and joining us now from saudi arabia is the secretary of state rex tillerson. mr. secretary, resident trump is urging muslim leaders to join the "battle of good and evil," he's opening a center against extremism today, muslim leaders are pledging to cut off funding to radicals, but the big question i have is, is this just talk or other realty fare, concrete measures that will help us to stir isis and al qaeda and to stop the flow of new recruit recruits? >> secretary tillerson: i think it is historic what's happening here in riyadh under the king's leadership. his convening of the gcc counsel this morning, we had a very productive discussion on the subject of how to counterterrorism, how to defeat them and how it brings greater stability to the region and of course this afternoon he will deliver this important message to the convening of the arab summit. arab nations, muslim nations from around the world. i think the output of this, some framework agreements that are going to guide the actions going forward, concrete commitments being made as to how we will work to

this is a moment when aztecs tillerson -- rex tillerson has said we should unite to defeat these people. we can and we will. butjust in iraq and syria, in the battle for the hearts and minds. winning the intellectual and emotional struggle as well. we can and we will as they are wrong. their view of the world is corrupt, it's a perversion of islam and it can be completely confounded. but now is not the time, now is not the time to do anything to subtract from the fundamental is individualsof those -- that individual in particular that commit this atrocity. i think it is monstrous that anybody should seek to do that. sec. tillerson: with respect to the release of information inappropriately, information informationsomeone, file to an ongoing investigation, final to capturing those involved in this heinous event, certainly we condemn that. the president has a very strong in his combination and has called for an immediate ofestigation and prosecution those who are found to have been responsible for leaking any of this information to the public. we take full responsibility for that. we are

tillerson. he was asked about russia's role in the election and about fbi director comey's firing. this is 20 minutes. [speaking in native tongue] >> today, we have had our meeting with rex tillerson and state department and we have been in talks with him. first of all, it is cooperation on the international arena and despite all known difficulties our countries can and should contribute jointly to the most urgent issue in international affairs. we discussed syria in the context of the ideas that have been put forth regarding the de-escalation areas and regarding the facts if that should be established that would contribute to violence throughout the country of syria to contribute to humanitarian problems and forms the framework to achieve political substance base and resolution 2224. we agree to work together where the u.s. is an observer and appreciate the constructive criticism of the u.s. this meeting will continue to accomplish the process which is supposed to resume next week according to secretary tillerson. we hope that all the participants of the talks will be constructive

together with rex tillerson we discussed the outcome. that took place in new york yesterday where they reviewed the state of our relations. when all the problems have been -- we, i would rather say the year address attend summer artificially introduced in our relations. approach.usinesslike we can't solve all the problems overnight. there is a desire to move in the direction of the settlement of the problems. president trump clearly stated his interest in build diplomatic relations with russia and to important boths president trump and president putin can obtain concrete results that would help in moving -- removing problems from the international -- that's what we wanted to start with. any questions? mic.e use the sanctionsu discussed and the issue of restoring seized russian property? situation that -- it is not our problem as a result of unilateral actions taken against us. regarding our property, well, that ishat is an issue a priority in our talks. it is our property, diplomatic property. legal documents given to us. it is our prope

that is why i'm so grateful to rex tillerson, u.s. secretary of state, for coming here today in an instinctive act of solidarity between the u.s. and the u.k. we've talked about all sorts of things today, much of which you would expect. syria, relations with iran, the dprk, north korea, the vital importance of the work we do together across such a range of fields. including intelligence sharing and around the world you will find the u.s. and the u.k. facing the same problems together and defending our ideals together. we defend democracy and the rule of law. our values and our freedoms. not just because they are ours, but because they are universal. if the world community can unite in the way the people of manchester have come together and united, i think together we can prevail and we will prevail. rex, your visit is an important sign of the closeness and harmony of our cooperation. thank you very much for coming. sec. tillerson: thank you, boris. good afternoon to all of you. i am here today in great britain on behalf of the america

>> secretary tillerson: that's not my interpretation of the conversation. i think with the president was trying to convey to the russians is i'm not going to be distracted by all these issues that are here at home, that affect us domestically, i'm not going to let that distract from our efforts to see if we can engage with you, engage with russia and identify areas where we might be able to work together. the president i think we emphasize the message to the russians that the relationship was at a low point and we need to change that. i think the point he was making is i'm not going to be distracted by those things that are happening here at home, or let them get in the way of the important work of engaging russia to see what can be done to improve this relationship. >> chris: he seemed to be saying that firing comey would help her move one the distractions. >> secretary tillerson: my take away from that conversation was not that at all, i think again he was simply saying to the russians, these issues at home are not going to get in the way of my effort in

it is high time for us -- >> secretary of state rex tillerson talked about the state of u.s.-russia relations on nbc "meet the press today, while nikki haley previewed president conn's upcoming overseas trip on abc's "this week." >> i don't understand how this is not a top issue for you to in order toth them essentially start with a clean slate. cannot start with a clean slate until may be they either own up to what they did, or we punish them in a way that they are not going to do this again. i think it is important to understand we are not trying to start with a clean slate. ares like having a reset overused. you cannot reset or erase the past. you cannot start with a clean slate. we are not trying to start with a clean slate. we are starting with the slate we have it all the problems are on that plate, we do not dismiss any of them or give anyone a free pass on any of them. they are part of the entire nature of the discussion we are having with the russians, and yes, there are a large number of issues we have to get around to addressing in order to put this relationship ba

secretary tillerson puts the total saudi investment in u.s.nterests at $350 billion with a number of u.s. companies benefitting, so i guess i have to ask the question, is this really more about business? >> i think it is very much. if there's one thing that donald trump is consistent on, it may be the only thing he's consistent on right now, he has an attitude vis-a-vis the rest of the world. he wants to shake down the rest of the world, have them invest. he is concerned about american jobs. he is doubtful about trade deals. he's going to countries like japan, like china. big companies that are involved in the davos world economic forum are getting together and saying what can we do to bring investment to the united states. that's all a function of the willpower that donald trump is bringing into this and their desire to kind of make him happy at this moment. now, i've got to tell you the saudis often promise aid to other countries, they promise deals to other countries and, you know, when you get back to sort of see in a year or two whether i

tillerson also made the

rex tillerson is in the building we understand. you can tell from the first few hours of the visit it looks like a new day centered around the $110 billion arms deal. problem for saudi arabia, can can't buy its way to security. and they're number three in the world in terms of military spending, but 127th in terms of readiness and their ability to mount an effective defense in the country and go after terrorism. so there's a little bit of a disconnect there so something clearly they'll need to work on. but this is $110 billion in business for the american arms and electronics industry, because a lot of this involves electronics as well as missile. and it's a $350 billion deal over ten years, so, in terms of the military/economic relationship between the two countries, off on a very strong footing, it's also interesting to watch the body language between president trump and ki killng-- king salmans. and the president meeting with the deputy crown prince and bin salmans is trying to reenact reforms in saudi arabia and loosen up the d

together with rex tillerson. that meeting of our deputies took place in new york the day before yesterday. they reviewed the state of our -- saw, we wantems we good. that the pace is we agreed to continue down this child to address the irritants that were artificially introduced into our elections. there is a desire to move. and to solve issues -- it is important that both president trump and supporters are willing to obtain concrete results. that would help removing problems from the international part. that is why i don't want to start any questions. -- that is why i will start questions. >> your seizing russian property and my second question is, is this upheld? we will not this out -- discuss the issues. not until action is taken against us. property, indeed, that is an issue. it is a priority. it is our property. recognizes this by documents. and it isgiven to us our property and no one denies that. they will not deny that it is our property. >> there are tricks. >> our diplomats were ordered. everyone under

mcmaster, dena powell, and tillerson.y sources are telling me "the washington post" discussed this before they printed it with none of the principles of the meeting. they did not speak to tillerson, powell, or mcmaster. if that's the case, that's what we are hearing at lifezette, if that's what we are hearing, how do you go on the record without talking to the principals at the meeting? >> james: the responsibility of "the washington post" in an incident like this is to reach out to the administration and to its press operation and get whatever answer they are prepared to give. it doesn't mean it invalidates the principles. is it possible, juan, that what we have might be a case where people in the intelligence community opposed to donald trump are being tendentious and leaking something to "the washington post" that doesn't quite check out. >> it's always possible, as you said, when you come to intelligence, we are in a forest of mirrors. there's all kinds of games being played. tendentious would suggest there was deceit

secretary of state rex tillerson. we'll bring that to you live. that's the room where it'll happen. the president just finishing up a signing and agreement with king salmon right there in those images, but as the world watches, the president takes his first steps into diplomacy on a grand world stage. the storm cloud over the white house is growing. with two new explosive reports. current and former government sources tell cnn that during the 2016 campaign, russian officials bragged about their relationship with former nsa advisor michael flynn and believed that they could use flynn to influence donald trump. and the "new york times" reporting that during the president's meeting with russian officials early this month, right there in the white house, the president trash talked fbi director james comey and said firing -- the firing rather was done of what president trump described as comey as a nut job and that the firing eased, quote, great pressure of the investigation. russia's foreign minister now denying that topi

. >> we expect and on camera briefing from rex tillerson at 11:00 eastern. we bring you that as well. mike pence sitting down, megan smith was chosen by her classmates to give a speech at the commencement address. >> should we expect anything from the vice president or down the middle? >> he will offer what everybody offers at a commencement address. talk about what that road is going to go? tell them sometimes it might be hard and you might get knocked down but how you get up matters. most wants to hear that message, it is a special time, a time to have the president of the united states addressing it. >> he is speaking in grove city, pennsylvania. their motto is because faith and freedom matter, something we have seen that is unique with his administration, we saw recently with donald trump at liberty university's they are not afraid to touch faith, they are not afraid to go there. >> there is nothing wrong with touching faith which i wish democrats and even some republicans would agree with that. there are ways in which faith has promoted people in value

tillerson is planning big changes, doing more with less. margaret brennan was there. >> my view of how you translate america first into our foreign policy... >> reporter: secretary tillerson explained to state department umployees how he plans to implement president trump's our ica-first policy. >> if you condition our national urcurity efforts on someone adopting our values, we probably can't achieve our national security goals or our national security interests. >> reporter: tillerson defended the u.s. strategy to isolate nuclear-armed north korea and said conditions are not yet ripe for a meeting with dictator kim jong-un. >> we'll sit down when they're ready to sit down under the right terms. >> reporter: he explained a plan to rebuild trust with russia by retting president vladimir putin to broker a ceasefire in syria. >> the relationship between our two nations is the lowest it's been since the cold war. ta reporter: but tillerson is tackling these thorny issues without the usual top diplomats. he's still not appointed policy director

you just heard rex tillerson talking about beating isis in cyberspace. i think that's a big part of this that quite often isn't talked about. >> it's a real big part. we've got to provide a constructive alternative to the people that are trying to radicalize at-risk youth, people in prisons, people who feel marginalized by society. we've got to figure out how to make them come back into the mainstream and to realize that islam is a religion of peace, just like the other abrahamic faiths. >> there are a lot of people like us, we're watching this day in and day out with each other, but there are a lot of people, it's a saturday afternoon. they're turning on and don't know all the ins and outs of the politics of all of this. what is the takeaway from today as far as what we've just heard? >> if i had to say one word, i would say reset. i think president trump and secretary tillerson have reset the relationship with saudi arabia and our sunni allies. i think he's made a huge trade deal, which is both good for our united states enterprises, general electric a

on fox, they asked tillerson, chris wallace asked tillerson is the u.s. be expelling the turkish ambassador and secretary of state tillerson said there needs to be an investigation. >> well, i want to say this is not the first time his bodyguards are attacking protesters. this happened in a quarter last year and happened at the in 2016. institute basically, they get away with it. i guess they think they can do whatever they want and other countries. they do that in turkey. violence wey this witnessed on tuesday, we can take it as a representation of the turkish state wide. but the scale of it, the amount of violence we witnessed was nothing to be compared to the once people are having on a day-to-day basis in turkey. yes, they can call for the expulsion of the ambassador. i think they should do something. this new government, especially he isump, the president, more patriotic. this happened on american soil. i hope they will do something. they need to do something, actually. they get away with that. they get away with it in ecuador. that means this is a r

tillerson is planning big changes, doing more with less. margaret brennan is there. >> my view of how you translate america first into our foreign policy -- >> reporter: secretary of state tillerson explained to employees how he plans to implement donald trump's america first policy. >> if you imemployme. >> reporter: tillerson defended the strategy to ease late nuclear-armed north korea and said conditions are not yet right for a sit-down meeting with kim jong un. he explained a plan to rebuild trust with russia by getting president vladimir putin to broker a c-f >> the relationship between our two nations was the lowest it's been since the cold war. >> reporter: but tillerson is tackling these thorny issues without the usual top diplomats. he still has not appointed policy directors for asia, the mideast or russia. of the 119 jobs that require senate signoff only three have been confirmed. president trump has nominated an additional seven. tillerson also did not explain his plan to eliminate more than 2,000 jobs and cut a quarter of the b

and so far secretary tillerson has lived up to that.he nukeler edeal was negotiated with the six western powers. that has been recertified by the international atomic agency, by their weapons inspectors. the virtue of it according to others who were part of that negeen negotiation is that for at least a decade it will slow iran down. while it's permitted to have some of its equipment, it is nullify bide having cameras in every site and weapons inspectors in every station. the counterargument is that iran cheats. in the past they have had secret underground sites well beyond the inspector's vision. most notably in 2009 that was discovered and that lead to a major breach. so there is a lot that can happen between now and then. what we have seen since he became president trump is that he has moderated his language, certainly on this trip, about islamic extremism, even in his message to a joint meeting of congress. he went with radical islamic extremism. but he did not do that this weekend and that was the first time thatty with have seen a

secretary of state rex tillerson and saudi's foreign minister al jubeir. and you heard rex tillerson there making reference to the ironen election, re-election, of president rouhani there, and he says he is -- his hope is he wouldn't reveal expectations, his hope would be that it would put an end to ballistic missile testing and restore the rights of ironens. a lot -- iranians. other things were talked about in terms of what's being described as a productive and historic visit, according to the foreign minister there, and they talked about the strengthening of the partnership between the u.s. and saudi arabia as it pertains to economic deals, military deals and strengthening existing relations between the two countries and he said, they signed a declaration, the president of the united states and the king of saudi arabia, signing a declaration to elevate a strategic relationship. all right. mean time, now let's get a peek into the meeting, bilateral meeting, that took place between the president of the united states and the crown prince of saudi arabia. le

>> i'm talking about tillerson, what he said two weeks ago when he talked about. jcpoa. everybody who knows rouhani, it doesn't matter who won, supreme leader decides. the they can act without rouhani's permission and they react to the supreme leader. like the foreign minister said, deeds are louder than words and i'm sure secretary tillerson agrees with that. >> all right, michael, adjunct yellow at hudson institute breaking down the press conference. appreciate you being with us, sir. liz, as we've been talking about the past couple of hours, really, you get the sense that there are three parts to this rip to saudi arabia, the isis angle, the iran angle and the economic cooperation angle and we now know which angle the saudis think is much important in terms of at that triangle. a lot more news out of saudi arabia and we'll break the past nine or so hours that the president was on ground and his comments with the crowned prince when we come back. what's the best way to get two servings of veggies? v8 or a fancy juice store? ready, go! hi, juice universe? one large ruta

rex tillerson was the one who brokered that deal. this is a photo opportunity here and we will continue to follow president trump's visit to saudi arabia. right now we are going to go back to our regular programming. thank you for joining us. we'll follow president trump for the rest of the day. >> four days after beverly carter disappeared, police pulled up to this remote cement plant. they frantically searched for the missing real estate agent. you just now have this gut feeling that that's where she's at? >> yeah. >> shortly after arriving, an officer stumbled on something straight out of a crime novel. an elbow sticking out of a shallow grave. it was beverly. detective allison went to see carl. >> you never forget the look on somebody's face when you tell them that you found their spouse, it's hard. that's probably the hardest part of it. >> they said we found beverly. i said, well, was she alive? and i'm sorry but she wasn't. >> we had worked so hard i mean, to find her. i mean we just really tried to do right and it wasn't enou

and madness as well as national security adviser mcmaster before meeting with secretary tillerson. i want to mention that the mojave severe weather coordination call to discuss impacts on the remaining threat of continued severe weather across portions of the southwest to the mississippi valley which is already killed five people in texas. the secretary of homeland security kelley participated on the call with local governments of these affected areas. we have those communities and our thoughts and prayers and encourage everyone to follow directions that there's date and local officials to stay safe. let me run down what we expect for the president scheduled this week. tomorrow he will present the commander-in-chief united states air force academy paid wednesday the president will host the palestinian authority for an official visit and thursday will host a national day of prayer event and as a mention last week you attend an event commemorating the 75th anniversary of the battle aboard the uss intrepid and meet with the prime minister of australia. but continue to update you throu

does his secretary of state, rex tillerson agree? my interview after the break. >>> but first, here's a moment from senator elizabeth warren's commencement address at the university of massachusetts. >> study up because knowing something about an issue makes a difference. go online and read the facts, not the alternative facts, the real facts. to anticipate is lexus. experience the lexus rx with advanced safety standard. experience amazing. when this guy got a flat tire in the middle of the night, so he got home safe. yeah, my dad says our insurance doesn't have that. what?! you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. welcome to holiday inn! ♪ ♪ whether for big meetings or little getaways, there are always smiles ahead at holiday inn. what twisted ankle?ask what muscle strain? advil makes pain a distant memory nothing works faster stronger or longer what pain? advil. >>> welcome back. when president trump fired james comey a lot of democrats jumped to the thought that he was try to stymie the i

he's a man of integrity, i know you will serve secretary tillerson, the men and women of the foreign service and civil service and this nation well and i urge you to support his nomination. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you for coming and supporting someone you are glad to be here to support and you can return to your other duties. thank you so much, sir. >> all right the. >> so with that i'd like to have a voice in bloc for the foreign service officer list and the ambassadors that were previously laid out and senator koons has already signified as he stepped out but all in favor say aye. >> aye. >> all opposed. thank you so much. senator cardin. >> mr. chairman first of all let me thank mr. sullivan for his willingness to serve our country again. he seems to always want to come back to public service and we very much appreciate that very talented person who has a distinguished record and we thank your family for willing to share you with our nation because in the position that you've been nominated for, it will take 110% of your time and effort. the challenges are great and as c

i know secretary tillerson feels that way as well as he said to this committee. >> okay. >> mr. sullivan, i enjoyed our v visit together in our office and thank you for your interest in serving. there's a matter that's come to my attention since our meeting i'd like to bring up in this hearing. on april 21st of this year the ethiopian government success spenlded international adoptions from their country. according to our state department, this has left dozens of u.s. families in the late stages of the adoption process unable to obtain the necessary paperwork to bring home their legally adopt the children. this includes the or ren family from my home state of indiana. they have successfully adopted their son under ethiopian law but are unable to bring him home because of the ethiopian government is unwilling to issue the paperwork necessary to receive an exit visa. as a father of four young children i take this especially seriously as all americans should. in an e-mail this morning, mrs. or ren met the following. we began the interactive process with our son while we were in eej

he said talks with the us secretary of state rex tillerson and president trump himself.ongue in cheek reply when asked about the fbi director's sacking. but he fired? you are kidding, you are kidding! yes, he was fired. joking and distractions aside, donald trump and sergey lavrov have had deadly serious things to discuss, like syria, where moscow has set out its plans to establish safe zones, four. you can see the plans to de—escalates fighting. mr lover is looking for us support for that proposal. here is sergey lavrov speaking after his meeting with president trump. translation: we discussed syria in great detail in the context of the ideas that have been put forward regarding the setting up of the escalation areas. we've got a common understanding regarding the fact that there should be a step that would contribute to the cessation of violence through the territory of syria. let's go to the us state department where we can speak to barbara plett usher in washington. this russian plan for new safe zones over syria, are the americans signing up to this, do we know? the

rex tillerson is not. he understands the economics of oil, the economics of oil power, but i'm not sure that anyone other than an mcmaster understands the strategic and military challenge for saudi arabia on the ground. a lot of saudis don't like the fight in yemen. they don't want to be extended and helping america so visibly in syria. so, there are a lot of domestic pressures the saudi king has to cope with and the pressures that he has to fight against in order to maintain and to rejuvenate this alliance with the united states which really kind of flagged under president obama. >> judy miller, pulitzer prize winner. and you think about this, liz, the first u.s.-saudi alliance happened in 1990, there was the invasion of iraq and all of a sudden norman schwarzkopf and the president and dick cheney putting together the alliance to take on saddam hussein. it was simpler. it was the saudis and much of the arab world and much of the world against iraq out of kuwait. judy pointed out in a way only she can, now

. >> there will be a statement from rex tillerson at 11 am. >> the vice president landed in grove city, live footage of him landing at the tarmac giving the commencement address is that we will cover live when he is speaking. he is greeting people at the bottom of air force ii. why is "fox and friends" still on the air at 10:00 eastern time? a lot of historic moments, first time this has happened, a little over time, we will be on for the next hour. historic things happening around the globe. >> benjamin hall, you have been following this all afternoon, what a busy day, some busy moments to come. >> no way we can cut away from this. we are getting new information out of this. what started the moment is a lot of ceremony and formality welcoming, the president has moved on quickly, just eight hours into his trip and they have gone to the big deals we were expecting. in bilateral talks at the moment. the commerce secretary on the president's left and rex tillerson on his right and after the meeting we get a signing ceremony. we are hearing there will be eight letters of acceptance and one

tillerson also made the point that any decision to move the u.s.lem would not be made for some time. you can see a lot more of this interview on our website on meetthepress.com. >>> coming up, could we see makings of a democratic wave next year? >>> a light note here at will farrell's commencement address at usc. >> this is not my first commencement speech. the institutions to which i have spoken at previously include briman's school of nursing, hollywood deejay academy and trump university. i'm still waiting to get paid from trump university. you rea. with the united mileageplus explorer card, you'll get a free checked bag, 2 united club passes... priority boarding... and 50,000 bonus miles. everything you need for an unforgettable vacation. the united mileageplus explorer card. imagine where it will take you. you get to do the dishes.ed... bring 'em on. dawn ultra has 3 times more grease-cleaning power. a drop of dawn and grease is gone. tech: when your windshield trust safelite autoglass.. our exclusive trueseal technology means a strong, reliab

okay, here are live pictures as we're waiting for tillerson to come out and speak.n is there, reince priebus is there, his chief strategist steve bannon, commerce secretary, wilbur ross, jared kushner, h.r. mcmaster, just some of the people that have followed the president on this eight-day trip, and from here, of course, going on to israel. but before he gets there -- >> very key speech tomorrow morning. >> very key speech to the leaders of 50 muslim nations and a speech the white house tells us will be about unity. thank you so much for keeping us company as we watch what happens happening there in riyadh this morning. it's always an honor to have you with us here. and we certainly hope you make great memories today. >> we will see you again tomorrow. next hour of cnn newsroom will continue in just a minute. featuring ego's patented, 56 the #1 rated,volt,power+ mower. arc lithium battery technology, it delivers the cutting-torque of gas. the ego mower's durable construction makes mowing in difficult conditions easy. the self-propelled model makes it effortless. an

it is tillerson's first trip ever to israel. in a controversial move trump is , also slated to become the first sitting u.s. to visit the wailing wall in jerusalem. trump's visit comes after widespread protests broke out frididay across the israeli occupied west bank after a jewish settler killed a young palestinian on thursday. more than protesters were 100 injured as israeli security forces shot live bullets and tear gas at the thousands of demonstrators. the protests were also in support of the ongoing hunger strikes by palestinians in israeli jails. this morning as donald trump arrived in israel, 200 more prisoners reportedly joined the strike. over the weekend, trump visited saudi arabia, where he signed a series of arms deals totaling a record $110 billion. the arms deal includes tanks, artillery, ships, helicopters, missile defense systems and cybersecurity technology. the deal is expected to total more than $350 billion over the next 10 years. it comes as the pentagon continues to support a saudi-led bombing campaign in

that is why they met in washington under secretary tillerson's effort to carry out president trump's strategy to make certain we don't just clean out this enemy and end up with a new enemy in the same area. >> dickerson: you served under president obama, you are now serving president trump, how are they different? >> everyone leads in their own way, john, in the case of the president, he has got to select the right people that he has trust in to carry out his vision of a strategy. secretary tillerson and i we coordinate all of the president's campaign, we just make certain that foreign policy is led by the state department, i inform secretary tillerson the military factors and we make certain that then when we come out of our meetings, state department and defense department are tied tightly together and we can give straightforward advice to the commander in chief. >> dickerson: president trump has said to defeat isis he has said there has to be a humiliation of isis. what does that mean? >> i think as we hook at this problem of isis, it is more than just an army. it is also a fight

secretary tillerson met with vladimir putin raising these issues directly with the russians. believe we have to be robust in our response. and intrusion into democracy, basic human rights, premised on representative democracy. interference with our political process is unacceptable. it is a profound threat to our way of life and we need to respond as robustly as we can using all the means we have at our disposal. >> i'm glad to hear you say that because i heard expressions of concern from representatives of our european allies in particular, those closest to russia geographically who say if we are not going to stand up and defend our democracy how can they count on us to defend there's? that since of uncertainty about our future actions makes all of us weaker. last, what do you think we should be doing to restrain iran's disabling actions throughout the middle east? they engage in destabilizing actions throughout the region in yemen, syria, iraq and elsewhere and coming up with a sustained bipartisan approach to iran, one of our major foreign-policy challenges. >> iran policy

the person who occupies this position will serve as chief advertiser to secretary tillerson and secretary in absence and as a principal officer for management of personnel and resources at the state department. given recent management, budgetary and information technology challenge, this is no small task. fortunately the president has nominated somebody with extensive background in federal service, having served at the department of justice, department of defense and deputy secretary of commerce, i believe mr. sullivan has the knowledge base necessary to understand the inner workings of a large federal bureaucracy and the capacity to manage multiple priorities at the deputy level. mr. sullivan also has developed a reputation in the legal field as authority on trade and national security issues. if confirmed, mr. sl van will be reentering government service at a highly procurious time in world history. from europe to the middle east to east asia we are witnessing a number of major threats to global security and stability. these events give rise to a common question, what will america's rol

joining me are secretary of state rex tillerson. lindsey graham and chuck schumer. >>> and new words on our poll about what a skeptical public is thinking. >>> and west wing shakeup watch. a report this morning says a frustrated president trump is considering firing many of his top white house aides. we'll get the latest. joining me for insight and analysis are -- nbc news chief white house correspondent, hallie jackson. "washington post" columnist eugene robinson. bbc anchor, katy kay. welcome to sunday, it's "meet the press." >> from nbc news in washington, the longest-running show in television history, celebrating its 70th year. this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. >> good sunday morning. happy mother's day to all the moms out there. after the firing of the fbi director james comey, conflicting administration explanations and open disagreement about what comey and president trump said to each other, at what is now an infamous dinner. what happened on friday feels like a capstone to a whiplash week. president trump tweeted j

secretary tillerson, two questions. will you ever pick up the phone and call iran's foreign minister? had he ruled out diplomacy with iran? secondly on weaponsow will nuclear hastened the end of that war? and to the foreign mr., can i get your reaction to the elections in iran? [inaudible] in terms of whether i would ever pick the phone up, i have never shut up the phone to anyone that wants to talk or have a productive conversation. at this point, i have no plans to call my counterpart in iran, although in all likelihood, we will talk. at the right time. in terms of the situation in yemen, our emphasis is on finding a political solution. we have yet as a tragic situation obviously, millions of people on the brink of starvation. because of the impact of the fighting. but we also think it's >> millions of people on the brink of starvation because of the impact of the fighting. we also think it is important to put the pressure on parties to come to the table and talk. we have efforts underway on both fronts. yemen, the re

does is secretary of state, rex tillerson agree?ter the break. >>> and senator warren's commencement address at the university of massachusetts. >> study up because knowing something about an issue makes a difference. as after a dvt blood clot,ital i sure had a lot to think about. what about the people i care about? ...including this little girl. and what if this happened again? i was given warfarin in the hospital, but wondered, was this the best treatment for me? so i asked my doctor. and he recommended eliquis. eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots and reduces the risk of them happening again. yes, eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots. eliquis also had significantly less major bleeding than the standard treatment. both made me turn around my thinking. don't stop eliquis unless your doctor tells you to. eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. don't take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. if you had a spinal injection while on eliquis call your doctor right away if you have ting

the commerce secretary, rex tillerson, participating and some notable past participants in the dance were george w. bush and britain's prince charles. from a dinner it was into a golf cart and off for a tour of the national museum conducting by king salman. the centerpiece, and you mentioned it a center ago, the president was the hundred $10 billion arms deal and if the biggest arms deal that the united states is ever signed. after the signing ceremony, they presided over and export licenses which over the course of ten years will be worth $350 million. all in all, the president today proclaimed his visit to saudi arabia a success particularly for us businesses. listen here. >> this was a tremendous day. i just want to thank everybody, tremendous investments into the united states and our military community is very happy and we want to thank you and saudi arabia for hundreds of billions of dollars in investment into the united states and jobs, jobs, jobs. reporter: now, clearly, this arms deal is good for us businesses like lockheed corporation, raytheon among others in rex tillerson