[Blitzer:] We're back with our political and national security experts. Mark Mazzetti, you have a really important fascinating new article in the "New York Times," called "The Secret Push" "The Secret History of the Push to Strike Iran." Tell us more about what you learned.
[Mazzetti:] We decided to sort of try to better understand the current crisis of Iran by investigating what's happened really over the last decade and this push by both American and Israeli officials to launch a military strike on Iran, and this is the really, the whole backstory on how to understand what is going on in the brinksmanship right now between the U.S., Iran, and Israel. And we found that the Israelis became came far closer to striking Iran in 2012 than we knew before. We kind of revealed the scope of the pressure campaign that Netanyahu put on Trump to get out of the Iran nuclear deal. And it leads up to this point now where it's a volatile moment, where there's a poker game going on with all sides. And it could escalate when all of the sides don't have real knowledge of what the others' intentions are, and that's why it's so dangerous.
[Blitzer:] It's really, really an eye-opening article. Very lengthy. I recommend our viewers read it in depth. Meanwhile, Susan, CNN has learned that the relationship between the President's national security adviser, John Bolton, and the Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, has hit a new low. What kind of effect is that going to have on the President's national security team?
[Susan Hennessey, Cnn National Security And Legal Analyst:] Yes, so it really is astonishing. This reporting says that, essentially, John Bolton and Mike Pompeo are barely even speaking outside of sort of formal meetings. You know, we've seen this from this administration, sort of there's this constant sense of palace intrigue of people who are in and people who are on the outs. Now, that leaves the question of, who is setting this policy? Who has the President's ear on the sort of really, really important issues? For example, the administration is engaged in serious talks about withdrawal from Afghanistan, peace talks with the Taliban. Mike Pompeo and John Bolton have very, very different views. It's hard to understand who is actually getting the President's ear, who is setting U.S. policy. And also, it sort of creates this void and this opportunity for the President to come in and sort of and make these decisions and govern by whim and impulse. And so, we're back in a position which we maybe have really important foreign policy and national security decisions being based on who the President spoke to last or, frankly, what television segment the President might have watched last. That is not a stable situation for allies or for adversaries, and so it really is a concerning development to see these relationships deteriorate to this extent.
[Blitzer:] You know, Gloria, and you know this, the President has indicated he actually likes it when members of his team are at odds with one another. Do you think he's stoking this rift in some way?
[Gloria Borger, Cnn Chief Political Analyst:] I don't think he has to stoke it very much, to tell you the truth. Look, this is a president who does thrive on chaos. And by the way, Wolf, you and I have covered administrations we all have where there has been friction between the national security team and the team at the State Department. That is not that is not new. What is new here is the extent to which these people go out of their way now to avoid each other and the extent to which the President, for example, disagrees with his own national security adviser who who is an interventionist and here, you have a president who's an isolationist. You want to talk about Afghanistan, et cetera, talk about Syria, and so you have and Iran, you have a president who disagrees with Bolton. If Bolton leaves or is fired or resigns, whatever, it will be because Donald Trump says, you know what, I don't like the fact that you disagree with me and I'm making the decisions here. And also, Pompeo has really mastered the art of dealing with Donald Trump, and I think that Bolton is more in your face than Pompeo is. And of course, you know, we still don't know whether Pompeo is actually going to leave the administration at some point to run for the Senate, remember, in
[Blitzer:] Yes.
[Borger:] in the state of Kansas.
[Blitzer:] There's a lot of questions there.
[Borger:] Yes.
[Blitzer:] You know, Nia, how do you see it?
[Nia-malika Henderson, Cnn Senior Political Reporter:] Yes. And we'll have to see how long Bolton remains in this administration. There have been so many officials throughout this presidency where they seem to be sort of on their last days, but that could last for months and months and months. So we'll see what happens with Bolton, who is clearly on the outs with Pompeo and, as Gloria said, at odds with how the President sees the world and how he sees America's place in the world.
[Blitzer:] Everybody, stick around. There's more news, including alarming new evidence emerging right now about the gun seller who was the source of the assault-style weapon used in that mass shooting in Texas.