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Election last year and the trump campaign's potential contact with russia. we all expected there would be a political effort to shape the response to that scandal or even to shape the way the intelligence about those matters is received, escalated, and politicized. i'm not sure everybody thought that would be run out of a national security council though. how weird is that? how worrying is it in terms of the opportunity cost for the other stuff the national security council ought to be worried about right now. joining us is michael lighter. he worked closely with the national secury uncil staf...

On the ground. >> about 67% are in favor. >> there are estimates that it would take 30,000 to 40,000 troops, boots on the ground. people, not just boots, people to get rid of isis. that's the private assessment. they say 30,000 to 40,000. somebody has to come up with those troops. who is it supposed to be. the answer is if you decide to do it, it will be the united states. >> assess what you heard on the policy front, michael lighter. what did you hear from governor bush that you would say what do you think he got right and wrong? >> i think two key points, one assad remains the core of this p...

Campaign, does someone like a chris christie take her on and say madame secretary, you were secretary of state, you said al-qaeda was on the run. and he she better have a better explanation. >> people feel threatened. the political compass tends to swing right and to swing to secure. the fact that he is was there, whatever the merits, compared to her opponented and most of the republicans, is an advantage. but i do agree once again that the -- or at least i think we have to hold our fire. i keep thinking through this entire campaign it is possible that all of the laws of political gravity are ...

Know, if there's a time when we need to do more we will do it. now is that time in my view. >> and michael, do you think the administration has been too slow to confront this threat in a serious way? >> i think we have probably underestimated how deep the hole is we dug ourselves in. what i mean by that is, how weak the government structure in iraq was, how weak the will to fight has been and how much it's going to take to get the iraqis back up to part. similarly, i think we've overestimated -- sorry underestimated the problems we have in syria. how weak our situation is there and increasingl...

Of this michelle fluor noy, the undersecretary of defense in president obama's first term and michael lighter, former director of the counterterrorism center under both george w. bush and president obama. and michelle i want to go to you first because you were in the running for defense secretary this last time around when ash carter was tapped for that position and i'm just curious what you make of when you hear the defense secretary saying the iraqi security forces may not have the will to fight. >> i think when we talk about taking on isis and pushing them back in sunni-dominated areas, whe...