president over afghanistan, saying the president, "doesn't believe his own strategy and doesn't consider this war his. for him, it's all about getting out." words of gates's hash harsh words rocketed around the white house. >> his big complaint is that he thinks that he wasn't sufficiently personally in his heart committed enough to his own strategy, and i don't think that's true. >> in the year i spent with the president, i saw the exact opposite, to be very frank with you. i saw a president who was very committed, obviously, to support the troops, to support the policy to try to decimate al qaeda. >> so it is not just the president who's smarting this morning, but also his right-hand man. gates disseminated joe biden

he's a commander and chief of the armed forces. that gives him authority of the men and women in uniform, but he's responsible for all of our policy, domestic and foreign. you want someone who's got critical judgment. that involves not only the issues, but the motives behind the people, so when you're at the white house, pinnacle power and the whole world, of course, everything's on the table. >> as we look at this in the context of where we were as a country then, we're a war weary nation, we're on a different policy perspective as foreign nations are looking at us and as we look at this specifically how robert gates talked about the obamas after a national security team meeting, this was from a few years ago, quote, i thought the president doesn't trust his commander, can't stand karzai,

doesn't believe in his own strategy and doesn't consider this war his. then we have republicans, they are already jumping out in front of this. take a listen. >> 90-some young americans died in fallujah, now we see people driving around with black al qaeda flags, that's so sad. what do we tell their families? >> so, as a former commander, i just want to remind everybody where you were and the operation allied force in kosovo, how do you respond to this depiction of a commander in chief that continues to question it, is that typical? >> i think it is typical, i hope it's typical, because we don't want a commander in chief who is so committed to the decisions he's made that he can't critique himself and look at them objectively. one of the problems with the vietnam war, we continued to

escalate without questioning ourselves and we know at the time president johnson was furious, but couldn't seem to articulate the questions. i think in president obama we've got a man who did the best he could, made some judgments, had some reservations about the judgments, and secretary gates saw those reservations. but, you know, had you reversed and said that's it, i'm pulling out. he wouldn't have been comfortable with that either. so when you're in war, you're making the best decisions in overall bad circumstances. none of those decisions are necessarily good, and all have painful consequences. and i think the president's attitude probably reflects that. >> as we're looking at this book and the other people in the sight lines of discussion here is hillary clinton. you're joining me from arkansas, the home base of the clintons. does have good things to say about hillary clinton in there. he says he saw her as an ally,

saying the controlling nature of the obama white house and its determination to take credit of every good thing that happened while giving none to the career folks in the trenches offended secretary clinton as much as it did me. gates also goes on to write hillary clinton admitted to opposing the iraq surge for political reasons. do you think that these types of revelations in a book like this are going to come back to potentially bite hillary clinton if she decides to run come 2016? >> i'm sure that the people who want to use them will try to use them against her, but let's be honest about this, when you're at the presidential level, everything is about politics, because you're responsible not just for that decision that you've made or that statement, but you're responsible for how it fits into the fabric of everything else going on in the country and all the other issues that you have to deal with. so, you want someone as your commander in chief and as your

president of the united states who is adroit in dealing with politics, who understands it, who can project what happens afterwards. you don't want somebody up there who's simply so blindly committed to a course of action or ideology that they can't self reflect and can't see the other issues that are connected to it. >> retired general and former presidential candidate wesley clarke, thanks for seeing you, thanks for joining me. here we me on set is ronan farrow. great to see you. as we talk about this new memoir, obviously, washington loves a good gossip story. >> a little too much for comfort. >> a little too much, right, so this is all on the inside, this is opinion and mixed in with facts contextually but you worked as a special adviser for hillary clinton when she was secretary of state. do these candid admissions match up to the person you knew in that role? >> for the most part, they do.

bear in mind, headline writers have been irresponsible in inflating this to good gossip. he has a great deal of respect for her and talks about her pragmatism and i don't think anyone should be surprised to hear hillary clinton is a politician and you can think it's great or terrible that our politicians have to weigh domestic decisions with foreign policy decisions. >> let's talk about how he writes that, because there are potential implications if there is a campaign in 2016. he calls her smart, idealistic, pragmat pragmatic, tough minded and accuses joe biden of poisoning the well for top military leaders. now the white house already defending joe biden saying, "president obama relies on his good counsel every day. obviously, this is not a good

outlook for joe biden if people are looking for robert gates for any type of opinion on how he was in a vice presidential role. hillary clinton comes out much better. >> it hurts. vice president biden has staked his reputation on his foreign policy chops. he was the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee during his tenure as a v.p., i worked with him in turkey. a reputation exaggerated but present in the press for gaffes has hurt him and this kind of a claim for someone like gates also hurts him. and sitting vice presidents have a lot that they are up against as they leave to campaign. you know, george h.w. bush was the last sitting v.p. to make it into the presidency and before that, you have to go all the way back to martin van buren. >> let's talk about that bipartisan credibility, because some people would say, okay, since he was a holdover from president bush and brought into

a democratic administration, there is that credibility, however, with a book, this memoir coming out during president obama's second determine, is kind of poisoning the well. the term that he uses for vice president biden about what was taking place and what continues to take place in the administration. he writes of the white house staff accusing them of micromanaging goes on to say, they are aggressive, suspicious, sometimes condescending and insulting questioning of our military leaders. this has to be so specific to this white house and knowing what we were as a country under the bush/cheney years and what was inherited by this administration. didn't they have a right to be suspicious of what was taking place and the military strategies that were in place and almost in a quagmire to figure out what to do with iraq and afghanistan? >> i think this administration was distinctive in its level of micromanagement. we all felt that. a perfect example, i was on the

afghanistan team at the state department. that was headed by a storied p diplomat that hillary clinton brought in to do much like he had done for kosovo an overall of our policy. towards the end of his life, he died in that job, his final memos were sort of a cry of the heart admonishing the administration for not allowing him to have control over those policies and, indeed, for not allowing the interagency to feed into a process that had become completely centralized at the white house. the irony of gates's claims, most would claim the pentagon had more of a voice than any other agency in that process. >> here is where gates is safe. he goes after congress and is probably going to get a pass from most people, but exactly how he talks about the congress we have, congressional hearings, rude, insulting, bullying, and all too often highly personal attacks violated nearly every

form of civil behavior. is it significant to have a former member of the cabinet taking a swipe at congress or safe territory, because most of the country says it. >> you've seen the hill, do you disagree, thomas? it's hard to argue with. it's not uncommon for executive members to grouch. lines have been crossed and the proof is in the pudding. this is the least productive congress we've ever had, so something needs to change, and frankly, i think his candor is exactly the right tone to take. >> in generality, the book in general, gossip or strikingly candid? >> i think if you look at the actual text and not the headlines it's been inflated into, it's candid and he strikes a balanced tone. >> all right, ronan farrow, good to see you, thank you, sir. two programming notes, we have former secretary gates,

he's going to be joining the "today" show, then he's going to join the team of "morning joe" next week here on msnbc. you don't want to miss it. the story is the subject for you today, robert gates and his tell all, did his memoir cross the line? weigh in on twitter or facebook and we'll keep the conversation going all day. one day after congress takes the first day towards extending unemployment benefits also marks the 50th anniversary of the war on poverty. i'm going to speak with barbara lee about whether republicans are trying to co-op the debate on income inequality, modern day. also ahead, a new major twist in the controversy rocking chris christie's inner circles. e-mails that could link the governor's aide to the bridge closures that brought traffic to a standstill on the george washington bridge. it's considered by many to be a political payback, but if they can tie it through this aide and e-mails, what does it mean for chris christie? it never holds my body hostage.

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there's some reason to hope this morning that congress will vote to extend the long-term jobless benefits, but a huge hurdle remains. surprisingly on tuesday, six republican senators broke ranks with their party to support extending jobless benefits for three months, but only if they are paid for. one of the senators, dan coats, explained why on "the daily rundown." >> i did it because i thought we needed a sound debate on this. if we had not passed this motion to proceed, and that is to debate it, talk about it, offer amendments, we wouldn't have had an opportunity to provide those alternatives that the president said, you know, the republicans have ideas, bring these forward. >> this comes as both parties mark the 50th anniversary of president lyndon johnson's war on poverty, expressed in his first state of the union exactly 50 years ago today. >> this administration, today,

here, and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in america. the richest nation on earth can afford to win it. we cannot afford to lose it. >> 50 years later, we have the social contract lifeline, programs like social security, medicaid, medicare, and food stamps, but today, it seems more like the gop war is on those programs. this afternoon, florida senator marco rubio will deliver a speech on economic mobility after declaring the war on poverty a failure this weekend. >> after 50 years, isn't it time to declare big government's war on poverty a failure? instead of continuing to borrow and spend trillions on government programs that don't work. >> joining me now, california congresswoman barbara lee, who is launching a series of 50 speeches in 50 days to rekindle the war on poverty. congresswoman, it's nice to see

you this morning, and let's just talk about what we expect to see this afternoon, because we know that both marco rubio and eric cantor will be giving speeches on poverty, cantor focusing on education, rubio expected to denounce the great society programs as a failure, so ultimately, the right has a very different perspective and point of view on these safety net programs. instead of seeing them as lifelines or nets that they are, republicans would rather paint them as nests or breeding grounds for laziness, so how do you find the solution when the two sides fundamentally view what these programs really mean in different ways? >> we have to find the solution, because we're talking about nearly 50 million people living in poverty now, 16 million of whom are children. we have a long way to go. we have to create economic growth and job opportunities, but, of course, the republicans and the tea party are standing in the way. and so what the republicans are continuing to do is to promote the economic policy, quite frankly, of the bush administration, which got us

into this mess that we're in now with poverty rates beginning to soar. when you look at what is taking place today, we're trying to extend the emergency unemployment compensation policies and programs. we're talking about 1.4, 1.5 million people who are without emergency unemployment compensation. that has helped 11 million people stay out of poverty. when you're talking about what we want to do as democrats, raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour, i think it should be, of course, a living wage, but minimally we should raise the minimum wage. that will create at least over 1 million people who will be lifted out of poverty. and so what they are doing is going back to the same old economic policies of the bush administration that got us in this mess in the beginning. >> when you talk about this, though, and you're hitting this on a lot of different fronts about what it means to be impoverished in this country. i do want to remind people you were once on food stamps, but

this divide is no more evident than this issue of the unemployment benefits that you spoke of that's now being debated in the senate and we have house majority leader john boehner opposing an extension that is not paid for. now president johnson said, "this will not be a short, easy struggle, but the richest nation on earth can afford to win it." what will yours and other members of congress and the message be over the next coming days, because there are some people, congresswoman, who say the president has been in office for five years, he needs to take ownership of the economy, and it's not just a kickback to the eight years under president bush. >> well, when you look at what has taken place, i think the facts speak for themselves. the president came forward with an economic recovery plan when he first took office because of the bush administration policies. we were losing hundreds of thousands of jobs. that has worked. we haven't gotten to a full employment economy, but the

employment rate has gone significantly down. the republican tea party has been obstacles all along the way. they have not actually supported any of the president's economic policies. when you look at the government shutdown and the budget cuts, we're looking at a republican party which really has begun to erode the safety net. they supported a $40 billion food stamp cut out of the house. that's unconscionable, and, yes, there are some of us who have been on public assistance and food stamps. that was a very difficult period during my life, but my government was there for me, the american people were there for me. we need to be there for the american people and make sure that income inequality does not continue to grow and that we lift people out of poverty into the middle class and that we make sure the middle class does not fall into the ranks of the poor. that's what we're fighting for, to cut poverty in half in ten years, immediately, we want this unemployment compensation, this emergency unemployment compensation bill passed.

>> congresswoman, when we talk about that, "the washington post" has a report that house republican leaders sent a memo this week to the entire gop conference with talking points to help rank and file republicans to show compassion for the unemployed and explain the republican position on unemployment benefits, urging them to be empathetic towards the unemployed and understand how unemployment is a personal crisis for individuals and families. so while the right is getting its rhetoric together, and how to come out in front of this, if there are reforms on the table to be negotiated from the democratic side, what specifically would you be willing to talk about with republicans to find a compromise on the extension? >> well, first, the republicans are trying to appear compassionate, but they will not support at least up until now the speaker has not said he will support emergency unemployment compensation. we should not use the most vulnerable people who are living on the edge as political pawns. we never have to find what they

call pay-fors in this. we need to go on and pass it at least for three months so we can work on a longer term solution. people want to work. people do not want to be on unemployment compensation, so while they are talking about being compassionate and caring about people who need this unemployment compensation, they need to vote for it and they need to vote for it right away so people can get on with trying to find a job and turning their lives around. >> actions speaks louder than words. thanks for joining me, i appreciate you making time for me. >> my pleasure. so how would you like to drive through this? look at that. we're going to take you to some of the hardest hit areas to show you the lingering effects of the deep freeze gripping parts of the country. also ahead, new fallout from dennis rodman's trip to north korea. his visit with the sister of the detained american kenneth bay. ♪ ♪

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developing now, newly obt n obtained e-mails for the first time link new jersey governor chris christie's office to lane closures on the george washington bridge last fall. obtained e-mails sent from governor christie's deputy chief of staff to a christie appointee at the point authority and the department in charge of the most traveled bridge in the world is the port authority. in this e-mail sent on august 13th, weeks before the lane c e closu closures, it reads, time for traffic problems. which the appointee responds, got it. joining me now, mark murray. what can you tell us about these revelations, especially because we've had the repeated denials by governor christie that he or his office had any involvement in the lane closures there. they said it was part of a traffic study by the port authority, however, people are saying this was political payback because the democratic mayor of that town did not endorse christie. >> that's the biggest

revelation, it counters the chris christie denial this had anything to do with politics, anything to do with political payback. you have it in e-mail form christie's deputy chief of staff says now it's time to have some traffic problems in fort lee, new jersey, and the top christie aid, one of the top, said got it. there's other revelations where this port authority aide ends up having some text messages and essentially also that there might be politics involved, saying they might feel sorry for kids stuck in traffic, but after all, these are the children of barbara buono voters. >> so i just want to point out, we have reached out to governor christie's office for a comment on this. we have not heard back yet. obviously, if we get that comment, we are glad to get it on the air as quickly as possible right here on msnbc. mark, how much effect does this

shape the rumors and the chance of a campaign for chris christie in 2016, again, because of the fact that he has tried to distance himself from any connection to this with very explicit denials. >> well, it's important to note that 2016 is still two years away and as quickly as our news cycles move, thomas, that's an eternity in american politics, but it does hurt chris christie in two ways, one, goes credibility. he's been denying politics played a role. these e-mails show people linked to the highest levels of his administration were playing politics here. then also, chris christie ends up having the reputation, fair or not, as being somebody who's tough on his enemies. there have often been charges of being a bully, fair or unfair, and this kind of ends up furthering that. i think it's important to hear what we're going to eventually hear from chris christie, he apparently cancelled his one event today. it will be interesting to see if

he addresses this today or tomorrow or in the following days and be able to answer people's questions that they have about this in light of these newly released e-mails. >> okay, nbc news senior political editor mark murray. thanks for joining me. right now on set with me, steve kornacki, host of msnbc's "up with steve kornacki." great to have you here, especially your knowledge of new jersey politics. first, your reaction to the potential of what this means if now that these subpoenaed e-mails do reveal a trail back to his appointee. >> what i first want to say is give my full disclosure. the guy at the heart of this, david wildstein, was my employer at one time in new jersey. he ran a website, political news site in new jersey, that was my first job, he gave me my first job, i want to acknowledge that. so i just want to get that out there. >> can we find the rest of your

resume on linkedin and connect with you that way? >> the significance of this is now it reaches into the governor's office. now we've connected wildstein and the question this raises, and this was because of the subpoena. this is because an assembly committee is looking into all of this, subpoenaed these e-mails and records and this was revealed. the question now is, now that somebody in the governor's office has been linked to this, how does she respond to this? will the governor's office sort of say this is something -- i would expect, this is something chris christie had no knowledge of and throw her under the bus, as the expression goes. will she take that, does she have documents of her own, does she move the story in no direction. >> that's what everybody is going to be cya themselves now trying to figure out how to stay ahead of this, because in politics, if you're explaining, you're losing. in anything, if you're overly explaining the narrative, you're

losing, and this has to put chris christie and his team in a predicament they don't want to be in. if he took ownership of it and said, obviously, this shows a misjudgment on such and such part, i've fired some people over this, this will never happen again, this is not how i want to run my shop. >> again, the question here is who in the governor's office knew about this? we now have one person in the governor's office, one very high-up person who knew about this. if this is limited to one person in the governor's office who knew about this, maybe he can come out and make a statement like that. of course, it would raise a question of what kind of ship are you running here, if somebody in your office can run this sort of rogue operation and you would have no idea about it. we also know that his spokesman was included on some of these e-mails that have come out in terms of how to respond to this once it became a big controversy in september. his spokesman was on those. texts or e-mails of his spokesman having dinners with

him, so there's a question about what his spokesman knew and when he knew this. again, it's an open question of can chris christie get out there and make a statement or is there going to be another draft. we've been asking since this thing went big, when's the next shoe to drop. this is it, this is the next one and raises the immediate question, okay, are there more e-mails or texts that are going to expand this in the governor's office? >> and is it more about the fact, okay, this is a port authority traffic study and denied that they had anything to do with it, or is it the now that we've got this evidence out there that that's really not the best reasoning behind all this, that there have been the denials, the continuing of the denials that is really going to be the problematic situation that christie needs to come out and own up to. >> yes, both of those things. look, the thing is, the line in one of these e-mails, time for some traffic problems in fort lee. new jersey is a commuter state.

just within new jersey, this is very few things could provoke more sort of popular widespread outrage than the idea of messing with people's commutes in the morning, making them late for work, messing with the entire traffic patterns in a town, popular anger just the fact of that could unleash is significant, but more broadly like you say, it gets the question of honesty. that's huge not just in new jersey, but nationally. >> there's more to come with this, "up with steve kornacki," thanks, you can watch "up with steve kornacki" live weekends here on msnbc, and i get to be on your show on saturday for this game show. i'm really nervous. >> everybody says that. >> i'm very nervous. very nervous. >> we're not giving you answers. >> i'm going to wear plaid for you. we'll be back after this. [ bottle ] okay, listen up!

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the captain slowly started to move, breaking the ice. a chinese ice breaker got stuck last week while trying to help. freed itself yesterday. today, the polar vortex and its arkic air are retreating back to the north, but much of the nation can expect extreme cold that turned deadly for at least 21 people. right now, wind chill advisories in place from montana to maine, and today's temperatures will be warmer nearly everywhere east of the rockies. black ice is a big danger for many drivers, including in minnesota. cameras captured an suv losing control and crashing off of a bridge. look at that. the driver suffering minor injuries in that accident. in the skies, a water piped burst and soaked passengers on a flight going from dallas to baltimore. the plane made an emergency landing where crews removed the water, loaded bottled water and sent the plane on its way. today, weather has cancelled 40 flights and delayed more than 400 others. this deep freeze moved to the

south where frigid temps froze water parks and waterfalls like that fountain in mississippi. just look at that. here's a look at some of the other stories topping the news now. the man who founded the vale mountain ski resort in colorado died in an avalanche while skiing out of bounds yesterday. three others survived. suffering minor injuries. right now in england, investigators are securing the scene where a u.s. air force helicopter crashed. four americans died when the chopper went down yesterday. officials warn residents to stay away, because live ammo is scattered across that area. today, former arizona congresswoman gabby giffords will sky dive to mark three years since she survived an assassination attempt in 2011. jared lee loughner shot giffords in the head, killing six other people and wounding 12 more. giffords compared the fight for gun control to her difficult rehab, saying every day we must wake up resolved and determined.

we'll pay attention to the details, look for opportunity for progress, even when the pace is slow. on a different note today, kraft foods is warning all of a velveeta shortage. the company won't say what's causing the shortage, except to say the cheese is in high demand at this time of year. kraft says the shortage shouldn't last long, believing some to believe this could be a p.r. stunt leading up to the super bowl. check this out, more proof pope francis is not your average pontiff. he spotted a priest from his hometown, signalled, vatican guards then let that priest on the pope mobile. pope francis invited the priest to ride along with him, waving to the crowds. ry new things. ry new things. really? what's wrong with trying new things? look! mommy's new vacuum! (cat screech) you feel that in your muscles? i do... drink water.

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hitler to lunch. this is really a terrible thing, a terrible idea. >> that was congressman elliot engle criticizing dennis rodman's basketball diplomacy and there's no fallout after rodman went on an explosive rant when asked about his recent trip to north korea. before tip-off at that game between former nba players and north korean players, rodman saying happy birthday to the north korean leader, who was in the stands, but back home in the u.s., critics are calling foul over rodman's reaction when asked about the detained american, kenneth bay. >> do you understand what bay did? >> yeah. >> do you understand what he did? >> what did he do, you tell me. you tell me, what did he do? >> you tell me. you tell me! why is he held captive? >> they haven't released any charges. >> kenneth bay's sister issued a statement saying, my family and i are outraged by rodman's recent comments, he is playing

games with my brother's life. joining me right now is carrie chung and former ambassador to the u.n., governor bill richardson. thanks for joining me. i know this has to be such a horrific time for you and your family, as your brother, kenneth, has been detained with no charges. what's your biggest take away after hearing dennis rodman's outburst about this, and do you think it's a reflection of north korea's confidence over your brother's prosecution? >> we sincerely hope not. we were clearly shocked by dennis rodman's comments. i'm not sure where he's getting information. but he doesn't seem to know what he's talking about, and he's certainly no authority on kenneth bae's case. you know, i hope there's not much credence to his comments. >> terry, what is this to your family's understanding of why your brother is detained? >> i think the official charge

is crime to overthrow the government, and for which he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. >> and what has been your connection or the family's connection to trying to get the u.s. government to intervene? >> you know, we've been at this for 14 months now, and every day we try to appeal to whoever will listen and those in power. we're ordinary american family. we don't have powerful connections in media or politics, so we appeal to our leaders to advocate for american citizens abroad and here. so -- but he's still there after 14 months. he's the longest detained american in recent history. >> do you think the u.s. has done enough to assist in your brother's release? >> i know they want to see him home, and i know they are constantly working on something, but at this point, every day that passes is too long. it's pay past time to bring ken net home now.

>> governor richardson, let me ask you, you had said in interviews that rodman crossed the line by insinuating kennethbae crossed the line. >> well, i believe he's become an apostle of kim jong-un, and that's unfortunate. initially, i thought his basketball diplomacy, the fact that he's the only american to have talked to kim jong-un might have been a channel, for instance, for him to push the release of kenneth bae, which i think is the one humanitarian goal that america should have there, but now the fact that dennis is there with basketball players on the birthday of kim jong-un, playing the game, praising kim jong-un, calling him his dear friend, and what is the worst was crossing the line by basically implying that

kenneth bae, as terri has said, is imprisoned rightfully, which is not the case. very flimsy charges. he's been there 14 months. he's not well. the problem in cases like this is we don't know what the end game of kim jong-un is. is he using kenneth as a bargaining chip? the u.s. government has tried very hard to get him out. that's a record. they even sent an envoy there. the north koreans sent them back. it's a very perplexing situation caused by our lack of knowledge of kim jong-un, except that he's killed his uncle, brutally, he doesn't seem to want to engage china, the united states, south korea, doesn't want to release kenneth bae, so this is why rodman's trip elicits so much attention. >> governor, i want to get in what the white house press secretary jay carney had to say about rodman's trip during the

white house briefing from yesterday. take a look at this. >> i heard about it, did not see some of the comments that mr. rodman made, but i'm not going to dignify that outburst with a response, i'm simply going to s remain gravely concerned about kenneth bae's health and continue to urge authorities to grant his amnesty and immediate release on humanitarian grounds. >> so, governor, how does that outburst, as being described by jay carney there, combat what diplomatic channels are trying to be brokered here with trying to get kenneth home? i mean, does it really complicate the issues, or is this just dennis rodman seeking attention for what is not a diplomatic mission. it's a way to stay relevant. >> well, it's very complex. the answer, thomas, is that we

don't know, because if you'd asked me this -- because i've been to north korea several times, about what his father might be thinking, i might have the answer. but since we know very little about what this new young leader is up to, i can't answer that. i can say this. there is maybe a potential silver lining. the north koreans have obviously seen how badly their guy, dennis rodman, has been criticized. one way that they can maybe put a good spin on his trip at the end is to release kenneth bae to rodman and to the basketball team as a humanitarian gesture. i doubt that will happen. but, you know, that happens, and maybe rodman has thought that maybe what he's done has been a huge mistake, which he has. maybe he'll say to his friend, the new leader, hey, i need something to get back. i'm getting criticized terribly.

give me kenneth bae. i doubt that will happen, but that's a possibility that should be raised. >> terry, real quickly, if you could see dennis rodman face to face, what would you say to him? >> we've made it clear that you don't want to help kenneth. that's fine, that's your choice. but if you don't want to help, please do no harm. step aside and let the diplomats do their work to bring kenneth home now. >> terry chung, the sister of kenneth bae. we're back with more after this. n and taste awesome. these are good. told ya! i'm feeling better already. [ male announcer ] new alka seltzer fruits chews. enjoy the relief!

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we asked and you answered, the question being robert gates' new book. did his strikingly candid memoir cross the line? debbie shares this on facebook. he is a republican, after all. he ought to be ashamed, so what if his heart is not with the war in afghanistan. it's unwinnable. that's going to wrap things up

for me. joanne mead is filling in for alex wagner. >> the defense goes on offense. robert gates leaves few stones unturned in his criticism of congress. the civilian-led military and the white house. we will discuss gates' new book with david corn, kathleen parker, and benjamin wall as well. we'll look at the possible political payback reportedly involving a top aid to governor chris christie. plus, we'll have a discussion about the social safety net 50 years after the loss of the war on poverty. and we'll talk about the post legalization. all that starts after this. so when coverage really counts, count on nationwide insurance. we put members first. join the nation. ♪ nationwide is on your side ♪ i have a big meeting when we land, but i am so stuffed up, i can't rest.

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i'm joanne reid in for alex wagner. poisoning the well. in a new memoir, president obama's former secretary issues a scathing critique in the administration in which he served. robert gates found the white house national security staff too controlling when it came to the country's two wars, but he also questioned president obama's commitment to the mission in afghanistan, saying the commander in chief was "skeptical if not not outright convinced it would fail." recounting a pivotal white house meeting. as i said there, i thought the president doesn't trust his commander, can't stand hamid karzai, doesn't believe in his own strategy and doesn't consider the war to be his. for him, it's all about