For the u. S. Theres a guy on social media pretty well connected to the military about what the president might be talking about is a Counter Attack on niger where we lost these three special u. S. Operators this week. I called one individual who is usually pretty connected and said, any upcoming attacks we dont know about. Have you been running the traps . Ive been focusing on the mueller, trump news tonight. Its remarkable there are so many possibilities. North korea, iran, yemen. Were taking Military Action in countries around the world where we havent been before. Theyre leaning on the balls of their feet. People are wondering whats next. I think thats why people were so concerned when they backed away and looked at the substance of what was said. Counselor, help us turn the corner into the mueller investigation. Muellers associates have found the author of the dossier. We learned this after they havent found it nor he is cooperating with them. Does the mueller team get to be the first and last american interview with him . Is he chief among equals . Usually thats how it works. So far theyve been deferring to the mueller investigation. Thats the way it should be because criminal charges will take precedence over any sort of Impeachment Proceedings or anything else that happens. Mueller will be writing a report over what happens here. In the case that criminal charges are not brought, that report will go to congress for any actions that they take. It seems like they would like to talk to mueller. Hes used to dealing with law
enforcement, hes probably more comfortable in that world rather than dealing with congress, elected politicians. I think he would be happier to be with mueller and his team. So even to a britt who has spent time in the intel world, this is a case where muellers reputation may have gained him entree that the senate has been unable to get . Of course. Mueller was fbi director for ten years. Im sure he knows mueller and his work and trusts him as pretty much everyone seems to. Im not surprised that he was able to interview him. Ken, on the dossier, you noticed something about the press briefing yesterday. Just the way they were approaching the subject and dealing with it. I found it remarkable that the republican chairman of the
senate Intelligence Committee richard burr basically said while they havent been able to corroborate the dossier, he said, they were able to rebuild. They corroborated it. I went back to make sure i understood what they were saying. Theyre not saying which parts. Its incredible you have mueller going with his team to interview steel. The fbi has had the information this this dossier for many months. What this tells me is they are following new leads. This dossier makes alarming allegations that donald trump is completely compromised by russia and that russian intelligence completely infiltrated it. Eli, what ken just said is a factual charge in chief in the document. The document also, how do i say this, contains a pornographic and decidedly nonhygenic portion. Knowing this was in the public sphere, donald trump who was enough of a germophobe for a long time who preferred not to shake hands, donald trump came out and talked to the media about this dossier. Youre going to rescue me after we listen to donald trump. When i leave our country, im a very high profile person, would you say . I am extremely careful. I was in russia with the Miss Universe contest in moscow, the moscow area. Did very, very well. I told many people, be careful because you dont want to see yourself on television. Be careful. Again, not just rush yeah, all over. Does anyone really believe that story . Im almost very much of a germ mow phone, by the way. What was notable by that answer, why it was a laugh line in the room. Most of us in the Mainstream Media have not yet and still have not talked about the details of the dossier knowing that people who want to read it can. They can. I dont know that we need to talk in great detail about it, but i will remind you that the campaign also had a pornographic, shall we say, portion to it that was embarrassing for the president , the Access Hollywood tape, and he survived that. I dont think at this point the president is worried about embarrassment. Most of the salacious details in the dossier did come out. What keeps the president up and what eats at him and what he conveys in private conversations with people who he speaks with about this investigation, is the over arching concern about his
legitimacy as a presidency, his presidency as a whole. Theres this Uncertainty Hanging over him that eats at him, just not knowing whats going to happen. I think for a guy who is so reflexive in tweeting, its remarkable. We havent heard witch hunt. We havent heard him complaining about it. In the private conversations he raises concern about this. You go back to the dossier and the 2013 pageant in moscow and some of the people and his associates, russians, they are part of this investigation. Some of those people are the same people involved in setting up that meeting in trump tower where they were offering the information about hillary clinton. Theres a lot of Overlapping Circles here. The president is scared. He wants it to be over. The people around him have had
some success in tamping down, soothing him, letting him vent in private rather than public. He knows theres a Long Way To Go and that wrappingless him. Counselor, if youre ty cobb and you hear that muellers folks have talked to steel, what are you thinking . I think theyre all terrified. Ty cobb is an experienced lawyer. Im sure he knows how to deal with this sort of thing. Its crisis time at the white house. Theyre having to gather up these documents. The mueller team is starting to interview people in the white house. Its crunch time. I think they are all very worried about what will happen. If youre muellers person, and by all accounts he has really put together kind of an allstar team, what do you want to know from steel . Do you ask steel, show us your homework . Exactly. The dossier is not usable evidence and steel himself is not personal. Theyre going to the sources themselves. Theyll try to coroborate those sources, Additional Information just the way steel would have only with an eye towards evidence that actually can be used in a court of law not just kind of things that are good enough for an oppo report. There you have it. Two journalists and a former assistant u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york. It must be thursday night on our broadcast. First break for us. Coming up, Rex Tillerson called to the white house amid this fallout and the bosss anger over being called a moron. New reporting on that when The 11th Hour comes back. Response to those who say the president has undercut the Secretary Of State. I think the premise of that question is absolutely ridiculous. The president cant undercut his own cabinet. The president is the leader of the cabinet. He sets the tone. He sets the agenda and i think that question makes no sense because of that. Thats how the white house publicly handled the nbc news reporting that the Secretary Of State, Rex Tillerson, called the president he serves a moron. Privately tonights new reporting says this, trump was furious when he saw the nbc news report, which was published shortly before 6 00 a. M. Wednesday. For the next two hours the president fumed inside the white house, venting to kelly, officials said. Nbc news can also report that Chief Of Staff john kelly summoned tillerson to the white house and notably they were joint by Secretary Mattis. More on that. They huddled to discuss a path
forward. With us to talk about all of it, Axios National reporter Jonathan Swan and shannon pettypiece. Welcome back to our broadcast. Lets bump the focus out to a wider shot here. How bad, how poisonous is the relationship now in your view based on what youre talking to and is this at all sustainable . Its really bad. Its actually worse than i thought it was 24 hours ago. Look, we reported three weeks ago that the relationship was terrible. We reported some things that trump had been saying about Rex Tillerson privately, that he just doesnt get it, that hes totally establishment in his thinking. We reported that he had alienated just about every constituency that matters in washington, from the white house to the State Department to capitol hill to the media, the Foreign Policy establishment, but in the past 24 hours, yes, trump has put on a public face
about its all fake news, i have full confidence in rex. His private face has been completely different. I now know to have a high degree of confidence. Their relationship is terrible. He views rex as being disloyal. He doesnt know why Rex Couldnt Have said, no, i didnt call the president of the United States a moron. Yes, its really bad. Im yet to speak to anyone inside the white house who views this as a sustainable situation. Thats not to say that, you know, i have any reporting to suggest that hes going to get fired on, you know, friday or anything anything remotely like that, but nobody thinks that this can continue. Its an unsustainable situation. All right, shannon. Jonathan has nicely set up the equation here. Heres the other side of this. With so many departures and the number of Foreign Countries who have the job of secretary of
state way more than our president generates the job and title and role, can they afford a departure any time soon . I think that and two other things may be the only thing that tillerson has in his favor at this point based on i agree with a lot of what jonathan said. One, optically it would look bad because the president has already come out and called this a made up story, fake news, called on congress to investigate fake news. If he fired tillerson based on the report, he would acknowledge it was true. The former ceo of exxonmobile thought he was a moron. I think there has to be a little time that passes. Despite the fact that he doesnt have a lot of allies coming to his defense, he tows have three really good advocates inside the white house right now in pence, kelly and mattis, who at least for now seem to be advocating
for him and trying to keep him in that position. But unlike the price situation there isnt a ground swell of support. That was really the red line. I dont see that similar talk with tillerson. I think we would be really, really surprised if tillerson is here long after his one year anniversary. Maybe he makes it until then. I would be surprised if he makes it past one year but i think we all feel increasingly so now. Jonathan, wheres that infrastructure package . How much time and energy has this zapped from the administration . And corrolarily, how much work got done this week . The president has, you know, obviously been dealing with las
vegas and puerto rico. Look, its gone nowhere. I understand thats your way into this whole situation. What theyve got now is a big problem ahead of them which is a continuing resolution to fund the government. Who knows if theyre going to get anywhere near the number that they want. Guess what, theyve also got tax reform . Yeah. Thats very, very, very thin at the moment. They have a whole lot of legislative work ahead of them and there are huge zbles just asking as a taxpayer. You can break a Tooth Driving across the city and so many cities. Shannon, do you believe the Stand By MeesqueBand Of Brothers, these three, tillerson, kelly, mattis, this agreement theyve formed, one for all, all for one, if one of us is under be attack, the three of us may consider leaving . I do, too. The Joint Chiefs Of Staff as well. Tillerson, mattis, dumbford, theyre marines and generals. That is a real Band Of Brothers there. Mcmaster. Hes not marines, but a former military man. I think tillerson may be a bit on the outskirts of that because he is not he does not share he has not literally been to war, into battle with these guys but, you know, he is sort of glommed on to their alliance here. Were certainly going to have to hes going to have to play his cards right. Theyre not going to be able to pull everything for him. All right. Thank you very much. What an interesting conversation tonight and there are so many moving parts. Jonathan swan, shannon pettypiece. I hope both of you will consider rejoining us on the broadcast very, very soon and as soon as you have more news. Coming up after the next break, trump has gone after the next deal like a hobbled zebra in a petting zoo. Is he still as passionately against it as he once was or is he looking for a way out . That and more when we continue. That is why we must put an end to irans continued aggression and nuclear ambitions. They have not lived up to the spirit of their agreement and we will be discussing that tonight. I think those are what we call prepared remarks. President trump today emphasized his displeasure with the Iran Nuclear Deal continuing a trend that stretches from the very beginning reaches of his campaign throughout his presidency thus far. I think the deal is horrible. I think the deal is absolutely horrible. Kerry might be worse because hes making a deal with iran that is so bad and so dangerous and so incompetent and stupid that it will have grave consequences. I dont know if youve been seeing whats going on with iran. They violated one of the worst deals ive ever seen negotiated at any level. Im not talking about country, im talking about at any level. This is the dumbest agreement i
think ive ever seen. As far as iran is concerned, i think they are doing a tremendous disservice to an agreement that was signed. It was a terrible agreement. It shouldnt have been signed. It shouldnt have been negotiated. Im all for agreements but that was a bad one. As bad as ive ever seen negotiated. The iran deal was one of the worst and most onesided transactions the United States has ever entered into. Frankly, that deal is an embarrassment to the United States. Well, now theres this. Ann gearan of the Washington Post says President Trump plans to announce that he will dessert phi the International Nuclear deal saying it is not in the National Interest of the United States and kicking the issue to a reluctant congress. People briefed on an emerging white house economy said thursday. Joining me, Joe Serincioni and the author of three books pertinent to this conversation and they are nuclear nightmare,
securing the world before its too late. Bomb scare, the history of nuclear weapons. And deadly ars nals. Hes a romantic comedy writer. Rick stengel from the State Department and as well as former Managing Editor of time magazine. Gentleman, welcome. Joe, id like to begin with you. What was the president basing that criticism on low these many months . Do you think he actually did a granular deconstruction of the iran deal or who had his ear question one. Question two is, for americans smart enough to be watching this broadcast tonight, whats in it for them . Why should they if your view is support the iran deal . Brian, it would be very interesting to know if the president understands whats in the iran deal. If somebody were to ask him to describe it, because its very hard to believe that the
president would disagree with a deal that required iran to shrink its program down to a fraction of its former size before the deal and then wrap it in an unprecedented verification procedure. I dont understand why the president doesnt believe his National Security team when they tell him to a person the Secretary Of State, the secretary of defense, the National Security adviser that this is a good deal in americas National Security interests. I dont think he understands whats in it. I think hes trapped in a campaign rhetoric. It became a political point. The republicans opposed the deal because a democratic president had negotiated it, and so whats in americas interests right now, this deal is supported by all our allies, all our european allies. Its supported by people who were formerly opposed to the deal like Chuck Schumer in the senate, senator cork rin, like the saudis, like the Israeli Military and saudi leaders. Why . Because it stops iran from getting a bomb. Heres the real risk. If the president pulls the plug, if he puts us on the Slippery Slope of pulling out of this agreement, that could put us on a Slippery Slope towards Military Conflict in the middle east at exactly the same time we have the risk of war with north korea. That is an extremely dangerous situation. You put it like that, it sounds important. Rick, so this now goes to congress where they always work with all deliberate speed and always seem to do the right thing. What is going to happen then. Well, hes kicking it down the road. I have to say, i have not written any books relevant to this agreement. I agree with Everyth