Functioning State Department News Today

Lets be very clear. donald trump handed joe biden a stable afghanistan and a functioning state department. that completely collapsed. what the taliban heard when joe biden took over was that they could take city by city and eventually the whole country and not have pushback. >> bill: and so it went. ric grenell, thank you for your time. come back soon. thank you. the number of 2500 you have to ask at what point did the white house say get it to 1500 or 1,000. >> dana: he said something interesti...

Whats going on between south korea, north korea and the united states. >> this is what happens when you dont have a functioning state department. we dont have an ambassador to south korea. there isnt that communication. i think has been the whole problem. diplomacy has been put in tenth place. not even second place. people arent paying attention to what needs to be done. >> kwhawhats your advice to mes of the foreign relations committee. >> this is not easy because i think that senators have a r...

Asked him about why the president hasnt been more forceful himself or if he was concerned repeatedly pivoted to other people in the administration. so the administration in whole or talked about mike pompeo. what does it say that a republican cannot point to the president as the le-- the leade on thirks s. >> we dont know. but they simultaneously expelled hundreds of diplomats. it is not that we did it, we did it in concert with 14 countries in europe. that is -- for a unilateral relations and n...

Under the cover of russian government officials. so what does that mean? typically these 60 would have been sent here under the cover of the ministry of foreign affairs. russias aequivalent of the state department posing as military aides but doing the work of russian intelligence. what does that mean? that is meeting with american government officials, meeting with american business people, meeting with academics and with reporters, with civil sewite elemen -- society to glean information to se...

So its entirely possible that thats the thing that finally set trump off. on the other hand, trump being trump it could be that he didnt like the why tillerson combed his hair. >> or that he called him an fing moron. >> that seems to be something for everybody. hes going to have to fire a lot more people. >> rosa was charitable in saying he wasnt a good secretary of state. the general read is that he was a terrible secretary of state, maybe one of the worst weve ever had. do you comport with the...

So i do think it was deliberate in a sense. going forward, i think they need to take a good look at the priority positions we need to fill with dedicated career individuals who know what theyre doing as we move forward in this complicated world. we have the president meeting with the north korean leader. who is going to lead those talks on the state department side? who is going to brief them up on that? so youre seeing it across the board. >> rosa, that presumes that the white house wants to ha...

Ambassadorial posts around the globe not filled. a number of undersecretary, assistant secretary roles not filled. weve seen that vacuum of leadership for the department, for our key allies across the globe, its usual that we fill those spots and move forward and hopefully secretary designate pompeo can work closely with the white house because they do have that relationship. lets put forward qualified experienced individuals in these roles so we can move forward. >> do people think the dismantl...

Firing of mccabe and is almost certainly speculating about it. its something hes interested? >> what happens if that happens? what happens inside the justice department if that happens? do you think rosenstein will do it? >> i dont think so. i think the president would have to fire his way down the line to find someone who did. i think the president is testing the waters, seeing if republicans push back on him. if he doesnt hear that kind of push back, youll see him move. >> eric guster, what ha...

Leader. the big meeting hes got coming up, alex, is with the leader of ind india, with modi when he arrives in the philippines tomorrow, but these personal relationships can add a little flavor and color, at the end of the day, its geopolitics, economics that will drive it. the u.s. decision to withdraw from the transpacific partnership was such a loss for the country. president trump over estimates what he can get out of a handshake. he underestimates what he can get out of a functioning state ...

Errol, what do you think? >> its a great answer. it works in part because it skirts the real issue. the real issue is that the secretary of state has been undercut by the president. more importantly, though, its not clear whether or not the state department as a whole, diplomacy as a whole is supposed to be downplayed. we keep hearing about the funding cuts. we keep hearing about the staffing chaos. there were a number of different desks that do not have managers in front of them. that is rex ti...