we try not to take a policy position as nsc staffer. myself as national security advisor. doesn't mean i don't have positions. i have well-developed positions on a variety of issues before coming here. but it is for the president to hear from his cabinet and secretaries and heads of departments and agencies especially when there is a , dispute -- it is good for him to hear that and for them to have their day in court, and then at the right time the president can turn to me and say, "what do you think of this issue? what do you think of these ", and i can weigh-in. but what i try not to do, and general scowcroft is a model of this -- we are not putting our thumb on the scale as nsc staff, for a particular policy or advice to the president but be , available to the president after he has heard from the national security council itself, and then when the president asks to give him my thoughts on the issue. those three areas -- lean staff, heavy reliance on process, tried to maintain integrity in the judicious use of advice for the president after letting cabinet secretaries b

those are the facts that we have been talking about in the nsc every day. those are the kinds of subjects where the top intelligence officials and for that matter the people who give the daily brief to the president find themselves walking into the propeller as it were. >> robert draper, author of this blockbuster piece of new reporting at "the new york times" magazine, "unwanted truths: inside battles with u.s. intelligence agencies." walking into the propeller is an absolutely apt metaphor for what you have described here. remarkable reporting. thank you. >> thank you, rachel. >> much more to get to us tonight. stay with us. with us evony top five troops: arab archers eagle guards dragon cavalries ninja warriors champion cavalries who will you choose? make friends and conquer the world. evony: the king's return download now! late-breaking news that president trump's new handpicked head of the postal service had, without warning, removed from their jobs nearly two dozen top execs at the postal service, which has the effect of centralizing power over mail d

those are the facts that we have been talking about in the nsc every day.subjects where the top intelligence officials and for that matter the people who give the daily brief to the president find themselves walking into the propeller as it were. >> robert draper, author of this blockbuster piece of new reporting at "the new york times" magazine, "unwanted truths inside battles with u.s. intelligence agencies." walking into the propeller is an absolutely apt metaphor for what you have described here. remarkable reporting. thank you. >> thank you, rachel. >> much more to get to us tonight. stay with us. stay with us jim, could you uh kick the tires? oh yes. can you change the color inside the car? oh sure. how about blue? that's more cyan but. jump in the back seat, jim. act like my kids. how much longer? -exactly how they sound. it's got massaging seats too, right? oh yeahhhhh. -oh yeahhhhh. visit the mercedes-benz summer event or shop online at participating dealers. get 0% apr financing up to 36 months on select new and certified pre-owned models. >> tech

government experience and lots of prepublication review experience as she done it for lots of former nsc people and by april 27, ellen knight had cleared the book, bolton had made all the changes he had asked for and on 27 april government admits this, she told bolton your book is clear, it doesn't have classified information and at that point the white house in a new guy and this is where it gets kind of fishy and this is what john bolton's lawyers are arguing in court they bring in a guy with no prepublication review experience. he's a former congressional aide named michael ellis and he been working in the white house counsel's office and he's sent over there effectively to second-guess the senior person who cleared the manuscript and he according to his affidavit found six examples of classified information that were still in their , that were still in the bolton manuscript and then they, the government went to the judge and said you can't let this out. the judge holds a secret hearing, this is the strangest part of this whole prepublication review. the government talks to get tothe

the white house also through the nsc was rejected. i've done it a few times and unfortunately this is another example of the regime not being able to get to yes and making sort of a common since normal decision. secretary pompeo says that speak to the question kissinger asked is it a country or a cause and when the leaders behave like a cause it's for the enormous detriment of the iranian people and president trump said at his first general assembly address the longest surviving victims are the iranian people so that's why we've stood with them and we've done it again. we did support and we rape to get -- i set up the humanitarian channel is now processed with few transactions and organ treatment therapies so we will continue doing that. they rejected our offer on covid but that is a problem for the regime. we do the right thing. >> there's more to ask on that play of a little more time. one of the main u.s. international complaints about iran is its regional activities. let me highlight a few recently. they came to power with some he

one, the nsc process that is usually used to tackle some of these tough policy issues that frank described, it was broken. it wasn't working fast enough. so while we made some progress, a lot of the progress we made was because there were good counterterrorism professionals at the national counterterrorism center, at the fbi, and some of the staff of the nsc, and we got together to figure out what can we do wib existing laws. before i left, i called on congress to create a commission to study this problem. it is complex. we need laws to be updated. >> i don't want to interruptd you, and i want you to stick around, but kenosha police are giving an update. we're going to continue this conversation on the other side. let's listen for a moment. >> much of what i have to say has already been said, so i'm not going to be redundant with that. i can tell you from the law enforcement standpoint, the situation is much calmer. persons are lawfully protesting, and that continues late into the night, early into the morning, with persons making their views, making their concerns known. the voice of thos

experience with both alex vindman and his brothers were that they were outstanding staffers at the nscand i have read the house democrat's letter, which on yev vindman's account quotes two different efficiency reports that his lawyer in the white house that his supervisor in the white house counsel's office wrote and in the summer of 2019 yev is an outstanding staffer at the nsc. and just a few months later, it looks like he needs remedial reading. that strikes me right there as evidence that either the supervisor wasn't doing his job or that there is retaliation. so i find this a pretty stunning development, and it'll be interesting to see what the d.o.d. inspector general does with it. because it's hot. there's no doubt about it. >> at the last minute last night the republican national convention had to pull a speaker who had tweeted out a link to a deranged anti-semitic conspiracy theory which referenced the elders of zion, which was a czarist propaganda tool in czarist russia. this isn't the first time that these conspiracy theories have made their way into the republican party in

when it would get on the agenda, for example, when there was a single nsc meeting relating to russian security, kirstjen nielsen, the secretary of homeland security, didn't get five minutes into it before trump started interrupting her and asking her questions about the wall along the mexican border. this has been a distasteful subject to him. people around him have known that and they have adjusted themselves, unfortunately, accordingly. >> as they have adjusted themselves, it's not only maybe at least for a short term sort of lubricated their own relationship with the president to keep themselves in office among other things for however many more days they can sustain it, but it has compromised what the intelligence community has concluded or said about these things. i guess i found myself wondering, because you talk to so many people for this piece, both people directly involved and smart observers, dan coats going on the record with you, by name about what he went through and what happened here is a remarkable achievement in terms of the reporting here. it made me wonder if you g

if not hours it was within the next day prayed the white house also to the nsc also rejected. i've done it a few times. unfortunately this is the regime, another example of the regime not being able to get to yes. and making sort of a commonsense normal decision. they like iran to behave like a normal country. so is ironic country or cause? and when its leaders behave like a cause, it is for the enormous detriment of the iranian people. president trump said in 2017 in his first un general assembly address. they are the iranian people. once we stick with that we've done the regime doesn't allow sin. we did support so we were able -- i set up with the treasury of the swiss humanitarian channel. it's process a few prop transactions with cancer drugs and organ treatment therapies. so we are going to continue doing that. that worked. they rejected our offer encoded. that's really a problem for the regime. >> is more to ask on that but i'm running out of time surreal quick at the region one of the complaints about iran is the activity, let me highlight a few recently. in iraq the pr

the next president, whoever it is, needs to have someone at the nsc at senior levels that can work itow to utilize technology both within our government, but also in our diplomacy. bring science and technology to the center of lessee making. as we did after world war ii. have antto: we antiscience movement going on now, but that is another topic. tom and stephen, thanks to both of you. i'm going to throw this back to anya was going to help wrap things up. >> thank you so much. for ayou tom and steve master class and a tour around the world. we lost steve, what i want to throw one last question -- i guess we lost tom too. with that, i will close us out. we had a great discussion, covering everything from the middle east to afghanistan to restructuring the u.s. government, to form a national security advisor's. -- two former national security advisor's. we have an interview coming up with tony lincoln who is now a close advisor to vice president -- former vice president joe biden. we look forward to hearing from tony next. thank you very much. >> today, former education secretary arne d

obviously this false squarely in nsc's portfolio. and they have been working on the issue. the question was, what more can we do? we came up with the china initiative, which was to focus on theft of intellectual property. -- property by the chinese government. mainly on the south side. 80% of our economic espionage that the department brings. that means theft of intellectual property on behalf of the government itself, for the benefit of the government involved china, the chinese government. trade cases involved china. so the trade secret denominator is bigger. that includes any theft of intellectual property by anyone, anywhere, not necessarily government oriented or for the benefit of the government. that is the kind of thing we were looking at. together -- we put this together for a couple of purposes. we were focused on this issue and prioritizing it. a lot of it was a message to the united states attorney. the bulk of the investigations. these cases are difficult. they are not cases where you will have high numbers every year. we want the u.s. attorneys to understand.

national security affairs and a senior director for national threats, transnational threats, on the nsc staff, as a special forces officer you commanded the force team on the ground in afghanistan. mr. polakowski, prior to your recent service as managing member of the everest technology, llc, you served as a southeastern intelligence support officer with the cia. you also have a 36-year career of distinguished service in the u.s. army, culminating as a deputy director for u.s. strategic command for combatting weapons of mass destruction and retiring as the major general in the army reserve. mr. bremer, you have a 20-year civilian career in finance and capital management. in 2007 you were appointed by president george w. bush to be a white house fellow and later served on the homeland security council where you were an author of the 2007 national strategy for homeland security. prior to that you served four years as a navy s.e.a.l. we have a great bunch here and gentlemen, it's standard, we have some required questions, there are nine required questions, so i'm going to ask these questio

one of the fires and the complex called the nsc fire moves towards atlas peak, soda canyon, silverado island tennis el dorado area overnight. if you are in the area, fire officials say monitor the situation and leave if you do not feel safe. we spoke to one woman who evacuated from pleasant valley road in the area and she says she does not know what she will be coming back to you. >> more than anything, we are worried about our animals. i have everything -- notes, ducks, pigs, horses and turkeys with rabbits. i carry -- i guarantee the rabbits would be dead. they don't handle stress well. >> if you take a look at your screen, there are evacuation centers that are set up across the community church in napa, the mcbrien senior center, the cultural center and the vacaville skate center. all of these are in vacaville. animals can be brought to the animal shelter, fairgrounds, solano county fairgrounds or solano county animal shelter. if evacuees are heading to any of the evacuation shelters, it is asked that you bring a mask and practice social distancing. >>> let's go over to the coast,

we're taking it very seriously in my shop at the nsc president trump is taking it very seriously. and look there is zero place in an american election for foreign powers, whatever they are, whatever they want to do or whatever the however they want to influence this country. no place for it. ambassor robert o'brien national security advisor to the president. we thank you. thank you, jody. the pandemic is pushing voters to cast ballots by mail. but president trump is claiming including again this morning that vote by mail is riddled with fraud congressional democrats have sought to include billions of dollars of funding in the next aid bill in order to support the us postal service and to expand mail-in voting but an interview today with fox business network dismisses the effort. so they need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots. but if they don't get tho two items that means you can't have universal mail-in voting because they're not equipped to have it in response a spokesperson for joe biden's campaign. and

i was the executive secretary of the sc, and -- nsc, and i was privy to the transcripts of all the president'sy, liz. unlike many people who write books and talk about stuff they're not supposed to. but i will tell you this, if a nation broke its word to the united states or even worse, if a leader broke his or her word to president trump, the president would really chew them out. and that's what we want in a president. it is inconceivable that joe biden would to that. president trump would constantly use his bilateral meetings to get foreign nations to buy goods from american farmer, to buy u.s. cars. biden will return to the genteel, tradition aldi proposal city in dealing with -- triggal diplomacy, and that's what our enemies and add adversaries dont like. they don't like the aggression of president trump. they want a traditional u.s. president like joe biden who they can roll. elizabeth: well, you know, it seems as if the trump administration is peace through strength. in other words, stand up to our adversaries. now we don't really having activity coming out of isis right now. we don't se

but responding that the nsc felt would negatively impact those peace efforts.rent and another former administration official both tell cnn the link between iran and the taliban was part of the argument for the u.s. killing of qassam suleimaniny that took place back in january. the fact that iran paid the taliban for that attack at bagram in december, according to a document from the pentagon, they said it probably incentivizes future high-profile attacks on u.s. and coalition forces. in the days that followed that attack in december, u.s. officials, including secretary of state mike pompeo, they condemned the attack, but the wounded americans were never mentioned nor was iran. now we should note we heard back from the pentagon from a spokesman. he said in part the administration has repeatedly demanded publicly and privately that iran cease its scourge of malign and destabilizing behavior throughout the middle east and the world and that iran seeks to undermine the afghan peace process and foster a continuation of violence and instability. alisyn? >> alex marqu

yates: when the fisa application was presented in october i knew that the nsc lawyers were working on it prior to that with the fbi. it would have been in october. sen. graham: wasn't papadopoulos also being taped? an. cruz: the chairman asks good question. ms. yates: i was not aware at that time, but my understanding a recordedre was conversation between papadopoulos and a source. not wiretap surveillance. >> but the government orchestrated this? ms. yates: [indiscernible] that theam: we know government orchestrated a recording of conversations of papadopoulos and got a warrant against carter page. that seems to me, surveillance. sen. cruz: when they came to you asking to surveilled members of the trump campaign because of conduct they allegedly did while members of the trump campaign, what do diligence -- due diligence did you do? you told senator kennedy you trusted the fbi. did you doligence before signing off on what we now have reason to believe was a profound politicization of law enforcement and intelligence. ms. yates: there was a tremendous amount of back and forth between t

they should give all that information to the lawyers and nsc. sen. tillis: could you understand if you combine some of their actions, errors and omission, and personal communications between some of those involved why a skeptic would maybe find it hard to believe it was an honest mistake? ms. yates: the inspector general reviewed over one million documents and did 170 interviews. i think he is in a better position than i am to be able to answer that question. he found there was no evidence of bias or political motivation. sen. tillis: do you believe the someoneactually charge under the logan act? ms. yates: can it? frankly, i have never engaged in that analysis because we were not employing or making a final determination as to whether general flynn would be charged under the logan act. what i was trying to make clear to senator graham is that was not the prism through which we were examining this. sen. tillis: did you ever seriously consider prosecuting flynn under the logan act? ms. yates: we did not make an official decision while i was there, but

they should give all that information to the lawyers and nsc. sen. tillis: could you understand if you combine some of their actions, errors and omission, and personal communications between some of those involved why a skeptic would maybe find it hard to believe it was an honest mistake? ms. yates: the inspector general reviewed over one million documents and did 170 interviews. i think he is in a better position than i am to be able to answer that question. he found there was no evidence of bias or political motivation. sen. tillis: do you believe the someoneactually charge under the logan act? ms. yates: can it? frankly, i have never engaged in that analysis because we were not employing or making a final determination as to whether general flynn would be charged under the logan act. what i was trying to make clear to senator graham is that was not the prism through which we were examining this. sen. tillis: did you ever seriously consider prosecuting flynn under the logan act? ms. yates: we did not make an official decision while i was there, but

a portion of my responsibilities on the nsc within the confines of my portfolio was coordination among intelligence agencies to better integrate efforts towards supporting strategic priorities. >> thank you. mr. bremer, there are reports that you had presented a plan to replace troops in afghanistan with military contractors. could you talk about that a little bit and describe for the committee what you believe is the appropriate role for private security contractors in afghanistan or in other areas of active service? >> senator, we own a portfolio company. it provides very important support to our war fighters down range in a number of different geographies, mainly around logistics and maintenance. i think that's the sort of role the private military contractors have in overseas combat operations is supporting u.s. troops abroad. >> all right. thank you. thank you, sir. thank you, mr. chairman. appreciate it. >> thank you. senator gillibrand, by web ex? >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. bremer, the last two decades has seen an enormous transformation in our military, which is most evide