JOHN DICKERSON (HOST): Michael, one of the ongoing themes of the question about the Trump administration is what happens in a crisis. Who's in the room, does the president listen to them? You could see the secretary of state, well A) assess the secretary of state for me if you would like to, B), you could see him, and you have seen him and other administration officials really talking about how the president was asking questions on the beam, and there seemed to be an effort here to make a case about his competency in this kind of moment. How do you read the internal workings of the Trump team?
MICHAEL DUFFY: It is way too early to begin to read it. You and I both know that every time there is a first foreign policy crisis, the anecdotes usually tumble out of the White House the next day, saying that the president was asking a lot of questions, no matter who the president is, no matter what decade it is. I think there is a moment in every presidency where the commander-in-chief becomes president. This isn't a job you can prepare for, you only get on-the-job training, even those who are particularly qualified -- which this one wasn't, only can really understand what it is like once you are faced a test like this, On Wednesday, in that Rose Garden moment, there was this little bite of President Trump saying “I have the responsibility,” as -- just the day after the tweet about “I don't want to be president,” which made me think --
RUTH MARCUS: Of the world.
DUFFY: Of the world, right which is good because he wasn't elected to that. But it made me think, “oh, he now is finally putting on this uniform for the first time,” that it is just now kind of, on this respect, getting to him. And that's one of the things about whether it is his critics on the left or right or his supporters or the people who don't like him are going to have to contend with, which is that every president grows into the job as they face the challenges and the inbox gets more complicated.
