Michael Hanlan News Today

All whi lets get the latest m kevin corke. This relationship has seen more downs than ups lately, although youve heard many leaders over the past several years talking about the importance of trying to reestablish a relationship. Were talking about two countries that have frankly had their governments accuse the other of disruptive behavior and that is making things complicated as you point out as the secretary of state makes his way to moscow. The two diplomats meeting amid rising tensions. Eac...

This situation but with talks we have a hard time when the united states has called for complete change in iranian behavior an iran continues to cause mischief in the broader missed missed so i dont know if talks are likely to yield progress. >> michael we appreciate your insights today. >> thank you kindly. >> if house democrats hold attorney general william barr in contempt what will happen? we talked with bill hemmer about it and looked back at when congress actually locked some people up. th...

Standoff, ed. >> thank you for that lets bring in michael hanlan, senior fellow at brookings institution. he specializes in defensive strategy use of force and american security policy. welcome michael. >> nice to see you. >> how big a threat do you see this as as jennifer laces it out it may have been miscommunication. when the iranians are loading cruise missiles in boats it could be serious. >> yes. usually iran doesnt want to get in that kind of force on force confrontation with the u.s. bec...

Want to send a message if you figure tout rannians are behind those four attacks. on the other hand its pretty hard to find the right way to deliver just the right amount of punishment without risking an escalation. >> real quick michael. lets widen the lens about the stakes on the ground. these reports suggesting hard liners the white house like john bolton may have been pushing the president towards an attack on iran. some of those reports denied we should be clear but the same time that congr...

Those compounds back. we should make sure we know at the end of this meeting whether or not that was discuss zed as well. frankly, im hoping for a read out from somebody other than the russians of what goes on in the meeting. theres the four principles, the two leaders of the country and foreign ministers translators. unless they tell us what they are talking ability, we wont know what will be discussed. >> i think rex tillerson will brief reporters after the meeting. that is something we will a...

Interference. you said you think he will do it. do you have reason to believe he will do that in the next few minutes? >> i have reason to believe because he is a skilled negotiator and he knows it is relevant and theres no way to get around it. when russia desperately would like economic relief because of the sanctions. keep in mind, 50% of gdp is dependent on trade. its $3.7 trillion, ours is $18 trillion. they need us more than we need them economically. the other thing trump brought up is ge...

Well have to be creative on that front as well, this is a dangerous relationship. >> jenna: u.s. policy is not exactly fair. thank you, michael. a great discussion with you both. well have breaking news after a quick commercial.

Some limited role for assad temporarily and also winds this thing down and we can be clever enough to see some way to do that. >> jenna: some are saying -- this is what -- seems what michael saying as well, that we have more leverage in this moment in time. we have more leverage because of the strikes and russia might want some reconciliation where they save face. this issue in syria goes away a little bit. do you believe were in that particular moment in time? how crucial is it for these meetin...

Michael hanlan from the brookings institute. just to be transparent, we were expecting this joint presser to start 22 minutes ago. we dont know what the delay is. we can only theorize at this points. were looking forward to seeing both leaders step to the microphon microphones. id like to start with a basic question. what do we want from russia in 2017? should we be demanding from our leaders? rick, to you first. >> look, i think that russia at this point haas been used to for the last eight yea...

The president of the country. thats the kind of idea that id like to see us get through. >> jenna: michael, thanks. i want to make sure we go back to your ideas and solutions. rick, the u.s. embassy in russia has confirmed that rex tillerson is meeting with vladimir putin. this is significant because there was a big question, would this happen. i want to remind our viewer as few hours ago we got the news that as secretary of state rex tillerson is sitting down with the russian foreign admonish a...