Page 347 - Predecessors News Today

Debated, one selected, and then rolled out. this is impulsive behavior by the commander in chief. >> and paul rykoff, all the veterans there, theyve all served and probably have relatives and siblings and kids who are in the service. its a military community. theyve got to be concerned. here youve got a president who spoke of the eu as a foe but befriends vladimir putin, to the generals point, strips veteran intelligence officials who have worked under different administrations, or threatens to ...

People public servants, theyre citizens. remember that. they have the right to free speech, like everybody else. >> its also interesting, jackie kucinich, that a lot of times a current director of national intelligence, a current cia director, current national security adviser, will want to bring in predecessors to get a sense of, for example, how a foreign intelligence operative was working in terms of some background information. if you remove security clearances from a james clapper, for exam...

>> because its very, very common for current officials to speak with their predecessors, to get some sense if theyre having a sensitive meeting, for example, with a foreign intelligence official, they may want to call in a predecessor, maybe of a different party, maybe somebody with a different experience just to get a sense of what it was like. thats why ive been told you still need some security clearances. >> well, yes. and i did that in the positions, senior positions i occupied. as director...

To keep it for years to come because of what you outlined. in the past, people relied on their predecessors for advice and so forth. that was the rationale for allowing them to keep it at the highest levels, not everybody. but maybe times have changed and maybe things have changed now because people are leaving the intelligence community and immediately going on television and becoming partisan participants in these debates were having, which, by the way, im telling you theyre entitled to do 100...

Consults with past directors. >> of course. >> what was it like meeting with a foreign intelligence chief, meeting with predecessors, director of the dia or nsa, they all like to speak with predecessors. potentially, how much of an impact could this have on national security? >> well, lets keep in mind that the trump administration is already pretty thin in the talent pool. there are a lot of positions they havent filled. theres a lot of talent that frankly doesnt want to work for trump. so to a...

So that almost gives us confirmation that there is something that they have in common. the president is not going to like this. vladimir putin isnt going to like it. i think everyone else recognizes that these two men have a lot in common. they both love dictators, they both want to wield power in a way that their predecessors didnt possess. >> michael dan toneio, thank you so much. >> my pleasure. coming up, rating his rivals. the president says he knows who he wants to battle for another fou...

The job that he would change a little bit when he got into the white house? >> to some degree i guess. we always thought, everybody thinks that the office weighs heavy on an individual. and every president has talked about how the office changes them. you see things and become privy to things that you never knew and it weighs heavy on your decision-making process. but i think to your point, we and in particular approach this in a very traditional sense. i talked to my predecessors on a bipartisa...

The republicans blocked it. theyve tried in every way, and the president joined them in undermining this investigation and its a serious attack on our democracy. neil: so throwing more diplomates out of this country than any of his predecessors. beefing up troops along eastern side of the ukraine, the russians western side and doing this sort of stuff, none of that shows substance over work? >> i think the presidents statements about vladimir putin, the unwilling necessary to challenge him on th...

Personal relationship with tony blair. it shows you the danger of having a meeting without having the goals hashed out beforehand. >> jon: president trump doesnt seem to think much of his predecessors approach to russia. listen to what he said on cnbc yesterday regarding president obama. >> president trump: look at the sanctions ive put on. look at the diplomats i threw out. look at all of the things that ive done. nobody else did what ive done. obama didnt do it. obama was a patsy for russia. h...

One of the preeminent russia experts in america, hes a nation" magazine and he joins us tonight for some perspective in this conversation. you have followed this country for 50 years and know many of the leaders personally. give us a sense of what is at stake in this conversation about russia for the united states. >> for 75 years, the president of the united states, beginning with roosevelt, has met the leader of the kremlin, beginning with eisenhower in the atomic age, the main purpose was to ...