pts undercutting's rex tillerson's atte m pts to undercutting's rex tillerson's attempts to reach outflict between rex tillerson and donald trump going in different directions. it has raised a lot of people questioning as to why rex tillerson is sticking around, the head of cows will and foreign relations today said that to listen should resign, and that was probably why he came out, saying he was sticking with the administration, there are two acting secretary is right now, with homeland security, at the senior most cabinet level, saying that would be astounding for this young presidency. let's clear away the controversy around mr tillotson and around the things that donald trump said costa rico. the argument with the nfl, and so on. if we clear all of this way, what is the trump administration doing rather than just having fights with the media? looking at the nuts and bolts of the regulations, and what barack obama bolts of the regulations, and what ba rack obama tragedy bolts of the regulations, and what barack obama tragedy in his administration, try to do with the environment an

we'll listen in to what rex tillerson has to say. >> morning.e news reports this morning that i want to address. first, my commitment to the success of our president and our country is as strong as it was the day i accepted his offer to serve as secretary of state. his agenda has given voice to millions who felt abandoned by the political status quo and felt their interests came second to those of other countries. his foreign policy goals break the mold of what people traditionally think is achievable on behalf of our country. we're finding new ways to govern that deliver new victories. our job is now to achieve results on behalf of america and we are doing that. we've created an international unity around our peaceful pressure campaign against north korea including influencing china to exert unprecedented economic influence on north korea. at the summit, the president rallied muslim majority nations to assume new responsibilities for stopping terrorism. nato members are now contributing more to shared security. and our approach to south asia an

i have spoken many times to rex tillerson. he's been very positive to the president in private conversations with me. i would be surprised if he wasn't in other conversations. >> i'm going to leave it there. thank you for coming on and sharing your views. >>> still ahead, what is next for rex? secretary tillerson says he's not considering resigning from the state department. but after his reported comments about the president, can the secretary keep his job, and should he keep his job? we'll talk about that next. this woman is laughing because she's listening to a hilarious audiobook on audible. and this woman is laughing because she's pretending her boss's terrible story is funny. still actually laughing. no longer making a human noise. experience the comedy, not your commute. dial star-star-audible on your smartphone to start listening today. hey. what can you tell me about your new social security alerts? oh! we'll alert you if we find your social security number on any one of thousands of risky sites, so you'll be in the k

he's publicly in effect attacked rex tillerson saying that it's useless for rex tillerson to try to do anything diplomatically with north korea. and so, in a way, there's an unsurprising component of this much friction between the president and his cabinet. >> exactly. and this friction is nothing new. remember, secretary tillerson refusing to disavow the reports that he called the president a moron, that's not the first time he's opted out of going on the record defending the president. back when the charlottesville events happened, secretary tillerson refused to defend the way the president responded to the death there and the ensuing chaos. that's something that was very much noted in the white house. additionally, some of secretary tillerson's closest allies has, spokesman hammond and chief of staff peterland have built up significant groups of enemies in the white house. they're not well loved there. and secretary tillerson himself hasn't necessarily done the work that you would expect from a washington outsider to develop allies in congress which is why you aren't hearing many fo

bob corker today sticking up for rex tillerson talking about how the trio of men -- rex tillerson, secretarynd h.r. mcmaster -- project to the world the stability that our tweeting president does not. >> i think secretary tillerson, secretary mattis and chief of staff kelly are those people that help separate our country from chaos. and i support them very much. i see what's happening here. i deal with people throughout the administration. and he, from my perspective, is an incredibly frustrating place where, as i watch, okay, and i can watch very closely on many occasions, you know, he ends up not being supported in a way that i would hope a secretary state of would be supported. and that's just from my vantage point. >> tillerson, mattis and kelly are separating this country from chaos? do you mean from the president's chaos? >> it's just they act in a very -- they work very well together to make sure that the policies we put forth around the world are sound and coherent. there are other people within the administration, in my belief, that don't, okay? i'm sorry. so, i mean, i hope, you kn

the boy scouts mean everything to rex tiltillerson. this year they built a statue in rex's honor. before i was here when i worked at bloomberg tv and we covered business, rex tillerson as ceo of exxon did more interviews with the boy scouts of america than with business journalists. so when the president was so flip and spoke in such a way to the boy scouts of america, that affected tillerson. >> josh, stephanie brings up jared kushner who as anybody who coff covers this white house knows is involved in foreign policy. i know that, you know that. and the relationship now between secretary tillerson and kushner has started to come into sharper focus. >> that's right. the kushner dynamic is a parallel to the haley dynamic. for tillerson who is supposed to be the voice on foreign policy, is he? or does he have this bifurcated where his issues are his and others have issues and foreign countries don't know who's running point and actually is reflecting the policy on a certain issue? >> i remember sitting at a press conference. i guess it was at the general assembly with my colleagues

and we heard anything from rex tillerson? the guise of its spokeswoman, put out some tweets saying north korea would not get a nuclear weapons, and it was up to it whether or not that would be done by force or diplomatically, so in a sense trying to ride both horses of the president's position and the secretary of state. i think they're struggling to keep up with this as much as anyone else. but it certainly doesn't detract from the febrile atmosphere we have at the moment, because we have some big anniversaries coming up, with the founding of the north korean communist party, in the next few days, and this could see a response on this, which they often do using military means. also this hour, two young women have been killed outside the main railway station in the french city of marseille, in what is believed to have been a terrorist attack. the victims, aged 17 and 20, were stabbed to death. soldiers on patrol at the station shot the attacker dead. canadian police have arrested a somali refugee suspected of stabbing a polic

rex tillerson giving a press conference. and after all of that, he went out in that press conference and pointedly and deliberately did not deny calling the president a moron. nbc news reports that the secretary's refusal to deny that he had called the president a moron in his opening statement and in his responses to questions from reporters stoked trump's anger and widened the rift between the two men officials said. and here is a picture of that rift. here is the president in las vegas yesterday. acting as if he wasn't bothered at all. by rex tillerson and the president is a moron story. >> i'm very honored by his comments. it was fake news. it was made up. made up by nbc. they just made it up. thank you so much. total confidence in rex. i have total confidence. thank you very much, everybody. >> after watching the secretary's response wednesday, one white house official said when tillerson didn't deny it, i assumed it was true. tonight, the president made some of the most bizarre comments he has ever made to the news med

rex tillerson has nothing to do with obamacare.having issues, look at the republican leadership who have decided that they don't want to get things done in the senate on this. we always knew this was going to be a tight vote, one or two people defecting and that's the end of the bill. that's always been true. but rex tillerson has nothing to do with health care. as for tillerson and this beef. >> i believe what people have been making reference to is the accumulation of tumult. >> but again -- >> there are a lot of problems and it makes it difficult for some members of congress to get behind the president on his agenda when there appear to be problems even within his cabinet of getting along with people. so you don't think those parallels that some are making are -- >> if you're a member of the senate and you're a republican, and you're not getting behind the repeal and replace of obamacare because of the state department and rex tillerson and what you think you may be hearing, you're a world class idiot. i mean, that's just incomp

i'm a rex tillerson fan. there is a trip coming up and the president will need his secretary of state by his side to help him with that trip. this is not the best time to make a change at the state department. you have to remember everybody who served in the cabinet or white house position serves at the pleasure of the president in the time being, no security in appointment to the office. your job is not to suck up to the president and try to eastrn his pleasure. your job is to speak the truth to the president. words do matter and people should be careful with words they use. i'm always telling the president he should be more careful. the same applies to the members of the cabinet and senior white house staff as well. >> david, you have sources around the world. i am curious, other diplomats, how do they view rex tillerson and how do they view the relationship between the president and rex tillerson and is it a relationship the world thinks is going to be repaired? >> tillerson generally gets good reviews fro

it's not rex tillerson's problem.more the problem of the president of the united states not understanding how to be effected himself as the commander in chief. >> so ambassador burns we are where we are. what is the best case scenario. is the best case scenario rex tillerson leaving which of course under normal circumstances he would? and us basically rolling the dice on whether steve bannon acolyte would be our next secretary of state. we heard some of the names floating earlier during the transition or having rex tillerson hold on knowing that he's working closely with secretary mattis every day. >> at a normal time you'd have to say he would have to re-sign but this is not a normal time and the president has the north korea crisis on the front burner. he has to go to asia in november and have tough meetings with xi. it's better for the president and the country that secretary tillerson stay. i think he and secretary mattis, they're the block force preventing president trump from doing real damage to this country if

tillerson. >> so i mean, it's not helping rex right now.ook, to save your dignity at this point, which is really all these people have left, if that, they need to say -- rex needs to say i'm out of here, garry needs to say i'm of here. let the guy pick up the pieces of his crack pot personality. he's got to get the message that this isn't working. >> defending deena powell and others, there is an argument for them staying because they're worried about who would replace them. you wouldn't get a single a ballplayer to replace them. it would be like picking somebody out of the little league. >> i don't think it matters if you've got somebody of high caliber or not. donald trump does mott listen to those people. rex tillerson is a high caliber guy, they're not listening. he's not listening to these people. what's the point of being there. >> i think they believe they can do damage control. one of the things you've seen mattis doing is flying around the world, talking on his own to allies basically saying hold the line, we're going to take care

to david's point, rex tillerson is about to go to asia. he's worried about the decertification of the iran deal, north korea, et cetera, et cetera. this isn't the trump organization. this is somebody who speaks on behalf of the united states of america to foreign leaders. and if you say that you have a higher iq than this guy and you try to demean him and belittle him, and he's not just representing donald trump. he's representing everybody in this country, what does that say, and how does that help the trump administration? that's the question that i have. when you have a secretary of state, it's very clear his tenure is going to be measured in months, not years. >> yeah. >> if that. he's going to -- he's out of here. and so, you know, the president has a problem. and he's making it worse, all because of his personal grievance with rex tillerson. >> and of course, when they keep coming out and saying how much confidence he has in him, that demeans the role of press secretary and whether we can believe what she's really saying when he says

the president tweeting to rex tillerson, don't worry about it. they're going to continue with the diplomacy efforts with north korea until the first bombs drop, whatever that's supposed to mean. i don't know how reassuring that is to people. as you say, foreign adversaries can kind of telegraph what the president's thinking is just looking at 140 characters or less. >> sure. you don't want to be as very advertising, but you don't want contradictions. the idea that there's dissent over foreign policies and you want to make sure your administration is having clear signaling, whether it's additional sanctions, outreach for diplomacy. the mixed message makes it not only difficult for north korean bus also congress, democrats, and republicans alike and the american public and when you're talking about nuclear weapons, it becomes a little worry? . it might come with the lower level policy issue, but when you're talking about the newest weapons on the planet, you might want to have more co-heernlt strategy and that the administration is in synch with on

total confidence in rex. vi total confidence.nk you very much, everybody. >> for the latest i'm joined by hallie jackson. why is the president dealing with it this way. he obviously doesn't went a tough at this point to break out at the point of a true estrangement between him and his secretary of state. is that what's going on, he wants to do damage control? >> reporter: it allows him to get shots in at the media which the president has done not just in his administration but also on the campaign trail. here's the thing. we know this president plirizes two things, loyalty and strength. what you saw from rex tillerson was what you could call strong loyalty. right? he came out and very vehemently denied the reporting, some of it. he also emphasized that he believes the president broke the mold as he said when it comes to foreign policy. and this is the backdrop of this, after months of what you described as a rift between these two men, at least when it comes to policy and at least when it comes to what has been said publicly. for

she said that rex tillerson, this morning rex tillerson he would not get into that, he would not get into petty gossip. heather nauert saying he did not use that language and he did not consider resigning. i think we were reporting he threatened to resign, whether or not he considered it was in his own mind. nbc's peter alexander is at the white house, he went directly to the white house to talk to the president. does it look like his job is safe? >> reporter: well, i guess that remains to be seen, the president appeared to be sufficiently satisfied by what he heard. he said that the secretary of state effectively refuted nbc news's reporting, but again, we didn't hear that same point made by rex tillerson earlier today, he said he wasn't going to address these sort of petty matters here. but to be here, the secretary of state katie said that the two men were on the same team and shared one mission, but it's obviously they're not on the same page and i point to what happened just a matter of days ago, you remember the secretary of state when he was overseas working on his diplomatic

now, we know that the president and rex tillerson in report have been at odds in some respects, and rex tillerson may or may not have called him a more on at some point. but the president has been consistently when public saying that he has a very good relationship with his secretary of state, and when reiterated his commitment to having rex tillerson to continue to serve at the state department. >> no, i didn't under cut anybody. i don't believe in under cutting people. >> all right, so, apparently, this goes back a ways with the president. here's a tweet from back in 2013. it says sorry, losers and haters, but my iq is one of the highest. and you all know it. please don't feel so stupid or insecure. it is not your fault. so, what this came from was this section in the interview when they asked about this question about, you know, whether or not he and rex tillerson were on the same page. you know, the concern here is, sean and jim, is this: one of the things forbes says, trump says in this forbes interview, is that he, as a negotiating tactic, and almost, will use belittling of people

secretary of state rex tillerson is in saudi arabia in a second bid to end the gulf crisis without high hopes of a breakthrough. it's obvious rich northern regions feel short changed by the government's economic policies and now they're fighting back. for the houston astros have booked their tickets to l.a. they beat the new york to reach their first world series in two thousand and five for their face the dodgers begin. so we begin this news in japan where exit polls suggest the prime minister shinzo ruling bloc is headed for a big when voters braved a typhoon to cast their ballots in the polls are they called it a year earlier than expected and was asking for a clear mandrake mandate as the country faces challenges from an aging population and a sluggish economy at home and from north korea abroad. are they nomics is trademark policy aims to revive japan's stagnating economy it's facing massive debt and slow wage growth growth as well as several corporate scandals defense has been a big issue for who wants japan's military to play a more active role in conflicts it's a controversial p

rex tillerson denies reports he wanted to resign as u.s. secretary of state of attentions withdrawn. a very very sad day from the person. this is the u.s. president heads to last vegas to meet survivors of sunday's shooting which police say was planned in great detail. you know on maryam namazie and london you're watching al-jazeera oh so coming up aid agencies appeal for four hundred thirty four million dollars to save the lives of revenge of muslims playing massacres in myanmar. turkish court finds forty three former soldiers guilty of trying to kill president won in an attempted coup. in spain stock market takes a hit as catalonia moves ahead with plans to declare independence. the u.s. secretary of state has been forced to deny persistent media reports that he was considering quitting the trump of ministration three months ago rex tillerson made an unscheduled appearance to refute stories that vice president mike pence and all the senior officials at to persuade him to stay on in july. russia few specifics that have been irani officiall

the press got it wrong. >> right. >> rex never said it. i know rex. rex is a great guy.pends on whether general mattis does need rex tillerson by his side. and whether all the generals say you need to keep tillerson here. >> they will say fake news. several senior administration officials all telling them they were in the meeting and heard it. >> all sourced. >> right. >> david ignatius, we need to go to break, but this is such an important point to make. this white house, even before they were in the white house, the trump team has been skeptical, not only of the intel community but especially of the state department. if you talk to donald trump or anybody close to donald trump after the election, their entire goal was cutting the knees out from underneath a state department that they believed would do nothing but try to undercut their own agenda. >> you know, i think, joe, that they have this deep suspicion of the permanent government, the deep state, as people on the right sometimes say. the funny thing is that tillerson had that, too. you couldn't ask for a secretary

poor rex tillerson. trying to negotiate a way out of nuclear war and his boss is calling him out on social med kra for it. like i wonder if tillerson is ever like sir, do you know that your phone can make calls, do you know that? like why would you tweet me. i was like because, rex, i don't follow you so i can't dm, okay. and now-- (applause) i i get what trump is trying to do, thinking about trying to act crazy he will strengthen rex's hand with the negotiation, the good cop president president routine, i understand it the problem is he is actually a bad president t is not just the routine. >> being nice to rocket man hasn't worked in 25 years, why would it work now? clinton failed, bush failed and obama failted. i won't fail. >> trevor: you know i would be a lot more confident that trump wouldn't fail if he knew north korea has had three leaders in the last 25 years, yeah, clinton and bush were dealing with different kims. kim ill sung, kim jong ill and now kim jung-un, but i guess to trump all rocket

but that is exactly what secretary of state rex tillerson did in washington today. it followed various media reports that he wanted to resign. for more, i'm joined by with america correspondent nick bryant. job insecurity seems to go hand-in-hand with the administration. but why did rex tillerson feel so vulnerable? ofk: well, there were rumors a rexit. there were reports from nbc news that tillerson came close to resigning this summer, angry over the cubs speech, that vice president pence had to talk him out of it. and the report also said that he used the word "moron" to describe the present. inevitably, people wanted to know if you use the word to describe the president. -- if he used the word to describe the president. secretary tillerson: i'm just -- i'm not going to deal with petty stuff like that. this is what i don't understand about washington. again, i'm not from this place, but the places i come from, we don't deal with that kind of petty nonsense. jane: he calls it pettiness, but the fact remains that the president has been undermining secretary tillerso

we're going with secretary of state rex tiller sop. congratulations.lling president "maybe quote f'ing moron you mag today get through it all without getting fired >> friday's are for firing. let start the one here. tom price, sebastian, steve bannon, rinse preeves and shawn spiser all mepz of the trump ouz that have been fired or well restein on a friday. con gat lights on surviving this friday. there are only well twelve more fridays to go this year and then three more years of fridays and potentially after that eight years. good luck. >> tossing and turning well entire world entire world except for president trump. last night trump gestured to military commanders around him he saw it and said you guys know what this represents and dramatically paused and said maybe it's the calm from the storm. what storm in are we bombing north korea, invading mexico? plans to blow up the moon. anything. it could be nothing and none of it was good and the storm is he rab late marketing campaign for geo storm theaters october 19. please don't want please don't want

again, this rex tillerson story. we have one of the reporters that broke that story for nbc news, carol lee. carol lee is standing by for us. carol, first of all, how did the secretary of state's response to your story, how did that jibe with the story itself? >> well, he didn't deny the story. pretty much it basically corroborated it in many ways. let's talk -- let's take this piece by piece. the secretary said that vice president mike pence never counselled him to not resign. our story doesn't say that. it says that vice president mike pence gave secretary tillerson a pep talk. according to a number of officials, including in the white house, was seen as a liaison to try to get rex tillerson to -- as one person put it to us, to be more respectful of the president in private and publicly. and that he essentially delivered a message to him saying, look, you need to get on board with the president's agenda if this is going to work, if you're going to move forward. that conversation, that meeting happened after secreta

total confidence in rex. i have total confidence. >> reporter: but multiple sources tell nbc tillerson did disparage the president and also talked about quitting reports nbc's carol lee. >> kelly and mattis moved in to try to convince him to stick around and then vice president pence followed up with what one source described to us as a pep talk. >> reporter: in fact, tillerson and the president have clashed for months over iran, over a dispute between u.s. allies in the persian gulf and north korea. coming to a head this weekend when the president attacked tillerson's outreach to north korea tweeting sunday, save your energy, rex, we'll do what has to be done the president's diplomatic bombshell coming just hours after tillerson returned from china where he told reporters the u.s. has a backchannel to talk with north korea. leading to a chorus of headlines that tillerson should quit >> i think secretary tillerson does really have to ask himself the question whether he should be staying in this position. >> w

and rex has that of the president.orbes" article that you referenced and president trump talking about having a better iq or higher iq than tillerson. he's joking. you've got to be able to have fun in these jobs. looks like what he was doing with the author of the article, having fun about iqs. >> sure, but if you listen to the comments made about senator bob corker, the respected republican chairman of the senate foreign relations committee to "the new york times," he thinks that president trump's tweets about foreign policy have actually caused diplomatic problems and he said he was concerned that, you know, the president's leading us on a path to world war iii. forgetting the hyperbole of world war iii a second, that's the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee expressing concern that the. 's tweets, you know, it's one thing if he's going after jemele hill on espn. it might not be cool or mature, but it's not going to cause an international incident. these tweets about north korea, that's alarming bob co

then he added, save your energy rex! we will do it has to be done.judy miller, fellow at the and fox contributor join is not. it seems the president is contradicting the secretary of state so what do you make of this? >> well, donald trump is always hard to tell but rather than lead to conclusions, let me have a benign explanation which is perhaps donald trump is sending out deliberately mixed messages. perhaps he wants to be the babcock and let rex tillerson the secretary of state who was trying to be getting the back channel talks going and by the way, something seems to be going. so you have this good copy and babcock thing. that is the benign explanation. there are several other competing explanations. one is that secretary rex tillerson who at one has been rumored to be on the way out for a long time is not getting the tom price treatment. the humiliation, the not-so-subtle tweets pushed from the president. softened by the blow of wonderful secretary of state. but it could also be that donald trump is just spending too much time at the 19th hole

nervous rex.ady to replace rex tillerson after our nbc exclusive reporting that the secretary of state called the commander in chief a moron. the inside scoop coming up next. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. to most people, i look like most people. but on the inside, i feel chronic, widespread pain. fibromyalgia may be invisible to others, but my pain is real. fibromyalgia is thought to be caused by overactive nerves. lyrica is believed to calm these nerves. i'm glad my doctor prescribed lyrica. for some, lyrica delivers effective relief for moderate to even severe fibromyalgia pain. and improves function. lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions, suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worse depression, unusual changes in mood or behavior, swelling, trouble breathing, rash, hives, blisters, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling, or blurry vision. common side effects: dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain, swelling of hands, legs and f

that rex tillerson did call him a moron. and he entertains that possibility to the point that he come once a plan to prove that rex tillerson is wrong and that donald trump is not a moron. he says if he did that, i guess we'll have to compare iq tests. in his meeting with former secretary of state henry kissinger today in the oval office, the president did not challenge kissinger to an iq test. not just because the world knows that the 94-year-old former harvard professor and secretary of state would beat donald trump in an iq test in his sleep, but because presidents just don't challenge people to iq contests. that's easy to forget during the trump administration. and at least one compartment of donald trump's brain seems to know that. because look at what he said with henry kissinger sitting right beside him. when he was asked about his boast that he has a higher iq than rex tillerson. >> did you undercut the secretary of state today with the iq comment? >> no, i didn't undercut anybody. i don't believe in undercutting peo

frankly around his own white house, specifically on rex tillerson.was asked about tillerson now in the wake of our report that tillerson back in july at the end of a meeting at the pentagon referred to the president as a moron. the president has said since then that he still has confidence in him, but during our conversation just now, he said that at times he would like to see tillerson be a little bit tougher. as we look at pictures of the president arriving at joint base andrews, here's part of what he said just a short time ago -- oh, i'm being told we don't have it yet. we'll have it momentarily. i'll tell you what he said about his chief of staff john kelly. he spoke of john kelly with effusive prads, saying he's a great know ma, the best person i've ever worked with and insisted that he would be here throughout the remaining seven years of his term, suggesting that he'll be back for re-election, that he would run again as well. those were some of the primary comments we heard from him on this day. we also asked him about harvey weinstein, given

save your energy, rex. we'll do what has to be done." >> and so martha, a very public statement of loyalty from rex tillerson, but a leading republican senator did say today that tillerson hasn't always had the backing he deserves? >> reporter: that's exactly right, david. republican senator bob corker, chairman of the foreign relations committee, said tillerson isn't getting the support he needs from the administration, adding that tillerson, secretary mattis and john kelly are the people who, quote, help separate our country from chaos. david? >> martha raddatz with us tonight. thank you, martha. >>> we are also following two new tropical systems brewing tonight. one of them growing stronger. and at this hour, on track to make landfall in the u.s. on sunday. let's get right to meteorologist rob marciano. rob? >> reporter: hey, david. they are both pretty close to home. the one near florida is going to spin showers in that direction. but we don't expect much in the way of development there, just heavy rain

what position is rex tillerson in at this point? >> tillerson is a man without a constituency in washington. he doesn't even have one in his own state department which he's tried to gut, and he hasn't even appointed his own personnel to positions within the state department. add that to the trump white house finding him insufficiently loyal, which this is essentially what their hope -- they would rather just get him on out of there, and he really is a man who doesn't have anyone to fall back on in a tough time. >> well, he's got general mattis, and when you speak to other people, they're saying, listen, he's one of the adults. i don't want him to leave. i want to share what bob corker said yesterday, because i find it stunning. >> i think secretary tillerson, secretary mattis and chief of staff kelly are those people that help separate our country from chaos. >> okey-doke. if you don't know who bob corker is, that is the republican chairman of the senate committee. if that isn't a smack in the face of the trump rodeo, i don't know w

. >>> secretary of state rex tillerson speaking out refuting accusations he's at odds with the president, talking about diplomatic efforts with iran, north korea and responding to some surprising comments from senator bob corker. >> president trump's very important lunch. meet with senate majority leader today on the tax reform and health care. >> in california at least 40 dead in the wildfires. residents are beginning to return home if the homes are still standing. some of these folks saying there's not even something to sift through. >> good morning. welcome to "early start." i'm christine romans. >> i'm dave briggs. 4:00 a.m. in the east. secretary of state rex tillerson speaking out about the relationship with president trump saying he and his unconventional boss are working together to quote force action on important global issues. tillerson told jake tapper that his conversations with the president are frank, candid, refuting rumors the two of at odds. the second also refused to address reports he called the president a moron over the summer. >> i'm not going to deal with that kind

so david, rex tillerson, i'm rooting for rex.x to stay in there and bring sanity to insane situation. he's just being so disingenuous there. he keeps talking about the ways of washington, the people of washington. the unconventional style makes washington nervous. hey, you know who else that would make very nervous, board members and shareholders of exxonmobil. they would vote out a ceo in five minutes if he spent one day talking the way this president spoke. for the past, eight, eight naturand a half months. that's disingenuous. what is rex tillerson's game. what is his objective. why is he still there for a president he does not respect. in a state department he has been told to not staff up. with a running of foreign policy that is circular at best. >> you know, joe, not routing for tillerson. rooting for the u.s., obviously. the only answer you can give -- the only answer you can give is that tillerson is willing to take all this stuff that's being dished out by the president and imagine a secretary of state having to say on

he views rex as being disloyal. he doesn't know why rex couldn't have said, no, i didn't call the president of the united states a moron. yes, it's really bad. i'm yet to speak to anyone inside the white house who views this as a sustainable situation. that's not to say that, you know, i have any reporting to suggest that he's going to get fired on, you know, friday or anything -- anything remotely like that, but nobody thinks that this can continue. it's an unsustainable situation. >> all right, shannon. jonathan has nicely set up the equation here. here's the other side of this. with so many departures and the number of foreign countries who have the job of secretary of state way more than our president generates the job and title and role, can they afford a departure any time soon? >> i think that and two other things may be the only thing that tillerson has in his favor at this point based on -- i agree with a lot of what jonathan said. one, optically it would look bad because the president has already come out

can rex tillerson remain a secretary of state right now? >> what concerns me now, hallie, is less the confidence and trust that the president and secretary of state have in each other than the confidence and trust we should have in the secretary of state's ability to conduct diplomacy. the beginning of talks with north korea were a hopeful sign that maybe diplomacy would replace some of the fury and fire talk and maybe we would avoid miscalculation or another mistake that would draw us into war. can secretary of state tillerson remain? not if the president continues to undercut his pursuing a rational and sensible policy, and these talks were at least the beginning of such a policy. and my hope is that they will not only reconcile with each other but pursue a policy that aims at stopping a nuclear farm in north korea without the use of military force, which would be devastating. >> you talked about the importance of americans having confidence and trust in a secretary of state snmt. >> at this moment, i think many of us are wondering if he

the odyssey of rex tillerson. oh, my gosh, bill kohn, i know there have been disputes between defense secretaries and secretaries of state. classically, schultz and wi weinberger. we've seen the kissinger state department, secretary rogers, secretary vance not getting along with brzenski. >> first of all, let me say a word about rex tillerson. he is a serving man, a substantive man and a good man. i think he's been undercut from the beginning. not able to pick his own jeopardy, which one would think if you're giving up a very big career with exxonmobil, leading one of the biggest companies in the world, and then having to deal with the tax implications of accelerating all he was going to get in the future, that's a real commitment on his part. he's a real patriot. but he's been undercut from the beginning. and i think time after time he's tried to engage in diplomacy, and the president has undercut him. so this normally takes place inside the administration. no cabinet head likes being overruled by the president,

take a look. >> rex says it's not true. the president tweeted it was fake news, you are running the story. you folks are the only ones doing it, so it's between you and the folks involved. i believe the folks involved. >> i want to bring in peter alexander at the white house for us, first, let's go to the corker tweets. because the president can't seem to let this one go. bob corker certainly had a zinger earlier today. >> reporter: i think that's exactly right, senator bob corker, the chair of the foreign relations committee uncorking a real dagger at the president, responding to his criticism from president trump. he wrote it's a shame the white house has become an adult day care center, someone obviously missed their shift this morning. those are the words of senator bob corker as you have been talking about on this broadcast right now. there are reasons why this feud is important. we've talked on this broadcast routinely about all the establishment republicans the president has gone over, jeff flake of arizona, the list

and the apparent undermining of the secretary of state rex tillerson. francis rooney of florida is on the house foreign affairs committee. thanks for being with me. >> thank you, fredricka. >> what's your interpretation of what's going on and the messaging that is a direct contrast from secretary of state and the defense secretary that diplomacy should be the first and the priority route for the white house. >> first there is no doubt that anyone seriously looking at this situation would seek a diplomatic solution in this conflict that would be highly destructive to a lout of people. >> don't waste your time? >> what combination of words and acts are most destined to accomplish that result? i may be a minority, but the strong words that the president used combined with rex tillerson saying diplomatic things set the table for maybe kim understanding that he won't be a excused like he was with three successive presidents. >> do you believe it's a clear message being sent to north korea and globally when you have the president who said don't waste your tim