with the strategy included not making major changes going forward. every time the president tells conservatives this is up for negotiation, every time the press secretary stands in front of reporters and says there could be major changes, that undercuts this effort entirely. there s a lot of concern inside gop leadership circles right now that what the white house is doing is not helping the process at all. in fact, it s making their job difficult. i think jim hit on the crucial point here. as it currently stands, house republican leaders even as much of their conference remains unsettle are not planning major changes to the bill. every time the white house says the opposite, that creates more problems as they try and wrangle votes. what would republican leaders like to see from the white house to get it passed? sell. they don t want individuals coming to capitol hill and meeting with leaders. they want the president himself starting to bring the hammer down. he s traveling tomorro
they are finding. we will watch as capitol hill gets its act together or not in its investigations. there will be a wrangle over that. ultimately i think we are going to find out a lot more and i fear a lot more to find out. gene robinson, thanks so much. always good to have you in the conversation. admiral, i want to ask you quickly about the letter you signed this week about the budget proposal from donald trump 54 billion in additional marry and defense spending. yeah. you re against it. why? i am for the state department. i am for a.i.d. in other words, i think we need an increase in defense spending. we can have a discussion about how much but what we cannot do is make that increase on the back of our diplomats, our aid. because that is the long game, the soft power side. you need the hard power. we are not negotiating a solution with the islamic state but the long game is on the soft power side, the mistake would be cutting state, cutting a.i.d.a and cutting foreign aid.
how does rex tillerson wrangle that, especially while his state department is silent? i think in time, a he puts in his own team, and he starts to put his own stamp on foreign affairs, people will turn to him and say, okay, now we really want to know what s going on, we understand out of the white house there may be some rhetorical statements, there might be some politics going on. but rex tillerson is the final arbitrator, if you will, on foreign policy. i won t say he s over the president at all, but they ll look to him. condoleeza rice was very silent as a secretary of state. it frustrated me as a republican in congress at that time, because i felt that she should be speaking out far more than she ever did on iraq and afghanistan and our efforts to fight terrorism around the globe. but she was kind of quiet. but in doing so, she sort of preserved her statesmanlike appearance. and i think demeanor.
it s not shocking. it hasn t caused anyone to not get through you know, get through the process. on a vote. we did have the one take his name out, the labor secretary nominee, but you know, that s what happens. it is rare that someone goes to a vote and doesn t become a cabinet member. they realize the vote s not going to happen and they re going to get out. and you know, you have to remember, for barack obama, he did not have his cia chief until i believe it was mid february 2009. michael hayton was the acting cia chief, so none of the, this whole thing is not unprecedented. some things move smoother, some things not. thanks so much, both of you. appreciate it. thank you. still ahead, the pledge to trim the nation s debt and wrangle and spending, that was at the center of trump s winning campaign. now, his budget office is
a big cat getting lose in an empty plant after a photo shoot. it took an hour the rangle the tiger back in and the film crew was booted from the building. no one was hurt, including the tiger, during the filming of this production. and pittsburgh steeler linebacker, james harrison, teaching his two sons real life is about hard work returning the kid s so-called participation trophies writing this: i am proud of my boys for everything they do and will encourage them until the day i die. these trophies will be given back until they earn a trophy. i am not sorry for believing