he public recalled tillerson who was his secretary of state dumb as a rock.> general kelly. kelly wasn't up to the job over his head that sort of stuff. it does strike me with this president. everybody is a sucker or a loser or what are some of his other -- everybody is an idiot. they are a sucker and loser. it is his view, his go-to view of other people, of all the people around him unless you praise him and especially if you're a dictator and it's fine until suddenly he senses that you've turned against him and all of a sudden, you're an idiot, too. >> no, you don't have to turn against him. i mean, people like coats and tillerson and mattis were doing -- >> true. >> -- their job as i show in the book. i mean, think of these meetings that they have to have national event conferences, which are very super secret and mattis was in charge of the defense department, trump authorized mattis and trump confirmed this to me to shoot down an incoming missile from north korea on his own authority. and mattis took this seriously because he realized the nuclear arsenal

in the travels of the trump administration, including an historic flight with secretary of state tillerson, and number of years ago. he joins us now on the chaos

publicly called tillerson, who was his secretary of state, dumb as a rock.'s -- >> and general kelly. he said kelly wasn't up to the job, in over his head, that sort of stuff. i mean, it does strike me with this president, i mean, everybody is a sucker or a loser or, you know, what are some of his other -- everybody's an idiot, they're a sucker, they're a loser. it is his view, his of all the people around him. unless you praise him and especially if you're a dictator and then it's fine until suddenly he senses that you've turned against him and then all of a sudden you're an idiot, too. >> no, it's not -- you don't have to turn against him. what -- i mean, people like coats and tillerson and mattis were doing -- >> well, yeah, true. >> -- their job. as i show in the book. i mean -- i mean think of these meetings that they have to have. national event conferences. which are very supersecret. and mattis was -- is in charge of the defense department. trump authorized mattis and trump confirmed this to me to shoot down an incoming missile from north korea on hi

he said of tillerson, he's as dumb as a rock. ever talked that way in public after they have fired somebody summarily that they brought out of -- anyway, i mean -- >> yeah. >> you lay out all of these things in this behavior. and, as you can see, my conclusion that trump is the wrong man for the job is obvious and perhaps understated. >> i'll never forget the way the president humiliated dan coats, the director of national intelligence in helsinki at that summit with putin. i happened to have been in helsinki covering it, and he said he sided with putin as opposed to the director of national intelligence. it was an incredible moment. a few weeks ago i interviewed the attorney general of the united states, bill barr, and he bolstered the president's claim that china is a greater threat than russia. and the past week or so barr has compared coronavirus lockdowns to slavery. he's compared his own career prosecutors to preschoolers. what do you make of the attorney general bill barr? have you ever seen anything like this before? >> w

you've heard kelly and tillerson, by the account of nikki haley, question his competence, talk aboutnda. i've interviewed a number of people on the record for my own book who talk about the need to block this president's agenda because it was a danger to the country's national security interests. so, what you are left to question is do you believe all those people, former generals, stall warts of the republican party, or do you believe the president's claim that they're all never trumpers and not to be believed. there is a pattern here of people working for him at the highest levels, doubting his competence. by the way, the moment described in the book with mattis going to the national cathedral is specifically about north korea and his concerns at the time that the president was going to take this country to war unwittingly. and it reminds you what a dangerous time that was. >> it was. and of course now still is. all please stay with me. you know, bob woodward writes that trump's national security adviser warned trump that the virus could be the biggest national security threat of h

charlie, according to the book you have got mattis, tillerson, the president's former secretaries of defense, state, the director of national intelligence unloading on the president. you were a republican in congress at the same time the men were serving in the administration. did you know they felt this way? >> i had a sense, don all three of them had serious misgivings about the president. i should say secretaries mattis and tillerson and coates were three of donald trump's best appointments. i knew the men had misgivings. they were certainly stressed. you know, this is the emperor has no clothes moment. always worse than we think. for these guys to say that the president can't tell the difference between a lie and the truth. no moral compass. dangerous and unfit. i appeal to these men who are very fine men. to discuss these concerns that they have publicly, prior to the election. i think the american public needs to hear this. these horror stories have been expressed for some time. we have known it. don, you probably talked to the chief of staff. i think we shouldn't be surprised

rex tillerson, the former head of exxon mobile and secretary of state.se are serious people i would encourage our viewers to go back and google when donald trump nominated these folks, what he said about them. he talked about rex tillerson as the crown jewel of his cabinet, a man only he could recruit to do work for the good of the country. these people trusted military generals, john kelly, jim mattis. these are people with impeccable credentials through decades in the military. that they would speak out tells you something. it's not just a disgruntled one or two people. yes, there's some of that, people who come out and they're not happy. this is an absolute -- let's keep going. let's go to the next slide. these are republican big wigs, let's call them, who have endorsed against donald trump. there's colon powell, the former secretary of state, cindy mccain, john mccain's late wife. there's two people who ran against the donald trump for the republican presidential nomination, carly fiorina, who you remember had a short-lived time as ted cruz's announc

charlie, according to this book, you've got mattis, tillerson, coats, the president's former secretary of defense a, state, d director of national intelligence. did you know they felt this way? >> i had a sense, don, that all three of them had serious misgivings about the president. by the way, i should say that secretaries mattis and tillerson and dni director coats were three of donald trump's best appointments. and, yeah, i knew that these men had misgivings. you could just tell. they were certainly stressed. i am not shocked -- in fact, you know, this is another the emperor has no clothes moment and it's always worse than we think. and for these guys to say -- i think it was coats who said the president can't tell the difference between a lie and the truth. no moral compass. dangerous and unfit. i appeal to the -- these men who are very fine men. their sense of patriotism, their duty to discuss these -- these -- these concerns that they have publicly prior to the election. i think the american public needs to hear this. these horror stories have been expressed for some time. we've

woodward writes that that was a reference to defense secretary jim mattis, secretary of state rex tillerson, and economic adviser gary cohn when jared kushner was pressed this morning on the "today" show by savannah guthrie to explain that comment, kushner claimed that those are not the people he was referring to, that he was speaking instead about staffers on trump's 2016 campaign and so a couple hours later, i had the opportunity to interview bob woodward for "washington post live" and asked him to respond to kushner there and woodward said, no, no, no. these were not campaign staffers that kushner was talking about he was very clearly talking about members of the administration and those three in particular. woodward, of course, recorded those conversations as he did all 18 conversations he had with president trump. and, you know, we'll see if he releases that audio or if jared releases his audio but clearly this is a case of kushner trying to back away from a comment that he made to woodward and was quoted in the book as being derisive in regards to mattis, tillerson, and cohn >> hey, k

people around the president are overconfident idiots which woodward interpreted to mean mattis, tillerson, and then former national economic adviser gary cohn. so there is a continual thread throughout this of conflict between the president's national security advisers and the president, to say nothing of the military, and of course most recently we've seen and heard what has been written about the president's private comments about the military, as well as his public comments, to say nothing of john mccain. >> you know, i have referenced our conversation in normandy last year, when i brought plane loads of democrats and republicans to observe the 75th anniversary of the normandy invasion. we went there to praise and thank our veterans who are still come, a smaller number each year, but nonetheless, still courageously coming to normandy with their families. and you asked me in front of the graves overlooking the water if i would say something about the president. i said i never criticize the president of the united states overseas. later, fox news interviewed the president in a similar lo

it was apparently a reference to mattis, tillerson and gary cohn. all had left if you look at the evolution over time, we've gotten rid of a lot of the overconfident idiots and now he's got a lot more thoughtful people who kind of know their place and know what to do. utterly lost on jared kushner is the irony that other members of the trump administration portray him as one of the overconfident idiots working for donald trump in the woodward book >> so you were not referring -- i just want to be clear, because you just said -- woodward says you were referring to general mattis, tillerson and gary cohn, an exec adviser. you're saying that's not who you meant? >> no, that wasn't clear and again, he's got tapes of everything, i have tapes of everything, so, that was never never implied in that regard but i will say that president trump now has phenomenal people around him, people who agree with his agenda. >> here's how bob woodward responded that today on "washington post" live >> i'm quite interested in -- when jared says he has tapes, i have tapes,

tillerson was urged by his wife to go in, same with coats, urged by his wife to stay in because of their to use their talents. it is interesting about coats, having that sort of fatalistic sense that nothing really matters from what he had seen in there, but then turning to his former colleagues in the senate, the republicans, and wondering why they had let this country down so much it is truly a tragedy, a sad, sad story about dan coats in here hey, bob, there's a really telling part about you talking to jared kushner and jared trying to explain the trump administration and said, if you want to understand it, you can understand it through these four articles or books. and it's just bizarre. and it really speaks to the malignancy of this administration and also just how vapid they all are jared pointed out, peggy noonan. in peggy's column, "the crazy doesn't last," it all feels so dangerous. that's how peggy finished that column and then he said, look at the cheshire cat in "alice in wonderland." and as you write, of course, how bizarre that he would point to a manipulative, directionali

that's something that i believe it's something that jim mattis believes general kelly believes rex tillerson believes h.r. mcmaster is coming out with a book next week on sure we should try to get him on politicking i mean he's got a lot to say about this as well you've got a circle of sycophants around the president now that will probably do and say whatever he wants but if you just look at his decision making and you look at the bella casa de of his rhetoric and you look at the impetuosity of what he's doing i think is very very dangerous and i think that responsible people that i work for him it's miles taylor at the department of homeland security people like myself or at least trying to offer a patriotic warning to our fellow citizens i know him for 40 years i still can't figure out can you get all i did he call woodward widely speak with woodward more of them a dozen times knowing what words passed. well i think it's the same way you would speak to larry king you know i mean you you had the highest rated show on c.n.n. i think forever frankly and that tracks president trump it he's som

that's something that i believe is something that jim maddest believes general kelly believes rex tillerson believes h.r. mcmaster is coming out with a book next week on sure we should try to get him on politicking i mean he's got a lot to say about this as well you've got a circle of sycophants around the president now that will probably do and say whatever he wants but if you just look at his decision making and you look at the bill to casa de of his rhetoric and you look at the impact.

it seems to stretch back to 2017 in 2018 during secretary tillerson's tenure. we certainly hope that secretary pompeo would not allow such conduct, but it seems that politicized retaliation is to off in the case of this administration. is the environment which mr. lanning was working when you demanded heat handover inspector general's report. with inclusions into the investigation of the state oig product that you wanted to get to the bottom of. that included -- who had been investigating the department for politically motivated retaliation. mr. linux certified i can certainly understand this having being involved in organizations just like this there was concern for staff when they sought out this report. he said i quote i can imagine the department using information in the report against them, and wanting to make sure there confidentiality was protected. my first question is a baseline question, do you think the politicized retaliation as occurred during this against career administration during -- or work for prior administrations? congresswoman as i's state

in the travels of the trump administration, including an historic flight with secretary of state tillersonmber of years ago. he joins us now on the chaos around tiktok and oracle. nick, you know back to hamilton, there has been a battle on the cabinet at all times. how large is the battle between mnuchin and pompeo this morning? big deal. a steve mnuchin is lobbying hard for the oracle/tiktok deal to go through. it was essentially presented to on advisory body that meets tuesday. he is now essentially shopping it around, but secretary pompeo, who is more attuned to the politics of this thing in some 's reputationed on the line, does has his -- have his reputation. despite tiktok giving the keys to the kingdom to oracle on this deal, it does not require them to give up majority ownership, and that will be a big question, if you can overcome the president's decision on that. tom: you have been out front on this coverage with a number of other news organizations. where does the president feel on this? is it towards mnuchin or pompeo? nick: there was an extraordinary moment yesterday where he

served in senior cabinet positions from the attorney general, jeff sessions, to secretary of state tillerson trump about general mattis, the defense secretary. i said, what do you think of him? oh, he's just a pr guy. well, whether you like mattis or don't, and you read what he did as secretary of defense, he's not a pr guy. he's certainly the most serious military person we have had in the secretary of defense position for a long time. so, it is -- trump has obliterated the notion of some sort of organization, some sort of management. in the first book i did on trump called "fear," i said there is a nervous breakdown of the executive branch. this is just an extension of that. and if you go through the book -- i think the most devout trump supporter could read through this book and say, well, yeah, there's some things i like, but there are big questions about what trump is doing to this country and our value system. >> we've got to leave it at that. bob, thank you. as always, imunbelievable reporti reporting. thank you so much. pleasure and honor. >> thank you. >>> next on "gps," a new piece

including secretary-general james mattis and former dni dan coates, former secretary of state rex tillerson. how damaging is that so many people who have seen this president up close and personal working with him are making it abundantly clear now they don't think he's fit to serve. >> it should make a difference. but it's making hard for people to keep track of all this information, all these tell-alls coming out because there's too many characters in the story. and so i think we need to distill it down to what they're saying because they're all really saying the same thing. if you're james mattis or even if you're michael cohen, they're all coming out and saying that donald trump leans on people to engage in unethical and even sometimes criminal behavior. i mean, john bolten, why he resigned. they all tell the same story. i mean, donald trump's name should be equated with corrupted influence. and you ask why are they telling us now? well, obviously to get the information out before the election says i'm giving you this information so you act on it. no one has the time to read all this. i

talk to bob about this, is actually the first half of the book where you hear james mattis and rex tillersone trying to run america's foreign policy apparatus and keep us safe and keep the alliances in place that helped us beat the soviet union and helped the american century explode over the past six, seven decades. and listening to them and their despair, trying to figure out what the best way is to save america -- >> stay the course. >> -- from this man who admiral mcraven said, is most likely one of the greatest clear and present dangers to this country and how telling when you have general mattis saying we have to go public with this, we have to go public with this, and dan coates being politically astute saying what goodwill that do look at what's happened with everybody that's gone public, that quit and attacked him publicly, it's had no impact and them sitting around the table being frustrated no one more than senator coates, ambassador coates, being just shocked, actually, at the dereliction of duty exhibited by not only the president of the united states but also from his former fr

from other former senior administration officials who were trump appointees from mattis to kelly to tillerson and others, and that is that the president puts his own personal political interests over national interests or even an alexander vindman and the impeachment scandal. beyond using the word disgruntled, which the administration uses, the president is putting politics over in this case health and the pandemic response. >> well, the white house obviously says it's not true that the president cares about all americans and points to the ventilator response and to the travel ban and other things that the president's repeatedly said. but what she pointed out internal internally meeting, she praised dr. fauci and even vice president pence, but she was blindsided by the hydroxychloroquine or cdc -- or saying things at the podium that the task force did not agree with or contradicted the data and said that the president's position was he did whatever he wanted on the task force and they operated in a different lane. >> yeah, josh, so interesting and so important. you broke this story. for anyon

this is what drove senior people who served him early like james mattis, defense secretary tillerson and secretary of state dan coats is the number one intelligence person. there was no planning, there was no organization, there was no -- let's all get together and decide what we are going to do, trump decided it on his own and finally the alienation of these people -- they were all heading for retirement, dan coats director of national intelligence had been a republican senator from indiana for 16 years. very close friend with mike pence who became the vice president and when pence was vice president elect he called coats up he said, you want a job, coats said no, i don't want a job. he and his wife were retiring, well, come meet with the president elect, he met with trump and they offered him number 1 intelligence job and they thought -- he and his wife marsha thought, well, you have to do this and maybe it's part of the very evangelicals and maybe this is part of god's plan for us. >> well, do you think we should try taking some questions from the audience? >> yes, certainly. >> a

should remind you of something that was sent to you, apparently, according to bob woodward by rex tillerson when you were given some of these response abilities. were talking about how you just don't understand the history and when your proposal start working on peace and economic development, apparently he said that will never fly. turns out it did. could you just explain the significance of what we've seen in the last few weeks? >> sure. like what you are talking about with the pandemic, president trump took a different approach to solving that problem and he's taken a much different approach to the middle east on what's been done in the decades before and a lot of conventional thinkers in washington who quite frankly turn the middle east into a big mess. we ended up having a lot of u.s. troops over there, we had a lot of instability and terrorism that came to america and we were reliant on the middle east for oil. what president trump has done over the last 30 days is remarkable. we now have to peace deals that president trump has made. one between israel and the united arab emirates and

like, jim mattis, dan coats, rex tillerson. expressing major concern or they did express major concerns about the president in woodward's book. but they're long gone. they're replaced by lobbyists. loyalists, excuse me. not lobbyists. i don't know where that came from. >> well, there's a few lobbyists, too, by the way. >> so who's left to check this guy? >> well, that's the whole point. there's nobody left to check him. that's why he did the woodward interviews. you know, he's -- he's a staffer star-struck guy. he likes woodward's brand, even though he's going to be critical of him. he likes don lemon. he likes watching your show. he wouldn't admit to that but he watches you and chris. you know, he's got that superserver direct tv box in his white house. but -- but listen. don. you know this and i know this. he cleared out every single person that had a point of view or any single person that was anchored to their personal integrity, or had some set of principles. you may not like any of the people just mentioned or ambassador

need to think back to is the fact that all of his closest national security advisers from mattis, tillerson, kelly, bolton, they all concluded that donald trump is the first president in the history of the united states to be a danger to the national security of the united states. what this shows once again, these revelations, is to the potential, particularly given his adoration and subservens to these oligarchs, putin, erdogan, other -- mbs, all of these authoritarian leaders. donald trump is clear. we can see from what the "times" has done, he will take money from anyone for any person. he is a sheer con man. >> carl, i think -- carl, the ghost of leona helmsly can tell you whether it is criminal to lie in your taxes. when you are telling the irs that you are poor and have huge losses but you are telling banks that you are seeking loans from that your assets are worth much more than they are, it does not take being a tax attorney to know that there is a real legal problem there and that explains why he has gone to such lengths, why he has gone to some of the highest courts in the land to

agree completely with her about the criteria i was fortunate to go on the exxon board under rex tillerson's leadership, wait before i became the ceo of merck. i benefited from that opportunity. i hope i've been able to make a contribution but i think there's another subtle issue here, the issue who has the right networks to move up into senior management or boardrooms linkedin did a study recently and 80% or more of these positions are billed filled through social networks. so long as we don't have african-americans and latinos represented at the higherish loan echelons it's unlikely they'll be able to take advantage of those social networks. we want a pool of qualified people, but often we ask questions like, does anybody know this candidate? do you think this candidate would be a good fit? those kinds of relationship issues are critical. they become the networking issues that either include people or unintentionally exclude people >> les, go ahead, please. >> just to add to what ken is saying, it's pretty clear that networking is important and curating a group of candidates and available

not john bolton, not rex tillerson, not james mattis.hese are individuals who had a very different agenda than the president. >> why did the president pick them? >> you'll from friction when those moments happen and they have to remember that donald trump is the only one that was president and it was his agenda that was meant to be carried out. >> they were chosen by the president for those jobs. >> and certainly having a difference of opinion is not a bad thing and i think that's one of the reasons the president has been successful. he's willing to listen to those people but at the end of the day it's his decision to make and i think he's done a fantastic job doing that, moving our country forward and delivering on the promises that's said. i think my story is very candid, very authentic and shows you a different side of the president that you're not going to see on the news media and certainly not from some people that left not necessarily on their own terms. >> you are the first press secretary that was a mom while press secretary. th

you quote x tillerson saying table.ns why do you think they won't s it themselves? >> well, i hf d the luxuryn months to work on this, ask trump all kindsf questions, ask other people. i have sources in the white house, the c.i.a., the pentagon, the state department who will tell me what's going on, and all of the quotations from these officials are reported in depth ani am confident are absolutely true. >> woodruff: another issue that is ge bore the american people this year, bob woodward, of course, afterhe deh of george floyd, is the reckoning of a race. and you did talk to the l points about his view of race. you asked him if he believed there's systematic racism in is country. he said there's less than in m other countriesthan in many other countries. what dead you conclude about his view whent it ces to racism? >> well, i pushed him on that and i said what about this country? and he acknowledd and said, yes, there is, more or less, i'm sorry to say there is. but, more importantly, i flat-out asked him, i said, look, you are the son of white privilege. father w

tillerson, secretary of defense, dan coats, the director of national intelligence, that they can't get through to him, he won't listen. it's tragic. and it's particularly tragic in the context of the virus. and the 200,000 people in this country who died. and by telling the truth, the president could have averted some of those deaths. >> norman in amherst, massachusetts. the house is gaveling in at 9:00 a.m., so i need a quick question. >> caller: thank you, i studied your work while in journalism school in the late '70s. i'm worried about the future of freedom in the press as in the julian assange case. what do you think will happen under trump, and will it be different under biden? thank you. >> well, i'm always worried about freedom of the press. as i write in the book, trump always accuses the press of being fake news and so forth. and attacks the media, but he hasn't sent the marshals or fbi agents to break into reporters' homes or arrest them. so, my conclusion is, and is this on a happy note, that democracy has held. we still have a democracy in this country. now, trump often th

former secretary of state rex tillerson, dumb as a rock. >> he would turn on them in a really aggressivea way that i've never seen or heard of presidents doing before. >> i think, you know, turnover is natural in any white house. >> former trump adviser david urban. >> i think this administration may be more high pressure, more issues that are pressing. >> a demand for loyalty that trump relied on for what he hoped to be his first big policy win, repealing and replacing obamacare. >> we have so many unbelievable alternatives, much less expensive. >> i think donald trump believed that his iron grip on republican voters would get him all republican votes. >> two months after the trump inauguration, the republicans had a bill that would begin the dismantling of obamacare. >> the bill is passed and without objection -- >> and while the bill did make it through the house, the senate posed some issues. >> i think that there would have to be fundamentally change. >> the senate bill was known as skinny repeal going into that vote in july 2017. trump's hopes for success rested with arizona republ

when fuel was added to the flames of unrest, senator tillerson sat quietly, unwilling and unable to call out the voices that were putting those troops on the streets. moderator: so you say no? mr. cunninham: that is correct. moderator: senator tillis. the tillis: i believe when governor or mayor asks for help, the president should provide them with help. what i disagree with is sitting in silence when 33 law enforcement officers have been killed in the line of duty over this year. when hundreds have been injured. he's not taken the position over what has happened in portland, in seattle, in chicago. our communities are less safe and these governors are filling their people. i hope they do ask for help and i do believe that the president would help them. but cal cunningham seems to be .n their side mr. cunninham: let me be clear, i take a backseat to know what when it comes to keeping our community safe. having served in uniform here and overseas, having worked with law enforcement, having prosecuted criminals who assaulted law enforcement, having set shoulder-to-shoulder with law enforce

just want to be clear, because you just said -- woodward says you were referring to general mattis, tillerson and gary cohen, an economic adviser you're saying that's not who you meant? >> no, that wasn't clear he's got tapes of everything, i have tapes of everything so that was never implied. but i will say that president trump now has phenomenal people around him, people who grow with his agenda >> here's how bob woodward responded that today on washington post live >> i'm quite interested in -- when jared says he has tapes, i have tapes, i taped him with his permission i suspected he was taping me he did not extend the courtesy to me that he was taping the conversation that's fine. and i report accurately what he said in the book and there are some much more important quotes from him quite frankly >> among the more important quotes from jared kushner is his assessment, jared kushner's assessment of how many people in the trump administration spend their day trying to save the world from president trump on page 262, and i'm giving page numbers because i know viewers out there already have t

john kelly, tillerson, that group who felt, and we can question whether they should have stayed in thislong as they could but did so because of a dut toe serve and protection the nation what they saw were the president's worst impulses. the idea he was looking out for himself, from a political frame and not always in the national interest. all of those men are gone. as you say, you have been largely replaced by those who are far more politically aligned with the president. don't have necessarily the lengthy track records of service, and instead seem far more willing to bend to this president's whims, and certainly from day one of this administration he has undermined the intelligence agencies and helsinki is the most known moment of that, but there have been countless others, and the morale has been damaged and the departments 'em eve s emptied o. we're seeing here with the election just six or so weeks away great warning signs there could beous interference, namely from russia. every time the topic comes up the president conflates it with china and iran saying these are countries who w

just want to be clear because you just said, wood woord said you were referring to general mattis, tillerson cohen, an economic adviser you're saying that's not who you meant. >> no, that wasn't clear he has tapes of everything i have tapes of everything that was never implied in that regard but what i will say is president trump now has phenomenal people around him, people who agree with his agenda. he did a trade deal with mexico, trade deal with canada, trade deal with china, trade deal with south korea, trade deal with japan. these are things politicians talked about forever saying they wanted to fix their trade deals but never got around to it president trump has great people around him who helped him enact it before the pandemic we had the lowest black unemployment in history. the lowest asian-american unemployment lowest hispanic unemployment lowest women unemployment. these are all things that happened because president trump was able to, you know, do it his way. not the washington way he took on the system and he was able to figure out how to deliver great results. and he did that b

you look at the mattises and the tillersons and the kellys, and you look at the people he brought inand for the most part, the foreign policy community breathed a sigh of relief because he had professionals in there that they thought would stand up and say no to him. what was the moment in your research where you realize that donald trump made the decision, i don't want anybody around here that has a quality or the courage to stand up to me and say no, i can do this myself? >> i think that the sort of remarkable thing about the president's choices is that he just becomes more and more emboldened and more determined to get rid of people even as he undermines himself. it's just an unusual phenomenon. he fires comey, the whole world reacts in washington as if this is like, you know, you can't go wt's his first instinct? his first instinct is to then try and fire the attorney general to ensure that he has more control over the direction of the russia investigation. and then he wants to fire mueller. so he just fired comey. he's this new president, been there for four months. testing out

you look at james mattis pushed aside, rex tillerson pushed aside, dan coates pushed aside. you look at all these experienced people pushed aside for crack pots. people like jared kushner, who continues to say what a great job this president, he did in the deaths of 200,000 americans. >> he shuns history. >> and again, it happens time and again. and now it's happening with an announcement on a vaccine. so the president once again hurting himself and undermining americans' confidence with whatever vaccine does come. >> we'll talk about that more later and that piece on the coming storm in "the washington post" is worth checking out. let's turn to sports now. bryson dechambeau won the u.s. open for his first major title, he was two shots behind matthew wolff at the start of the final round but passed him in five holes and pulled away for a flawless back nine. no other golfer finished under par. >>> the prime time emmy awards looked different this year because of obvious restraints due to the pandemic. >> hey, was that me? but wait, if i'm down there, how am i up here? that wou

it seems to stretch back to 2017 in 2018 during secretary tillerson's tenure.we certainly hope that secretary pompeo would not allow such conduct, but it seems that politicized retaliation is to off in the case of this administration. is the environment which mr. lanning was working when you demanded heat handover inspector general's report. with inclusions into the investigation of the state oig product that you wanted to get to the bottom of. that included -- who had been investigating the department for politically motivated retaliation. mr. linux certified i can certainly understand this having being involved in organizations just like this there was concern for staff when they sought out this report. he said i quote i can imagine the department using information in the report against them, and wanting to make sure there confidentiality was protected. my first question is a baseline question, do you think the politicized retaliation as occurred during this against career administration during -- or work for prior administrations? congresswoman as i's stated