mccarthy a lawyer and who tutored trump in the art of changing the story, going for the headline, fighting wars in the tabloids. the other is rupert murdoch, who helped create that culture in the modern era in new york. and i think that essentially what we re seeing and rick has been in this position when he s served the country there is this, to use an old watergate phrase, there is an enormous credibility gap. and just one parenthetical. president trump has explained why he did it, but will that be the explanation tomorrow? right. and, rick, the reason why it s important to believe that podium and the person standing behind it is tomorrow s briefing, god forbid, may be about a u.s. military action we have taken overnight, overseas. and we may have to detail the satellite evidence that led us to make that decision. it has to be believable just as every word from that podium has to be believable. yes. but i would say that with all
change you re talking about with nato, what should we make of those kinds of shifts? and again, are there any policy areas that are nonnegotiable that are off limits? there s always going to be i think that there s there s going to be areas where i think, again, it depends on the outcome. in the case of nato in particular as i pointed out, it s the most illustrative. i think you look at the president s position, where he wanted to see nato in particular evolve to, it s moving in the direction he said it was, increasing the goal of amounts from member countries, having a greater focus on terrorism. with us now washington post national political reporter robert costa. we welcome to the broadcast tonight catherine lucy white house reporter for the associated press. with us in the studio, public diplomacy and affairs at the state department, rick stangel also former editor of time magazine. robert, i have to ask you how this new to the job and learning
really take breaks. he s always on twitter for one. so, we never really know what to expect from him or when. and i think to the broader point about the influences and who he s talking to and his positions, he s someone who has made very clear that he s flexible and he s always been that way. and i think we re going to continue to see him evolve. and what s happened this week, we should not take that to be the last word. and i think we re going to continue to see evolution here. rick stangel, an honest straight-up question. he is a novice at politics. he is a novice at all things military. he does not have a basis in history. what s wrong with any or all of that? there is nothing wrong with that, brian. i mean, he, he everyone says the job is suigeneris. everyone has to learn it on the job. he happens to be coming from much further back than anybody
in libya and then it just spirals out of control and the aftermath can be far worse than what we originally went in there to combat. and rick, speak to that point because the military precision and ability to hit a target and the and of our military to tee up options for a president is a nonpartisan proficiency.bility tee up options for a president is a nonpartisan proficiency. the whouts ite house is often responding to an option set. how do you contrast take that withnickki haley and rex tillerson seemingly at odds? i think all of us agree that there is no defined policy, no defined doctrine. president trump reacted emotionally. but the actual strike is something that i do support and i would support obviously tries to come up with a policy and
chemical weapons and not bomb it. why do some liberald li humanitarian foreign policy sxernlts back trump s tack takes? we want to put the politics aside and did dig into substance. we have a panel here. john finer, elyse jordan back with us, and as well as rick stangel back with us. john, why do you think john kerry supports aspects of this? well, thanks, ari. i don t think it s a surprise that you re seeing support from some democrats including john kerry for an action that goes to counter horrible thing that a dictator did to some civilians in his own country. that s the kind of thing that people on the left get exercised about the way all people get exercised about it. but i think when you re talking about why secretary kerry supports this action, it s for a very particular reason. he sees the use of force ascension to doing the kind of