Show: For the Record with Greta Date: April 24, 2017 Guest: Mark Mckinnon, Margaret Talev, Jonathan Alter, Michael Isikoff, Jake Sherman, Yamiche Alcindor, Adam Kinzinger, Seth Kaplan
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, MSNBC HOST: Thank you, Chris. Tonight, do you remember him?
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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What`s been going on while I`ve been gone?
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VAN SUSTEREN: President Obama today making his first public appearance since leaving office. This happens as President Trump races to undo the Obama legacy before the symbolic 100 day mark that would be this Saturday. President Obama back in Chicago today, he did not mention President Trump but wanted to motivate young folks to get involved in politics.
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OBAMA: The single most important thing I can do is help in any way I can to prepare the next generation of leadership to take up the baton and to take their own crack at changing the world. Because the one thing that I`m absolutely convinced of is that, yes, we confront a whole range of challenges from economic inequality and lack of opportunity to a criminal justice system that too often is skewed in ways that are unproductive, to climate change to issues related to violence. All those problems are serious, they`re daunting but they`re not insoluble.
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VAN SUSTEREN: President Obama`s event was with a group of college and high school students. In exchange with the only college Republican on stage, the former president talked about working across the aisle.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are a lot of problems with our politics that begin at home. I think we blame politics a lot for the failure of us -- of each of us to grasp each other. So you were a mentor when you were a new senator to Ted Lugger.
OBAMA: Great guy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ultimately lost his primary for that reason.
OBAMA: Because he talked to me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because people couldn`t stand to see their member, you know, bridge a gap on a human level.
OBAMA: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that is sad. Marco Rubio said it well a couple months ago you can`t run a country when half hates the other and find a way to bridge that for many that aren`t like us.
OBAMA: Good. Perfect.
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VAN SUSTEREN: But no sign we are getting close to bridging the deep very deep political divide. NBC finding President Trump with an historic low approval rating for a new president, 40 percent, but out of people who voted for him in November, 90 percent approved. The White House says things are right on track.
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SEAN SPICER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: There is this artificial number that gets thrown out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is the context?
SPICER: The context is its 100 days. You have four years in your first term and eight years for two terms. You think about what he started, he`ll move forward on tax return, healthcare, immigration and trade, it`s been a hugely successful first 100 days.
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VAN SUSTEREN: With me, Mark Mckinnon, co-creator of The Circus on Showtime and chief media advisor to Bush 43 and Margaret Talev Senior White House Correspondent from Bloomberg news and Jonathan author of two books about President Obama including "The Center Holds." Welcome to all of you. President Obama has been quite quiet in spite of the things that have been said about him by the current president, including in March, Margaret first to you, President Trump tweeted how low has President Obama gone to tap my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon Watergate, bad or sick guy?
MARGARET TALEV, BLOOMBERG NEWS: And President Obama said it would be his preference while still in office, it would be his preference to hold back the same way George W. Bush did when President Obama became president. Let President Trump have those early months to step out of the way but he reserved the right to jump in. I`m surprised he jumped in this early. I do think the wiretapping comments may have played into this to some degree. I think the blame to some of the Democrats on President Obama for the state of their Democratic Party right now also may be prompting him a little bit earlier back into the limelight.
VAN SUSTEREN: Do you think he is out early?
MARK MCKINNON, CO-HOST, THE CIRCUS ON SHOWTIME: I think he is doing what`s smart. He is doing what George W. Bush did, stay off the president`s radar.
VAN SUSTEREN: Fast forward eight years, do you expect President Trump to do the same thing?
MCKINNON: No. I said it was a smart move. I don`t think that would be Trump`s instinct, but I think that it is Obama`s instinct to get off the radar. The best job in the world is being an ex-president as I`m sure President Obama is discovering. I think it`s the right tone and approach. By the way he is tapping into what was relevant about President Obama and what got him elected were his coalition and the Millennials who didn`t show up. With progressives and Democrats he is doing the right thing to encourage people to get out and get involved again particularly those who didn`t show up. Not only the Republicans at the house, the senate and the presidency, they have the majority of all state legislatures. There`s fewer state Democrats in the legislature than Warren D. Harding.
VAN SUSTEREN: John is that why other Democrats may have slapped President Obama the way he did in terms of billing the Party during the last four years. Do you agree?
JONATHAN ALTER, "THE DAILY BEAST": Yes, when he became President Obama, said we are the ones we`ve been waiting for. While the we, didn`t show up a lot of times in the last eight years. They thought the president would waive his magic wand things would be great for Democrats. Only with President Trump Democrats realize they have the responsibility not just going to the streets but to be civically engaged going to the streets not with just national politics but state and local politics but until they do this country won`t change.
VAN SUSTEREN: You said it`s the best job to be ex-president. I think it`s kind of hard going 24/7 for eight years and the most powerful person in the world other than what`s your name again?
MCKINNON: That is one stress machine. They call it the microwave.
VAN SUSTEREN: The transition is hard from that to this.
MCKINNON: Just getting off the rocket your biological is so jangled up there`s a little transition. Emotionally, I guarantee you he is not missing it at all.
VAN SUSTEREN: You miss the relevance, don`t you?
MCKINNON: No. They have been the most relevant thing in the universe.
TALEV: I saw President Obama with the phone call last week.
VAN SUSTEREN: I think he is bored. I think he should write his memoirs and I think he is used to action.
TALEV: He wants to start up a little bit, trying to be appropriate and graceful enough on the U.S. stage. He is younger and in a different place than President Bush was.
MCKINNON: I think relevance is key and important to President Obama. I think he feels he has an additional chapter.
VAN SUSTEREN: Jonathan, the manner he came out today with this panel of young people, I guess that is sort of a little bit like his program, one of his signature programs to reach out to African-American men, he is reaching out to the young people.
ALTER: He is indicated that is the big cause of the rest of his life. He made an appearance at Fordham a couple years ago where he said promise keepers, this idea of helping young, particularly African-American and Latino men get their life together and to achieve is going to be his main focus, but he will also get involved in these other things. Even though he didn`t mention Trump`s name, there was a lot of implicit criticism of Trump in what he was saying today, telling young people, good career advice too, but he was saying, you wanted to do something with your career not just be something, not just be important. He was basically saying implicitly, what did Trump run for? He ran to be president, not to actually accomplish anything significant as president. What are his proposals? Make America great again and build a wall and hadn`t thought about repealing Obamacare in detail. He wanted to win and be president. A lot of what Obama was saying today in Chicago, you have to have bigger aspirations and want to help people and be civically engaged and something larger than his own interests.
VAN SUSTEREN: I think if President Trump were here he would say he likes to win he does looking through government as business construct and needs to bring income taxes down, corporate income taxes and looks at it through this business context. I think he thinks he can transform it with a wave of the hand but from a business perspective.
TALEV: You look at initiatives and legislation aside and if you look at what he had done with the EDA and early tax plan he is certainly attempting, even if these are niche areas, absolutely to make major changes in the policy and direction of the country. Is he engaged internationally and interested in policy as President Obama was or does he have the depth of experience across the board as the Bush administration did, the answer to that is so far no, but I think he is interested in making changes.
VAN SUSTEREN: He talked to Angela Markel and talked to Le Pen the other day and talked to President Xi maybe today. Mark, do you think President Obama liked the job? And do you think President Trump likes the job?
MCKINNON: I think President Obama liked it. He saw it as a great historical framework and challenge and time to make his imprint on history and rally the country for big causes, legacy of Obamacare and his other signature developments. The interesting question is whether Trump will after six months still like this job. I can see where he hands the keys to Mike Pence and say, give me a call to Mar-a-Lago. I think he will be frustrated by it, as a businessman used to working solo is really hard when you have to deal with the congress and the senate.
VAN SUSTEREN: You can`t fire people. Jonathan, I had a sense President Obama didn`t like the job at the done, frustrated not being able to get things done. He was done, ready to go.
ALTER: He was certainly ready to go when I spoke to him in December. I think he was a little demoralized like a lot of people by the election returns. He was tired, as Mark indicated earlier. It`s exhausting. I asked him, what will you do now? Return to your origins as a community organizer? He said, first, I`m going to get some sleep. He is basically been doing that the last couple of months and he seemed today like he is ready to get back out there and reconnect with what got him into public life in the first place, not just running for president but being a community organizer, running for the state senate. He is trying to say to these younger people, go for it. If you have any interest at all in public service, which is now under attack in Washington, they want to get rid of national service in the Trump administration, you need to get out there and work for it.
VAN SUSTEREN: Funny, I had a different question. I don`t think he had the fire in his belly to fire it up when ready, I thought he needs some more sleep. Anyway, thank you all.
They were supposed to be the adults in the room, but tonight, new reports of disarray in the senate panel investigating the Russian election hack. You will hear directly from the journalist breaking this story and we will explain what is happening in this video broadcast today in North Korea.
American aircraft carrier about to arrive in the region as nuclear fears hit an all time high.
How does President Trump`s 100 days compare to President Obama, Bush and Clinton.
Plus, brother, more video and more trouble for the airlines, what a mess, whatever happened to the friendly skies?
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VAN SUSTEREN: The Russia investigation is blowing up news tonight, the investigation is in jeopardy and that tempers are flaring behind closed doors, Yahoo! News reporting a severe partisan division is now threatening the future of the investigation. This time the mess is not in the house investigation, which we now watch, it`s not Chairman Nunes this time or his bizarre behavior. Now, it is across the hill in the U.S. Senate. The U.S. Senate Intelligence committee has not issued a single subpoena for documents or interviewed key witnesses. Democrats blame Republican Chairman Richard Burr they say failed to responsible to requests to sign letters.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mark and I have both agreed that we`re willing to issue subpoenas. Ian and I are tapping into everything we can how to increase our reach and the ability to investigate and get intelligence pertinent to the investigation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We with the members of the committee are going to get to the bottom of this. If you get nothing else today, take that statement to the bank.
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VAN SUSTEREN: A new NBC poll shows 73 percent want an independent commission. Mike Isikoff is the chief investigator for yahoo news and the reporter who broke this story and the partisan bickering behind closed doors, nice to see you, Michael
MICHAEL ISIKOFF, CHIEF INVESTIGATION CORRESPONDENT, YAHOO NEWS: Good to see you.
VAN SUSTEREN: How bad is it?
ISIKOFF: It`s not good. For those who thought the senate intelligence committees were the adults in the room who would do a serious investigation and get to the bottom of matters, this is a serious blow. The fact is while they`ve been very quiet and seemingly methodical and acting in a bipartisan way, when you get right down to the core of what have they done and what are they doing, they`ve got very little to show for it after more than three months. A small staff, seven total -- many of whom have other committee duties, standard oversight duties who have been reviewing documents that went behind that January 6th assessment about the Russian influence campaign in the election. That is all well and good, but there are key issues here that have been swirling around Washington and the Trump White House about suspected collusion, collaboration concealing ties and meetings, none of that, the senate intelligence committee has not interviewed any of the key witnesses. They haven`t even asked for the documents. I think that is the most shocking thing, because you cannot conduct a real investigation into these matters unless you get the material, as you know.
VAN SUSTEREN: All right, a couple things. Number one, we heard Jared Kushner volunteered to talk. That hasn`t happened, right?
ISIKOFF: Jared Kushner has volunteered to talk. Paul Manafort volunteered to talk. Roger Stone volunteered to talk. Carter Page has volunteered to talk. None of them, not only have they not been interviewed by the committee staff they haven`t scheduled any interview.
VAN SUSTEREN: NBC is reporting, one of our producers is reporting the senate intelligence committee is now adding two additional staffers. This comes as two reports come criticizing the investigation, assuming it was yours. My thinking when I read that, what have they been doing for two weeks on recess? Why do they need to add something if they need more documents and why do you need more people if they`re not doing anything.
ISIKOFF: They are doing stuff and I should point out Tim McAfee did a very good article on the limited staff. They`ve been reviewing the intelligence documents that went into that assessment. Again, that is usually the kind of thing the intelligence committee does. But this is an investigation. You cannot get to the bottom of the issues that people want answers to unless you aggressively pursue the documents and the witnesses.
VAN SUSTEREN: Senator Mark Warner, the Democrat and Senator Richard Burr, the chairman, they acted like everything is fine, they`re working together. The partisan bickering, is it between them?
ISIKOFF: The committee -- early on the committee sent these preservation letters to everybody involved saying, preserve all documents, we may want to take a look at them. Democrats have drafted letters requesting those documents be turned over. Leave aside subpoenas, just asking for the documents. Burr has not signed the letters. So the requests for the materials haven`t gone out.
VAN SUSTEREN: How long does it take to sign a letter? I signed two things today without --
ISIKOFF: There`s the Trump campaign itself, e-mail, phone records, memos. They haven`t even been requested at this point.
VAN SUSTEREN: We will be in the mid-terms worrying how much hacking is going on. I`m exaggerating, anyway, Michael, nice to see you.
ISIKOFF: Good to see you.
VAN SUSTEREN: U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is talking about strikes against North Korea as the U.N. Security Council meets at the White House.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does everybody like Nikki Haley? Should we keep her?
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VAN SUSTEREN: And this might stomp you, who is the leader of the Democratic Party? Is this still for President Obama, is he going to get more vocal? He took some subtle jabs at his Party today.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In eighth grade, which was your first election, we in social studies, were told --
OBAMA: Can I just say -- I`m old. That is -- but please continue. In eighth grade. Golly.
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VAN SUSTEREN: Former President Obama having some fun today in Chicago, his first public appearance since leaving the White House. He did get serious talking with young leaders about getting involved in politics changing economic inequality. The criminal justice system and immigration and what he did not say most important, the "t" word, Trump.
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OBAMA: Everybody has a story to tell that is important. This experience taught me that beneath the surface differences of people that there are common hopes and common dreams and common aspirations, common values, that stitched us together as Americans. What is the most important thing I can do for my next job? The single most important thing I can do is to help in any way I can prepare the next generation of leadership to take up the baton and take their own crack at changing the world. What I said in 2004, there were no red states or blue states, and there were United States of America that was an inspirational comment. But I think it`s -- it`s one by the way I still believe, when you talk to individuals one-on-one, people -- there`s a lot more people have in common than divides them, but obviously it`s not true when it comes to our politics and our civic life. Maybe more pernicious is the fact that people just aren`t involved, they get cynical.
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VAN SUSTEREN: Former President Obama calling on a new generation of leaders to step up. What about his rule? Should the former president get more vocal? He comes back to the spotlight as a Democratic Party is searching for new leaders and the Democratic unity tour, many leaders say, failed and advice for many members of his Party already in leadership.
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OBAMA: In addition to my base here in Chicago, I had spent a lot of time traveling around the state. I`d show up and then you`d have a conversation. You talk about their kids and basketball and what was happening on their jobs. People got a sense that my frames of reference and my values were not so different from theirs. That gave me the ability to break through some of the assumptions that people might have otherwise had. In some ways, Iowa was the same way. I`m traveling around the state, as you know, from having worked there, its retail politics, you`re going door-to-door, and you`re just talking to people.
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VAN SUSTEREN: Yamiche Alcindor is a National reporter for "The New York Times" and Jake Sherman, senior writer for "Politico." Jake, first to you, who is the leader for the Democratic Party?
JAKE SHERMAN, POLITICO: I think they`ll try to figure it out. I`ll tell you who it isn`t or behind the scenes Democrats tell me they don`t want it to be. I think they have a problem with Nancy Pelosi and the older leaders of the Party have stifled the generation of Democrats that decided they weren`t going to go for the leadership roles and weren`t going for that national profile. It`s not Hillary Clinton. I think we`re still waiting for a Democrat to merge here.
VAN SUSTEREN: This unity tour going on right now Senator Bernie Sanders is part of it. He isn`t a Democrat. He doesn`t want to be a Democrat and yet the Democratic Party is putting him out on this tour to set the agenda. What`s wrong with this picture?
YAMICHE ALCINDOR, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": The unity tour is exactly what`s wrong with the Democratic Party now. Bernie Sanders is the closest thing the Democratic Party has to a leader but he is not in the Party. His office said he is not changing his title?
VAN SUSTEREN: Why are they doing this?
ALCINDOR: They`re doing this because at the end of the day, they`re still licking their wounds. The Party is very much in shambles. I talk to the supporters they are still very, very mad and should have been president. He is the one that can bring in numbers and he is the one that has the e- mail list where the donors are.
I can`t get over the fact he was on the stage during the Democratic Party. He doesn`t want to be one and now Democrats are semi-putting him out there for this unity.
SHERMAN: They need his supporters or it gets split in half.
VAN SUSTEREN: It sends a bizarre message.
ALCINDOR: Also, he was the candidate that got all the young people excited. He bass the candidate for 2 unarguably won the youth vote. The future of the Democratic Party is tied to Bernie Sanders and they understand that.
VAN SUSTEREN: President Obama wants to skip the current generation and talks about the next generation. He is like, forget them.
SHERMAN: The fascinating thing, you`ve seen the Democratic Party lose a tremendous amount of legislative seats in states, governor`s mansions in states. When I started covering house Democrats they were in the majority by a healthy margin. I think they lost a lot of grip of power they had during Obama`s presidency which is a pretty daunting thing. If Obama was - - even Republicans say he is good at is talking and getting people riled up and getting people engaged, activating a political movement. That is what he is trying to do here.
VAN SUSTEREN: Did you have a sense he had the fine the belly, when he used to speak and draw thousands of crowds and I realize it was a different setting today, but I didn`t hear it in his voice except when he joked about being old in the eighth grade. It didn`t communicate that way to me.
ALCINDOR: I think he did. He is talking about setting these people up to lead. It`s admitting that he needs to do that work and the work isn`t done and the Democratic Party is without a Democratic leader and they can`t look to Nancy Pelosi`s for the future.
VAN SUSTEREN: And I don`t think that we shouldn`t ignore the fact the Republicans now have the house and senate and they can`t get anything passed. It is rather disturbing nothing gets done around here, but anyway, thank you both.
Up next an American citizen detained by the North Koreans, plus a nuclear test passing in the horizon, maybe even tomorrow and the U.S. aircraft carrier just hours away from the region, what will the Trump administration prepared to do about all of this? Also, will legal lawsuits force airlines to make some big change on how they treat their customers that would be you?
We will tell you why a secret ballot at the U.N. and Saudi Arabia has women has people -- has me outraged tonight.
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DONALD TRUMP, THE 45TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The status quo of North Korea is also unacceptable. The council must be prepared to impose additional or stronger sanctions or North Korea nuclear and ballistic missile program. This is a real threat to the world whether we want to talk about it or not, North Korea is a big world problem and a problem we have to finally solve.
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VAN SUSTEREN: President Trump meeting with the ambassador U.N. Security council and Trump once called them a waste of money and today called the U.N. officials to the White House to talk about the North Korea threat. Earlier he urged the president to show restraint and they will hold an 80th anniversary of the founding of the army. And the SS Carl Vinson is expected to arrive tomorrow and he is threatening to turn it into a great heap of scrap metal. In the middle of all of this, North Korea has detained another American citizen, trying to leave the country and now discussing what to do about it.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is the administration calling for the release of this U.S. citizen currently being detained?
SEAN SPICER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Absolutely, we want to make sure our citizens are able to return home. The state department is playing the lead in this.
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VAN SUSTEREN: Congressman Adam Kinzinger Republican from Illinois a member of the foreign affairs committee, good evening, sir, I do not pretend to have the answers to this. Can you tell me what we can do towards North Korea that we have not yet tried to do that may have some impact on getting rid of their nuclear weapons?
ADAM KINZINGER, ILLINOIS CONGRESSMAN: A couple things we have to pressure China and goes to secondary sanctions to Chinese banks that do business with North Korea and intercepting cargo ships and sanctioning the airline. Supporting the economic pressure on North Korea I think having a credible military option not saying we will default to use military option because it would be very bad for that to happen. Having that option can empower the diplomatic end of a negotiations and I also think we have to be investing. When people talk about missile defense and technology and upgrading up the military we will talk about in congress pretty soon, this is investing in the ability to intercept missiles once they`re off the launch phase and important whether North Korea or Iran or any other country that gets this.
VAN SUSTEREN: The missile defense system, China is unhappy about that. In terms of sanctions, if we rank up the sensation in North Korea, China won`t be happy with that and have an impact on China and to do increase banking sanctions would in many ways be catastrophic. Last week, the U.N. Security Council resolution to condemn the most recent missile test by North Korea, China didn`t veto it, it abstain from voting. I don`t know why we are putting our eggs in the basket of China. I just don`t see China stepping up until something else happens.
KINZINGER: You are right. China has always looked at it and seen it as a buffer and worried about the humanitarian crisis if the government collapses. They say it is in our interest to not necessarily engage against North Korea. President Trump did a good thing, from the economic side, we talk about currency manipulation? At the same time we are willing to put important things on the table if you help us with this. That is a credible military option to destroy the nuclear weapons but the war in the Peninsula will be extremely violent and bloody and that can`t be stopped.
VAN SUSTEREN: Even if we have a good Thad missile set up, they have artillery weapons on the southern border they can unload on South Korea which would be catastrophic and a battle like that would be horrible for that peninsula.
KINZINGER: Again, we would have the ability to take out their nuclear infrastructure, if we saw a point, that was a harmful situation and create a war on the peninsula. Tens of thousands of artillery pieces that pop out in mountains and fire and you can`t destroy it in one fell swoop so there would be massive casualties so military option is the next to worst case scenario, the worst case scenario is North Korea marrying nuclear warheads to an ICBM.
VAN SUSTEREN: Congressman, thank you, sir.
KINZINGER: Any time.
VAN SUSTEREN: President Trump invoking 9/11 to talk about his TV ratings. Have we ever seen a presidency like this?
It happened again, another airline altercation, this time a stroller was involved. Will public pressure or airline lawsuits force the airlines to change?
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VAN SUSTEREN: President Trump drawing criticism with touting his popularity with 9/11. I have all the ratings for all those morning shows. When I go, they go triple. It`s the highest for the face the nation. It`s since the world trade center came down, it is a tremendous advantage, now President Trump using 9/11 to brag about his TV ratings and comments like this, political liabilities, not for his base? A new poll shows 96 percent of those who supported him would do so again today. Maybe he was right when he said this on the campaign trail.
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TRUMP: You know what else they say I have the most loyal people. Did you ever say that, where I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn`t lose any voters, it`s incredible?
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VAN SUSTEREN: If the election was held today, Trump would beat Hillary Clinton again by three points. It`s not all that rosy. His 40 percent job rating is a worst for new president and in history of this poll and the worst rating period from president`s first 100 days since the 1950`s. Michael Beschloss is an NBC news presidential historian. Good to see you.
MICHAEL BESCHLOSS, NBC NEWS PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Good to see you, Greta.
VAN SUSTEREN: Should President Trump be concerned about the first 100 days and his ratings and how he is perceived.
BESCHLOSS: I think he should. I don`t think he feels that way. The way you use it, take your base and the people that voted for you on Election Day and try to expand that so you that you got the political strength to get things done through congress. The things he will be rightly criticized for. Elect me with Republican control of congress, your head will spin, we will get important bills through congress and it hasn`t happened.
VAN SUSTEREN: Not to mention he said the Mexicans will pay for the wall which could shut down government.
BESCHLOSS: They`re not paying and there is no bill to provide funding and the government is in danger of shutting down, plus no healthcare reform which he promised a lot.
VAN SUSTEREN: It seems so big and important right now, especially the 100 days. I remember back 2001, when president Bush 43 came in as education presidents and lo and behold nine months later he became the war president and I have no idea what he did during the first 100 days. Do these events dwarf this?
BESCHLOSS: The president is right about the 100 day standard is not a very important measure, it`s not. We historians look back at presidents, the most important things that happen to them or don`t happen during the first three months, Kennedy the missile crisis and George Bush, 9/11. President Trump can take some comfort from the fact whatever negative judgments there are during this week doesn`t necessarily mean it will look like that.
VAN SUSTEREN: His base is good, still getting the numbers and his opponents, the Democrats would say they hit him over the head with all his tweets where he said this is what I will do during the 100 days. You said you will do this and then it goes into the either.
BESCHLOSS: I think that is right. The 100 day mark is usually you look at what someone has gotten through congress and Donald Trump`s promises were so specific, he said I`m a great deal-maker and reach the other side. I cannot answer why he hasn`t done that.
VAN SUSTEREN: Who was one of the most remarkable presidents the first 100 days?
BESCHLOSS: Probably FDR, 1933, why we even talk about it. But Roosevelt had the advantage of the bank crisis and great depression and had overwhelming Democratic control of congress and cooperative Republicans that a 100 days he got through banking legislation, aiding the poor, aiding farmers and so every other president says this is unfair in that none of us can do what FDR did and in that sense they`re right.
VAN SUSTEREN: I supposed what hurts President Trump in this 100 days measure that he has the Republican house and senate, because he has quite divided house nonetheless its own Republican.
BESCHLOSS: That is right, remember what Paul Ryan said, welcome to united Republican government. Watch what happens. That is why 100 days later it`s painful to see so little has happened so far.
VAN SUSTEREN: I must admit I`m jealous, being a presidential historian is probably fun right now to have that knowledge in your basic pocket.
BESCHLOSS: It is absolutely exciting and I`m learning all sorts of things about the presidency and the society that I would never imagine.
VAN SUSTEREN: I always think that only FDR knew about tweeting, what would they think? What a world we live in.
BESCHLOSS: Yes that is for sure.
VAN SUSTEREN: Anyway, thank you, nice to see you.
BESCHLOSS: Thank you Greta.
VAN SUSTEREN: A new airplane video and a whole new public outcry, anything towards the airlines that change for the better. And why are people outrage, tonight about the U.N. secret vow on Saudi Arabia and women? That is next.
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VAN SUSTEREN: Air travel is getting so bad these days you may want to hire a lawyer before you get on the plane. Today an American airlines flight attendant is suspended after emotional altercation with a passenger over the stroller. Her new lawyer is representing the passenger who was dragged off the united airlines flight.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The video that we just saw is a micro cause of the entire problem. This is an example of why we need fairness, dignity and being treated right.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lawsuits coming in both the American incident and united incident.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t know about the American incident, United, yeah.
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VAN SUSTEREN: As for the American airlines, the company said the air quote deeply sorry for the pain we have caused this passenger and her family.
Seth Kaplan managing partner of airline weekly joins me, Seth compare and contrast the united incident with the American airlines.
SETH KAPLAN, AIRLINE WEEKLY: You know the united incident itself was more of a freak incident. It`s all kind of crazy things coming together, one in a billion situations. The American incident, somebody with short fuse, from what we can see, but then kind of going farther than most of these situations when, you know, passengers may not agree with flight attendants. The aftermath also, is very different. United rather handled that very poorly, trying to do the Sean Spicer thing, there were a trillion people at the inauguration. American quickly acknowledging what happened and making it right with the customer to the extent it could.
VAN SUSTEREN: American, you know, any airline that among led after united would be pretty bad. If American had not handled it as well as they did, that would be really bad.
KAPLAN: Absolutely, I mean this is a case study, two weeks in a row of how to mostly handle something and how mostly not to do it. You know, there`s -- I was amazed. You know, there`s a template to do this stuff as a company. You know, if anything, usually the criticism, when you`re looking at the company, yeah, they`re saying what we want to hear. Here was United not saying what anybody wanted to hear and so American, kind of following the script and walking the line. I think United was probably worried of criticizing their employees. American walked the line said what happened to the customer wasn`t right and we`ll give the employee due process.
VAN SUSTEREN: Everyone was so raw now on airplanes and it`s almost a privilege or excited to fly. Everybody has a bad experience to report. There are so many thousands of good employees all the airlines working really hard to deliver good service. It has gotten -- I don`t know -- the service has gotten rougher, they don`t get paid as much as flight attendants and the pilots. It`s a lot of unhappiness.
KAPLAN: There are more people on airplanes, there are more people packed more closely together than there used to be in the old days. It is hard to say, just because we hear that this morning, there is definitely more of it.
VAN SUSTEREN: You mean like baggage complains, everyone is bringing everything but the kitchen sink in the cabin, because if you send something on the cargo bin, it may not arrive or sit there at the carousel an hour waiting for it. It`s complaint after complaint.
KAPLAN: You know what, we try to do it the other way, but people, you know, they say one thing, they show us they want a cheap ticket. That is kind of what they say they struggle with trying to get people all the amenities they say they want it is a mass market way of getting around.
VAN SUSTEREN: Good news --
KAPLAN: Same space of travel.
VAN SUSTEREN: It`s been really safe, knock on wood, to fly.
KAPLAN: They are losing fewer bags, but, yeah, some of what you see going on.
VAN SUSTEREN: Seth, thank you.
KAPLAN: Thank you Greta.
VAN SUSTEREN: I have something to say for the record, this should be headline, you`ve got to be kidding, or maybe seriously. I`m talking about the weird news some of the U.N. Saudi Arabia. The epicenter of the war on women has been elected to the U.N. commission on the status of women. One status saying, electing Saudi Arabia to protect women`s right is like making an arsonist into the town fire chief. Shocking that Saudi Arabia would be on the women`s commission. In Saudi Arabia they won`t let woman drive.
In fact this woman dare to drive and got arrested. Nope, you can`t drive there. That is the tip of the iceberg. I`ve seen it with my own eyes. When I traveled to Saudi Arabia several years ago with former first lady Laura Bush, think about this, if a woman in Saudi Arabia detects something suspicious and wants a cancer screen, she must first persuade her husband to drive her. If she is not married, she needs to go get her father or brother to drive her. No one can touch her for mammogram unless she has her husband`s permission to be touched. That permission does not always happen. Even permission is granted, it may stop there, she can`t have a biopsy without her husband`s permission and she may not get that.
And of course, there were others long gone, having never gotten permission from a male in the first place for screening and treatment. In a secret, yet, putting Saudi Arabia on the status of a woman commission is appalling, meanwhile, Saudi Arabia, it`s a top U.S. allied, go figure, right.
Thanks for watching, I can see you back here tomorrow night 6:00 p.m. Eastern. And if you can`t watch live, set your DVR and make sure you follow me at twitter @Greta is the handle. Also check out my Instagram, I put a lot of pictures on Instagram as well as Facebook. If you know about Samson from Liberia, go check my Facebook page. You won`t believe the difference, it`s amazing. "HARDBALL" with Chris Matthews starts right now.
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