are all meeting to discuss how to stay in that deal, the one that president trump pulled out of. looking back on that, if we'd stayed in the deal, i think the chances would be much greater that we could have strengthened the deal. maybe that still can happen. and trump could take a victory lap for doing that. a stronger deal would be better and a deal against curbing iran's malign behavior in the neighborhood would obviously be much better. but the decision was made at the time was all we could get was a nuclear containment deal. most members in congress after we were in it thought we should stay in. >> before i let you go really quickly, i just want to ask you about the director of national intelligen intelligence, dan coats, seen as a straight shooter in the trump administration. politico is reporting that there are discussions about a replacement for him. what do you -- what's your reaction? >> well, i'm a huge fan of dan coats. i knew him as a senator. he served on the senate intelligence committee when i was on the house intelligence