fema"? and it goes on as it does in st. john now four weeks and two days since that storm. that is our broadcast on a thursday night. thank you so very much for being here with us and good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. coming to the president's defense in heart felt remarks. white house chief of staff talks about his own loss and criticizes one florida lawmakers comments about the president. pentagon launching formal investigation into niger ambush that killed four american soldiers. growing calls for the hearings on capitol hill. today's marks one month since hurricane maria devastated puerto rico. about 25% of the island has power. president continues to praise federal response. good morning, everyone.

the white house chief of staff retired general john kelly spoke out in second briefing in many weeks in a forceful and personal defense of president trump. after trump sparked controversy on monday about whether former presidents reached out to the families of fallen soldiers and invoked kelly's son who died an as a marine officer in 2010 when defending claim. he michigan by describing what happens when service members are killed in action. >> he asked me about previous presidents and i said i can tell you that president obama who recollects was my commander in chief when i was on active duty, did not call my family. that was not a criticism. that was just to simply say i don't believe president obama called. that's not a negative thing. i don't believe president bush called in all cases.

also explained the origins of the conversation. after federico wilson said the president telling her that her husband knew what he was signing up for was cruel saying they were what now chief of staff chairman told him after his own son died. >> let's not let this be held sacred in our society. a young man going out and giving his life for our country. let's try to somehow keep that sacred. it eroded a great deal yesterday by the selfish behavior of the congress. sought to clarify of of the confusion which left four special army force soldier es dead dead. >> we have been engaged in french and african forces in the

region for some time. in the campaign to stop isis and terrorist. mostly providing refueling support. intelligence support. surveillance support, but also we have troops on the ground. their job is to help the people in the region learn how to defend themselves. >> there is a -- i talked to jim mattis this morning. he made statements this afternoon. there's an investigation ongoing. the investigation doesn't mean anything was wrong. investigation doesn't mean people's heads are going to roll. the fact is they need to find out what happened and why it happened. >> meanwhile, growing bipartisan calls on capitol hill for hearings. >> senator, on the mission, what does the committee need to know in terms of details. >> can you be more specific.

>> i did have a good conversation with general mcmaster and they said they would be briefing us. we have a long friendship. we will hopefully get all the details. >> do you feel the administration has been forthcoming up to this point about what happened there. >> of course not. >> joining us now, retired u.s. army kernel jack jacobs. good to have you with us. a lot of questions surrounding what happened in niger. we heard from secretary chief of staff. both coming to offer their insight. i wanted to get your thoughts in terms of the two operations this administration has carried out. raid in yemen back in january that was deadly and this superintendant in niger where americans were ambushed. is this any criticism to look at the planning of the operations

to have these two high profile incidents happen in a short period of time. >> never enough planning and never enough intelligence. hard to say exactly what there was about the raid in yemen that they could have found out that they didn't know, but i can they will you a little bit about what happened in niger because the same sort of thing happened to me as what i suspect happened there. your training themselves which means you take them out on practice runs and all the rest of it. at some juncture they actually go out and conduct an operation and you go with them. when i was in vietnam, we conducted a large operation and there was a spy. they knew where we were going, when we were going to be there and all the rest of it. they knew everything. they had three days worth of preparation. it's pure speculation, but when something like this happens, it's entirely likely that whatever they were doing, the

enemy knew that they were coming and set up an ambush. makes sense that was the case. the ambush was extremely efficient. you can only do that if the enemy has really good intelligence. it's likely the investigation will tell us. >> if this were to have been a scenario that you just laid out, is there any way there could have been protection from something like this. >> it's hard to say. you can never protect against this and it's hard to say you can always protect. it's extremely difficult. dealing with foreign nationals to be absolutely certain that every single one of them is on your side. we found that to be the case in just about every place where we went. we had people in uganda now doing exactly the same thing. and in afghanistan and it happens in afghanistan for example from time to time. >> is there a valid question in saying that enough americans don't know what all of our troops are. i think a lot of people woke up the next morning looking at the

headlines and said wait a minute accident we have troops in niger. i understood those who follow foreign policy and security may understand that american troops are everywhere. should there be more done to explain to the american people, look, we have troops in these countries. >> the people who can do that are the congress. it's no secret that we have people in these places. we have a large number of troops in gentleman budy for example. we have a big base there. we have troops in the philippines doing similar types of things. it's a matter of public record. if somebody wants to broadcast where we are and what we're doing t defense department does that from time to time to showcase the fact we're out there helping others, but if anybody wants to disseminate that information on mass.

>> some people are making the comparison to the fallout of benghazi. is that fair at all. >> no. there was nobody near who could have discovered in advance there was going to be an ambush. i know i didn't. i can tell you that much. now the latest on the recent travel ban blocked by a federal judge earlier this week hours before taking effect. says announced in late september, one fwlglaring quest. why is chad on that list. the associated press is now reporting that it's all due to an administrative issue.

chad did not have the appropriate paperwork required by the trump administration to provide a recent passport sample due to paper shortage. chad's government offered to provide a preexisting sample of the same type of passport, but homeland security refused to make an exception. officials tell nbc news the decision was made without the input of the state of defense department and that other national security agencies vehemently objected to the addition, but were overruled. this comes as the council on foreign relations reports that chad has withdrawn hundreds of troops from niger that were fighting terror. today marks one month since hurricane maria struck puerto rico. overwhelming majority of the island is still struggling. 80% of puerto rico is still without power and more than 4,000 people remain in shelters. official death toll is at 48. that number is expected to rise. meanwhile, president trump met with the governor of puerto rico

at the white house yesterday. when asked about the federal government's hurricane response, this is how they responded. >> between one and ten how would you grade the white house response so far. >> i would say a ten. i give ourselves a ten. we have provide sod much, so fast. we were actually there before the storm hit. i would give a ten. i think we did a fantastic job. we have been given credit. we have done a really great job. i think our response was better than anyone has ever seen. >> the president has answered. this is still ongoing. we expect that will continue. >> did the united states, did our government, when we came in, did we do a great job, military, first responders, fema, did we do a great job. >> you responded immediately sir.

you did so. they have been on the phone with me essentially every day since the disaster. the response is there. do we need to do a lot more. of course we do. >> coming up this morning, puerto rico governor will be a guest on morning joe. >> it's going be interesting to hear certainly. joining us now news reporter. hearing the governor there kind of dancing around the question when asked 1-10 on a scale of what his grade was, but president trump giving himself a grade of ten. what are the biggest items right now to do list in puerto rico. how much of those needs should come from the government versus the private sector. >> reporter: as we've said, puerto rico is definitely very far from being covered. 8 80% is without power. a lot without water. rather than as we saw yesterday touting the federal response, there's a lot more that needs to

be done. there's a lot of communities outside of the capitol hill which is what trump has seen that are still cutoff from communication. they need more aide. the roads aren't open. the airports have recently started working in full capacity again. so there's a long way to go here. i think that we note thad yesterday. >> let's switch gears quickly and talk about health care for a moment. now 12 republicans co-sponsors to the alexander murray bill. if all the senate democrats were to vote yes on this, that gives it a filibuster proof majority. what then is the outlook from capitol hill on this bill's prospects and whether the president will come on board. he's kind of been lukewarm on it. he has not been definitive as to whether or not the white house would embrace it one way or the other. >> trump has been flip-flopping a lot. he's been in support of it. later say he doesn't want to bail out insurance companies. a lot of people are starting to

get frustrated with that response. i know alexander said he really wants trump to come out and support it so they can get all the votes they need. the co-sponsors that came out yesterday were mainly moderate republicans. i think they still need to get more support from the core gop party. moving forward, they're hoping they can get everything they need. >> alie that, thank you very much for joining us. still ahead, oscar winning actress adds her name. back in the spotlight unveiled critique of donald trump. those stories and a check of the weather when we come back.

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. a student at the yale school of drama when she first met the

movie mogul. describes several interactions with weinstein. says she was told they would be watching it with his family. then says she was led to his bedroom where weinstein offered to give her a imagimassage. >> the actor writes i panicked a little and thought quickly to offer to give him one and instead allow me to be in control physically to know where his hands were at all times. she said she started to massage his back to buy herself time to figure out a way out. she than says he tried to take off his pants and that's when she, quote, headed for the door. >> describes a later meeting in a new york city restaurant. before the star arrived. let's cut to the chase. have i a private room upstairs where we can have the rest of the meal. i was stunned. i told him i preferred to eat in the restaurant. he told me not to be so naive. i mustered up the courage to

politely decline his offer. you have no idea what you are passing up, he said. >> before leaving she wanted to make sure he wouldn't ruin his career. she asked if they were okay and he wrote i don't know about your career, but you'll be fine. weinstein has apologized for treatment of women and said he plans to seek treatment of sex addiction, representative said any allegations of nonconsensual sex are denied by weinstein. meanwhil meanwhile,tarian tee kn taranti knew and wished he spoke out earlier. let's turn to weather. national weather service believes this year's winter outlook in u.s. should expect warmer temperatures for third consecutive year. according to agency's prediction

center t driving force behind the warmer than normal conditions is a development of a weak el nino event and rising carbon dioxide. expected to experience cooler temperatures. with that bring in bill karins. bill. that shouldn't be any shock. we've had warm year after warm year lately. doesn't mean you can't get big snowsto snowstorms. just overall a couple degrees warmer. yes. see how it all plays out. if we go throughout the winter season. not close to winter season yet. have to get through unusually warm fall to even come close to cold temperatures. warm air in mild humid air returning to texas. not a chance of showers and storms. houston grabbed the umbrella. also as we go throughout saturday, the visit today, this is saturday, as we head into the cool cold weather season, we can get a few severe weather operations in the fall. usually one or two. one of them could be on

saturday. 19 million people at risk of severe storm. mostly going to be large hail and damaging winds. this area four inches. more highly concentrated area of severe storms. oklahoma city in the middle of that. friends in the northwest had one big storm two days ago. they'll have another one coming in tonight. right now shower weather. the blue is some snow at the high elevations of the cascades and snow in the areas of eastern oregon. tonight a bigger storm moves in. strong winds with it. snow evaluations will be lower. traveling through the package could have some issues. as we go through the clock. here comes the bigger storm. so it's going to be overnight into the morning that comes in. windy for much of your saturday unfortunately. forecast for today, showers and storms. texas gorgeous weather. east coast can'ts. severe threat in the middle of the country. this is about as nice a fall weekend as we're going to get on the east coast.

enjoy it. next rain chance on the east coast looks to be tuesday. >> the second we get out of here, 17 hour count down until we have to come back to the office. still ahead, nearly three decade job is almost over. sends the la dodgers back to world series. the sports is next. you called that one. >> i certainly did. got my money on it. by frequent, unpredictable abdominal pain or discomfort and diarrhea. i tried lifestyle changes and over-the-counter treatments, but my symptoms keep coming back. it turns out i have irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea, or ibs-d. a condition that's really frustrating. that's why i talked to my doctor about viberzi... ...a different way to treat ibs-d. viberzi is a prescription medication you take every day that helps proactively manage both abdominal pain and diarrhea at the same time. so i can stay ahead of my symptoms. viberzi can cause new or worsening abdominal pain. do not take viberzi if you have no gallbladder, have pancreas or severe liver problems,

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los angeles dodgers are celebrating like it's 1988 as they punch their ticket to the world series. this wasn't even close. center fielder did his best reggie jackson impression last night. hitting three home runs. and top of the third bases loaded with the dodgers already up 3-0. hernandez blasts a grand slam over the right field wall giving the dodgers a comfortable 7-0 lead. meanwhile at five strikeouts. one walk and earned run. one earned run pitching six solid innings there. night belonged to hernandez adding two run homer in the ninth inning giving the dodgers 11-1 lead. win the nl pennant for the first time since 1988. face either the yankees or houston astros in the world series. turning now to nfl oakland raiders and kansas city chiefing squared off in a game. come down to the wire. chief's quarterback alex smith had a stellar game thrown for

342 yards. three touchdowns throwing this remarkable td to wilson. it would not be enough. down 30-24 no time left. raiders quarterback swinging to left and throwing a two yard pass to michael crabtree to tie the game at 30 a piece. gets down just behind the pile on. raiders kicker kicks it through the top up right to give oakland a win. 31 to 30 and that one what a game. turning now to nhl and a bonding moment. veteran matt marten and second year forward shared a snip of smelling salt. win against the detroit red wings. this was the second game in a row that marten shared salt. the practice is apparently not common for players looking for extra jolt come game time. yasmin, ayman, i know we do the same thing before the game. >> can we get a replay of that.

>> that's what yasmin does when she gets out here. >> gets a little sniff. >> i know you would do it too. >> he's like man, you smelled it. i don't want to smell it. >> you got to get amped for the game. >> got to get amped. especially at this early hour, but folks i don't recommend doing it at all. don't try this at home. still ahead, two former presidents from the left and right publicly weighing in on the ongoing divisions across the country. what they have to say in separate, but similar remarks. >> vladimir putin talks about why president trump has not been able to deliver campaign promises. we're going to get a live report coming up next. i no longer live with

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killed in the ambush. >> now the pentagon has launched an investigation into how a routine patrol turned into a deadly ambush. and what happened afterwards. nbc news pentagon correspondent has more. >> this is how pentagon officials say it happened.

fewer than ten special force rs we were there at the border. a smaller group stayed behind guarding vehicles. it was near dusk when an enemy force attacked the u.s. green berets. firing machine guns and rocket propelled grenades. took 30 minutes for french air support to arrive on scene. french helicopters evacuated the causalities and recovered the american dead, but sergeant david johnson was separated from the group during the attack. aircraft flying overhead picked up signal from cell phone, but it grew faint as they were searching. more than 100 special forces descended to join the search. roughly 48 hours later johnson's body recovered by nigerian forces. pentagon challenging any suggestion that sergeant johnson was left behind. >> nothing could be further from the truth. that's a myth that needs to be corrected. >> did i hear you correctly that american troops stayed on the

battlefield the entire time until sergeant johnson's body was recovered. >> in the battle space. either american or nigerian or french and sometimes all three at the same time were engaged in active searches. congress wants answers sooner. >> we're legal branches of government. we should be informed at all times. >> from the secretary defense, talk about the risk the american forces are forced to confront in places like niger gl there. >> there's a reason we have army soldiers there and not the peace corps. offering what is being considered rebukes of president trump. speaking in new york city who did not mention mr. trump by name. he says are dividing this country. we've seen our discourse by causal cruelty.

at times it can time like the force is pulling us further stronger than the forces binding us together. argument turns easily into animosity. disagreement escalates into dehumanization. we've seen nationalism distorted in the nativism. forgotten the dynamism that immigration has brought to america. we see a fading competence in the value of free markets and international trade forgetting that conflict is to stability and poverty following the wake of protectionism. we've seen the return of isolation sent mist. forgetting american security is directly threatened by the chaos and despair of distant places. the person dream of upward mobility seems out of reach for some who feel left behind in a changing economy, discontent deepened and sharpened: partisan

conflicts. bigotry seems emboldened. our politics seems vulnerable to conspiracy theories and outright fabrication. people of every race, religion, ethnicity can be fully and equally american. it means that bigotry or white str supremacy in any form is bla. .

>> we have seen so many times before. dates back centuries. some of the politics we see now we thought we put that to bed. i mean, that's called looking 50 years back. it's the 21st century. not the 19th century. come on. folks don't feel good right now about what they see. they don't feel as if our public light reflects our best. instead of our politics reflecting our values, we've got

politics infecting our communities. you notice i'm comments a lot on politics lately, but here's one thing i know. if you have to win a campaign by dividing people, you're not going to be able to govern them. you won't be able to unite them later if that's how you start. >> back with us once again. good to have you with us. allay that treayna treene they

the divisiveness that has been american politics these days. and bush discussed some of the prejudices and bigotry that's come up. it's significant. past presidents still garning a lot of attention. people lined around the block to see obama speak. they have strong significance. >> how are the comments by bush and obama from yesterday being received in washington? >> so they both didn't mention trump by name, but it's clear that people in washington see this as rebuke of trump. they see them speaking out against some of the policies that he's promoted. his rhetoric is very different from what these presidents have always preechd themselves. >> let's move on to current president. i wanted to ask you about comments he recently made via

twitter. singling out hillary clinton and administration for involvement in russia you rain yan deal. what is the story behind this. seems random to come out. >> it's been a story coming on for a long time. it's resurfaced this week. recent report from the hill that discussed an fbi investigation that had found criminal activity going on when this deal was made, extortion, bribery, and so senator chuck grassley is trying to look into whether some of the agencies, one which was run by then secretary of state, hillary clinton, knew of this fbi investigation and approved the deal. >> a lot for us in washington, d.c. alayna treene, good to have you with us, thanks. according to reports. now during wednesday's senate

judiciary committee hearing, attorney general jeff sessions appeared to confirm trump had personally interviewed the candidates during questions from senator and former u.s. attorney richard blumenthal. this drew reaction from an attorney in southern district who president trump fired. take a listen. >> my understanding is that the president of the united states has interviewed a number of candidates for united states attorney positions around the country, including new york; is that correct. i believe that's -- yes. we've done quite a number. >> to my knowledge, no president previously has ever interviewed the chief federal prosecutor in any united states attorney history. i consider it quite unusual. how many other attorneys general candidates has the president interviewed. >> i'm not aware.

i'm not sure i remember whether he had interviewed for new york, but if you say so, i assume so. >> here's what you've got. you've got the first president not to divest personal holdings. the first president not to disclose taxes. and now you've got a president personally interviewing the candidates who oversee the offices that could possibly investigate him. think about that. >> senator blumenthal said he's considering an attempt to block any nominees who have been interviewed by the president. diane feinstein expressed concern as well. russian president vladimir putin says donald trump's domestic political rivals have blocked the agenda that trump ran on from being inactive. made the comments yesterday in russia after saying trump won an honest victory, pointed to a quote, strong resistance inside the country to trump that had not allowed him to fulfill campaign promises which he

called a deplorable element of the u.s. system. putin went on to say an russian campaign has been released in the united states after losing the election to trump. put all the blame on russia and engage in a frenzied anti-russian hysteria. he added russia will remain open to cooperate with the united states. joining us live from london, let's bring in lieu siucy. give us some highlights. some of the big issues he address. >> this is all very familiar rhetoric we've heard from the russian president before. harsh stance towards the west plays well for him. shows he's a strong leader willing to stand up to the rest of the world. dedicated a large portion of the speech to the grievances against the u.s., accusing washington of failing to fulfill the terms of nuclear weapon treaties. one of the favorite talking

points, accused the u.s. of double standards. invading iraq and slapping sanctions instead of helping to create a safer world. said the u.s. is trying to return us to the 1950s. now another big area of concern for the russians is their participation in the winter olympics. that is still in question. the ioc, international olympic committee is retesting russian athlete samples for doping. they are expecting a decision next month. saw president putin lash out at ioc saying it was being pressured by the united states to prevent russia from taking part in the games. putin's comments were more notable for what they left out. he did not say whether he will run for a fourth presidential terms in march. even though he is widely expected to run and win. he's been in power for 18 years. stretching the expense longer. >> a lot to watch out there. live in london.

thank you. still ahead, house speaker paul ryan leaving political politeness behind and roasting colleagues. plus bill karins is back with us. what's in store for the weekend. big temperature changes on the way for some. our recent online sales success seems a little... strange?nk na. ever since we switched to fedex ground business has been great. they're affordable and fast... maybe "too affordable and fast."

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kidney problems, or high potassium in your blood. ♪ tomorrow, tomorrow... ♪ when can we do this again, grandpa? well, how about tomorrow? ask your doctor about entresto and help make tomorrow possible. saturday afternoon, saturday evening, severe thunderstorms in the country. in the fall we get one or two severe weather outbreaks. this could be one of them. goes from southern minnesota just south of minneapolis down through rochester. almost all of iowa. good chunk of kansas city. area of orange is the greatest concentration. wichita falls. red river north wards. oklahoma towards fayetteville. that's saturday afternoon, saturday evening for your storm. the other thing of interest, watching this show, obviously

you're a person who doesn't mind the early hours. the meter shower will peek this weekend. goes until the 29th. tonight and sunday morning is the peek. you want the moon to set. that will be 2:00 a.m. any time after 2:00 a.m., that's viewing and you want to look to east, southeast sky. traveling through the particles from haley's comment. we get these every year at this time. should be a pretty good show. cloud cover is good. get away from the city light. 80 particles per hour. which is pretty good show. the weekend forecast, showers and storms hit and miss. texas today return to wet weather. florida, south florida. chance of showers. another top ten gorgeous day. stretch of weather we've had here this week from colorado to the great lakes to the east coast. there's the bad weather on saturday in the middle of the country. also waking up to a lot of rain

and nasty weather in the areas of the northwest. storm moves in late tonight. fine in southern california. then another great saturday on the eastern sea board. by the time we get to sunday, slow moving storm heading for chicago, st. louis, new orleans. one or two more great days on the eastern sea board. looks like stormy weather in the middle of the country doesn't get to east coast until late monday and tuesday. so louis. >> keep that good weather streak going as long as we can. thanks, bill. last night at annual al smith charity dinner in new york, house speaker paul ryan delivered the keynote address and poked a little fun at president trump and democrats. take a listen. >> i know last year that donald trump offended some people. i know his comments according to critics went too far. some said it was unbecome pg ina public figure and said his comments were offensive.

well, thank god he's learned his list lesson. a lot of people, they asked me, a guy from wisconsin, what's it like to work on a daily basis with an abrasive new yorker with a loud mouth. once you get to know him, chuck schumer is not all that bad. every afternoon, former speaker john boehner calls me up. not to give advice. just to laugh. >> i'm going to bet that last -- one of those last sound bites about twitter is actually reality. he's making a joke about it, but i'm going to bet that's a reality. >> a lot of those comments probably are. they're a little bit grounded in truth. what makes everyone think they're funny and sad. thanks for that louis. still ahead, president trump moves one step closer to

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. welcome back, everybody. another republican member of congress is joining a growing list of retirees. a republican representative of ohio and influential member on the house ways an means committee that helped to write the republican budget, announced

his retirement yesterday to serve as president on the ohio business roundtable. this latest retirement is being viewed by various colleagues as a growing sign of frustration, congressional deadlock on major republican policies, republican leadership and disconcerting antics coming from the white house, it presents few challenges to leadership in their effort to reform the tax code. he is scheduled to lead by january 1st, 2018, most likely before tax reform is passed. there seems to be a mixed response from the markets, c b cnbcjonana joins us from london. what can you say about this? >> it's interesting girard powell is a front return, he continues to be a continuation

of the dovish camp. he currently is a fed governor. so it would be a positive announcement for the stockmarket and stocks react very well on the news yesterday. he also pushed down treasury yields and the dollar weakened a little bit before recovering by the end of the day. but let pe tell you about another story that's been making waves over here the car wririd* riding app lyft. they now value the company at a whopping $11 become. now the uber rival has said it will now cover 95% of the u.s. population. that's up 54% from a year ago and ultimately would pave the way for an ipo. >> thanks so much all right, coming up next on "morning joe," more on the fallout over the deadly operation in niger as chief of staff john kelly joins the

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only xfinity x1 brings you the best hand selected picks this fall. . >> welcome back, everybody, before we toss you ore to "morning joe," we want to go over the stories ahead. >> steve bannon will make a speech at the event opening dinner as bannon continue to promote congressional challenges to republicans officials in flint, michigan will discuss their options for a long-term source of drinking water for that city. the meeting comes ahead of a federal judge's deadline on monday for the decision first lady mel lana trump is expected to donate her inaugural ball gown to the smithsonian, which has dresses from nancy reagan, michelle obama among others, that does it for us this morning.

have a fantastic week, everybody. morning joe starts right now. >> we've seen our discourse degraded by casual cruelty. >> at a time within our politics just seems so divided and so angry and so nasty. >> argument turns to easily into animosity, disagreement escalates into dehumanization. >> we got folks who are deliberately trying to make folks angry to demonize people who have different ideas. >> at times it can seem like the forces pulling us apart are stronger than the forces binding us together. >> whether we support and embrace somebody who wants to bring people together. >> it means that bigotry or white supremacy in any form is blasphemy against the american creed. >> if we are going to talk about our history, then we should do it in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds, not in a way

that divides. >> unlike the current commander-in-chief, they didn't use twitter and they didn't use names. there was no mistaking who former presidents bush and obama were addressing in separate appearances, good morning, everyone, it is friday, october 20th. with us, we have associate editor of commentary magazine noah rocketman, jonathan le mere and heidi briz bill przybyl la. what do you make of those remarks from the two former presidents and the past 24 hours. >> well, they actually come at a badly-needed time. they couldn't have choreographed it better. because yesterday was one of those days wherein you looked at the news, when you