service and we ll be naming secretary of the army mark esper to be new acting secretary of defense. i know mark and i have no doubt he will do a fantastic job. we heard a week ago when the president was overseas he had been floating different names. is it that or really the road block pat shanahan has come up against in the confirmation process? reporter: i think there are some road blocks, steph, and of course nbc news first reported last week that the president seemed to be having second thoughts about officially nominating patrick shanahan because the white house had yet to submit his nomination to the senate. so we asked, in fact, i asked the president, himself, if he was having any hesitations. he said, no. it has to go through the normal process. that was last week. this is today. we know that there were some concerns about his security clearance, that that was one of the things that was holding this
intelligence and national security reporter. gentlemen, thank you for being here for a very busy friday. ken, i want to start with you, because this bombshell report in the new york times billion on a report that you and our colleagues here at nbc news first had that there were serious concerns about how jared kushner s security clearance was handled. so what we reported was that two career security specialists in the white house take a look at his applications, looked at the foreign influence concerns, and said no, he shouldn t get one, but were overruled by a person in the white house who was acting on the orders of the president. the president has full authority to do that, he can grant access to whoever he wants. the question is why did he choose to lie about this, if this reporting is correct, and why did his reporter, if the post s reporting is correct, why did she say there was no special treatment? on that point, this is what the president told the new york times seve
last year that nbc news first reported tillerson called the president a moron, something tillerson refused to confirm at the time. with us tonight, our own andrea mitchell, nbc news chief foreign correspondent and we have prevailed upon the chief white house correspondent for the new york times, peter baker, to hang out for a little longer. andrea, you had a front row seat on the tillerson era at the state department. what did you make of this conversation with our mutual friend mr. schieffer? well, trust bob schieffer to be able to get that out of rex tillerson. that was the most honest, direct statement i d ever heard from rex tillerson. he never fully denied the moron question when we reported it, as you recall, and when we asked him, he said, you know, i never discuss what i say about the president. he never flatly denied it. he didn t lie about it. we all knew he felt it. but for him to say he didn t
coming from the disciplined, highly process-oriented exxonmobil corporation to go to work for a man who is pretty undisciplined, doesn t like to read, doesn t read briefing reports, doesn t like to get into the details of a lot of things but rather just kind of says, look this is what i believe. and you can try to convince me otherwise but most of the time you re not going to do that. the response, as predictable as a beautiful sunset in texas hill country, came from donald trump this afternoon and we quote. rex tillerson didn t have the mental capacity needed. he was dumb as a rock and i couldn t get rid of him fast enough. he was lazy as hell. it was right around this time last year that nbc news first reported tillerson called the president a moron, something tillerson refused to confirm at the time. with us tonight, our own andrea mitchell, nbc news chief foreign affairs correspondent and, of
enough. he was lazy as hell. it was right around this time last year that nbc news first reported tillerson called the president a moron, something tillerson refused to confirm at the time. with us tonight, our own andrea mitchell, nbc news chief foreign correspondent and we have prevailed upon the chief white house correspondent for the new york times, peter baker, to hang out for a little longer. andrea, you had a front row seat on the tillerson era at the state department. what did you make of this conversation with our mutual friend mr. schieffer? well, trust bob schieffer to be able to get that out of rex tillerson. that was the most honest, direct statement i d ever heard from rex tillerson. he never fully denied the moron question when we reported it, as you recall, and when we asked him, he said, you know, i never discuss what i say about the president. he never flatly denied it.