seems to be contradicted in terms of the state of talks by the taliban just this morning. >> well, it's very hard to figure out the president's policy towards negotiations with the taliban because, remember, in september, they were very close to a deal. and then there was an attack that killed a u.s. soldier in afghanistan, and trump pulled the plug. he was even planning to invite the taliban to camp david and decided not to do that. and so the negotiations were off. now he's saying they're on. it's not clear what has changed between september and now. i would hope they'd take this opportunity to change the u.s. negotiating posture because i think there were a couple of major weaknesses with the u.s. envoy negotiating in september. one of them, there was no commitment from the taliban for a cease-fire as a precondition for american drawdown. and, two, there were no direct talks between the taliban and the government of afghanistan. i think it's crucial to do both of those so that you have a successful end to the war rather than just an american withdrawal leading to a possible taliban takeover. >> we just had maggie haberman