different ways and i m not looking for hurt them at all. the campaign was vicious. that news has angered some trump supporters with breitbart running headline broken promise and trump indicated he could shift away from other fiery campaign positions like on climate change and waterboarding. in the times interview, trump was surprised by position of retired general mattis on waterboarding. i met with him at length. i said what do you think of waterboarding? he said i never found it to be useful. i found give me a pack of cigarettes and a couple beers and i would do better with that than i do with torture. i was very impressed by that answer. i was surprised because he s known as being the toughest guy. frank bruni, just talk generally about the meeting yesterday. we have a lot more to talk about. climate change and everything else. talk about the meeting itself. it was extremely cordial.
trump praised mattis saying i met with a number of other generals. they say he is the finest there is. he s being seriously, seriously considered for secretary of defense, which is i think it s time for maybe a general. look at what s going on. we can t beat anybody. we don t win anymore at anything. we don t win on the border. we don t win with trade. we certainly don t win with the military. general mattis is a strong highly dignified man. the law requires secretary of defense to be out of law for seven years. it s been just 3 1/2 since mattis retired. congress could pass a law to ease his appointment. if you want to know the level of respect donald trump has for general mattis, read the new york times yesterday where donald trump said effectively he flipped on torture in the space of one line from general mattis who told donald trump that torture doesn t work. give me a pack of cigarettes and a six pack of beers and i can
60% are confidence he will create jobs in challenged areas. mika, those are extraordinary positive numbers. any president would like those numbers coming in. especially coming out of an ugly election. most presidents begin with the wind at their back like this but given how ugly this race was and given the fact his approval ratings were in the 30s until last week, why do you think these numbers have reversed so quickly? it s the same thing that a lot of people sort of for some reason couldn t see in the lead up that there s a large swath of this country that knows exactly who donald trump is and they attach his name with success. those are mandate numbers. period. every one of those things he got big numbers on, obamacare wasn t in his agenda. building the wall wasn t in his agenda. they think he can get things done. i m not saying it s right or wrong. i actually looked up some of these numbers yesterday and got slightly different numbers. his approval rating 34% during
found but there s a difference between breaking laws and doing the right thing. that s the biggest message. it ultimately matters to people. he is to think about down the line. no doubt about it. carol lee, you also, the problem here is it s not like congress can pass a law retroactively or anybody else that would apply to this president. all they can do is pass one that would apply to the next president. the question for donald trump is how much he wants this to be an ongoing story overshadowing his presidency. and how he chooses to handle this and what he chooses to do will determine that. and, you know, if he does continue to be involved in his businesses and he had this conversation where he mentioned windmills off the coast of his golf club in scotland. if things like that are happening, it s going to be a constant narrative of his presidency and so he s got to
some time. since yesterday even. you would prefer rudy giuliani to mitt romney? i said rudy giuliani would be i m sleep deprived and i ve been on the west side highway. i thought you said mitt romney was. no. okay. can we start again? it started on the west side and then i cut across to the fdr and then by the time i m down around 71st on fdr go. it never happened. rudy giuliani would be one of the worst picks that donald trump could possibly make for secretary of state. that seems wise. why do you say that? that s the smartest thing i ve ever heard on this set. i want to say this because i want to make one little point without you thinking in any way, shape or form i think rudy giuliani should be secretary of state. mitt romney would bring adult maturity, serious guy and all that. he doesn t know much about