration there's always someone worse out there so you better give me what i want how concerned are you that if trump does have this meeting with kim jong il and comes away empty handed and is then advised that he has to take more severe measures other than sanctions. it's possible. north korea

mr. bolton? >> i do. because on the one, there is one set of concerns which are about his views but then second, the job of the national securitied a v -- secretary advisor is to moderate the policy debate, to sit down there in the white house situation room and have the secretary of defense on one side, secretary of state on the other side, the vice president there and have a free and fair dell lib process about policy. there is nothing in his background that suggestiignifi the temperament he had. he had reputation among very senior people within the bush administration themselves, right? those are some of his biggest critics. i don't think he'll be good at running that process and he's not supposed to have his own views as a national security advisor. he's supposed to be the mediator of the views. you need to start reading a few op eds and appearances over on fox to know that he has very strong views and so i don't think he's a good fit for that particular job. >> one last question for you on the russia

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 apparently feels differently. to testify. you can hear what he said i'd like to but if he does and he lies that is a serious crime possibly an impeachable offense as the investigation begins focusing directly on the president he started for the first time directly targeted on twitter at the

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 charge them the same thing. that's true it's got to be that's not the way it is for many many years for many decades it has not been that way and i will say the people we're negotiating with smilingly they really agree with us i really believe they cannot believe they've gotten away with

mr. bolton had s clashes over u.s.elligence where he was found to be exaggerating this intelligence, one of the incidents back in 2002, where he made a speech about cuba having what he said was developing offensive biological warfare program was disputed by two u.s. intelligence analysts, one attm the state dept, one at the c.i.a. both men and their bosses say mr. bolton tried to have them fired because of their arguments with him over the -- his interpretati of the intelligence. >> woodruff: how did his relationship with the ecintelligence community a the role he played in the runup to the invasion, the war in iraql, >> wrom bolton was a major proponent of the invasion of iraq for -- because, you know, supporting the bush administration's contention that the late dictator saddam hussein had weapons of mass destruction. that case was based on bogus anx gerated intelligence, something i did extensive reporting with my repoing partner warren stroabl. but mr. bolton supported that case. at one point when he was up for con

withdrawn not it not in a mean way i've never seen meanness but i have seen quite a bit of reserve now mr bolton likes to talk a lot about empirical reality and how it often contradicts beautiful aspirations and i think the imperial reality in the world and in the united states has changed quite dramatically since he was last in in the government do you think he's going to be just as hawkish as many people fear him to be as you know the national security adviser is an advisor he has no independent power separate from that of the president and his first job really is to help coordinate the views of the government or at least to try to bring different views to the president's attention in a way they can be discussed and aired out and then to ensure that whatever president trump decides is implemented so he is not an independent voice per se now historically national security advisers have sometimes become very close and very close confidence and advisors to the presidents they served henry kissinger with richard nixon or brant scowcroft with the first president bush but other times they really hav

in the one more question about another reason appointing mr trump a oh we have spoken a lot about mr bolton but didn't have that much time to discuss human particularly he's currently be had of the cia and it's been reported in the russian media the cia and russia's f.s.b. the federal security service the successor of the k.g.b. montane quote unquote an active dialogue and an indirect proof of that would be everything meeting between russia's security and intelligence chiefs with their american counterparts in in washington it looks like compare has already been acting in this squad that a diplomatic capacity even. as they had of the cia yeah you might be right about that i mean we've heard some of those discussions and some of those rumors and learned about some of those meetings to course i don't know the substance of the conversations but i think they may provide an entree into a broader conversation i believe the united states and russia are still going to have a lot of problems in our relationship for a while but we need to start having a broader dialogue about how we see our common fu

little too extreme and he's glad that he heard that opinion but he alternately will not choose it now mr bolton used to be a very very harsh critic of russia but i think that the kind of rhetoric that he used to practice a couple of years ago has now become so mainstream that honestly even to a russian ear he does not. sound too extreme and. you seem to be a bit ambivalent there on the log he's going to contribute to making the u.s. russian relationship more toxic than it already is but i wonder what is your best guess on that yeah i don't know you know right now what's happening in the united states as you're aware is that we have a number of concerns in regard to russia and we're addressing some of the more thoughtfully and more aggressively than others so for example we're worried about russia's potential threats to the baltic states and therefore we have operation atlantic resolve the so-called european deterrence initiative we've got nato forces rotating through poland and. baltics and i think that will continue and that's probably enough to reinforce in your putin's mind the idea that we

mr. hadley. you were national security adviser when john bolton was u.n. ambassador.ike working with him? >> well, john is a very smart, very experienced, very tough guy. he has strong views. but he was i think on balance an asset for the president and executed the guidance he got for the president but he is a very capable fellow. >> what do you think he will be like with president trump? >> well, one of the good things is that the president knows him and seems to be comfortable with him and feels john is more in line with the president's views and the president is the person elected by the american people to set foreign policy. he deserves people around him who think the same way. i think the issue is going to be as national security adviser you have to have a good relationship with the president but you also have to have a good relationship with the other nsc principals, secretary of state, secretary of defense, and in order to do that you need to run a transparent inclusive open process. >> and last year you reportedly warned against bolton serving as deputy secret

mr. bolton had been seen in and around the white house. there were reports about difficulties of style between the president and mr. mcmaster. did all parties involved know this was going to happen now? >> well, you know like with many things involving president trump, the way it unfolded was kind of shocking, but the underlying reality was not surprising. h.r. mcmaster, as you said, has been on thin ice with the president for a long time. newspapers and television channels have forecasted his departure regularly. so the fact that he was leaving was not a surprise. the fact that this happened in as sudden a way that it did i think certainly caught john bolton off guard. he acknowledged when he went on tv, barely an hour after president trump tweeted that the reality hadn't sunk in. this is a guy who had been circling around the white house, a lot of talk about him being on various short lists but i don't think anyone thought it would happen in the abrupt way that it did. but that's the style of president trump, keeping everybody off guard.

mr. bolton support that case. at one point when he was up for confirmation hearings as u.n.assador, which he was neverfo confirme, he was -- i believe there was a written where he was asked if he had ever been investigated while at the state department. he said no, but it later emerged that, in fact, he was questioned by the statet'epartm inspector general's office about the sources of intelligence at the the busath adminisn used for its case to invade iraq. >> woodruff: twother qui things i want to ask you, jonathan landay, one has to do with arms control. how has he dealt with arms control issues? we know that could well be an issue in the next year or so. >> absolutely. mr. bolton has been a fairly strident opponent of many arms control agreements din particular, while he worked in the bush administration as theto arms control official at the state department, he was one of the peoo honchoed the bush administration, the united states' withdrawal of the anti-ballistic missile treaty with russia. >> woodruff: last thing i want to ask is what happened years ago when george w

bolton. talk about that and also talk about what mr. pompeo and mr. bolton bring when it comes to future discussions on the iran nuclear deal. guest: for the first year of the trump residency, there was a sense, after the initial shock when he came in, that the iran deal may be salvaged. proponents of the deal say it was a high water mark for u.s. diplomacy, even if it was controversial and not the perfect deal. obviously, detractors said, no, iran. too good of a deal, there are still a lot of threats besides their nuclear program, including support for terrorism, their ballistic missiles, groups like hezbollah and houthi militants. but there was a sense that the deal could be salvaged, or to clearly because iran was holding up its end of the bargain, straggly speaking. now that pompeo and bolton are coming in, there is widespread consensus that trump is about to pull out of the iran deal. even bob corker, chairman of the senate foreign relations committee, has says he expects trump to pull out, which is the new key deadline in the iran deal recertific

mr. bolton, he's got mr. pompeo, the cia director, who is now moved over to secretary of state. if confirmed, both of them are big opponents of the iran deal, and if the u.s. pulls out of the iran deal, you could imagine us getting back to where we were in 2013-2014 where there was concern about whether the u.s. or israel would take military action. similarly on north korea, you've had mr. bolton say the only way to go deal with the north koreans is to go in, see them, and tell them to turn over all their nuclear infrastructure. that's not going to happen just because you say it, and that could rise to a rapid confrontation as well. >> david sanger, thanks so much. >> thank you, fred. >>> adult film star stormy daniels tells all about her alleged affair with the president. how is the first lady taking all of this? new reporting on melania trump coming up. directv gives you more for your thing. your top-rated thing. that five stars, two thumbs up, 12-out-of-10, would recommend thing. because if you only want the best thing, you get the #1 thing. directv is rated #1 in customer sa

little too extreme and he's glad that he heard that opinion but he alternately will not choose it now mr bolton used to be a very very harsh critic of russia but i think that the kind of rhetoric that he used to practice a couple of years ago has now become so mainstream that honestly even to. russian ear he does not. sound too extreme and. you seem to be a bit ambivalent there on not he is going to contribute to making the us russian relationship more toxic than it already is but i wonder what is your best guess on that yeah i don't know you know right now what's happening in the united states as you're aware is that we have a number of concerns in regard to russia and we're addressing some of them more thoughtfully and more aggressively than others so for example we're worried about russia's potential threats to the baltic states and therefore we have operation atlantic resolve the so-called european deterrence initiative we've got nato forces rotating through poland and the baltics and i think that will continue and that's probably enough to reinforce in your putin's mind the idea that we ar

mr. bolton would have a more hard line on russia? >> i think so. most of us take a harder line with russia than the president has on all of the issues. he has stood up to are russia to be sure, providing lethal aid to the ukrainian, something the previous administration never did. he struck assad's air power, 36 hours after they used chemical weapons, and the chemical weapons had passive approval of the russians of doing that, a client state of russia, and clearly we're now sanctioning russia. but i agree, where the president is in his head with this thing, i think it's a mistake tong he's soft on russia. i don't buy that. what he believes himself is he's itching to get into the room with putin. and the reason for that is he knows putin has manipulated three predecessors quite successfully. i think he believes and i dealt with people like this before. i know where he's coming from, he's a thug and bully, but i don't want to say that in public because i don't want to forfeit my ability to have a conversation with this guy. that's where the president

mr. bolton has never discussed in terms of negotiating with the likes of north korea or iran. >> so then what do you think about john bolton and the timing, him coming in as the national security adviser? this all comes -- it's not as if he's been sidelined by the position that the president is taking here. he knows that. >> hardly, yeah. >> so what is your expectation about how that plays into this, how president trump obviously has got someone who -- there's no one more hawkish on north korea than john bolton. and this is going to be one of his closest advisers at this point in time. >> that's right, brianna. i think in part that may bolster president trump's position. he's already done, i think, a fair bit by really cranking down on some sanctions that the obama administration could have tightened considerably and did not when they were tied up doing other things, including the iran deal. so i think the president deserves some credit for that. but i think there is a concern that mr. bolton wants to have this meeting only to demonstrate that the north koreans really will not denucleari

jump in anytime you want and i always appreciate russia let me go to you first in london we have mr bolton come. national security adviser to donald trump we have mike palm pale leaving the cia going into the state department and there are others in the around trumpet have an intense intense hostility towards iran we also know that it is a little bit a year ago we had. bolton addressing would be. possessors of power after there is forced regime change and by the end of two thousand and nineteen it's very public and we can talk about those people who are what is your are you concerned that there is a concerted planning effort for a significant action against iran including military go ahead rochelle in london it's difficult to say because trump is very very difficult to read and he seems to make policy on the hoof to agree with the last person he spoke to so you can argue this both ways always see john bolton is a fruitcake a complete fruitcake somebody who literally wants to burn the middle east he believes and read regime change in iran whether through an internal uprising or through mili

mr. bolton and how will this matter in u.s. foreign policy? >> well, brian, i think a 2015 op-ed that john bolton wrote in "the new york times," the headline read to stop iran's bomb, bomb iran. and that pretty much is john bolton in a nutshell. extremely hawkish, even by the standards of the most hawkish people in the trump administration. he has been very skeptical about iran's commitment to the iran nuclear deal. he's been against it. he's very skeptical about any negotiations with the regime in pyongyang, with the north koreans, which is ironic, considering president trump, not ten days ago, declared he would be meeting with kim jong-un, the leader of north korea. so that's going to be an interesting conversation behind the scenes. even dating back to his days in the trump administration, folks in the middle east, as you said, i was in iraq. they know him as someone who is a part of the bush administration. he served for a time as the u.s. ambassador to the united nations. of course, he failed to gain senate confirmation, so he didn't last

mr. bolton as national security advisor, president trump is assembling a war cabinet full of yes-men who will stand his worst impulses." i have a chance to sit down with ambassador bolton to ask him about his new job and those concerns that he will simply be a yes-man to to the president. he told me that idea is flatly wrong. >> the president gets to make the final decision within the executive branch. but i think he has surrounded himself with strong personalities. he wants to hear their views, and i think we'll both be happy to provide them. >> the new national security advisor certainly has some strong views as well, and not all of which line up with the president. both in the foreign policy, a hawk was pushed the administration to be more aggressive with roger. called for regime changes in iran and north korea and advocated for military action against those countries. he told me those positions are all in the past. going forward, his job is to advocate for the president's agenda. >> i think the president's policies have been very similar to those of ronald reagan, peace through streng

mr. bolton.n't believe i'm saying these words-- i think you might be more unstable than donald trump. >> oh, come on, stephen. i'm not the madman that the media and my words and behavior make me out to be. ( laughter ) i'm a very gentle and nurturing man. and to prove it, i'll breastfeed a puppy. come on! come on,inousle up, sugar buns. here we go. ( laughter ) ( cheers and applause ) i'll feed the world! >> stephen: john bolton, everybody! we'll be right back with dana carvey! [ buttons clicking ] [ camera shutter clicks ] so, now that you have a house, you can use homequote explorer. quiet. i'm blasting my quads. janice, look. i'm in a meeting. -janice, look. -[ chuckles ] -look, look. -i'm looking. it's easy. you just answer some simple questions online, and you get coverage options to choose from. you're ruining my workout. cycling is my passion. you're ruining my workout. advil liqui-gels minis. breakthrough in pain relief. a mighty small pill with concentrated power that works at liquid spe

mr. bolton has said about north korea. you know, he's been clear after the talks were announced that he thinks north korea is just trying to buy time to keep going with their nuclear weapons. he's very likely to say we're not going to put up with that. either the meetings have substance or we're not coming. >> the minority leader in the u.s. senate chuck schumer not a fan. he writes mr. bolton's tendency to try to solve every problem with the military is a concerning one. i hope he's tempers himself when we need to be focusing on building the middle class here at home. you know, iran is another issue on which ambassador bolton has been quite outspoken. you get his sense that the president wants to tear up that iran deal. >> the presidents hasn't been a big fan to the deal. he asked his national security adviser to be that agrees with him. that's it's a bad deal and it will be thrown out. you can expect it to be the direction it goes. >> jon: it's fascinating to see what is happening at the white house. we'll watch it. than

in the past, mr bolton has advocated military action against both iran and north korea.s, including a presidential candidate, have been detained by spain's supreme court pending their trial for a crime of rebellion. among those detained wasjordi turull, who is campaigning to lead the region. if found guilty at trial they could face up to 30 years in prison. tens of thousands of people have demonstrated in cities across poland against plans to further tighten the country's already strict abortion laws. a draft bill before parliament would outlaw abortion on grounds of foetal abnormality and would only allow terminations in cases of rape or incest. a search operation is continuing at the london offices of cambridge analytica, the company at the centre of the facebook data privacy scandal. the british information commissioner is investigating allegations that the firm illegally harvested personal data from fifty—million facebook users to influence the last us presidential election. lebo diseko reports a search of cambridge analytica. 18 enforcement officers working for the

mr. bolton is not one of those.he has very firm views about iran and north korea, i think he is taking this fro job job to a his views. if he needs to give up russia to give him leeway on iran and north korea, i think that's a trade he's willing to take. >> not to mention his zionist organization of america praised john bolton as an excellent pick for israel. ambassador, michael mcfaul, david ignacious, great to have both of you with us this hour. >> thank you. >>> a plea for action from america's children. will the emotional moment in history lead to actual change? we will look at that and this programing note, 50 years after the assassination of dr. martin luther king, jr., mlk the movement and the media explores how social media have influenced everyone from the civil rights movement to today. you do not want to miss that, that's tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern right here on msnbc. when you combine ancestry's dna test with its historical records... ...you could learn you're from ireland... ...donegal, ireland... ...

mr. bolton a much more hawkish view about the potential need for war with north korea. on iran, mr. ot in favor of the iran nuclear agreement. he has several generals telling him the pentagon needs to advocate for staying in the agreement. it's having different world views. not sure how much it may change mr. mattis' access to the president with a new national security adviser in the white house. a long way to go in figuring out what it all means. they're talking about teamwork, but we'll see how it plays out. brianna? >> barbara starr, thank you so much. and thank you for joining me at this hour. wolf starts right now. >>> hello, i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington. from wherever you're watching around the world, thank you very much for joining us. there's breaking news. a judge denying stormy daniels' motion to force the president and his lawyer to testify under oath, at least for now. the big lie with stormy's lawyer just moments away. >>> plus, did the president choose another cabinet member based on chemistry over qualifications. new questions about the new job a

mr. bolton has frequently made the case for preventive strikes on north korea and iran. his appointment would make him the third national security adviser in 14 months. chris buckler ports. chri at what appears to be a constantly changing white house, president trump's latest appointment could mark the dawning of a new era in american foreign policy. with the customary tweet, donald trump announced that effective xt month, ambassador joh bolton will be the new national security adviser, replacing h.r. mcmaster, with whom the president had clashed for months. bolton is a hawkish hardliner who served in the bush presidency. he has called for the iran nuclear deal to be scrapped, supported military action against north korea, and brings a clearly inrventionist voice into the trump inner circle. he has long been a right-wing commentator for fox news, and chose the network to give hisgh first th about his new job. john bolton: i've never been shy about what my views are, but frankly, what i have said in private now is behind me, at least effective april 9. the important thing

been more about implementation and management and we'll have to see how this works out with john bolton now mr headland you've written a lot about the tensions between russia and the to the tensions that have lot in the past have only been in a new generation of weapons which at least according to the kremlin run the u.s. missile defense system in europe obsolete do you. i believe that to be the case and if so do you thing russia is now in the position of negotiating peace through strength as ronald reagan these to put it first of all i think the united states and russia both need to find ways to stop wasting money on nuclear arms because we are so much above everyone else and also we have so much power against the other one neither side could ever disarm the other with a preemptive strike and the other side could use a missile defense system to prevent a retaliation by the other side so we have more than we need and i regret that we're both wasting more money on these systems than we need to in the united states we anticipate spending something like one point three trillion dollars on our nuc

mr. bolton.ut i think secretary mattis is pretty savvy in those kinds of procedures. >> reporter: the two men have stark differences. >> as far as the situation with korea, it is firmly in the diplomatic lane. >> i think the only deposit matic option left is to end the regime in north korea by effectively having the south take it over. >> reporter: mattis has long taken a hard line on the iranian regime, but several top generals say staying in the nuclear agreement that the president might soon get. >> what i would recommend is get out of the deal completely. >> reporter: they'll have to overcome their differences. >> i've never been shy what my views are. but what i've said in private is behind me at least effective april 9th. >> reporter: so now the ice is broken. now the two men have to figure out how to work to the and how to advise donald trump. wolf. >> we'll see how that works out. thanks very much, barbara star in the pentagon. that's it for me. thanks for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in "t

mr. bolton has advocated for military action against iran and northpo korea.is tment does not require senate confirmation, and he will take up the job in april. ve cattle and --ive catalan separatists have been detained, pending eir trial for the crime of rebellion. among those detain was jordi turull, who is campaigning to lead the region. if found guilty, they could face up to 30 years in prison. tens of thousands of people have demonstrated in cities across: against plans to further -- ac r ossoland. it would outlaw abortions on the grounds of fetal at mortality -- fetal abnormality. a search operation is continun g at the lonfices of cambridge analytica, the company at the sner -- at the center of the facebk privacy scandal. the commissioner is investigating allegations that the firm illegally harvested personal data from 50 million facebook users to influence the last u.s. presidential election. reporter: research of cambridge -- a search of cambridge analytica, officers working for the uk's information commissioner, looking for documents, computers, and

bolton will take over april 9th and is mr. trump's third national security adviser in over a year.role as a broker. >>> congress approved a $1.3 trillion spending bill, averting another government shutdown. it provides for big increase spending for defense and domestic spending. the president is expected to sign the bill today. >>> there's a massive study under way to find out why so many golden retrievers get cancer. chip reid shows us one dog who's helping others. >> go out. >> reporter: the sweet and playful golden retriever, one of the most popular dog breeds in america with a special talent for getting even so-called grown-ups to join in the fun. >> see, guys? there's nothing to it. >> reporter: but as kris campesi has learned through a painful experience, they also rate high on another scale. >> goldens have a high probability for cancer. >> reporter: about 60%. she recently lost one golden to cancer, and now 7-year-old maliki has a brain tumor. >> they're such a part of your life, and when it's time for them to go, it's hard. >> reporter: looking for answers, she entered 3-y

mr. bolton is not the kind of guy with the strong record of being inclusive thinker in that regard. >> samd i want to mention again, an article that was written by john bolton, an op-ed to stop iran's, bomb iran was the head line, and continued in a sentence to say, time is terribly short. but a strike can still succeed. advocating a military strike against iran. that was in march of 2015. so that we should bomb iran. and here is what he said on north korea on fox news just recently. here he is. >> the only diplomatic option left is to end the regime in north korea by effectively having the south take it over, i think you have to argue. >> not really diplomatic as far as they are concerned. >> that's our problem, not ours. >> that was september of last year. >> stamp, are those things that he says and now maybe he'll be different. we don't need to have south korea go to war with north korea and millions of people die. or does he mean that t i'm going to tell the president to do that. >> i don't think there is any ambiguity here, john bolton regime change as preferred national security tool

mr. bolton's tendency to try to solve every geopolitical problem with american military first is a problematic one. geoff, when you look at h.r. mcmaster, the national security advisor, was he let go because of a personalities clash with the president, because of a policy difference or was it because of that leak earlier in the week of the c presidentl with russian president vladimir putin? geoff: mcmaster's deparchaur has more to do with a personity clash between him and the president. they o disagrer policy issues. last month the president publicly rebuked mcmaster for not backing his electoral win. many mcmaster you have a guy who's relentless. he's aggressive. also a scholar and in army parlance, as one person put it, he's all-transit, meaning he likes to lecture and the presiden is said to have gone bored in briefing sessions with thatt of mcmaster's approach. we're told one of the reans there has been a delay in mcmaster leaving the white house was that the white house wanted to make sure there was some sort of so landing in place. that his leaving wouldn't be as unceremonies as rex till

mr. bolton's quite sharp professional skills when he is given a task. that is to execute. given the dimensions of the rupture in the u.s. china relationship at present, which is not just the trade issue we've talked about before and the possibility of a trade war, not just a beginnings of a temporarying of the position on north korea, and not just, what we haven't discussed tonight, which is the decision by the united states to pass the taiwan travel act which enables administration officials now to go officially to taiwan, we now have a u.s.-china relationship which is looking spectacularly ragged. what i would strongly say is, we need to rely -- we need to give, i think, ambassador bolton an opportunity to congressman strait his wares. this relationship needs to be harnessed to solve major global problems. including, most critically, the north korean security question. but also to frankly put the trade question to bed as well. otherwise we leave far too much damage in our wake. so let's give the guy a bit of time to pre himsel >> all right. on that note, kevin rudd in be