Page 470 - Predecessors News Today

>> well, weve seen how president trump has aggravated tensions with some of our staunchest allies in europe. and at the same time, we know that the state department really isnt functioning at full capacity. a lot of key jobs arent even staffed at this point. i think what former president obama is doing as he travels around is a little bit of repair work for some of the tensions that are created by president trump. so he benefits from that. these alliances are important, and theyre important to p...

Passing the torch to someone else. why is it so important for presidents to maintain a healthy working relationship? >> because very few people know what this job is about. it is incredibly difficult to go through the challenges that a president goes through and face the multiple policy issues and crises that emerge. so historically presidents turn every now and then to their predecessors to figure out what to do. you can hear tapes of president kennedy talking to eisenhower or president johnson...

Ensures our president elect is successful. >> i just went to the oval office and found this wonderful letter from president obama. he was very nice to me but after that, we have had difficulties. he was very nice with me with word and when i was with him but after that, there has been no relationship. >> no relationship. so lets talk about this with errol louis, cnn political commentator and political analyst julian selzer of princeton university. does the lack of relationship affect wh what hap...

Week? >> no, no, no. not at all. in fact, i think, look. julian put his finger on it. there are past presidents who have been able to get along with their predecessors even in the case of bill clinton and george h.w. bush. >> the biggest example there. >> exactly. he defeated him. he beat him. that is not just having different politics. he went directly at him and took the mans job. in this case, i think we are not going to see anything resembling that kind of relationship because donald trumps ...

Conceivable he will go through the remainder of his presidency without really healing these rifts or without reaching out to his predecessors, democrat ic o republican. >> another sound bite of president trump talking about the letter he received and truly felt touched by the word that came from president obama. president trump seeming now distained or dislike of president obama. do you think that is political theater or do you think that personally he really does not like the man? >> well, for ...

Forgo even the faintest of ties or pleasantries with his predecessors. joining me, a cnn political analyst, professor and historian at princeton, university. julian, you believe the president is not just isolated from obama but also his predecessors in the republican party. you argue that thats unlikely to change. why? >> yeah. i think what makes this distinct is not simply that hes isolated from president obama, its also the intensity of the dislike for him and separation. hes also not close to...

I had to take that into consideration. and i didnt have to do that with either of his predecessors, obama or bush. theres nothing that bob mueller or anybody else can do about that. but i think that gets at the essence of what i think a lot of the criticism of trump is, that they cant trust his character and i think thats why hes having so much trouble with allies and moving things ahead on capitol hill. and that is very clearly how he wound up in this situation with the special prosecutor. >> y...

That puts them in my view into the public squa ir. >> it was a pretty feisty exchange that you had with dan coats. have you lost any confidence in him to be as the director of national intelligence? >> what he did with respect to the matter of the foreign intelligence surveillance act is in my view a 180 degree retreat from what he had said earlier and actually what his predecessors said earlier. and it was commentary that reflects a misunderstanding of what this is about. smart policies will gi...

Days. but the bigger problem is simply a lack of nominees. far newer at this time than his predecessors for a bunch of reasons, a brutal vetting process by the white house. the never trump filter. if you criticized president trump in the fast you are not going to get invited in here. let me show you the department of energy. trump has nominated just three people. by this time in the obama and bush administrations, ten had been nominated and the majority confirmed. compare that to 40 for previous...

Can help us identify potential problems and stop them in their tracks. at bp, safety is never being satisfied. and always working to be better. today president trump blamed democrats for slowing down approval for nominees for office. trump tweeted, dems are taking forever to approve my people, including ambassadors. they are nothing but obstructionists. want approvals. the trouble is, trump himself is responsible for those jobs not getting filled. hes far behind his predecessors in submitting ...