i understand those criticisms but i think the move to go to saudi arabia was absolutely the right one and the president, more frankly, did it the right way. he had the meeting privately, the criticism was done privately without first telegraphing it to the press that he would be bringing it up as firmly as he did or at least as it sounds like he did. and then, he pivoted he pivoted to issues of mutual us and saudi economic and national security matters. and i think on the fundamental question of human rights, it s really whether or not you are more likely to succeed by engaging folks or by being distant and criticising. i think the fact that there was an extension, for instance, on the ceasefire in yemen is an indication that by going, by engaging, the president made
he said it was a vital meeting but there will be no doubt people who see what has happened here and they question what kind of image that creates for the us on the world stage. earlier i spoke tojonathan panikoff, the director of the scowcroft middle east security initiative at the atlantic council s middle east programme, and asked him about the criticism biden faced on his visit. i understand those criticisms but i think the move to go to saudi arabia was absolutely the right one and the president, more frankly, did it the right way. he had the meeting privately. the criticism was done privately without first telegraphing it to the press that he would be bringing it up as firmly as he did or, at least, as it sounds like he did. and then, he pivoted he pivoted to issues of mutual us and saudi economic and national security matters. and i think on the fundamental question of human rights, it s really whether or not you re more likely to succeed by engaging folks or by being distant
before or were, as you just detailed, factual lin accurate, or were directly in contradiction to the positions of our closest allies. we cannot stand four more years of this. i can t think of a better argument for why joe biden is the best person to serve as our next president than the decades of senior foreign policy leadership experience he would bring to that stage and the very rapid restoration of our position in the world that he would make possible. as you know, front and center at these at this summit, the trade war, the growing u.s. trade war with china. trump has been engaged with a tit for tat with china over tariffs. we saw that play out on friday. today, he pivoted. he talked about a call which may or may not have happened. i want to play for you how he talked about china s president xi in that context. have a listen. i have great respect and i like him, too. he s a tough guy. but i have a lot of feeling for president xi. he s very outstanding in so many ways. i won
and he answered a question i didn t ask. then he offered. he pivoted, i guess, and said i have not didn t meet with any of the russians any russians during the campaign. a lot of people have thought that i was like playing dplee three dimensional chess and anticipating his pivot. he just answered a question i didn t ask. and maybe it was pivot away from not recusing himself. but he ended up recusing himself. now we have a special counsel who is going to be looking into this. and we will get to the bottom of this, i believe. i think bob mueller is the right guy to do it. we re going have to squeeze a break in here. when we come back, we re going to ask how that question that you asked and the answer senator sessions gave how that has led us to this special prosecutor. we ll be right back.
him. i had asked him if it turns out there were these contacts. what would you do, yes. and he answered a question i didn t ask. then he offered. he pivoted, i guess, and said i have not didn t meet with any of the russians any russians during the campaign. a lot of people have thought that i was like playing dplee three dimensional chess and anticipating his pivot. he just answered a question i didn t ask. and maybe it was pivot away from not recusing himself. but he ended up recusing himself. now we have a special counsel who is going to be looking into this. and we will get to the bottom of this, i believe. i think bob mueller is the right guy to do it. we re going have to squeeze a break in here. when we come back, we re going to ask how that question that you asked and the answer senator sessions gave how that has led