It's a much bigger deal than anybody would have expected, Jim.

We ought to give Donald Trump more the benefit of the doubt. But that would be a lot easier to do if he spoke clearly and without ambiguity.

Absolutely. And John, please understand. It didn't start with Nixon. It goes back a long way.

You do want to make sure your friends know that you're a reliable ally. That you're not erratic.

The first job of the president, the responsibility of the president, is to keep us out of war. And those briefings are an essential part of being prepared by a president, in preparation by a president to make the tough calls.

I would think that Donald Trump would not only want to do that as the new incoming president, but also, if he's confident about that, the investigations will help to clear the cloud around his incoming administration.

What kind of world are we living in when the president of the United States, you know, the Russians are hacking him, we know that and everybody -- that's a given. But he seems to be trying to undercut our democracy.

I think he's entitled to who he wants. But when he goes out to Iowa and said, we've got the best cabinet ever, that's not a point on which Americans agree.

I don't think the election should be read as a triumph of obstructionism. I don't -- I think Trump was not one of the candidates who ran on that. He ran it for change, to bust the whole thing out.

I think President Obama deserved credit for helping save the automobile industry. It's one of his big accomplishments.

I think they have to figure out two or three issues on which they're willing to cooperate, infrastructures the most obvious. They don't have a plan of their own yet. They desperately need to come up with a plan of their own. But I think…

The very important message is 'I'm on your side. I'm on your side.' And that's a message that goes beyond his base, that's the kind of thing that saves me as part politically.