more news right now. right now on andrea mitchell reports, defense secretary lloyd austin finally taking questions more than one month after hiding his diagnosis and surgery for prostate cancer from public and from the president. we did not handle this right. i did not handle this right. i should have told the president about my cancer diagnosis. i should have also told my team and the american public. i take full responsibility. i apologize to my teammates and to the american people. the u.s. navy intercepts a ballistic missile fired from inside yemen. american f-18s eliminate houthi drones poised to launch. the biden white house chooses targets to retaliate against iran-backed attacks. president biden heads to michigan today where he is facing growing opposition from the large arab american community over his support for israel. nikki haley gets a reality check from a pollinaing her in south carolina. good day, everyone. i m andrea mitchell in new york. as the p
so mark, what do you think? a real announcement tomorrow? we ll see, you know, i mean part of the problem is that the president has just driven himself into a rhetorical cul-de-sac. with the wall. when you really break it out and talk about the components of border security that both republicans and democrats are arguing about, they agree really on about 90% of what they re talking about. it s just that the actual notion of a wall, which is where everybody s getting stuck. ultimately, i think and you know, 60% of the country just doesn t like the idea of a wall period. so it s way beyond a majority, and yet, that s what donald trump is clinging to, and i think that s ultimately what he believes he has to have for his base in order to succeed with these negotiations, so that s the yin and the yang. nancy pelosi has said not one dollar for a wall so that s where the breakdown comes down. what the question will be whether or not donald trump can find some semantic way to get out of this
border. if we don t do that, we re a very very sad and foolish lot. mark mckinnon is here to discuss. so mark, what do you think? a real announcement tomorrow? we ll see, you know, i mean part of the problem is that the president has just driven himself into a rhetorical cul-de-sac. when you really break it out and talk about the components of border security that both republicans and democrats are arguing about, they agree really on about 90% of what they re talking about. it s just that the actual notion of a wall, which is where everybody s getting stuck. ultimately, i think and you know, 60% of the country just doesn t like the idea of a wall period. so it s way beyond a majority, and yet, that s what donald trump is clinging to, and i think that s ultimately what he believes he has to have for his base in order to succeed with these negotiations, so that s the the yin and the yang.
verify it, and that s just the ball game, and if kim, look, if kim is understanding that all this pressure is bringing bear to him because of this program that he s clinging to, perhaps that may be a reason for him to say, you know what? i may solidify myself and power if i can do this, but it s not going to be where we re giving them money and hoping that they follow through. that is totally off the table. mark: let me ask you about this, i m a little confused about something. on the one hand, china is stealing our technology to build up its economy, certainly the military. they have committed acts of cyber warfare against us, developing weapons that have as their purpose to attack us or neutralize our most sophisticated weapons. they ve been very aggressive geopolitically including in the south china sea and in the east china sea. in other ways very, very provocative, on the other hand, we rely on them to help us with
verify it, and that s just the ball game, and if kim, look, if kim is understanding that all this pressure is bringing bear to him because of this program that he s clinging to, perhaps that may be a reason for him to say, you know what? i may solidify myself and power if i can do this, but it s not going to be where we re giving them money and hoping that they follow through. that is totally off the table. mark: let me ask you about this, i m a little confused about something. on the one hand, china is stealing our technology to build up its economy, certainly the military. they have committed acts of cyber warfare against us, developing weapons that have as their purpose to attack us or neutralize our most sophisticated weapons. they ve been very aggressive geopolitically including in the south china sea and in the east china sea. in other ways very, very provocative, on the other hand, we rely on them to help us with north korea. in the end, who wins out here?