house. and the president usually decides later, sometimes much later after conferring about which policy approach to support. i actually saw president clinton make governing decisions a few times right there in the meeting, but that was very rare. and he took his time when he did that, when he made those decisions sitting in the room with us. there was no 60-second time limit on his decision making. and so if we want debates to more realistically show what a candidate might be like as president, there should be ten people on the stage, but only two candidates. and each candidate should have five advisers on different policy arenas sitting right behind them exactly the way all cabinet members do when they testify to congress. and those advisers should be able to pass notes to the candidate the way they pass notes to cabinet members when
tonight by the kennedy family in hyannisport. as soon as we can bring you more information on that we will bring it during the hour. but go on now to the news of the week in the presidential campaign, beginning with a very simple fact. presidents don t debate. but presidential candidates have to debate in order to win the presidency. a job where they then will not have to debate. most american presidents have been elected without ever debating. debates do not actually test the skills necessary to be president. and most of the political news media does not seem to realize that. and i will have much more to say about that at the end of this hour. and about how we can improve debates and the work that you actually have to do as a viewer and voter when you are watching the debates. it shouldn t be a passive exercise. you should be listening and thinking and ignoring much of what happens in presidential debates, especially the games
united states election. and we are talking about collusion with the trump campaign. i mean, what can be more important than a democracy hanging in the balance? the president takes it quite calf letterly thinks it s not a big deal. but nothing is a big deal to him. this is our very, very democracy hanging in the balance. and i don t want to get mellow dramatic. but the fact is we have a responsibility. and i think you going to see the house taking the responsibility. we shaw the president asked by a reporter about robert mueller saying the russians attacked the election, they will continue to attack the election and did you mention that to vladimir putin? and the president said to the reporter, you don t believe that there is the president saying publicly he doesn t believe now he is saying now, i don t believe that the russians attacked our election. well i think you have to be naive or i don t know what to not believe it. it s there.
calf letterly thinks it s not a big deal. but nothing is a big deal to him. this is our very, very democracy hanging in the balance. and i don t want to get mellow dramatic. but the fact is we have a responsibility. and i think you going to see the house taking the responsibility. we shaw the president asked by a reporter about robert mueller saying the russians attacked the election, they will continue to attack the election and did you mention that to vladimir putin? and the president said to the reporter, you don t believe that there is the president saying publicly he doesn t believe now he is saying now, i don t believe that the russians attacked our election. well i think you have to be naive or i don t know what to not believe it. it s there. and then there are other things. the speaker has designated six of us who are chairs to continue investigations. and you know, we still don t
states knew less about the subject than anyone else in the room. and bill clinton was as steeped in policy detail as any president we have ever had. president clinton was probably smarter than most of the people in the room, but he was not more informed than most of the people in the room, because he was the president. the president has jurisdiction over all of the policy territory of the federal government, all of it from domestic policy to foreign policy. and the experts in the room usually are only very highly informed about their subject, that one subject, taxation or national defense. and most presidential meetings, the president does not have to make a decision. he simply listens to what the policy experts have to say and what the congressional sayers have to say about how many votes the different policy approaches can get in the senate and the