Transcripts For MSNBCW Andrea Mitchell Reports 20171005 : vi

See him later today. Right now let me turn you to Andrea Mitchell for Andrea Mitchell reports. Castaway. Rex tillerson cozying up to the Vice President today as all sides try to play nice. That exclusive report on the feud between the president and the secretary of state. And Foreign Policy leaders worry about what this signals to the rest of the world. Secretary tillerson, secretary mattis and chief of staff kelly are those people that help separate our country from chaos. Did he act alone . We are learning more about when and where Stephen Paddock bought the arsenal of assault weapons that he used to kill 58 people in las vegas as investigators talk to his girlfriend and search for another woman of interest. We know that Stephen Paddock is a man who spent decades acquiring weapons and ammo and living a secret life, much of which will never be fully understood. You have to make the assumption he had to have help at some point. And hitting a wall. The Senate Intelligence Committee Says there are more questions than answers in the russia investigation. The issue of collusion is still open, that we continue to investigate both intelligence and witnesses, and that were not in a position where welcome to any type of temporary finding on that until weve completed the process. Coming up here, the top democrat leading the house russia investigation, adam schiff, on what he has found out. Good day, everyone. Im Andrea Mitchell in washington. The president S National Security team scrambling to contain the fallout from an exclusive nbc news report that secretary of state Rex Tillerson called the president a moron and also threatened to quit in july. A show of support today from the Vice President side by side with tillerson at a National Space Council Meeting while the president fires back, tweeting today, Rex Tillerson never threatened to resign. This is fake news put out by nbc news. Low news and reporting standards. No verification from me. After the story first broke yesterday, both sides went into damage control. The president says he has total confidence in rex. The secretary of state holding an extraordinary News Conference to praise the president and deny he had considered quitting. I was appointed by the president and im here as long as the president feels i can be useful to achieving his objectives. Cnn officials confirmed that tillerson did threaten to resign in july after clashing with the white house repeatedly over policy, but was talked out of it by general mattis and general john kelly. Joining me with all of this, kristen welker, part of the team who reported on this, and ann geary, the correspondent with the washington post. Kristen, first to you. This relationship is whats been described to me as toxic between the president and the secretary of state. Is that sustainable . Reporter thats right. And that is the concern here, was in the administration. Look, the tensions that we have seen bubble up really came to the surface yesterday, andrea, in the wake of our reporting. Look, to put this into a broader context, these tensions are not new. We have seen this over the handling of the crisis in cutter. Weve seen this over how to deal with north korea. Just this weekend President Trump criticizing his secretary of state of his handling of the crisis in north korea, saying its a waste of time to have talks with that country. Weve seen these tensions, but what happened yesterday was remarkable, because in the wake of our report, the secretary of state felt the need to come to the podium and say definitively that he supports the president. But, of course, that moment when he was asked whether he actually called the president a moron, he didnt answer, effectively. So that concerned people here within the administration. He didnt deny that reporting. The problem, though, for the president is that he already has a number of posts that effectively havent been officially filled, for example, dhs, hhs with the ouster of tom price just last week, and hes had so much turnover here from his Communications Directors to his press secretary, sean spicer. So there is a real concern about any more turnover. But, of course, the implications for National Security and diplomacy could be very significant, and thats a big focus here, andrea. Ann gear, the state department is really paralyzed by all of this. Yes. The paralysis at the state department has a number of reasons behind it, but certainly the question of what leadership tirre tillerson is providing within the state department is an open one. And if the state department cant be an effective player within the administration, which basically means him and what pull he has at the white house, you know, that affects what else the state department can do. Is it the place that diplomats in washington who traditionally interact with the state department at all levels, basically for anything that they need, stt plais it the place why feel they can get answers . Is it the Place Congress feels they can get answers, and do those interactions actually work . The fact is, even those who have been critical of Rex Tillerson and his management, the fact that foreign leaders and their ambassadors dont have an easy path to getting a meeting with him, they cant get foreign secretaries in. The players of the assistant secretaries are not in place, the protocol is not in place. The whole structure of the state department as weve always known it, you and i, and weve covered it for decades, has broken down. Yeah. A certain amount of the work continues, right . Secretary tillerson is doing the work of the secretary of state. He is traveling, he is having his meetings, he is coming to those meetings informed and so forth. The state department will announce later today that he is traveling later this month to india, pakistan and afghanistan, for example, a traditional state department trip. That part of the ship is sailing. But beneath it is a whole lot of chaos. I heard a story this morning about a new ambassador in town who wanted to get a meeting for the countrys foreign minister and went through the usual channels at the state department. Heard nothing for five months, then got a message saying the secretary will meet your minister tomorrow and this country is not near the United States. Just that sort of thing. Ive heard exactly the same. Your story today is head lined death spiral. Kristen, just look at the people. You referenced the fact that he cant lose the secretary of state right now. Look at the people who have left. Youve got the chief of staff reince priebus, press secretary sean spicer, National Security adviser Michael Flynn after only 28 days, White House Communications director Anthony Scaramucci after ten days, steve bannon, secretary of health and Human Services tom price. He hasnt replaced john kelly who has elaine duke as the acting secretary at dhs, so he cant lose another cabinet, and this is the most important cabinet secretary, the one fourth in line for the presidency. Reporter and there is a concern, andrea, if there were any more ousters here within the administration that it would make it that much more difficult to get credible people to come in ask fill these very important positions. Dhs secretary, hhs secretary. Thats the key focus here, and as you point out, the position of secretary of state is perhaps the most important position here in the administration. So there is a real hesitancy to rock this boat even though there are these tensions that have been on display publicly and that, again, really bubbled up to the surface yesterday, andrea. The president is very aware of making sure that his administration does not look like it is being royaled on a weekly bas roiled every day by staff upsets. But if there are all these fundamental differences on issues like north korea which is arguably the most pressing Foreign Policy crisis they are facing right now, how can they proceed if theyre consistently on different pages, andrea . Of course, iran with a decision to be made before october 15th, whether to proceed or recertify the iran nuclear deal. Thank you, kristen welker, for all your reporting, ann gearen as well. Former senator chairman bob corker is trying to calm troubled waters between the president and his secretary of state. I think secretary tillerson, secretary mattis and chief of staff kelly are those people that help separate our country from chaos. And i support them very much. I deal with people throughout the administration, and he, from my perspective, is in an incredibly frustrating place. He ends up not being supportive in the way that i would hope a secretary of state would be supportive. Kel. Kelli Kelly Ann Conway gave her opinion this morning. He is crediting their leadership keeping this country from the chaos around the world. They support the president. Joining me now is former defense secretary bill cohen who also served on capitol hill as a senate member, a house member. Youve done it all. Youve written novels, youve written poetry. Maybe you can come up with a poem, a haiku, perhaps, to describe the relationship. The odyssey of Rex Tillerson. Oh, my gosh, bill kohn, i know there have been disputes between defense secretaries and secretaries of state. Classically, schultz and wi weinberger. Weve seen the kissinger state department, secretary rogers, secretary vance not getting along with brzenski. First of all, let me say a word about Rex Tillerson. He is a serving man, a substantive man and a good man. I think hes been undercut from the beginning. Not able to pick his own jeopardy, which one would think if youre giving up a very big career with exxonmobil, leading one of the Biggest Companies in the world, and then having to deal with the Tax Implications of accelerating all he was going to get in the future, thats a real commitment on his part. Hes a real patriot. But hes been undercut from the beginning. And i think time after time hes tried to engage in diplomacy, and the president has undercut him. So this normally takes place inside the administration. No cabinet head likes being overruled by the president , even in private. But to be overruled time after time in public and undercut in public really is demoralizing certainly to the state department. Rex tillerson feels committed to this position and has made it clear he wants to stay on. But its really up to the president , obviously, and its also up to him. Does he think he can continue to be effective . The problem is that every time this spills out, people around the world question, is secretary of state tillerson speaking for the president , or are they at laugerheads . The notion that he would go out of his way to try to have a diplomatic solution in north korea and have the president say youre wasting your time, one would think before you go to the region, you would take your schedule, your itinerary and say, im having meetings with the following. And have it really clear to the white house saying, this is a list of the following people im going to meet. Apparently that wasnt done or secretary tillerson went on his own. He went to beijing. It was a single mission, to meet with president xi and prepare for the president s meeting and get some of the waters calmed down about u. S. Posture towards north korea. Before president xi went into his communist party congress. And so if that was his sole mission, how could that not have been done in the National Security Council Process . Or was the president freelancing on sunday only hours after secretary tillerson landed . Its really a process whereby the heads of the cabinet are dealing with a particular issue get together, and with the National Security adviser, go over the itinerary, the plans, the proposals and to work those out if there are any differences. Bottom line, you travel around the world, you talk to leaders everywhere. Heads of government and their Foreign Ministers do not believe that Rex Tillerson speaks for the president. Thats clear. So how can he function . Well, you also have secretary jim mattis who has talked about diplomacy. He and secretary tillerson are on the same page while the president is saying, we have to rain fire and fury in north korea. Who came out first . Secretary mattis saying diplomacy is Still Available to us, we must pursue it. And on iran. Mattis says its in our National Interest to assert that iran is abiding by the conflicines of t nuclear plan. But it undercuts his authority, so to use the phrase of senator corker, it makes it more chaotic. Isnt it builtin when you have your soninlaw doing the middle east negotiations and when you, the president , are signing on to a posture of saudi arabia against another ally where we have our biggest military base, and then you disavow the diplomacy to try to smooth that over within an hour of secretary tillerson making a speech on that. Rosa brooks wrote an interesting book. She said when war is everything, the military becomes everything. That is the question. Secretary tillersons job is to engage in diplomacy, not to threaten war. Hes got the warfare component backed up by secretary of defense, but the notion that were simply going to threaten and threaten and not sit down and try to figure out a way that we can resolve this peacefully seems to me to be contrary to our interests. Should he quit . If he feels he can serve the president effectively, he should stay. If hes come to the conclusion that he no longer has the ability to carry out that mission, then he should leave. But thats up to him and the president. If the president feels he needs him and wants him, obviously hell stay. People outside really can make recommendation but only those two people have the right and the ability to make that choice. Thank you so much, secretary bill kohn. Gun safety. Will republicans finally agree to some gun measures to prevent semiautomatic weapons being converted into machine guns. Plus the latest on the russia investigation. Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. I write them a poem instead. And one for each of you too. Woman cool. That actually yours. That one. Yeah. Regardless, were stuck with the bill. To many, words are the most valuable currency. Last i checked, stores dont take words. Man some do. Oh. alert beeps not everyone can be the poetic voice of a generation. I know, right . Such a burden. Settle up with your friends on october 17th with the bank of america mobile banking app. Settle up with your friends on october 17th you can avoid extra calories trifrom cooking r. With too much butter and oil. Introducing new pam spray pump. With 1 gram of fat and ten calories per serving plus the superior nonstick you love. Hashtag omeletgoals new pam spray pump. vo more dper rollres for mom bounty is more absorbent, so the roll can last 50 longer than the leading ordinary brand. So you get more life per roll. Bounty the quicker picker upper im learning new details about las vegas gunman Stephen Paddocks background. As federal investigators continue the intricate task of combing through his personal devices trying to find any clues that could hint at a motive, nbc justice correspondent Pete Williams joins me now. What have they learned within the last day or so . Nothing about moeftive, andr, but youre right, going through the Electronic Devices does shed light on a little more of what he was going through. He did research on other highrise hotels, notably boston for fenway park and chicago for grant park. He went so far as to get a hotel room in the chicago case, but he never went there, and there is no indication he went to boston, either. Theyre still trying to figure out whether anybody helped him. The sheriff had said he finds it inconceivable that Stephen Paddock was able to pull this off on his own, but so far they have found in indication that he did have help from anyone else, it appears he bought all the guns himself, but thats very much an open question. At this stage, what do they know about his girlfriend and whether or not i know she said she didnt know anything, that she was sent he sent her away with a ticket and with money to get her out of the country. What about this other woman that they think they saw with him . Could she have been they dont know. Theyre trying to nail that down. There are some people who say they saw him with another woman. Theyre trying to figure out what that might be, what that relationship might have been. They just dont know. Theyve asked for tips, theyre getting tips. Theyve got to run them all down. Some of them are going to turn out to be true and some of them are not, and i think this is in that go either way category that theyre trying to figure out exactly who it is. Get in touch with this woman and find out what the deal was. And pete, one of the things thats so fascinating is when they looked at his history of buying guns, there was an appreciable difference just about a year ago. Have they figured out what might have been changed in his life . Yes. He started buying guns 35 years ago, but just a year ago, he started buying them at a much faster rate. Almost threequarters of the guns that he owned he bought in just the last year, almost all of them rifles, the kind that were in his hotel room. So what was he thinking . What happened in his life . Was there s