he s spoke with prime minister netanyahu, the prime minister of saudi arabia who is in morocco and the king of jordan. both countries put out opposite readouts of the phone call. the king of saudi arabia making it look like he was standing by mubarak, almost without hesitation, where it was clear that that was not the version of the phone call that the white house decided to put out. there had to be chaos on friday, obviously with information in and out of egypt. talk about how the white house has been handling this crisis as it unfolded. reporter: on friday they were like us, right? they had al jazeera going, egyptian television going that they had wired in. they were simply trying to get information. they were doing video conferences with our ambassador over there and they were in lockdown at the embassy. you know, the egyptian army has been protecting the israeli, british and u.s. embassies. they added extra security for those three embassies, i m told,
you. if we spend $1 billion a year on egypt it s a bargain. a country that has kept the middle east stable, a country that s given us the framework for an egypt/israeli peace that has taken warfare off the table, at least widespread warfare off the table, that s been one of our closest allies in the middle east? a billion dollars, steve rattner, that s a bargain. also, i think the administration to the earlier comments has done quite a good job of walking this incredible fine line. they have. for us to suddenly bring down the sledgehammer at this moment would seem i m not saying do that. i m just wondering why it can t be a part of the conversation. because we can t. we re not going to talk about it. can we differentiate between a country that doesn t have the best-run elections in the world and a country that is a police state. right. and violates human rights and civil rights and women s rights. right. and recognizing that in the longer term and the medi
that mubarak leave power and you d have some sort of group of civilians, perhaps led by elbaradei, he flew back last week to egypt and is to some sense the touch letterhead of a broad-based opposition. we don t joke. the honest answer is egypt is in play in ways it has never been in play in its modern history. the farrow is going to be out. we re then beginning a process. the control of that process or the trajectory of that process is up for grabs. at the moment everybody knows what they re against, hosni mubarak. after you achieve your media goal, in this case, getting rid of hosni mubarak, people start falling out. they can t agree what they re for. that s when it gets real interesting and, to use your
i mean, do i think it s important to recognize that through republican and democratic administrations alike, america s message has been consistent. we want to see free and fair elections and we expect that that will be one of the outcomes of what is going on in egypt right now. but the secretary of state repeatedly avoided questions about whether mubarak should resign. david, you cannot keep trying to put words in my mouth. i never said that. i don t intend to say that. i want the egyptian people to have the chance to chart a new future. it needs to be an orderly, peaceful transition to real democracy, not faux democracy like the elections we saw in iran two years ago. where you have one election 30 years ago and then the people just keep staying in power and become less and less responsive to their people. steve rattner, you worked in the administration, how are they handling this crisis? i worked for president obama. i ve spent a lot of time with
moment. oh, my god. what happened here? the chinese state government although they have not yet admitted it showed scenes from top gun to show how impressive their air force is. they re lifting hollywood great movie. shots of 25-year-old jet fighters. exactly. exactly. i m shaken. there you go. we just may be able to catch up. there may be hope yet. up next, president obama s former car czar steve rattner will be here plus the very latest on the unrest in egypt. keep it on morning joe. ooh, a brainteaser. how can expedia now save me even more on my hotel? well, hotels know they can t fill every room every day. like this one. and this one. and oops, my bad. so, they give expedia ginormous discounts with these: unpublished rates. which means i get an even more rockin hotel, for less.