if it's tuesday, it is more than election day in california. it is a warning for democracy as voters cast their ballots in the state's recall election involving gavin newsom. republicans are pushing baseless voter fraud claims before the votes are counted. secretary of state antony blinken being grilled on afghanistan in front of the senate foreign relations committee. i speak with the committee's chairman along with reporting from the top military official worried trump may start a war with china as a last ditch effort to stay in office. and reports of more icus

struggling to survive the delta surge. vaccination rates lag in the deep south. speak with a health officer in alabama where hospitals are literally turning patients away. welcome to meet the press daily. i am chuck todd. if it is tuesday, someone is voting somewhere. today that somewhere is a big one. it is california. gavin newsom faces a recall election that's got 22 mail in ballots and hundreds of millions in the making. governor newsom is expected to survive, perhaps not by a wide margin. that's not the only story in the race, it is the sadly predictable republican efforts in the final hours to create a

mythology of doubt on the legitimacy of the vote before they've been counted. there's zero evidence of any election impropriety in this race, yet larry elder, leading republican candidate if newsom is recalled the democrats were going to cheat, he had no proof, his campaign is claiming they have proof that the racist results are fraudulent. it is impossible, there are no results yet. this made up nonstop bunk if you will. but the leader of this wing of the party, donald trump, said again today, told republicans without evidence that the state's use of mail-in ballots was part of the same scam that cost him the 2020 election and that the race was rigged. he complained people were able to vote. if fewer people could vote, he would win perhaps. we heard this from republicans in california to pin -- pundits.

>> whether or not you win or lose, will you accept the result of the election tomorrow? >> i think we all ought to be looking at election integrity. >> that a -- >> let's all work together, on both sides of the aisle to make sure it is a fair election. >> is that a commitment to accept results of the election tomorrow? >> all work together to find out whether the election tomorrow is fair, let's all work together to do that. >> that is not a commitment to accept the results of the election? >> jacob, honestly, i answered your question. >> this is part of the phony ways, i'm just saying we should just look into this. it is all part of this phoniness, i am not saying anything, i'm just saying something, and all of it does what, cast doubt. casting doubt about the results of an election you may use is part of the gop play book.

you saw how dane it was in the presidential election. got new reporting from journalists who have seen bob woodward and robert costa's new book and sort of a new revelation that is an old revelation that the top general was so fearful of trump efforts to cling to power, they were preparing for the possibility he may start a war. in fact, specifically this anecdote claims a war with china. this comes as police have to reinstall a fence around the capitol ahead of a planned far right rally in defense of those who were arrested for the january 6th insurrection. so whether it is defense around the capitol, recall in california, voting restriction laws in texas or the next crop of secretary of states in red states, more examples of the dangers of trump's anti-democratic message. it is clearly a thet to our democracy. jacob ward is in california. steve patterson at polls in

sacramento, i have matt gorman and amy walter with us. jacob, let me start with you down where you are. i'm just curious, a lot of people mail in the ballots. what are you seeing today, a trickle of folks that hand them in? what are you seeing out there? >> reporter: well, chuck, this is an extraordinary set of political circumstances, things that make a recall even possible in california are very, very unusual. i'm also standing in extremely unusual part of california, the line you see behind me is in huntington beach. this is part of what's referred to as the orange county, the one big urban republican strong hold in the state of california. it is a very interesting place to be. it has all of the trappings associated with the political left sort of bearing of california, you know, the

surfing, yoga on the beach, the rest of it. this is a republican strong hold. republicans outnumber democrats in this urban strong hold of southern california. voters we spoke to here have very consistent refrains. when they talk about why they're voting yes, they talk about higher taxes, frustration where the country and california is going. all of that is on their lips. listen to the sentiments we're hearing. >> i think it is time we stand up and just make our politicians realize they can't be overstepping and failing to represent us. this is what you see in socialist countries, it is not what you see in america. it is not what we should be standing for and i think we need to get back to grass roots, constitutional values. >> reporter: it is a very interesting place to be because as i say, chuck, culturally this has this sort of one feeling, then politically you realize it is an extremely different place. from this corner of california, the political birthplace and physical birthplace of ronald

reagan, richard nixon, folks like that, this is a very different aspect on this from presumably what steve is seeing up north. >> well, we shall see. orange county has been voting democratic the last few cycles. so we'll find out if they go back to their more traditional roots or not, that's for sure. jacob ward in the southern part of the state. let's move to the state capital where we find steve patterson. what are you seeing? the assumption is folks that dropped off ballots, three ways people could deal with ballots. some of them handed them in early in person, some mailed it in, some want to do it election day. assumption is election day voters probably skew more republican than democrat. >> reporter: that is the assumption. there are a fair number of in person voters. everybody in the state because of covid gets to mail in ballots, why not just drop it

off. we condition show what's going on. i am putting on my mask. you can see most voters are plopping the mail-in ballot in the pink voting box, grab a sticker, head to work. we have seen a fair amount of people vote in person, for some families a tradition thing, others want the experience of coming into vote. not a lot of people in there, mostly workers. there's a real ebb and flow. the enthusiasm gap people worried about, particularly democrats when they focus on urban districts, this is a mixed minority community, lot of black and latino people here inside city limits that weren't jazzed up to vote. we have not seen that today. people are optimistic about voting and enthusiastic. responses have been surprisingly mixed. you would think this area heavily democratic, most people would vote no. it has been very mixed. a lot of people voting yes and

bringing up issues like the wild land response, covid mask mandates, like the economy and homelessness when we spoke to voters. here's what they said about why they're voting no or yes. >> i mean, it is education and homelessness, the crisis, we see it. definitely the forest management are losing lives, it has been a decade plus of mounting issues and i think we need balance. >> he helped us a lot. all he's trying to do is to, you know, help us to beat the virus. he's not trying to cripple us. yeah, he went to dinner, took his mask off, i don't see a big deal in that. >> reporter: polls close at 8:00 tonight. continue to mail in your ballots there or at any number of locations in california. democrats are looking for a huge turnout as well as republicans as you mention. more usually come out on that side on election day. they need a meager turnout from

democrats to outnumber republican voters two to one in the state. chuck? >> steve patterson in sacramento. the last voter referring to the infamous fancy dinner, birthday dinner that the governor took at a time there was a ton of covid protocols that prevented most people from having dinners like the one he got to have at one of the most famous restaurants in the world. with that, steve patterson, thank you. let me bring in matt gorman and amy walker. this sad development that's taken place now where if you're a republican running for office, it is politically better to claim voter fraud for your loss than to admit defeat. i'll admit, there's part of me that's numb to this. i'm used to hearing it, it is so constant. but this dogs long term damage, does it not? >> i think let me step back for a second.

what i keep coming back to is georgia, the senate runoff. you and i were talking a day or two before saying that base needed to turn out. if you talk to anyone involved, they would say base was discouraged, didn't think their vote would be counted. that was a senate race for control of the chamber. this is as you were saying might hopefully get close around the margins. from a practical perspective, what worries me going forward into next year, house, retaking the senate, if our base believes their votes don't count, they don't show up, then we won't win. >> amy, look, this is the unintended consequence on that side. the unintended consequence of shrugging this off, letting it be part of the norm in how we

compete in elections, this does erode confidence over time. just look at the way the right wing meme about the media over 30 years, well over 30 years, it had an impact. >> right. chuck, i worry about these things, too, because as you know it is like water going against rocks, just slowly, slowly chips away, one day you find out the rock has been completely cut in half. look, i think the frustrating part is when i talk to voters about this, especially like the swing voters, folks that aren't already keyed in on the d or r side, many of them do believe as you said that this is just part of the game, everybody does it, just part of politics as usual. but when we lose faith in so much of what makes this

democracy work, everybody from the person handing you that ballot to the secretary of state that pledged an oath to the constitution, and i don't know where we go from there. what i am hoping is this stops working, that politicians are using it -- >> right. >> it may hopefully fallout of fashion, especially after tonight if the polls are correct and this is a big win for gavin newsom, then this looks pretty uninspired to talk about being rigged when the numbers were so big. >> you know, matt gorman, answer a question jonathan last asked today, he was saying okay, what does glen yungkin do.

this is a competitive race in virginia. if he wants a future in republican politics, better to admit defeat, concede the election, say i am coming back stronger next time or to have a future in the party, does he have to go with the crazy myth it was rigged and sort of pretend he is a governor in exile, that he is a victim here. i mean, what i am asking is what's the incentive structure for a republican candidate who loses, to admit defeat or claim fraud? >> i think for specifically glen, if he wants to run in virginia, move numbers in the suburbs, loudoun county, accept that you lose. otherwise you're going to get into that cory stewart wing of the party. but i will expect with some federal candidates, even state candidates, like secretary of

state, attorney general, running across the country in '22, to say nothing of debates in '24. this sort of thing could become a litmus test or hand raised questions on stage. that's where i would be watching this is at that level. someone like a young kid, incentive structure is a little different. >> amy walter, we're going to see these. look at the secretary of state campaigns. we know the former president has gotten involved, he has endorsed specific candidates in arizona, georgia and i believe michigan. michigan, georgia, arizona. they all have had to pledge that they believe trump won those states. these are the folks running to be in charge of the vote count. we are headed to troubling potential scenarios here that i don't think we thought about since the 19th century. >> i don't think we understand exactly where things go from

here. in 2020 the secretaries of state that were republicans, election officials that stood up and said we're not doing this or governors that said we're not doing this, were the bullwerk. we know for so many states, they're passing a lot of that authority over to state legs -- leg is late yours, they're even less accountable than like a statewide secretary of state. all i can hope for is what matt pointed out, that this back fires. that what we see is disintegration of trust doesn't turn voters out and it works for one person, chuck, we watched politics long enough, you know that candidates like to copy cat others, right? i think they can do the same thing that person did. there's really only one donald trump and others who tried to

take that mantle found it hasn't worked so well for them. >> but matt gorman, trump seems to be the person here that everybody is fearing. apparently mitch mcconnell according to the new woodward book, mcconnell was so worried about joe biden calling him, having to admit the obvious, that biden was going to be upcoming president, he back channeled to beg biden not to call him yet while he managed former president trump's fragile ego and fear of that. if you can't stand up to this in your party, doesn't it just essentially eat up whatever diversity is left in the party in the anti-trump wing? >> i haven't seen the anecdote but i think certainly trump is going to be weighing in, chiming in from the sidelines. certainly he did it with his own election, he has been doing it in california.

i think to the point, it has to kind of stop there. when you have your own candidate like larry elder doing it in california, i think that's going to continue and that perpetuates it. perdue and loeffler didn't do that in georgia. when you have the candidate doing it on the ground before or after, that's where the paradigm shifts. you'll always have trump saying it, can't let it flow from there. >> let me ask you this, matt, do you think there's going to be room in the party for someone who thinks this is nonsense? chris christie who still has his own presidential ambitions went to the reagan library, said you have to speak truth to power. you know, now, he spent four years, some would argue enabling former president trump in different ways, only now is speaking out for his own political convenience, perhaps. let's say is there room for him in the party or do you get

ostracized because the media ecosystem is only supportive of the cult of trump now? >> i think the incentive structure, i see what you're saying. someone like pompeo who wants to run, folks from the trump administration, they're going to have to address this in 2024. that's if trump doesn't run. i think there will be a tight wire act. you're right. if you're ron desantis or kristi noem, how do you talk about this where you are not turning off trump voters, and there's a sizable portion that might want to move on from trump. how you talk about it is crucial. to say nothing of the fact that you're always going to have that sort of damocles, a trump tweet or statement hanging over your head, that's something you have to consider as you're running. >> amy, last question for you which is what lesson are you taking from california for anything to look ahead nationally, if taking any

lesson? >> the blue state, et cetera, that the spending is totally one sided on the democratic side. i think turnout is critical to see. how much better did republicans do in terms of getting their voters out, the energizing factors we talked about in a state where they're outnumbered two to one. it is interesting to watch how the issue of covid is turned on its head. covid and the french laundry dinner that helped propel this issue onto the ballot of the recall and newsom forces turned it against elder the same way as we are seeing in virginia, using elder's opposition to things like mandates, vaccine mandates, mask mandates, using that as a positive message or again, turning focus on covid away from what newsom did wrong to what elder is doing wrong. i think that helps to turn the

tide there. i don't think it will work in all states, but in a blue state like california or purple state like virginia, it can work. >> some lessons are perpetual, if you're in trouble, you need a foil. appreciate having you both onto unpack this for us. we're going to stick with california a little longer. up next, how the pandemic got california's governor into the recall mess and now his campaign has bet it will get him out. what lesson will he take away from the recall, does this make him stronger or weaker in his survival? you're watching "mtp daily." survival you're watching "mtp daily." i have friends. [ chuckles ] well, he may have friends, but he rides alone. that's jeremy, right there! we're literally riding together.

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we need gavin newsom. a governor who follows science, who's got the courage to do what's right. >> welcome back. that was president biden on the stump for gavin newsom in long beach, echoing the governor's closing message in the campaign, covid. in a recall election that primarily got off the ground because of the pandemic, governor newsom built his message around pushing back public health mandates. you look at the polls, appears to be paying off. joining me, the expert on all things california politics. mark, i was talking with somebody running the newsom side of the campaign who said to me democrats in every state in the union, particularly virginia, even those at the biden white house need to take note of the effectiveness of covid. i pushed back and said this is california. you really think this applies? this person is convinced that covid is that, handling of

covid, is that politically lethal. thoughts? >> they're certainly feeling their oaths. the recall will go down, could go down in flames. i heard the same, gavin newsom's people are saying example democrats can follow. worked in california, can work in other states. not certain it would work in pick your red state, mississippi, other places, but they think they found the key to the castle and there's covid pushing hard on vaccines and masking and polls show those positions tend to be popular. so many things in politics and life, it is loudest voices that are carrying, that's the minority. that's how we got in the recall as you mentioned going into this. >> if you turned back time and one thing changed, do you think

the dinner at french laundry would have made a difference in the recall happening or not? >> i think, well, let me put it this way, it was a match to kindling, somewhat overlooked in this, we have permissive recall law. okay. we also have very, very long signature gathering period which was extended by four months. so they had a very long period to start. got another four months. and what happened in the middle of it was french laundry. would this have taken off without french laundry, i don't know. they had the extended period. if they hadn't had the four months, french laundry would have been something people talked about. stupid political move hall of fame. without that extension, may not have mattered as much. >> you and i had this

conversation last week on a long podcast, going to throw you the same question, see if your answer has changed, or if we know yet. is gavin newsom going to come out of this stronger or weaker inside the california political world? >> i think he comes out stronger. i wrote a couple columns, one back to 1993 when there was an accidental mayor in san francisco got into office by luck, faced a recall, next thing you know she's on the top ten politicians. dianne feinstein. i don't think he gets 80% of the vote. structurally, you look at it, it will be hard to see how any republican beats him. if he beats the recall. if a republican can't beat him under ideal political circumstances, very motivated base, hard to see how they win the general election. is gavin newsom going to face a challenge from his left, sure.

california has enough egos and people to self finance, enough to think i should be governor. i wouldn't be surprised if he faced challenge from his left, another democrat running against him. in california, we don't throw out governors often. that was the last one to lose re-election. and then you have to go further back to find somebody before that. gavin newsom started from a position of strength, he is going to emerge from recall even stronger. >> what happened to a guy like kevin faulk ner, former mayor of san diego. he seemed to be the last most -- sort of -- you thought if the california republican party is going to find somebody as semi competitive candidate, it is him, and he decided to go in on the recall, and since has been swamped by kaitlin jenner and the cookie wing of the party.

does this destroy his chances of being a formidable statewide candidate in 2022? >> you never say never. trivia buffs may remember, probably don't, pete wilson ran for governor in 1978, got walloped, went on to be elected governor. >> mayor of san diego. >> mayor of san diego got whooped, became governor. kevin faulkner, i did an interview in like 2017, he was in great hope of the republican party. a moderate mayor. guy with a green plan. al gore, friends with mexico, made a point of saying he hadn't voted for trump. first thing out of the box says yeah, i voted for trump. around with the january 6th de"national enquirer" crap, and then larry elder talks about appealing to independents and

women. he is sort of a man without a country, a man without a real firm identity of who he is. he turned around again, which camp he shows up in next time. >> fair point. it gets into the conversation we had in the first block which is what kind of things do you have to do as a member of the republican party any more and if you have to do those things, does it make you unelectable and unappealing to whatever is left of the middle of the electorate. if you only read one person in california, read mark. thank you, sir. coming up, secretary of state antony blinken has been getting grilled on the hill. today before the senate foreign relations committee about the chaotic exit from afghanistan. the chairman of that committee joins me next. you're watching "meet the press daily." you're watching "meet the press daily. it's a sunny day. nah, a stormy day. ♪ we see a close up of the grille

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occupied. in texas, 169 hospitals more than 95% full. 24 hospitals in florida reported more icu patients last week than available beds. of ten states with fewest beds available, nine are in the south with fewest eligible people fully vaccinated. joining me from alabama, beds are 100% full, the top health official, dr. scott harris. so what does this mean, this icu situation? are you at the point in alabama you have to turn away patients that don't have a life-threatening situation they're dealing with? >> to this point, no one has had to be turned away, hospitals are being creative with what they do. we are operating under public health emergency, so the crisis standard of care plan is in place. hospitals have to make decisions about how to handle patients that may not be the standard way they would want to handle

patients in normal times. >> we've seen reports particularly in rural parts of the state and next door in mississippi where hospitals had to turn away folks and people died on the way from one hospital to another. again, i understand this. a rural hospital some cases there's only so much capacity. is there any mechanism you have to try to relieve some of this for these rural hospitals that have limited resources? >> yes, we are doing our best to do that. we are working on ways to have staffing to the hospitals. we have to coordinate ems services, in a sense oversee transfers, although we don't do that directly. the real tragedy here is that this is all preventable, largely preventable. our hospital icus are filled with covid patients. most patients, between 85 and 90% are not vaccinated or fully vaccinated. and we feel like we wouldn't be

in that situation if only we could do a better job getting people vaccinated. >> there have been different ways people tried to send a message within your state. i mean, the governor has singled out the unvaccinated as well. is there anything that's working? take winston county, only 20% are vaccinated, anything other than dead bodies around somebody's family, has anything else worked? >> you know, chuck, there are a lot of reasons people haven't gotten vaccinated, and there are still people with access problems, people susceptible to misinformation. we have people making partisan political choices in spite of the facts, but we have seen alabamaians improve vaccinations, past month and a half been personally touched, knowing a family member or

friend that's effected, that motivated them to get vaccinated a little more, not at the same rate we saw back in march and april and there was high demand, certainly higher than we saw first part of the summer. we hope people will continue to keep it up. it is hard to know how to reach every person. it feels like there's a different message needed for every community or every person sometimes. >> have you been able to see if the return to school and big gatherings, outdoor gatherings like football games, whether high school or college, have you seen whether any of those are spreading events? >> it is hard to know where people get sick but clearly large gatherings of people are going to put people at risk. case numbers we're seeing in the pediatric population are several hundred times the rate a year ago. we had 700% more kids age 5 through 17 listed as cases this

past week compared with a year ago when most kids were in school virtually. even though you can't always put your finger on the location it occurs, no question having lots of unvaccinated people together is going to be an issue. >> have you been able to see, we know that some school systems in alabama have adopted mask mandates, some haven't. have you seen a difference? >> you know, i would say it is hard to say. that's not the only factor involved. we estimate 90% of school districts in alabama have adopted mask mandates, although only half did at the time. school started a month or so ago. there are other factors about case rates in the community, what are kids doing outside of school hours. doesn't change the fact we believe masks work, they're effective, recommend universal masking. science settled on that. it is hard to show one to one

correlation since there are other factors involved. >> i am aware the word mandate has a political -- in a perfect world, do you wish you could mandate masks and vaccines. >> yeah. if those mandates effected people's behavior, we want to do whatever we could to get people vaccinated and keep people safe. it is a difficult issue. the country is divided over that. the question is to what extent do mandates change behavior. for some people they do. for some people almost causes them to buck up and resist more. it is a difficult situation. our goal is to try to stay out of politics best we can and try to get people the best advice we can, encourage them to do what they need to do to keep safe. >> dr. harris, appreciate you coming on, answering so thoughtfully. last thing we want is to see you

turned into a political punching bag. i appreciate the position you're in as well. dr. harris, thanks for coming on, sharing what's going on down there in alabama. >> thank you very much. up next, we have the senate foreign relations committee, they just finished today's hearing with secretary of state blinken. highlights are next. you're watching "meet the press daily." you're watching "meet the press daily. f, dissolves quickly... instantly ready to start working. so you can bounce back fast with alka-seltzer plus. ♪ ♪ i give families a home, not just a place to stay. i am a vrbo host. ♪ ♪

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secretary of state antony blinken faced questions about the withdrawal from afghanistan. he testified telling lawmakers it was time to end america's longest war, conceding even top military officials did not expect the taliban to regain control of the country as quickly as it did. >> even the most pessimistic assessments did not predict the forces in kabul would collapse while u.s. forces remained. as general milley, joint chiefs

of staff has said, nothing i or anyone else saw indicated a collapse of this army and this government in 11 days. >> blinken confirmed he had read an internal state department cable from july warning of kabul's potential collapse but said even that warning didn't suggest the collapse would happen as quickly as it did. >> what the cable said broadly is two things. it did not suggest that the government and security forces were going to collapse prior to our departure. it did express real concerns about the durability of that government force after our departure and focused on efforts we were making particularly on the sie front to expedite moving them out. >> today's hearing comes a day after blinken testified for the house foreign affairs committee. a hearing even more contentious than this one. usually less challenging than the house side. blinken is the first official to

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♪ fixodent ultra dual power ♪ provides you with an unbeatable hold and strong seal against food infiltrations. fixodent. and forget it. welcome back. as promised, i'm joined by the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee. thank you for making a few

minutes for us. >> it's good to be with you, chuck. i had a long hearing, but it's good to be with you. >> i know it was. it was a longer hearing than we anticipated as well. i want to read your quote back to you from august 17th when you said, i am disappointed that the biden administration clearly did not accurately assess the implications of a rapid u.s. withdrawal. we are now witnessing the horrifying results of many years of policy and intelligence failures. after today's hearing, does your view of how this withdrawal was handled by this biden team, has that changed. >> look, i said it was fatally flawed, because they were living with the trump surrender agreement to the taliban that created all types of circumstances that they inherited. fatally flawed because the intelligence here was clearly wrong if they were being told that the afghan government would

survive for months, not days. and then fatally flawed because you prepare for the worst and hope for the best. i just think while they accelerated at a certain point, i don't think they prepared for the worst case scenario. what really is also at stake here, chuck, is what i intend to pursue. for 20 years or a good part thereof, the congress has ever been lied to, misled or give overly rosy projections. we've got to learn from that so we don't have the next afghanistan. >> i'm curious, though, when i hear that. we went through this 40 years ago with vietnam. it was the rosy scenarios and all this stuff. we always said we weren't going to let that happen. you've been in this town a long time. you've been on these international issues a long time. how did we let this vietnam syndrome come back so easily? >> well, i voted against the

iraq war. but i am determined to use this period of time to drive home what were the mistakes and what are the lessons. so that's the best i can do now that i have the chairmanship of the committee and that's exactly what i intend to do. >> the secretary of defense opted not to appear before your committee. is that a scheduling issue or do you think you're going to need a subpoena to get him in front of your committee? >> i see secretary austin put out a statement after our hearing that he welcomed the invitation, that he had a scheduling conflict. that's the first time i heard that. and he is looking forward to appearing before the house and senate armed services committee, and i certainly would like him to do that. by the same token, foreign policy in part depends on the defense actions that are taken by the nation. so the members of the senate

foreign relations committee, as we think about what happened here and as we think about the future in terms of foreign policy have to have that dimension before the committee. so i hope that the secretary will accept our invitation at a future date to come before the committee so we can get those perspectives. >> it sounds like you wish you had heard about the scheduling conflict sooner in the relief that he sent. if he doesn't come, would you rule out a subpoena? >> chuck, you know, i have always believed in the previous administration, in the administration before that and now that there is a separate coequal branch of government. article i of the constitution by the founders was not the presidency, was not the courts. it was the congress of the united states. we have an oversight function. i take that seriously and i will do what is necessary to exercise that oversight function. i hope in this case and others

there will be cooperation. >> i'm curious. would you want to hear from jake sullivan in front of a committee? national security advisors, there's a tradition of them not doing that and executive privilege and the president, i think a lot of people would agree, should be able to get that advice off the record, if you will. but certainly do you think it would help your understanding of what happened if he did testify? >> look, i would welcome jake sullivan's testimony, but i agree that a president has to have a national security advisor that can give them unfettered advice, then they make their own decisions. i'm not going to insist on his appearance, although i would welcome it if he did. but i will insist on the appearance of many who played a role during the course of the last 20 years, former secretaries of defense and state

and others, including generals, who gave advice during this period of time which were either an outright lie, were overly rosy, overly optimistic and for which we need a clear understanding of so that congress, when it faces the next set of challenges of our engagement abroad, has a very clear determination. >> it sounds like you'd like to get some heads of intelligence agencies, both current and past. that's not traditionally been something that foreign relations has handled. would you like to see that in front of your committee? how about general milley? >> i'm going to work with the chairman of the intelligence committee as well as armed services to make sure the whole panoply of those who should be before the respective committees are called and that information is being achieved and decisions as they were made at the time are being understood and/or

explained and/or called upon. so we'll work with the other committees of jurisdiction, but there are elements of this that clearly are necessary to determine foreign policy. they can't do that in an abstract. this is not just a question of failure in diplomacy. we ended up with that when president trump basically gave everything to the taliban, got nothing up front. we had 5,000 taliban prisoners released, reduced the troops and said he was going to get out by a date specific. i've always heard republicans say never give a date specific. well, trump did that and i didn't hear awhimper at the time. >> definitely somebody who believes in the separation of our three branches of government. i look forward to seeing how much success you have in getting some of these people before your

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great to be with you. i'm jeff bennett. we come on the air this hour with a blockbuster. the first excerpts with bob woodward and bob costa about their new book about the end of the trump presidency. twice in the final months of the trump administration, the country's top military officer was so fearful that the president's actions might spark a war with china, that he moved urgently to avert armed conflict. general mark milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff assured his chinese counterpart that the united states would not strike. in the book's telling, milley said, quote, if we're going to attack, i'm