Page 66 - Brian Hook News Today

Office to pick a diplomatic fight with russia over hacking during the election, mr. trump is calling the russian president very smart for not responding. but mr. trumps stance on russia threatens to divide his administration and top gop lawmakers who want a tougher approach to vladimir putin. here to weigh in, our fair and balanced panel, brian hook former assistant secretary of state under president george w. bush, senior policy adviser to mitt romney and al modder, member of the clinton campai...

Russia. his former campaign manager with ties to russia. what is underneath that? maybe nothing. its worth looking at. >> brian, is this an achilles heel? even if there is no something else as al was suggesting, but the appearance of all these ties make it more difficult. every time he does something thats even conceivably positive towards putin, everyone jumps on trump and says now youre just putins puppet. >> i interpreted that tweet as putin has once again outmaneuvered president obama. there...

Whats troubling is we had a president-elect praising someone who engaged in criminal acts. >> brian, to that point, how tough are the sanctions that president obama put on russia. kicking out 35 diplomats, closing two diplomatic facilities. it kind of feels like a slap on the wrist, or is this essentially president obama allowing himself to be the bad cop to donald trumps good cop. >> i think it is a slap on the wrist. throughout obamas presidency, he has failed to taylor the punishment to the c...

United nations. at the u.n., 75% is spent on personnel and united states pays 22% of the total budget. so there are a lot of, i think, reforms and institutional reforms at the u.n. that could be done. i think that he will probably look at u.n. voting patterns and if people want to go against us at the united nations, there will be consequences. >> thank you so much, brian hook. former assistant secretary for george w. bush. thank you, brian. >> thank you. a difficult back to work commute for p...

President? >> thats the theory. exe for example, an emoluments clause, its a precatory law. hope you use your best interest because theres nothing we can do about it if you decide to go rogue. >> thank you very much. bringing in brian hook, former foreign policy adviser to mitt romney, and with us, former chairman of the washington, d.c. democratic party. brian, start with you. thank you both for coming on. i appreciate it the bay before thanksgiving. "washington post," reuters and our outlet me...

Thats certainly enforceable against him, and secondly, look for congress, regardless whether republican run or not, look for them to strengthen some of these laws in this conflict of interest law. while theyre all republicans they have good government types there and donald trump acts like he is abusing it like not divesting himself, what most elected officials do, then thats going to be a problem. its not going to be -- he cannot be emperor of the united states of america. he has checks and bal...

Of the nation, or something, and do something illegal? >> well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal. >> is that a fair comparison, brian? >> well, scott -- im scott. >> scott. im sorry, scott. >> definitely i like brian. >> brian, jump in. >> of course, that statement was wrong. we know what happened to nixon shortly thereafter. the bottom line, this conflict of interest law, weve never had a candidate like donald trump. >> and donald trump says himself. >> right. so th...

Where we are seeing unprecedented level over lapped between trumps private ambition and his public poll silicies an are still 51 days out. these are issues that will be plaguing at least four years and people are starting to target as issues and his election. >> the trump organization is still until this day investing new deals. are those deals affected and even if donald trump says they are not by him being the president elect. >> yes, you cannot discount of the deal that you are in and suddenl...

They both take a realistic view of the world which i think is a departure from the current president who has i thin think -- brian. >> largely conducted -- i think they take a realistic o f the world and focused on jobs and focused on advancing americas interests so i think there is enough over lap there where they can find some common ground to have a discussion of where they can work together. well see if they do end up working together. >> brian hook. thank you very much for joining me. senio...

It was very sincere. and it was productive. so i dont -- we dont know where it will lead right now. but i can tell you that it was a great first step. >> that was reince priebus today on how we should be reading into mitt romneys meeting with the president-elect. joining me now is brian hook. thanks for being with us today. >> thank you. >> was yesterdays meeting to mend fences or was this to set us up for when the campaign announces that governor romney will be the next secretary of state? >> b...