war with saddam a second time, a war that's a glaring stain on an otherwise remarkable career. powell's path from from the bronx to combat duty in vietnam, to national security adviser to president ronald reagan, to serve vinagre as the youngest and the first black chairman of the joint chiefs to two american presidents and then to foggy bottom as the first black secretary of state. president biden george w. bush this morning in a statement calling powell, quote, a family man and a friend. that statement framing the four-star general's legacy this way. he was such a favorite of presidents that he earned the presidential medal of freedom twice. with us to share his insights on this somber day is bill smallin who served as chief of staff to the former secretary of state at pentagon and was his principal adviser, a retired military general with 30 years of active service. colonel smallin, it's a sad day as i'm grateful for your insight and sorry for your loss. first, just tell us, you served alongside general powell for a while. you were a deputy, a staffer and also a close friend. tell us about the man. >> well, he was -- he was a mentor. he was a boss. he was a friend. he was a rock, rock, someone who you could trust which is why everybody wanted him to run for president because they could trust him, something that i wish we had today in washington and politics, but anyway, he was an incredible man. he was a national treasure, and he will be remembered for many, many things, john, not the least of which is the powell doctrine and that's worth visiting because it's something that we ought to keep in mind as we move forward with regard to our military and diplomatic efforts around the world. >> amen to that. i'll come back to that in one second. this is a shock this morning for everybody watching around the world, and just trying to get a sense -- >> it's a shock to me. >> general powell -- >> i'm sorry, go ahead. >> he told me about his disease that he was fighting, but he said i'm going to kick, it i'm going to beat it. >> i think we just lost the colonel. we'll try to get him back. as we do the control room will tell me. with me in studio to share their reporting and insight three journalists here at cnn who covered colin powell extensively at the white house and pentagon. with me is cnn's wolf blitzer, cnn's jamie gangel and cnn's suzanne malveaux. apologize for the technology problems. we'll attempt to get the colonel back. the powell doctrine which was if you go into war use overwhelming force so that you can win and win decisively. as sec serbs we'll get to this in a moment it was the rumsfeld doctrine which was a smaller force, try to get in and out as quickly as possible and secretary of state powell helped sell the iraq war but did not agree with the rumsfeld approach. >> certainly didn't. during the first gulf war, i was there at the pentagon covering the first gulf war. his strategy was not only you have to have a decisive overwhelming force. you have to have a plan to win but then you have to have a quick exit strategy to get out, and a lot of people forgot that to liberate kuwait after saddam hussein invaded kuwait and then you had months of operation desert shield which eventually became operation desert storm january 1991 you had to have an exit strategy to get out as quickly as possible. within six weeks, the air warnings the ground war, it was over. the u.s. and its allies, 540,000 troops, six aircraft carrier battle groups in the persian gulf, did it and got out. now, during the iraq war in 2003, i think under 200,000 troops were deployed. a lot fire, and there was really no overwhelming capability to do the job to win and then get out. the u.s. got stuck there. the u.s. still has troops in iraq to this day. >> and colonel bill smallin is back with us. apologies for the technical issues. i want to come back to the powell doctrine and the legacy of the man in a minute. we know general powell had a blood cancer and attacked the immune system. even though he was vaccinated against covid he got an infection because he was immunocompromised. what do you know about how all that played out sadly? >> well, he clearly was fighting it very hard. he had great medical -- great medical advice and attention through walter reed and other ways, but he was -- he was a fighter, and -- and he -- and, unfortunately, his immune system did not resist covid-19 and that's unfortunate. >> we met 30 years ago during the first gulf war. wolf was just discussing about his days at the pentagon, and i remember walking through the desert with general powell and secretary cheney during those days and how the young men and women of color in the military would just light up. we've had a black president now for two terms, so maybe for a lot of younger viewers they don't realize this, but at that moment in time colin powell was the black power, if you will, this prominent general, leader, and interoperation. listen to the defense secretary today, our first black defense secretary, general austin, now secretary austin, who, of course, served under pout. listen to him voice his admiration. >> the world lost one of the greatest leaders that we have ever witnessed. alma lost a great husband, and the family lost a tremendous father, and i lost a tremendous personal friend and mentor. he has been my mentor for a number of years. he always made time for me, and i could always go to him with tough issues. he always had great counsel. we will certainly miss him. >> you hear again, colonel, how personal this is to so many people, you were at his side, to have a black chairman of the joint chiefs and the architect of the very successful gulf war, i would see young faces in the desert light up and what did it mean to them to be such a role mod snell. >> well, wherever we went, soldiers stopped and saluted and let him know how much they cared for him, from privates to presidents, he was someone who you could believe in, you could trust. you could know that he would take you to a good place with an objective in mind, so he was -- he was something very special, not just a black soldier but to soldiers around the world, all services, and he -- he played a big role in making the armed forces feel integrated in the sense that they were all in it for one goal, one mission and that was to accomplish that mission. back to the powell doctrine which is what he will be grately remembered about, four things, a career political and military objective, clearly the support of the american people. you want to have an overwhelming force, the right number of troops, like we did in the gulf war back in 1991 and lastly an exit strategy. we have not followed that doctrine very well since he spoke to it many years ago. an interesting tidbit when we went to the gulf before the war probing out, he met with sch schwartzkop about who he thought would be still and he said that's not going to work, that's not going to work and literally on the back of the envelope he crafted a strategy that took us to victory. >> i know this is a personal loss to you, bill, and i'm grateful for your time on this very tough day. you mentioned at the top so many people wanted to run for president and i remember bothering you in my prior life in 1995 when a lot of people thought he would run for the republican nomination for president. i had a conversation with him in 2009, this was a reagan republican who spoke at bolb dole's convention who decided not to run and then came out to vote for barack obama and held donald trump in disdain in terms of his global leadership and lack of leadership in general powell's views and his views when it came to race issues and things like that. i want you to listen to your friend talking about politics. >> i have voted democratic over the years. i've voted republican. i always try to find the person that i think is best qualified for the highest office in the land. i believe that our country is best served when there are two strong parties. that's what makes this country great, and they can debate those points of view. i think we run into dangerous territory in this country when the two ends of the political spectrum become so dug in and nasty and everything is ad hominem and driven by cable television and blogs and all kinds of other things that our positions get so hardened that we can't find a way toward the center which is where the country is. >> that was 12 years ago, rather prescient of where we are now, even worse on steroids in terms of our political conversations, but to it the idea of politics and colin powell, he got pretty serious thinking about it but then decided he didn't want to get in, why? >> well, we went through a five-week book tour wherever we went people would stand up in front of him waiting for their book to be signed. general we don't care what party because he hadn't declared at the time. we don't care at what party, just run for president y.? because they could trust him, believe in him. they wanted a man in the white house that they could trust and they could follow, and he -- he agonized over his decision. he lost a lot of weight and i lost a lot of sleep wondering what he would do, but he decided it wasn't necessarily because alma his wife didn't want him to do that, didn't want him to run, it was because he just didn't have the fire in his belly to run for president, and it's unfortunate but for him it was the right decision at the time. we didn't have time. we finished the book tour in '95 and he would have had to run for election in 1996 and it takes money, it takes staff and takes a space in which to work, it takes an ability to speak to all of the issues, and we just didn't have that capability in our -- in our kit back so to speak and that's unfortunate, but he made a decision that in his heart was the right one for him. >> bill, you spent a lot of time at his side and you helped him. he obviously spoke for himself and you helped him craft his words when he wanted to give big speeches and the like this. happened so suddenly. how would your friend want to be remembered? >> character, competence, integrity, someone who you could believe in, someone who loved his country and was a public servant through and through. it was part of his dna and he would want to be remembered as someone who cared about america more than life itself, and god love him. we're going to miss him terribly, terribly, terribly. >> colonel bill smallin, i want to thank from the bottom of my heart today. i know you did this as a favor to me because of our long relationship on a very difficult day for you. i'm grateful for your thoughts and i hope the country is grateful about your thought about your friend, general powell. thank, sir, i appreciate it. >> you bet, john. thank you. >> thank you. you see it right there. he said character, loyalty. colin poulin spired loyalty. bill smallin was a full colonel, served for more than 30 years, but he would -- he would jump in front of a bus in front of that man. >> i just want to say, you know, we all worked with bill, and i think his emotion today even though he was someone who was obviously one of the closest people to general powell represents how many other people felt about colin powell. he really connected with -- with people. i interviewed him a couple of years ago for a documentary we did on president bush 41, and he was talking about president bush, what their connection was, but it also, he said something that i think said something about himself. he said, quote, there's an old military expression that i think that applies to him, bush, and i hope intern turn will apply to a guy who you would take on a long patrol. i think what you heard from bill smellin there and what he said about bush 41 is actually how people felt about colin powell. >> like you, all of us, i worked with the colonel during the first gulf war and he was always there, always available, but you could see the close relationship he had with general powell, and i always call him of secretary of state, to me he was always general powell and that's where i got to know him. you can see how emotional he got. i've been speaking to a lot of folks this morning who are very close to general powell and they are all getting and he also said whoever knew him and got to know him, whether working with him in the military or the state department and working for young kids in the years since, everybody saw his passion and his excitement and i think i speak for all of us, you know, a wonderful family, his wife alma, our hearts go out to that family, the kid, grandkids and as we say may he rest in peace and may his memory be a blessing. >> we'll spend a lot more time on this, but to that pain, we know the general and secretary of state, you covered him professionally in our time together but you also had a personal connection to the general. >> i can understand the colonel's feelings there. general powell and my father were close for many years, decades. they both were a part of howard university, sat on the board and many social occasions where we had a chance to spend time with him and his wife. they were very private, but i learned this morning as well, you know, he had a very small inner circle. it was about six weeks ago that he shared with members of his inner circle that he was not doing well and that he was having health challenges and that he was concerned that he was to the going to be able to communicate effectively in the weeks to come, so many people who were close to him did not hear from him recently, but you know that he -- he kind of lit up the room when he was there and any occasion, even the briefing room, when he was with president bush, how he would kind of survey the room at first before we went at him and -- and he would always kind of smile. he was very, very charming and gave a little wink before he started. i don't know if you got that wink, john, but i usually got a wink before we started the briefings. didn't work for him but he tried, and it was beautiful to see. >> it is. everybody, please stand by. we're going to take a very quick break and we'll continue our conversation about the life and legacy of an american hero, general colin powell. disposable pad you never have to touch. shark vacmop, for when happy gets messy. 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helping to prevent gum disease and bad breath. never settle for 25%. always go for 100. bring out the bold™ colin powell was fully vaccinated yet died of covid complications. such severe coronavirus breakthrough infections are very, very rare but a source tells cnn that powell had multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that can significantly weaken the body's immune system. here with us with more is doctor hotez from baylor college of medicine. fully vaccinated, understands he has this cancer and is being very careful and yet this can happen. walk us through it. >> yeah. that's a sad day for me as well, john, because in the decade i was microbiology chair at gw, secretary powell, general powell was a pretty frequent visitor to george washington university. the president then used to invite him quite a bit and i got to know him somewhat so this is tough for a number of us. you know, with multiple myeloma, it's -- it's a blood cancer, it's a cancer of a type of white blood cells called the plasma cell that's involved in producing antibodies so people don't produce the antibodies that they don't need to in order to fight infection because that's a major means that we need to fight covid infections so people with multiple myeloma number one are susceptible to infections in general, both viral and interior infections and infectious diseases are the leading causes of death in multiple myeloma as in secretary powell and not only do they not respond well to infectious pathogens or vaccinations overall. it's variable and depends how active their disease are, what kind of chemotherapy they are getting, what type of monoclonal antibodies they are getting and one study on covid-19 advantages own responses and they are not good, so more than half of patients with multiple myeloma do not respond well to either of the two mrna vaccines, the moderna or pfizer/biontech. the fact that he's older and 82 years old and often if you're older you don't respond as well. the fact he had multiple myeloma, i don't know what the status of his illness is, but more than half do not respond well to the vaccination. that was looking at two doses. what i don't know is when the information came out from the food and drug administration about recommending a third immunization in patients like general powell, whether he went ahead and got that immunization so there's a lot more that we need to know but it's not too surprising and in no way should this be seen as any kind of condemnation of the vaccinations. the vaccines are working really well. it's just multiple myeloma patients, especially older ones, simply do not do well, either with covid-19 or with covid-19 vaccinations. >> do hotez, thank you and grateful for the important insights and also very important for anyone listening if you haven't been vaccinated get vaccinated not only to protect yourself but other people as well and here's another painful, powerful lesson as that. my cnn colleagues who covered general powell and knew general powell, i say general powell. i asked him after he was secretary of state which do you prefer and he said general. that doesn't mean he didn't diminish his work as secretary of state but he just liked general because he was general all that time. you were talking about the personal part of t.tell us a little bit more about that, about being friends with your dad in the sense that, you know, america saw him, americans old enough remember him, i first came to washington, he was serving in the reagan white house, a friend of the bush family, interesting that a person who was a staffer became a very close friend of george h.w. bush and george w. bush but for him to rise up and become a friend of a president from a junior officer to a friend of a president told you about the power of the person. >> one of the things that general powell never forgot was that he knew that he was breaking ground, that he was an african-american that was making history and he did it in a very kind of understated way. he didn't jump up and down and make a lot of noise about it, and -- and one of the things about being in weese and black professional circles is that it's a small circle. it's very intimate, and so there are many different occasions whether people are rubbing each other, ribbing each other about which fraternity or sorority you're with or what school he went, to i mean, his connection to the community was always very strong and he never lost sight of that, one of the things that i -- i had an opportunity to do which was about three years ago to the day is interview powell with secretary albright together about a 90-minute university at creighton university, and one of the things that he really emphasized was at the time the context of it was that you had to -- the jewish synagogue, 11 worshippers who had been massacred, the pipe bombs that were being sent to trump's enemies and then also, you know, this -- this criticism of an infestation of the words that were used by trump by a caravan coming into a country of imgrabs. he never forgot where he came from and he was so proud he was age grant of jamaican parents and said it was amazing they could have two children, a teacher and a soldier and only in america could he do that. >> and the decency, the upbring and the decency is what shaped his transformation in politics to go from a reagan/bush republican to someone who voted for president obama, endorsed joe biden and had an open disdain of donald trump for and the caustic way he did his business. >> general powell liked being from the bronx, liked that he went to cuny and he liked loved to fix cars. >> he was available all the years now. i've been reporting going back to the first gulf war, whenever i would call him, whenever i wanted to talk to him, let's go out to dinner. give me some background of what was going on, but it wasn't just me, it was everyone, and especially u.s. military personnel. he felt such a kinship with knows men and women who volunteered, no longer a draft. who volunteered to serve of in the u.s. army, air force and marine corps and he was always there to inspire them and they did. >> when barbara bush passed away general powell was right here because he wanted to pay a special tribute to his friend. thank you all. i can't say enough. it's a sad day. coming, a critical week for the biden agenda and democrats pushing the president to take a more forceful role in the negotiations. we'll be right back. otion this . new gold bond pure moisture lotion. 24-hour hydration. no parabens, dyes, or fragrances. gold bond. champion your skin. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ with chase security features, guidance and convenience, banking feels good. chase. make more of what's yours. word just in now from president biden responding to the death of colin powell. the president's statement reads in part, quote, colin embodied the highest edials of both warrior and diplomat. he advised presidents and shaped our nation's policies, colin led with his personal commitments and the democratic values that make our nation strong. time and again he put country before self, before party and all else, in uniform and out of him, under earned him the universal respect of the american people that. statement from the president of the united states moments ago on the sad passing of general and secretary of state colin powell. other political news, other frustration running high among the president's fellow democrats including senator joe manchin, part of party center that's trying to chip away liberals say as the soyuz and scope and boldness of the president's agenda. friday night senator sanders called him out in his home toum paper and today senator manchin responds with this. >> he said you're holding up the biden agenda. >> there's 52 senators who don't agree, okay, and there's two that want to work something out if possible in a most rational reasonable way, that's all. >> with me in studio to share their reporting an insights, mel know zanono, a "washington post" reporter and edward isaac. let start with you, senator manchin, no big deal. sinema and i are trying to work it out in a rational way. others don't see it that way. >> bernie sanders doesn't see it that way either. they have been sparring with each other and sanders went so far to write an op-ed in west virginia which manchin did not take kindly to. but the reality is they need to start making progress this week if they want to meet that self-imposed october 31st deadline and they still won't have legislative text by then it will look more like a framework or top number if they can even get to that but that's going to turn talk into action and make the top chases. >> i was just hearing the control room telling me that the president well can congresswoman jayapal and your reporting on a lot of democrats, many are saying it's time to get everybody in a room, lock them in until we get a deal or if not talk publicly about what you want this to land on. we know it won't be what biden said originally it would be and everybody in the democratic party seems to have a different idea where it's going to go and the democrats are saying it's time. there was a call between house speaker nancy pelosi and president biden last week saying it's time and it's time also for biden to take that more leadership role. a lot of democrats on the hill eager to see him do it. >> watching this see out publicly and with the speaker and crunch time, it gets more intense. if you look at where sinema and manchin are, democrats they can be as mad as they want. they need their votes. they cannot do anything without their votes. just over the weekend, maybe means testing of one of the child care benefits. you have the clean energy proposal. senator manchin says, no, no, no, we don't want to do what you want. should the government negotiate prescription drug prices. senator sinema doesn't like the way it's worded. the progressives are saying they are not democrats. >> president biden is not somebody who wants to negotiate in general. any time a question is asked it's completely struck down and swatted away so what i'm struck down is negotiation between sanders and manchin sparring in public. that's not the president's style and to your point a lot of democrats are left wondering well where is the president's leadership? this is not how he even wants to have these negotiations conducted he needs to take ownership of this at this point and get his fellow members in line. >> and he realizes he's the president but he is the president with a 50/50 senator so any one of those senators has veto power. normally you say the president has veto power and right now president manchin has veto power over.and that's why you don't see bide ensaying it's this way or no way and senator manchin is responding to his constituents in west virginia. >> there's been public polling that shows some of these are really popular in the state. >> that's one of the reasons one of the progressives in the house, you're running in in new york city suburbs very different than running in west virginia. that's a fact and hard thing to work out. they come from very different places but he's tweeting on sunday the american people and the constituents deserve to know how terrible his positions are. you have a public feud among democrats in the end, again, nothing can happen without joe manchin's vote. interesting to read the new reporting and top biden advisers said we weren't going to win the nomination. this is that gloom and doom in washington. they are underestimating joe biden again. campaigns and legislation are different again. >> poetry and prose, but that is deep in the psyches of a lot of biden people and the president himself. he was counted out over and over again. he was never the winner of the daily news cycles during the campaign and look what happened. he was the nominee. he stht president. they look at this and they say, look her, got the american rescue plan through, obviously a much more complicated and different thing, but as he said a couple weeks ago whether it's done in six hours or six weeks it doesn't really matter that much. that's the mentality that's pushing him through but it is crunch time. >> the bipartisan infrastructure bill went off the rails many times before it came back. still hasn't passed the house. democrats are saying we still can get this done. the clock is ticking. >> what would yogi berra say? never mind. it ain't overuntil it's over. >> you founded your kayak company because you love the ocean- not spreadsheets. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. visit indeed.com/hire (man 1) oh, this looks like we're in a screen saver. 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>> grateful for the live reporting. grateful for the focus amid the bustle of new york city streets. that's hard to do and a pro right there. amid president trump's many legal battles he's still paying can the idea of making a 2024 bid for the white house. for the most parts many republicans welcome him back despite, remember, he lost the presidency, he lost senate and he lost the house. not every republican member rolling out the red car pets, our panel is back with us to discuss to. that end, this is senator bill cassidy in an axios interview on hbo, and listen to this. i was joking about this earlier but maybe i'm not. it's like what is senator cassidy smoking in the sense that he thinks donald trump, people won't want him back because he lost. >> if he runs, he wins the nomination. >> i don't know that. >> president trump is the first president in the republican side at least to lose the house, the senate and the presidency in four years. elections are about winning >> you think that if he ran he could lose the nomination. >> well, if you want to win the presidency and hopefully that's what voters are thinking about, i think he might. >> that's -- there's logic there. the guy lost a lot when he was in office, but when does logic -- >> i think the challenges we have yet to see any republican member of the party who is willing to stand up and even say that they are running for election in 2024 because of just the ominous possible threat of a trump candidacy. they have paralyzed, sorry, he's paralyzed all the other potential opponents. his point though about wanting to win is valid so if a republican was willing to raise their hand and tossle with the president, take it on, it's possible. >> cassidy is an outlier. he was one of the few senate republicans who voted to impeach trump in the imimpeachment trial. we spoke to dozens and all of them said trump would be the front-runner and would win the nomination and would have the backing of the party. he's still the dominant force in the republican party. >> which is why it's interesting to hear someone who is willing to say that publicly. trump doesn't have twitter but he'll find a way and donald trump won louisiana and also quite big and won arkansas and quite big and another voice of the establishment, asa hutchinson says you know, what the former president is still telling the big lie. we don't need that. >> relitigating 2020 is a recipe for disaster in 2022. let's talk about the future. the election is past. it's been certified. the states made decisions on the integrity of each of their elections and made improvements where need be. >> he gets to a very important point where the wind is at the republicans' back heading into 202. former prub keeps saying the election was rigged, are rigged, don't trust them so others are thinking republicans will stay home if the republican party doesn't make the next elections all about 2020. he thinks it's a political winning strategy to talk about 2020. he thinks of it as something that's personally valuable to him because as long as people are talking about 2020 they are that you canning about who, donald trump and that's what he wants to happen over the next couple of years as he gears up for a potential second or third run for the white house. >> maybe that message resonates with the base but not moderates and independents who you would need to win over. >> the former president's strategy is to keep them that you can begun trump. it's all about trump. still all about trumpet. ahead for us, remember the steele dossier. yes, remember that in the former spy who wrote it defends his work and says he's confident the russians that dirt on trump. we're carvana, the company who invented car vending machines and buying a car 100% online. now we've created a brand-new way for you to sell your car. whether it's a year old or a few years old. we wanna buy your car. so go to carvana and enter your license plate answer a few questions. and our techno wizardry calculates your car's value and gives you a real offer in seconds. when you're ready, we'll come to you, pay you on the spot and pick up your car, that's it. so ditch the old way of selling your car, and say hello to the new way at carvana. when i break a long run i'm talking long long. that's why i use old spice triple protection sweat defense. old spice works harder for longer. hey derrick man, you gonna be much longer? it's gonna be a minute minute. hey derrick, quit playin. derrick! ♪ ♪ your new pharmacy is here. and here. and here, too. it's here to help you save time and money and trips to the pharmacy. it's here to get you the medication you need when you need it. who knew it could be this easy? your new pharmacy is amazon pharmacy. when subway® opened they changed the fast food game. but sometimes you gotta refresh ...to be fresh. welcome to the eat fresh refresh. refresh where there is so much new, some say that it can't fit in one ad. i say... ...we're talking a new all-american club, deli-style oven-roasted turkey and... oh, that's the new steak & cheese. oh yeah, i knew that. that's the one with the new... ...seasoning. and that was the new mvp parmesan vinaigrette . right. which makes a next level foot... hold up. the subway logo? wait i'm out of time? double check me if you need to, but the year is 2021, yes, 2021, but we're still talking about a 2016 relic. christopher steele, you'll remember, is the british spy who compiled the salacious and unverified dossier detailing sortied allegations against then businessman and former president trump and that moscow had reams of compromising information to prompt the president to do his bidding. one that the president and his men would say is false and steele sat down in a recent interview that many of the accusations were true. >> do you still believe that a tape exist? >> how do you explain? >> why not? >> i think the russians felt that they got pretty good value outside of donald trump when he was president of the u.s. >> go around the table with the panel here and put everybody back into therapy. the steele dossier back, and you hear michael steele, they haven't released the tape because it worked. >> he was trying to set the record straight in this interview. i'm not sure he cleared anything up, my sources were credible. maybe it's there, maybe it's not even though the fbi was unable to corroborate the most salacious claims and in some cases disproved or said it wasn't true what was in the comp mat and republicans really seeds on the most salacious actions to undermine the entire legitimate investigation, so it does bring back a lot of memories to a lot of us reporters who were there covering it in 2016. >> and it really did shape the early months and actually the full term of the trump presidency. it's important to note that former president trump was so obsessed with these allegations that he made a lot of mistakes in his early presidency, fired jim comey without any plan for explaining why he had done that hand that led to a number of different things, ultimately getting into the realm of being impeached and i think it's important to note that no matter how much of this dossier was actually verified it really did get into president trump's head and did -- >> he did also joke about the golden showers at a retreat so it's clearly something. >> and michael cohen, the steele dossier said he went to prague and michael cohen had a huge falling out and he says he awaits the next dossier which proves that big foot and the loch ness monster and elvis are still alive. >> i don't understand the benefit at this point, we're years from the 2016 election, all of us would say there's chunks of the election cycle that we closeted away so i don't think it benefits the sort of political communication between folks in this country at this point. there is so much distrust. i do not think that he is helping to add to any value. >> if the former president mounts a comeback i suspect we'll not have a steele dossier in 2024. thanks everybody for coming in on "inside politics." ana cabrera picks up our coverage right after a quick break. we'll see you tomorrow. visibly diminish wrinkled skin in... crepe corrector lotion... only from gold bond. alberto and i don't fit into those other family plans. that's why we love visible. they do things differently. yeah, it's wireless with unlimited data and if you join a group it's as low as $25/mo. all powered by verizon. 5g included. woo! just get together and save! we look goooood! what's everyone's handle? 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