Military situations and applications discussed. General mattis is here. General kelly. A lot of good military input. Very important. Discussed funding for the military, which is so important. We also obviously went into budgets. We went into daca. And how were going to do. And we hope that were going to be able to work out an arrangement with the democrats. I think its something that theyd like to see happen. The president also responding today to questions from reporters about that new tellall book about the life inside the white house, whether the president still supports the u. S. Attorney general Jeff Sessions and whether trump would be willing to meet with Robert Mueller personally if requested. Theres been no collusion. Theres been no crime. And in theory everybody tells me im not under investigation. Maybe hillary is. I dont know. But im not. But theres been no collusion. Theres been no crime. But we have been very open. We could have done it two ways. We could have been very closed and it would have taken years. But, you know, sort of like when youve done nothing wrong, lets be open and get it over with. Because honestly its very, very bad for our country. Its making our country look foolish. And this is a country that i dont want looking foolish. And its not going to look foolish as long as im here. So weve been very open. And we just want to get that over with. All right, lets get straight to cnn White House Correspondent abby phillips. So the president exhibiting and underscoring with words that hes very open and taking on any and all questions that came today. Thats right. The president up at camp david with Republican Leaders and taking unexpectedly some questions from a small group of reporters who traveled up there for this president availability. This is a big weekend for him and his agenda for the coming year. He started out the day talking more about that book you were talking about, that tell all from Michael Wolff that seems to have got under the president s skin. He tweeted talking about the books assertion that the president may be lacks something in mental capacity. Now a reporter up at camp david asked him why he would have tweeted Something Like this on a day thats supposed to be otherwise about the gop agenda and heres how he replied. I went to the best colleges, or cheollege. I had a situation where i was a very excellent student. Came out and made billions and billions of dollars. Became one of the top businesspeop businesspeople. Went to television. For ten years was a tremendous success as you probably have heard. Ran for president one time and won. Well, the president went on to say also that he did not know author Michael Wolff, even though the truth is that the two had met and he acknowledged later that they spoke during the campaign. Wolff also spent quite a significant amount of time at the white house in the west wing over the course of the last year and also when reporters talked to white house chief of staff john kelly, they asked him about these tweets and john kelly said he actually did not see them this morning. Reporters showed them to kelly on their phones and he replies simply okay. Okay. Abby phillip, thank you so much. All right, let me bring in my political panel. Joining me now, a former south regional director for president obama in 2012 and kevin scott, a republican strategist. Good to see you both. Its funny, just that okay, all right, here we go. Game on. All right. So the president , you know, says he felt the need to essentially defend himself. You know, asked about why would he tweet this morning when we saw the opening of his press conference that there are a number of important things. Infrastructure, military spending, daca. All of these things are on the table. But he wants to set the record straight. What is compelling the president to keep this sentiment about his fragility. I mean, really his emotional state about being criticized alive . I dont think this is any surprise. This is what the president has done for day one. When somebody punches, he counterpunches it. Its who he is. Whats hes about. The challenge is the republicans really need to be talking about other things. Theyre coming off a win with the tax bill. They want to be talking about legislative position this year and protecting vulnerable republicans. So this is bad news to be talking about but i think this president feels like hes got to defend himself against the allegations that he says are untrue. So all of those things are becoming kind of an aside then, theyre taking the backstage to the president saying i want to protect my image, my own personal credibility, set the record straight, but does it really undermine everything ultimately . This president from day one has been deflecting from the real issues. To say hes not under investigation is basically flawed. The bottom line, to kevins point, theyre supposed to be at camp david talking about how theyre going to push their legislative agenda. How theyre growing to protect their gop members. And maybe try to pick up a couple seats. What this president has done, hes turned this book there, this guy, Michael Wolff, and you know this, he got an enormous amount of access to the white house. To have these very candid personal interviews. Explains in the first pages of the book that, you know, it was an astounding arrangement actually. He got to just kind of be the fly on the wall. His idea, his objective, was to account for the first 100 days of the presidency, but not even he, mr. Le wouwolff, said he ex things would unfold. They did just before his own eyes. Lets put this in perspective. Steve bannon was fired by the president. They lost the race for the u. S. Senate in alabama. And he is quoted saying that this president is unhinged. He doesnt know what hes doing. Hes unfit to be president of the United States of america. But lets just also look at this. There were people like David Axelrod who was the chief strategist to president barack obama. There were people like that who worked in the administration who went on to rigwrite books. Never in the history have we seen someone involved in putting out the strategy for this president to come out and say we and other staffers knew we were in trouble, this guy doesnt read the reports hes given, is really unfit. This is really bad for the republicans as they try to promote this tax cut and also try to defend themselves in the midterms. Is there some acknowledgement do you think among republicans about that . Its interesting now how much credibility democrats are giving steve bannon. Now what he says we believe. You know, steve bannon, look, this is a guy did anyone doubt, 000 the relationship and the power of a steve bannon behind this president . I dont think anybody doubts the access to him. But this is obviously a guy who is upset, who has lost a lot of influence. And so theres going to be things hes going to say that to try to even the score. Heres whats interesting. Michael wolff, i think what he has picked up with his time with the president , hes obviously figured out how to sell a book very well. Taking nothing away from him, i think this is a clear attempt to sell books. A lot of stuff in there is up for debate on how true it actually is. Whats the challenge now for actual republicans . You had some power hitters who were standing right there behind the president. I mean, they know what theyre dealing with so to speak. And they knew that before this book. But now this book has put them in a very difficult situation. Does it not . In terms of trying to focus on 2018 midterm elections. But then, yes there are all of these questions as it pertains to russia investigation, his Mental Fitness, you know, the president s, his handling of. Was he trying to, you know, threaten his attorney general. I mean, all of this stuff is going to stand in the way, is it not, of a strategy going into 2018 . Well, it did in 2017. It stood. I would say his twitter account probably stands in the way as much as the book. I mean, a lot of times the things hes saying on his own that cause so many problems. The republicans have a lot of work to do. To push forward an agenda. To push forward things that are going to help moderate republicans, or republicans in swing states to be able to defend themselves in very crucial elections in 2018 so theres a lot of work ahead for republicans. The president brings it up. He says no collusion, no crime. You know if after a year nothing has solidified collusion, then there must not be anything there. The president says im an open book about it. When you have your former chief of staff, your white House Counsel and you have other people going directly to the attorney general and saying the direct orders from the president to not recuse yourself from this investigation, i mean, i dont know how more involved the president can get in there. How does this potentially feed the Mueller Investigation . I think mueller has known about this for a very long time. I think what President Trump is trying to do is get in front of them. Listen, there is more evidence being gathered every day. The thing donald trump could do is he could really on this book and these accusations, you know, around the collusion and the coordination to try to influence the attorney general, he could just not say anything. You know, there have been several books written about president s. Lyndon johnson had books written about him while he was in office. To come out and to tweet and to amplify this shows i think hes unfit. And also what hes trying to do is really trying to motivate his base and blame it on everyone but himself. I think that has been the number one problem with this president since he was inaugurated. Having his counsel, white House Counsel, his personal attorneys. I mean, they must just, you know, kind of tighten their fist and hope that he doesnt tweet, doesnt say anything about it. Its interesting that his adviser gary cohen you know would step in and he would hug him like, are you happy . Until you walk out the door, then ive got Something Else that i, you know, would probably say. Trump meaning. So, the president has said he wants people around him who protect him. Is that whats happening here . I think theres no doubt, the president demands a certain level of loyalty. Thats what he wants. Thats what a lot of the book is about. Is whos loyal, whos not. What fairen is exactly right about is this republican agenda has got to overcome the noise surrounding this. If they dont get the investigation out of the way, it is going to be a roadblock to any significant legislative accomplishments in this year. All right, lets talk some more after the break. Thank you so much, fairen and kevin. When we come back, were going to talk more about this book, how much it might potentially influence the white house and the image of the president that he is trying so hard to protect. Your brain changes as you get older. But prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. The name to remember. President trump slamming Michael Wolff, the author of that explosive tell all book fire and fury. Right here, the present calling him a fraud. Talking about fake news and the Fake News Media really was the fact that so many of the people that i talk about in terms of fake news actually came to the defense of this Great Administration and even myself because they know the author and they know hes a fraud. All right, join meg to discuss more on this, democratic strategist Theron Johnson and republican strategist kevin scott. The credibility of wolff versus the credibility of the president. So, they aron, whose was really the line here . I think it was an attempt to attack wolff and his credibility. The person you cannot attack is the person there when you became president and you made your chief strategist. For someone who worked with people would worked in the white house, you dont get all this access to the president , all this access to members of his staff, if you dont think this person is credible. Because you would have thought of that before you said, okay, we invite you in. If you didnt trust this person about the material theyre going to gather, why would you grant this access . I think obviously he was misled on this. Help thought he meaning the president . The president you cant make a mistake like that in the white house. I dont think theres any surprise theres going to be somebody who gets this kind of access and then writes a book thats negative about the president. What theron is correct is the chief strategist was involved in this. So agreed that there is a certain level of credibility that comes with that. The challenge of the book is theres probably some truth there. Theres a lot of hyperbole. Theres some things that seem untrue. I think thats where wolffs challenge is. Theres just enough opening for the president to poke some holes in certain arguments which will undermine the credibility of the entire book, even if some of it is true. There were some subjects who were mentioned in the book who say i was never there. And then there were other subjects who say yeah, i recall saying that exactly. So, you know, theron, is this, you know, a challenge to readers . You know, to simply, you know, believe what appears to be in step with, you know, precedent, with behavior already exhibited, or is it an issue of, you know, saying im going to discredit all of it because the president says, you know, that the author is a fraud . Theres only about 35 of americans right now that think the president s doing a good job. So those readers, people who voted for him, people who actually support him, theyre just going to read it and not believe anything in there. Then people in my party who will read it and say weve known this for a long time. We tried to educate the American People during the campaign but unfortunately we just didnt have enough time to tell people this guy was unhinged. The true factor is going be to the independents. I think particularly women. This affected women in this country who are not proud of this president. No matter whether you question his intelligence or his sanity. Is that youre not proud of the way hes treating his fellow people in the gop. Youre not proud of how hes lashing out at people. So this is really going to take effect in these early states and battleground states i think when it comes to women. As we know in 2017, alabama and other places, women were the driving factor in this. No one likes to know their president is bullying the attorney general to try to recuse not recuse themselves for an open investigation. So i think ultimately thats going to be the effect of this book. As long as you have Republican Leadership standing next to him whether it be symbolically, physically standing next to him, not refuting or not even criticizing the president when universally it seems that there is material in which to criticize the president , then this book really may not even move a needle. Its not going to because it really comes down to are the challenges with style and substance, i dont think most republicans love when the president says, well, i went to the best schools, im obviously smart. But they dont like his style. But they still think substantially that he has some policies and some vision with the republican majority in both the house and the senate that can accomplish some conservative goals. I think a lot of republicans, maybe only 35 are supporting the president , but there may be a group thats saying we dont love everything he does but this is our opportunity to take our country back, to limit government, to put tax money, less tax money to the government, back in peoples pockets. Thats what theyre hoping is they can get the conservative agenda passed. Almost a dismissing of the flashy object because if unemployment continues to dip, stock market continues to soar, some people, you know, are going to enjoy a new tax code, then just go with it . And thats what he should have been talking about today. That press conference we just saw should be very detailed in what theyre going to Work Together on to move the agenda forward. He gave some vagaries. He said security, infrastructure, military, funds for the military, the budget and daca. He was more responding to the question about why would you tweet this morning about your Mental Fitness when you just spelled out what the agenda is for the day while at camp david. One of the things i want to push back on kevin is yes, it is about style, but it really is about substance. I mean this is something that should be very concerning to us as americans. I mean, we have a president right now who our entire fate in his hands. Hes arguing with north korea. Hes attacking people in this book. People are saying that he doesnt read all the reports that come to him. So he doesnt fully understand what hes doing in the job. So just, you know, partisan politics aside, as an american, im very concerned about his mental state. But also his judgment. His ability to surround himself with people who are not afraid to tell him what he doesnt want to hear. Because thats really the true assets and characters of a leader is surrounding yourself with people who agree or disagree with you but you make this decision to come out and protect this country and push an agenda forward. I think therein lies the ultimate problem. Thats something the book underscores. The author said 100 of the people around him feel like they really cant criticize him. Because he doesnt want to hear it. Yes. I think youre exactly right. The people he doesnt want people around him that tell him that. You pointed out that he spoke a lot more about the book then he did about the policy issues. One of the things a lot of people have not given this president credit for is controlling the news cycle. Here we are talking about this book. While theres major things happening in the world. Could it be that he is just smart enough to get the narrative to be around Something Else while hes working on other issues, perhaps north korea, other things that could be on the horizon. Hes done that in the past. Its something hes very good at. All right, kevin, theron, thank you. Coming up, new questions surrounding the russia investigation among reports members of the Trump Administration pressured attorney general sessions not to recuse himself. My legal panel weighing in next. I mean, Rocket Mortgage gives me complete control, but if i ever feel like things are getting hairy, i can call or chat with an expert. So, no matter what, i know im making the best financial decision. Do you live in a tree house or what . Rocket mortgage by quicken loans. Get approved in as few as 8 minutes. But he hasoke up wwork to do. In. So he took aleve. If hed taken tylenol, hed be stopping for more pills right now. Only aleve has the strength to stop tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. Aleve. All day strong. All right, welcome back and happy new year. Were just six days into the new year and already political bombshells against the Trump Administration continue to drop including what some say is the president s potential obstruction of justice. The former lawyer, Reince Priebus and express Secretary Sean Spicer tried to pressure sessions to recuse himself from the russia investigation. Speaking last hour, trump says he is also willing to meet with special counselor Robert Mueller. Theres been no collusion. Theres been no crime. In theory, everybody tells me im not under investigation. Maybe hillary is, i dont know, but im not. But theres been no collusion. Theres been no crime. We have been very open. It would have taken years, but sort of like when youve done nothing wrong. Honestly, its very bad for our country. Its making our country look foolish. This is a country i dont want looking foolish. Its not going to look foolish as long as im here. Weve been very open and i want to get that over with. Avery freeman, civil attorney and law professor in cleveland. Good to see you both, happy new year. Hi, fred, happy new year. Avery, you just heard the president , he said no collusion, no crime. Hes open. What do you make of all he has said . There is no crime of collusion, this is a case of obstruction. Hes not saying no obstruction, hes saying no collusion. The blockbuster information about the white House Counsel trying to lobby Jeff Sessions from recusing himself. Look, the last thing Jeff Sessions wanted to do is recuse himself. When you run a campaign and then you become an official, he had no choice, and he was afraid it was going public. Well, on march 1st, the Washington Post identified what that was. On march 2nd, eversessions recused himself. So whether or not Reince Priebus, whether or not sean spicer, whether or not don mcgann attempted to stop him from recusing himself, he did, he knew he had to and thats what the case is. And richard, is that your feeling as well, that Jeff Sessions, you know, swore to an oath and so as a result he had to recuse himself . My feeling is in the history of our great republic, theres never been a president this ignorant of the law and this ignorant of the contusion andstd unwilling. For the president to say he should have never recused what is he talking about, what is he basing that argument on . Havent we heard the president make the argument in varying ways that the attorney general should be loyal to the president , should be protecting the president just like he said eric holder protected president obama, just like Robert Kennedy protected jfk. Thats what we heard from the president. Is he right . The attorney general is the attorney general for the United States, hes not the attorney general for personal donald trump. And to get him out of his fixes. And thats why he wanted to keep sessions in there. Because he thought sessions would be loyal to him and derail the investigation by mueller, and that is another building block, fred, for the obstruction of justice, which, by the way, is overwhelming at this time. Mueller has obstruction of justice. They have the intent required. They have the elements of it. You have the and trump, he needs to study if the constitution is too overwhelming, start with the fifth amendment, selfincrimination. Because he incriminates himself. That lester holt in review. He admitted to obstruction in that. Meeting with his boys in the oval office and saying that this comey investigation, i had to get rid of him because he was nuts. This is obstruction, fred. He said to get rid of the russia thing. Okay, if its overwhelming, avery, obstruction of justice, and there are all these examples that the two of you have just spelled out, then what is Robert Mueller waiting for . Or does it simply mean thats just the tip of the iceberg potentially . Yes, thats a great question, because what hes waiting for is to make sure he has every bit of evidence to show the key element in an obstruction. And that is willful interference. Thats whats in the statute. So hes got sean spicers statement. Hes got Reince Priebus personal notes from meeting. Remember the chronology. Comey gets fired on the 10th of may. On the 11th of may, trump meets with russian officials saying, oh, man, there was so much pressure on me, and thats gone. And then on the 11th of course the infamous or famous, depend on how you look at it, interview with lester holt, where he says, yes, i got rid of comey because of the russia investigation. Mueller is conservative, hes acting the right way, and you need to be careful because you need to show that intent. And then, richard, even though sean spicer has said in a recent interview that, you know, he wasnt a party to trying to convince anyone to or convince, you know, sessions not to recuse himself, what does this mean if potentially even sessions may have had one of his own aides go to capitol hill to try to get dirt on james comey to help justify his imminent firing or removal . What about all of that . Is that, too, part of a potential obstruction issue even though sessions did recuse himself . Its very complicated. Yes, thats right. I know youre following. Youre absolutely right, an obstruction case is built on Building Blocks and they have so many examples of it, fred, its overwhelming right now. There is obstruction. Muellers got that. The reason hes not stopped is because hes also looking at conspiracy between trump and the russians. Thats what hes looking at right now. Hes looking at money laundering. Thats what hes looking at. This is a comprehensive examination. Remember, bill clinton was investigated by congress and the special prosecutor on whitewater and it ended up on monica lewinsky. All the stuff floated to the top. Whether or not collusion is a crime or not, the fact of the matter is, there was a criminal investigation going on and the president of the United States sought to impede that with a malicious intent, the intent required to get obstruction. Theyve got it, fred. Im telling you, theyve got it. For trump to say theres no collusion. There absolutely is collusion. Look at the meetings at trulp tower. Come on. Its ridiculous. People have to wake up. You have these enablers. You have these enablers and these coconspirators and government. The republicans in congress. That stand by him. Its like the emperors new clothes. Wont step up the president says hes avery, you know, the, the president says hes not under investigation, but is it a case really that everyone under that big tent or umbrella is under investigation until theyre not . Thats a wonderful way of putting it. Thats exactly whats going on here. Of course the president s under investigation. I mean, flynn didnt plead to a crime because he wasnt under investigation. Bana for the isnt indicted because he was not under investigation. These individuals were all participating. And it gets right down to the question of willful obstruction. And thats that intent issue is why muellers being so careful here. And frankly, while i dont want to say the evidence is overwhelming, it is substantial and muellers going to pull the trigger when he thinks its time. But it is substantial. Substantial evidence. Wow. All right, that word willful. You said willful interference. Willful obstruction. We got to remember all that as we continue to learn more or not. Avery freeman, richard herman, thank you. Always good to see yall. Pleasure. 16 years, fred, been 16 years with us together. Oh, my gosh where does the time go . Coming up on 17. I love it. Well, you know, its amazing. Its been an amazing decade and a half with you guys and i appreciate your dedication, your smarts, all the time. Love you both. Appreciate you. Still so much more straight ahead in the newsroom, but first, could the tuna that you eat soon be made from tomatoes . One of the big problems we have today is that we are overfishing tuna and its only at 3 at the height of its stock. Thats james, hes been a chef for over 30 years, and hes the founder of a Company Called ocean foods. His solution to the dwindling tuna population, tomatoes. Theres five tastes. We have were familiar with sweet, sour, salty, bitter. Theres a fifth taste called umami. That refers to savory. But also whats high in umami are tomatoes. The only problem is you wouldnt have a great sushi experience if the ahimi tastes like tomatoes. So the Real Technology that we developed came from the process on how to remove that tomato flavor and keep great texture but create this kind of neutral platform in which to carry japanese flavors or latin american flavors or mediterranean flavors. Like the tomato is a vehicle to get those flavors into your mouth . Absolutely. Plantbased alternatives to seafood. It is called ahimi. The company is working on salmon made from carrots and eel made from eggplant. Were going to dip it into a little of the soy sauce. It really does look like tuna. Wow. Right . Yeah. Thats really good. So i was pleasantly surprised. It actually tasted good. Lets have it in sushi roll form. Im not very good with chopsticks. I would totally, totally grab this for lunch as opposed to regular tuna. And dont have to worry about mercury and dont have to worry about, you know, killing tuna. Welcome back this saturday. Now secretary of state Rex Tillerson is weighing in. In an exclusive interview, tillerson talked about his relationship with President Trump. And he offered his take on the president s mental state. Heres some of that interview. Im sure you heard about this new book, its the talk of the town. It describes a president whose Foreign Policy is uninformed. Hes unengaged. Hes not interested. He gets up and leaves meetings with World Leaders because hes bored. Youre at the white house several times a week. Is that your experience . I think among all the cabinet secretaries, i probably have spent more time with the president than perhaps secretary of defense mattis who spend ats lot of time with him as well. Ive never seen the president leave a meeting with a foreign leader. In our meetings with the National Security council, a big challenge was pivoting policies in a different direction than they were placed when the president took office. From north korea to afghanistan, south asia policy in pakistan to the defeat isis campaign. The president prioritized the threats early on. And thats the sequence with which weve addressed those. In all those deliberations, and these have not been easy deliberations. These are not easy decisions for a president to make. He has been very deliberative. He has listened to the arguments. He argues back, as he should. He pushes back. And in the end, he makes the decision, which we then implement. I will tell you on all the major policy areas, the president has made the right decision on every one of those. How we got there involves a lot of debate. It should involve a lot of debate. Its a very Healthy Exchange with the president and one which i think is important that we continue to have. Everybody in this book, you know, questions his Mental Fitness. Have you ever questioned his Mental Fitness. And describe your relationship with him. Because some people would think its, you know, through his tweets and stuff its not a very good relationship. Ive never questioned his Mental Fitness. I have no reason to question his Mental Fitness. My relationship with him and it is a developing one, and i remind people and i think its well known that he and i did not know one another before he asked me to serve as secretary of state. So we dont have a lot of history. Part of this is us knowing coming to learn and understand youre also two different kinds of people. With well, we have different management styles. How i make decision, how i process information, i have to learn how he takes information in, processes it and makes decisions. Thats my responsibility. Im here to serve his presidency. So ive had to spend a lot of time understanding how to best communicate with him so i can serve his needs with information. I do think one of my roles is to always give him all sides of the issues. Even when i know its not the side that he really wants to consider. I think its part of making good decisions is that i know he at least has had visibility to all aspects of the decision hes about to make. And thats my role as secretary of state. Is to provide him that full 360 visibility. Of what these decisions mean for our Foreign Affairs with allies, with partners and adversaries. I think what comes out sometime, what people see, they see that as conflict but its not. Its a normal process of having the president look at all sides and then saying i dont like that. And thats healthy. Thats good. I mean, people should feel good about the way decisions are made because its not just one of giving in to what you think the president wants. Rather, helping him see the full array of all the options and what the implications of those are. And he decides. Hes the commander in chief. Hes the president. He decides. Well implement against his decisions. Reflecting back, what have you learned about yourself . What might you do differently next year . You never stop growing as an individual. So in terms of what i would do different, im going to build on my ability to communicate with the president better. My ability to communicate with others better. And as i said, its something i had to learn is what is effective with this president. He is not a typical typical of president s with the past. Thats also why the American People chose him. They were tired of what was being done in the past. I learned over past year better how to deal with the president to serve what he i think he needs to know so he can make good decisions. And ive learned a lot about the Agency Process which was new to me and that will get better all the time as well. But that is our role here at the statement department. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson speaking with cnns elise labbot. Does the secretary of state think hell be able to keep his job for the long haul . His answer to that question and whats next for north korea. Vo gopi has built her business with her own two hands. Each unique piece comes to life in the same way. A messy, sloppy, splattery way. But now shes found a way to keep her receipts tidy, even when nothing else is. Brand vo snap and sort your expenses with quickbooks and find, on average, 4,340 in tax savings. Smarter Business Tools for the worlds hardest workers. Quickbooks. Backing you. When it comes to travel, i sweat the details. Late checkout. Downalternative pillows. And of course, price. Tripadvisor helps you book a. Hotel without breaking a sweat. Because we now instantly. Search over 200 booking sites. To find you the lowest price. On the hotel you want. Dont sweat your booking. Tripadvisor. The latest reviews. The lowest prices. Hi, welcome back. Secretary Rex Tillerson insisting hes not going anywhere, despite rumors he may be on his way out at the u. S. State department. As long as he stays in that role, hell likely have north korea at the top of his agenda. South korea said it has given pyongyang a list of delegates who will participate in talks on tuesday. Could this pave the way for a future sitdown with the u. S. . The news last night about the north and south arranging talks for next week, north korea now coming to the table. Is that an opening maybe for talks with the u. S. Or Nuclear Talks . I think its too early to tell. We need to wait and see what the outcome of their talks are. The president had a President Trump had a good call with president moon yesterday morning, which i participated in. Their intent is to talk about the olympics, obviously a very important Upcoming Event for south korea and the potential participation of north korea in those events. So i think its a little early but it could be a positive sign that north korea wants to engage perhaps . Well see. Some are speculating this may be a first effort to open a channel. Weve had channels open to north korea for some time. So they do know how to reach us if and when theyre ready to engage with us as well. Well, maybe youll be next. Well see. If you could explain a little bit about what the u. S. Policy is on north korea because i think americans are a little bit confused. Do the North Koreans have to give up their Nuclear Programs before committing to talks . Our policy is the complete, verifiable, denuclearization. The chinese have that as a stated policy, russia has it as a stated policy. So regionally all of the countries in the neighboring area, as well as the International Community, are well aligned on the policy. How we achieve the ultimate end point, the final, full denuclearization, the verification of that and irreversibility of it, clearly thats going to take some time. So how we begin the talks is yet to be determined, but we clearly need a signal from north korea that they understand these talks must lead to that conclusion. The pathway of how you get there, that is the nature of a negotiation. There will be some give and take to achieve those objects. So that objective has never changed. Because you said its unrealistic for them to kind of sit down and say were ready to do it. It sounds like they have to show some willingness but then the mechanics of that are we have to have a shared view that that is the reason were talking, thats the purpose of these talks, that it is through those talks that north korea can actually chart the way for themselves with a more secure and prosperous future for their people as well. So there are very positive outcomes to these talks for north korea as there will be positive outcomes for the security of the entire region. That is the nature of the negotiations. A lot has been made about the president s tweet on the Nuclear Button. But now north korea is talking with south korea. Do you think that tough rhetoric has worked here . I think the rhetoric that north korea understands is while it is our objective, and the president has been very clear, to achieve a denuclearization through diplomatic efforts, those diplomatic efforts are backed by a Strong Military option if necessary. That is not the first choice and the president s been clear thats not his first choice, but it is important that North Koreans as well as other regional players understand how high the stakes are in an effort to ensure our diplomatic efforts are fully supported. I think to date the diplomatic efforts have been supported very well in the International Community if you look at the three u. N. Security Council Resolutions on sanctions, the participation in those sanctions and a number of countries going well beyond the security Council Resolutions and imposing utility lateral actions on their own, both economic as well diplomatic, i think it is a recognition that the president has demonstrated to the world how high the stakes are. Thats why we must achieve a diplomatic outcome. But the North Koreans have to understand that and they have to understand that the penalties to them will continue and will only grow more severe in terms of sanctions, actions and other actions until they do get on a pathway to achieve that objective that the entire world hopes to achieve. So it sounds like this kind of good cop bad cop, if you will, hold out the prospects of talk but if talks dont work, military action, that might be the formula that you and the president will continue. Im going to let you characterize it that way. Im not going to necessarily show all of our cards. All right, the secretary of state there, Rex Tillerson. Sow how reluctant or eager was the secretary to do this interview . Look, fred, i think that if you listen to the interview, the secretary was very reflective about the fact that he was not a creature of washington. This is a guy who came in from 40 years of working in texas, working in the oil industry, and didnt really kind of understand the mechanics of building a political coalition, learning how to communicate with people, learning how to work with this president. He went from, a ceo to essentially being a direct report to the secretary to the president of his own agency. And i think he realized at the end of the year and after all those criticisms that he needs to communicate better, he needs to engage more not just with the press but with other constituencies Like Congress and let the American People know what hes about. But i will say one thing about that interview, i think the secretary made clear that despite the rumors that he would be leaving, he doesnt plan to go anywhere. So i think he really laid down a marker to say im here, im not going anywhere, if you want me out, the president s going to need to actually fire me directly. And for the whole year . I asked him for the whole year. I could have asked him three years but he was talking about 2018 and his goals and i said are you going to be here for the whole year to reach those goals and he said, i plan on being here for the whole year. We heard from Rex Tillerson and in the last hour President Trump spoke at camp david about north korea and how he thinks his stance is affecting progress in the region. Take a listen. If i werent involved, they wouldnt be talking about olympics right now. Theyd be doing no talking or it would be much more serious. He knows im not messing around. Im not messing around, not even a little bit, not even 1 . At the same time, if we can come up with a very peaceful and very good solution, were working on it with rex, were working on it with a lot of people, if something can happen and something can come out of those talks, that would be a great thing for all of humanity. And when he was talking about he, he really was talking about the leadership in south korea and north korea. Does it april pepear as though secretary of state and the president are on the same page . I think theyre on the same page about a goal, which is some sort of peaceful talk that will lead to north korea giving up its nuclear program. I think the tactics are different. Does Rex Tillerson think every time the president tweets about the Nuclear Button that thats a great thing . I think he tries not to focus on the negative and in his eyes turn that tweet into something he can use. In the interview he was saying, listen, what the president s tweets are doing are letting everybody know about the stakes. When i asked whether that rhetoric was helping and that led to talks, i think he was trying to suggest that north korea did sense that it needed to do something and maybe that opening to south korea and maybe its trying to divide the u. S. And south korea, maybe its an opening to them to talk to the u. S. , we dont know, but i think he did give the president credit for kind of raising the stakes and letting everybody know that the u. S. Means business. Cnn Global Affairs correspondent elise lavitt, thanks for bringing us that interview. More right after this