ron christie joins john mccain, who has died at the age of 81. iejoins me on john mccain, who has died at the age of 81. ron christie joins me on the phone, who is a former special assistant to george w bush and is 110w assistant to george w bush and is now a bbc political analyst. tell us what he was like? you knew him very well. i did. senatorjohn mccain embodied the naval academy here, which is duty, on, country. he was a patriot, someone who served in the navy a month his father, his grandfather, he had been tortured severely in that beckham walcott refused to offer himself to come home because he said he would never come home and tell all the soldiers we re come home and tell all the soldiers were there before him and have the opportunity to come home. i think he embodied the spirit of whatjohn mccain brought not only to the house of representatives, but the united states congress, someone who is willing to cross party lines and do what was right or the country, not necessarily in the best interests of his political party and that is what so

rajini: ron christie, thanks for ining us. ro good to see you. rajini: you are watching "bbc world news america." still to come on tonight's program, special look at russia's role in syria. wantshe country the world to see bringihe stability inountry. australia is at the top of the global leadeecoard come with omic growth of more than 3%, according to its treasurer. another gauge of national performance tells a very different story. phil mercer report phil: prosperous, safe home and sunny. australia is seen as the place to be for the good life. there is not beea recession here since the early 1990's. economic growth is over 3%. it is the envy of the world. natural gas exports andassive infrastructure projects wtrl keep the aian economy marching on. but those gdp accurately reflect how the country feel about wealth and financial security? the answer to rdat is no, acg to be national australia bank well-being index. it found that levels of satisfaction and happiness are --the survey began in 2013 at their lowest since the survey began in 2013. many

donald bush ron christie.at the true sense of being an american hero is. he also embodies the spirit of the united states naval academy, where he attended — duty, on, country. the fa ct attended — duty, on, country. the fact that the president of the united states doesn't see fit to pay tribute tojohn mccain, that the flags are back at full staff at the white house, says a lot about president trump's character or in my case, lack there of two double —— lack there of. you have worked on capitol hill for a long time, i'm sure you spent a lot of time with john mccain, what i loved about him was that he could be fantastically grumpy, to the edge of being rude, it but he would get over it straightaway, and he had a cracking sense of humour, he was fun to be around because you never quite knew what he was going to do, he was impish? you never exactly knew what he was going to do or say next. ireland when i worked for president bush, he sent me up to speak with senator mccain to negotiate an act and he looked at me a

how surprising will the findings be laura: ron christie, thanks for joining us. ron: good to see you. laura: in other news, the u.s. is condering imposing 25% tariffs on $200 billion of chinese goods. that is mu higher than the 10% president trump had indicated he would impose. the moveould cause even more tension between the world's two biggest economies. cocaine production in colombia is higher than ever, with much of it he europe.the u.s. and over 900 tons of cocaine were produced in colombia last year, despite a peace accord that ha ded a long-running insurgency by rebels known as the farc.s it prompting fears that the country is losing the war on drugs.s the bbc'security correspondent frank gardner has this special report. cank: colombia post-peace deal, and the war on druontinues . a surprise raid by narcotics police on an illegal coca crop. i nt with them. from remote areas like these, cocaine production is now at an all-time high -- over 900 tons last year, much of it heading to europe, including the u.k. the troops destroy the jungle labs wherever they ca

with us again is our political analyst ron christie.t's about continuity. if you are an outgoing cia director and an incoming and administration comes in, you want to have the ability to have those individuals salt and look at intelligence and say when you had thisjob how did intelligence and say when you had this job how did you intelligence and say when you had thisjob how did you handle intelligence and say when you had this job how did you handle these situations? so it is courtesy. so it's not that these high ranking officials are getting high—level secret national security clearance every day sent to them in their offices? that's right, it's on a case—by—case basis but what the president did say is that if you retain your security clearance you can makea retain your security clearance you can make a lot of money consulting with defence contractors. that has a lwa ys with defence contractors. that has always happened, right? so i actually think president trump did the right thing but the way he handled it turned it into a pr disast

ron christie, at the same question i gave tojon sopel, people are talking about watergate moments, isof this president? no, it is too soon. we have manafort who was convicted in a trial. but you have mr cohen, the fix it guy who never went to trial, he took a deal. the notion the president cannot defend himself in the court of law against these accusations, i don't think it rises to a watergate moment at this point. yet we have michael cohen's own lawyer saying he can give more to prosecutors. what more does michael cohen know about his years of relationship with donald trump and during the campaign that could be potentially damaging to this president? there had better be more because i think cohen does wa nt be more because i think cohen does want a deal. you can cooperate at any point, even after a year of your sentence and get a cut in sentencing. he gave a lot up in the courtroom, he seemed eager to implicate the president and that testimony is logged in. the plea bargains are not going to buy the cow bargains are not going to buy the cow for giving the milk away for free. he went

bush, ron christie, joined us to discuss it from new york. thanks for joining me. both of these men are very, very close to president trump, and not just cooperating, they are by all accounts getting immunity. how significant is that? ron: good evening to you, jane. it is significant on a political front but not necessarily legal front. let me explain here. what the prosecution team has done is extended immunity to two of the president's closest associates. they want to explore how michael cohen used money to allegedly pay off two paramours of the president of the united states. i say this is bad from a political front because it looks like the president has something to hide. however, going to a nondisclosure agreement is perfectly legal. i'm just curious to see if they have a legal connection to prove improper activity. jane: we have said time and time again, you and me, that his supporters don't care about this, that it is a distraction. but clearly prosecutors do, and presumably republican leaders in congress can't keep ignoring it. or can they? ron: i think th

ron christie is with us. former adviser to george w bush.esident right but social media, a liberal bastion skewed against the voices of conservatives? good afternoon. i do not think that they are, i think it is all about how you as the user select to be on a particular platform, be it twitter, facebook or what have you. i can tell you however there a fire storm brewing on capitol hill as relating to twitter and whether they discriminate against conservatives. attract this cold shadow banning. and my work with the ceo having spent several hours with him i can tell you he believes strongly that the platform does not discriminate against conservatives but it is a perception problem they have been working hard to try to fix. perception problem they have been working hard to try to fixlj perception problem they have been working hard to try to fix. i know for a long time conservatives have felt but they didn't have their voice in one they called the liberal mainstream media and that that video organisations based in new york and washington and on

ron and i and christie stopped at each site and said a prayer. a week later karen and ron united with survivors at the two thousand and fourteen boston marathon. i they cheered their friend celeste and the symbolic run across the finish line. i am angry at what he did and when i see my friends and they struggle and i see other survivors. i don't want my decision to be based on how angry i get in those instances. that fall judge will tool announced the trial would be held in boston. and we have two choices we can either let him stay alive and have his interaction and have his joys. or put him to die. and have that be the end of it. they don't get to see their little boy playing baseball anymore or reading him a story at night and in this young man is in jail and he's reading stories that he likes he's got books available to him that he enjoys or he meets with his sisters and gets to see pictures of their children growing up and i just don't think it's fair that they have had their their joys taken away from them and he still is able to experience t

ron and i and christie stopped at each site and said a prayer. a week later karen and ron united with survivors at the two thousand and fourteen boston marathon. they cheered their friend celeste in a symbolic run across the finish line. i am angry at what he did and when i see my friends and they struggle and i see other survivors. i don't want my decision to be based on how angry i get in those instances. that paul judge will tool announced the trial would be held in boston. and we have two choices we can either let him stay alive and have his interaction and have his joys. or put him to die. and have that be the end of it. they don't get to see their little boy playing baseball anymore or reading him a story at night and in this young man is in jail and he's reading stories that he likes he's got books available to him that he enjoys or he meets with his sisters and gets to see pictures of their children growing up and i just don't think it's fair that they have had their their joys taken away from them and he still is able to experience that.

to special assistant ron christie, "national review" columnist and director of public affairs ashley pratte. ashley, what do you think? >> i think there's a lot of things to kind of unpack here as we move forward, neil. i think his poll numbers are very, very low. i think at this point, he's struggling, he's got the economy going on his favor, but i think that as we're moving forward there are a lot of things we should be looking at overall and i think that as these scandals start to plague the white house, he's going to have a hard time moving forward and moving his economic agenda forward. neil: what the heck are they looking at then, john fund. if you work with a guy like donald trump for 40+ years, it's all about business relationships, maybe business transactions, this is before the michael cohen developments here so you start piecing together, what would they be wanting to get because all of this would predate any of the russian allegations. so you leap into a lot of areas but is it possible that this has now gone beyond a russian collusion investigation to just, you know, a bu

ron and i and christie stopped at each site and said a prayer. a week later karen and ron united with survivors at the two thousand and fourteen boston marathon. they cheered their friend celeste in a symbolic run across the finish line. i am angry at what he did and when i see my friends and they struggle and i see other survivors. i don't want my decision to be based on how angry i get in those instances. that paul judge will tool announced the trial would be held in boston. and we have two choices we can either let him stay alive and have his interaction and have his joys. or put him to die. and have that be the end of it. they don't get to see their little boy playing baseball anymore or reading him a story at night and in this young man is in jail and he's reading stories that he likes he's got books available to him that he enjoys or he meets with his sisters and gets to see pictures of their children growing up and i just don't think it's fair that they have had their their joys taken away from them and he still is able to experience that.