next on "meet the press," the nightmare is over for america's last prisoner of the afghanistan war. bowe bergdahl, he's a free man after nearly five years in taliban captivity. but despite the obvious good news, there are concerns over the fact he was released in exchange for five taliban prisoners from the prison at guantanamo bay. has a dangerous precedent been set? i'll ask defense secretary chuck hagel who joins me exclusively from afghanistan. and following his exclusive interview with brian williams, edward snowden has been called a traitor and a coward by secretary of state john kerry, but after hearing him speak, does the american public agree? we'll bring you the results of a brand new nbc news poll. plus, recording the reality of war. ahead of the 70th anniversary of

d-day our tom brokaw is with us and he will have a fascinating report on how the battlefield experience shaped the vision of one of hollywood's most iconic directors. from nbc news in washington "meet the press" with david gregory. >> good morning. on a particularly busy sunday morning, bowe bergdahl was transferred immediatelyhgk afghanistan to a u.s. medical center in germany. earlier i was joined exclusively from afghanistan by defense secretary chuck hagel, but first our chief pentagon correspondent jim miklaszewski has the remarkable story of sergeant bergdahl's capture, detention, and release. >> reporter: in the white house rose garden with president obama late saturday, bowe bergdahl's parents sounded totally overwhelmed by the news. >> we will continue to stay strong for bowe while he recovers. thank you. >> thank you so much.

we just can't communicate the words this morning when we heard from the president. >> reporter: five years ago in june 2009, private bowe bergdahl walked away from his combat outpost in afghanistan and was taken captive by the taliban. >> what's your name? >> my name is bowe bergdahl. >> reporter: three weeks later his captors released the first of five hostage videos. >> i am scared, scared i won't be able to go home. >> reporter: by christmas, the taliban was using bergdahl as a propaganda tool, apparently under duress, he spoke out against the u.s. military mission in afghanistan. >> i'm afraid to tell you that this war -- >> reporter: it took two years for the first sign of a breakthrough. the taliban offered to free bergdahl in exchange for the release of five taliban leaders held at guantanamo bay, cuba. but u.s. defense and intelligence officials at the time considered the five among the most dangerous at

guantanamo, and in secret pentagon documents obtained by wikileaks, the five detainees were all described as mid to senior level taliban, high risk, likely threat to the u.s., and recommended for continued detention. but with the u.s. war in afghanistan winding down, there was increasing pressure on the white house and pentagon to get bergdahl released before most american military pulled out of the country. so five years after he was taken captive, bowe bergdahl was freed this weekend. only six hours later, the five taliban detainees were on a u.s. military transport plane to qatar in the persian gulf. jim miklaszewski, nbc news, the pentagon. >> earlier i spoke exclusively, as i say, with secretary of defense chuck hagel. he was at bagram air base near kabul in afghanistan. i began by asking him about those reports that the timing of this operation was prompted by concerns about bergdahl's health. >> well, david, as you know, he

has been held for five years, and that's five years of very difficult living, and we don't know yet all the specifics and details. he is in landstuhl, germany, at our medical facility there. our health care professionals are now with him, and they will be giving him complete checkups. we will be giving him exactly what he needs, and until we get those evaluations, we just don't know much more. although he did walk to the extraction helicopter. he did perform the basic duties and responsibilities when that process took place, but beyond that i wouldn't want to speculate. >> can you take us inside what happened? how you were actually able to get him? how these negotiations proceeded with the taliban?

>> well, first, i want to congratulate, again, all who had something to do with this, but also to thank the mayor of qatar, the qatari government, and all the people in qatar who helped make this occur. the transaction really was done by the qatar government and the emir's commitment to getting that accomplished. we facilitated that in different ways, but in the interest of our own intelligence and procedures, i don't want to go much further than that. >> but this is potentially a good sign if you think about the future of afghanistan. if bergdahl was held by the most hardened taliban fighters who operate out of pakistan, does this pave the way for perhaps a new round of negotiations with the taliban directly between the united states and the taliban about the taliban's future in

running afghanistan? >> well, it could, it might, and we hope it will present an opening. as you know, we have strongly supported an afghan-led effort to come to an agreement with the taliban. as you know, we had engaged with the taliban up until 2012. they broke off those negotiations. we've had no formal relationship since then. so maybe this will be a new opening that can produce an agreement. >> there is some blowback to what is being treated as very good news, the release of the prisoner. some in the united states, members of congress have said, look, congress is supposed to be consulted before there's any prisoner exchange, especially prisoners from guantanamo bay, hardened taliban fighters who have been linked to killing americans in a theater of war in

afghanistan. the chairman of the intelligence committee, republican mike rogers, issued a statementc3zñ saying this fundamental shift in u.s. policy signals to terrorists around the world a greater incentive to take u.s. hostages. further, he said, i have little confidence in the security assurances regarding the movement and activities of the now-released taliban leaders and i have even less confidence in the administration's willingness to ensure that they are enforced. are these prisoners being released from guantanamo a national security threat to the united states or our allies? >> well, david, let's slow down for a minute and back up and look at the facts here. sergeant bergdahl is a member of the united states army. this was a prisoner exchange. after five years he's been a prisoner of war. as to notification of congress, yes, there is a 30-day notification. i notified the appropriate committee leadership, different committee leadership yesterday.

that's part of the responsibility i have as the secretary of defense, and we did this under the time line we did for the very reason that i explained when you asked me the first question. this was -- this essentially in your opinion to save the life of sergeant bergdahl. as i said before, we had information that his health could be deteriorating rapidly. there was a question about his safety. we found an opportunity. we took that opportunity. i'll stand by that decision. i signed off on the decision. the president made the ultimate decision. we did spend time looking at this. as to guantanamo, the president has made very clear he wants to close guantanamo. we do have responsibilities that we don't let anyone out of guantanamo, and i will not sign off on any detainee coming out of guantanamo unless i am

assured, unless our government is assured, our country can be assured that we can sufficiently mitigate any risk to america's security. >> do you worry about a precedent here, mr. secretary? the prospect that prisoners at guantanamo could be sought after by the taliban or other terrorist groups, that other troops could be vulnerable now, other americans could be vulnerable because the government could be accused here in effect of negotiating with terrorists? >> well, first of all, we didn't negotiate with terrorists. as i said and explained before, sergeant bergdahl is a prisoner of war. that's a normal process in getting your prisoners back. that's first. second, as to your bigger question, we are dealing with terrorism and hostage taking all the time everywhere. i think america's record is pretty clear on going after

terrorists, especially those who take hostages, and i don't think what we did in getting our prisoner of war released in any way would somehow encourage terrorists to take our american service men prisoner or hostage. in war things are always dangerous, and there are vulnerabilities as there are around the world, but our record, the united states of america in dealing with terrorists, in finding and hunting down those terrorists, is pretty good, david. >> i want to ask you one more about this. what about an investigation into what happened here? as we have reported, this was five years ago when sergeant bergdahl essentially left his

command post. there are questions about why that happened. that was mysterious. his father was saying that he was having some difficulty speaking english upon his release. what questions will drive an investigation for you? >> well, first of all, we are focused on, as we have done -- accomplished in the last few hours, the safe return of sergeant bergdahl. he is a member of the united states armed forces. second, our priority now is to give him all the care he needs so that he can be integrated back into society, and, third, is at the same time the reunification with his family. that's our focus now, and that's going to continue to be our focus. >> but is there anything that concerns you that has raised a red flag to you that you would like to get to the bottom of concerning his original

disappearance and captivity, particularly the questions as to why he was struggling to speak english now? >> well, david, he's been held by the taliban. we don't know where. we don't know under what circumstances for five years. as far as we know, he was not held with any other americans or any english-speaking people. we don't know that yet. i'm not surprised that there are still questions, and until we get the facts exactly what the condition of sergeant bergdahl is, we can't go much further in speculating. but, you know, this is a guy who probably went through hell the last five years, and let's focus on getting him well and getting him back with his family. >> do you specifically believe that he was tortured? >> i don't know. again, david, i don't know until

we can work this through, but, again, the first issue is his health, and then we'll get into all the other parts as to what his conditions were like and the follow-on questions to his captivity. >> mr. secretary, i just want to touch on the other big story this week, of course, and that is secretary of the veterans affairs administration shinseki resigning amid this scandal within the va. there are questions about the care that veterans are getting today and the lack of service that they have gotten as the internal audit has found. you have got some 22,000 veterans from afghanistan, where you are, who will be returning home. how does this get fixed going forward? >> well, it must be fixed. that's first. let me, first, address general shinseki. as president obama said in thanking him for his service to our country over an entire

career, we owe shinseki that debt of gratitude for his service. now, the bigger issue, which you have just asked me about, there are problems. we know from the va's inspector general's early and initial investigation that they are probably systemic. we need more facts. but the fact is, as president obama said, we are going to act now. we must act now to fix whatever is wrong. i'm committed to do that as secretary of defense, to continue to help veterans administration leaders. we do that now. we work very closely with the veterans administration. we'll continue to do that. we'll continue to offer everything we can offer in order to assist them, but we have no higher responsibility in our country than to take care of these men and women whose selfless service we depended on

and continue to depend on to this day, and we'll fix it. >> for more reaction to that interview, i'm joined by michael lighter, nbc security analyst for nbc news. michael, i want to focus on these guantanamo prisoners who were released. athe five detainees were on the obama administration's list to be held indefinitely without charges. how big of a risk to release these detainees to qatar. >> this is significant, david. there's always a range of people in guantanamo, the low level fighters up to the other al qaeda operatives. these guys are very close to the khalid sheikh mohammeds. they are serious leaders. the deputy defense leader of the taliban, a key governor. these are people who helped lead taliban's relationship with al qaeda pre-9/11, helped fight against u.s. interests post-2001, and they will be in

the coming years once they finally are released from qatar, they will be key in the future of the taliban. >> and they could be back in afghanistan. you're a terrorism expert. part of your job in the government was to protect america or our forces in the field in war against terrorists. what's changed that would make the administration think, okay, it's okay to take this risk now. we wouldn't have done it a couple years ago. >> one key change, the war is coming to an end. the president's announcement, it's coincidental that this release happened the same week as the 9,800 troops now, no troops by 2016, but the fact is we are winding things down. we are leaving afghanistan. during a period where we had 10,000, 20,000, 50,000 troops in afghanistan, you couldn't let people like this out. this is an exclamation point on the fact that we are withdrawing and this is now for the afghans. >> what about guantanamo bay and these other prisoners? i mean, are they in effect bargaining chips on the international scene? >> this is a very difficult position, and i think actually

getting more of them out will be harder now because of congressional reaction to the president's release in this case. there are still many people there who we cannot let go. >> michael, thanks so much for your expertise. i'm joined by paul rieckhoff and adam kinzinger, republican congressman from illinois. he's an iraq and afghanistan veteran, still serves as a pilot in the air national guard. i have you both here to talk about the fallout from the va scandal, shinseki's resignation. let me start with you on the release of the taliban prisoners. as a member of congress, a republican, do you oppose what you just heard from secretary hagel and his rationale for releasing them. >> let me say this, welcome home, bowe. there are a lot of questions about why he got captured. so i'm going to celebrate him coming home. the release of five mid to high level taliban is shocking to me, especially without coming to

congress. it says in the law you have to notify congress, and then putting five people potentially back on the battlefield. even though our troops are out in 2016, which i think is shocking that the president once again went along with the timeline like he did in iraq, you now are going to have five people potentially on the ground targeting american troops, afghan troops, and the afghan people. there are a lot of questions that need to be asked. this whole exchange is shocking to me and i'm very disappointed. >> paul, any veteran has to celebrate this moment when a comrade comes home. the question though about what happened here, walking off his post, the questions now about what happened to him in captivity, difficulty speaking english. what questions would you want to know more about? >> we just want to welcome him home. we have to underscore that point. this guy has been in captivity for five years. most of america forgot his name or never knew it to begin with. the military community has been tracking on this. an important message has been

sent, we will come for you. if you are captured, america will come for you. that's an important message to send to our troops and forever. >> let me get right to the va scandal. here is what the president said, shinseki is out. we got to make sure the veterans who are not getting the care one by one get the care, but there are needs. what specific needs are there right now that the government has to address? >> well, first of all, we have to clean house. the va has a systemic problem. so we need a total turnaround. we cannot middle around the edge. it's a defining moment for the president. who we name now will be key. it's unfortunate we didn't have somebody ready given the scandal took four weeks. >> how is it that shinseki didn't know? how did this bad news not get to him? >> i don't know. we've been trying to tell him, there have been congressional -- we have been trying to warn him, trying to warn the president. the ig report has been supported. they didn't listen. now so the time to turn the corner. listen to the veterans, listen

to the needs, and let's turn this around. >> congressman, i want to know the answer to that question, which is shinseki apparently didn't know and that enraged him as the president said the other day, but how didn't he know? that's the key part of this that you have to be wondering about as well. >> yeah. i think that is the key. i mean, a good leader knows what his subbord nants are doing and if he doesn't have control over his subordinates, he really gets in there and figures it out. look, i don't want to impugn the reputation of general shinseki, he was a great guy, but i thought it was time for him to go to get new blood in there and the new person whoever long-term it ends up being, i want to see people fired. i want to see people prosecuted by the law for those that created this secret waiting list. that's what we have to do next. clean house, as paul said. we need to say, hey, those in the backlog, you can go to a private doctor, get some things taken care of. we have to get dead serious of this. this is the beginning of taking control. >> there has been so much

information. i want to put a graphic on the screen. about the wait for care. this is what the inspector general found. 1,700 veterans not even on a wait list. an average wait of 115 days for first appointment. hospital leadership, quote, significantly understated time veterans waited for first appointment. paul, your experience with veterans, is this a fair statement? they're happy with the care once they get it. >> quality care is generally good but access to care has been horrible and continues to be horrible, and this is not an isolated situation. >> and the needs are greater and they're growing. this is not an isolated situation. the ig is investigating 41 other cities. so this scandal is very far from over. we need folks to know that now the fact that shinseki is gone is a good step but the new person has to be in place. we need america to stay focused. we're going to need -- >> focus and this is a key question for congress, congressman, which is are you prepared not just to see people fired and prosecuted. are you prepared to vote to

spend more money to give the va more doctors, more resources to deal with this growing need? >> well, look, the va budget is much higher than it was ten years ago. it's going to continue to increase and i think you will see congress -- we've always put our military and our veterans above almost anything we do. it's so very important. so you will see a willing congress. you have seen the chairman of the va, chairman jeff miller, he's been very big on this talking about access to care. but the answer is not just throwing more money at a problem. the key is holding people responsible that aren't having outcomes, getting to the bottom of what the problems are, and ensuring that they have the best quality of care. so we'll spend what we need to, but the answer isn't just to spend more money on a problem. the answer is to get real outcomes and i think we can do that, and hopefully the new secretary and the president himself will take a keen interest in this and we can see some results finally. >> congressman kinzinger, thanks so much, paul rieckhoff, great to have you here. we wanted to get some more reaction on this scandal in the va. our kevin tibbles visited one of the largest military bases in the country and found grave

concerns, as you might imagine, about the future of the u.s. military and how we care for our troops at home. it is today's "meeting america." >> reporter: fayetteville, north carolina, is army through and through. it's neighbor fort bragg is home to more soldiers than any other base in the country and today people are reeling from the resignation of the secretary of the va and what they see as the mistreatment of this nation's veterans. and at grandson's where folks flock to chow down and chat, they are steaming. >> i think it's just a message that we don't care. you know, we understand you went over there, you served our country, you done your job, but, you know, now that you're back home, we don't care. >> reporter: richelle james' husband was deployed a year in iraq. she says the va is overwhelmed, understaffed, and that the

departure of general shinseki solves little. >> i think he's just a figurehead. i don't think he's the actual problem. >> reporter: and as the longest wars in our nation's history slowly wind down, they ask, isn't that when soldiers need the va most? jane bell's son is in the navy. >> if they understood what military families go through since iraq and afghanistan and honestly truly cared what they go through, we wouldn't even be talking about this. >> we owe them everything we can give them. >> reporter: jerry hall wore the green beret in vietnam. >> it's very upsetting. it's individuals who are concerned about greed and getting their bonus over the welfare of our veterans, and that is criminal. >> reporter: jerry has come to the airborne and special operations museum to remember those who fought alongside him. >> i think our foreign policy right now is weak. it's ambiguous, we're not sure,

you know, exactly what we want to do, and our potential adversaries, they see that, and they take advantage of it. >> we have way too many deployments, and families are literally being torn apart. we don't belong policing everyone anymore. >> reporter: some question how america can claim to be all-powerful when it leaves those who serve it powerless. >> as a nation, i think it says we are looking more for power instead of being compassionate. we want to be on top all the time. you can't be on top all the time and still take care of home. >> reporter: they want veterans to get the care they have earned and are convinced the va needs more than simply a shake-up at the very top. for "meet the press," kevin tibbles. >> thanks so much, kevin. coming up next here, hillary clinton at war with her critics over benghazi. a round table debate to see if her latest strike in her book is helping or hurting her

presidential cause. and traitor or patriot? following his exclusive interview with brian williams, what does the public think of edward snowden and how did views change? we'll bring you the results of an exclusive new nbc news poll. "meet the press" is brought to you by -- [ male announcer ] whether it takes 200,000 parts, ♪ 800,000 hours of supercomputing time, 3 million lines of code, 40,000 sets of eyes, or a million sleepless nights. whether it's building the world's most advanced satellite, the space station, or the next leap in unmanned systems. at boeing, one thing never changes. our passion to make it real. ♪ with secure wifi for your business.

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big week of politics and the round table. i'm joined by jane harman from california, now president and ceo of the woodrow wilson international center, newt gingrich, former republican speaker of the house between '95 and '99 who ran for president in 2012. rana far hoo har, assisting managing editor at "time" and our own political director chuck todd. i want to talk about ed woor snowden. it's been such an interesting conversation for the country. and we wanted to know just about how his own words speaking to the public might have changed views, and, chuck, you did some new polling around this to gauge people's attitudes. let's look at some of the findings that you put together. >> yeah, let's do. new polling we conducted before and after snowden's interview that we are revealing for 9 first time here shows at least

for now his appearance does not seem to have changed many minds. more americans disagree with snowden's decision to leak nsa documents than agree. that number essentially unchanged from a january 2014 nbc news/"wall street journal" poll. when it comes to snowden himself, 27% of those surveyed have an unfavorable opinion of him, while only 13% view him positively, but note the age gap. when it was limited to 18 to 34-year-olds, the numbers nearly flip. 32% view snowden positively, 20% negatively. and that younger support may be reflective in the shift of the conversation online. thousands of tweets poured in and tracking data from nbc news shows responses to the #patriot #patriotortraitor were neck and neck up to the interview but once you started talking, patriot won out by almost 20 points. what's next for snowden? what's clear from the interview, he wants a deal. >> whether amnesty or clemency

ever becomes a possible, is not for me to say. that's a debate for the public and the government to decide but if i could go anywhere in the world, that place is home. >> that's what critics and government officials say he should do. >> as far as i'm concerned, he needs to come to the united states. he needs to face justice. >> famed whist le-blower and leaker of the pentagon papers daniel ellsberg disagrees. >> he knows he could not get a fair trial. he could only inform the public and reporters about the significance of the information he's given to them when he's outside the country. >> interesting, chuck, that views did not change. america seems pretty entrenched on this debate about traitor/patriot, good thing/bad thing that he did. >> on snowden it really has been in threes. there's a third that really do -- are hypertraitor, hyperpatriot. and a third of the country shrug their shoulders.

they're disappointed the president didn't have a conversation with the country about this wasn't fully honest, but at the same time seize the upside securitywise of some of the surveillance tactics. that's what bails the administration out here because public opinion i think him personally, if you had 20 million, 30 million, 40 million people viewing him, i think public opinion would flip on him bigger. >> newt gingrich, some people i have talked to this week have -- they've been struggling with this. in other words, struggling with the idea that basically who is he to decide, right, what secrets to reveal but also struggling with the very nature of the program still and the fact that he is quite eloquent in his description of what he did and forceful in his own defense. can you understand people being uncomfortable with -- >> i understand being uncomfortable, but the fact is christa and i went about a week ago and visited the national 9/11 museum, and i would just urge people to go and visit the national 9/11 museum. what right does any single american have to decide that

more than the president, more than the congress they're going to leak our secrets? this is the act of a traitor. you can decide that's too strong of language. he may be a patriotic traitor, he may think he did the right thing. this is treason. this is extraordinary dangerous to the country and if he gets to decide, what about the next person and then the person after that? we are in a war with people who want to destroy us. they're very clear about it, and he ended up aiding and abetting the enemy. >> i just -- i want to offer the other side for a point of discussion, jane, which is one thing he gets at is that this country did not have a real debate about all of these measures, and so there was a security apparatus that was put in place that got beyond the debate of the american public and congress failed to really keep that debate going. >> well, i was there, and we did have a debate once it was disclosed by the bush administration in its first term that the authority used for the

program was the president's commander in chief authority and it didn't go through congress and it didn't comply with the foreign intelligence surveillance act. congress remanded fisa in 2008 and we had a debate. i wish more people had listened in -- >> seven years later we had a debate. >> well, yeah, but four of them were in secret. we had a debate. we tried to amend it earlier, it took a while, congress doesn't move very fast, especially since newt left but can i just finish my thought. we should have had a better debate. labeling this guy a traitor before he's convicted i don't think is fair, but i think what he did was, one, he wasn't a whistle-blower, and, two, it's not just that he leaked information about so-called spying on americans, he leaked our technology playbook, and that really compromises us. >> what about what he says which is you can't prove there was any real damage done? >> look -- >> how does he know that is an obvious follow-up? >> i think both sides have some credibility problems. the administration has been evasive and has lied about its espionage tactics but on the

other hand i would have more faith in snowden if he wasn't a guest of vladimir putin. younger people have a more favorable illinompression becau they're less worried about ou their data is used. there's an interesting juxtaposition. >> they're used to it. on the one hand we're used to the world being that way. the way young folks relate to snowden goes to this idea mill len yells, i'll take it into my own hands, i can do it. there's a part of snowden that represents more of a culture. >> newt, here is secretary hagel this morning when i asked him to respond to what snowden himself said which s hey, the government can't prove their claim that my disclosures actually harmed anybody. this is what secretary hagel said. >> david, his disclosures have damaged the security of this country, and i'm not going to get into a point-by-point

inventory of the specifics of how he's done that. i think it's been very clear, every responsible position in our government who has had any responsibility for security or intelligence from nsa, from cyber command, the defense department, from the state department have said the same thing. let me assure you, there is plenty of evidence. he did damage to the security of this country. >> the first time there's a major attack on the united states, all the millennials are going to decide do they really want the government to protect them? the core idea here that one person has the right to judge very complex issues more than the commander in chief, more than the congress, more than the secretary of defense is an act of such extraordinary arrogance that it threatens the very fabric of our national security. people need to understand, this is a big deal and this guy is dangerous and the precedent he sets if we decide it's okay to be a snowden, then we are really going to have dramatically

crippled -- >> where does it go then, jane? what is the knew tofuture for h. he's unlikely to get any sort of clemency. i'm sure he wants to come home and cut some deal. he's not inclined to serve a long prison sentence. >> let's go through this. he goes to hawaii where we have the least secure facilities. he then arranges in advance to have the journalists and the filmmaker before he goes to china. he then goes to russia. he claims neither country has exploited his information. he has every right to try to cut a deal. i'm sure that deal won't be enormously favorable to him, but he should cut a deal. he should come back. he should serve prison time, and i think that's where it should come out and the lesson to other kids ought to be that watch out here, this is very dangerous. >> i want to move on and talk a couple minutes about hillary clinton, the issue of benghazi which is going to be a hot political issue here going forward. as her new book "hard choices"

is coming out and an excerpt released to politico on friday. here is a portion, i will not be part of a political slugfest on the backs of dead americans. it's just plain wrong, it's unworthy of our great country. those who insist on politicizing the tragedy will have to do so without me. she wants to take this on. >> and get it out of the way. >> clear the deck she said this week. >> this is what she's up to, and it's a very concerted effort. you have to be looking at it just as a press rollout. you have to be impressed with what they did. we know that benghazi chapter will be all the news and we don't want to be the news the first time the book comes out. >> it looks like she's running. >> we'll leak it early. second thing we're going to do, we're going to go on fox news. we know that they have been covering benghazi more than anybody else and we're going to be able to say, bret baier was able to ask me all these questions, it's old news in 2015. you can tell this is -- >> is it though? >> -- a campaign game plan. >> what's the key question she has to face next? >> the key question i'd like to

see answered in this book is why she was not front and center, why susan rice was the one on the under shows. i think that's an issue i haven't seen answered. there's a lot of legalese. her tally of the events is pretty accurate. i don't think there was anything venial going on but it's interesting she wasn't the front person. >> to you both? >> i think boko haram will come back and bite her much more than benghazi. she rejected naming them as a terrorist group and it's a trait of the state department that goes back, frankly, into the bush administration, and she did nothing to correct it, and this whole -- which is why, by the way, the cairo riots and 9 benghazi riots were wrong because the state department's first inclination is it can't be that they hate it. the secretary of defense talking about finding moderate taliban. >> west africa is going to continue to be an issue. >> hillary clinton is on it. she's taken full responsibility for benghazi. she appointed a review board.

as for sunday's show, she said it's not the same thing as jury duty. some of us like being on your show, david, and take the red eye back to be on your show. >> thank you. >> i think this congressional committee will reveal what most of us know. >> what is america's responsibility in a place of chaos whether it's taliban -- excuse me, whether it's afghanistan post or withdrawal, whether it's libya post some kind of invasion? what is our sense of responsibility? >> we have to protect our people in the field. we have to protect our embassies and consulates and we didn't go a good enough job. >> we chose to go into libya though. >> and that's when -- >> when you choose to do this and we tried to do this, the infamous leading from behind, but this is to me what the policy debate should be about is what was the policy? >> let me do this -- >> which is why benghazi was so dangerous. >> we're coming back later. we'll come back also with this story. ahead of the 70th anniversary of d-day and the landings, our tom

brokaw will join me with a unique look at how one of hollywood's greatest directors captured the war in vivid details. >> i said, my god, that's d-day. >> "meet the press" is brought to you by -- passion... became your business.

at&t can help simplify how you manage it. so you can focus on what you love most. when everyone and everything works together, business just sings. teacher layoffs. and a 60 billion dollar budget deficit. that's what john perez faced when he became speaker of the california assembly. so he partnered with governor brown to pass three balanced budgets, on time. for the first time in thirty years.

today, the deficits are gone and we've invested an additional 2 billion dollars in education. now john perez is running for controller, to keep fighting for balanced budgets. democrat john perez for controller. we are back. next friday president obama and other world leaders will gather in northern france to mark the 70th anniversary of d-day. our special correspondent tom brokaw will be there for nbc and he joins me now. tom, good morning. >> good morning, david. you know, in world war ii it was all in, and in afghanistan and iraq, we've been fighting the two longest wars in our nation's history with less than 1% of our population. but 70 years ago clark gable was in uniform, jimmy stewart was in uniform, and what we've just

learned recently is the prominent role of five of the most excellent directors you could possibly imagine in the history of film, george stevens, jr., william wiler, john houston, john ford, and frank kappa. these men went to war. they not only went to war, it changed their lives and it changed the way that we see movies. >> reporter: five of hollywood's finest directors all at the top of their game. john ford, john houston, william wiler, frank kappa, and george stevens. >> these guys were artists, so they wanted to make great movies. they were patriots so they wanted to serve their country, and just as men, they wanted to tell the truth. >> reporter: filmmaker george stevens, jr. remembers when his father signed up to serve. >> he saw the triumph of the will, the film about nuremberg. and the next day he arranged to go in the army. >> reporter: but it was a

discovery that stevens made in his father's archive almost 40 years ago that would change forever how we view d-day and the war in europe. some old rolls of film perfectly preserved. >> went and sat by myself in the screening room and up on the screen came this blue sky, ships, barrage balloons in the sky, and i said, my god, that's d-day. >> reporter: a war that was in black and white in our collective memory. >> the full drama of the fateful hour. >> reporter: suddenly in vibrant, startling color. >> you see along the roads going through france, they'd see dead german bodies, and you see the picture, and there's just something so personal to see it in color, and the festiveness of the liberation of paris. you know, the girls in their summer dresses.

august 25th, 1944, my father and his friends had the greatest day of their lives. >> reporter: stevens recorded some of the most joyous 340e7mo of the war as when they met on the elba river to seal the defeat and some of the most sinister, discovering the depths of nazi depractivity. >> stevens said he could never direct a comedy again. >> reporter: they succeeded in telling one great truth about those who answered their nation's call seven decades ago. >> this was a war fought by human-scale people. we see their heroism as larger than life. they were human beings who became larger than life. they didn't start that way. >> i think the war was at the sin ter of their life. as they approached 40, they go to war and see something else and they come back and they have a different attitude toward making films. >> tom, amazing images, just to see them in color, and it also

strikes me, as you will be there, 70 years after d-day at a moment when the u.s. is pulling back from war in afghanistan, the president is talking a lot about american power in the world, how to wield it, and it's not always by going to war. it's a striking irony now of where we are today. >> it's a different world now, david, and gratefully it's a different world. we'll never see the likes of d-day again. there had never been anything like it before and there won't be again in our future, but at the same time d-day will be a reminder of what can be accomplished when allies work together and when everyone understands what's at stake, every citizen, all the way from the best directors and the biggest stars in hollywood down to some kid living on a dairy farm who signs up and nine months later is piloting a four-engine bomber. so it was a unique time, and the interest in it seems to grow i think in part because of the magnitude of it. so much was at stake and we're just now beginning to understand that, david. >> tom brokaw for us. thank you so much.

we really appreciate it. >> my pleasure. >> we'll take a break. coming up here, the isla vista, california, shooting rampage took place despite california having some of the toughest gun laws in the country. i'll have exclusive reaction from former new york city mayor and anti-gun campaigner michael bloomberg who speaks out for the first time. >> the parents of this kid knew he had a problem, knew he had done something. cops couldn't do anything. >> "meet the press" is brought to you by -- ♪ ♪ [ girl ] my mom, she makes underwater fans that are powered by the moon. ♪ [ birds squawking ] my mom makes airplane engines that can talk. [ birds squawking ] ♪

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it's one more part of our commitment to america. transit fares! as in the 37 billion transit fares we help collect each year. no? oh, right. you're thinking of the 1.6 million daily customer care interactions xerox handles. or the 900 million health insurance claims we process. so, it's no surprise to you that companies depend on today's xerox for services that simplify how work gets done. which is...pretty much what we've always stood for. with xerox, you're ready for real business. we're back. last weekend's horrific mass shooting in isla vista, california, once again focused attention on the nation's gun laws and raised concerns about the mental health system in america. mayor michael bloomberg is spending $50 million of his own

money to take on the national rifle association. let me start by asking you about guns. this rampage in santa barbara, as heart wrenching as it is, is there any reason to think that it gives new momentum to the debate for more gun restrictions? >> well, you certainly hope so. we've had shootings on campus and at the same time some states are passing laws to explicitly let people carry guns on campuses. i don't know what you were like when you were in college, but my recollection of college 50 years ago is kids just should not have guns on campus. the real problem here is we have too many guns in the hands of criminals, people with psychiatric problems as this guy obviously did, and minors, and we've got to find some ways to stop that. we're making a lot of progress. some things are one forward, two back, but the public understands what's happening here. >> more specifically about mental illness. this is where you may have some agreement with the likes of the national rifle association.

how do you make it more difficult for somebody like this young man with some signs of mental illness to get a weapon? >> well, you always have to have due proces and you can't just go incarcerate people, and psychiatrists will tell you they can't predict which people with mental illness will get a gun and start killing people, but you want to have laws that let you get a temporary restraining order. the parents of this kid knew he had a problem, knew he'd done something. the cops couldn't do anything. now, you don't want cops to be able to go and grab somebody off the street and institutionalize them. there should be a process and long term that's what most of these laws allow, but we don't have that thing that a cop could use right away. maybe you'd have to go before a judge and make a case but you can solve that problem and also the states don't populate the database of who is mentally ill. it's hard to do because if some people go to their private doctor and how do you find out about it? nobody says any law is going to solve all the problems. what we do know is a lot of people with mental illness do

things that are destructive to themselves and to others. we also know that there's an enormous problem with domestic violence around this country, and in the 16-odd states that have background checks for gun show sales and internet sales, just to make it a little bit harder, one step harder, not perfect, but a little harder to buy a gun, domestic violence in those cases is down like 40%, shootings of cops is down like 40%, suicide rates with guns is down 50%. it works. it's not perfect, but it gets you there. >> you have made it very clear you want to take on the nra politically. >> no, i want to make sure that the public gets together, tells the congress and their state legislatures we want reasonable background checks. we don't want to end the second amendment. it has nothing to do with gun control. it's about just making sure that three groups that 80% or 90% of the public think don't have guns, don't get guns.

>> it isn't a political reality that a lot of folks who believe in greater restrictions don't vote on that issue when those who believe in protecting their gun rights absolutely vote on that issue and that's what gives the nra a political advantage. >> maybe i'm too cynical but i think it's all driven by the politics of election and re-election. if those people that vote think that the public wants one thing and that it will influence their re-electability, they'll go that way, and if they think there's another single issue advocacy group that's not supported by the vast bulk of the public but has an enormous clout at the polling booth where you get people to come and you fund ads and that sort of thing, they'll vote the other way. and so what we're trying to do is make sure that people that really care tell their congressman that this -- i think every one of those in the federal government and legislature, the senate and the house, should watch the video of this father the other day saying no more. >> mayor bloomberg thanks, as always. >> you're welcome. all the best.

>> and coming up here, our images to remember this week. a special tribute to the late maya angelou. >> time now for cnbc's executive edge week ahead brought to you by comcast business, built for business. >> investors are watching a very big gathering this week in the technology world. going to find out what's next for apple at its always popular developer's conference. chatter about an updated operating system, perhaps even a smart watch. on friday the biggs event, the monthly jobs report. last month the unemployment rate dropped adding 288,000 jobs. we'll see where we land this week. if i told you that a free ten-second test could mean less waiting for things like security backups and file downloads you'd take that test, right? well, what are you waiting for? you could literally be done with the test by now.

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now to a special images to remember to pay tribute to the extraordinary life of dr. maya angelou who passed away this week at the age of 86. ♪ ♪ >> nice tribute to maya angelou. we've been monitoring the conversation online in response to our chuck hagel interview. a lot of reaction, including this question, what's the future of guantanamo bay. chuck, you tweeted this. chuck hagel calls bergdahl

release a prisoner exchange, refers to bergdahl as p.o.w. the future of gitmo important here? >> got to close it to win the argument with would-be terrorists in the future. >> these are enemy combatants. >> we haven't called them that. >> they worry about defeating our civilization and they couldn't care less what we do. >> right, but this conversation continues. >> i agree with jane. i think he's got to close it. i think this whole situation sets an interesting precedent about when you trade prisoners and when you don't. that's got big implications. . >> this debate will continue. thank you. that is all for today. we're not here next week because of nbc's sports coverage because of the french open sports final. we'll be back in two weeks. if it's sunday, it's "meet the press."

this week, this net founder on her new project and the world's biggest book seller puts pressure on publishers. we'll take a closer look at the am don fight. mplts our reporters of fortune this week press here. i'm scott mcgrew. if you would like to find a good bakery with mull berry pie, you would turn to this place, but what if you want to find a mulberry