adapt. partly by increase in the readiness of forces, partly stepping up our fight against terrorism, we are doing that in iraq, but also by investing more. and you have to remember that the increase in defense spending by european nato allies comes after years of decline. so before they were cutting billions, now they re actually adding billions. john: so you re not concerned that he s helping putin splinter nato like so many of his critics are? what i see is actually nato is united because we are able to adapt, to deliver. north america and europe are doing more together now than before. we have more u.s. troops in europe and more exercises, so we welcome that. but we also welcome the fact that european allies are stepping up. and this is a clear message to russia, and i think they see that. john: in your mind, mr. secretary-general, what is the greater threat to nay? is it that russia may move into the baltic states or what happens in the black sea in the
party, or is she just being led by the hard left wing of her party, and will the rest of the democrats follow her? so, no, this is just the next step in the negotiation. we thought it was the exact right thing for the president to do at the time. and i think, ultimately, he ll be judged by the end, by what happens at the end of this process, not by what happened this week. john: there is some money in the continuing resolution for border security, but that s to upgrade existing fencing. that s not for construction of new mileage of border wall, which is what you want. if we could stipulate that. absolutely correct. but let me jump in very quickly. when you go from a 2-foot-high barrier to a 30-foot wall john: it makes a difference. that counts as new security. john: the vice president took an offer of, i think it was $2.4 billion. are you stuck on the 5.7, or will you take less than that? i want the president wants his $5.7 billion. keep in mind, why that number? it s not a num
if we ll do our job, he won t even have to consider going there three weeks from now because we ll have reached the right the only way we could ever stop, i ve thought everything about how you stop this from happening, a shutdown. the one thing we could do to help the american society, the american economy and the american people is to make sure if a shutdown ever occurs by our own making, our pay stops immediately the day it s shut down. trust me, there will not be a shutdown. everything else we can talk about all the policies. you stop the paycheck the same as everyone else the only people that got hurt was all the people working for the government. congress didn t get hurt. nobody felt the pain. john: do you predict success or failure in this negotiation? i m reasonably optimistic. i think we ve all seen everybody step out into the new world we re in, republican senate, democrat house, new speaker, republican president. the initial touching of the gloves was not producing th
deal, and you tell me everything you know about president trump. roger stone is in this position because of the actions of roger stone, and i don t think people are going to be shedding a lot of crocodile tears john: but he s in a perfect position for mueller to squeeze him. he is, that s true. and what this also tells us is that mueller isn t done yet. he s still out there searching for scalps, and this is something, this is going to be a cloud over the administration for the foreseeable future. and that is the long-term consequences of this. these may be small fry figures, but it s going to keep this story in the press going forward and off of the president s agenda to the extent that he has one. john: limited time left, let me swing to another topic, venezuela. now it s time for every over administration to pick a side. either you stand with the forces of freedom, or you re in league with maduro and his mayhem. john: we are between an irresistible force and an
engel of new york said last week. today nato plays a critical role in keeping an increasingly aggressive russia in check. and that s one of the reasons splintering the nato alliance is one of vladimir putin s top goals. and that s why it s so disturbing, troubling to see the united states sending mixed signals about our commitment to the alliance or treating it as a burden. john: nancy pelosi, the new speaker of the house, went so far as to tweet on friday night: why has the trump administration continued to discuss pulling the u.s. out of nato which would be a massive victory for putin? that could be connected to other issues regarding the president and putin, but what president trump is saying about nato and the way he is saying it, is he giving an advantage to putin here? what he is doing is to help us adapt the alliance, which we need because we live in a more unpredictable world with a more assertive russia using violence, force against a neighbor, ukraine. and, therefore, nat