Director comey . No, sir. That is not accurate. Charlie the administrations credibility has been called into question. Joining me now from washington is bob cost of from the washington post. I am pleased to have you back on the program. Bob, what damage you think this is doing to donald trump, if any . Bob it is doing damage to him on several fronts. Within the white house it has tumult. Ome old the staff was unprepared, he made a personal decision with the attorney general and white house cose the party on capitol hillth feel they were given a curveball this week by this decision. They were not ready to talk to the president s decision or defendant in an articulate way. It gives disruption to his entire agenda as he tries to pursue health care and taxes. Now, all anyone is talking about in washington rsia and former director comey. Charlie why do they think he did it . My reporting and thosofy colleagues, it was the culmination of frustration, seething at times, anger about comey. The president told mr. Holt today he called the director to ask him if he was being investigated, whether the president was under scrutiny. Wheret a dinner, charlie, director comey was asking to stay on as director. The president was engaged in the idea that this interference was going on. In thetold by top people white house, he wanted the fbi to go after the leaks within the federal government. There was resistance from the fbi to take direction from the white house. Charlie there is also the suspicion he did it because he was tired of this Investigation Called the russian probe. Has called it simply, nothing there. Bob he is very unhappy with this ongoing probe. Charlie is it because he fears something or thinks they are out to get him without reason . Bob when he talks to his associates he uses the latter explanation for his anger. I have been reporting in recent weeks how he watches television all day and is monitoring what is on the cable networks. When comey went to capitol hill last week and talked about how the russian interference investigation wagog, i am told the president became furious. Strange andomey was talking too much about russia. This is a president that wants badly to move on from the russian issue and russian ties perhaps to his campaign during last years election. But the federal government has not been willing to move on and that led to this clash over the weekend. Impressionat is your of the Senate Intelligence investigation . Bob so far, it has yielded little. Senator burr has been careful with his language to maintain credibility. We have seen devin nunes, a trump ally, struggle. He had to recuse himself from the Russian Investigations because of his behavior and ties to the white house warner in virginia, the Ranking Member and burr, the and northa carolina republican, are not sure how far to lean in. They want a special prosecutor. Suspicion always is, once you give a special prosecutor and power, president clinton found this out, you ther know how wide investigation will become. On the other hand, if you want to eliminate suspicion, you should try to crte body of that will be credible and have some sense of senility to the investigation. Bob the unending nature of a special prosecutor looms over the white house. You have to remember, the core of what drove this was the president s desireo ve on from the Russian Investigation, to get the russian probes off of his plate and presidency. That is what led toom getting out there. It has been papered over by the white house. Their explanation was that the Deputy Attorney general, rob rosenstein, hisemandum was the reason for the ousteder. But it was the president himself fuming about russia that led to comeys dismissal. Charlie what is robbers and osensesaying now rod r ronsen saying now . Had not beingomey had not been doing a good job. Tuesday, he moves quickly to fire comey. Feels, he was used by the white house. He was reviewing the fbi, but the president had made a cision before he confided with rosenstein on monday. Rosenstein remains deputy ag. He was unhappy with how it played out in the white house. Did he me tay with the chair and cochair of the Senate Committee . Bob he will get called back. Everyone wants to hear, what did rosenstein say to the president omoay . What had he been working on in terms of his investigation with comeys leadership . What was the nature of his conversation with senator Jeff Sessions who was a supposed to recuse himself from the Russian Investigation . Everyone wants to know what rosenstein is thinking and what he said and the president said. Charlie what is the next step . Bob congress is controlled by republicans. The control to which they do anything will be watched by democrats and president trump. How hard will chairman burr push in the senate . And will they delve more into the decision to fire director comey . Failed inaying comey his leadership of the fbi. But the russian probes continue and how they are handled will be closely monitored. Charlie thank you bob, great to have you. Stay with us. Charlie admiral William Mcraven is here, he served as a native abc old for almost four decades. Of theow chancellor university of texas system. His new book is called make your bed Little Things that can change your life. And maybe the world or can the world. Great to have you back. It is such a great story. U are going to write a commencement speech and we have two things we want to do. We want to Say Something that comes from our hearts and we do not want to say what everybody else has said. Take it from there. Adm. Mcraven i had been writing the speech for a couple weeks prior to the day i was scheduled to give it, which was may 17 it was wednesday of the week before and i could not make the speech work. I had a theme and it was kind of coming together and then it stopped. I could not finish thehe. I had a little bit of writers block. I turned to my wife and said, i cannot finish this thing. She said, why dont you write about something you know . Know ishe only thing i being a navy seal for the last 35 years. She said, right about that. The problem is, i am about to step onto University Campus in uniform. I do not know what the students want to hear about what it took to be a navy seals and the lessons i learned. She kept saying, right about something you know. I started thursday and wrote the speech. I wrote it up until the hour i gave it. But it seemed to have come together. Thesee you started with 10 things, lsons. Were they 20 that you boiled down to 10 . Wanted to frame it to about 20 minutes because i knew that was the expectation at the commencement speech. I had some clear lessons in mind. I probably could have gone to 11 or 12 but 10 seemed to fit. Did you show them to hurt . Adm. Mcraven i never show my speeches before i give them, it is a superstition of mine. I do not let anybody read it or hear it. I wait until i deliver it until hearing the remarks. Charlie and how many have read it . It went viral. Adm. Mcraven i understand about 25 Million People. Is, the of the matter lessons are simple. As i said at the beginning of the speech, it does not make a difference whether used and a day in uniform. It does nomaed your matter your color, ethnicity, orientation. Best inou, be our darkest moment. Do not back down from bullies. These are lessons we can all use in life. I put them in the context of going through seal training. But it really did not matter whether you would ever be a seal, these are lessons for life. Charlie you sta wh making your own bed. Why is that important to start . Adm. Mcraven when i was young, my mother was a texas School Teacher and my father was an air force officer. My mother made sure i got up every morning and made my bed. I am not sure i understood the importance of it. When we got to seal traing was required every morning. We would have a uniform inspection and a bed inspection. I do not understand at the time why it was important. I learned how to be a battle Hardened Steel and the first thing we were doing every morning was having our bed inspected. The lesson became clear as i went through training and the navy. It is about one, doing the first task of the day and doing it right. If you can do t fst task of the day that will encourage you to do another and another. The other piece of this, the seal instructors wanted to make sure you did it exactly right. There were standards. You had to have hospital corners , 45 degrees, the pillow had to be exactly right. Their point was, if you cannot do the Little Things right, if you cannot make your bed right, how will you ever run a seal mission rrtly . It was about doing something that was good to do in the morning that started your day off right, and making sure you do the Little Things right. Charlie if you want to change the world, start by making you bed. The second was, you cannot go it alone. Adm. Mcraven in seal training you learn very quickly, i do not care if you are the strongest guy, the best runner, at the end of the day, we are called the seal teams for a reason. There is a recognition that if you want to be successful you have to work as a team. From day one of seal training you get a little rubber boat,an ibs. It takes seven men to carry it. Officer is at the very back, the helmsman. You take it with you everywhere you go. You run over the dunes with it in soft sands runs. The point that they make is, if everybody does not pull together, if everybody does not help get that boat where it needs to go, it i do not care how good you are, you are not going to get there. The importance of having people help you paddle was enforced every day. It is about life. Are,not care how tough you most people cannot make it through life on their own. It is good to have friends and people that love you. With making start the bed, and you need someone to help you go it alone. The third is the size of your heart. Adm. Mcraven the intesng thing about seal training, when you start off there is someone they picked to be the most likely to succeed, the guy that will be the honor man. The team, the class does. The class is new and they find the biggest, toughest guy that looks the most like a seal. He inrily is picked to be the honor man, and he is the first person that falls out. The little guy you never expected ends up being the best guy there. Wehad in our training, divided it into boat cruz crews. It was based on size. The big guys in one, the little guys in another. We called them the munchkin crew. In that boat crew was an unusual mix, we had an indianamerican, greekamerican, frenchamerican. Theywere all about 55, turned out to be the best guys in the obstacle course. You realize it is about the size of your heart. Noris, the first time i met him, i was a senior in college. I went out to visit basic seal training. As i was waiting around to meet a lieutenant who would talk to me about basic seal training, out of the corner of my eye i young, teenaged guide. Guy. He was smaller than i was, i kept watching him out of the corner of my eye. There are pictures of guys in the compound. I remember thinking to myself, does this guy think he can make it through seal training . Ll stature, wiry, sin thin. He is fooling himself if he thinks he will make it through seal training. I get invited to the lieutenants office, he does look like the poster child for a seal. Past the doorway and says, let me introduce you to somebody. Tommy, come in here a minute. He was one of the last medal of honor recipients from vietnam. He was the toughest seal in the history of the seals. It was a lesson for me to realize, you have to be careful about appeans. It was the heart that matters. He was in the fbi hostage rescue team, and incredibly tough, tough guy. But not the biggest guide guy. Movie, an airld force Lieutenant Colonel with a gunshot over vietnam, he had parachuted out. Went behindoris enemy lines to find him. He managed to pick him up and had to fight his way back to friendly lines. But this day after day of finding this Lieutenant Colonel, finding his way back, rescued the Lieutenant Colonel. For that he receive the medal of honor. Charlie the next is, life is not fair, drive on. Adm. Mcraven this is about what we refer to as a sugar cookie in the seal training. An seal training is when , itructor, arbitrarily says do not like your looks, if the surf. You whirl around in the sand and you are covered from head to toe in sand and you are wet and sandy and you spend the rest of the day with sand in your armpits and legs. It is the arbitrary arbi trariness that bothers people. The uniform and shoes were polished and they thought they would be rewarded for the great effort. Everyones in a while an instructor would say hit the surf and become a sugar cookie. Lifemcraven charlie is not fair. Adm. Mcraven and that is the point of the lesson. It does not matter how hard yo try, how good you can become a life is not fair and you have to get over it. In your class, only 33 graduated. There were 153 students that started with you. What is the difference these 10 rules what is the difference between those that ring the bell, when you want to opt out, and those who pass the finish line . What is the difference . A young man i have that was graduating from the university of texas last year. Decas at the catholic athlete. He wanted to talk about the secrets of making it through seal training. I had them over for lunch and he sits across from me, incredibly sharp young man. Like to know,ld how do i make it through seal training . Join need to spend more time running . I said no, you look like you are in good shape. Swimming . You look like you will bebl to do this. Litany he withdrew the litany of things. I said it is easy to make a through seal training, you just do not quit. He took a deep breath and said, i understand. But should i strengthen my upper body . I said, let me be clear it is easy, you just do not quit. There will come times and training when you will be exhausted, when you will begin to doubt yourself, when the instructors will be applying pressure on you. Yourself, i to tell am not going to quit. So the difference between those that make it through and those that dont is just about. That is why it does not make any difference how fast you are, how strong you are. It matters about your determination not to quit. At some look at life, point in time, life deals all of us difficult hand. Your newwhat is challenge now as chancellor at the university of texas . Adm. Mcraven the transition of the military to running the university of texas ran smoothly. Wh running a large organization, its l about the people. You have to respect the people. Population, diverse 28,000 students, 100,000 employees spread across different institutions. It is fabulous and fascinating. One day youre talking to a Nobel Laureate and the next to a Heisman Trophy winner, and everything in between. One thing that surprised me is the number of people that want to get to e university, to give to causes. We have a cancer clinic. There are folks from all walks of life that want to contribute to try to cure cancer. There are folks that want to improve the quality of life for young kids in south texas in the rio grande valley. They donate not only money but time and resources, and their passion to helping these young men and women. Many of them see in these young men and women themselves. We have a large hispanic population. Young menan see these and women that are the first in their family to go to college, and the first in her family to go to medil school, and you realize they have just changed the entire trajectory of their familys liagforever. Dotistics show that if you go to college, chances are your kids will go and their kids will go. This is a great appeal of this particular job, having an opportunity to watch the young men and women. They are not all young, but most of them are. They come in and change their lives. Charlie since the time you left the military and you look at the world through the prism of someone who understands the National Security challenge, where do we stand today . You said at this table a couple years ago you thought we needed more troops in syria. I applaud both president obama and president for the trajectory we are on now in terms of the fight against isis. Ago, maybeer a year march of last year, president obama decided to double down on our efforts in iraq and syria in terms of increasing troops on the ground, working with iraqis, working with the moderate syrians. Syrians. We have seen the effect on isis. President trump has continued this effort and increase the number of troops on the ground. I think that strategy is working as far as isis goes. I am appreciative of both president s for their efforts against it. Isis is a scorch not only for the middle east in that region, but the second ad ird order affects owh isis creates when you have this mass migration into europe, the jordan,l to pressurize lebanon, and others, it is important we take care of this problem. I think we are Good Progress against isis. The strike we conduedn syria when we determined that there was another chemical attack, i applaud those efforts. I thought it was appropriate, proportional. My only regret was, i think we need to continue to apply pressure in syria on the ground. When we see the syrian army begin to threaten moderate syrians until you do that, until we begin to have the high ground, the tactical, strategic, and moral high ground in syria, i do not know if we can do anything. We do not have many cards to play. We need a strategy. When i say we, it is the great work Rex Tillerson and jims met jim mattis will do to apply pressure to assad and the russians. We need to be in a series of strength in syria. His choice of jim mattis was absolutely the right choice. Charlie why do they say that . Adm. Mcraven he is a voracious are dear friends. I have the greatest respect for jim mattis. Ands tactically strategically very sound in terms of understanding the battlefield and the implications of how to fight wars. He is great thhe marines. Is the general general generals general. He has the respect of the Senior Officers. As a secretary of defense, all the commanders and Senior Officers that report to him. Charlie your book is called make your bed Little Things that can change your life. And maybe the world. He has had a remarkable life for a young man and it continues. Chris stapleton is here. He is been called countries raining outlaw appeared he recorded in the same studio as Elvis Presley and dolly parton. Rolling stone called his album equal parts this writing otis redding and waylon jennings. Here is performing in our studio. [indiscernible] talkede ever [indiscernible] go o where we [indiscernible] and all my tears cried [indiscernible] we will call it quits baby, you can [indiscernible] you can stay anyway ove you [indiscernible] you can hurt, but you dont feel at all i used to cry and stay up at wrongand wonder atent heart cann hard, a only do that for so long [indiscernible] we will call it quits , you can go or you can stay i wont love you either way. [indiscernible] callit quits go or you can stay you either waye i am pleased to have Chris Stapleton at the table for the first time. Welcome. The raining outlaw. Chris hmm. Charlie a comparison to waylon jennings, not back. Chris i will take it. Charlie what do you think when they say raining outlaw . What about the music . Certainly always have a tip of the hat and have in my and merlen and willie hacker. Those are my favorite things. They were doing right not that there is a right and wrong. Charlie what were they doing . Themselves and doing what feels good to them versus trying to be what someone else was doing. Hen did the music thing happened for you . I always played and sang in church with my brother. Andother sang run the house my father listened to the radio a lot. I played guitar and sang. It was always there. I dont want to say i came from a musical family, nobody went out and played. I dont know, and some point i kind of fell into it may be for lack of wanting to do anything else. Or it found me. Charlie was it to sing or right write . To write initially, whenomne told me that was a job that they would let you do, to sit in a room and write songs. Charlie sounds like a good job. Adele, you wrote a song she copied . Chris i did. That is what i heard. Charlie what amazes me is they all say you have the greatest voice around today. It is not even about the songwriting skills, which are clear, but the voice. Chris i dont know about all that. There are a lot of great singers and great voices. But, you know, hopefully i have something that is recognizable and will possibly hold up over time. Charlie 2 million albums says something. Chris its as we sold 2 million albums. Charlie 2 Million People are willing to p. When you are writing songs, telly about that process. Chris it can be different on any gin y. If it is just me alone, i am sitting with a guitaan strumming and humming and sin where it leads. That is pretty much the process. I could hear conversation out Walking Around somewhere. Maything somebody says stick something in my brain. Sometimes it falls out of the sky into your lap. Charlie i know i you fe aut this and im not trying to push you, but for whatever reason, people see you as a route back to waylon and others. You mentioned willie. That somehow you are today in entry back to what made them chris i dont know about in entry back but i would not mind being viewed as a bridge. Myself ining to put any sense with those guys, but yeah, i think it is important for me personay always kind of have a tip of the hat to those guys, but also old r b singers. Ray charles. I like all kinds of music. I hope some of that shows up. Charlie what happened at the 2015 cma awards . Chris a lot. Eight minutes that can charlie change a life. Cis yes. Whiskey essee , so very wise charlie did you know it at the moment . Chris i knew we would have a fun time playing music because we had rehearsed. Charlie it was the two of you coming together. Chris it was a collaboration in the truest sense. He is a remarkable, singular talent as far as musical people go. If youre going to do something with him, it is going to be something good. Charlie because his talent is so special. Chris he elevates. He can elevate things. He is a great, positive energy and a great performer. He is not very old but he is a veteran performer. There are things he brings to a stage that not many people can. Originally, i am told, that you are prepared simply to cut the album and go on tour. Chris that was my request of the label and their request of me was let us find some other ways to market things and less the good about this, and we will approach it that way, and that is what we did. We did not have a lead up single and whatever the single that came out at the time, we traveled. I booked some dates. That is how i knew how to do it. Showed my heart behind the [indiscernible] of my shirt [indiscernible] chris chris that is what made sense to me. That is the easiest math for me. Charlie they buy the album that thehow . Chris that is a very independent nation. It comes from bluegrass. That was my plan. Then other things happened along the way that were fortunate. Charlie this is volume one, volume two comes out later. Tell me about the creation of the album. Would have towe make an album at some point. We set aside some time, we set aside a couple of months and room and into the rca kind of campout. Charlie a pretty important room. Chris a very important room. There are not a lot of them. A lot of historic studios have been torn down where important recordings have been made. To feel thel ghosts in the walls ty elevate what to do in those rooms. It is important to get the feel. A communion with those people. A communion, absolutely, and you feel a responsibility in your there. I think he can push you along a little bit. Charlie i read about all of the complex in nashua conflicts in nashville, pop and country. You just say, i am making music. Chris yes. Sushi, i dont think people should be made to eat sushi. Charlie why dont you like sushi . Chris i just dont. Charlie you dont have any reason to not like sushi. Want i dont harbor any ill will toward people who like sushi. I dont want to keep using the metaphor. There is not one kind of music that is right and what kind of music that is long. If it makes them feel good and they enjoy it, that is great for them. If you dont like to listen to something, turn to Something Else you do like and listen to music and have fun. It is ok. It does not mean you cant be friends with someone who likes a different kind of music. That is so weird to me. Charlie i am not proud of this question but i will ask it anyway. What brings you gatleasure, writing a good some or singing a good song . Chris that is a tough one. I am not a very good judge of whether when i finish writing something, it is great or not. It is hard to think you are done something really good. I probably get more pleasure out of singing a something it was great, whether it is mine or someone elses, and usually it isomebody elses. About whenmething are right where they need to be, the melody is where it needs to be, and they fit together so well like a puzzle. Charlie you know what amazes me to, whether it is national or los angeles or wherever it is, new york city, when people discoveries are an overnight sensation. That you just emerged overnight when in fact it was long years and long rejections. Very few people who are actually overnit im not sure that actually exists. Maybe it does for summary. Charlie it is practice, practice, practice. Chris well, you do the work. Charlie keep your head down and do the work. Chris i very much feel that way. Try to do the work, do the best work you can do. , itink that ultimately leaves an ingredient for the opportunity to be successful. Charlie let me ask some of the songs and what comes to your head first. Broken halos. What inir that . Chris my cowriter, mike a keyson, was reading richards biography, i think, referred to, he was speaking of friends he had lost , who leftor whatever the world before they should have. He had called them broken halos. We were talking about that one night when we were supposed to be writing songs, and it kind of became that song. What i really think of when you read that title, as recorded that song on the day a guy i grew up with passed away. He died of pancreatic cancer. That is what i think of when you say, what do i think of. I got the phone call and we recorded the song. Charlie you got the phone call and you recorded the song. You can feel the emotion and the song. Chris yes. That is why we asked me what do i hear when you adhe title, i go back to that phone call. I had already planned on recording the song, but i took a moment and went outside and said, this is what we are going to do. Living. Up to no good chris my wife loves that song. Charlie why . Chris [laughter] i dont know. Her taste in songs is sometimes puzzling to me, but a trust her without fail on tin she likes because she has excellent taste in just about everything but men. [laughter] charlie selfdeprecation has taken you a long way. [laughter] charlie what comes first, lyrics or melody . That can be a revolving thing. I have written songs where i home and strong, i hum and lyricsand i have written top to bottom. Ive had a cowriter coming and have something. There is no right or wrong. Sometimes the chorus comes first, sometimes the first work comes first, sometimes the idea comes first, sometimes you play a melody you love and it is two hours for any words come. Death row. We had some murder ballad fascinations. Of a loter has a lot a lot of original blues training. It was a lose song originally is we kind of, our version kind of a derivation from the. Aboute i want to ask you love. T your chris it started with the guitar riff. That is what i remember about that one. I played that guitar riff perceptron minutes and mike sat over there thinking. Sometimes we are quiet when we are writing, and we will be scribbling, and we said, what have you got . Somewhere out of that came the lyrics. You chip away at it. For sure. You get rid of the unnecessary in. Charlie touring is something you love . Chris i do. I love playing music live. Sometimes the travel is hard, but it is part of it. We travel as comfortably as we possibly can. I make the joke all the time, i play the music for free, you pay me to travel. [laughter] your ticketoht my bus, that is what you are paying me for, because i love the music. That for many years, i would play for free or next to nothing just because i love it. Charlie you have written more than 1000 songs. Chris somewhere in there, i dont have an exact count. Charlie do you keep all of them . Companyy publishing keeps track of them. [laughter] chris i dont have them on my phone or anything, but if i wanted to hunt one down, i could, publishing company, they would track it down. Charlie anything youre not doing that you very much want to do . Chris in music . Opportunitiesmany , particularly in the last two or three years, i cannot imagine there is anything amot getting to do that i want to do. It is really amazing in that way. Time, iy mom all the literally have everything i could ever want. Charlie i literally have everything i ever wanted. Yes. as far as things you can hope for and want, that is a strange feeling a little bit. Charlie how old are you . Chris i am 39. Charlie and you have everything you ever wanted . Chris or ever thought about. Sure. I tell people all the time, i have to get new goals. I remember there was a time when applying the Ryman Auditorium was a goal of mine. Played a that, and we iw in succession, and literally left that gig saying i have to get a new goal. Charlie the thing about success is a get you optns chris for sure. You have options to do the things you want to do and hopefully make the right choices. Know, mythe more you impression is, the more you know the more you can see not only the options and possibilities but you can see how much further you have to go. Chris yeah, i guess. Charlie i dont mean in terms of talent. If you are good, you know how good you are, but you also know how much better you can be. Chris i am always yes. I certainly have a sense of i need to be Getting Better playing or singing. I always want that. That does not go away. Ifalmost like there is there is a lack of satisfaction, is in wanting to dsothing just a little bit better. And that is ok. I think that is what drives to,le to make things or hopefully, work as hard as they can. Charlie to create. This is an amazing album. It is good to seyo come back anytime. Chris yes, sir. Charlie thank you for joining us. Yousef welcome to the best of Bloomberg Markets middle east. Oil swung to its biggest gains this year. We asked him middle east ceo whether going momentum could help further stabilization. The countdown is on to irans president ial election with the incumbent accused of not doing enough to capitalize on the end of sanctions. We get analysis from a