all right we got this word from the White House here that once apparently is
not enough the president has asked his national security adviser to invite
Vladimir Putin to Washington for a full meeting presumably at the White House
discussions are underway so this fall but presumably before the midterm
elections those two will sit down together again in Washington our
nation's capital wonder what our next guest thinks about that so many issues
to get into here Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson said we're just
learning that what do you make of that well this is a president that really
does value personal relationships and from my standpoint I'd much rather be
talking to adversaries than not talking to them make sure you don't have any
kind of miscalculations Russia has 7,000 nuclear weapons they have been
aggressive and destabilizing some areas of the of the world and I would rather
improve your relations with them rather than see them further deteriorate and
the way you do that is through discussion now a lot of your colleagues
nevertheless want to make sure that the Russians never do this sort of thing
again and have a you know legislation that would call for stiff sanctions on
that what isn't clear if they were to misbehave again is whether the president
agrees with you on that well you know obviously what Russia has been doing not
only in to our election system but other cyber attacks and other cyber intrusions
into our infrastructure and you know there's there are so many things we do
need to be concerned about and we have to draw the line we have to approach
Russia with through real strength to resolve but we also have to make sure
what sanctions we impose actually work to try and be to change their behavior
for the better and I think there are some sanctions work better than others I
think the targeted sanctions like under the negativity act I think that gets
under their skin more than anything and that's what I'd be doing is exposing you
know their ill-gotten gains make sure they can't move money around make sure
that you restrict their travel to you I just got a sense under a lot of your
Republican colleagues maybe you yourself sir sir I know your concerns on trade
living this and the rush of thing that done the the
the the president maybe is it's getting a little too bumpy here oh and and
that's a problem and there's an effort to either rein them in on terror so that
it's not something he can decide that the Senate has to decide on Vladimir
Putin this measure you just talked about where you punish the Russian whoever
thinks of interfering in another election but you know he doesn't endorse
either view on trade or that so where are you guys with him well we truly
appreciate the fact that we stopped adding to the regulatory burden under
this president we actually started reducing it somewhat we signed a law a
tax bill that made American businesses more competitive both those actions
brought certainty optimism to the economy which is why the economy's taken
off and and we are having such a hard time afraid this is where some adductors
getting in the way of that senator absolutely and that was my concern you
were contacted by hundreds of businesses I held a roundtable in Milwaukee with 15
a broad spectrum from farmers to food processors to manufacturers small medium
and large and there's nobody supporting what the other trade war they're highly
concerned they are they're cancelling or delaying capital expenditures they are
seeing overseas markets that they spent decades developing drying up they're
losing orders both globally and domestically they're seeing steel prices
three to thirty to forty percent higher their global competitors aren't paying
those higher steel prices they can ship their finished product into this country
very competitively they raise their competitors will raise their precise
dialing backs or right I mean he's looking at now US imports auto with
boards 176 billion worth of them came in via just cars 36 billion and trucks 147
billion an auto components and parts that's close to threaded sixty billion
dollars worth of auto related parts supplies actual autos this this could be
humongous right now this could be totally counterproductive in terms of
the good things we have done is overstated when you tell and then you've
written this letter so the one letter what does he say to you well you know
but bottom line he has not listened to all
of our counsel and we've been pushing back hard for months both privately and
publicly which I'm just going more and more public because yeah it's my
responsibility and hopefully these anecdotes from small businesses people
that support him they want to see him succeed it's also important this
administration understands that it's not just short term gain for long term or
short term pain for long-term gain there is permanent damage being done it's not
something like he's just ignoring you then I don't want to pick a fight here
but it may be the hope is and and you know the market certainly of this sense
today notwithstanding we think it will work out we think that this is just
negotiating tactic and it will never come to blows you're genuinely concerned
it could and it would do damage in your state and elsewhere but he's not
listening well I do believe this president understands the the clock is
ticking he did write the art of the deal he realizes he's gonna have to conclude
the deals and that's all I'm trying to say is you see leverage but conclude
these negotiations let's tie up what if this is still going on months from now
then a lot of damage is gonna be done we're gonna lose permanent markets and
farmers are gonna go bankrupt because as those markets closed domestic supply
increases we don't have the demand for it prices plunge once one small dairy
farmer two hundred cows there's already lost close to a thousand dollars because
let's know that Senator again that's the reason I delivered the
one-page synopsis is so he can actually read this if he reads these pages and be
delivered to him apparently in the next couple days personally delivered to him
hopefully he will take the time to read those 15 one-page synopsis 'iz and be as
concerned as I am senator Johnson thank you for taking the time I appreciate it
sir have a great day all right well the president says he did a great job at
that Boonton that press sir time to take a cue from the Gipper who knows just
know how to balance that after this hot water heater failed it rocked our world
called USA a telex saying when a problem comes along you must admit it
it seems to be a problem but I'm telling you some of our most noted presidents
have been through it and survived it remember this there's an old saying that
victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan not to conceal
responsibility because I'm the responsible officer of the government
first let me say I take full responsibility for my own actions and
for those of my administration as angry as I may be about activities undertaken
without my knowledge I am still accountable for those activities the
biggest regret of all the presidency has to have been the intelligence failure in
Iraq a lot of people put their reputations on the line I regret very
much that what we intended to do which is to make sure that everybody is moving
into better plans because they want them as opposed to because they're forced
into it that you know we weren't as clear as we needed to be all right so we
only mistakes it happens then this I think I did great at the news conference
I think it was a strong news conference or no the President may be on other
matters that news cards maybe did just fine but admitting and acknowledging
some of the problem that his comments created or the appearance created that
didn't come out in those remarks there is there something wrong with that or is
he just just more of Donald Trump just doing that and it served him well he's
president after all and it's doing okay or is that okay
drunk 2020 Advisory Committee member Harlan Hill we've got political
consultant Erin McPike Erin what do you think what know you know that President
Trump is not particularly introspective and I think Senator Thune said it best
when he said that the walking back of the statements and then the walking back
of the walking back basically is the best that we're going to get out of this
White House and Donald Trump but look look at the guy's actions he has said
today through his spokesman that he is going to invite President Putin
to the United States to Washington this fall and timing is everything I think in
the last segment that you just had with Senator Johnson he really put some
lipstick on a pig there to say that they're having an open dialogue and
that's better than nothing sure having an open dialogue is good but
again timing is everything and that is a gift
to Democrats who can run ads throughout the fall in this imagine if President
Putin comes to the United States in October before the midterm elections
those ads will be everywhere and it reminds me of 2006 when Republicans
didn't want to see Don Rumsfeld go as defense secretary and President Bush
didn't announce it until the day after the midterms Republicans were for years
why didn't he do this before and maybe they would have had a chance to keep a
few more seats because it was about the war in Iraq so Harlan you could look at
that and just say and I know people of different use I think we're gonna
hyperventilate over his performance there but what would be wrong with him
saying you know what I could have done a better job I could have been a little
clearer and I know he came out and stipulated you know he should have
turned you know the wording of something you know but just acknowledged that you
could have done better well no I mean we can give him credit I
mean he did clarify his statements he acknowledged that he may have misspoken
or that his words were misinterpreted from the conference but what I find very
interesting about where Aaron is coming from is that there's this new phenomenon
on the Left where diplomacy is no longer the first course of action is it just
from the left right I mean you're right now George is on something but I mean
you you you have to admit that you know and I showed you all those are the
Presidents before public and Democrat alike who had knowledge mistakes and
they moved on and I think Americans are very forgiving they could understand
yeah you could have done a better job you know the obvious let's move on and
the story yeah Obama acknowledged one shortcoming I mean but he also sent
stockpiles full of cash to Iran you know on cargo planes and we never got an
apology for that how do you say gun how do you think the president I think he
did a great job I mean I watched that live and I did not have the visceral
reaction that people on the left did I didn't have that the the treasonous
reaction and that people like Anderson Cooper have I don't know where that came
from all right so
my only one this and then anyone cares but I'll tell you no because it's my
show is that it just looked really bad I said even discussed it at the time
because I think he gave it appearance that the president maybe didn't intend
but that's what it was and by the way a lot of Republicans are green Harlen
notwithstanding I'm just telling you and Aaron I think that that is something he
can easily dial back by saying you know we've got a new one this global say this
is my first state summit really you'd think about it I you know I could have
done a little better and a story done yeah you know president Trump doesn't
apologize and he has said that before he thinks that apologizing makes him look
weak now I think a lot more people would say that what he has done over the past
four days has made him look a lot weaker than an apology but I would say the
difference in some of those clips that you played or those are presidents who
have thought about these things over time and so if Donald Trump Reagan's
case a year after the thing was blowing and they brought in you know obviously
Obama's it's almost a year when the wouldn't the controversies right so you
could argue they took their sweet time acknowledging that but Harlan do you
worry that this is something the president will be focused on more than
usual when he does meet with Putin next in the fall no I mean if you look at the
performance the presidents had over the first 18 months he has been orders of
magnitude harder on Russia than President Obama was any suggested the
way he carried himself what are we talking about semantics and his
performance in the face of the Russia I don't think he did I mean that weighting
them with the intelligence community and that's not that something that you
should do as the leader in it he knows that afterwards that he's tried to
Claire give him credit for that yeah all right yeah well yeah this segment if it
didn't satisfy a lot of people's like forefoot will have more to this
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