accused the iran government. so that's the -- >> the different theories. >> you know, she was misled, so he made the government look really bad. and then -- >> and then he turns around and essentially -- thank you for being here. incredible story. >> you're welcome. i hope it gets solved. >> yes. the rachel maddow show starts right now. >> i will tell you, i was in the makeup room telling that story, and as soon as you finished, everybody in the room went, wow. that's an amazing story. thanks. appreciate it. what do the st. louis cardinals have in common with the kingdom of belgium? this is not a trick question. it is not a beer related question. what do the cardinals have in common with belgium?

turns out it's this guy. this is steven broward, the top diplomat in belgium under the president bush administration. he did not speak flemish or french. he did not have any background in government service or diplomacy. but he did part own a baseball team. and he had raised more than 400 thouds for president bush's first presidential campaign. a short while later, however unlikely it seems, he actually got the ambassadorship to belgium. even though he, at least on paper, had absolutely no qualifications for that job. it is a dirty little totally open secret in american politics, that american presidents give out ambassadorships basically as thank you notes to their biggest funders. pretty much every president does it. when it happens, members of the

opposing parties cry foul and say it is a terrible thing. it is one of our grosser bipartisan things. this is about one of george h.w. bush's nominees, the most embarrassing nomination may be that of developer joseph sepapa who gave the gop more than $100,000 and found himself named to be the main man for the united states in spain. a foreign affairs neophyte, he knows little about spain. mr. zappala cannot even speak spanish. he calls the territory home called florida. lest you think this is a bush thing, it's really not. it's not even a republican thing. president obama has carried on this tradition with some gusto. this is what happened last year during one confirmation hearing for the president's nominee to be the ambassador to argentina.

>> have you been to argentina? >> senator, i haven't had the opportunity yet to be there. i've traveled pretty extensively around the world, but i haven't yet had a chance. >> no, i haven't -- never occurred to me i should go there. last year president obama's nomination to the ambassador to norway, who had been a major fund-raiser for the president, he told senators that norway has a president. norway does not have a president. the norway guy pulled himself out of contention for ambassador after that mistake. sometimes they're not qualified for their jobs. but that's not true of all of them. sometimes they really, really are qualified. sometimes you're glad they got picked. this is barbara leaf. she is our ambassador to the united arab emirates. she was confirmed by the senate last year. she was the deputy assistant secretary of state for the arabian peninsula in the bureau of middle eastern affairs. before that assistant secretary for iraq, before that she worked

for a year in basra in iraq. most people don't choose iraq when they're already in italy. she speaks arabic, she speaks french, she speaks italian, she also happens to speak croatian if that's necessary. she's the ambassador to the united arab emirates, an experienced diplomat. she has not been in the job on the uae for very long. it's very clear that it's good we have somebody highly qualified as a diplomat in that position right now. ambassador leaf has had a difficult first month on the job. ambassador leaf was confronted last week by the foreign minister of the united arab emirates, what they described as a blunt exchange. the reason for that blunt exchange, why the foreign minister from uae let our brand-new ambassador to his country have it, it's the issue

of search and rescue. specifically, search and rescue of coalition military pilots who might fall into enemy hands, who might fall into isis' hands if they crash while conducting air strikes over syria in the war against isis. that foreign minister told our ambassador last week that in his country's view, u.s. central command, the u.s. military is not doing enough, putting enough assets in place in the region to allow for the capability we would need to go in and rescue a pilot who for whatever reason found himself in trouble during that air strike campaign. we got that story today for the first time. we learned that that meeting happened last week in ab you dauby. we also learned that the united arab emirates suspended its participation in air strikes against isis. they suspended that key part of their involvement in the u.s.-led coalition in december. they haven't been flying air

strike machines since christmas day. the uae is part of the coalition that agreed to conduct strikes against isis alongside the united states. they've been dropping bombs on isis targets in syria, along with this crucial international coalition. but since christmas day, since the day after a jordanian pilot was downed and captured in syria, the united arab emirates has stopped conducting air strikes, apparently for fear of the safety of their pilots. yesterday, of course, isis released a video purporting to show that jordanian pilot burned alive while trapped in a cage. today "the new york times" reports that the uae in december suspended its air strikes in support of the coalition. that raises a couple of really interesting points. one is about the integrity of this coalition in which we are engaged in our military campaign against isis. it's us and a handful of arab countries. jordan, bahrain, saudi arabia and the uae. it was important to this

administration when they undertook this air campaign in syria. they said not only do we not want to do it alone, we don't want to do it without sunni arab allies. this was not going to be the united states going it alone in the middle east again. this would be the united states engaging in air strikes against isis with syria's arab and muslim neighbors. is that coalition now falling apart. important point number one. important point number two, is the united arab emirates right in being afraid for the safety of their pilots? is there adequate search and rescue protection for pilots, for any of the coalition countries, flying these air strikes over isis targets? is there adequate protection, are there adequate assets in place to rescue them if need be if they go down while dropping bombs on isis? including our own pilots. an unnamed american defense official gave a very unreassuring quote to the

"washington post" today in response to this criticism from uae, that there wasn't enough preparation and planning on the ground, not enough assets in place to save that jordanian pilot. the defense official told the "washington post" today that the uae was quibbling over the speed with which the response happened. quibbling. yeah. the speed with which the response happened, that was kind of everything. the speed of it sort of turned out to be everything here. that timing made a life-and-death difference for that pilot of the they didn't get to him in time. and that's how isis got him. we know how it turned out. maybe no search-and-rescue effort would have been feasible in the case of this pilot. maybe it was a terrible stroke of luck in terms of when he went down and where he went down. maybe he was unrescuable. but this is a real question for all of the countries who agreed to participate in the air strikes against isis. what happens if a pilot goes down, another pilot goes down. a real question for all five countries engaged in the air

strikes over syria. it is an especially important question for us. given that american pilots are flying the lion's share, really, the lion's share of these sortess. the united states has conducted 943 of the 1,022 strikes against isis. we reached out to the defense department today for their response to this contention made by a coalition member, that our search-and-rescue operations in our fight with isis are not reassuring enough. and the pentagon responded with this strongly worded statement. quote, from the defense department official, quote, when american pilots fly over enemy territory, they know there are risks involved, but they also know they're backed up by an unswefbing commitment to recover them when they go down. the same resource is there to rescue the pilots. there is no risk, coalition airmen are taking, that american airmen don't share.

so it's a seemingly attempt from the pentagon in that statement to us tonight to reassure the world about the safety of the pilots who are involved in this military effort against isis. at least the commitment the united states has to every pilot involved in the effort regardless of nationality. at this particular time, this horrible case, the pilot happened to be a jordanian air force pilot. it was a reminder to everyone how dangerous this mission is. it's an air campaign, but that's not magic. it's still incredibly dangerous. if that poor guy had been an american pilot instead of a jordanian pilot, can you imagine how we would be reacting as a country right now? not just the human reaction we would have for the family of a service member, but imagine what that would do to our country politically. you can see the change, both in our country and around the world, not just in jordan, in

response to the jordanian pilot. can you imagine if it had been an american? you can see how devastating to us as a country when american civilians are caught and killed by isis. new reporting on that front as well today. it's being reported that isis is now holding fewer than 20 foreign hostages from different countries around the world. that includes reportedly at least one american, a 26-year-old american woman. according to reporting in foreign policy magazine today, u.s. intelligence officials believe this young american woman is still alive in part because they have some sort of proof of life they received, something specific as recently as a couple of weeks ago. now, the united states policy doesn't pay for hostages, we don't pay ransom. the middle eastern countries do, we also do not trade for hostages. jordan made that offer to trade prisoners with isis. that offer ultimately did not work. they didn't get their pilot

back. as a rule, in general, we don't make those offers either. what we do as a matter of preference when we can is get hostages out. and there was new reporting on that front today as well. in general, the u.s. does everything in our power to free hostages when we can. but according to the new york times, after i sis released that horrific video yesterday, president obama decided to ininstruct national security officials and the intelligence community to devote resources to locate other hostages held by the islamic state. not like we weren't looking for them before. according to the "times," the president has redoubled those instructions, find the hostages. we have a long history of swooping in and trying to get our people out when they're being held in circumstances like this. sometimes it works, sometimes it does not. there was a rescue mission mounted by special operations troops to try to save american journalist james foaley and steven sought lauf. that failed and they were both ultimately killed by isis.

last month the united states launched a mission to try to save another american journalist who was being held by al qaeda in yemen, luke summers. that mission also failed. luke summers was killed by his captors. a south african citizen was apparently just hours away from being freed because of ransom negotiations. we sent in special operators, both of those hostages were killed. sometimes those raids don't work. sometimes it does work. when it does, it's amazing. 2005, army delta force operators rescued an american contractor. who had been kidnapped and held for almost a year. he was rescued about 15 miles outside of baghdad. in 2009 there was the incredibly tense and dangerous and dramatic rescue of captain richard phillips held by somali pilots. u.s. navy s.e.a.l.s were successful in saving captain phillips. just a couple of years ago, navy s.e.a.l.s rescued two americans held in somalia. at the time the obama administration called that

rescue, quote, a daring raid that will be the hallmark of future u.s. military missions. when we are successful at going in, and saving american hostages, it's an amazing success, and they're stories that we tell forever. but sometimes that kind of rescue operation fails. one of the most harrowing new details that was just reported today in the wake of that isis propaganda video and the murder of that pilot that we all saw the film of yesterday, one of the most horrifying things reported today concerning isis and the remaining hostages that they hold was this detail. the obama administration apparently divided internally about whether to try to launch raids to free the remaining hostages if they can find them. given that relevant history about our success, in terms of freeing american hostages, and what happens when we fail, there is reportedly a debate in this administration about whether specifically the families of the

hostages, whether the families of the people being held, specifically presume blip the family of this young american woman who is being held by isis, whether her family members basically get a say, whether they can veto a proposed military operation to go in and try to save her. it's impossible to think about having to make that decision, right? if you were that girl's mom, right, and the administration came to you and said, do you want us to send delta force in to get her. do you want us to try? here's the track record. the decision now in part in the administration, at least purportedly today, is whether or not families of these hostages get to help make that decision. what would you do? joining us now, nbc news correspondent, thank you for being here. >> thank you, rachel. >> do we know enough to know whether emirates has a valid point to make with regard to the search-and-rescue missions, and whether or not the pilots who are doing these sortis are

adequately protected in case they get shot down? >> i think there's two points to this. there are some i've been speaking to. i've suggested the united arab emirates wants the united states to commit more resources to this fight. but as you mentioned, these resources apply to everybody equally. they're putting the american soldiers and fighter pilots just as much at risk as the emirates fighter pilots. that argument is being made very clearly, i believe, to the united arab emirates government. the united arab emirates government feel there is some criticism to be leveled not just against the united states, but these countries in the coalition who are not taking this fight seriously enough, who are not committing all of their resources to try to eradicate this problem with isis. they feel these coalition air strikes, which they were a part of for the first month or so, are not doing enough. so there has to be new tactics, new resources, things brought to the table. this, if you will, schism between the united arab emirates

and the united states about this particular issue of search-and-rescue resources, perhaps is just a cover, if you will, for a broader debate that the united arab emirates is trying to engage in. >> it's hard to say we need to be doing more, therefore, we're going to do nothing. united arab emirates, they were the country that came out before the united states even asked and they volunteered to say, we will fight, we will go there. they were in on proportionately high number of the early strikes. they have a well-funded air force. they've been seen as a country we didn't have to ask to come along. >> they made very clear early on, on our air, the ambassador in d.c., saying this is our fight. it's not just america's fight, this was a fight for the uae. and without these countries, two things happen. and as you mentioned, again,

tactically, it's not going to change the coalition from a military strategic point of view. but the optics of it would be disastrous. if the coalition begins to fray and fall apart, it is going to be seen as a propaganda victory for isis. they will certainly jump on that. they play up to that. if you watch that 2 the coalition. they said that they are going to pay a price for participating in this u.s.-led operation. so the optics of it, i think, would be much more significant, and the symbolism of it would be much more significant than the military component that the countries are bringing to the table. >> do we expect jordan is going to up the intensity of their involvement, or their type of involvement? we saw jordan yesterday retaliate against isis, at least indirectly, by killing two al qaeda associated prisoners. do we expect that jordan is going to do something they haven't otherwise done in terms of the military fight against isis? >> the bottom line is jordan's technical capabilities, military capabilities are limited.

there's only so much they can do. the coalition without the united states cannot exist. that's a fact everybody agrees with. none of these countries are going to be able to put their own ground troops on the ground. more importantly, all of these countries are now somewhat held hijacked by geopolitics of the region. none of them want to take on the isis forces along without addressing the assad regime in damascus. the united states does not want to address that right now. it's in a sensitive negotiation with iran that could tip the balance. all of these proxy issues have paralyzed the situation in trying to deal with it. to make it, a long answer short, there's only so much jordan can do. they can carry out a few executions in their country in retaliation, but at the end of the day it will be more of the same, not a paradigm shift in this operation. >> thank you. >> thank you. lots more ahead. including yet another thing that senator rand paul has to say about vaccines.

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hey matt, what's up? i'm just looking over the company bills. is that what we pay for internet? yup. dsl is about 90 bucks a month. that's funny, for that price with comcast business, i think you get like 50 megabits. wow, that's fast. personally, i prefer a slow internet. there is something about the sweet meditative glow of a loading website. don't listen to the naysayer. switch to comcast business today and get 50 megabits per second for $89.95. comcast business. built for business.

my boy friend alex jones is the swiss cheese mind behind info wars. a conspiracy factory of paranoia unveiling the operations that are happening right under your nose, people. ebola, all a conspiracy to take your guns, or whatever. this week a conservative website dredged up footage of rand paul, telling that crazy show the most amazing thing about the government's plan to take over your lives. starting with vaccines. this thing rand paul said is a wonder. and it is straight ahead.

the front page of the lexington herald leader newspaper today. biggest newspapers in kentucky. look, right on the front page, above the fold, on the right side there, rand paul plagues himself over vaccines. in damage control. another day, another day of horrifically bad press for senator and would be presidential candidate rand paul. he gave an interview to cnbc when he suggested parents should maybe not vaccinate their children because, quote, i've heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines. he said that monday. yesterday, tuesday, rand paul was forced to walk back those comments saying he never suggested vaccines cause mental disorders. even though he very obviously and directly did.

but he went on to say, in fact, if you really want to know what he thinks about vaccines, he loves them. he gets vaccines all the time. look. so monday it was vaccines are terrible. tuesday it was vaccines are great. what would today bring for rand paul? happy wednesday. this is rand paul before he was a senator. rand paul speaking to info wars, which is the online outlet of noted conspiracy theorist alex jones, the 9/11 was perpetrated with by our own government guy, the boston marathon bombing was a false flag operation launched by the u.s. government. alex jones said the newtown massacre was faked. all a conspiracy. rabd paul is an alex jones guy from way back. and back in 2009, senator paul spoke to the alex jones outlet info wars, and he said that he, rand paul, was worried that the flu vaccine would lead to martial law in america. yes.

>> the first sort of thing you see with martial law is mandates, and they're talking about making it mandatory. i worry because the last flu vaccine we had in the 1970s, more people died from the vaccine than died from the swine flu. i think you have to use your brain. but i think every individual should be allowed to make that choice. >> first comes mandatory flu vaccines, then comes martial law. very slippery. make your own call on vaccines, alex jones listeners. don't believe the man. rand paul is now trying to act like the media spun his words this week, and tried to make him seem anti-vaccine, when really actually he loves vaccines. just watch this clip from the alex jones people back in 2009, talking how dangerous vaccines are. >> you have to be careful. you have to weigh the risks of the disease versus the risks of the vaccine. but i'm not going to tell penal

they have to take it, because everybody should be able to make their own health care decisions. >> rand paul goes on at length in this interview about how rirvgy vaccines are and how people have to make their own choices whether or not they want to risk getting vaccinated. this wasn't like back in the 1970s. this wasn't an aqua booda version for him. this was 2009. the silver lining in all of this, if there is one, may be the widespread backlash, even on the right, that rand paul and new jersey governor chris christie have been getting this week on their wack vaccine advice. it's coming from all quarters. "washington post" yesterday published a blistering editorial saying that the remarks from both chris christie and rand paul, quote, call into question their judgment, and their fitness for higher office. it's not just the "washington post." it's also conservative media outlets. the alex jones video was flagged at the website red states, which called rand paul's comments on

vaccines, quote, facially insane, and beyond the pale of reasonable debate. this is the reaction today from the conservative "wall street journal". they slammed rand paul for indulging in bad science and engaging in, quote, libertarian dormitory passions. one thing if you're running for president to get knocked by the "washington post." it is quite another to get knocked by "the wall street journal," and conservative base public indications like red state. especially if you're a republican trying to win your party's nomination for president. that is the week rand paul has had so far. it is really only wednesday so far.

hey matt, what's up? i'm just looking over the company bills. is that what we pay for internet? yup. dsl is about 90 bucks a month. that's funny, for that price with comcast business, i think you get like 50 megabits. wow, that's fast. personally, i prefer a slow internet. there is something about the sweet meditative glow of a loading website. don't listen to the naysayer. switch to comcast business today

and get 50 megabits per second for $89.95. comcast business. built for business. for days now, we've been looking for the chairman of the republican party. have you seen this man? reince priebus, leader of the national republican party. reince, where are you? we've been e-mailing republican party staffers over and over again over the past few days asking where in the world reince priebus might be. they would not tell us. finally tonight, we can report a rips priebus sighting. the story is going to be so much fun. please stay with us.

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it has been a terrible year for plane crashes, and even for lost planes. from the malaysian flight that went missing last march and still never been located to the airasia crash that went missing for days over the java sea before its wreckage was finally found, to this astonishing, and terrible crash yesterday in taiwan, as the transasia flight lost altitude and clipped a cab on the highway. the footage impossible to believe it was captured on dashboard cameras from cars on

the highway, when the highway got hit by the plane. 31 people, including the pilots, are confirmed in that crash. at least 15 people survived that crash. it's been a terrible year for air crashes. this past july, though, there was a different type of terrible air crash. when a malaysia airlines plane did not just crash, it was shot out of the sky near the ukraine-russia border. 298 people killed. that passenger jet was shot out of the sky by pro-russian separatists who thought it was a ukrainian military plane that they were shooting at. the separatists supported by russia had been fighting in eastern ukraine for months already at that point. vladimir putin had annexed crimea, tried to make it part of russia. and the obama administration and european countries had denounced russia. they imposed what turned out to be fairly crippling economic sanctions on russia. they told russia to get out of

ukraine and stop interfering with that country. but the downing of the plane on the russian border, everybody all at the same time, left, right and center started asking the same scary question, new cold war? is this a new cold war? are we, the united states, going to fight some sort of new war with russia? set off by vladimir putin's aggression toward ukraine? president obama seemed unclear on his answer after that. >> is this a new cold war, sir? >> no. it's not a new cold war. >> are you going to impose sanctions? are sanctions going to be enough? are you considering lethal aid for ukraine? >> the issue at this point is not the ukrainian capacity to outfight separatists. they are better armed than the separatists. the issue is, how do we prevent

bloodshed in eastern ukraine. we're trying to avoid that. >> this is not a new cold war, we're not going to send weapons into this fight because that's not what ukraine needs. it could cause more bloodshed. that was president obama speaking in july. fast forward to now, and it seems like this whole question, which sort of feels old, right, it feels like last year's news, it feels like maybe this is on again. security issues, the reason it feels like last year's news, right now, our national attention is focused on isis. and the confirmation hearing for the new defense secretary. and the other stuff that's going on in national security. hasn't really been focused on ukraine in terms of the national discussion. at the confirmation hearing for ash carter today, 10,000 u.s. troops are still in afghanistan, and a gag rule means we can't talk about that fact. we're willing to talk about isis, even a little bit about afghanistan. but this ukraine thing? are we having a war with russia?

it has fallen out of the national discussion over the last few months. but one level below those surface discussions, it really seems right now that this thing is back on. and you should know about it. in ukraine, a cease-fire was agreed to in september. that cease-fire has been blown through. the russian-backed forces in ukraine have taken a couple hundred square miles of territory away from the ukrainian government, including a major airport, shown here in ruins after the fighting was done. they've taken the couple hundred miles and the airport just since new year's this year. the shipment to the forces in ukraine have been way up, including heavy weapons. so that thing that president obama said last summer about the ukrainian government actually being better armed than the separatists and insurgency? our government apparently no longer believes that is the case. given the kind of russian weaponry that putin seems to be shipping into the ukrainian separatists. so the ground game seems to have changed. and now, the obama administration, this week,

granted, with everybody talking about isis and vaccines and rand paul and paris hilton's brother and all the rest of it, that's the major national discussion. but this week alongside that, below the surface, the obama administration seems to be making a concerted effort to get the idea out there that we might be about to start fighting vladimir putin and russia with more than economic sanctions. this report from a bunch of big named military officials, saying send $1 billion worth of weapons to ukraine right now. the new york times this week reported secretary kerri is open to the idea. the report of national security adviser susan rice used to be against the idea, but is prepared to reconsider. the outgoing defense secretary chuck hagel wants to get weapons into ukraine now. now at this confirmation hearing, the man who would replace chuck hagel, ash carter, said he is, quote, very much inclined to send american weapons into ukraine.

secretary of state john kerry is on h way to ukraine right now. vice president joe biden is going to be meeting with the president of ukraine this weekend. the president of ukraine is also publicly saying, yeah, america is about to start arming us, shipping us weapons to fight against russia. he's already saying that publicly. are we? it is barely started to penetrate the headlines here at all. but after last summer's freakout about whether we were about to restart the cold war with russia right now, just barely under the surface in our politics right now, our whole military and diplomatic apparatus, you can feel it shifting into gear. start talking about a new war. at least putting us into a situation that feels an awful lot like a proxy war with russia. and proxy war with russia isn't a phrase we've really heard since nicaragua, or afghanistan in the 1980s. are we going to do that again? are we about to start arming ukraine as a way of fighting russia? would it change the situation on

the ground there materially? would it make it better? would it risk making the war bigger and worse? are we about to do this? the commanding general of the u.s. army in europe is our guest next on "the interview." stay with us.

the regional command. >> official afghan product. >> it's like pizza dough. >> that was from my 2010 trip to afghanistan. inside an m-wrap. then brigadier general ben hodges. well, tonight ben hodges joins us for "the interview" as lieutenant general ben hodges. general hodges has just returned from ukraine to germany where he's now based.

general, nice to see you again. thanks very much for being here. >> thank you, rachel. >> so i know you recently returned from ukraine. we've been talking a little bit about a lot of political noise, and media noise in this country right now that the u.s. might be seriously looking at sending lethal aid into ukraine. when you were there, what was your assessment of how things are on the ground this now? >> rachel, i was very impressed with a couple of things when i was in kiev three weeks ago. first, our ambassador, and the u.s. country team there, they're effective and committed. they have a good feel for what's actually going on there. i was also impressed with civilian and military security force leadership, their earnestness and their commitment to get their institutions ready for sustained effort to improve training, leader development, this sort of thing. i was very impressed with that. and i did visit a military hospital in kiev.

frankly, the quality of care was quite good. the capacity is what they lack. >> in terms of the prospect of u.s. arms, and again, there's been no decision made, but if our government is considering sending a lot more weapons into the ukrainian side, do we know whether the ukrainian forces are well trained enough, that they can actually make good use of advanced american weaponry, sort of anti--the kind of weapons that you would use against these armored personnel carriers, for example, that russia that is sent in in such large numbers? >> well, you make a couple of great points, rachel. first of all, providing weapons is not a strategy. the military support for what's going on would be a part of the strategy. and i think identifying what is the desired end stake that the west has with respect to russia,

and to ukraine, which is a manifestation of that, is what's really important. and also, just providing weapons by themselves is not necessarily going to help. the equipment that's being provided requires training, it's typically part of the system, and that's why what russia has provided, you know, not only is it sophisticated equipment, but you have to have the experts to come with it. that's why it's laughable that people would think this is militia that's using this. >> the reason that you can point that out is because russia has sort of been saying, oh, it's not us, it's just the separatists, we support what they're doing, but don't think this is russian troops and there's a lot of reason to be skeptical about that. but i think given that, if the u.s. military did decide overtly, all right, we're going to get involved, and really arm the ukrainian side, i just imagine if i were vladimir putin, i would see that as a great opportunity to triple down on the fighting and what i was going to put my name on, what i was willing to admit to, and how

much military commitment i was willing to make to ukraine, if only because his war-making is the only thing working for him with his own domestic audience. his economy has totally cratered, and appears to be weaker with the russian people than many other issues. they like him in terms of the war. if i were him, i would scale up. >> well, certainly president putin has two objectives, think i. number one is to continue to destabilize those countries so they cannot be in the eu, that they would not be -- could not join nato. so to create the instability around his periphery. and certainly, ukraine is the most important country on the periphery of russia, in terms of non-nato countries. his second objective is, i'm sure, to splinter our great alliance, nato, the north atlantic treaty organization, to put a wedge between north

america and europe, to create doubt in the minds of the young nato countries. those are the two objectives. so that's why i think you're right, he's emphasizing the use of military force, and it seems to me that he's shown no indication to back off despite the very strong sanctions that are in place. >> lieutenant general ben hodges, commander of u.s. army forces in europe. when we met in 2010, i was doing this job, i'm still doing this job. you, meanwhile, are now the commander of u.s. army forces in europe. congratulations on your success thus far. and thank you for taking the time to talk with us tonight. >> rachel, thank you. and thanks for helping to educate your viewers. >> i appreciate it, sir. thank you. we'll be right back. and our competitors' rates you can't win them all. the important part is, you helped them save. thanks, flo.

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we got word tonight from the white house that president obama's longest serving staffer at this point, dan pfeiffer, the communications department there, is going to be leaving the white house. he's been with president obama from the beginning. so his decision as an obama original to not stay on for the last couple of years, that's interesting. although we don't know what senior adviser dan pfeiffer will be doing next. then the second announcement, the communications director is also leaving. again, i don't know what dan pfeiffer is leaving to do, but jen is leaving to go work on the hillary clinton for president campaign, which doesn't officially exist yet.

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put your best face forward. a face in need deserves puffs indeed. and try puffs softpack today. we found him, we've been looking for him for days. here is rans priebus, chairman of the republican national he attended the senate republican lunch yesterday. it is unexpected that he was in d.c. at all. it's been reported that reince priebus was going to israel, paid for by the american family association, led by this guy. >> so here we are, killing 60 million babies, red ink as far as the eye can see. homosexuals praying at the inauguration. i think the process of mercy looks like car bombs in los

angeles, washington, d.c., and des moines, iowa. i think we get mercy, the process is going to be a very painful process. >> that's david lane, he works for the american family association. in december, reince priebus invited the 168 members of the rnc to go on a nine-day trip to israel, paid for by the american family association. there's no reason rnc members can't pay themselves to go to israel, but this trip was free to them, all expenses paid. basically it amounts to a donation of several hundred thousand dollars to the republican national convention from the american family association. that set off alarm bells. >> hitler discovered that he could not get straight soldiers to be savage and brutal and vicious enough to carry out his

orders, but that homosexual soldiers basically had no limits on the savagery and brutality they were willing to inflict hitler sent them after. so he surrounded himself, all of the storm troopers, brown shirts were male homosexuals. >> that's the american family association, who reince priebus invited to go to israel. groups have cataloged who this work is. they're notorious, even within republican politics. after they and david lane specifically joined other far right activists in 2012 saying mitt romney shouldn't be the republican nominee for president because he worships a false god. these guys are notorious, even inside republican politics. but reince priebus took hundreds of thousands from them, made this arrangement and would be hosting this big trip for the

national republican party. "time" magazine and israel reported that a third of the members of the rnc said yes to go on the trip and reince priebus would be going, with the american family association and david lane. after that, they distanced themselves from their spokesman, brian fisher. they finally demoted him within the organization before this trip with the rnc. the story started getting more and more press. and now the rnc is getting weird. first, we asked if they had anything to do with brian fisher getting fire before the rnc took its trip. no answer from them on that. we asked the rnc if reince priebus was still going. no answer to that.

that seemed weird. then we called back the american family association to tell us if the trip was still on. their lawyer told us monday, i don't know that. that was literally three days into the trip they're paying for and leading and they had no idea if it was happening. to find out if reince priebus went on this trip, led by the guy who says america was founded to advance the christian faith and he couldn't vote for a mormon like mitt romney, after dodging those questions and refusing to say anything about it, there was reince priebus yesterday, not in israel but washington, d.c.

apparently the rnc caved. reince priebus bailed and they couldn't take the heat and they're hoping they refuse all comment about it, no one will notice. it's thursday morning, right now on "first look," combing through the wreckage in new york. the question remains why was an suv stopped on the tracks fem? outrage over the killing of the jordanian killing and people thought that putin hads a berger's. and a lot to tell you about this morning. thanks for joining us. i'm betty nguyen. service is back up and running right now. less than two days after a deadly train collision with an suv. investigators are also getting a