american people. ma from the mailroom, to the sernt floor and all points in between. and all of our missions abroad. our locally appointed staff and our efms, eligible family members, to our investors in our chief mission. everyone is important in the state department. in terms of the transition, i conducted all the policy decks that were developed by you and your colleagues. they were first the basis of discussion at the national security counsel, and ultimately with the president. these decks of which i counted 13 since february 1st of 2017 provide not only the policy basis but the strategies and tactics which guide the department s execution against
president obama should have done it a long time ago and president trump should do it similarly very quickly. let them know we ll either retaliate in kind or levy economic sanctions or do more of the sort of individual sanctions that the president announced last week. but this is absolutely critical, in addition to spending a lot of money, and time and effort hardening our own system so we can t be held at risk. and just a few seconds left but the administration has acted. we can say that. the president though is still perceived as slow to act against russia. what message do you think that sends? well there is two things here. on a policy basis, i think he s been tough on russia. did he okay the sale of anti tank to the ukraine administration but the posture and the phone, i think he needs
and he s right. this is his job. he s been elected united states senator and it is his job to go and talk to his constituents, all of whom those people were. having said that, he also was in a position where the whole room was against him. i mean, let s be honest. most of the room was against him. they want to see changes that go far beyond what he wants to do, what he is willing to do, what he believes he should do. that s 100% true. i ve heard the school these were his constituents who have been been there no matter what. they also could have held town halls in more favorable parts of the state. while he definitely shifted on two things, he stood his ground on other things. i think it s important to understand like mike was talking about, if you want a realistic conversation about how things could actually move forward on a policy basis, then you need to understand where people actually stand on things, not just pander because of the
you know, he faced a lot of tough issues. in my view, he woke up every morning focused on what was best for the country. do you understand bannon s beef? well, you know, i suppose on a policy basis he thought he should have been tougher on immigration, as an example. instead george bush tried to figure out how do you come up with a consensus on immigration and so he did propose immigration reform. i think that s needed in this country. i think most americans do too. i want to move to tax reform here a little bit. this is going to be a big part of it. one of the initial votes you made and republicans made in general was essentially allowing for more deficit spending, if necessary, to grow the debt. you were concerned about the debt when barack obama was president. let me play some clips. the american people are rightly frustrated by the fact that we have the biggest deficit in the history of our country and the biggest debt ever. debt and deficit will end up in a fiscal crisis
unprecedented ways. and that s why, bottom line, lawrence, this is the reason why this week we ll celebrate the nine-month mark of trump s presidency. handy is the first president ever to go nine months without a single major bill passing the congress. nine months, 0 for nine months. that s because of how donald trump is handling all these relations with congress. let s listen to bob corker today in his way trying to explain to the president that these senators are all elected. they re elected in their own right. and bob corker didn t get there with any help from donald trump. and donald trump can expect bob corker to continue to speak his mind. let s listen to this. last week was obviously provide a lot of entertainment for all of you. but i m back up here this week. i ve got issues to deal with iran and issues to deal with north korea. and then we have the budget issue, which prepares us for tax reform. so i m up here on a policy basis. you know, i m not here leading