Hi, everyone, welcome to Off Message. I'm Isaac DeVare. Today's guest, Michael Chertoff,

former Secretary of Homeland Security for President Bush's second term. We met in his office

where he talked about what his view is on

what could go wrong and what happens if something does, especially under a president whom he said

during the campaign looked to him to be hysterical. His thoughts have evolved somewhat positively and

somewhat negatively since then. Make sure to follow me on Facebook, on Twitter, at Isaac Dover. Email me at Isaacat Politico. It's just Isaac at Politico. And tell me who you want to hear, what you think of the show, what we should be asking, who we should be going after. And I will do my best to make sure that not only am I

getting back to you but that we are taking that into account as we book our guests in the

coming weeks and now let's get to today's guests it is early yet.

When you look at what's going on in your former department and in this administration,

what do you think that they're getting right, getting wrong to deal with the potential threats that are out there, the things that they need to be thinking about?

Well, I think the appointments that have been announced so far and the nominations for the Department of Homeland Security, I think, are very positive. John Kelly brings a good deal of experience,

in particular regional experience with Latin America,

plus his military background. He brings all that to the department. And I've had an opportunity to talk to him.

And I think he's going to be very –

Did he reach out? Or you reach that to him?

We just got connected somehow.

And I think he's going to bring a very good sensibility and strategic vision to the department.

The nominee, as I understand it, for his deputy position is Elaine Duke.

She worked in the department when I was there at a senior level, very sound, really understands the department.

So I think that the appointments are good. On the maybe not so positive side, the initial

rollout of that travel ban was not well executed. But the good news is they've taken it back

and now they're taking the time to do it right.

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