steven hadley, madeleine albright. >> thank you for your interest, judy.ry important. >> woodruff: thank you. thank you. nice to be with you. >> sreenivasan: for more on the latest cabinet nominations, their potential conflicts of interest and the republican party's priorities under a president trump, i'm joined by the #3 senate republican, senator john thune. thank you for joining us. quick order of business. when the senate goes into the confirmation process for the new commerce secretary wilbur ross, will the senate ask mr. ross to put all his assets into a blind trust and perhaps step off the board of the world's largest steel company? >> good evening, hari. obviously the commerce committee i chair will be processing his paperwork and the confirmation of the next commerce secretary and the d.o.t. and a few others. we obviously will look at his battleground and have those discussions as we drill down and ask the questions not only prior to but at the confirmation hearing about what his intentions are with respect to his business dealings and as has been

steven hadley, former national security adviser to george w. bush. condoleezza rice obviously his secretary of state. he was looking for other ideas. steven hadley and condoleezza rice according to a source sat back and recognized that the profile the candidate that the trump transition operation was look for wasn't a traditional one. and so they thought back to individuals they'd worked with in their strategic consulting firm and tillerson came to mind for one particularly good reason. his relationships with international communities and international leaders at his sometime on exxon. again, it's important to note, donald trump and rex tillerson did not know one another until this call was actually made. he came in for an initial meeting. it went well. there was a level of comfort there. the two really hit it off. most importantly they found their personal profiles matched up. they were dealmakers. they viewed the world through a similar vein. and anderson, that's really how this all ended up coming to be. those endorsements behind the scenes from c

trump did not, however, acknowledge that they along with steven hadley, who is also endorsed tillerson, all do work for exxon with their consulting firm which happens to be named rice hadley gates. tonight, the president-elect made a glancing reference to the controversy surrounding this tillerson nomination. >> rex is one of the greatest and most skilled global business leaders of our time. made some of the greatest deals. and you know, rex is friendly with many of the leaders in the world that we don't get along with. and some people don't like that. they don't want them to be friendly. that's why i'm doing the deal with rex, because i like what this is all about. >> importantly especially in light, important, especially in light of a guest standing by to talk to us before the full senate gets to vote on tillerson, his nomination has to clear the senate foreign relations committee where the demes and minority need one republican to vote with them and they can kill the nomination in committee. it will not go on to the full senate. here's how the head of that committee reacted to tille

trump is hearing from people like condoleezza rice, steven hadley, bob gates, people he respects and listens to who have worked with john bolton who are concerned that bringing him into the state department will lead to the same kind of strife that you saw during the bush administration. making matters even worse, rex tillerson has also said he does not really care for john bolton and it seems to me at this point hard to believe that trump would pick somebody who his secretary of state has said that he doesn't want to work with. >> willie, i mean, hard to believe, first of all, that you would pick anybody that still thinks invading iraq was a great idea and wanted to invade iran last year. is about as opposite of -- if rex tillerson is friends with jim baker and if bob gates appointed him, it's hard to believe that anybody, except for the most extreme segment of the neocon community in the republican party would support this guy. he was a horrible administrator by all accounts when he was over at state. >> that's why the "times" is reporting that those very same people that helped co

and because of that according to transition officials a call was placed by violent mike pence to steven hadley and condaleezza rice and he was basically a welcoming for other bias. and they sat back --. -- look for other ideas. they thought back to individuals they had worked with and tillerson came to mind for one good reason. his relationships with international communities and international leaders at his time on exxon. again, it is important to note donald trump and recollection tillerson did not know one another until this call was actually made. he came in for an initial meeting it. went well there was a level of comfort there. the two hit it off. most importantly they found their personal profiles matched up. they were deal makers. they viewed the world from a similar vain and that is how this came to be. those endorsements played an enormous role on getting recollection tillerson to this poin >> and rick perry, he once said he was going to abolish the department he's going to lead now. >> management skills were crucial there. you can look back at the 2011 date moment. you can look back

policy front, he actually has co-opted the giants of gop foreign policy in bob gates, condy rice, steven hadley >> getting bushes to come out and support your secretary of state is a huhuge. there's a legislative lever there. but seems to be very smart. betsy devos is a champion of charter schools and choice. >> a legend among conservatives. >> that's a war with teachers union there. a war going on right there. he's got rick perry in energy and then you have rex tillerson, ceo. all of this to me, i think there's been a six decade war on jobs. i think so. this cabinet looks to me like someone who is going to try free market job creating wealth creating economic policies. >> i don't think you can glean from this cabinet what's going to happen because one thing -- that is probably going into 2017 the only thing we know about donald trump is we have no idea what's going to happen. i'm not sure who to lob this question at. why is it that i feel he might actually work better with chuck schumer and democrats than the republicans who actually run the place and why is it that i'm concerned that the choi

. >> we talked to steven hadley and he went through a number of options pointing out and as we have been dizing with richard and others the president can respond with a cyber attack of his own and there is one that's expected by ukraine against russia. there are think tanks and others that are "russian sponsors" and we can find ways to expose them. the president has to be very mindful of wanting to continue this relationship he's developed with donald trump. and particularly trump has expressed so much skepticism and of the intelligence and discussing this and tweeting again only today that it had something to do with partisan politics. and i also spoke to anthony, he's leeiforward leading yes, i is russian hacking, he would be concerned of that. >> would someone be for given with the u.s. and talk of retaliation and kind of tapping their watch and checking their calendar and making sure this is 2016 and not 1956. >> well, there are parallels to that time. the rules of how to deal with cyber attack and security are not well defined as we did during a cold war with respect to nuclear weap

, john bolton's name continues to be bounced around, but a new name into the mix this weekend, steven hadleyrst started working in republican administrations for nixon from '72 to '74, he then worked on gerald ford's national security council. also, of course, spent a lot of time working for reagan and working for george w. bush. hadley would be, many washington insiders would absolutely love the idea of having him as rex tillerson's number two, if, in fact, tillerson is confirmed, but that certainly would be seen as a steady hand and somebody that could really help tillerson do what the trump administration wants to get done across the globe. but the word i'm hearing over the weekend is, that this is no longer going to be a decision that's going to be made solely by donald trump, that he's looking to defer to rex tillerson and basically says rex tillerson is going to be making this choice. if, in fact, that's the case, then certainly a lot of people inside suggest that pushes john bolton even further away from the number two slot over at the state department. >> those number two jobs are, o

steven hadly is a former national secure adviser to former george w. bush and helped president bush to broker a two-state peace treaty between israeli and palestinians. hadleythe time. simply your reaction to secretary of state kerry's speech and prime minister netanyahu's response was what? >> well, i think it was -- it was pretty predictable. secretary of state kerry was venting a lot of frustration. he's had failure to reach a middle east peace. i believe, it's because the settlement activity that that settlement activity raises questions about the viability of a i think you really saw him venting his frustration and i think rather predictably, prime minister netanyahu pushed back and basically made the point that it is not settlements that are buried to peace but the unwillingness of the palestinians, in his view, to accept israeli as a jewish state in the middle east. >> steven, give us some context here. secretary kerry stressed that every u.s. administration going back to 1967 has opposed settlements. it's well known that ronald reagan and they did not get along on lebanon and others did not get along with each other. what are we headed this next adm

. >> he does have the support of gates, rice, james baker, steven hadley.s for exxon. and to which -- put that out there. if someone believes that condy rice and bob gates, then you don't know condy rice or bob gates. >> those decisions are made by people who when they have good ethics they make those decisions when they join the board. >> by the way, it's not like they couldn't be on any boards in america they didn't want to be on. the fact that they worked with the guy and thought enough of them, they wouldn't have recommended him. this argument in sort of the blogosphere is really -- >> we'll see. joining us now from washington, the first secretary of u.s. homeland security former republican governor of pennsylvania and founder of ridge global, tom ridge. good to have you back on the show, sir. >> good morning, y'all. >> how are we doing? how are we doing, first of all, as a country when it comes to homeland security from your vantage point someone who was there when it was at its hottest? >> joe, you know, one of the challenges i think from my perspecti

we're hearing about steven hadley over at state. >> there's someone associated with this show who you'rering a lot of talk about as deputy secretary of state. >> richard haass. >> it is all of these people that we're naming though would -- not only the foreign policy establishment washington, d.c. but also internationally, david, what would that do to the standing of this administration across the globe? >> it would make it a lot easier for donald trump to conduct the foreign policy that he wants if at this deputy's level he's got solid people who are well known. the fact that he's listening to bob gates -- i covered bob gates. bob gates understands how this government works in national security better than anybody i ever met. he came out of cia to nsc. he was so solid at defense he was kept over. he served for george w. bush and then obama kept him on. this is somebody who really knows how it works. if he's the guy that donald trump is listening to on these key appointments, you would have to say this is a good thing. >> more on this coming up. let's get to our top story. today members