sort of constant chaos, the churn and all of that, what toll does that take on the folks who are supposed to make that place, make the administration and in some ways make the country run? well, it s remarkable when you have conversations with people and they re candid and honest, they can t believe they re getting as much done as they are despite themselves. you go into these meetings, and everyone is expecting everything to leak. there is an incident not long ago where the meeting began, i know this is going to leak. like there is just absolutely no loyalty inside among senior white house staff. they re constantly at war with each other. but it s to an end because they think and perhaps they re right on this that if their views are articulated in some of the places mr. trump reads or watches, they can win the argument there even if they can t win it in the meeting. so they re relitigating or pre-litigating a lot of these policy discussions in
of international diplomacy, the concern is raised about does the president want it too much in a way that might affect the deal in a negative way, that might cloud judgment. when reagan was president, i remember some hard-liners in his party were saying, you know, don t be too desperate to make a deal with the soviets. the republicans against obama a few years ago with the iran deal says he was too eager to do that. how does that enter into it, trump s desire, his strong desire to be seen as succeeding where his predecessors failed? well, i think that s the overwhelming conclusion just from the last 24 hours of head-spinning, on again, off again romance. the white house was very eager to let us know yesterday that that very strangely and very undiplomatically letter to kim had been dictated personally by president trump himself. and so then to turn around on a dime not because of any policy change on the part of the north koreans, i think it s important to emphasize that, but simply
but it s to an end because they think and perhaps they re right on this that if their views are articulated in some of the places mr. trump reads or watches, they can win the argument there even if they can t win it in the meeting. so they re relitigating or pre-litigating a lot of these policy discussions in conservative media, on twitter, in the new york times, on shows like this, trying to have an upper hand over their colleagues. none of this is happening at the deputies level. none of it is happening at the principals level. cabinet secretaries are finding these decisions are being made based on re-tweets, likes, and what the conservative echo chamber is creating for the president. so, nancy, in terms of the president himself, is this something where he sees all of this chaos, the leaking and just the swirl around his administration, and he sees an advantage strategically in that, and he actively promotes it, cultivates it, or is it a
question of whether the fbi followed procedure seems almost secondary. but actually it is important. i think we shouldn t minimize what happened here. the fbi ran at least one informant at three americans who worked on a presidential campaign. that is a big deal, and it properly should be scrutinized. republicans should be asking how that happened, who approved it, on what basis. but, you know, knowing the way the fbi operates and knowing the sensitivity of investigating the presidential campaign, you ve got to believe that decision was approved potentially at the highest levels, even by the attorney general of the united states, that they dotted every i, crossed every t, followed every procedure. if they didn t, they should be held accountable for, that but there were very good reasons that they sent this informant to talk to these people, principally because two of them had already been established as suspected foreign agents with contacts with russians. so this was a very serious in
brand to show that he is able to step in to unpredictable situations, uncontrolled situations, and he alone can fix it, to borrow a phrase from the cleveland convention. and i guess if there s a third and fourth wave, there could probably be a fifth and sixth wave behind that and on and on it goes. phil elliott, nancy cook, thank you both pour joining us on this friday night. coming up, the allegations against him helped spark the me too movement. tonight his accusers react to seeing former hollywood mogul harvey weinstein in handcuffs when the 11th hour continues. my gums are irritated. i don t have to worry about that, do i? actually, you do. harmful bacteria lurk just below the gum line, and if you re not taking care of your gums, you re not taking care of your mouth. so now i use this. crest gum detoxify. introducing new crest gum detoxify. it works below the gum line and is clinically proven to neutralize harmful plaque bacteria and help reverse early gum damage. new gum d