mr. mcdonough that he would prefer not to work on that process and stated publicly to mr. cdonough a great that was the best. >> that still leaves the original question and answer of why given the wide range of views you expressed on. >> i guess because this is a view, these are views that been strongly expressed an account a lot of attention. there's no doubt he has expressed his views on a range of other things, to your many of those things are frankly less controversial and have become, or not as much of a lightning rod as this particular issue. >> at me ask you, this administration has been criticized -- [inaudible] does bringing in podesta in some way acknowledge -- >> watch the white house briefing in its entirety. later on our schedule or anytime at c-span.org. we leave it now for live coverage of today's senate session. members with the considering the nomination of a seat on the d.c. circuit court. the second of three vacancies. we may see speeches today on the the chin dr. bipartisan budget agreement announced last night. live senate i coverage. the chaplain: let

mr. mcdonough. what is your system?y speaking my theory has been number one, that yes i've got a strong chief of staff, but i'm holding every cabinet member accountable and i want to have strong interactions with them directly. number two, i have an open door policy where i want people to be bringing me bad news on time so that we can fix things. >> welcome back to "hardball." that was, of course, a clip from this interview with president obama just last week where i pressed the president to explain his role as a manager. the structure, style, and chain of command he depends on. it's difficult to discern a chain of command at this white house. last week a formal official in the clinton white house told the l.a. time with us, quote, it seems to me this white house has no chain to the top. even just the conventional protect the boss standard that ought to be in place everywhere. when something's about to burst you warn the boss. trying to save his presidency with three years to go, president obama is adding a more senior

mr. mcdonough? what is your system for management?well, first of all i think it's important to distinguish between this particular project, this health care project where it is obvious that we needed additional controls in place because it didn't deliver on time the way that we wanted and how we've managed incredibly complex problems for the last five years. everything from wars to pandemics to, you know, natural disasters to expanding student loans for young people generally speaking, my theory has been, number one, that, yes, i've got a strong chief of staff but i'm holding every cabinet member accountable and i want to have strong interactions with them directly. number two is, i have an open door policy where i want people to be bringing me bad news on time so we can fix things and that, you know, the challenge that we have going forward is not so much my personal management style or particular issues around white house organization, it actually has to do with what i referred to earlier which is, we have these big agencies, some o

mr. mcdonough? what is your system for management?> first of all, i think it's important to distinguish between this particular project where it is obvious we needed additional controls because they didn't deliver on time how we wanted. and how we managed incredibly complex problems for the last five years. everything from wars, natural disasters to expanding student loans for young people. generally speaking, my theory has been, number one, yes, i've got a strong chief of staff, but i'm holding every cabinet member accountable and i want to have strong interactions with them directly. number two, i have an open door policy where i want people to bring me bad news on time so we can fix things. the challenge going forward is not so much my perm management style or particular issues around the organization. it has to do with what i referred to earlier, we have these big agencies, some of which are outdated. we've got, for example, 16 different agencies that have some responsibility to help businesses large and small in all kinds of ways

mr. mcdonough on matters related to the health care law. that could be a full-time job. >> right.s also supposed to be advising on executive orders and climate policy. one thing that's interesting to note is that john podest out a n the affordable care act was saying medicare took me five minuters to sign up, and then he asked the question, single-payer system, anyone? a lot of people, he's someone that is very far left, and they may be worried about the solutions he will come up with, but also he's been very big with the center for american progress on the climate side as well. jon: just as an aside, what does he need medicare for? isn't he one of those people who should just be voluntarily? >> he is. that's another thing is that while he may be really qualified in terms of a strategic stand point be, he is also the founder of center for american progress which is the most influential liberal think tank in d.c. he's worth a lot of money, his brother's actually tony podesta who's the president of the podesta group, one of the largest lobbying groups in d.c., so there are questions

mr. brennan is c.i.a. director. dennis mcdonough is the white house official, chief of staff.al oversight investigations. they continue. and obviously there needs to be pressure from the outside from groups like judicial watch and the media needs to expose this. when you have the media like the associated press and fox news' james rosen being targeted with outrageous leak investigations and panetta, they've got info -- gave away the keys to the kingdom on the bin laden raid, my gosh, double standard is extraordinary and this lawless approach to leak investigations needs to be exposed. >> absolutely. on top of all of that, you think about the people at risk. john brennan, who is everywhere after bin laden raid, was nowhere after the benghazi killings and we could not find him. that's why susan rice was left out there to be the representative. thanks so much for joining us. continue the fight. executive director of judicial watch. >> thank you, brian. >> coming up, it's a first ever. al-qaeda terror, the group will do something -- it shocked me. i'm sure it will shock you. two f