know a lot of people would say he s put himself at the forefront of the world as a leader. i think that putin has done an amazing job of showing certain leadership that our people have not been able to match. yeah, i mean he admires strong men. one of the things that unites putin and weaponized grievance. putin weaponized the grievance of russians who felt like the soviet union collapse and trump is weaponnizing the grievance of americans who feel left out. putin wants to make russian great again. what does trump want to do? i won t say the so gan. that s the attraction. ultimately how does the state department where you work deal with this? what does it mean if you go into rooms and across the table you re looking at people that the stakes are so high they might be killed if they don t get the right thing out of the meeting. > one of the things that always made me feel great when i was a diplomat was the things we said
death, george herbert walker bush, chris, had a claim to be the greatest living american. it s a life of unparalleled service. you look at the virtues that define his life, the youngest naval combat aviator in world war ii, 19 years old when he was shot down. look at his service to the country. look at the wisdom he demonstrated with the use of military force in panama and during the first gulf war, the wisdom of restraint over the soviet union collapse. the letters that show his decency, his kindness. this is an extraordinary american life. he s an american giant. i think history, as they evaluate this presidency, though it was one term, it took place in very, very turbulent times. consequential times and he was fearless in the execution of
in the luge, right? [laughter] seriously, i remember reading this report when it first came out. and the mouse hole in the side of the wall and they are stuffing the urine samples through there to swap them out. i mean, it was unbelievable story. the idea that this could be overturned by this body is, i think, shocking. look, i think it s an indication and your earlier story about the u.s. olympic committee that we have got serious governance problems in international sports actually in the bush 41 administration at the state department, i was in charge of our relations with the international olympic committee. and you could tell at that time during the cold war still the russian olympic team was entirely controlled by the government. unlike the united states where we have almost no government involvement, which i think is correct. they systematically use the olympics for political purposes and this doping issue is simply something that is carried on even after the soviet union colla
to that, europe. okay. you might have a case. that was the sales pitch. what was his personal, primordial reason to bill up the yellow cake story, build up the aluminum tube? i believe it goes back to his time as secretary of state in 1992 and end of the cold war and soviet union collapse and the neocons, they wrote about this at the time. this wasn t any secret. they wrote at the time and said at the time now is the time to establish american hegemony in the world. we re the only superpower and that s how we have to run things. day were out of power for eight years because bill clinton was the president. they got back into power then 9/11 happened and had a chance to show we would be the hegemonic power and took it. i always believed they spoke in cold war terms, joe, and speak about everything as if it s eastern europe. when cheney was talking in that
i don t think the weapons, wmd, that was a good sales pitch for the people in the middle politically. that got us in, people listening to that, europe. okay. you might have a case. that was the sales pitch. what was his personal, primordial reason to bill up the yellow cake story, build up the aluminum tube? i believe it goes back to his time as secretary of state in 1992 and end of the cold war and soviet union collapse and the neocons, they wrote about this at the time. this wasn t any secret. they wrote at the time and said at the time now is the time to establish american ha gemini in the world. we re the only superpower and that s how we have to run things. day were out of power for eight years because bill clinton was the president. they got back into power then 9/11 happened and had a chance to show we would be the hegemonic power and took it. i always believed they spoke in cold war terms, joe, and