thank you, we re leaving. reporter: excuse me, mr. secretary, can you respond? we haven t had any time in here. i m sorry, you re going to have to lead. let s go, guys. reporter: do you think you ll have a deputy any time soon, sir? when do you think you might have a deputy? this way, this way. as you can see, our own andrea mitchell has been relentlessly trying to get simple answers out of secretary of state rex tillerson ever since he took office in january. tillerson has so far been the least transparent secretary of state in the modern era. under his tenure, the state department got rid of daily briefings for nearly seven weeks and he broke with decades of tradition this week not taking the usual pool of reporters with him on his first foreign trip to asia. there is one reporter who s been allowed to travel with the secretary. her name is erin mcpike, she s from a semiobscure conservative outlet called the independent
and he broke with decades of tradition this week not taking the usual pool of reporters with him on his first foreign trip to asia. there is one reporter who s been allowed to travel with the secretary. her name is erin mcpike, she s from a semiobscure conservative outlet called the independent journal review and she happened to have published a highly complimentary piece about the secretary earlier this month. joining me, anne-marie slaughter, president and ceo of the think tank new america. i ve been obsessed with this press aspect of the story because it s hard to communicate why it matters but it does matter that the secretary of state has briefings everyday they that they let reporters in. it s the way checks and balances works. the state department talks about what we re doing and reporters ask tough questions and citizens get to make up their minds but it s also important for the world. this is what leading or simply being an enormously important