Forward deployed at alassad air base to train them and make sure they can take the fight to i. S. I. L themselves. This is their battle to win, not ours. Charlie Neil Patrick Harris and Denis Mcdonough when we continue. Funding for charlie rose is provided by the following. And by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and Information Services worldwide. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. Charlie Neil Patrick Harris is here and were happy about that. Hes having a really big year. He won the tony for his portrayal of a transgender rock star, finished nine season run as Barney Stinson on how i met your mother, stars in gone girl and was chosen as the host of the 2015 oscars. If that is not enough, we want you to know more. He has a book called Neil Patrick Harris choose your own autobiography. I am pleased to have himt the table for the first time. Welcome. Thank you, sir. Charlie i say its never too young to write your autobiography. Do you think . I had been asked a couple of years back to write a memoir. I think because i was a child actor that means you have something to say. I never thought i had much to say. I still feel like my life doesnt is boring. Charlie it doesnt have an ending. Ive lived a lot of chapters. Thats what i keyed p in on. I didnt have a b arc to tell but i had a lot of extraordinarily interesting things ive gotten to do, whether act as a kid or White Water Rafting in costa rica or, yeah, having kids through surrogacy or hosting tonys and what the opening number of that is like but theyre all disparate elements and i thought it would be fun to find a structure charlie people want to know what its like to be you. I think they want to know what were doing. Unfortunately, the world we live in with the media, you have to answer yourself in a ninesecond sound byte to make it clean for the next question. So im only getting to talk about nice things, weddings and things in a short span of time. In the book, it allows you to be me. Written second person. Charlie why did you do that . Do you know those choose your own adventure books . Charlie yes. That was what it was based on. It was less drama and more of a fun read and, through that, you can decide if youre wanting to read more about my childhood you can go to this page and if youre wanting to jump ahead you can see Barney Stinson. Charlie readers can choose where they want to go. Thats why you called it choose your own autobiography. Yes. Theres also drink recipes, davids secret pages. Charlie did david proofread it as soon as you wrote it . Yes, and a couple of pages, his annotated notes are handwritten in the book so you can see how he runs my life. Charlie is it easy to write a book about your life . Did you talk to a tape recorder, sit down at a computer . I had the great help of another writer who is super funny, wrote on the daily show. He was able to help fill the smallish stories i had with life and comedy. But it was hard to it has an interesting and fun sense of humor, i hope, and i think through the comedy you can come up with dramatic, interesting stories. I think the idea of coming out in the media or having children with a samesex couple and the minutia about that, if you told a book about that, it would get drool. But as comedy, it might have more impact. Charlie was this book a performance . A variety show. Charlie what did you like doing . The variety acts in a circus. The circus, smalltown new mexico. The circus would come to albuquerque at the state fair and we would go once a year and i would go straight to the midway and the carnies and the freaks and i wanted to see the twoheaded woman, and there was a guy named popeye that would pop his eyes out of their sockets and they would shake and go back in. Charlie we had the same thing in a small town in north carolina. It was politically incorrect to like that for ten or 15 years. Im still a fan of the juggling. I love the fact they can have that skill and then go about their lives. Charlie what attracted you, i can learn a skill i can take with me . With magic i was learning how it was done and appreciating secrets and trying to figure out with my left brain, right brain, how it could possibly be done and then appreciating with the other side of my brain that it still seems magical. Watching someone float on stage. Charlie levitating. Levitation. You know its not possible. David copperfield, a whole special where he levitated himself with people all around and going through hoops and you think how in the world is that possibly done and i like to know secrets of how things work. Charlie i assume there was nothing that you were not prepared to include as long as you thought it was interesting because it seems like it was easy for you to talk about coming out and no. Charlie no . I would say no. Those were the ones that were trickier because i didnt want to seem slaycious. Coming out involves attraction and stories of how i knew i was gay. I didnt want to go into too much detail. Charlie because . I want to be authentic in telling my story but i dont want to seem the reason im including these incidences charlie you never had a thought of not including it, did you . Yes, and theres stuff i didnt include. Charlie what . What kinds of stuff . Ive worked with a lot of interesting, eclectic people. So there were certainly people i worked with and had less than enjoyable experiences. Professionally. Sure. I have been doing this for more than 20 years. Charlie yeah. So i didnt want to just include all of the charlie you wanted to make sure you didnt hurt people . Thats not my sense of humor, to be honest. During how i met your mother, that was a conversation we actively had. There were a couple of episodes in a row where the jokes were, like, oh, youre so embarrassing that youre single and youre this. The audience would laugh. And then they would say, youre so fat, youre this. And it was below the belt. We said, thats not our style. We want to be smart funny, we dont just want to look at you and decide what i can attack. Charlie one of the characters was supposed to be more meanspirited than it came out and someone said you brought such a niceness to it that your core essence was there and that they modified the character. Thats good. I think i have that as a little trump card. Charlie that youre likable . I think people feel like they know me. Im accessible. They grew up watching me through the years and, so, i think that then if i get to play dark or if i get to have secrets or something, its a little more unexpected because, you know, youve seen me hosting a lot of shows where i essentially say, come on in, relax. Charlie whats the art of that, hosting the tonies . The tonys . Its like being p. T. Barnum. Charlie youre very good at that. I love respecting people and showing an audience specific people doing things. Ed sullivan and i would like to show people doing all these things, a guy on a tight rope, roller skaters on charlie you could have been ed sullivan. I would have loved to have been. Charlie how would you like to do a show every sunday like that at 8 00 . Im enamoured people have studied a singular thing and not a lot of people are good at it and they can show it off. The tonys are great because its live and massive performances but performances that have been done night after night so youre assured of quality level thats hard to achieve on the other award shows because those are oneoffs. Those are writing an original song, getting choreographers, getting people to perform with you and crossing your fingers that the one time you do it in front of millions of people it goes well. The tonys is, and now this amazing number from this show. Theyre so happy to perform, then you kill it, they do a comedy bit, everyones so happy to be on stage and then another. Its a fun show. Charlie were the oscars electing you a surprise . It was a surprise to me. Charlie totally . Totally. Charlie did someone call you up and say we want you to host the oscars or would you be interested in this . I got a call saying the producers would like to sit down and meet with me to talk about it which i assumed meant i was a choice. Charlie did you have that conversation . Yeah, we went and sat. I didnt want to say yes because i had a lot of questions to them. Charlie as to whether . As to how creatively it worked. You dont want to sign on for something and be told exactly what to do and you feel like charlie its not me. Yeah, right . I want to be able to show its me and thats what im doing. So i assumed that with the academy and a show of that scale, there would be a lot more hurdles and a lot more people saying, no, you cant do that. Charlie im not surprised of the selection at all, but in reading about you, several people call you Johnny Carsonesque, you know . That was something Johnny Carson did really well, hosting the oscars. Yeah. I loved carson. I got to be on his show. Im a massive fan so i took that as a compliment. Charlie it was about style and elegance and a sense of being able to make it easy that he had and you have. I feel that charlie its working. Thanks. I feel its its own unique skill and ive gotten to do it a fair amount, but i also feel like i dont have a great amount to prove in that world. Like, i want it to go well for the show. Like, im not trying to land a Development Deal by killing it at the oscars. You know what i mean . Im not saying im not looking for work, im just saying i dont have an internal agenda for that. I really, truly want that night to go incredibly well for the people that are winning, who dont win, for the people watching at home. I want it to seem like were honoring movies, that you can sit back and enjoy it and not be nervous something is about to go wrong. Charlie and the audience wants to see you having a good time. Totally. Charlie looking like hes loving this. Not only me but all the presenters. Charlie yeah. And people coming up and accepting their award. You never want to see somebody shaking and getting the paper in their hand. Charlie a clip from this years tony awards. Here he is performing a number. Song song singing laughter hey, when you got the heels on and the microphone, you do what you gotta do a girls gotta make a living, you know . Charlie now, how long did it take you to make that work . A little while. I had never done drag or put on a wig or done the heels ever. Charlie yeah. Frankly, i had a strange aversion to it. I dont know why, i thought it would emasculate me in some random way. Just speaking personally. One of the reasons i took it on was kind of a challenge to see how much i could own that feminine side of myself. So it took a month or two of just walking in a circle in heels and figuring out how your hips move different. Guys walk straight, girls walk curvy. Charlie did you have help deciding that or find that on your own . Much, much help. The director michael mayer, choreographer spencer lift, the wardrobe, it was a real collaboration. Charlie might we see Something Like that at the beginning of the oscars . laughter well, i had lost 21 pounds to do the gig, so i looked super i emacated. No, you have to be more polished to do that for the audience. Charlie are you happiest on stage . Probably. Theres something pure about the stage experience. I think the redundancy of it gets to be tiring because when it goes really great for 20 performances and then on a matinee theyre less interested, its hard to get out of your own head and think, is it them, me, did i lose it . Charlie is it different every night or just occasionally its different. Its always different every night. Charlie the audience is always different, but you cant lock it and you cant do something wildly different just because, so you have to be in the same world every show, but you have to be able to listen to the other person, to the audience and sort of augment based on whats happening in that performance. I think starting from a, ending at zed, and having the audience applaud for it is a great completion. When youre making a movie or tv show or even hosting, its part and par sell. You do a scene here and there and they edit it later and you get to watch it later and see how it came across at the end, but when youre on stage, youre really performing it all the way through and then seeing how it went. Thats fun. Charlie take a look at this. An opening number of the tony awards as well with. The biggest opening number the tonys have ever done. Here it is. singing 150 of those. Can i have my close up, please . laughter on broadway, we dont need extreme closeups to prove were singing live. cheers and applause we sing live eight shows a week. Check it at the end of the day we are gathered together to honor the best and the brightest. singing captioning sponsored by charlie that, my friend, is talent laughter i still get goosebumps watching that i have to catch my breath watching it. Charlie number one, how fast hes speaking and how exhausted you would be afterwards. Third, how did you have the breath control to do all of that because youre singing at the same time at a rapid rate . And that was threequarters of the way through the number when you started watching it. Breath control is difficult. We had the lyrics written. Charlie is it difficult to breathe . It is. The audience laughed longer than i thought and i got one more extra breath in, but i was hoping i didnt screw up the teleprompter read. Those words were scrolling so fast on a tv screen i was looking right in the middle of. Charlie someone described it as a flip of a girl. He describes himself as a flip of a girl. Its this wonderful punk rock monologueish musical that john and stephen wrote about an east german woman trying to get out of east germany when the wall was up, met a guy, he was a boy at that time, fell in love, and the only way he could escape was to marry this guy who was an american and the only way through that to prove that they were husband and wife was to have a sex change operation, and it was botched, and it left him with an angry inch. Then he got to america and things went kind of sour, they got a divorce and she sort of left following this guy that shes obsessed with whos a rock star and she sort of sings her story and monologues her story about trying to figure out what oneness is, what makes what defines completion. And shes seeking her other half, and shes caught in this loop. Shes caught in this track like a broken record that if shes only with this other person whos successful, if theyre only together and if he only loved her, they would be complete. So she follows that, even though its not meant to be. And through the story and things that happened, she realizes that you need oneness. You cant be everyones fractured and broken and no ones completely whole, but when youre okay with that, then you are complete in who you are. Charlie he said it was more than learning and blocking a memory. It was like a total absorption. It had to be in every way. Ive never done anything like it. I doubt ill do anything like it again. It was 45 minutes of makeup to transform me into a different gender. All the way through talking, bra, everything. I was a woman, essentially. Then i had to have a german accent. I had to sing in a rock style that was unfamiliar to me. And i had to do a show with a a lot of variables. I would talk to the audience. People would talk to me, talk back, people i would reference, fondle. You couldnt just go into auto pilot because every night was different. Sometimes people were not liking it and you tried to win them over. Charlie how do you win them over . Its a good question. It depended. Normally i would try tricks i know well, like smiling at the end of a line to let them know its okay or pausing a little bit longer so the audience thinks somethings wrong so when i say my line i can kind of win them back. But with head dig, shes supposed to be a superstar. I had to do improv knowing it wasnt working because i thought the character needed to be in a place of failure so i ended up feeling egg on my face sometimes and i had to control myself to not try and fight my way out of it but to stay in this place when its not going well. Thats actually good for the show and the part so that was fun to do. Charlie despite all the things youve done whether the tonys or television you did before, do most people their first instinct is to say barney . I think most still say doodie. Charlie do they . Which is remarkable because it hasnt been on for so long. Charlie when . It was only on four years, ending in 94. Charlie youre doing okay. Yeah, in the building checking in, getting my name tag downstairs. The woman said, Doogie Hauser i said, im 41 but ill take it. I was very proud of that show. Nice to have multiple chapters in a book to refer to. Charlie exactly what youve done here. Yeah. Charlie tell me about barney. Who is barney . Barney stinson was sort of the fifth wheel, best friend, constantly single bachelor bro of ted, the antagonist of how i met your mother. He exemple side why you shouldnt be with anyone when the show first started. It was, like, ted, what are you doing . You dont want to get married or date anybody. Look at all the chicks lets bang them all he was an ad adventurous cad. Charlie this is when barney answered to a high council of players after he picks up a girl from the east side. Gentlemen, your attendance here, im sad to say that council has a barney that picked up a girl outside his territory. The east side is tuxedo charlies turf. Hes mad. True story. The agreement of 2004 defined fifth avenue to be our Hunting Ground dividing line. Your west side College Girls are not the slip i park my boat in. Now, you should know my east side debutantes are quite foreboden members of the council, bros, nobody wants a war of course, ive not forgotten the agreement of 2004. A bonehead move. A defendant im not able to. Have i not been a bro to each bro at this table . My friend from brooklyn pickle jar bob will give validation. Remember the tourist looking for penn station . She came in from boston, had a wicked look good in bed look and i gave her directions and she ended up in red hook. You told her you wouldnt cheat her in your quest to lie upon her. Impersonating yankees have you no honor lets not blow this detente to smithereens. On my subway ride from 61 and woodside i came up with a plan to keep you on each others good side. Barney, youre long eastern. You must grant them a west side hottie of their choosing. Thats the settlement . Cmon, thats not a settlement. What say you . I want robin. Lily. Charlie youve got to love that laughter that was an episode, they wanted to do it all as a nursery rhyme so the entire episode was written in rhyme, marshal telling a story to his son and i got to play five people at the same time. Charlie how do you get better . Just by doing it . I think by trying new things. Charlie gone girl, that stretching, that was a serious part. A serious part, and im all kinds of reasons why he shouldnt have cast me and for some reason charlie he did. David did, yeah. I was currently on a tv show, i im host more than a personality sometimes, im also openly gay and hes asking me in a serious movie to play the Love Interest of a lead woman and i was glad to have the opportunity and uniquely able to do that and im glad he wanted me to try and present myself that way. I love doing it. Charlie did he say why he wanted you . I think he said what you mentioned earlier is there was an accessibility to me so that in this particular role he didnt come across super antagonistically as just a bad guy but that for some reason you felt comfortable with me taking amy into this world that is actually kind of a jail cell and that im not just charlie all right, roll tape. A scene from gone girl. I know you. I saw you at the volunteer center. I wanted to help. Well, i hope you dont mind me coming by. I got your address from this letter that you wrote my wife. Amy and i believed in the lost art of letter writing. I always wondered why you kept in touch after everything. You were together for two years in boarding school, right . She was my first serious girlfriend. Why did you break up . Thats a strange question. Did you treat her bad . Did you cheat on her . Thats a rude question. Let me tell you what aimia told me. She dumped you, you came unraveled. You stalked her, attempted suicide in her bed and you were institutionalized. Your wife is missing and you came to tell me this . I thought there might be another side to this story. Mr. Collins. Charlie all right i was so still. It was so weird to watch that after having watching the tony award number where im so, like, firing on all cylinders. Charlie nice dialogue, too, though, isnt it . Well, ben afflecks great. I just wanted to service the material as best as i could. To be super honest. I was so appreciative i got to meet david, the director, and when i got cast in the movie, i got to spend time with all of them and i wanted to make sure i wasnt the weak link in the chain. Charlie do you have any idea where you will be five years from now . Our kids will be nine. Charlie you will be living in harlem in a townhouse to be completed by then. Heres hoping. Charlie yeah. Five years from now charlie i mean, will you have become a movie star and do other things . I dont know. Charlie have you done your last Television Series . Oh, i dont want to declare. I would say charlie and youre doing going through a thing where youre deciding what you might say and what are the repercussions . Im actually trying to weigh out if i said i wanted to be a movie star what that would mean and if i wanted to do a tv show what that would be in five years. Im frankly super appreciativity and loving that im getting to do little dabbles of it all. I dont know that the movie star life is in line with having a family and two kids right now because you end up being uprooted and having to go to prague for four months. I dont know id really want the to do that and not have time with my kids during these years in their lives. But i could see providing entertainment for people in a consistent level. So i dont know if that means im playing myself or a different part, but im loving new york. A Perfect World in five years, im ed sullivan. Charlie i thought you would say that. And once a week i get to show everyone amazing performances on broadway, amazing magicians, great restaurant that we went to to be a bit of a tastemaker where i get to p. T. Barnum. Charlie they never tried it themselves and maybe the landscape is so changed all the wise people who command television know why it hasnt been tried because they think whatever is offered is offered in so many different ways it no longer has its magic. Ill tell you why i think its different. Charlie okay. There is way more channel and the Attention Span of people is very small. When you used to watch ed sullivan or any of the morning variety shows, the magician could do eight minutes. He would come out in tails, make his cane vanish, do some cards. Hed produce a dove. People will change the channel now. You have to do a show now where its their best two and a half minutes next. So instead of six acts, you have 26 acts. Like americas got talent. Thats why its so successful. You want to meet the person, see their best thing. Talk about it and move on. Thats the difference. Charlie the name of television, move on. Move on at m. P. H. Kind of bad. Charlie it was so great because there was not much on so you knew the first time you saw elvis was on ed sullivan. He was the point man of television. That would be great. Unfortunately, we live in a world of youtube where you click play and see a guy get kicked in the nuts and move on to the next video. You dont need to see the buildup, you just want to see that. Charlie we want to get to the end, dont we . You want to see the 20 greatest plays, bang, bang, bang, bang, you dont want to watch the whole game. Charlie the ten best highlights of sunday night. Here he, is folks. Although still watch a lot of football. The future of variety would have to be akin to that. I dont think you can spend a lot of time doing you cant juggle three anymore. You have to juggle seven. Charlie choose your own autobiography, Neil Patrick Harris. Congratulations observ on this d everything and thank you for taking this time with us. Pli measure. Charlie Neil Patrick Harris back in a moment. Stay with us. Albert this is al hunt and were going to by white house chief of staff Denis Mcdonough. Thanks for being with us. A pleasure being with you. Albert meeting luncheon today at the white house with congressional leaders. Yeah. Albert give a sense of the move and con dent. Reassuring to see after a hard fight all the leaders get together. Obviously, people are tired after a Long Campaign season. But i think as you would expect it was a good candid conversation. Theres a good amount of debate covering a whole range of issues from many of the things youve already seen reported ebola and the request for additional assistance on that, ongoing efforts, obviously, both overseas and here at home, our ongoing effort against i. S. I. L, but then also a focus on things that we can get done right here and now in the lame duck session to include questions about immigration as you would rightly expect. Albert take up some of these. I was told by people there the conversations about ebola and i. S. I. L was constructive. Yes. Albert people felt there was a certain agreement on a lot of it. Fair to say . I think its very substantive. I think there was obviously an agreement about the enormity of threat in the case of i. S. I. L and the enormity of challenges in the case of ebola. There was no kind of specific, you know, ask for anything specific out of the meeting. Obviously, well need help on funding not only for ebola but also now for this enhanced training and advise and equip effort with the iraqis. It looked to me the body language out of the room is those things were received pretty positively but i dont want to jump to conclusions. Albert the same participants on immigration, was pretty contentious. Yes. Albert boehner said no executive action and the president shot back and said, im the president. I wont characterize what anybody else said in there because i have a hardandfast rule which is i would be happy to tell you what the president thinks and what he said. The president said, look, we have been looking at this question of Immigration Reform for some sometime. There is uniform understanding the system is broken. In the bush and late days of the clinton administration, the steps required to fix the immigration system are quite clear. In fact, that recipe has been set now for more than a decade. The question in the president s mind is whats stopping us from getting it done . What he thinks is he ought to go ahead and take executive action if congress cant get something done safe toly and that should serve as a catalyst to get congress to take this seriously and get it done. If Congress Passes law, that obviously will supersede any executive action that the president takes. Albert but mcconnell and boehner and other republicans say it will do just the opposite. They claim it will poison the well and ensure nothing will happen on immigration. That would be a shame. 1987 when president reagan paroled over 200,000 nicaraguans to stay in the country because of the ongoing strife in nicaragua, obviously everybody uniformly supported that. Not only that, democrats who controlled the congress at that time, they didnt walk from cooperation with president reagan. In fact, they worked with the Reagan Administration on any number of other things. As the president said in his press conference the other day, there are going to be things on which we agree and we should get to work and get those done. There will be things on which we disagree. We should debate them and hammer them out and see if we can come to common ground. Albert no question hell do an executive action before christmas . He said well get it done before the end of the year. Albert did any other issues come up or any discussion about whether there may be areas of possible exxon ground, Corporate Tax refarm or trade . Those are two examples of things that the president has said we ought to be able to Work Together on and he obviously leaves tomorrow night for his trip to asian where were working on the transpacific partnership. Its an opportunity for us to not only open new markets but create better important, better paying jobs here at home in the manufacture and export industries. Thats one they can they talked about and should continue to work on. Iran was an issue that came up and obviously well Work Together on that. As i said already, iraq. But there is frankly not as much focus on the next congress as this congress and the things that need to get done now. The other thing i put on that list is getting the continuing resolution that expires in early december, getting that renewed so we can fund the government the rest of the year. Albert lets take that up, first, the lame duck. What do you think realistically can be achieved in the lame duck . Probably not immigration as you said a moment ago, you wanted to continue a resolution. What else . We would like to get the ebola money so we can make sure were getting hospitals in cities across the country prepared to handle it effectively as new york did. I think they did a very nice job with the case of dr. Spencer and theyre continuing to work that. Thats a good example, in my view. Another thing we think we should get progress on is this question of a new authorization for the use of military force in iraq. The president said lets get progress on that, the speaker indicated today that we wont necessarily get that done this year but we take that up next year. But theyll get started on the debate this year which i think is important. And then we obviously have a bunch of nominations that are pending up in the senate right now and we would sure like to see those get done. Were running the government day in and day out. We have over 220 nominees who are stalled up there. These are many cases, for example, career ambassadors, Foreign Service officers who have dedicated their lives to the country. They should be confirmed and we hope they will. Albert there are reports you selected a new brooklyn prosecutor of being attorney general. Any chance of getting that act in on the lame duck . I dont have any personal news for you. Albert you know, after electoral rejections which i think you acknowledge the democrats suffered this time, the white house often made dramatic personnel changes. George bush fired donald rumsfeld. Bill clinton and Ronald Reagan appointed new chiefs of staff. Trying to tell me something . Albert no, sir, im not. laughter will there be any shakeup . I dont know about shakeup. Obviously, we all serve at the pleasure. As the president himself said were honored t to be able to report to duty there every day. So i dont want to speak on announcements one way or the other. The president s view and how i try to operationalize the view, the way i see the white house is you have no general manager for a professional Football Team in this country that would say lets just keep somebody in here for two years and then well refresh. Our theory is we have to be refreshing, bringing in new blood, new talent, new ideas every day. When we find it, well bring it in. Thats why, as soon as i got this job, i started to recruit john pedesta. Hes been a great help to us. Bob mcdonald veterans administration, in the last few months. Julio castro at housing urban development. Megan smith, Senior Technology guru from google. Well keep adding people, ron claim and john allen on i. S. I. L. Albert so any sense, okay, we had an election, heard from the voters and we have to make bigger changes now . Well, if the bigger changes now are, you know, us, as you say, firing somebody, i dont see anything like that on the horizon. Albert whos going to be the main contact, the chief contact in this different environment with leader mcconnell . Will it be Vice President biden . Denis mcdonough . Who will it be . I think the president will be working closely with the leader and you heard what he said in the press conference about their interactions over the course of time. They had good interaction today before lunch and will continue to build that. The leader has been gracious to me over the course of my time in this job and obviously developed a good working relationship with the Vice President but the chief contact being the president , obviously. Albert will the Vice President be give an role with the changing of the senate. He has long, enduring relationships up there. Hes a huge asset and theyre working that out now. Albert take to it mean hell play a more active role . I think the Vice President is a huge asset for us. laughter albert let me ask you about the announcement you made today about doubling the forces in iraq and giving them more latitude to go beyond baghdad and asking for, i guess, 5. 5 billion more. Its not huge numbers, but if this is a long slog, some critics will say this is just mission creek, the beginning, you will have to see this again. Ive heard the critics, already. We wanted to go with a number that would be big enough to be transparent though we may not use the numbers out of the block. We want to be transparent with america in the training and assist efforts. We are trying to spread this out geographically to ensure iraq where military unions, i. S. F. , iraqy security forces, who are spread out kind of west and north of baghdad and even a little northeast of baghdad have the ability to draw on experienced u. S. Trainers as they train up for the fight against i. S. I. L. Same mission, just more of our guys doing it in a wider array of places. We dont see this being something that were going to have to expand again in the near termch thats why i wanted to go with a big enough number to give us an opportunity to show america we know what were doing and have the headroom to do it. Albert do you think the forces will fight in combat . No. Theyll defend themselves if they need to. The president made clear that our guys will have the wherewithal to protect themselves, point one. Point two, we know that to win this thing, our effort to degrade and ultimately destroy i. S. I. L, the Iraqi Security forces have to be the boots on the ground to take the fight to i. S. I. L. Our guys will make sure theyre Forward Deployed at places like alassad air base to make sure they can train them, they can sure theyre ready and where the wherewithal to take the fight to i. S. I. L themselves. This is their battle to win, not ours. Albert how is i. S. I. L versus three months ago . A good story in the New York Times yesterday. I think they are frustrated. Theyve had to change their tactics and practices and, as a result, we have been able to slow their momentum. This effort now to train more i. S. F. Further out in the field will be our effort now then to allow the iraqis to not only have stopped them but to push them back. Albert we slowed their momentum. Do we have them on the run yet . I wouldnt use that phrase, but its not necessarily in minnesota, we dont use that phrase. Heres what i do know that were doing, were getting within their cycle of making decisions, were limiting their freedom of action, we have an Iraqi Government that is now representative of all the factions in iraq which should then make the i. S. F. That much more capable. So as i. S. I. L has their morale degraded, has their freedom of movement limited, we should see the i. S. F. Getting more capable and be able to push them back. Albert you said iran came up at the luncheon today. Yes. Albert tell us what was said. There are a lot of quesons approaching the end of the interim agreement on the 24t 24th of this month. A lot of questions in congress as there are across the country about whats going to happen next, is there or not going to be a deal and whats the role of congress if there is or isnt a deal. The president was candid with his colleagues from congress saying in all cases well be consulting with congress about next steps. Obviously, you know, weve made clear to the we and our International Partners including the russians and chinese who have stuck close with us have made clear to the iranians what we expect them to do, to be able to rejoin the community of nations. Its not clear yet theyre ready to take those steps. Its going to be hard for the iranians. If they do, well obviously work closely with congress and if they dont, well work closely with congress as well. Albert your friend john mccain and Lindsey Graham blasted the president for a private letter to the Supreme Leader in iran saying that you shouldnt be dealing with him, its a terrorist regime and it will hurt our alliances with other arab states. Yeah. Well, look, the coalition weve dealt with, the other arab states against i. S. I. L is very strong. Over 60 nations. Were taking the effort squarely to i. S. I. L in the ways that weve talked. Im not going to get into any questions of correspondence albert you saw what they said about that. I did and i admire them and listen to them privately and watch what they say publicly as well. They have hard earned and hardlearned feelings about that. Albert did they talk about this to you, also . I havent talked to them in the last little bit but i know how they feel about the iranians. I will say this, that we have tried to communicate to the iranians over the course of the last several years, and the kind of things that we want to make sure to the iranians are that they ought not misunderstand our clarity of purpose when we have guys in the region. We want to make sure that they dont think that they can get away with, you know, trying to threaten our people. We also make clear that what we expect of them in Something Like the nuclear deal. So, again, im not going to get into whether or not there is any correspondence here. Frankly, we dont have much to coordinate with these guys anyway, but if we have to pass a message to them, were very, very clear about our interests. Albert well, theres only two and a half weeks before the november 24th deadline. Yes. Albert that seems it would be difficult to make that deadline. I mean, please correct me if im wrong. Do you think you are at least close enough so that that could be reasonably extend ford a while . Extended for a while . Well, i think a deadline has a way of focusing ones mind and i hope thats what this deadline serves to do. Do. What the president said publicly is weve made Good Progress and the iranians have lived up to their end of the bargain so far, in this interim period where weve basically seen their program frozen and, in many key respects pushed backwards which is undoubtedly in our interest. Albert they havent cheated . We have no evidence they have cheated and none of our friends believe theyve cheated either. Thats important. Thats observation one. Observation two is were still pretty far apart on some key questions. So youre right, two and a half weeks is not that long. But we know whats important in this effort and in the president s determination the ensure that iran does not develop nuclear weapons, and well make sure that we stay true to that. Albert are you optimistic that you will get will . Not going to be optimistic or pessimistic. Im very realistic about this and we just want to see on the dotted line whether they do the right thing. Albert you mentioned the role that Congress Might play earlier. If we get a deal and we know thats a huge deal right now, were not making predictions yeah. Albert if you get a keel, could, would the president suspend sanctions against the iranians for a limited period, a year, what have you, do that himself, see if they abide by it and then take it to congress for a permanent change . Obviously, in the event of a deal, how the sanctions would then be taken off would be a key part of any deal. Lets remember that we have both a multilateral sanctions that would require multilateral efforts up in new york at the united nations, and we have our bilateral sanctions which we have worked with congress over the course of time and those were ultimately going to need congress to help us, if we got in a position where the iranians are doing the right thing, we would need congress to help us take those office. Well have to work closely and congress will have to be a full partner. Albert you could do some initially and later have congress i want to avoid leaving you with any impression we know precisely what steps will be taken first and whats second because this will be the subject of the ongoing negotiations. Any deal is going to have to be verifiable and sanctions relief is going to occur when we verifiably see the iranians living up to the deal, so im not getting ahead of that now. Albert denis, let me turn to the domestic economy. Good news today. Very good. Albert jobs added last month, Unemployment Rate dropped again. 40 below last year. Yet election day, 70 of americans had a negative view of where the economy is. Is that, in part, a failure of the white house . That perception versus reality gap . Nine months of more than 200,000 jobs a month. Weve got kind of the starkist job growth since the 90s. Obviously, the Unemployment Rate is solid. Albert why do people well, people still feel very anxious about their own prospects, having come through a very deep recession, the deepest recession since the great depression, people are just now clawing back because of their hard work and because of some of the good decisions weve made. Thats number one. The depth of the recession have impacted peoples views going forward. This economy for some decades have been stuck on low wages. Thats something well have to address by really getting the job training, apprenticeships trade deals like the one you and i were talking about before so that we have good Strong Manufacturing export led growth. Albert thank you Denis Mcdonough and thank you for joining us. Charlie for more about this program and earlier episodes, visit us online at pbs. Org and charlierose. Com. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org a kqed television production. Its sort of like old fishermans wharf. It reminds me of old san francisco. And youd be a little bit like jean valjean, with the teeth, whatever. And worth the calories, the cholesterol, and the heart attack you might have. Its like an adventure, you know . You gotta put on your miners helmet. It reminds me of oatmeal with a touch of wet dog. I did. Inhaled it. P