Fisheries it a way that is completely unacceptable to the country and since we have 10 weeks until the end of the transition period on jan 1st i have to make a judgment about the likely outcome and to get us all ready and given that they refused to negotiate seriously much of the last few months and given that this summit appears explicitly to root out the candidates start on the i conclude that we should get ready january the 1st we arrange groups that are more like australia is based on simple principles of glue free trade. Thousands of supporters of the south African Opposition Party the Economic Freedom fighters of facing off against white farmers in the free states of semicolon to block but a jew in court that accused of the killing of a 22 year old white farmer. In thailand thousands of protesters are out on the streets of bangkok defying a government ban on gatherings police of blocking roads in whats expected to be another tense night of antigovernment demonstrations calling for the Prime Ministers resignation for reforms to the monarchy Prime Minister prialt channel is refusing to stand down. Hundreds of prisoners are put on the frontlines of yemens civil war continuing to return home to planes carrying who 3 fights is it going to help by the saudi u. A. E. Coalition arrived that day there are calls again for syrias president bashar assad to step down people have been out testing an province and have been on his rule and attacks on the area its the last rebel held pocket in syria and those are the headlines the news continues here on out is here after the boss and why next. Hi im Steve Clemons and i have a question has donald trump been good for america and is he going to win this election lets get to the bottom line. In this polarized country half of the people see President Donald Trump as a davis and harmful leader and the other half see him as a messiah this 5050 split applies to everything about him half of the American People get inspiration from him and the other half cringe so what makes him popular what makes folks vote for him and how do his chances look for reelection next month well today were talking to someone who worked closely with President Trump and his closest supporters in his 2016 Election Campaign which is we all know worked rick gates was the Deputy Campaign manager for trumps 2016 election hes a former assistant to paul man afford a Top Republican strategist and lobbyist and both came under investigation as part of the motor investigation into russian interference in the last elections he cooperated with the investigation and last year he was sentenced to 3 years probation for financial crimes and lying to the f. B. I. This week he published a book about his work with the 1st campaign his role in the f. B. I. Investigation and more its called wicked game an insider story on how donald trump one molar failed and america lost rick its great to be with you today thanks so much for joining us let me just ask you you were there at the beginning when paul man afore was hired by hired for free to come in to advise the Trump Campaign on how to approach the 2016 election and i dislike to get your insights on that and then apply it to today does it look like donald trump is going to win to you. First thing. Having me on the show great to be here look 2016 was a very interesting time in president ial politics and one of the things i kind of capture in my book is this idea that you know donald trump was in a way fighting the Republican Party establishment much more than he was Hillary Clinton in the general election and i think thats important because as we go back and look historically at how president s are elected there were a number of instances along the way that clearly the Republican Party and the Republican Party leadership did not want President Trump to to win and so when you look at the technical processes that are behind how the president actually secures our candidate secures the nomination theres a lot more to it then people realize so it was it was a Good Opportunity to kind of walk people through understanding how president s are actually elected where there are parts of this story that were uncomfortable for you i was surprised that you know you kind of look at what you did for him as a hired person and to be you know candid with our audience youve also worked with democrats in the past i thought you describe you to flee particularly in International Campaign consulting lots of democrats and republicans Work Together but but you also critique President Trump for a kind of recklessness somewhat you know a kind of lightness with the truth but im just interested in how someone in your role felt about certain key moments during the campaign and whether you thought you thought it was going the wrong direction. So obviously at any campaign at any point there are instances where candidates can go off Say Something that probably doesnt resonate as well you know the example that i use in the book you know what president drop it relates to you know judge curial who obviously you know became an issue the thing that you have to understand i think about President Trump is hes not politically correct and one of the reasons that he wanted to run is because he thought the politicians were not very authentic and more importantly they never delivered what they said they were going to do and the one thing that i didnt get to see is his passion and his love for the country and thats really what drove him into this race but look on the flip side you had Hillary Clinton you know at the magical moment when she had her infamous deplorable you know comment so in any candidacy there are always going to be issues i think what you have to you know understand is looking at the way that both campaigns deal with those moments because those are very very important moments of how people are going to react and how theyre going to be perceived. Donald trumps case it might be because he was an outsider and because he was not a politician people and braced his directness his authenticity he had never seen a candidate like this before and so they gravitated to or Something Like that because they were tired of the political system there were moments where donald trump stepped forward and started a style of really demeaning Hillary Clinton demeaning his opponents demeaning the press some of the terms he called were crooked hillary the corrupt news media the failing New York Times brain dead bernie i mean its a fascinating you know but but kind of disconcerting style but in the end Hillary Clinton went out after she lost and she said we need to give donald trump a chance that didnt come out in your book as much that that you know here was a moment a sensually where i think hillary telegraphed her people because it seemed to me donald trump does well when hes portrayed himself as a victim and my getting something wrong there. So what i would say about that is that you know when hillary came out of that moment if you remember the night before there was a lot of question of whether or not you know they were going to concede or even make a comment and i think as youre going to see it 2020 and why its important is the stakes are extremely high and just the other day you know joe biden came out with a comment relative that you know now he thinks he cant lose and the only way he can lose is if theres some you know kind of shenanigans you know happening behind the scenes so i think what youre seeing is a reaction by you know both sides to the belief that this election is going to be so intense that we all kind of need to step back and make sure that whats most important is protecting our democracy right because thats really what this is about its about being able to elect a president and having the right in the privilege to vote and making sure that our voters expression of the of the person that we support so i think you know to your question i think its going to be interesting to see you know how these these candidates both come together and the one thing ill say you know to a previous point the one the greatest asset the president has there is in sticks and you know 99. 9 percent of the time hes generally right so when he sees kind of some of this you know potential Election Fraud hes highlighting it because at some point youre probably going to see some instance of it it may be insignificant it may not matter to the overall result but hes right about it existing in certain states is there a red line for his behavior in the election that would you know be something to help you see it differently and you just raise the issue of accepting Election Results which is on everyones mind you just said you know biden mino may be concerned at all but i guess one side is posture and then the other side is after the election you know these folks very well would it be a red line for you if you saw the president not accept those results and and to you know continue essentially you know they might make might makes right you know power contest. Sure if the election were held and it was free and fair and the results came out you know in favor of joe biden and look i think the president would ultimately concede i think what he does very well is he throws messages out into the Public Domain the media of course take in every bit of bait that they can and then it comes across either as something that he hasnt fully expressed or frankly there are things that you know he will often say that he doesnt necessarily you know really mean and we just have to watch for that but i will tell you based on experience that he does believe that there are potential zx and now joe biden does as well that there could be you know fraudulent circumstances in this election with ballots ballots missing completed you know whatever the case may be so i do think theres going to be a greater awareness on the free dissent fairness of this election but at the end of the day president trouble like i said he loves his country he will protect and really promote the democracy in the end you know one of the questions that a lot of people have about President Trump and his surroundings which you deal with in the book is whether or not he respects experts whether he listens to them whether he you know puts policy d expertise you know paramount or at least science paramount in some cases relating to cohabit and you describe how you were able to influence in particular in Foreign Policy and get him to listen to max experts what are some tips you would share with those folks who want President Trump to learn something about the issues hes being asked to decide on. Sure 1st and foremost the president has very strong convictions about you know a host of policy issues and on those issues he was largely unmovable and other ones that again youve got to remember hes an outsiders on other issues that maybe werent as prevalent in his mind at the time when he 1st ran to today were now he is president for the entire country and so theres a multitude of other issues that have you know landed on his plate i think there are a number of things he look he absolutely listens to advisers in fact he learns by listening and thats why you know there are a couple references not just from me but from other people as well that you know putting a a 100 page document in front of him is just not the way that he learns and learns best so by consulting with people by hearing peoples opinions and look he did a great job on the campaign he would call 1520 people on a regular basis and solicit you know their input and sometimes he would lead them down one direction just to see what they would say and i thought i always thought he had a very you know interesting way of reaching out to people and one making them feel important to making their opinion count and matter and that he was able to kind of take all that and synthesize it and then he would make is in his own decision and i think thats probably the most important thing that we have not had in many president s in the past is an actual absolute decisive Decision Maker like his decisions or his decisions and thats i think thats a particularly strong asset you know for a president to have so wrecked my jaw dropped wide open i think it fell on the floor when i was reading the chapter on the Vice President tell us you know i had been talking to Chris Christie and Chris Christie you know as you write you know thought he was guy up until the night before. The president announced his selection just days before the Republican Convention but tell us where President Trump started with his desire for a Vice President ial candidate and then how you and paul man afford redirected him. Sure it looked that that was probably one of the i think one of the reasons i wanted to write the book is to capture this type of history so that americans could see kind of what happens behind the scenes how do you choose a Vice President and in the case of President Trump i mean at the time you know his idea of a good Vice President was somebody kind of like him somebody that you know he could be friends with that he knew that he understood and if you ask any political operative or person with political experience they will tell you that youre always looking for a candidate that can bring something to the table i. E. Electoral votes and so in that case with with my parents it was you know one thing after the other in trying to get him into that position he didnt want you to not not interrupt you didnt start with mike pence you started with someone really really like him and im afraid to even ask. Yeah and so and i put the book i mean after we go through a list of potential candidates you know some of them he knows some of them most of them he does it. Again this is one of his strong assets what does he go to what does he gravitate towards family its loyalty its trust and you know people are often try to take this instance so this anecdote i wanted to use out of context and make it look like he was going to you know absolutely choose or in the end as i say he would have never i think gotten there but what he was trying to do is show youve got to remember hes a c. E. O. Not a politician so hes not thinking like a politician so in his mind who are the best people around him who are the best and brightest in this case and a lot of people interesting they wrote op eds at the very time that it was being discussed that she would make you know a tremendous v. P. Candidate a lot of people think that she was still what but with that said it was an anecdote to show what matters to him the most so as we you know paul i tried to figure out what kind of criteria he was looking for we learned along the way about those most important assets to him. Now as i find it absolute passing that when you began looking and you move from the evocative you know possibility and she removed herself from that then you moved to mike pence whom he who had endorsed ted cruz whom donald trump had sort of seen himself as a loser kept calling mike pence a loser but you and paul metaphor thought that he was really the right guy how did you succeed to shove the president in his corner so well so that that stuck because there are not many stories out there where people who had been so firmly against the president managed to become so closely aligned with him. You know i like to say it was divine intervention in some juncture because we had so many obstacles hit us along the way you know with mike pence you know Little Things to big things where it just made the relationship you know awkward at the beginning but you know the president i you know came around to the idea of understanding you know the value of somebody in that role and what the real Decisive Point it look it took a lot of people it wasnt just you know paul and i it was a lot of people that the president consulted with as i said he makes his own decision so even though he might get a recommendation he doesnt research he does as you know kind of analysis and then pull out of it to see what their thoughts are on it as well but in the end there is one defining moment i felt that really kind of switched the president s thinking on mike pence and it was kind of when paul was explaining to you know donald trump what a Vice President was supposed to do and traditional politics the Vice President is somebody that kind of is the guy out there you know attacking his opponent you know coming across as very negative and that way it enables the president ial candidate to look president ial well in this case donald trump was that individual so also police said you know donald why would you want somebody like you to step into that role that you are so good at. And that is your role so its almost in this case that the roles of what it Vice President can do on a campaign trail were already embodied in the way that you know donald trump approached the campaign so that little kind of idea planted in his head i think gave him the ability to