senator tom cotton who the president consults closely with as with general kelly on his national security apparatus. he s a huge fan of mike pompeo at the cia and you ll remember cotton was rumored to take the job himself and told he removed himself after the alabama election and figured the president doesn t need another red seat so it s all come together for the president. this is the kind of team you need going forward. bill: richard, do you approve of mike pompeo, let s start there. i think his confirmation hearing will be more interesting than most secretary of state confirmation hearings. one, he met recently with russian spies on the sanction list who weren t allowed on the u.s. and met with them in the u.s. secondly, he said that there was no evidence with russian
we want to see the ferry s russian operator. has this ship, your ship, ever moved weapons? weapons components? you say no way, no way, no way but you say you don t inspect the cargo. so h so how do you know what they re carrying? he admitted they didn t, but claimed that american agents with cameras were watching the port closely. if we were really doing something wrong he said, our ferry would be on the sanction list. everyone we spoke to was convinced that the americans were watching everything and yet, none of the ships had been sanctioned. i think it s impossible to deal with the north korean problem without addressing the russian aspects of this issue and looking at russian firms, ports, facilities that aid these ships, companies that own them and placing them under the same scrutiny.
he admitted that he didn t but claimed that american agents with cameras were watching the port closely. if we were really doing something wrong he said, our ferry would be on the sanction list. everyone we spoke to was convinced that the americans were watching everything and yet, none of the ships had been sanctioned. i think it s impossible to deal with the north korean problem without addressing the russian aspects of this issue and looking at russian firms, ports, facilities that aid these ships, companies that own them and placing them under the same scruti scrutiny. he insisted russia has no interest in helping north korea develop the weapons program but says russia also doesn t want to help the u.s. bring north korea to its knees. the problem is to my mind that the u.s. would like to impose a total blockade on north
chinese things. melissa: there s a lot of leverage there in the sense that there s a lot we haven t done yet, right? we have a lot of room to ratchet it up. right. when you look at iran sanctions, that s sort of the model. lot of people think north korea sanctions are maxed out, but that is not true. sanctions have not been enforced. so there s a lot we can do on north korean entities by adding more north korean entities and people on the sanction list and by going after chinese banks. melissa: there are those who think the tpeuz recall danger to everyone else is growing. listen to this. i don t share your confidence that north korea is not going to attack either south korea or japan or the united states or our territories or our states or parts of the united states once they have the capability. melissa: what do you think? is hawaii in jeopardy? i mean, some have said that s a possibility. well, north korea the regime said if there s a war, if there s a conflict, it woul
that s notable because the department head job, the cabinet position for agriculture is still among a handful yet to be filled. steve? kelly o donnell near mar-a-lago. thanks for that. joining me now live, former ambassador to russia, michael mcfall. thank you for joining us. let me ask you. what do you make of what vladimir putin is up to here? i think everybody was sort of bracing for some kind of retaliation. he says, that s not going to be forthcoming. is it a dig at obama? is this a gesture toward donald trump? is it both, neither? how do you interpret this? i was surprised, like others. let s be clear that in other moments like this, president putin has done tit for tat and sometimes doubled down. in 2012, when the magnisky law was passed, he not only added americans to a sanction list but then banned adoptions by american parents.