well, for the duration of the obama administration. joining us this morning to talk about his new book "the world as it is." you write in that book that the whole reason for coming to washington in the first place and later meeting then senator barack obama was your experience in new york on september 11th. tell us about that and how that brought you to washington. >> you know, i was on a totally different course in life. i wanted to be a writer. i was working on political campaigns. and on 9/11, it was election day. i was standing at a polling site and had a clear view of the second plane hitting and the first tower falling and i knew whatever i was going to do in my life -- i was 24 years old -- was going to be about what happened next, what the response to this was. i went to an army recruiter who didn't know what to do with an english major. i worked my way into foreign policy but felt i wanted to get involved in politics and that led me to the obama campaign. >> your meeting with barack obama fairly quickly thereafter he brought y

that led me to the obama camp. >> you are meeting with barack obama fairly quickly thereafter. he brought you on board. this is early in his campaign for the presidency. 2007. >> it it was the spring of 2007. free work for the obama campaign. i got called into a prep session. and there he is at the head of the table. i was so nervous back then, that i frankly, felt like i couldn't speak in paragraphs. you know, debating whether or not he should vote for a bill that would fund the iraq war. he liked that approach in terms of trying to identify what the common sense case is. you're not for this policy. why would you vote for this? ultimately, got hired as the speaker. >> not to give away the ending of the book or whatever, but you write in the beginning, one of the last trips with barack obama in 2016, and you are riding along and he says something to you. he asks you, what if we were wrong? which startled you. did this book help clarify that answer for you? >> yeah, i wrote the book to answer that question. and having been there the very first day of the obama administration, ex

and obama ends." so what does he feel about the new occupant of the white house and what he's doing with their legacy? ben rhodes, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. how do you explain your connection to president obama? well, it's one of the reasons why i wrote the book, to try to explore that, but i think fundamentally, he was running for president in 2008 as an outsider and he hadn't built up the network of people around him that most people running for president do. hillary clinton had kind of sucked up the democratic machine. i was coming in as a relative outsider, newcomer at 29 years old. we shared a frustration. i got into politics for the some of the same reasons he was running for president. after september 11, the attackes, our government had gotten it wrong in the iraq war and with a number of other decisions so we entered into this process with the same shared sense of trying to make change. the other reason that's important is when you're a speechwriter, you have to get inside someone‘s h

you saw the rise of the media with obama. and it was qualitatively different from the type of opposition that we have seen in the past. and the underlying premise of your question is fair. there seems to be an imbalance. wanting tosistently republicans.t to and i put an example in the book. there is a movie about working with the president to get something done. and obama brought a bunch of republicans to the screening to think it would be something nice to do but not a single one came. campvited republicans to david to talk and nobody came. you can extend a hand but if somebody doesn't reach back then you can't work together. and i think we've seen a pattern in the last few years. it became difficult for democrats to figure out how to deal with that level of opposition. and how do you balance the need to try to work together, to lead by an example where you are not trying to be -- the strange thing for obama is that he was cast as a radical figure when he temperamentally conservative guy. he gets along with people. he isn't

around ten thousand people listened to obama's speech in a stadium in johannesburg. the tickets were free a famous managed to get one yellow came to embody the universal aspirations of this disaster people all around the world their hopes for a better life. and perhaps shared by many here a fair says obama is a man after his own heart especially when he speaks about dashed hopes. it is a plain fact that racial discrimination still exists in both the united states and south africa that the accumulated disadvantages of years of institutionalized oppression of created yawning disparities of face and that says inequality has to be eliminated once and for all he hopes that obama uses his political clout to help south africa achieve that the it's good move from a journalist i thought it to vets he's an associate editor at business insider south africa and joins us from johannesburg welcome to day to you i talk us through some of mr obama's key points. it was an interesting speech superior rousing speech at times and it was mike's folksy but i think one thing that stood out

this is the cia director for obama at the time. the footage is from 2010. 50-100 alere are only qaeda in afghanistan. one of the files that came out of bin laden's compound includes a status update written a days before he got on tv and said that. the u.s. government did have this file months later in may 2011 and it never changed that erroneous assessment. what's the director said there stands for six years. qaeda's assessment? eightthor writes different provinces that al qaeda is fighting. we have strong military activity in afghanistan, many special operations are being hit hard. he explains one al qaeda italian has 70 fighters. -- battalion has 70 fighters. battalion hadeda more than the estimates the director is giving on tv. he explains they are working with various taliban figures and that is the key point and other interesting things. ,et's go through real quick there were assumptions the obama folks made about the world which were disproven in the bin laden files. one of which is going to type into regiments -- current eve

left. >> people thought obama liking matthew moore one -- michael moore. [laughter] >> but to be on his if you are in a job like i had with certain escapism, the more mindless looking at 10:30 on a wednesday night when you just spent 15 hours doing the most off. but i was surprised david cameron liked entourage and that's what i had a conversation about. that shows the full pop-culture. but that's a great? your first one. and the reality is i feel we have to climb out of the hole but i believe if you take, what is interesting the first agreement that was global literally 200 countries and there are other issues that could benefit from that type of global agreement. and just to name a couple dealing with pandemic that is the architecture you could try to set up that is truly global that ultimately in the long millions of lives to replicate that coalition and arrangement and information sharing related to global health that's what comes to me off the top of my head that effort to get out late in the administration of refugee settlement would be an important

before our shows mike barack obama comes on and people applied. then joe biden. then bob mueller and people go bananas. >> bob mueller is just so handsome every way. stop terrorist. for justice and he is tall. [laughter] [applause] i love him and i was in a meeting with him once said mr. president i will kick it off and i said you are forever my boyfriend. but you are doing your book tour so how do you keep yourself down? but generally? >> this is a question that we get from people that i'm tired. what do i do? this is exhausting. you don't have to be visible all day long. not is a save it as i do. donald trump is president and will be. so i think it is okay. >> it wasn't a rule once he won we had to be miserable 247. and this will go on for a while now. and pick up the phone and do some phone banking. >> you like phone banking? >> i wouldn't say i'm great. but my wife runs a tough ship. so if we are therefore a phone bank i know i'm there for more than that. >> when i was 21i did a phone bank for bernie sanders because i was an original. and he said here is your

obama's appointed two. we know that trump has obama-envy and wants to try to replicate anything done during obama's tenure. that may be the winner. folks, find me on social media. i will see you next week. ♪ come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away. ♪ ♪ come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away. ♪ crisp leaves of lettuce. freshly made dressing. clean food that looks this good. delivered to your desk. now delivering to home or office. panera. food as it should be. rewards me basically aeverywhere.om panera. so why am i sliding into this ski lodge with my mini horse? because hotels.com lets me do me. sorry, the cold makes him a little horse. hotels.com. you do you and get rewarded. you finished preparing overhim for college.rs, in 24 hours, you'll send him off thinking you've done everything for his well-being. but meningitis b progresses quickly and can be fatal, sometimes within 24 hours. while meningitis b is uncommon, about 1 in 10 infected will die. like millions of others, your teen may not

compared to obama? okay. on last nights program, the great one, mark levin, put all this hysteria integrate perspective. it's worth repeating. take a look. >> in 1945, franklin roosevelt sold out half of york to stalin. he repeatedly praised stalin appeared in 1961, jfk told a friend of his that he was rolled over, he came across week, that it was pretty disastrous, his meeting. in 1975, gerald fold in helsinki, 35 other countries recognized the territorial sovereignty of the soviet union, which included the passive nations of eastern europe. in 1979, jimmy carter placed a big, wet kiss on his cheek in vienna. >> sean: like we have been saying for months, since donald trump came down the escalator, since he said he is coming for president, what would seem from the media is nothing but a huge, massive blatant political tactic. this is especially true as we gear up for the 2018 midterms. i'm telling you, the democratic party has no plan, no solutions to help the people of this country. instead, their agenda is

the memoir of the obama white house. from within the obama presidency. but also from novelists like colin mccann who said it shakes us out of the rut of ordinary reception and manages to find hope. joining roads and conversations tonight is another one of the top policy thinkers. you may know him as editor in chief of the atlantic. as a contributor for countless publications. from the washington post. as the author of 2006 prisoner. his experience working and a military prison. and his encounter with one prisoner he came to befriend. please join me in welcoming them. see my good evening. welcome everyone to politics and prose. we are going to try to cover all of american foreign policy from 1999 in the first five minutes and then we will see what happens. just make it easy for you because you don't have any experience with public speaking or the media. i just wanted to start with literally the easiest question i can think of. and then move towards syria. the easiest question as this. what would have been the reaction if barack obama had saluted a north k

president obama. (cheers and applause) he's not coming back. (laughter) after a year and a half of relative silence the 44th president of the united states is back in the public eye. this week he flew to africa-- where he opened a community center in kenya and visited the village where his dad grew up, yeah. and finally picked up a copy of his real birth certificate. and surprise, he's actually from norway, yeah. i didn't see that coming. and then it was on to south africa for what obama thought was a celebration of the 100th birthday of nelson mandela but actually, it turned into a roast of his dance moves. >> there is one area where president obama cannot march madiba. unfortunately, he cannot dance as well as madiba can dance. (laughter) (applause). >> trevor: oh man. oh, i feel like that's the same face he had on election night, he was like-- you know what is funny, it is funny how in america people credited obama as a great daryns, right, because he was the first u.s. president with rhythm, right? but in africa, all the presidents can danc

that is what obama is really good at. and on the global stage, no less, he rescued democrats in the midterms. by the way, could that be interpreted as criticizing america on the global stage? in a foreign country? i think so. whipping up racial divisions is a typical democrat tactic, and when we have already seen deployed by alexandria ocasio-cortez, the new bright light of the democratic party, kamala harris, the list goes on and on. obama there in johannesburg makes it all sound better with all those pregnant pauses. then of course, he couldn't assist launching the tired old refrain against populism with a few lines that could've been written by george w. bush himself. >> the fact that countries which rely on nationalism and xenophobia and doctrines of tribal, racial, religious superiority as their main organizing principle, the thing that holds people together, eventually those countries find themselves consumed by civil war, or external war. >> laura: i hope he is not talking about our country. i think in japan, for i

obama was warning about trade. i think trump was serious about this trade and xi kind of stepped back and fold the his hands and he took the measure and what he was saying is exactly what happened which is if trump goes down this road we will take your place. we're going to pick off your allies, you know? we're -- they have an initiative that extends all of the way from china to africa to southeast asia, central asia and the middle east and you know, he knew that it would be an opportunity for him. yes there's risk, but trump picking a trade war because they don't have politics, right? so they can assume a lot of pain, but when they start squeezing pieces of the american electorate. they know american politicians will back down. he's sitting in a much stronger position. the only way to have a trade war with china is to get all your allies on your side and trump is giving away the leverage we have. >> by leveraging the trade war against his own allies. >> europe, korea, canada. >> canada. it's been so long, but the

you like to say barack obama. barack obama. barack obama. >> i'm laughing because you guys are so tough on russia. russia ran wild under barack hussein obama.hu you did nothing until little hillary got embarrassed with e-mails that came out about chelsey and her wedding. please, you guys aren't tough. you think global warming is more of a threat than terrorism. you're afraid to pour water on terrorists' heads. you've nothing on russia. now you complain because it's an excuse for losing the election. you know what really cost her the election? she fainted. she was a terrible candidate. she didn't go toio wisconsin and she called halff the country deplorable. i think that had a little bit to do with it. >> hannity: i got to roll. jessica, the last time we were together got her first win. >> i just lost. >> hannity: jesse now came back and won 100-0. that's never happened. >> let's tell everyone where jessa was last week.et -- jessica was last week. moscow. >> i went to the semifinals in st.e petersburg. >> hannity: first time a p

that happened on obama's watch. he did nothing as russia worked with iran to destabilize the entire middle east. instead obama signed off on the insane, horrific, iranian nuclear deal, sending cargo planes with $150 billion with cash and other currencies to the mullahs in iran. while they were chanting "death to america, death to israel," burning our flag and the israeli flag, funding terrorism around the world and all of this meddling, all of this interference was on obama, clapper, brennan, and comey's watch! not donald trump's! he's cleaning up their mess. according to reports, in order to secure the iranian deal, obama even look the other way as the terrorist group hezbollah funded their terrorist activities through drug trafficking deals in the u.s. despite all of this, no outrage from the media in this country. in fact, they were cheering for obama every step of the way. now the media is desperate. they didn't think trump would win the primary, they didn't think he would win the general election. they thought

obama didn't do it. obama was a patsy for russian. look at the statement he made. he thought the mics were turned off. look at the stupid statement he made. getting along with president putin is a positive, not a negative. now, with that being said, if that doesn't work out, i'll be the worst enemy he's ever had. >> that doesn't sound like a guy afraid of russia. what the media and the left forget to mention in this conversation is that helsinki didn't happen in a vacuum. it was a part of series of major moves president trump made overseas. for example what would forget the president's successful summit with north korea's kim jong-un who pledged to work towards the denuclearization of the korean peninsula. that was last month. last week president trump at nato in brussels demanded our allies pay more of their share of military spending. check out this graph by bloomberg showing increases in military budgets from nato members from 2016 to 2017. which some are calling the trump bump. that happened before the nato summit. bloomberg is also out with a record that says

ant obama -- point policy by president obama? he stimulated the economy in the first place. donald trump did not do it alone. nowtimulated the economy -- -- people areis losing their health insurance. host: you made that point. jack in oklahoma says yes, go ahead. caller: can you hear me. president trump deserves all the credit. he went in and started cutting regulations. i live in oklahoma where there are not a lot of jobs. we are the flyover part of the nation that people forgot about. naturalme in and helped gas and oil fields start booming. i am a truck driver. i deliver rocks and stuff. rock and that doesn't count other tankers. we live in a small rural county. a whole lot of people are going back to work, there is hardly anybody without work. president obama was the worst thing to ever happen to america. when you hear the argument that the current economy could be attributed to the president because the current president has only been in power for 18 months and tax cuts are recent, what you think about those arguments? host

barack obama basically backed out. what a donald trump to try so far? he is attacked syria twice with with airstrikes that is backed up his words with action. i'd be surprised if they don't try to get something done on syria. >> the huge "washington post" writeup says vladimir putin help donald trump get elected. on monday to find out what he gets out of it. i didn't find that to be as fair statement at all because so far vladimir putin hasn't gotten much out of donald trump at all being president. reporter: talk about fair and balanced committee says vladimir vladimir putin help donald trump get elected is actually why the president chased out this whole idea of election meddling. but the democrats have not gotten their arms around, let's try to say one more time so it's loud and clear. two different issues. the russia metal in the election except to robert mueller. there are serious allegations that they interfered with the last election. the second or important issue is that it affects one vote? did it impact the election? no evidence that it did. th

obama didn't do it. obama was a patsy for russia. look at the statement he made when he thought mics were turned off. the stupid statement he made. nobody does a big deal about that. getting along with president trump and russia is a positive, not a negative. barack obama democrats attacking the president for reaching out to russia. but we uncovered some long last footage of secretary of state hillary clinton who did the exact same thing. >> our goal is to help strengthen russia. we see russia with the strong culture, the incredible intellectual capital russia has as a leader in the 21st century. russia has been an ally. they have worked with us in afghanistan. they have been very helpful in the distribution network and in other ways. i think it's somewhat dated to be looking backward instead of being realistic about where do we agree. jesse: wow, some new footage from hillary. doesn't sounds like the same person. the democrats have been so soft on russia. not just the last 8 years under obama. but i remember in the cold war they wer

obama didn't do it. obama was a patsy for russia. he was a total patsy. look at the statement he made when he thought the microphones were turned off. the stupid statement he made. nobody makes a big deal about that. getting along with president boudin, getting along with russia is negative. with that being said, if that doesn't work out, i will be the worst enemy he's ever had. >> sean: if that doesn't work out, he will be the worst enemy he's ever had. for the sake of our world, our kids, let's hope it works out. while the media is obsessing with russia, russia, russia, i would like to remind the so-called "journalists" that it is a very big world out there, there are a lot of complex issues in this world, may be, just maybe, russia is not our biggest international foe. let's listen to what the fbi director said yesterday. >> china, from a counterintelligence perspective, represents the broadest most challenging, most significant threat we face in this country. and i say that because, for the them, it is a whole state effort. it is economic espionage, a

around ten thousand people listen to obama speech in a stadium in johannesburg. the tickets were free of fierce manage to get one yellow came to embody the universal aspirations of this disaster people all around the world. the hopes for a better life. and the hopes shared by many here affair says obama is a man after his own heart especially when he speaks about dashed hopes. it is a plain fact that racial discrimination still exists in both the united states and south africa that the accumulated disadvantages of years of institutionalized oppression of created yawning disparities sanitas has inequality has to be eliminated once and for all he hopes that obama uses his political clout to help south africa achieve that. as he had more from journalist surfeit divest he's an associate editor at business insider south africa and joins us from johannesburg welcome to day w. what else could you tell us about to president obama's message today there's one clip that i see is getting love attraction to both united states and so it's the countries with strong flavors of w

johnson obama is head of the department of homeland security and sole proprietor the name jack these days. these days johnson received two hundred ninety thousand dollars a year to serve on the board of lockheed martin the largest american defense contractor and the world's biggest weapons manufacturer the world's biggest merchant of death so much more aggressive than the doily thing. yob used to make sure lockheed martin gets government contracts many of which are with the department of homeland security his former office how convenient that suzy yeah hey bill could you send us lots of money for guns. judge johnson called trump separating children from their parents immoral and un-american he's involved in however he's involved in these super american activity of selling weapons to kill lots of people so i'm not sayin don't attack the trump administration go to town my. golf course go in there like a midlife crisis trying to get his ball out of the office i by god get a good job i don't. can't thank like go to town i'm drawn in lies you're working for a war profiteer you ask. plus.

liberals celebrated obama. i figured as one of the things that helped to win the democratic nomination based on the theory it is all is better to meet with leaders even if they are repressive, that you isolate them or ignore them. reagan 71 president decided he wanted to meet with soviet leaders, the far right took out as against a net sounded very much like what we just heard from joe, accusing him of being a useful idiot to soviet and kremlin propaganda, of legitimizing russian aggression and the mystic repression at home -- it is true that putin is an authoritarian and domestically repressive. that is true of many of the closest allies of the united states as well for even far more repressive, including ones that find most of the think tanks in d.c. such as the united arab emirates or saudi arabia. i think the most important issue is the one we just heard which is 90% of the world's nuclear weapons are in the hands of two countries, the u.s. and russia, and having them speak and get along is much better than

administration jed johnson obama's head of the department of homeland security and sole proprietor the name jack these days . these days johnson received two hundred ninety thousand dollars a year to serve on the board of lockheed martin the largest american defense contractor and the world's biggest weapons manufacturer the world's biggest merchant of death still much more aggressive than the doily thing i. hear ya obvious to make sure lockheed martin gets government contracts many of which are with the department of homeland security his former office how convenient that susie yeah hey ben could you send us lots of money for guns. judge johnson called trump separating children from their parents immoral and un-american he's involved in however he's involved in these super american activity of selling weapons to kill lots of people so i'm not sayin don't attack the trump administration go to town i lie like an ass at a golf course go in there like a midlife crisis trying to get his ball out of the rough as i have. no thanks can't thank you like go to town on drama in lies you're worki

it is then the two lines obama picks up on. what is amazing about this letter obama selectively cited from -- this is a may 2013 speech, one of his top four presidential addresses on the jihadist wars. in a history books, this will be one of the three or four speeches that go down as a seminal obama speech. to give you the idea of how badly he politicizes it -- bin laden wrote "we still have a powerful force that can deploy. the preparation for deployment will need time." he then goes on to explain that the two main battlefields they will fight the americans on are iraq and afghanistan. well, what was the whole point of obama and brennan's speeches? we are out. we are going to do the same thing in afghanistan. in the same files the president himself is citing, the terror master himself is saying these are the two principal battlefield we are fighting on. bin laden wrote the reasons they are fighting is to create a new caliphate. john brennan called this idea an absurd feckless delusion that we will not organize our counterterro

around ten thousand people listen to obama's speech in a stadium in johannesburg. the tickets were free of fierce manage to get one yellow came to embody the universal aspirations of this business people all around the world. the hopes for a better life. shared by many here affair says obama is a man off to his own heart especially when he speaks about dashed hopes. it is a plain fact that racial discrimination still exists in both the united states and south africa that the accumulated disadvantages of years of institutionalized oppression of created yawning disparities of face and that says has inequality has to be eliminated once and for all he hopes that obama uses his political clout to help south africa achieve that the united nations' migration agency says almost fifty one thousand migrants across the mediterranean to europe so far this year that's less than half the number that made the perilous journey join the same period last year and while the numbers are down plenty of people still dream of a new life in europe d w funny fish are reports from tunisia m

in work on behalf of the banking industry obama's assistant a.g. lanny breuer is also a partner at covington and burling and on their website this is true he says he works on health things clients navigate financial fraud investigations anti corruption matters money laundering investigations. help. that's like saying i'll be able navigate sexual harassment if you slap a woman on the ass make sure you pretend you saw a bug. preying mantis i thought i saw you there i just help you navigate a me through moment right there if you need help navigating a corpse give me a call i got a wood chip s.e.c. chair mary shapiro now advises financial firms and serves on the board of morgan stanley and as we mentioned last week former treasury secretary timothy geithner is now president of the private equity firm were bird pincus which owns mariner finance and installment lender that targets poor families with high interest loans i you know i have to expect to see tim have inspectors it around the holidays just grabbing fistfuls of cash out of the salvation army bu

this was under obama's watch. we still don't know who hacked into hillary's e-mail server and what methods and the sources were compromised there. >> you know it's not really the bombshell that the media seems to be proclaiming. and the american public if they are watching cnn or msnbc, they are not getting the truth. they are being deliberately misled. i watched them today. >> sean: fake news. >> dayna bash on cnn twice said it's now imminent that americans will be indicted over this. meaning the trump campaign. you have schiff -- >> sean: it doesn't mean people might not but nothing happened here. >> andrea mitchell on msnbc saying there is proof of a solid connection between trump and the russians. adam schiff was musing today about the arrest of donald trump and said i'm only half jesting about it. if you want the truth don't watch the networks because they are lying to american people about really happened today. >> sean: actually, the american people already figured that out. thank god. they really don't. so

this was under obama's watch. we still don't know who hacked into hillary's e-mail server and what methods and the sources were compromised there. >> you know it's not really the bombshell that the media seems to be proclaiming. and the american public if they are watching cnn or msnbc, they are not getting the truth. they are being deliberately misled. i watched them today. >> sean: fake news. >> dayna bash on cnn twice said it's now imminent that americans will be indicted over this. meaning the trump campaign. you have schiff -- >> sean: it doesn't mean people might not but nothing happened here. >> andrea mitchell on msnbc saying there is proof of a solid connection between trump and the russians. adam schiff was musing today about the arrest of donald trump and said i'm only half jesting about it. if you want the truth don't watch the networks because they are lying to american people about really happened today. >> sean: actually, the american people already figured that out. thank god. they really don't. so

i think what president obama said might be as bad or worse. i also think it's pretty significant that president obama did nothing when the russians invaded crimea, when the russians have been aggressive across the world. what happened with this meddling and we have conviction of 12 russian nationals. a new one coming on heels of this. what good does it do the united states? we know they were meddling. >> do you support more sanctions against russia? >> i think we should try to out maneuver them on cyber security. i think that's really important issue. that's why i support giving more resources to our military especially superior insulation i have in my own district. they would bring us down with their cyber terrorism that's happening all across the word. i think it's important issue. >> let's get to calls. hi john. >> caller: thank you for taking my call. i'm actually flabbergasted about this congresswoman. congresswoman, when we believe our fbi, our intelligence whatever they tell us, sometimes it's the fact is there. i'm asking you, did the

>> barack obama allowed the russians to metal. barack obama allowed them to invade crimea. you can laugh. barack obama allowed the syrians to gas children. the red line that barack obama talked about was not accurate. he lied to the american people and he let putin do whatever he wanted. those are the facts. >> martha: hold on, austin. >> he went to a summit in which he is talking about potentially extraditing the u.s., the former u.s. ambassador. to russia. >> it's not true. >> martha: hold on, guys. austin. austin, just take a breath for one second. in terms of actual facts on the ground and what we have seen happen, this president gave legal aid to the ukraine. president obama sent them mr es. you can talk in broad terms about being dissatisfied with the attitude that you saw in helsinki and i think he would find a lot of people that would agree with that, but we have to deal in the actual facts on the ground. president obama said that he would consider easing up on the missile shield. can you imagine how that felt to the eastern european countries when they heard that?

if you got a choice between listening to barack obama, michelle obama, or hillary clinton, it gets to be pretty easy as to who you want in the spotlight. you know, i listen to a former president's speech, i didn't think it was that outrageous, he didn't call out president trump by name. it was pretty mild, especially by president obama's standards when he was in office, when he often called our people by name. so more power to him. i think that if republicans have some people we want to try it out, that's great. frankly, this makes sense. you don't want to but maxine waters, you don't want to put elizabeth warren, you don't want to put hillary out there, and right now that is all they have got talking. >> jason: the democrats have come up with a new slogan. they dumped the one they had. they tried to unveil a new one, i believe it is "for the people." i see a party without a leader, begging, hoping for barack obam barack obama, but then i also don't see a message in terms of policy. what do you see? >> their messages, vote for us, we'll reverse the tax cuts and take the money back fro

obama was weighing two serious things. come out without support from republicans and mitch mcconnell unwilling to make a joint statement on this matter a lot would have perceived it as a political action. >> turn to you for the perspective of the white house. after this was handed out, a deputy press secretary put out statement not mentions the substance, that being that it occurred brushing it off. you hear the sounds, ringing out through it certain corridors of white house. help us understand the white house reaction to what we learned about yesterday with this indictment? >> the white house is essentially highlighting the fact this happened before president trump took office. this is something that the president has been tweeting about and constantly sort of want to brush off any -- any connections to president trump. they don't want essentially for anyone to -- for any of the results that came out, out of the department of justice, to cast doubt over the results of the elections. of course, none of this actually is ind

had done so basically to try to reverse obama's legacy if so of course president obama was concerned with that and i think that was shown and ben brode this new book talking about how but the reason why they didn't expect anything about the russian investigations because they thoroughly thought hillary clinton was going to win up until even election night what do you think of that look gone what do you think about this chemistry that is horrible between these two presidents. well it's expected right and that's the play who did it first but in this particular case we know that president donald trump before he was president started this whole birth a movement so that as an insult to injury a person like president barack obama runs for office because they want to make america better they want to represent a segment of the american society and it seems that everything that donald trump is doing is just a slap in the face to this segment of society and i can understand why president obama is wondering could he have done something different to prevent this from happening. don't what it wha

what else i could you tell us about suppose it's obama's message today. well there is one clip that i see is getting a lot of traction both united states and some other countries with strong flavors of like it's all it's excess of that that is a bomb a saying we need to be open minded in our politics we'd be open minded to talk to people we disagree with maybe they change on their minds maybe they change our minds and the one trip specifically says it's not that we can say that some people don't have standing to tool cunt issues just because they are white and just because they are male that they can't talk about some issues and it's interesting to see how that is on both sides of the ocean that seems to be quite a popular sentiment one of the more popular clips coming out of that speech today. and during this this speech of we didn't have to look very far for references to mr obama successor as us president let's just take a look at a clip you have to believe in fact. today without. there is no basis for cooperation. if i say this is a podium and you sai

barack obama didn't have a big family. he was brought into the fold of the biden family which was very sweet m. >> host: let's talk about two vice presidents, first dick cheney. as you indicated earlier as vice president, cheney rather enjoyed his image as one of the most polarizing figures in recent american history. his relationship, you write, with george w. bush was all business. they were never especially close to begin with. regard to lyndon johnson, you wrote the following: when kennedy won the nomination, johnson sent him a telegram. remember those?hn [laughter] lbj now means let's back jack. johnson was not so subtly are signaling his interest as kennedy'san personal secretary would later write, it was almost as if romeo and julieted had gotten married. >> guest: i mean, the scene in the hotel during the convention where robert kennedy is trying to stop johnson from agreeing to be jfk's running mate is just incredibly brutal. because it went on, basically, for hours where rfk is shuttling up and down the stairs tr

obama in 2014 the russians invade crimea. in october he goes to the baltic states to send the message we are tough, the estonians love him because he's the first african-american president. he missions up the capital cities of the baltic states, he calls an organization democratic that worked for the nazis. it broke the heart of the people in the baltic states and scene message to putin, i don't care enough to spend 30 minutes to vet my speeches. you talk about weakness. i find this whole thing hypocritical. >> he didn't do what the experts say and what the swamp says and what the bureaucrats do. the whole point of the summit is to make peace. not more conflict. lou: i questioned the intelligence community in this country. but where were they during all of that? why weren't they better prepared in understanding what was going on. you can go through the list of failures. you can't name any successes. the other thing that is extraordinary. successive presidents have had tremendous sanctions against russia. we have been told for

the difference is the press gave obama a pass. many prominent reporters defended obama. when he didn't enforce his own redline, he sent a signal that america is weak, come pick our locks. barack obama had the press on his side, they never went into a feeding frenzy the way they do against trump. >> harris: does this president had to be more careful? >> yes, because the press is in feeding frenzy mode against him always, but he also feeds the feeding frenzy. all he had to do is say we can cooperate on some issues but knock it off, don't mess with our elections. he'd be a hero, why didn't he say that? he easily could have said it. >> harris: does heat eventually have to do anything like that to move forward? >> i would like to see him be tougher on his rhetoric, the defense against russia has to be deterrence, he can't undermine his credibility. policy wise he is sending the right signals. >> harris: thank you very much, great to have you here. a one-time trump critic survives a g.o.p. primary fight after getting an 11th hour endorsement from president trump. what this say

well i know obama is very honest actually what putin said about obama. i think obama is that honest man an honest man who really wants to change much for the better that's what putin said about obama. well i mean i think anything said about obama is not going to be. you know caught in the media you know chumps way more talk about trump it's way more. you know intriguing to the general public so i think that's probably why you know the media doesn't make it big a deal about that i found the media has gotten much more fractured and much more opinionated over my lifetime it's much more of a of a left and right kind of. mouthpiece that it used to be i think so what you might say back in two thousand and twelve russia wasn't the boogie man there was no alleged to have no reported meddling no conspiracies yeah there was it was just cringe president obama appears determined to ingratiate himself with the kremlin this unfortunately seems to be the real meaning of his reset policy now standing example is the personal phone call that barack obama made to vladimir