i love being at the nsc. it was a crazy time to be there. this is very different and exciting in whole different way. >> so this is a threat intel forum. let's talk about maybe get a threat update. cisa, it's charged with coordinating with industry, critical infrastructure to identify and address current and emerging threats. what's big for you today? i know a number folks probably, probably are following the latest cyber trends. what's big for you? anything on the horizon that you maybe don't think it's getting the attention it may deserve? >> so you're listening to chris and darrin. there are two things i heard that it wanted to pick up on. kris talking about threats to critical infrastructure being very real today. this is no longer hypothetical and i'll talk a bit more about that. what darrin said about the partnership of government and among the private sector i was at symantec eight years running their government relations but also partnerships with other companies. that is a key piece of all of this. we are focusing on obviously the b

i love being at the nsc. it was a crazy time to be there. this is very different and exciting in whole different way. >> so this is a threat intel forum. let's talk about maybe get a threat update. cisa, it's charged with coordinating with industry,

of course, at the state department, the nsc, there really in the weeds on this one you know, as you've been in touch with my colleagues over there, they'd have more to share on the specifics on what they're hammering have you gotten any update on how it went today, the negotiations in doha, qatar, sabrina look, this is still ongoing and i know it's something that's going to take time and so that's what the team is continuing to work on. >> i don't have a preview or anything to read out right now, but i can tell you that conversations remain ongoing and we're hopeful that this deal will be put into place so that we can see a pause in the fighting so that our hostages can come home. and as you know, and have reported on, we have americans that are still held hostages. we want to see them come home. we want to say see aid get into gaza, and we really want to see a transition plan for what's ahead for gaza's future as well as part of this deal, if it happens, israel released a lot of palestinian prisoners as well. >> so there's a lot of incentives for all sides to go ahead and work out thi

and level of skill by my teammates across the national security enterprise: my colleagues here at the nsc, my colleagues at the central intelligence agency, my colleagues at the state department. these are dedicated, talented professionals who are not in the headlines, who don't get to stand at a podium like this one. and it was at the president's direction that they built and pulled off the most intricate, expansive deal of its kind in memory. so, they know who they are. i salute them. and every american should be proud to have those kind of people standing up on their behalf and on behalf of american security. while this has unfolded, we have been closely monitoring the events in the middle east as well. since october 7, we have worked to deter and prevent escalation into a wider regional war. that risk has always been there. that risk is there now. and we are determined to engage in deterrence, defense, and de-escalation to try to ensure that we do not have a wider regional conflict or escalation that goes unchecked. so, i'm happy to get more into that in response to your questions. an

i love being at the nsc. it was a crazy time to be there. this is very different and exciting in whole different way. >> so this is a threat intel forum. let's talk about maybe get a threat update. cisa, it's charged with coordinating with industry, critical infrastructure to identify and address current and emerging threats. what's big for you today? i know a number folks probably, probably are following the latest cyber trends. what's big for you? anything on the horizon that you maybe don't think it's getting the attention it may deserve? >> so you're listening to chris and darrin. there are two things i heard that it wanted to pick up on. kris talking about threats to critical infrastructure being very real today. this is no longer hypothetical and i'll talk a bit more about that. what darrin said about the partnership of government and among the private sector i was at symantec eight years running their government relations but also partnerships with other companies. that is a key piece of all of this. we are focusing on obviously the b

today, we did hear from the nsc's john kirby say that so far he has not heard any escalatory rhetoric from the russians, particularly on the question of the use of nuclear weapons, which is noteworthy. lester? >> okay, erin mclaughlin, thank you. lester. >> thank you. >>> now to the grim milestone in the war in gaza. the hamas-run health ministry there saying the death toll has now surpassed 40,000. while in qatar, negotiations for a gaza cease-fire resuming, but without hamas taking part. richard engel, who has covered the middle east for decades, reports tonight from jerusalem. >> reporter: the hamas-run gaza health ministry announced today that more than 40,000 palestinians have been killed since israel launched its war to destroy hamas after the group massacred 1,200 people last october. the figure does not distinguish between fighters and civilians. israel says it has killed 17,000 hamas terrorists and warns civilians to evacuate dangerous areas. but the gaza strip is closed off. most people can't leave. three analysts tonight tell nbc news 40,000 is likely an undercount. this ba

by the way, you mentioned about zelenskyi's entourage, i remember how at the nsc olympic, zelenskyi of the 2019 model asked petro poroshenko, his opponent in the presidential race. why are these friends of yours with both hands, they say that if someone steals, they should cut off their hands, i think that zelensky of the 2019 model could ask zelensky of the 2024 model, why all of them, some of volodymyr oleksandrovich’s friends have already grown a third hand in order to to rummage in the pockets of ukrainians with that hand, unfortunately, unfortunately, it is so, yes, yes, uh, well, we will follow these corruption... scandals, because it is like some kind of tv series, that is , people are caught almost every day, and with such sums as, for example, the deputy minister of energy hailo received $500,000 a bribe for moving a part of a coal mine from the east of ukraine to volyn, that is also enough, do you know what else motivates the continuation of this series? which turns it into an infinite one, and because there are no results, well, okay, well , they detained, well, they showed

you were at the nsc, paint a picture in a nutshell what is the similarity mab difference between thewo roles as you noted w. >> i thought you were going to ask me why i can't keep a job. hearing that i am likee wow. the nsc generally should be coordination, oversight, storing, and either were setting policies and when i'm talking to eric it was possible eric was my predecessor and i know he was amazing and didn't great job at the agency will. he was saying was really operational, i didn't understand what he met but on the day-to-day i'm not thinking about policy the wayod i was at nsc or on the hill, we are implementing and talking about what were doing to secure this in what team reports in working with laura and other in working with her private sector partners among them. very much get done to reduce risk to the nation on the day by day enjoy better practices and secure by design is whatever big focuses and we are doing not talking and i don't mean that to demean the talking, i love being at the nsc it was a crazy time to be there, this is very different and exciting and a whole d

don't give it to the nsc. i want this to be from the heart. i want this to be mine, just you and i'll work it out and we'll just a few more changes. when i finished completing completely working that out that was that was he gave when you watched the speech where were you and what were you thinking as you watched your words being spoken, thought i almost didn't get to see it because that evening len garment had popped into my office and he was going to go out for dinner. what i joined him. no, i was too beaten. i wanted to be there just in case. but he said he was going to be watching it. and he and fred mozarts office, fred had been the watergate counsel and got to join them there. and i said, sure. and so we arranged len and bill so far, whom he'd had dinner with and fred and i were going to watch it down there in fred's. fred was a former army electron specialist and so forth. but about 2 minutes of of nine and it was scheduled to be delivered at 9:00 east coast time. we were in fred's office. fred tried to turn it on and his set wouldn't,

that you can talk about it forever, and i just can't understand, as a person who in 2019 went to the nscoshenko, his competitor, why all your friends are still there. walk with both hands, how is it now, or zelensky in 2019 would ask zelensky of the 24th model why all of zelensky's friends walk with both hands, mr. oleksiy, the concentration of great power, monopower, it implies monoresponsibility, that is, we have that monopoly, as mr. valery said, robs only. those who cheat on texas, only cheat on texas, in this situation they themselves control, they rob, they themselves probably give up, as with herman glushchenko, this story with this hale, that the minister of energy knew about it, but the minister of energy was probably put recordings, which were recording hal's conversations with his partners, where he said that now the minister will go there to kha maybe he will be fired upon somewhere, please, when mr. valery was listing this big long list, i just thought, this is real the indicator is only half a percent, percent, maybe 2% of the scale of corruption that is taking place, that

can talk about it forever, and i just can't understand how a person who in in 2019 , she went to the nsce became her competitor with petro poroshenko, why do all your friends still walk with both hands, how is she now, or zelensky in 2019 would ask zelensky, a sample of the 24th year, why all of zelensky’s friends walk with with both hands, mr. oleksiy, the concentration of great power, monopoly power, it implies mono-responsibility, i.e.... it turns out that monopolies, as mr. valery said, are robbed only by those who are cowboys of texas, only cowboys of texas, in this situation they themselves are controlled, between robbing and themselves, apparently, surrendering, as with herman hlushchenko this story with this hale, that the minister of energy knew about it, but the minister of energy was apparently given tapes, which recorded hale's conversations with his partners, where he said that now the minister will go to kharkiv, maybe he will be fired upon somewhere, either please, when mr. valery was enumerating. this a long long list, but i was just thinking, but realistically, this indi

talk about this forever, and i simply cannot understand how a person who in in 2019 , she went to the nsc and asked her competitor, petro poroshenko, why all your friends still walk with both hands, how is she now? zelensky in 2019 would ask a zelensky model of the 24th year why all of zelensky's friends walk with both hands. mr. oleksiy, the concentration of great power, mono-power, it implies mono-responsibility, that is, it turns out that we have mono-power, as mr. valery said, robbed only by those who go to texas, those. what the hell, in this situation they control it themselves, they rob it themselves, they probably pass it on themselves, like with herman hlushchenko, this story with this hale, that the minister of energy knew about it, but the minister of energy was apparently given a tape recording hell's conversations with by his partners, where he said that now the minister will go to kharkiv, maybe he will be fired upon somewhere, please... when mr. valery was enumerating this big, long list, but i was just thinking, but in reality, this is only half a percent, a percent, maybe

>> he -- that' s a problem with being nsc spokesman, you have to lie for the good of the country.president biden is in command of nothing, it hasn't been the white start -- the white house staff. if you have a strong secretary of defense who is integrated into a foreign policy team, the people running the country, those three men i mentioned earlier, particularly secretary of state blinken and the national security advisor who are longtime biden staffers, they are the ones calling the shots. that's not good. sometimes to talk to the leader of america he needs to talk to the leader of america and that's not an option right now. stuart: see you again soon. trump laid out his plans for the military. if he wins in november. what is trump saying? ashley: he's talking about safe. he says the us is leading with all the major metrics in space thanks to his creation of the space for sandy wants to add a space national guard. >> one of my proudest achievements in my first term was to create space force, the first new branch of the armed forces in 7 years. it's a big deal. now that space for

i felt that that as i've testified before, that the boland amendment did not apply to the nsc staff. the government, the u.s. government was complying with the letter and spirit of boland. and i thought that was sufficient. i don't misunderstand me. i thought that colonel north would withhold information. there was no doubt about that in my mind. there were a lot of stories in the press that had appeared that i had talked to colonel north about periodic. most of the stories were patently false, and and in error. i thought most of the questions would be about these rather outrageous stories in the press. and i felt that colonel north could knock those stories down by answering the questions truthfully. my question to you is, didn't you put colonel north in absolutely impossible position? how could he answer the questions raised by the resolution of inquiry truthfully, and this is american history. tv's congress investigates series looking at significant congressional style investigations over our history. this week, we're looking at the 1987 iran-contra joint committee hearings. and o

one is you mentioned i was in the reagan administration at the nsc, and when it went from carter to reagan, we were with a martial law, poland at that time, soviet tanks right there at the border, and general yaroslavsky declaring martial law you remember the famous phrase of reagan, peace through strength he understood. well that in order to be effective policy and certainly at the negotiating table, you had to be strong. so to me, force means not just only military strength, but it also means in this context economically being strong politically, being strong, unified in purpose. he also had forged alliance with other leaders, as you well know, margaret thatcher, helmut kohl, among others. that, too, contributed what i would call a foundation of strength. strength from which to spring from to negotiate at the time did impose sanctions. i submit at that time, i think the sanctions didn't work. that would be a case i would cite where sanctions well-suited to the task at hand because we used those sanctions actually to negotiate with the poles release of political prisoners other kinds of s

kamala harris, according to all of our reporting from nsc, state department, other of her colleagues,terms of pushing to understand what was going on inside gaza to the civilians. >> well, look, we're all deely concerned about the humanitarian suffering. what happened on october 7th was horrific. a terrorist attack that was unprecedented. and yet the suffering that has ensued in gaza is extraordinary. and that's why the president and the vice president are so committed to ending the war, getting a cease-fire, getting the hostages back. they feel it deeply. and it's very important that that be achieved. my friend and colleague tony blinken, secretary of state, is in the region working very hard as he has been for many months towards that end. and hopefully, hopefully we will get there sooner rather than later. >> nine shuttle missions and returning tonight and hoping that he's bridged the gaps. susan rice, thank you so much, ambassador. >> good to be with you. thank you. >> thank you. and next, republican voters from republican mayor speaking tonight. why he says kamala harris, a democ

nsc senior director noted earlier this year this idea cuts both ways. absent the change in the nuclear trajectory of north korea we may reach a point a change in the size or posture the deployed capabilities may be necessary if our adversaries continue down the current path. only the president can make that decision. but if that point comes it will because he or she has concluded such changes are needed to deter adversaries, defend the united states to meet her commitments to allies and partners. we seek a smart and flexible posture achievement may deploy more than we feel today. part of a smart and flexible posture is making sure we have the deterrent software to make the most of our hardware. over the past several years we have refined the strategic concepts and plans we will need to make deterrence credible in this new nuclear age. the president recently issued updated nuclear weapons and employment guidance for multi- adversaries in particular the significant increase in the size and diversity of the prc nuclear arsenal. my office has begun to provi

chairman of the council of economic advisers, when i wasn't there before me and the the head of the nsc, laura tyson, was not really a neo liberal. she. written her thesis on yugoslavia and co-ops so she was, you know, a very, very mindset. but overall, in the end, the administration wound up reflecting a lot of neo liberalism the most important aspect of that was financial sector deregulation. hmm. and. they pushed trade liberalization without adequate thinking about. the long term consequence losses both individuals in our economy, individuals in terms. moving, you know, the adverse effect of those who lost their jobs. mm hmm. our economy, in terms of the lack of resilience, the fact in the pandemic, we couldn't even make protective gear, let alone more sophisticated products. so we lost our industrial capacity. and they also they they they also didn't regulate derivatives was also an immediate crisis. and it was so clear, in fact, that one of the pieces of deregulation was was the piece of legislation that said, we can't we won't regulate derivatives cannot be regulated, which was a

this is the message of nsc 68. truman doesn't initially. by that truman wants to keep defense spending. but in the wake of the korean war, truman okays the approval for a massive rearmament drive, which gathers pace after the chinese intervention. and that comes from the fact that if america shows resolve in korea. if america builds up its military capacity, stirling can be deterred. but there's an opposing school of thought behind closed doors within the pentagon sometimes within the republican party, which argues that if war with the soviet union is inevitable, if the soviets will have nuclear weapons within four years, probably best to get the war over and done with now and the whole notion of a preventive strike, louis, who's defense secretary, started the war, is muttering about this. certain journalists secretary, navy francis matthews makes a speech in august 50 advocating a preventive. and it's quite a lot of muttering behind closed doors, which gathers pace at moments when the korean war is going badly. so in the summer of 1950, bu

on that airplane by multiple medics, a psychologist and of course, us government officials from the nsc to the state department. we are told and once they do land at joint base andrews, they will spend some time with their families, but then all three of them will get on a flight to san antonio. that is where they will head to brooke army medical center to get the medical well evaluation and the care that they need. that, of course, will just be the first step in there readjustment to life back in the united states all right. >> mj lee. thank you so much. and we just wish then the past and one very happy for their families, but i want to get more on this historic prisoner swap and how it was reached. we're joined now by cnn, chief national security correspondent alex marquardt. this is truly extraordinary the way this deal came together involving 24 prisoners, seven countries, and much of this was driven by us intelligence it's alex, how did it all come together? >> and pam, one more person that you're going to see on the tarmac at joint base andrews when the president with the presiden

of this, secretary blinken definitely involved, but it does go all the way up to potus through the nscder the homeland security adviser and jake sullivan the national security adviser. >> i can't thank you enough for being with us this morning. very much appreciate your time. and there are other sources, because of the nature of this swap, which is the largest certainly since the cold war, maybe the largest ever, there is some other countries involved, we talked about germany. but in this coming out of spain from a number of sources including espanol that a spanish journalist who has been in prison in poland since february of 2022, accused of spying for russia, something that this journalist has denied consistently, has been released and according to his family is now sent back to russia where he was born, even though he is a spanish citizen. it just shows you the many different pieces and the many different countries that have been involved in this. and i'm just wondering, as we continue to monitor what the white house certainly there has been a major role bit president of the united

my colleagues here at the nsc, my colleagues at the central intelligence agency, my colleagues at the state department, these are professionals who don't get to stand at a podium like this one, they pulled off the most intricate, expansive deal of its kind. they know who they are, i salute them, and every american should be proud to have those kinds of people standing up on their behalf and on behalf of american security. while this has unfolded, we have been monitoring the events in the middle east as well. since october 7th, we have worked to deter and prevent escalation into a wider regional war. that risk that has always been there. that risk is there now, and we are determined to engage in deterrence, defense, and deescalation to try to ensure that we do not have a wider regional conflict or escalation that goes unchecked. so i'm happy to get more into that in response to your questions and with that, i'll turn it over to you. >> thanks, jake, whose idea was it to try to go big and bring everyone home at once instead of going for a simpler one for one type deal, and why? >> i don

much for joining thank you, jim alex, you of course, covered this issue quite closely as the former nsc director for european affairs, i wonder what your read is of ukraine's goal with this attack. clearly it has put russia on its backfoot. clearly it is required russia to move forces from the eastern front to respond to this attack. what is your view of the longer-term goal of this? and could it include a potential trade for russian occupied territory? ukraine so i'll tell you that like pretty much all analysts, western analysts, at least i was quite skeptical about the kursk operation. >> i think the fact is that the ukrainians are pretty hard pressed in areas of the battlefield, especially in the southeast. and i was sir? and about our drawing off forces that would be important to the defense in that area but i worry about 12 days into this kursk operation. and so far, the ukrainians have executed masterfully they've put enormous pressure. they've embarrassed putin. they put significant pressure on the russian forces, drop off forces in other parts of the ukrainian battlefield. maybe