then nsc staffers -- more than nsc staffers usually did. permeablevery boundaries between the nsc and the cia. there was a lot of communication. manager, headign of the cia, talked to robert mcfarland, the security adviser at this time, and said, we want to get you people involved in this operation. both of them said, why? this is the usually came to work in a is this suit. why north? a lot of people thought it was impossible someone of his rank would have been given so much responsibility in foreign affairs, running operations, but the set back is that north had risen rapidly within the nsc structure. he was energetic, smart, creative, an early adapter of technology, very adept user email, nt got things done. -- and he got things done and was given more responsibility. he became the nsc's point person for the contra supply operation. the person who kept tabs on what was going on and who could help get un-snarled if they came up in the contra supply operation. looked tond mcfarland north and they had regular contact with him. in 1984, happe

while at the nsc, i worked most closely with three people: mr. robert c: mcfarlane, admiral john poindexter, and cia director, william casey. bud mcfarlane is a man who devoted nearly thirty-year of his life to public service in a number of responsible positions. at the nsc, he worked long hours, made great contributions, and i admire him for those efforts. admiral poindexter is a distinguished naval officer who served in a number of important positions of responsibility. he, too, was a tireless worker with a similar record of public service, and i, too, admire him greatly. william casey was a renowned lawyer, a war veteran of heroic proportions, and a former chairman of the sec. i understood that he was also a close personal friend and adviser to president reagan. there is a nearly a century of combined public service by these three men. as a member of the nsc staff, i knew that i held a position of responsibility. but i knew full well what my position was. i did not engage in fantasy that i was the president or vice president or cabinet member,

and so what i can tell you is on the nsc, you've got an administration that's active, that's strong. but the world is schizophrenic right now. and so there's hot spots everywhere. and so we're just constantly meeting on different areas to decide where do we go from here. but it's a great dynamic. i will tell you it helps you do your job when you interact with other countries to know exactly what the decisionmaking process is. >> and you just came back from a trip. one of the places you visited was a refugee camp. i know you shared it with us yesterday in the foreign relations committee. what did you see there? is there anything that gives you hope for the future? and does anything there give you cause for deep concern in the long term? >> so i did multiple -- i always go the refugee camps and see refugees outside of the camp. i did it in jordan and turkey. i was interested in the syrian migration and what was happening with the syrian refugees. i did it in israel and gaza to see what was going on with the palestinians and then in the camp. what i can tell you that is amazing is that

alison: there has been reporting the president and the nsc are not on the same page when it comes tooncessions. what does each side think and where don't they agree? shannon: there are people on different sides and pages of this administration, within nsc, the state department, rex tillerson. he butted heads with the president recently. and of course other members of congress have their own views on foreign policy. there are a lot of diverse opinions in there. gary cohn on the economic side is a democrat. jared kushner leans to the left. of course you have the steve bannon nationalist ideology. you have generals like general mattis who come from a perspective from the military. so there is always butting heads, always conflict. at the end of the day, it is trump as president who will make the final decision. it is going to be up to him. alison: how important is next week, the meeting between putin and trump? shannon: i think that week is going to be crucial because this russia cyber threat is real, not only in interfering in our elections, but hacking other aspects of the american in

and information made it well instead of one of these long meandering things that you got out of the nscand nixon said that was -- i want all the papers done like this in this form after this, and he thought it was terrific. so i felt very good about it and after reading haldeman's memoirs. [laughter] brian: you have got lots of memoirs in here. there is a couple of points i am thinking, this is patrick j. buchanan's revenge. he has waited all of these years to publish all of these memoirs to say, "see, i was right back then." pat: well were you always right? i mean, i was opposed to the -- i was stunned by the china trip, but all of these things, there is a certain consistency, but you are right, i have held those for a long time in my files and everything and they really represent what i believed in. there is a thread of consistency certainly on political strategy all the way up through -- it worked. it worked, the idea of putting the goldwater people together with nixon. the nixon is the center of the party and goodbye to rockefeller and them, and then once you get this block, go afte

helping me out on this is former senior director for european affairs at the nsc and former national intelligence officer for europe on the national intelligence council. and also we have former assistant secretary of defense for on international security affairs and former senior director for strategic planning at the nsc. both of them are with the german marshall fund. thanks to both of you for being here. what is your sense out of what you heard from the meeting and while there are differences in the readouts from the russians and american, both sides seem to be implying that it is a productive meeting. >> so i was struck that they began the meeting by talking about russian interference with in the u.s. election. we heard president trump yesterday in poland say that he wasn't clear about who had intervened and that was striking because the u.s. intelligence community had assessed that there was in fact russian meddling in our election. and then when secretary tillerson spoke about the issue in his readout, he said it's unlikely that we americans and russians will agree on this and

north: that would have included all copies of -- i tried, as i was departing the nsc, a process which began as early as october, to destroy all references to these covert operations. i willingly admit that. continue ourek look at the 1987 iran-contra operation from 30 years ago. northnant colonel oliver -- in this 90 minute portion colonel north begins with a 20 minute opening statement. he is then questioned by the city's chief counsel.

recertified it because he was -- had the luxury of having an entire team here from state, national, d.o.d., nsc to review it that, time is up. and the state will make its announcement shortly. he has been consistent with the fact he thought it was a bad deal. andrew? >> thank you, sean. two questions and a short followup. when the president took office one of the things he ordered was 90 day cyber security review. that came and went. it's been several months, can you update us on where that report is, has it been completed? and if it hasn't been completed, why? >> i will get back to you on the report. he did sign an executive order on cyber, making sure that we have the resources necessary to protect our key critical infrastructure. >> last week there was a large online day of action on net neutrality organized by many of the largest companies in america. amazon, apple, facebook. a lot of the technology economy that's driving the u.s. economy. the fcc is an independent agency, but does the president believe that network neutrality is an important thing and open internet is important to the amer

working lunch with the leaders of the opposition including natural hariri of the nsc. and and and and heights and see and also with the mosque i'm kyra groups so that is a lot of. optimism going forward but at the same time miss that mr is cautious. but going forward tomorrow he hopes to hold technical talks with all the gold delegations to move the process forward. ate all the so called for key baskets. jones are courses for putting that from geneva next the eldest son of the us president has admitted to meeting a russian lawyer during the election campaign last year. but donald trump in juniors account of the meeting changed over the weekend after the new york times reported that negative information on hillary clinton was what do you hurt him to discussion. in the first place home on the story we can go across to washington and join correspondent phillip crowther. fit has the white house reacted. yeah well first of all there's a a statement from a doll trump's personal lawyer that was already released yesterday that of course is the most important part of the story.

i tried as i was departing the nsc, a process that began as early as october, to destroy all referenceso these covert operations. i willingly admit that. merica," weon "reel a continue our look at the iran froma affair hearings 1987. in this 90-minute portion, colonel north begins with an opening statement. thes then questioned by council. >> the meeting will come to order. this morning the panel will resume the questioning of lieutenant colonel north. thatthe record indicates july 15, 1987, the house select committee received the opening statement of colonel north. this

someone maybe from nsc, chief of staff, someone from the administration to make sure everything is above board, above the fray. also they typically chit-chat -- we've seen pictures of presidents chit-chatting on the sidelines. but for an hour -- for an hour or close to an hour. that's a long time. for the white house to omit that and then answer it when asked, that leaves a lot to be desired, especially the time when we are wondering what is going on with this administration and what this administration is doing and did when they were running for the office with russia. >> the response from the white house and the president on twitter is not atypical. you would expect this. it's an attack from the media and the coverage of it. what we have not gotten is any details about what was discussed. if they do want to be transparent and now it's out there after it was reported by ian bremer and others, why put no details out there? if it lasted an hour it had to be seg moomething more than sma talk. >> this meeting could have been disclosed from the beginning. they already had a messaging problem

. >> the last military man to run the white house, moved over as nsc deputy halfway through the watergate scandal. some historians believe he helped maneuver nixon out of office. >> i, gerald r ford, do solemnly swear. >> his tenure as chief lasted seven weeks. chris whipple's offer of "gatekeepers." >> gerald ford had a model of white house governance that was like donald trump's. advisors coming and going. no chain of command. >> the man who held the job for bill clinton's second term set a background in the armed forces was helpful. >> my first responsibility was to develop a chain of command. my military experience was probably more valuable to me that my political experience. >> analysts emphasize that the one thing a successful a successful chief of staff will possess is something that only can come from his relationship with the president. true primacy over the rest of the staff. >> he is a political guy that turned out to be a superstar. >> veterans predicted trouble for reince priebus when his hiring was paired with an announcement that steve bannon would enjoy equal footing with

homeland security adviser on counter-terrorism policy and strategy and also previously served on the nsc staff as director for regional affairs in the office of combatting terrorism. nick, i want to start with you. flint, michigan. was this an individual who was on any of our watch lists? >> first of all, i think it is too early to say exactly what we knew and i think i would probably in deference to my fbi and local law enforcement colleagues in michigan want to step back a second before we share publicly what was known and what we'll learn in the days ahead. i would just say that any law enforcement investigation you know more on day two than you knew on day one and you'll know more on day ten than you knew on day nine. so i think i would be getting out in front of my fbi colleagues if i went very far on the specifics of the individual. that said, the indications are that this individual may have been motivated by the kind of ideology you referenced in your opening remarks, catherine. and i think while it is too soon to draw firm conclusions, certainly the type of attack that was condu

. >> it became clear even in the government that things were going on at the nsc that not everybody knew the president asked his attorney general ed meese to investigate. >> now i'm going to ask attorney general meese to brief you. >> do you still maintain that you didn't make a mistake? did you make a mistake in sending arms to tehran? >> no, and i'm not taking any more questions. >> in the course of the arms transfers, which involved the united states providing the arms to israel, and israel in effect selling the arms to representatives of iran, certain monies, which were received in the transaction between representatives of israel and representatives of iran were taken and made available to the forces in central america which are opposing the sandinista government there. >> there was an audible gasp in the room. cynical, jaded reporters who have seen and heard everything gasped out loud. >> there it was, smoking gun proof of the connection between these two programs and the fact that part of this administration was using the money from the sales of arms to iran to fund the contras. >

the russians may have tried to expand it and some people at the nsc might have wanted to make it a bigger meeting, but i'm told at this point it looks like it could be just the president and the secretary of state, and an in terp opera interptator. >> shepard: the president's own helpers are trying to get more people in the meeting, because they're understanding of what vladimir putin's want to make things happen in private meetings that shouldn't. >> reporter: right, there is also a desire by some people, particularly in the russian side, to make this meeting bigger, to give it a sense of more importance, by having more people in the room. it is kind of like if you have seven or eight major dignitaries from each country in the room, it becomes bigger than if you have a couple of people. the u.s. wants to keep it small, maybe just the president and the secretary of state. but there are, you know, competing interests always. everybody has their own idea how these things should go. i'm told by administration officials, that's the way the white house wants it to go, with the caveat, with thi

i mean, what you're saying is, they have to start functioning like a traditional nsc. >> yes.nd my dealings with white houses in the past, from the cia standpoint, i and all of my counterparts, state department, defense department, energy department, wherever, treasury, you could walk in on the chief of staff if you had a problem. and you could say we need to coordinate this across our entire government. and that person would usually be able to reach into those other departments and help you do that. so it's something that john kelly is prepared to do if trump will let him do it. >> john mclaughlin, george beebe, thank you so much for your expertise. great to see you both. >>> and more ahead. stay with us. we'll be right back. experience. rethink your allergy pills. flonase sensimist allergy relief uses unique mistpro technology and helps block 6 key inflammatory substances with a gentle mist. most allergy pills only block one. and 6 is greater than one. rethink your allergy relief. flonase sensimist. ♪ fixodent plus adhesives. there's a denture adhesive that holds strong unti

you've got an nsc who also has somebody there who also wants to exert himself when it comes to policy. you also have chaos that has gone on for months now. and it's really going to be interesting to watch to see how kelly tries to control not only the underlings who are still vying for authority and power. and also managing up to when it comes to trump, who has showed himself to be is very erratic. i mean, he is still -- until a few days ago, attacking the attorney general for recusing himself in the russia investigation. how is kelly going to manage these relationships? i don't think we have the answer to that, yet. >> lynn, i wonder how this impacts the president's legislative agenda. because, yes, repeal and replace failed in congress. that can't be placed solely on the shoulders of reince priebus. but you had someone who had relationships on the hill now gone and bringing in someone who doesn't have that legislative experience. ewe expect there would be impact on the white house to get stuff done. a lot more, i would imagine would go on to the plate of vice president. >> yes, but

having observed russia for all of these years in your professional capacity, the state department at the nscgon. >> they're trying to establish relationships so she can then influence members of that campaign. sometimes it's through the accumulation of compromat or compromising tefrl that can then later be used for blackmail there's a variety of other tactics that are employed. his daughter, putin is godfather to his daughter. these are people who are all linked some of them to the inner circle, to putin himself, and some of them to some of the outer consent rick rings around putin. >> one last question for you, and i thank you, again, for coming back and doing this longer interview with us tonight. i listed some of what's been reported in the press in terms of intelligence reports that have been described to reporters that came out starting as early as early 2015 and that carried on right through the election. from what you saw in your time in government on a scale of one to ten, how alarmed are you about the scale of the russian attack and the possibility of american confederacy in that at

i do not think the nsc should ever operate covert operations. i do not think they should. i do not think we should have a diversion of funds. i have to confess, i think it is a neat idea to take moneys from the ayatollah and send them to the freedom fighters to go while the. -- fighters to nicaragua. it points out the difficulties of the private -- is still any idea. i do not care who laughs. -- willyou are right motivated in your desires to help them. we were not helping them like we should have here. upwere not supporting this -- this policy. i do not say you should do it, but they point out the difficulties of -- let me end with this -- these hearings should not let the congress -- if there is anything that ought to come out of these hearings it ought to be that we beat our breasts and act very sanctimonious and act like we just would never have made any of these mistakes when we've never had really the responsibility of day-to-day carrying them out. now mistakes were made here. i think good people can acknowledge that -- and we can all agree -- whether we supported the

she is at the nsc. she has written a book very critical of putin and the regime. and there's a back and forth about whether she'll be in the meeting. it is a signal about where exactly this administration is. >> well, that's the thing. >> i assume that was directed at me. we're reading tea leaves. the administration has not put out a strategy on russia. we don't know what their objectives are. >> that i believe h.r. mcmaster and fmpbl fiona will be putting out the information. >> you can imagine, this is part of the paradox in the heart of all of this. things moving in opposite directions. you can imagine the national security council teeing up a bunch of steps. the president getting in there and really liking vladimir putin and bonding over things. next thing he's saying, no one ever talks about it but crimea used to be part of russia. >> and look what happened in the meeting with lavrov. he got information that's classified. things like that. we don't have the same interests they do in a lot of parts of the world. so yes, you have to worry that he's liable the l

but i think youranswers have shown that it's more.i don't think the nsc should ever operate covert operations. ijust don't think they should. and frankly, i don't think we shouldhave had a diversion of funds here, even though i have to confess, ikind of think it's a neat idea, too, to take monies from theayatollah and send them over to the freedom fighters in nicaragua.what a nice use of those funds, except you have to be -- i don'tthink it was right. i think it points out the difficulties -- of the private -- it's still a neat idea, i got to admit (chuckle), and i don't care wholaughs. and i think you were right, at least, well motivated inyour desires to help them. because we weren't helping them like weshould up here. we weren't supporting this policy in our ownhemisphere. fourthy, i think this -- these hearings point up thedifficulties with privatization of our foreign policy.i'm not saying you should never do it, but they point up thedifficulties of privatization, and last but not least, and let meend with this. i think these hearings should not let the congressescape. by gosh, i think i

adviser ben rhodes needs to be investigated and every remaining holdover from the obama years at the nsc should be fired. that's a lot for one interview, congressman. what triggered that? >> well, the reports of comey's memos potentially containing classified information were very concerning to me. i don't know if they did. i think we need to find that out. comey himself under oath, incredibly he admitted he leaked these memos in order to trigger a special counsel against the president. it was really weaponized leaking. if he was willing to disclose or was careless with classified information, i think that's very, very important. i thought it got to a broader issue, not just with comey, but some of the other leaking we've seen since this president has taken office, it's not just people are leaking because they think something is wrong with the government and they want sunlight, i still don't agree with that, i don't think you're a law unto yourself. this is concerted leaks designed to attack the sitting president. i think the character of the leaks are different. i think comey's leaks ar

then you saw the formal speech written by the nsc staff, white house staff, steve bannon, that's a different donald trump. i think the russians will take some solace in the unscripted remarks of this morning. i also think, chris, we have to hold our president to a very high standard, particularly when he is overseas. and to spend part of that speech -- it played to the crowd in poland. and this is a right wing anti-democratic government in poland that shipped those people in, but it didn't play well to all of europe in the attacks on immigration and the thinly veiled attacks on the european union, that bannon language that we should really worry about government. government is the problem. it wasn't ronald reagan, it wasn't positive, it wasn't uplifting. i just think it was a missed opportunity because he has to speak to merkel and macron and the german and french people as well as people in eastern europe. >> so, jane harmon, as he departs for the g20 and all these critical meetings with emmanuel macron, angela merkel, president xi jinping, president putin, what will president trump be reme

>> so i -- because i'm a cabinet member i primarily work with general mcmaster at the nsc and so we work with his staff quitea bit. with the hiergz at the state department were we have nothing to do with that so i'm focused on the hiergz at usun. we have saved 500,000 compared to thyme last year by cutting overtime and trips and certain things. but our experts there are fantastic. >> but it hasn't inhibited you in terms of your communication with the secretary back and forth that lack of staffing. >> you know, i just -- i work more with the nsc than i did with the state department. >> i see. do you have occasion to work with the president's senior adviser because he's so involved with right now in middle east mr. kushner, have you talked and engaged with him? how frequently do you talk to mr. kushner about these international problems? >> it depends on what issues he's working on, but i've talked to him certainly before i went to israel to deal lfs to look at theu.n. programs. i always download them on what the trips are,they let me know if there's any issues. but with the u.n., iprimari

>> initially he recertified it, because he had the luxury of an entire team here both from dod and nsc to review it. that time is up and the state will make its announcement very shortly. >> andrew? >> when you president took ops. one of the things he ordered was a 90-day cybersecurity interview, can you update us on where that report is? has it been completed and if it hasn't, why? he does -- >> reporter: similar question. last week there was a large online day and participated by many of the largest companies in america. amazon. apple, facebook. a lot of the economy that's -- granted the fcc is an independent agency. does the president believe that net newell reality is important and an open internet is important to the economy? i would refer you to the agency, oughts indicated they're independent. >> reporter: can you get back to it? >> i definitely will. >> reporter: in damage control mode when president trump made the election -- administration officials -- union mining the cage. is this an issue that was discussed during president poroshenko's visit? >> actually that's an interes

. >> right now, these are the details that we're working out, the nsc with our colleagues, with our bilats, liaison services, it is a matter of process that we are dealing with, as we speak right now, jake. >> winning the peace is almost as important as winning the war. >> absolutely. >> one last question, the "new york times" is reporting that white house strategist steve bannon has asked forces behind two giant defense contracting firms, specifically eric prince and steven fineberg to pitch a plan to increasingly privatize the u.s. waging war in conflict in afghanistan, how is that not a conflict of interest? to have people who could stand to make billions of dollars on privatizing a war, pitch it, to general mattis or others? >> well look, i'm not going to confirm any details of meetings that are taking in confidence, but if you look at eric prince's track record, it's not about bilking the government, it's about the opposite, it's about saving the u.s. tax payer money. it's about creating indigenous capacity. this is a former operator, this is a man who hires former operators, first ti

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one of the reasons the nsc is meeting today so to look at the data and figure out whether this say newwhat steps should we take? it's not an emergency in the sense that north korea doesn't have the ability even if they have the range to put a nuclear war head on the missile or re-entry vehicle that won't burn up but this would be crossing a new threshold and perhaps the administration may want to take new steps such as increasing force levels, sending a shot across the bow to pyongyang that it's not going to accept this new step forward. >> in that sense clearly north korea is not going to stop its efforts to creating that nuclear warhead and this emergency meeting today happening on this holiday considering options to respond to this potential test that the u.s. is trying to confirm. take us inside that meeting, what would the options be that the u.s. is weighing right now? >> well, i think in the short term, they would really be about a symbolic increase in force levels, to do something to send a signal to north korea that the united states is responding forcefully, and the meeting i

using a tweet like a shot of espresso to wake up the system, but the steady drumbeat doesn't allow the nsc, doesn't allow the agencies of government, doesn't allow the international coalitions to react in a sensible linear kind of way. that is detrimental, especially as you get toward crisis. >> thank you, both, so much. coming up, great expectations before taking off on his second overseas trip. more on how the president's twitter diplomacy is already making waves. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. there's nothing more important to me than my vacation. so when i need to book a hotel room, i want someone that makes it easy to find what i want. booking.com gets it. and with their price match, i know i'm getting the best price every time. now i can start relaxing even before the vacation begins. your vacation is very important. that's why booking.com makes finding the right hotel for the right price easy. visit booking.com now to find out why we're booking.yeah! for my chronic back painescribed backed me up- big time. before movantik, i tried to treat it myself. no go. but

how much will just kelly's presence there ease a general mcmaster at the nsc and ease the mind of generaltis over at the democratic of defense. >> i think there will be some comfort taken from our national security appear practices that they have someone who understands the issues and more importantly the process in the west wing with the president. this week there were a lot of concerns as you noted. i talked to folks in the pentagon, in the intelligence community. not simply about the content of the transgender decision. that's a other other issue but really about the process, the way it was announced. and what they're concerned about is in a true crisis, the chain of command is the thing that ensures american security is protected. and when the chain of command is confused or whether communications go here and the chairman of the joint chiefs says go there, people can get killed, chuck. this isn't just a matter of policy this is life and death. >> i'm going to lee you with this last question. some americans are going to be troubled by so many generals making decisions, in charge of so

involved with running the bureaucracy will the secretary works closely with the presiden president, nsc, congress and allies, although i just heard you say you would work closely regarding russia. so, if confirmed, if you are tasked with the inner workings of the pentagon and its interagency structures, how will you overcome your lack of institutional experience to effectively operate in this environment? >> senator, i have worked in environments where we have very disparate organizations. they may not be dod, but in the commercial world, with many different suppliers and agency -like organizations, i believe my technical and management background will prepare me to be able to quickly assimilate the knowledge and the expertise to properly interface. >> what would be one of the first things you would do to get yourself to position where you can hit the ground running should you be confirmed? >> i think the first place that i was going to hit the ground running was on the restructuring of our and he, the ans organization, and then working the chief management officer initiative. i think t

i see this all the time in the countries i use ed to work on at the pentagon and before at the nsc and department. this is exactly how they operated in places like georgia, or mull dooldova or ukraine. they try to penetrate circles they think are sympathetic or aligned with their interests and this is exactly,0 how they operate. it is rather bold and brazen they tried it here in the united states. but it is unusual for an american political candidate to accept this sort of offer of information from a foreign government. and not just a foreign government, but an adversary of the united states. russia views the united states as enemy number one. and, you know, as a pentagon official, i've seen them target us in so many ways. militarily in terms of military equipment and new systems coming onli online. this is not just working with the uk or friendly government. this is one of our number one adversaries. >> michael carpenter, former pentagon official, invaluable, thank you so much. >> thank you for having me. >> thanks for your expertise. coming up, wired to inspire. twice denied entry in

border, which is a problem for it i want to ask you some changes about the problems that are changed at nsc, the middle east advisor to the president, was pushed out. i know he's someone that you respect and admire, correct? >> i've known them for years. derek harvey, he assisted me in my assessments in iraq over a two-year powered . he's the best intelligence and analyst have ever met in a military expert. invaluable, i thought, to the trump administration. i'm actually befuddled by. i know they are looking at giving him another position, certainly, and i hope that takes place. >> martha: one last thought on the transgender policy, because the defense department says that it's not a policy yet. it was tweeted by the president yesterday morning, which appears to have cut them a bit off guard. >> yeah, i mean, policy by twitter just doesn't make any sense to me. the defense permit can only respond to a presidential directive in writing. or chief of staff signing for him. that's it. or else they cannot take action. so i think this time that we have here, we've got to come to our senses here.

this idea that the grown-ups in the foreign policy circles and around the nsc are going to steer himn the more globalist and status quo course. we haven't seen that. the pattern we have seen as it relates to russia is a policy that could be called appeasement. we have moves made to give them back the compounds in the u.s. we have seen the president and his other oval office meeting with the russian foreign minister divulge u.s. intelligence that harmed the largest ally, israel. and the same sort of schizophrenia you see him touching down in poland, the choice to go to poland as we all laid out here is a political choice. to align oneself with a government in poland that they believe within this white house that's similar to what trump represents but in doing that -- ostensibly he'll go to poland to say we're here for you. we're going to support nato, we're going to be strong. and contain russia. but just being in poland and aligning him and praising this government roils europe. it sort of underlines those divides that exist across europe and who does a divided europe benefit the mos

that's what the nsc staffers people like mattis and others, republicans like john mccain will say i trust. those people are attempting to keep that ship on a course that america has been on for decades. the problem is as you note, their president. >> as we have been talking we have re-established contact with keir simmons. things as you were saying before we lost you do not appear to be coming any less perilous for the folks out there protesting. >> yeah. that's right. well, look, if the german police are saying that this protest is over, then this protest is not over. we are standing admittedly it looks like surrounded by a mix of people out drinking in the center of hamburg and protesters along the street there as miguel pans further down, a group of protesters in that way. panning back again, you can see there are still riot police stationed through here, moving out. there's a group of them being dispatched in this direction. and the protest is -- has been moving this way. so there are still thousands of people on the streets protesting the g20 with a whole collection of messages and i

ned price worked not only for the cia and at the nsc, but he was a spokesman for the national security counscil in the obama white house. you know the pressure of dealing with breaking news at the white house. usually in your field it was on foreign policy terms. but seeing a press secretary quit in protest this early in a new administration is pretty dramatic. >> well, it's remarkable. but let's put it in context. this was a press secretary who literally from day one was asked by the president to lie. to offer misrepresentations repeatedly. to intimidate. to close down press access. and it was a personnel appointment that was the last straw. you know, this is a press secretary who has put up with a lot. it seems like had this been a principled resignation, probably should have been the last straw and today was -- seems to have been a culmination of that. >> chris jansing at the white house, there are other shoes to fall, and we've already mentioned reince priebus who is the mentor of sean spicer. but there are other people at lower levels that worked for sean in the communications sho

. >> i agree they can deal with the nsc punks, but they can't -- >> i wasn't calling the nsc punks, ieve bannon. go ahead. >> you are right, leiutenant,ly do it that way, wake up the next morning and see something and does it anyway. >> and by the way, from everything that we have seen, just look at the facts. don't put any feelings on the table. who here, what are the chances, that he's not going to tweet or say something in the next 24 hours that kind of undermines all this? >> we all know. we all know, we all know it's going to happen again. i remember after the speech that he gave the joint session, we the next morning said, good job, he may tweet something. you know, in a day or two that can destroy everything. guess what, that weekend, he tweeted about barack obama. i remember we were all on the set talking about how they handled syria in a measured way, said good for now, let's hope he continues that way. that's why david ignacious final thoughts for this. >> alex screams in my ear because this continues, but this is the war of attrition that i'm talking about, do you -- and i

it is up to us, and the most important thing is right now as we speak, my colleagues in the nsc overs in the west wing, they are continuing the comprehensive review of iran strategy by this nation, it also of the jcpoa deal. >> bill: that stands for -- >> the iran deal. it could lead to all kinds of decisions. in the meantime, deadlines for congress. he said, they are not in compliance with the spirit of the agreement. technically, they are, but that is irrelevant. because all the contradictions and other things and endanger us and our allies and partners, we are going to slap these new sanctions on top of them. i think this is a pretty clear message to us before. we want to think that will change behavior, and that remains to be seen. 24 hours paul ago, the president was not going to do this. >> i was in the oval office. it was long discussed. >> bill: what did the president say about the recertification, and why in the end did it happen? >> exactly what we published already in the last 12 hours. the president maintains his stance. this is a bad deal for america and for our allies,

white house team to target that deal, that i recertified that iran is in compliance but now several nscers accord dog foreign policy magazine are expected to be involved including steve bannon, the alt-right white nationalist entity within the right wing and sebastian gorka whose associations include a nazi entity in his father's home country who are both regarded as iran hawks are supposed to take part. the idea that you would have the obama administration seeking to unwind the iran deal by finding ways ideologically to declare them out of compliance, what do you make of that? >> it's a very disturbing development, joy. this is the most singular diplomatic achievement by the united states since george w. bush talked the rest of the world into accepting the reunification of germany and its retention in nato. monumental achievement and it's stopped iran from achieving a nuclear weapon. the only other alternative is war and invasion to eradicate the program. that would be a disaster would make iraq pale in comparison but that's where we're headed and you're right in assuming this team's u

same thing for the nixon speeches, write the speeches, get them on the, a put people on the air, the nscchedule the president for two nights before the vote in the congress, and he'd deliver the big speech and the legislative guy would say mr. president, you got to call these six or seven guys. it was all programmed. it was a well-oiled, well-run machine. so was nixon's white house, extraordinarily so. neil: we live in different media times, as you know, pat. have you all the news networks and business networks and all want their administration guests and their takes, would you, just if you had to offer advice to scaramucci coming in, tell him limit the number of people you fan out, get them all on the same page, because quite often, i discovered a cursory read of watching them, they're all over the map. >> that's what you need to do. what i would do, first you have to get to the president and try to get control of his message to the degree you can. secondly, ought to have a meeting of all the communicators who are going to go out and say, look, here's the message we're pushing, here is