How important this process is, to getting confirmation, as we saw what happened in 1986. More importantly, i think he took head on a lot of the critics and criticism of decisions that hes made and votes hes cast. And i thought in particular, with cory booker becoming historic, you saw the first sho for the 2020 democratic nomination for president. Lets just put that on the table. Certainly, thats part of the drama and theater of what he chose to do. But i also found it somewhat ironic that just in january of 2016, in legislation that he cosponsored with mr. Sessions, that celebrated those who walked from walked the selma mile, if you will, that he referred to him as it was a great honor to work with him and that he appreciated his commitment to civil rights. And yet now sees him as he referred to him as a danger
with danger to our country, as hes been quoted to say. The politics is not lost here. I think everyone in this town understands that. And to have this staged the way it was with the civil rights community, those who were supportive of mr. Sessions versus those who were against mr. Sessions, first time ive seen that kind of play out this way. I thought that was dramatic and very effective. Michael steele, thank you. Dont go anywhere. Youre not getting off that easy because im going to have you react to what we just witnessed in the past hour. To our viewers joining us, the top of the 2 00 p. M. Hour here on the east coast, welcome. We are juggling and continue to juggle many different events. We just saw the wrapup of the sessions hearing. We saw we all witnessed on live televisionnbsolutely extraordinary Press Conference by the President Elect, his first since july. And earlier our day started with
germany would have done and did do. As far as hacking, i think it was russia. Russia will have much greater respect for our country when im leading it than when other people have led it. If putin likes donald trump, guess what, folks, thats called an asset not a liability. Turns out that collection was just on the one topic of russia and Vladimir Putin. Michael, a lot of people who do what you do for a living, have been around the process, were a little shaken by what they saw today on so many fronts, bumping up against not just tradition but precedent. We had a former Ethics Lawyer in the Obama Administration come on the air with us today who said that what he heard, quote, guarantees scandal, corruption and controversy for at least the first part of the trump
ramifications of what hes about to do and whether or not hes listened to that. The lawyers may have advised it, but theyre ultimately going to take to heart the orders that their client gives them in terms of how he wants this stuff structured and how he intends to deal with it. So, yeah, i think theres going to be a lot of legal challenges. The question on the legal side is who has standing to bring any lawsuits against donald trump to force his hand on some of this stuff. Thats one thing. But i still think the underlying ethical perception is one that will create the biggest to turn for the incoming administration. At the end of the day, that eats at the American People a lot more than anything else. And for an administration thats talking about Cleaning Swamps and being transparent and wanting to do all these things, it starts with this, i think. Michael steele, thank you. As we always thank you for being patient with us and sharing your opinions with us. Before we go to kristen welker, who was in the room,
its been a while since we ran through just what it is tha donald trump said on all these topics, so if youll forgive me, this may hopscotch, as the event did. Starting with a lot of Car Companies are going to be moving in. He meant moving into the United States, moving jobs in or, in some cases, back to the United States. Our Drug Industry has been disastrous. They are getting away with murder. He called himself perhaps the greatest job producer that god ever created. He talked about this intelligence leak as something nazi germany would do. He called the website buzzfeed a failing pile of garbage. In a Shouting Match with jim acosta from cnn called cnn fake news. About senator lindsey graham, republican of south carolina, quote, hes going to crack that 1 barrier some day. About the ability of
turned down a 2 billion deal with dubai. I have no Conflict Of Interest provision as president. Quote, id be the only one who would be able to do that. And on and on on obamacare, a disaster. Its going to be replaced simultaneously, perhaps, the same hour with its replacement. He talked about the wall with mexico. Said were going to build a wall. Dont feel like waiting. That was to explain that mexico will reimburse the United States for the cost of the wall. Well, kristen welker, you were the only one among us in the room for that event. Dy get it about right . Reporter you did. I think you got the list very right. Pretty impressive because he certainly did cover a lot. To kind of underscore the point youre making, this was a candidate who was in a constant state of battle. I think what we saw today is
be improved. So, i think this was a wideranging Press Conference. It covered a number of issues. But theres still a lot to drill down on as hes just about nine days out from inauguration, brian. Kristen, we had immediately following the event you were making your way out to the Camera Position where you are now on fifth avenue. We had the attorney nor eisen onhe air, former Ethics Lawyer for president obama. I was so struck by his quote. I wrote it down. He said what he heard today guarantees scandal, corruption and controversy. And you heard our discussion with michael steele. Is it possible that donald trump, who after all, hired a prominent attorney from the d. C. Firm jones day to be his white house counsel, and can get all and any of the legal advice he pleases right now as President Elect, is it possible he is getting that bad advice
that would make him lay out a Business Agreement that is now open to challenge and could enshroud the start of his presidency in controversy . Reporter well, i think that were in unchartered territory because weve never had a president who has also overseen a vast Business Empire. So, you heard the pushback. You heard his attorney there prebutt any critic who would say, why isnt he fully divesting himself from his Business Interests . In other words, leaving no shred of a doubt there could be no Conflict Of Interest. The response to that is that he would still be, if he, in fact, divested himself, getting money in some way, shape or form. I think theres still a lot of thor questions around tt and also around the fact that his Business Interests are going to now go to his adult sons. And will that not present conflicts of interests in and of themselves . Thats going to be a
casebycase basis, brian. Absolutely, this is something that is going to be open to intense scrutiny over the next four years and in these days leading up to the inauguration. Were now going to have to drill down specifically on what his team of attorneys said today and whether or not it actually stands up to legal statute. Those are some of the key questions. A lot of critics saying, well, having his kids run his businesses doesnt necessarily get rid of the conflicts of interests. It just compounds some of the really tough questions. You heard him at the end, though, ending on that very striking note, pointing to the pack of Manila Folders next to him saying, this underscores just how complicated my Business Empire is. Im hoping my sons do a good job of running this. If not, theyre fired. Reminding everyone at the heart of this, he is, in fact, a businessman. Kristen, welker, thank you for that assessment outside trump tower. For those who did not see the event, on just the subject of
conflicts potential conflicts of interests, here is part of what donald trump had to say on that front. I have a noconflict situation because im president , which is i didnt know about that until about three months ago, but its a nice thing to have. I have a noConflict Of Interest provision as president. It was many, many years old. This is for president s because they dont want president s understand, they dont want president s getting tangled up in minutia. They want a president to run the country. I can actually run my business and run government at the same time. We actually have a lawyer standing by to talk to us on this front. Greta vis watching this with us. What do you make of that . Its very complicated because he has many business arrangements. We all knew when he was elected hes a businessman. Thats not a disqualifier to be president. He just has to be 35 years of age. Its going to be difficult. Sometimes its going to be
thorny and get a lot of criticism, but if he has transparency of it and let the American People know and if he follows the law to the letter of the law and he has lawyers carefully monitoring this, thats okay. But even if he does everything perfectly fine and does everything to the letter of the law, you can expect, this is washington, he will be criticized by his political opponents. Make no mistake about it, this is complicated, but i think everybody has to be practical in the sense that he cant just sell all his assets and move into 1600 pennsylvania avenue. What is when you hear the Ethics Lawyer for the Obama Administration say to us this quote ive been repeating that this guarantees scandal, corruption and controversy. What about the advice donald trump is getting potentially opening the door to an early time in his Administration Just enshrouded in all of this . What you said is ethics
ethics adviser for the Obama Administration, thats the first key that this has highly risk of being political. Highly risk of being political. Anybody who walks in that white house has the potential for scandal. It may not be business. It can be a whole lot of other things. That seems to be one of the most Popular Industries here in washingtwatc washington, d. C. , is scandal. Theres potential for it, of course there is. One thing my attention is on is not something he does during the four years in the immediate scandal but is there a risk he makes any decision now with an eye on the fifth year or the ninth year when hell be back out as a citizen and making business decisions, is there any any decision he makes right now will in any way influence something down the road . But, you know, he was elected president. I think the fair thing to do is cut him a break on the issue of this. Hes got lawyers. Assuming those lawyers are decent and honorable. And were going to have to sort
of sort our way through this. Without any question, this should be subject to very, very strict scrutiny. Not just today but every step of the way. Gret tashgs thanks. Well watch your broadcast for yo coverage of the event we all witnessed today. Ali velshi remains in our studios here in new york. When he says, i have this no Conflict Of Interest thing. This is interesting. We need to sort of step back from thinking about Conflict Of Interest as just a legal phenomenon. There are all sorts of conflicts of interests because im makinging a decision that seems to be in the interest of one party or a large party but, in fact, i might be benefitting from that. His whole way of perceiving this is odd. There are people who will say, if you have the ability to profit, as greta says, later on, or if your sons have the ability to profit from something, that is a conflict and some of that is perceived. The idea were standing and listening to sheri dillon, his lawyer from morgan lewis, his
lawyer for a long time, by the way, having her explain that its not a conflict doesnt actually make it not a conflict. I take exception to something greta said, while i welcome her to the family, he can sell his businesses. It may be hard. It may be unwieldy. It may be difficult. But this is the presidency of the United States. This isnt a side job. When he continues to say that, theres some sense hes not necessarily fully accepting the gravity of what he ran very hard to do and got. This is difficult and its complicated, to be president of the United States. If he wanted to sell his things, he could. If he wanted to put them in a blind trust, he could. Hes not doing that and thats the problem. I keep hearing this defense that we knew what we were getting into, in effect. We knew we were hiring donald trump to be president of the United States i agree with that. I agree the people in many cases the people he often refers to in Those Industrial States who referred to him, dont care a bit about this discussion were talking about right now. If he brings jobs back, if he raises wages, if he gets a result that gets us better economic growth, this becomes an ivory tower conversation. Lets do a thinghey teach you in tv school and that is reference the video that is airing on the screen right now. That solitary man is the ceo of exxonmobil, rex tillerson, for the purposes of our conversations today, he has been nominated as the next Secretary Of State to the United States. Imagine his timing, his hearing starts today. Overnight last night americans and that includes members of the house and senate, got to kind of chew on a potentially explosive story, knocked down vigorously today by donald trump, about information that russia may possess on donald trump that would be greatly compromising to him on a personal, financial and political basis. We thought we would bring a
guest of high esteem to our studio to help us talk about the relationship between the United States and russia, thomas pickering, former u. S. Ambassador to russia under president clinton, 1993 to 1996. Among his jobs, on behalf of this country, ambassador, welcome. Thank you. Good to see you again. Its nice to be back. Whats the i always call it the viewers guide. What do we need to know about russia, about our relationship to russia and what, if anything, set you off today listening to donald trump on this . E need to know t relationship is troubled, that there is at this point there is some afemoral relationship between donald trump and Vladimir Putin. That might change things. Its not impossible. Vladimir putin may be in the mood to change, having not progressed very far with the projects hes now undertaken,
but we dont know. The evidence on the compromise, the piece of information that is, in fact, out there that seems to be collected by the russians with the potential of having influence on donald trump is not yet verified. The u. S. Intelligence community has been careful about that. And, indeed, we havent seen after perhaps a couple of months of trying in washington that any of the press has come up with anything that says this is the real mccoy. So, trump is saying what he normally would say under these circumstances. Its fake news. We dont know how this is going to play out. We do know two things that are very important. One, russia is a very important country for us that possesses a Nuclear Power that could destroy us and we them and the two of us the globe. Its not a fooling around matter. The second and most important thing i would say is, theIntelligence Community should not be a punching bag. The Intelligence Community is a serious bunch of very able people. Ive known many of them over the years and have Great Respect for them. And they do a very tough job very well. And when 16 or 17 agencies agree, and this was on the prior material, then its time to Pay Attention to them and not time to turn them into a Virtual Reality tv show. But get on with governance, which is something ive been saying. Governance is a very tricky problem. Ali velshi just said its hard stuff, and i couldnt agree with him more. This is the toughest job in the world. And it isnt, in my view, a job you can turn into a Virtual Reality tv show as much as we might want to have that entertainment coming our way. Mr. Ambassador, im not crazy to put it another way. Were sitting here looking at guy whos been nominated forSecretary Of State, in part, because of his relationship with russia and putin. And im not crazy in that we have heard people suddenly bending over backwards to normalize the idea of Vladimir Putin and russia. We need to be careful. I have the greatest respect for rex tillerson, and i have watched him in action, not close up, but from time to time. But i also think its very important that as we deal with russia, we have to know were not going to agree on everything all the time, but we also have to know there are some things we can come to agreement with them on as we did the soviet union, which is to stabilize the International Situation so that people with, put it this way, Trigger Fingers are very careful about what they do on both sides of