>> it's quite possible the obama administration was wrong about that. but the trump administration actually hired him to be the national security adviser based on that same information. so whatever clearance they may have given michael flynn the trump administration really upped the ante by making him the national security adviser and now they won't give us the vetting documents. >> when a general retires from the u.s. general, that general keeps their security clearance automatically, right? >> i believe so. >> but is that a smart rule that somebody like that should be able to keep their security clearances? i guess they have to get them renewed every few years but some people are wondering why do they automatically get to keep those security clearances? >> that's something we should look at. something off the top you look at certainly as, you know, like you said it's reviewed and vetted later on but i certainly think that is a policy that we should reexamine. >> the other point that sean spicer makes and you're the ranking democrat is that there was re

the obama administration actually fired general flynn as the head of dia and for the trump administration who has distanced themselves from everything that the obama administration did to say we just have a lot of continuity and take their word on it, it really doesn't fly. >> congressman, do you agree? >> no. i mean, people should be very familiar with how the security clearance process works. people get issued security clearances for a period of time regardless of what administration is. i'm not sure what the dates are for general flynn's security clearance but i believe he held this security clearance granted to him during the obama administration and that carries through even when there's a new administration coming into office. so if i had had security clearance in 2015, 2016, that was good for five years regardless of whether i was serving in the obama administration or the trump administration, it would have been good. and a review on general flynn when they came into office, they would, though, have to have a vetting process and let's say that the congressman is right. then that p

the obama administration refuse d. at the end of obama administration, in november of last year, they proposed that we should meet and certainly our relevant government agencies agreed. at the last moment, the obama administration changed their mind. they were very interested in undermining the american russian relations with the rival -- the arrival of new power. that is why we confirm our interests today. this is a relevant matter and that is why we suggested that our contacts should be resumed at the level of special advice of the u.s. administration and russian president. we feel at this time, the results of these efforts might be different leading to the establishment of channels of new communication. what was your second question? we have not touched on this matter. it has been buried, so to speak, and still we have channels to discuss some serious issues in our relations. it might be not under the umbrella structure, no, but it might be in a different form. we've designated special groups -- persons who will sit

the obama administration refused, they didn't respond then at the end of the obama administration in november last year. they proposed that we should meet certainly our relevant government agencies agreed but at the last moment, the obama administration changed their mind because they were probably very, very interested in undermining the american/russian relations before the rival of the new administration in power. that's why we once again confirmed this interest of ours today. this is a relevant matter, and that is why we suggested that our contact should be resumed at the level of special and voice with the u.s. administration and the president. and also at the relevant authorities we feel that this time the result of these effortght be different leading to the establishment of new channels of communication. and what is your second question? the presidential commission. no, we have not yet touched upon this matter. it has been buried specked. but maybe it might be resuscitated. we have some serious issues in our negotiations. it might not be under this umbrella structure, no. it

throughout the entire period, however, leading figures to have the obama administration -- of the obama administration including the president and secretary of state and national security advisor susan rice kept insisting that the obama administration, that the deal had gotten 100% of the chemical weapons out, creating an illusion, which by the way the trump administration seemed to share, at least in its first few months, that assad had been defanged of his most dangerous weapons. what we've just seen in northern syria with the sarin attack on this village is that that was untrue and that he maintains the stockpile, and i have to ask mr. blinken, how is it that the obama administration kept going on saying 100% of the weapons without qualification, when they knew from their own intelligence reporting and in fact publicly available sources that that was not the case, that assad was keating on the deal, that he maintained this stockpile and of course the ability to use it. >> rose: the second part is the russians should have known about this and there was complicity. >> of course the rus

>> -- the retirement savings -- >> to general flynn, first, you emphasized the obama administration has reissued his clearance last year. >> yeah. >> so is the implication there that should be taken if the trump administration was adjudicated the clearance this year he would not have been issued the clearance and now that the white house knows everything they know about general flynn? >> i'm sure people understand the process and how it works and the way it process works is if you have a top security clearance you fill out a form. there's an investigation done. you are reinvestigated every five years. if you are able to maintain that clearance, and then whoever owns that clearance, the fbi or the department of defense, goes out and does the investigation. general flynn came into the white house, he had an active security clearance that was issued during the obama administration with all of the information that's being discussed that occurred in 2015. so, i'm just -- i guess my only point is to explain how the process works and who adjudicated that. >> not implying wrongdoing? >> that's

obama administration. it went on like that. >> during the obama administration. under the obama administration. >> to be fair, it is a legitimate question as to whether the army and the defense department whether obama renewed security clearance without sufficient diligence, but that is not the same thing as appointing and vetting flynn to one of the top national security positions in the u.s. government and remember, obama fired flynn from a lower position in the national security community. now, you might wonder, why was flynn fired? well, last july when flynn was being considered for the vp slot, flynn wrote an oped, the military fired me for calling the enemy radical jihadis. abusive with staff, didn't listen, worked against policy, bad management, et cetera. he has been and was right wing nutty ever since. joining me now to discuss all this is add myrrh john kirby. he's known him for years. admiral, thanks so much for yjo us. for those people not so cure with the secure clearances and vetting, explain

this has revised the update about president obama's legacy on syria and the trump administration movingorward. thispress conference afternoon, secretary mattis says isis remains the target. joining me is tony blinken, the former deputy national security adviser for president obama. joining me here is bret stephens, a columnist for "the wall street journal." i want to begin with a column that got a lot of attention. "the price of obama's mendacity." there's always this debate about the wisdom of barack obama's decision to forgo a similar strike in 2013. that's the beginning. mr. obama and his advisers will never run out of self justifications for their policy in syria. they can't out run responsibility for the consequences of their lies." after president obama, kerryent putin, and john went through the agreement for syria to ban the stockpile of chemical weapons, information began to emerge that the syrians were cheating on the agreement. it started filtering out in 2014. the wall street journal had a front-page story on the fact in 2015. even16, jim clapper acknowledged it to a congress

. >> lesson learned from the way republicans acted during the obama administration.ats would say. and when you look at the moderates in the house who represent districts that tend to be more mixed, not so solidly republican, they're looking at president trump's approval rating. 45% in the cnn poll that was put out yesterday. that isn't very reassuring for someone who's going to need to get democratic and independent votes to get reelected next year in his or her home zrikdistrict. >> there's a new setback of keeping the government open following this weekend. democrats are now saying if you do have a vote on health care between now and saturday, they're going to oppose any temporary spending bill. >> they've clearly made the calculation that the politics are on their side in this. shutting down the government is a big step. and if you'll recall, it was over obamacare when the republicans decided to shut down the government last time. so here we are. history repeating itself to a great degree. and you have the democrats now saying you know what, we have an argument to

lou: shocking new charges that obama administration surveilled president trump and his transition team. former obama national security adviser susan rice, asked to unmask the names of trump transition officials, caught up. and we're learning that surveillance went on for nths, purely for partisan purposes. we take that up with house judiciary committee member congressman john desan 'tis and ambassador john bolton. >> obstructist dems have the votes to filibuster, so republicans are likely to go nuclear. >> it is pathetic. they are so stupid they think -- we have no alternative to do what has to be done. lou: leonard leo is joining us tonight. and terrorism in russia. a bomb blast tearing through a subway train in st. petersberg, at least 11 people killed and 50 wounded, police suspect that terrorist attack was carried out by a suicide bomber, linked to radical islamists. lou: good evening tonight there are charges of widespread wrong doing in the obama administration. specifically sources naming former national security adviser susan rice as highest ranking official to call for the unm

today nbc news reported that before the obama administration left and the trump administration came on board, obama administration officials made a list of documents related to the russia investigation basically in order to keep them safe quoting from the nbc news report today, quote, obama administration officials were so concerned about what would happen to key classified documents once president trump took office they created a list of document serial numbers to give to senior members of the intelligence committee. after the list of documents related to the probe and russian interference was created in early january after the list of numbers was ceded, he, the former obama administration first page u hand carried that list of serial numbers to members of the senate intelligence committee. the purpose was to make it, quote, harder to bury the information. so the investigation into the russian attack on our election last year started during the obama administration obviously. the obama administration was worried that the trump folks would erase it, would get rid of what had been found

it specific to the trump administration or was this something that started happening in the obama administration? guest: this predates the trump administration. the aba, the american bar association, a membership organization for lawyers, filed a lawsuit alleging that some lawyers who have loans approved for forgiveness were later reneged upon. the government said your loans qualify, you will have them forgiven and 10 years if you keep going on this path and turned around and said, just kidding, that's not the case. of the lawsuith itself in the government's response came during the trump administration the aba had been discussing this with the obama administration toward the end of their tenure. they had been going back and forth for a long time on it. in this case the trump administration was continuing what had been going on under obama. host: could you give us a sense of the price tag if these loans were to be forgiven will would be the approximate cost of the taxpayer? guest: it's hard to say. definitely in the billions. according to the government accountability office there are about 4 mi

throughout the obama administration, and the obama administration deported more people from inside the united states than any other administration in history. they focus on those people who committed crimes. >> and those numbers on formal deportation. sick -- increased consistently over time. 440 4000 deportations that aren't president obama the title. the you expect to see that same level? will a child administration be up at maintain that same level of deportation? trump administration be able to maintain the same level of deportation? if you look at inside united states, we were deporting two hundred 50,000 people, most of whom committed crimes every year. through 70,00065 it has dropped in the because the obama- administration had focused on people who committed felonies. they weren't deporting people for all crimes. the trump administration reversed those priorities and put it back to the way it was at the beginning of the obama administration, when we had those record numbers. one would expect that we would quickly return to those numbers. the question is will the department of h

so everybody the left has come out with from the former obama administration has lied.nd no one except the conservative media seem to be concerned about what this really means. it's unthinkable. lou: president obama's former national security advisor, susan rice defended her controversial request to unmask trump campaign officials this way. >> the notion which some people are trying to suggest that by asking for the i'd tough an american person, that is the same as leaking it. it's completely false. lou: complete pli false, she says. we'll take that up. we are after he waiting what is a major pleeght on capitol hill that could have significant implications for the trump agenda. they are trying to move ahead with a new form of the healthcare repeal and replace effort. we'll find out how they are doing. we'll be talking with leading we'll be talking with leading conservative l l l l l when heartburn hits, we'll be talking with leading conservative l l l l l fight back fast with tums smoothies. it starts dissolving the instant it touches your tongue. and neutralizes stomac

national security according to the obama's administration justice department. would have you voted for that if you knew that? >> i won't go back in time but president trump has a nuclear problem in north korea and i'm glad he only has one nuclear threat to deal with. >> tucker: that's two things. one, dodging the question and the iran deal mitigated the nuclear threat. we don't know that's true at all. >> secretary tillerson last week send to congress that iran is in compliance. they went from being three months from having a nuclear weapon so if they restarted and violated all agreements a year. >> tucker: we've been fooled before on a bipartisan basis but why do you think the obama people lied to you about this? >> tucker, i don't know they lied to congress or to anyone. >> tucker: you probably took a lot heat for it too including your constituents. >> i voted on taking nuclear weapons away from iran and we're safer because of it. now we need to count on allies. >> tucker: so in one case according to politico no one from the obama station has denied this as p

foia request -- >> what happened, to be fair, the court ordered -- they won in court but the obama administrationy logs and redacted ones that they considered national security issues. the question is why can't the trump administration do the same? if it's a national security risk, those won't be public, but the rest, open book. >> my suspicion is, in time, they will get to something that's closer to the obama administration. but for right now, i frankly think they ought to keep these records secret, which is what -- at least undisclosed, which is what the obama administration -- >> all white house -- >> this is not a partisan issue, though. >> no. >> that's why i'm kind of troubled by jack's sentiment. i mean, i understand we put on partisan hats, we talk about this all the time. but this is just an american responsibility, transparency issue. that's not donald trump's house. that's the taxpayers' house. and he works for the taxpayers of in the country. and the taxpayers deserve to see who's going in and out. we're not asking -- if it's a national security risk or a privacy concern? then redact

evidence, involves surveillance whether it's journalists and other people that occurred under the obama administrationaybe occurred under other administrations as well. i think if you put it all together on a timeline it starts to paint a picture instead of isolated events and accusation, a pattern of behavior. >> sean: i think sharyl is referring to james rosen, referring to what happened with tea party groups and the irs. and we have an admission. why would she specifically seek out raw intelligence of whether or not it was legal surveillance, incidental pickups of trump an his transition team or his campaign. and why would she want an unmasking of those individuals for what possible reason, other than being political? >> yeah. look, the national skur adviser does have the ability to request an unmasking of a name. they get intelligence tphf, name is redacted, you don't see it. and they begin to say, hey, i need to know who this person is in order to implement some sort of policy. the problem here, sean, is that susan rice did this specifically just for trump officials. she did it during the transit

>> the obama administration, during the obama administration, under the obama administration. >> youy. just that's all i can say on this one. sean spicer is exactly right. that there may well have been a mess up in the obama administration when they renewed his clearance if they didn't ask the right questions or if flynn didn't provide the documentation. even if he verbally told them as he says he did. verbally told them about these trips and about these payments, the records don't reflect, the paperwork doesn't reflect this was properly discussed and litigated and that happened on president obama's watch. that's true. but he got one of the most sensitive jobs in government under this president and they won't answer question s about dd they look into any of this. >> this is a pattern with this white house sort of distancing people from the campaign. they did that with paul manafort. i think at some point they referred to michael flynn as sort of like a volunteer. and so at this point it is. this is obama's fault. this is obama's guy. in many ways i think it works for the base. if you

that the obama administration gave it to the entire senate intelligence committee. look, there's another challenge here that i think we'll need to be cognizant of and vigilant against. this administration, reaching directly into the department of justice. of course, attorney general sessions has purportedly recused himself from this investigation. but this administration, the trump administration, has shown no compunction against breaking that previously inviable wall between the white house and the department of justice. even the federal bureau of investigation. and i think we need to be concerned and watch to ensure this is not the case and that this investigation can go wherever it needs to go. >> ned prirks former spokesman and analyst at the cia. senior director at the national security council. ned, thank you for joining us. >> happy early birthday. >> thank you very much. >>> tonight we have a guest who is very smart who has been saying something very, very scary. we are not going to have a cocktail moment tonight, but nobody will blame you if you have a littl

south sudan was established and the obama administration tried to help them secure al-bashar's agreement to this splitting up. president bashar held up his end of the bargain. sudan was split in two parts in accordance with the obama administration's plan and right now washington -- and then washington insisted sanctions would be executed against the country they helped create. so the fixation on trying to oust this or that dictator, authoritarian leader, we know how it ends. a successful ouster of a dictator is to me very hard to remember. if you have any examples, i would be glad if you could share them with me. on syria, as our president has stated on many occasions, we are not trying to put our thoughts on anyone or assad or anyone else as they do in libya. we want them to sit at one negotiating table. as a resolution state, they have all gathered together. this has to be with syrian dialogue. as the council resolution states the future of syria has to be determined by the syrians themselves without any exception. the most important thing is not to eliminate a political leader from t

today nbc news reported that before the obama administration left and the trump administration came on board, obama administration officials made a list of documents related to the russia investigation basically in order to keep them safe quoting from the nbc news report today, quote, obama administration officials were so concerned about what would happen to key classified documents once president trump took office they created a list of document serial numbers to give to senior members of the intelligence committee. after the list of documents related to the probe and russian interference was created in early january after the list of numbers was ceded, he, the former obama administration first page u hand carried that list of serial numbers to members of the senate intelligence committee. the purpose was to make it, quote, harder to bury the information. so the investigation into the russian attack on our election last year started during the obama administration obviously. the obama administration was worried that the trump folks would erase it, would get rid of what had been found

president trump is saying the obama administration should have used air strikes against syria. he was saying just the opposite before he became president. >> that's right. he had a very different feeling a few years ago when he was a private citizen. he was taking to twitter to say the u.s. shouldn't intervene in syria, that there was nothing that fight could get for the u.s. it wasn't our fight. it wouldn't further american interests. obviously it's one thing to say that as a private citizen. it's another thing. obviously he is learning once you are in the white house, once you are confronted with those horrific pictures of chemical attacks on civilian and you, as the president of the united states, have the ability to do something about it, obviously he did. >> did we get any further clarity from the white house today as to whether or not russia was, in fact, complicit in the chemical weapons attack? >> reporter: we did not get a good answer on that. the administration is basically saying there was no consensus within the intelligence community that russia knew ahead of time

whatever the obama administration did -- they may have screwed this up. no question the trump administration and donald trump was responsible for bringing michael flynn into the white house and then trusting him. if his team failed him, maybe the president -- i think the president can get off but i don't think there's any question that somebody around him failed. >> can i just say, to say the obama administration screwed up when it was flynn who did not disclose that he had been to russia and had received these payments -- that's the reason why he is being investigated. it would be -- they didn't have information. certainly by the time the year went by and all of this stuff about russia and the picture of him sitting at the table with putin appeared, by that time, that was the point at which he should be vetted. that was when he went into the trump administration. >> what's interesting is that as you said earlier, the president's denouncing him. he wants to keep him close in. >> interesting. >> why do you think that is? personal loyalty is very important

>> former obama administration official accused of unmasking names of trump campaign and transition members caught up in surveillance says that has nothing to do with politics. republicans want her to say it under oath. this is "special report" ." good evening, welcome to washington. i am bret baier. top national security advisor under former president obama insists politics did not play a part in her decision to request the identities of americans whose communications were intercepted by intelligence agents. susan rice denies leaking anything. republican lawmakers don't believe her and want her to testify under oath. meanwhile, democrats say issues keep dropping in the russian investigation. chief white house correspondent john roberts starts us off from the north lawn. good evening. >> good evening. while democrats tend to defend susan rice, republicans like senator lindsey graham say her track record which includes praising sergeant bowe bergdahl and getting blamed for the benghazi attack mean that when it comes to susan rice, "you have to verify, not trust." former national security adv

. >> today the white house responded, inexplicably, by blaming the obama administration. the administration that fired flynn as head of the defense intelligence agency in 20 14rks nearly a year before donald trump even began running for president. and by repeatedly deploying the talking point that current president -- the current president made all the right decisions. >> general flynn was a career military officer who maintained a high level security clearance throughout his career in the military. his clearance was last reissued by the obama administration in 2016 with full knowledge of his activities that occurred in 2015, as you point out. but all of that clearance was made by the obama -- during the obama administration, and apparently with knowledge of the trip that he took. so that's how the process works. and i welcome the department of defense's ig's review. >> if he wasn't fired by the president for lying to the vice president, would he still have a job today at white house. >> i think the president made the right call at the right time and it has clearly paid of

cleerps under the obama administration in the string spring of 2016. the trip and trance agzs that you're referring to occurred ipdecember of 2015. all of that clearance was made during the obama administration, and apparently with knowledge of the trip that he took. >> one source familiar with the case admits flynn did make a mistake failing to fill out the proper form, seeking permission to get paid by a russian state tv channel for a 2015 trip to moskow. but the state strongly denies any effort to conseal the payment. they say flynn briefed the intelligence agency before and after the trip. what does that mean for the white house, we'll try to unpack that in the 5:00 hour. but first president trump's about face on nafta. what was it that led him to renegotiate instead of pull out? new details next. yeah, i just saved a whole lot of money by swhuh.ing to geico. we should take a closer look at geico... you know, geico insures way more than cars. boats, motorcycles... even rvs! geico insures rvs? what's an rv? uh, the thing we've been stuck on for five

all of that clearance was made during the obama administration and knowledge of the trip he took. >> te this. joining us now to discuss is jason miller. president trump's former campaign adviser. general sokey. former obama white house communications director. great to have you here. >> great to be here. >> jen, let's bring up president obama's watch if you look at spicer's logic. forced out by the obama administration. they had concerns of him. in october of 2014, he is warned by government officials against accepting foreign payments from russia. in december of 2015, he goes to russia and is paid to speak at the russian tv event. there is video of that. here is the moment that spicer is hanging his hat on. spring of 2016. michael flynn's security clearance is renewed. why is that not on the obama administration? >> alisyn. it is important for people to remember that michael flynn was fired by president obama for doing a terrible job at d.i.a. later on, for president trump when he was the nominee, considered him as a vice presidential running mate. to go back to the facts of how secu

the obama administration re-issued his clearance last year. is the implication thub sake -- should be taken that if the trump administration was the one adjudicating clearance this year he would not have been issued that clearance, not that the white house knows everything about general flynn? mr. spicer: i think i'm making sure people understand the process and how it works. the way a process works is that you have a top security clearance, you fill out a form, there's an investigation done. you are reinvestigated every five years. if you're able to maintain that clearance. whoever owns that clearance, whether it's the f.b.i. or the department of defense, goes out, does the investigation, and in between that period you're responsible for updating the information that you've provided in accordance with the agency that issued that. my only point is that when general flynn came into the white house, he had an active security clearance that was issued during the obama administration, with all of the information that's being discussed that occurred

you mentioned of the obama administration. what was their effect on the relationship between the countries? guest: they started off with a reset with russia. it is a pattern. the first obama term when you have demetrius president, they accomplish quite a few things. agrees a work together with iran. things went south when president putin announced he was returning to the kremlin. he was prime minister for four years and then they gave asylum and thed snowden beginning of the events of the ukraine, annexation of crimea and russia helping to launch a war in ukraine and sanctions by the u.s. 2012 and after 2014, the relationships outward. were very fewere contests the obama administration. host may you know president putin? guest: i have met him. host: tell us what he is like when you have things like syria and the pressure from the united states. what is the general way of reacting? guest: he has duces wishes about the united states and our intentions. dissed trust about the united states and our intentions. will do not respect t

by the obama administration. >> of course what president has not mentioned and what white house press secretary hasn't mentioned, wolf, is the fact that president obama fired general flynn from his role as head of the defense intelligence agency. so yes he did pass security clearance during the obama administration but was also fired by that administration, too, wolf. >> on his 100th day in office web sounded very much like a presidential candidate today. tell us what happened. >> that's rights, wolf. has he is about to hit 100 days he sounds as if he is campaigning for four more years and despite a rocky first few months in office the president is showing no signs of shifting to more inclusive tone. consider how he sounded with that speech to the national rifle association. as he recounted his victory last november. the president seemed to be reveling in his critics and blasted the news media for predicting he would lose to hillary clinton. here is what he had to say. >> remember those saying we have breaking news, donald trump has won the state of michigan, they go michigan -- how d

vet, well, obama, i guess, didn't vet because he was approved at the highest level by the obama administration obviously, president obama fired michael flynn. security clearance is different than vetting somebody to be national security adviser. >> absolutely. let's remember, when he was cleared by the obama administration, there was a stretch of time after that, before he got -- before he went into the trump administration, right? what you do in every administration with top appointees coming in is you double-check them, especially in those key positions. you do it as of that day. you want to know if something happened last week, last month. who knows whether -- you have to renew the security clearances on a regular basis to keep on top of things like this. whatever the obama administration did -- they may have screwed this up. there's no question the trump personally was responsible for bringing michael flynn into the white house and then trusting him. if his team failed him, maybe the president -- i think the president can get off but i don't think there's any question that somebody around

spicer: it was a policy that the obama administration enacted to basically wait and see. i think we have understood that policy is not one that is prudent ent for the united states. and you see stepped-up efforts particularly with respect to china. and i think the relationship building esident is zsh wn in marrow mar-a-lago. and engage with partners that ave political influence. >> and particularly on north korea, you want to telegraph what the president will make. president trump is more inclusive and unpredictable than kim junk un. r. spicer: i disagree, when he reacted in syria, the world exuent, not just the world community they applauded the president's actions. i think, absolutely. i think that you have to look at he flip. and but around the globe, people are excited that the president is taking action and did he sice i havely. reporter: you are not taking options off the table. war on the korean peninsula will cost lives. is this to be read as an acceptance of that riffing by he trump administration? taking anything on or off the table is limiting your options to s

sean spicer putting the blame on the obama administration for renewing clearance in 2016, but raisingstions about what additional vetting the white house did in run-up to president trump hiring him as national security adviser. those discussions between the white house at michael flynn at the center of the dispute. democrats want to get records to determine what michael flynn disclosed to the white house before he was hired. all of this concerns continued to mount about michael flynn's foreign payments. president trump's former national security adviser under fire and under a new investigation. >> we have no evidence, zilch that he obtained permission from the secretary of the army and the secretary of state to accept any foreign government payments as required by law. >> reporter: new documents show the pentagon warned retired general michael flynn in 2014 about accepting foreign payments, suggesting he failed to get permission to travel to moscow. >> thank you so much for inviting me and having me here. >> reporter: where he was paid tens of thousands of dollars in 2015 by the kreml

so, the issue is, you know, he was issued a security clearance under the obama administration in thespring of 2016. the trip and transactions you're referring to occurred in december of 2015. from what i understand. so obviously there's an issue the department of defense and inspector general is looking into. all of that clearance was made during the obama administration with knowledge of the trip that he took. that's how the process works. jordan? >> if he wasn't fired by the president for -- i'm sorry, if he wasn't fired by the president for lying to the vice president, would he still have a job today here at the white house? >> it's -- i will just say i think the president made the right call at the right time and it's paid off. >> given the progress that congressional republicans have made on the health care talks does the president want a vote on that bill this week? >> he wants a vote when they have 216 votes and i feel good about the progress being made to get to that number. and i think speaker ryan's comments this morning indicate that it's moving in the right direction and

he blamed the obama administration, president obama for drawing that red line back in 2013 against the use of chemical weapons in syria. but not following through. and he said that should not have happened. he said, i'm drawing my own line. >> absolutely. wolf, you know this better than most people because you have covered the white house and so many presidents. that at a certain point, and he actually had almost 100 days for this point to come to him, something happens in the world that stops the white house and stops the president in his tracks. and has to have him shift and sort of refocus. now, this white house has been embellished in its own chaos and controversy. but this is obviously not a new situation. not a new crisis, unbelievable humanitarian crisis that's been going on. it's been going on for years. but it is the first time that the american people that the citizens around the world, have seen the images that we've seen of these children on donald trump's watch when he is the leader of the free world. and i just think it's very constructive to see the way he reacted. he re

lou: susan rice leaving a paper trail of unmasking requests, despite denying the obama administrationnce. >> the allegation that somehow the obama administration officials utilized intelligence for political purposes, that's absolutely false. lou: something was false, but that isn't it. a cia operations officer says the intel community has been used as a tool of political destruction. lou: new reports show that susan rice's request to unmask campaign officials was rare and anything but routine as she has claimed. documents examined by fox news state such requests involved extensive and complex procedures which means rice likely left a paper trail. my next guest says the rice unmasking is an abuse of power. one that violates the spirit of the law it should be further investigated. joining me now, scott, eulinger, thanks for being with us. fox news reporting they expect a long paper trail. these requests began in jump last year. what about accountability? how about getting to the truth here. she is going to take fifth amendment if she is called before congress. this is a difficult thing

>> that's a fascinating question, let's be honest, the united states under the obama administration lost credibility. the united states drew a red line with president obama about chemical weapons attacks, but he did not knowdo anything with assad. a lot of inaction by the obama administration. i think what we heard from nikki haley i think the question is does the trump administration want to end up in the same box with having the word look at what the united states says it's just words. this is a decision that the president will make by listening what does it mean with steve bannon, eyebrows raised, from chief political strategist in the administration someone who thinks george w. bush made a mistake in iraq. who doesn't think that it is and should be worried about its economy. the white house says he was there to help former national security adviser michael flynn to organize the place, to send more power back to the pentagon, more power to the state department. they say mission accomplished, i would say that's spin. but you guys sitting at the table for the white house, what does this

. >> what was just described to me sounds a lot like the obama administration policy towards north korea and the george w. bush administration, where is this dramatic change of president trump? >> two things. first, what we we be pre-empting? this would be the sixth nuclear test. the time to pre-empt a nuclear power is before the first test. yeah, he's back in the same place on a lot of these issues of his predecessors. he's back with assad has to go and we'll use a deterrent capability to stop him from using chemical weapons, but we don't want to intervene any further than that. on north korea, he's left with the same options. it was very telling this week when he said he talked to the president of china, who explained to him -- >> how complicated a problem it was. >> that actually donald trump for the last two years was wrong in saying that the chinese could solve this problem in a second. the president said here's the leverage we have, here's what we don't. >> i did wonder who briefed him for that meeting. that's something north korean experts would know. >> i think we're watching a p

a lot of questions. >> some obama administration is pushing back with the syrian strategy. report also shows that one key official is appearing to break with the former president obama on that issue. we will talk about it. and as a u.s. navy strike group deployed to the korean peninsula, president trump has asked that the advisors to be prepared to give him a full range of options to deal with north korea. what should be done? will china work with us? ♪ ♪ >> after last week's u.s. missile strike, obama aides pushing back on criticism of the former president's failure to follow through on the redline threat. they complain that they would not authorize action. former advisor ben rhodes also appearing to belittle the action pleading that obama was excoriated in d.c. for not taking a strike from an airfield in a few hours. and just after the strike on syria, the former state department official also talked of former president. >> the obama administration, we have been reckoning with this for five years, they are not easy answers. and just to simply say, the president put up a re