John Karl (2:08)

And the roundtable responds to President Trump's stunning reaction to the death of Robert Mueller.

Juju Chang (2:17)

From ABC News, it's this Week Here now.

Sean Duffy (2:20)

Jonathan Karl.

John Karl (2:23)

Before we get started this morning, a few words about Robert Mueller. Mueller, who died yesterday, is known by many as the man behind the Mueller report, which of course looked into Russian interference in the 2016 election. He also led the FBI for more than a decade, guiding America through the perilous period after the September 11 attacks. But what perhaps some don't know about Robert Mueller is that he was a genuine war hero during a time when many of his peers were trying to avoid military service. He volunteered joining the Marines after his college roommate was killed in Vietnam. Mueller served for more than a year in combat in Vietnam, receiving a Purple Heart after he was Shot in the leg. And he was awarded multiple times for valor, including a Bronze Star and a Navy Commendation Medal. Donald Trump reacted to the news of his death by posting this just minutes after it was announced. Quote, robert Mueller just died.

Juju Chang (3:23)

Good.

John Karl (3:24)

I'm glad he's dead. That's a remarkable statement for anybody to make, especially a President of the United States. Robert Mueller was a man who served and sacrificed for his country. We now turn to the war in Iran and the repercussions here at home. Three weeks since the start of the war, there's little doubt that the U. S. Israeli operation has so far been a military success. Over the weekend, the head of US Central Command laid out where the operation stands.

Sean Duffy (3:55)

Iran has lost significant combat capability over the last three weeks. Their navy is not sailing. Their tactical fighters are not flying, and they've lost the ability to launch missiles and drones at the high rates seen at the beginning of the conflict. Our progress is obvious.

John Karl (4:13)

While all that may be true, Iran has managed to cut off the flow of oil out of the Persian Gulf with ripple effects around the world. The average price of gas here in the United States is now almost $4 a gallon, up a dollar since the war started 23 days ago. The cost of air travel has already gone up considerably as the airlines face skyrocketing costs of jet fuel. The CEO of United Airlines says he's planning for oil to go as high as $175 a barrel. That's roughly double what it was just in January. And the war has sparked renewed concerns about terrorism, retaliatory actions from Iran and its supporters. This as the Department of Homeland Security is effectively shut down, with Congress at an impasse over funding. That partial shutdown has TSA officers going without pay, causing long security lines at airports across the country. We will get to all of that this morning. And we start with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. Secretary Duffy, thank you for joining. Let's start with the DHS funding impasse. Can you give us an update? Is there any sense that we're any closer to an agreement to getting the department funded?

Sean Duffy (5:29)

Yeah, the two sides are exchanging paper. The last I know I'm not intimately involved in the negotiations, but as you know, ICE is funded through 2029, but the president has made concessions to Democrats where ICE would wear body cameras. I think the real sticker here is Democrats want ICE to take off their face masks. The problem with that is we know that Democrats are going to want to dox those ICE agents, go to their homes, harass their kids. That's a problem And I think there's a bigger issue here. Democrats actually want to defund ICE or they want to defund cbp. And so the common sense Democrats have to come to the table, figure out a solution to again, let these lines flow. This is spring break. We have families that are trying to go on vacation, and they're stuck in lines for two, three hours at a time. And it's painful with a guy with nine kids. I've traveled with them, and it's really hard just to get right through TSA and travel, let alone sit in lines for two to three hours.

John Karl (6:22)

Yeah, it's definitely getting bad. And I saw the president in just a short while ago this morning, posted this, saying on Monday, ICE will be going to airports to help our wonderful TSA agents. Is that really the plan? Are we going to see ICE officers manning those airport security checkpoints?

Sean Duffy (6:44)

I would say that, you know, one of the leverage points that Iran has is trying to drive up the price of oil. It's leverage. Democrats want to see long lines at airports as leverage. President Trump's trying to take that leverage away and not make the American people suffer. So TSA agents are law enforcement. They know how to pat people down. They know how to run the X ray machines because they are, again, under Homeland Security with tsa. So if we can bring in other assets and tools to assist TSA to get rid of these lines, yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense. And the president's looking around every corner to make sure the American people don't suffer during the shutdown.

John Karl (7:19)

And I understand ICE and TSA are both under dhs, but obviously greatly affect what you're doing at the Department of Transportation airports. Is there a plan in place? I mean, how many ICE agents are we talking about? Do they have any, you know, practical, you know, experience in manning airport security lines?

Sean Duffy (7:40)

Sure. Well, they, they run those same type of security machines at the southern border.

John Karl (7:45)

Right.

Sean Duffy (7:45)

Packages come through or people come through. They run similar assets. And again, even if we're look at the line there to manage the through flow of people, and even administratively, they'll be helpful. But again, we have ICE agents who are trained and can provide assistance to agents. The problem we have is this was like air traffic control. Again, we've seen whether it's Atlanta, some airports in New York, Houston have been continual problems. But it depends on who shows up every single day. Depending will dictate how long these lines are and you don't know. And so as travelers are trying to figure out, do I have to come an hour and a half early. Do I have to come four hours early? They don't know until the day of or the afternoon of their flight. So if we can alleviate that again, the president wants to take away that leverage point for Democrats and make travel easier for the American people.

John Karl (8:36)

And we've seen TSA agents last week had to start working without pay. More than 10% Monday and Wednesday did not show up. We've also the very latest we've heard is that some 400 TSA officers have quit since the shutdown began. You said that the lines we've been seeing so far will be child's play if this goes on much longer. How bad is it going to get? How bad is it going to be this week?

Sean Duffy (9:06)

So I think as we look forward to Friday, that's when the next paycheck should come. And if this, if this Homeland Security funding isn't resolved, I think you're going to see more TSA agents as we come to Thursday, Friday, Saturday of next week. They're going to quit or they're not going to show up. A lot of the starting salaries at TSA, they're right around $50,000. So if you live in one of the big cities of America, Louisiana or New York or Miami, it's hard for these individuals already to make their ends meet. But without getting paychecks, it's even that much more challenging. And so they're going to take other jobs to put food on the table and pay the rent. So I do think it's going to get much worse. And as it gets worse, I think that puts pressure on the Congress to come to a resolution. Democrats have to say, you know what, we're not going to defund this. We're going to actually work together, have some common sense reform that the president will work with us on and you know, let's get America working again. And the last thing you want as you travel is to deal with political fights at the airport. Let that stay in Congress, but don't extract pain out of me and my family as I'm trying to just go to Florida and get some sun on my bones during spring break with my kids.

John Karl (10:16)

And what is the administration's message to these agents who, as you point out, they don't make big money, they're hardworking Americans and they're not being paid. Is the administration pleading them, pleading with them to come show up for work even though they're not getting paid?

Sean Duffy (10:32)

Well, I'll say right now, yes, I'm asking for them to come and we've asked them to come to work and you know, again, they make family decisions that are right on behalf of their finances. But we want them to come. And by the way, John, they're going to get paid. They're going to get paid for all the time that was missed. The problem is they're living in the today, not the tomorrow and they're making decisions. And that's why the president again thinking outside the box on what other tools and assets do I have to alleviate the pain at the airports you mentioned there's a 10% on average, no show rate at airports. That's true on average. But we have some airports where, where we're missing as many as 30 to 40% of agents. And that's when these airports grid to a halt. And it's not just the airports. Right, the airports. We're seeing long lines. We experience that as Americans. It's what else happens across the country. We let Democrats have, you know, 12, 15 million people into the country. They weren't that well vetted. And so where are those people and do they want to do us harm at a time when we're in a conflict with Iran? They. That's a real question we saw in New York. I'm sorry, in Michigan, Senator Slotkin said, you know what, once a place of worship was attacked, then she said we should fund homeland security. We can't let people get hurt and then make a decision to fund homeland security. Let's do it before Americans lose lives or were attacked. Let's fund it before that becomes a reality.

John Karl (11:55)

And another thing you're dealing with is the skyrocketing costs of gasoline, jet fuel, diesel, this obviously affecting everything that moves around the country. We've seen gas prices go up about a dollar since the war started 23 days ago. How much worse is that going to get? And what mitigating efforts are you taking to deal with that?

Sean Duffy (12:21)

So with regard to aviation, I have spoken to the major carriers. I just wanted to check in on their supply chain. And are they concerned about supply for jet fuel? All of them were like, nope. We feel very good about our supply chains, but it is the cost. Right. And the president cares about the cost of energy. Cares. I mean he's, that's why he's had the American Energy Dominance Task Force to produce more energy, drive prices down. I think you're going to see this is short lived. When the strait opens up. You're going to see a little bit of a lag as those carriers get to their destinations. But I think you're going to see a very quick rebound in energy prices when this conflict is resolved. And again, we're at week three. The president said this is going to be, you know, a four to six week operation. General Kaine, who is a meticulous planner, has said, you know, again, we've anticipated all that's happening. They plan for it. And again, they feel like, and I'm not in the Pentagon, I'm not at war, but from all I'm hearing is they feel like we are doing an incredibly good job. We are on track and on pace to make sure we can bring this conflict to a resolution quickly.

John Karl (13:30)

So what's your advice to Americans that are planning air travel in the weeks or months ahead? I mean, we've seen prices have already gone up significantly. You mentioned what United Airlines said. Should people that have air travel plans in the coming weeks and months postpone buying those tickets with anticipation they'll come back down, or are we into a, a situation where they're going to be up for a while?

Sean Duffy (13:54)

Well, we haven't seen a significant spike in airline tickets because of this conflict. Now Scott Kirby from United said, you know, he could see oil prices go up to 170. I think airlines do well when they plan for the worst and hope for the best. So that's what I think is happening there. And again, United also said we're going to cut back flights by 3%. Well, 1% of those flights are to are to Israel and the other 1% is his work with the Department of Transportation to reduce flights in Chicago. United and American were overbooking all these flights. They couldn't fly them. And so we are systematically rolling those back. So there's really no impact on how many flights we're going to have. But again, I think we have to offer the president grace. We know the president cares about the economy, gas prices for the American people. He's talked about that frequently and often. He also cares about peace and a lot of people don't give him credit for that. But he's proud of the conflicts that he resolves and he doesn't want to see conflict. I hear him talk behind closed doors about the number of young men and women who are lost in battles around the world. He cares about that. So I think again, he cares about the economy. But also we can't have Iran shooting at American bases like they have for the last several years. They can't hold the economy hostage where 20% of the oil comes through the Strait of Iran. Hormuz. I think when you look in the long run. He's trying to make life better for America, more secure for America, especially when you have Iran that has now missiles that we saw a couple days ago that can travel 2,500 miles and hit European capitals and if they had nukes, even worse. So again, this is a long term strategy that's going to make everyone better off and I think the economy stronger.

John Karl (15:36)

All right, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, thank you for joining us. Up next, my exclusive interview with the retiring Republican senator who has opposed President Trump's biggest agenda items during his second term. We are back in two minutes.

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Juju Chang (17:30)

What we've seen is a disaster under your leadership, Ms. Noem. A disaster. What we've seen is innocent people getting detained. That out are American citizens, a 14 month old dog is basically a teenager in dog years. You decided to kill that dog because you had not invested the appropriate time and training. And then you have the audacity to go into a book and say, it's a leadership lesson about tough choices. We're an exceptional nation, and one of the reasons we're exceptional is we expect exceptional leadership. And you've demonstrated anything but that.

John Karl (18:08)

You may recognize Republican Senator Thom Tillis from that viral takedown of soon to be former DHS Secretary Christy Noem. Earlier this month, two days after that, President Trump announced that Noem would be out as DHS secretary. The North Carolina senator is one of the few Republicans in Congress who have been willing to stand up to the Trump administration. But with his retirement looming, he has kicked it up a notch. He voted against President Trump's big tax bill last summer. He's a no on the Save America act, now Trump's top legislative priority. He stands firmly with NATO, and he has criticized what he calls the sycophants, toadies and bootlickers in the Trump White House. But Thom Tillis says that he and the President are on good terms and that he only wants Trump to be successful. Here is my exclusive interview with Senator Tillis. So you seem a little liberated since you announced you weren't running for reelection. What's going on?

Juju Chang (19:10)

Well, number one, I think people need to look back and recognize that I've been pretty plain spoken since I've been in politics.

John Karl (19:18)

You seem a little more plain spoken.

Juju Chang (19:20)

Well, you know, when people have said, you seem a little bit more liberated, I said, no, Sherlock. I no longer have to view things through a political lens. Of course, you know, if now I have to, I no longer have to do a kind of a cost benefit analysis. If I say this, what is it going to take me and time and money to explain it to people in the context of an election? I don't have to go through that cost benefit process anymore. And so the only thing that really gates what I say is with an intent to make sure that Republicans are best positioned for elections next year. I'm not trying to undermine Republicans. I'm trying to undermine efforts that are going to make it very difficult for Republicans to get elected in November. And so what I'm doing is trying to make people mindful. If you think that the state of North Carolina can be won through just the ultra MAGA vote, you haven't passed fifth grade math. If you're not really smart about our priorities, maybe you'll do okay in some of the red states, but we could. We could wake up on Wednesday morning and find out we're not in the majority anymore in the Senate. And that's the last thing that I want to have happen here.

John Karl (20:34)

So you've gone up against the President's or the President or his policies or his Cabinet really vocally. I mean, you obviously, we're among the first to really go after Kristi Noem. You called out the efforts to prosecute Democrats who made that video. You obviously, in terms of the subpoena against the Fed chairman, Jerome Powell, you made it very clear, totally against, that you won't vote for a new Fed Chairman until it's done away with. How does the President take all that?

Juju Chang (21:07)

You know, I generally, I still have what I believe to be a healthy relationship with the President. I don't criticize the President. You know, people say, well, you're dodging, criticizing the President. Look, the President of the United States is like a CEO at any large complex multinational organization. He can't be an expert in everything. The only thing he can do is get the right people to advise him because, my goodness, just look at the complexity of the job. So invariably, there's one of two ways you can give advice, bad advice, to the President of the United States. One of them is come up with a really bad idea and sell him on it. The other one is he comes up with an idea that maybe not so good and you say, great, great idea, boss. Either way, you've got to say, Mr. President, have you looked around this corner? Have you seen the second and third order of effects that may occur? Are we sure that this fits with other priorities that you have? And I just think that he either has sycophants or cowardice around him that need to get out of the way so that we can establish a good, solid, enduring legacy of the President producing good results. The President's been very good to me at a personal level. I like him a lot. I mean, I've called the man on a Sunday morning and said, hey, my mom would just love the chance to talk with you. You have a, you know, talk to her for five minutes. So there are aspects about this President that I admire and will always admire, but I do not admire bad advice and I hate bad execution. And when I see it, and I think it's undermining the President of the United States agenda, then I'm going to call them out.

John Karl (22:42)

So who are these sycophants and cowards?

Juju Chang (22:44)

Well, you know, I'm not going to get into details. I think I've shared with you my opinion about Stephen Miller. Look, I don't think anybody should think that Stephen Miller is going to be a curator at the Trump Presidential Library. When he's done here, he's going to go find another wave to surf. But I don't think that he's concerned, particularly loyal. I also don't believe he's got a particularly great reputation for working with people in the White House. But what really made me angry is when he had the audacity to go to cameras and say, it's the position of the United States that Greenland should become a part of the United States. That is absolutely the proverbial straw. I had taken and heard a lot of his comments and decided to internalize it. But being involved in the Senate NATO observer group and knowing how offensive that was to our allies, knowing that Denmark had, on a per capita basis, excuse me, the same number of deaths as the US And Afghanistan, made me angry. And that's the sort of stuff that he doesn't speak for me. He does speak for the Article 1 branch, and he does that sort of garbage all the time. And I'm just saying I know that he's got a special relationship with the president. But believe me when I tell you, if the president thinks that Stephen Miller is worried about his legacy, he's fooling himself. Stephen Miller is worried about his own legacy.

John Karl (24:05)

But can I press you a little bit on this question of the president's responsibility for this? I mean, it was Donald Trump who put Kristi Noem in charge of the Department of Homeland Security who has given Stephen Miller the authority that he has. It was Donald Trump who first talked about wanting to acquire Greenland for the United States. These are his policies and the people he chose to execute them. Doesn't the buck stop with him?

Juju Chang (24:35)

No. I still think that it goes back to the advice that they're getting. And if one person can't convince the president, then you get some of the other people together. You know, with respect to noms, you know, most of the time, the president's probably not going, this is my list of noms. Go figure out which one you want bringing forth noms to him. I wouldn't expect him to have an encyclopedic knowledge of all the people that he's put forward. Again, I go back to who was responsible for actually putting forth Kristi Noemus and nam. What was that process about? I don't have any problem with Kristi Noem the person, but it was clear to me that no one should have said that that experience she had as governor or the brief period of time that she was a House member qualified her to run such an enormous, complex and consequential organization as the Department of Homeland Security and fema. So I'm just seeing more people around him need to say, guys, we got to look at this in terms of the probability of her being successful. And it could have, you could have helped her from herself because I took no pleasure in the criticism that I put her way a couple of weeks ago in the hearing. But every single bit of it was substantiated in facts.

John Karl (25:45)

So let me ask you about Iran. Are you, how would you define right now, three weeks into this? What is the objective, the primary objective?

Juju Chang (25:54)

I don't know and I think it's a real problem. I think the President did a really good job with Venezuela. Talking about what the objective is. It was in, it was out, and I think they did a good job there with that with extracting Maduro. There's still some argument about whether or not that regime is going to have a long term commitment to the US Are going to realize what I think the, the President wants to achieve their long term, but I think that it's trending in the right direction here. You know, I thought the initial bombing raid a while back was very successful. I could see why we needed to finish some of the work and go back in and maybe have a week or two back in there, really degrading their capabilities. Now it's very, it's ambiguous. I don't know what our long term strategic goals are, but we're going to need to know that. I generally support what the President's doing in Iran, but if we're going to get anything close to the $200 billion supplemental request, we got to get 60 votes and we're going to have to figure out how to accomplish that.

John Karl (26:56)

Yeah, I mean, they've said four to five weeks to do again, what the objectives are. Unclear. But $200 billion doesn't sound like four or five weeks.

Juju Chang (27:06)

No, I mean, if you do the math, my guess is right now there were estimates of a billion, two billion and a half spent. So let's assume at this point that about $30 billion has been spent sustaining the operation, paying personnel, supporting the kinetic strikes. We need to know how that money is going to be spent. And if it's going beyond a 60 day horizon, then we really do need to talk about the authorization for the use of military force and longer term funding trails. So we'll look at the request here and see what's baked into it, and then we've got to work on getting Democratic support.

John Karl (27:40)

And what do you make of this notion that the President's been saying that, you know, we don't use the Strait of Hormuz because that's not our oil, that's not the oil we buy. So the suggestion is, you know, the United States could basically pick up and leave and allow somebody else to deal with the fact that the straits have been.

Juju Chang (27:56)

I think that'd be problematic because obviously the world global supply chains are real, the available. I mean, I'm hearing very long time to get back to normal shipping patterns out of that region. We have a number of partners and allies in the region whose economic fortunes rest on the Strait of Hormuz being open. So even, Even if you stipulate that, maybe there's not a direct impact in terms of commerce moving through the Straits of HORMUZ for the U.S. our allies, our partners, and the. The people we rely on to stabilize the Middle East. And many of our friends in Europe and in Africa rely on it. And we have to keep that in mind. We can't all of a sudden go out there and intervene the way we have and then suddenly become an isolationist in the back end of it. You just, you can't have it both ways. We've decided that we're going to project power and try and produce good outcomes in the Middle East. You can't all of a sudden walk away after you've kind of created the event and expect other people to pick it up and leave and leave a good taste in their mouth. I mean, a part of this is, you know, the health and hygiene of our partnerships in the region going forward. And if we exit and say, now it's your turn to clean it up, I don't think that that will end well.

John Karl (29:16)

Well, he just. I mean, just, just today, he called NATO cowards. He said they're cowards for not willing to come in and secure the Strait of Hormuz.

Juju Chang (29:25)

I don't think that they're cowards. I think they're people that weren't consulted on a major military operation. And I'd have the same reaction if I was the head of state. Not that I don't want to get there and help, but I think it's not productive to sit there and have created an environment that only. That did not exist before our action. And then to say, it's time for somebody else to come in and look, this, this is about losing lives. I mean, this is a very dangerous part of the world. This isn't a part, this isn't just about a ship sinking. This is about a ship's crew and whatever military personnel are deployed there to try and ensure safe passage. So again, I'm the Republican leader, have been since 2018 of the Senate NATO Observer Group. I know these countries well. I meet with them regularly at the Munich Security Conference, at the NATO summits. And these folks love the United States. Our mill to mill relationships are very strong, but they don't appreciate the way they're being treated right now. And I can absolutely understand that.

John Karl (30:29)

President Trump just this week suggested that he could pull out of NATO and that he also added that, you know, I can do that without Congress.

Juju Chang (30:38)

Yeah, well, that's factually not true. The President of the United States cannot withdraw from NATO. Now, having said that, the President can poison the well. The president can make it functionally defunct if he wants to. But I would really encourage him to take 100, the top 100 generals in the Pentagon right now and ask any of them if they think it's a good idea to sever that relationship. And you'd be hard pressed if they're telling you the truth, you'd be hard pressed to find one because that has enormous, enormous risk in it. American lives have been saved by the NATO alliance and American lives will be lost in great numbers without it.

John Karl (31:20)

Coming up, a live update on the war with Iran from our correspondent in the region, James Longman.

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John Karl (32:39)

Welcome back, Grace.

Mariana Sotomayor (32:41)

You and your Sister are here for a very exciting reason.

John Karl (32:46)

Hunters. You haven't until dawn to kill them both.

Sean Duffy (32:48)

Experience the most unhinged. I'm not playing bloody what the diabolically twisted movie of the year.

Chris Christie (32:57)

Samara Weaving, Katherine Newton, Elijah Wood and

Sean Duffy (33:01)

Sarah Michelle Geller back for round two.

Donna Brazile (33:03)

Yeah.

Sean Duffy (33:04)

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Juju Chang (33:11)

It's a simple military maneuver. It's relatively safe, but you need a lot of help in the sense sense

John Karl (33:18)

of you need ships, you need volume.

Juju Chang (33:21)

And NATO could help us, but they

John Karl (33:23)

so far haven't had the courage to do so.

Juju Chang (33:26)

And others could help us, but you

John Karl (33:28)

know, we don't use it.

Juju Chang (33:29)

You know, at a certain point it'll open itself. At a certain point.

John Karl (33:34)

Well, that was President Trump this week on what it would take to open the Strait of Hormuz. For the latest on the Iran war, let's get to the region with our chief international correspondent James Longman in northern Iraq. So, James, bottom line, where are we as we head into week four of this war?

James Longman (33:52)

Well, I think, John, there are two version of events on this war so far. The first, very much from the White House, that Iran is beaten. 7,000 plus targets have been hit. You've seen the Navy and the Air Force almost completely obliterated. Missile and drone capacity has almost been totally wiped out. The defense infrastructure is gone, too. And every time we see these drone and missile strike, these are just the acts of a desperate regime lashing out in every direction because they're in a death spiral. The other version is this, that there is no sign that the regime is about to fall, that they've been carefully planning their response to what they knew would be overwhelming military firepower. And we see two tactics working this stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz and striking energy infrastructure across this region. They are turning this into a global energy crisis. And it doesn't look like the US has much ability to control it.

John Karl (34:37)

Now.

James Longman (34:37)

Hormuz is the most serious. 90% of Saudi oil passes through that. Iran is choking the Gulf. And by the way, only Iranian approved tankers are getting through like the Iranian oil that still is going to China, for example. So the US Might not be a direct customer of this oil, but the impact on global oil prices cannot be avoided. And America's adversaries, China and Russia are gaining.

John Karl (35:00)

John and James, we know more US Forces are headed to the region. So are boots on the ground considered a real possibility to open up the Strait?

James Longman (35:10)

Yeah, I think that is Reasonable to assume Cog island might be the tactic here. That's the terminal on the Persian Gulf where 90% of Iranian crude is processed. Could that be held hostage in some way as a bargaining chip? Because the dangers in the strait aren't just coming from missile launchers. We saw bunker busters didn't seem to work along the coast there. These are unmanned surface vessels. They're essentially booby trapped speedboats that are being driven into the side of tankers. So what is the simple military maneuver that is needed? Arguably you need boots on the ground to stop this or a ceasefire, which is what the Europeans are asking for. Now, Trump has said he might blow up power plants if Iran doesn't open the strait. That would obviously be catastrophic for the nation of Iran and also probably sour public sentiment against this war. Many Iranians have welcomed the possibility of bringing down the regime. But blowing up power plants doesn't mean revolution. It means chaos.

John Karl (36:00)

John, our thanks to James Longman. Coming up, the roundtable on the political fallout here at home. We're back in two minutes.

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Chris Christie (37:03)

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Juju Chang (37:06)

Was it the intelligence community's assessment that

Chris Christie (37:09)

nevertheless, despite this obliteration, there was a, quote, imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime?

Jonathan Karl (37:16)

Yes or no, it is not the intelligence community's responsibility to determine what is and is not an imminent threat? That is up to the president on a volume.

Juju Chang (37:24)

No, it is.

John Karl (37:25)

It is precisely that he received.

Chris Christie (37:27)

It is precisely your responsibility to determine

Juju Chang (37:30)

what constitutes a threat to the United States.

John Karl (37:34)

That was Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff challenging Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Over the threat from Iran. Let's bring in the roundtable former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, former DNC chair Donna Brazile, Washington Post congressional reporter Mariana Sotomayor, and SCOTUS blog editor Sarah Isger, author of the upcoming book the Last Branch Standing. So Governor Christie just resolved that thing there about imminent threat. Is it the president that determines that or is it the intelligence community?

Chris Christie (38:06)

Well, I think the way it should be divided is the intelligence community decides whether the threat is imminent and the president decides what to do.

John Karl (38:14)

Right.

Chris Christie (38:14)

And you know, look, Tulsi Gabbard obviously disagrees with this move in Iran. She's been a regular critic of these kind of actions by the United States. But she's part of the Trump cabinet, which means everyone must nod and say, great idea, sir. And so that's what you saw in her testimony. She didn't lie under oath. She just didn't tell the whole truth. But when you look at what's going on here, John, the worst part of this is many of us predicted this during the presidential campaign. America first, as Donald Trump does it, is going to mean America alone. And we saw the ramifications of that this week with our allies when the president wanted them to come and help in the Straits of Hormuz. But you know, after you whack them with tariffs over and over again in a completely ill advised way, when you tell Denmark you're going to steal Greenland from them militarily if need be, and when you regularly call them cowards and then you call up and ask them for a favor, it's not playing chess to figure out that that probably isn't going to work well.

John Karl (39:16)

And you asked them to come to your aid after you didn't tell them a damn thing about what you were going to do in Iran.

Chris Christie (39:21)

Yeah.

Jonathan Karl (39:22)

There's something else that we have to put on the table. When you ease the sanctions on Russia so they're getting money and you ease the sanctions on Iranian oil and what is the strategy? We still have no strategy going into the fourth week. No strategy. You don't consult with allies and yet you want them to come to your rescue. And you're not involving Congress in any of the long term implications of what these missile strikes are going to do when Iran has the capabilities. And I'm not, you know, clearly my dad was much better at military than I am. But when they have ballistic missiles that can go 4,000 kilometers toward Diego Garcia and we take down one and one is whatever that is, something that the president is not telling the American People. So they have no strategy. They're holding press conferences and they're contradicting themselves every day of the week.

John Karl (40:19)

And then we had Joe Kent, who was the head of the National Counterterrorism center, appointed by President Trump and somebody who was very close to Tulsi Gabbard resigned in protest over the war. And this is what he said in his letter of I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation. He then goes on to attack Israel and suggests this was all about Israel. But that was quite a moment.

Donna Brazile (40:46)

This is an interesting time for Republicans in the Senate to think about their role in advise and consent, as we saw from Senator Tillet.

Mariana Sotomayor (40:54)

Right.

Donna Brazile (40:54)

Are they supposed to give the President whatever advisors he wants, or do they actually have some substantive job to make sure these people can do the job that they're being asked to do? Joe Kent obviously never should have been confirmed. He shouldn't have had the position that he had. And the resignation. As we've seen with a lot of things with Republicans these days, there is this idea of a fracture within the Republican Party, this idea of sort of the Tucker Carlson, Joe Kent wing of the party trying to push back on Donald Trump. But we don't actually have political parties. I think, as people used to think of them. We got rid of political parties 25 years ago, and instead we have Donald Trump. And so when you actually poll Republicans, this sort of, you know, splinter group of the Republican Party is going nowhere. Donald Trump remains incredibly popular with Republicans.

John Karl (41:41)

You don't see a big movement following Tucker Carlson.

Donna Brazile (41:44)

It's not happening. And so when you look, whether it's the SAVE act or Iran or anything else that the President is doing, the party doesn't move voters. The leader of the party does. And that's true for Democrats and Republicans.

John Karl (41:55)

But the Pentagon is now preparing a budget request, $200 billion to fund the war. Marianne, what's your sense is, I mean, first of all, that's a lot of money.

Jonathan Karl (42:06)

A lot.

John Karl (42:07)

I mean, that sounds like more than a three or four week operation. Tilla says you can't do that without, you know, Democratic support. Have you found any Democrats that are going to support that?

Mariana Sotomayor (42:17)

No, not right now. There are many Democratic leaders who have already said that they are unlike likely to support this, even though there is pushback of, well, what are we going to do with all the ammunitions that we have used? The US has to refill that stockpile. But a lot of Republican leaders are also not necessarily touching this yet. Because they haven't officially gotten that request. It's really the first thing that Congress is going to debate over this issue. We have not seen any investigations. We have. We don't expect that to happen among Republicans anytime soon. And it is going to be difficult because you do need 60 votes in the Senate to make this happen. And it's unlikely, at least anytime soon, unless something worse happens. And potentially if boots are placed on the ground, maybe that's where you're going to see more Republicans start to ask questions and push back. But that's really been the only condition I've heard coming from the Republican side.

Jonathan Karl (43:08)

Well, look, first of all, Democrats understand that Iran has posed a threat not just to the region, the Gulf, but to the world itself. I mean, but the question is, why now after Operation, what was it, Midnight Summer, I forget. Thank you. I'm not a rap star, so clearly I can't get these operations together. But we supposedly obliterated their nuclear capabilities, but not all of their strategic ballistic missiles. And these drones that look like they bought them all out of Radio Shack and we're trying to take them out with our big advanced missiles. Again, you take us to war with a strategy, you take us to war with allies, you take us to war with authorization from Congress. Democrats must continue to use whatever leverage they have to raise these questions. And the media needs to raise these questions. This is a serious time because we're paying for it at the pump. Now, I don't want to tell you what kind of car I drive because I have two cars and clearly one of them will stay in the garage because it is expensive. Any moment now, it's going to eat into my other little money that I put aside for my chips and dips because gas prices is really, it's just going up and up and up with no end in sight.

John Karl (44:18)

And this is all happening as we have this shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, basically no funding for anything except for ice. I mean, where is this going? What's your sense, Governor?

Chris Christie (44:28)

Well, look, as it continues to impact lines at airports and as we get closer to the summer when people are going to be going on vacation, it's going to have to come to a head. And when you have a two and a half hour line in Atlanta in the busiest airport in the country, this is going to become a huge problem. But look, look, what everyone is saying around the table here is an indication that the president plays checkers, not chess. This is a guy who just looks at what jump he can make today, doesn't look if there's a double jump coming in the other direction. So you do what you do with Iran. You don't think about what happens with the Strait of Hormuz. You don't think that what that's going to force you to do to deal with gas prices that Donna just talked about is to relieve sanctions on Russia and Iran, who you're going to war with. I mean, the American people see this stuff. And my point on this, John, is this goes to competence. It goes to, are you competent to run the government and make these decisions. And every time one decision is made, another domino gets knocked down and the president and the people around him are not considering those things.

John Karl (45:36)

But the Democrats have forced this shutdown. Now. They have offered will fund, you know, TSA and then still continue the impasse over everything else or negotiations there. But, Marianne, is there any doubt that this is a wise course of action? You know, forcing a shutdown at a time when there is no doubt an increasing terror threat and when the thing you're opposing is already funded for the next two years?

Mariana Sotomayor (46:03)

Yeah, I mean, the pressure is building. And there is some good news. Finally, some negotiations happening on the Senate side. Bipartisan, but we're still a ways away to an actual deal. What will that look like? And as you mentioned, ice, for example, which was the Democrats first argument against funding dhs, they're already funded. They're. They're able to get their paychecks. They are working. So I do think Democrats, as of right now, they are still pushing the requirements that they want, you know, face masks, videos for these ICE agents. But because the backdrop has changed, there is more pressure on them to finally start, at least in good faith.

Jonathan Karl (46:42)

Well, I'm glad the Democrats show backbone every now and then because we get bullied for being weak and indecisive. What the Democrats said pursuant to funding the rest of the government was that they wanted some reforms with ice. The judicial warrants, the identification. They can't act like renter cops. They have to act like law enforcement. They cannot ram through our house. Look, I have witnessed.

Donna Brazile (47:08)

It's all funded. They're just funded. They're funded, but they're not funding. This reminds me of when President Obama shut down the national parks during that shutdown. Because the point was for the American people to feel the pain of the shutdown.

John Karl (47:20)

I mean, the shutdown was caused by the Republicans in that case.

Donna Brazile (47:23)

That's right. And it was.

John Karl (47:24)

And he did the most visible thing.

Donna Brazile (47:25)

Yeah, that's right. And so here we have Democrats ICE has been funded have leverage here.

Jonathan Karl (47:31)

But Democrats have often opportunities to fund faa, TSA and every other. But the Republicans have rejected it. I agree with you. The negotiations are ongoing and hopefully Tom Homan will be able to strike a deal with moderate Democrats and get the government.

Chris Christie (47:47)

This is a dumb move by father. This is a dumb move by both parties. This is why Congress's approval rating is in the single digits because the American people say we sent you down there to operate the government, not to close it. And both of them look for these tactical ways that it may help them but at the end killing them with the American people, Democrats and Republicans.

John Karl (48:07)

We have to take a quick break. Coming up, the president's stunning response to former FBI Director Robert Mueller's death will be right back. All right. We're back with the roundtable and I want to get to the death of Robert Mueller. And just as a reminder, here is what Donald Trump posted just minutes after the death was announced. Robert Mueller just died.

Juju Chang (48:32)

Good.

John Karl (48:32)

I'm glad he's dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people. Governor Christie, you knew Robert Mueller for many years. What do you make of that?

Chris Christie (48:44)

Well, look, first of all, it's reprehensible for anyone to say that about someone who had the life of service that Robert Mueller had. And even more reprehensible for somebody who is the commander in chief of the military to say that about a veteran who was a decorated veteran in the Vietnam War. And by the way, who didn't get drafted, volunteered, as you noted earlier in

John Karl (49:09)

the program, while many others were doing everything they could to stay out of.

Chris Christie (49:13)

Yeah, of course I don't know who you're talking about, but yeah. So the fact is I knew Bob very well. We worked together for seven years when I was U.S. attorney. And by the way, we had some epic fights.

John Karl (49:26)

I've heard some stories.

Chris Christie (49:27)

Yes. And so it's not like I'm an unadulterated Bob Mueller fan. There were a lot of things we disagreed on. But the one thing I could tell you about him is that when his country called him to service, he never said no and he never put conditions on it. And even times when the Russian investigation went on, when he was brought into play there, he wasn't up to it. I mean we saw that at the end.

John Karl (49:53)

Yeah.

Chris Christie (49:53)

But he couldn't say no when his country called him and asked him to serve. And this is something to say what the president said about Bob Mueller just shows you how completely self consumed the president is. Cuz that's what it comes from it comes from his own sense that the only thing that matters in the world,

John Karl (50:14)

instantaneous, the way he did it, by

Chris Christie (50:16)

the way, that's what a child does, John.

John Karl (50:18)

And by the way, Sarah, when Barack Obama decided to extend Mueller's service as FBI director, he'd served the full 10 years. There had to be another vote of the Senate. Do you remember what the vote was?

Donna Brazile (50:31)

I believe it was unanimous.

John Karl (50:32)

It was 100 to nothing.

Donna Brazile (50:34)

That's right.

John Karl (50:35)

And it was a recorded vote.

Donna Brazile (50:37)

He was only the sixth ever FBI director. Most many FBI personnel would tell you he was probably the best director that the FBI ever had. No cash Patel, though I do marvel at the sort of Streisand effect of this. Would we be talking about Robert Mueller's service today if Donald Trump hadn't said that? And that's really what Donald Trump has always been so good at, is picking these sort of more cultural ish fights that aren't about policy. They're not even about politics. And you have folks, I think, correctly pointing out that these are the same people who, when anyone said something negative about Charlie Kirk, that they said, that's absurd, they were right. And yet here we are.

Jonathan Karl (51:18)

I didn't know Mr. Mueller, but I admired him from afar. His legacy to our nation will outlive any tweet or any statement of the current president.

John Karl (51:28)

All right, we'll be right back. And that's all for today. Thank you for sharing part of your Sunday with us. Check out World News Tonight and have a great day.

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