right now, on andrea mitchell reports, president biden this hour meeting with veterans exposed to toxic burn pits about the law he signs to give them new benefits on a national guard base today in delaware named for his late son, beau. john feel, a tireless advocate for veterans joining me in a few moments. >> also this hour, elon musk goes on a twitter banning spree, shutting down the accounts of some of the journalists who cover him and twitter. >> the wild weather slamming the west, midwest, and south all week is now hitting the northeast with heavy snow and dangerous icy conditions for tens of millions of residents just ahead of the holidays. >> and i'll speak with michael beschloss about thousands of documents the national archives has released related to the assassination of john f. kennedy 59 years ago.

>> good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington where in a few moments the president will be holding a town hall with veterans who will receive expanded health care benefits new a new law he siebed. it's a life line for soldiers exposed to toxic substances from a number of sources including burn pits during their service. joining me, chief white house correspondent and weekend today cohost, peter alexander, and john feel, advocate for veterans and first responders and founder of the feel good foundation. john, be right with you in a moment. peter is at the white house. we want to set the stage. this is really important legislation. jon stewart fought so hard and the other first responders. the president signed it back in august. that didn't get the headlines you would expect because of the midterms. fill us in ahead of the president's remarks. >> the pact act, you note that president biden signed in august, several months ago, dramatically expands services

for veterans exposed to toxic chemicals mostly in the wars in iraq and afghanistan. it may take years for injuries or illnesses to show themselves. this is a personal cause for president biden. he's made clear his belief, he has said it repeatedly, he thinks his son beau's death was caused from service in kosovo and iraq. the president is going to be speaking to the national guard center in delaware named after his late son, beau. he's going to be joined by the v.a. secretary, denis mcdonough, also the delaware senator, tom carper, among others. his remarks are notable because they punctuate a week of events by the v.a., a major push focusing on this effort. more than 90 events in all, encouraging veterans to sign up for health care, to get screened for toxic exposure, and to submit a claim if they're experiencing exposure related illness. since august, the white house just handing out these numbers to me. they say 730,000 veterans have

received new toxic exposure screenings, about 280,000 of them reported concerns they may have been exposed. and one of the real difference makers here in the pact act is that it expedites claims for terminally ill veterans, about 2500 of those filing claims listed themselves as terminally ill. >> thank you so much, peter. and john, we all remember your effort, your passion to get this burn pit legislation through congress, onto president biden's desk. is it already helping people? we have just heard that some people have already applied. they got some good numbers. >> thank you for having me again, andrea. and it makes me happy to see our work come to fruition and men and women who served our country so bravely get the help they deserve. there's a lot more work to do, absolutely. but my analytics are always that there were never 3.5 million people, and that 185,000 is a step in the right direction.

i would like to see it higher. but we need to do a better job of reaching out across this country, not just to those who were affected by burn pits but also with camp lejeune and other issues like this men and women who served around the world and this country serving from toxic illnesses. >> you have gone to see many funerals from the first responders, the 9/11 first responders. john, how important is it for you that the president is holding this event, keeping the veterans community on the public radar? >> yeah, well, i mean, between funerals for veterans and first responders, it's over 200 now. we have until the end of next week to get $3 million into the world trade center health program to keep that up and running. frankly, i'm tired of going to funerals. and this bill which would be putting the omnibus hopefully senator schumer and gillibrand and the president sense our

urgency because there's about 120,000 people that are depending on that. and you know, this is nonstep. when we left this here in july after the burn pits, we have been working nonstop for the world trade center health program and even puppy mills in new york state that we just got signed yesterday. we're going to help as many people as we can, and dogs and cats. >> well, i love your love for the animals. let's talk again about the veterans community and the first responders. the first responders from 9/11, you know, so many people have been lost. how are they dealing with all of this, and will this legislation have enough money, enough health benefits to cover all of them? >> we have enough funding until 2090 for the world trade health program. we just don't have enough to pay for it. in 2015, when we got the bill

passed, nobody took into consideration medical inflation. now, we're two years away from the program not reaching its goal of the first ten years of a pay-for. we have to insure that $3 billion is in there by the end of this year. and constant contact with senator schumer, senator gillibrand, and they're promising us we're going to get this done, but we're watching this. and we're monitoring everything, and you know, this is the holiday season. and other than september when the 9/11 community, the holidays are tough on the 9/11 community, and getting this bill passed, put in the omnibus, and the omnibus passes, it will ease the tension of a lot of those who worry because they're getting their medications paid for, going to their doctors through the program, and these men and women need this. they need it desperately, and i hope senator schumer, gillibrand, and the president sense our sense of urgency, and

i don't want to sound like a broken record, i know what the president is doing today with the veterans is an important goal in getting those enrolled in the v.a. you know, we're still getting people enrolled in the world trade center health program 21 years later. the advocates who helped pass the burn pit bill, getting the bill passed was easy. it's going to be the advocacy for the next 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years that's going to age these men and women. and all of those vsos, i hope they place a protocol where they can reach out to their membership and they can get their members enrolled in the program as well. advocacy is 24/7, andrea, and i'm sleeping while i'm talking to you right now because it's been a busy week. >> certainly has been a busy week and a successful week for you, john feal, thank you so very much. i know it's going to be exciting. >> look out for my trading

cards. i'll be doing trading cards next week. >> terrific. we will be on the watch. >> and you just talked about the puppy mills, let me ask you, what do you need for the puppy mills? you got that funded, right? that's new york state? >> yeah, so in new york state, the bill actually passed three months ago, and the governor signed it yesterday. and now they're going to ban puppy mills in new york state. and the cruelty to these animals, and it will now force people to adopt. there are so many dogs and cats and rabbits that need adoption, and god bless the governor for finally signing this. it took her a little long, but she did the right thing at the end. and i'm so glad for those who really put in the effort. and i came in at the end to give it a little nudge. >> i'm happy for the animals. i'm happy for mostly everything

you have done. you're all over the place, but all doing good work. thanks so much, john. and a happy holiday. >> thank you for having me. happy holidays to you and everybody at msnbc. >> thank you for that. and i want to turn to capitol hill because it's capitol hill has to deal with the omnibus, the big deal john was talking about. what is left for congress before the holiday break? nbc senior capitol hill correspond garrett haake has it covered for us. they finished the defense authorization and a short term continuing resolution to keep the government open past tonight for another week, but the big lift is the omnibus deal. agreeing on all of the details, the mammoth spending for the government for the coming year. have they even started -- i know they started writing it, but have they come to agreements on key components? >> they're working this out in real time. there's a vibe on the hill that they're cramming for final exams

at this point. the vote last night to give themselves another week to finish should provide some breathing room, but as you pointed out, we're dealing with a bill that's about $1.7 trillion with a "t" and other than the top line numbers, very little information about it is public. very few sort of firm decisions made, the cliche you often hear in discussions about an omnibus package is no one individual element is final until everything is final. there are constant back and forth negotiations, particularly on the other policy pieces that go along side by side with the funding parts. the things i'm looking closely at are things like the electoral count act provision meant to prevent another january 6th. that does appear likely to ride along with this bill. will there be extra money for ukraine and the war there? the answer appears to be yes, but how much? i couldn't tell you. this is a kind of decisions that are still being made over the course of this weekend as the bill gets written by staff, decisions made by lawmakers, and then a pretty compressed floor

schedule early next week to move a bill of this magnitude through both chambers by close of business friday and get everybody home in time for christmas. >> well, we know how the christmas deadline gets things done up there. wanted to circle back to the defense bill which we didn't talk about yesterday when it got through, but they removed the mandate for veterans, excuse me, for the military, for the troops to be vaccinated. and i mean, i think we're going to expect a presidential signing statement saying he really objects to that. it's terrible public health policy according to dr. zha, dr. fauci, everybody, because of the close quarters and because these are people who have to live together and fight together and for them not to have vaccines doesn't make sense. the politicization of this is hitting everyone. >> and whether practical impact of removing the vaccine mandate

now will be, i couldn't say because obviously a lot of these folks who refuse to get vaccinated have already left their positions within the military. there was an amendment vote put forward by republicans, part of the negotiations on this bill. they did vote last night on whether to add in a provision that would allow for members who were removed from the military because of their refusal to get vaccinated to be reinstated with back pay. that amendment vote failed but regardless of what we may hear from the white house, obviously, the ndaa negotiated on a bipartisan basis, and this is not certainly a surprise to the white house. this is one of the major policy prescriptions in it that they knew they were going to have to swallow whether they liked it or not. i think the president's comments on "60 minutes" some number of months ago declaring the pandemic over became good fodder for those on the right to say if that's what the president believes, we ought to get rid of this mandate as they ultimately decided to do. >> and we're looking at live pictures, garrett staying with

me for a second, because the president has just come out. he's on that national guard base named for beau biden, his late son. and there is a connection there. we'll go back to that, of course, when he begins speaking. he's going to be introduced. the connection is, garrett, as you probably know, the president has often said that he feels that beau's brain cancer, the geoblastoma, was somehow caused by toxics that he was in contact with in kosovo and iraq. >> around burn pits which has been a subject of significant legislative actellactivity on t hill. that's a major touch point for president biden. and this legislation. it's long been a connection of his personally to this bill, which i think now has moved 62 years straight and running. one of the more successful

bipartisan pieces of legislation that ever does get done on capitol hill. >> thanks so much, garrett haake. and the winter wallop, a messy winter storm is dragging across parts of the country with another on its heels that could upend next week's holiday travel. you're watching andrea mitchell reports on msnbc. (scrooge) bah humbug! my signal is totally ghosting me! (cecily) 'tis the season to switch to verizon. (vo) this holiday season verizon gives you the new iphone 14 pro. plus apple watch se, ipad and beats fit pro. all on us. and unlimited plans for everyone start at just $35 a line. verizon nina's got a lot of ideas for the future. and since anyone can create a free plan at fidelity, nina has a plan based on what matters most to her. and she can simply focus on right now. that's the planning effect. from fidelity.

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wonderful news for brittney griner. she's now back at home in phoenix with her wife, cherelle. griner announcing the news in a post on her instagram. her first statement since being released in the highly watched prisoner swap. she spent the last week in a texas military facility following her release from ten months in russian detention where she received routine treatment available for all former hostages. griner today thanking everyone who helped bring her home. and acknowledging that dozens of americans still wrongfully held abroad. he wrote, quote, president

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kathy. is it lightening up or is there more to come? >> we have been tracking the snow ever since yesterday afternoon, and we have been getting slammed with heavy bands of snow throughout the morning today. it looks like it's starting to taper off and it's supposed to switch over to cold rain later this afternoon before it switches back to snow this evening. this is a long duration storm, and the temperature is right around the freezing mark, so that is why we're seeing this heavy wet snow. we have some accumulation on some surfaces like grassy areas, the roadways, certainly a slushy mess, and it caught a lot of commuters off guard as they headed into work this morning. governor kathy hochul activated thousands of pieces of equipment to stay on top of the storm and local crews are staying busy as well. take a listen. >> are you surprised at how much is falling right now? it seems like it's starting to stick. >> i am. i thought we would have a couple breaks so we could get it cleaned up faster. it's hard to keep up because

it's falling heavy, it's nonstop today. >> are you used to storms like this? >> i am. it doesn't mean they're pleasant. >> and andrea, this snow is all part of the same system that we have been tracking pretty much all week long. ever since tuesday. we were following the blizzard conditions in the great plains, portions of duluth, minnesota, gaupt nearly two feet of snow in a span of 48 hours. they have a lot of digging up to do, and as you mentioned, the tornadoes in the south, tornado outbreak reported across seven states. at least 30 confirmed tornadoes, and that death toll has now climbed to at least three. andrea. >> terrible news and not a great forecast. kathy, thanks. please get inside, get warm. and for the latest on the storm's path, i want to bring in meteorologist bill karins. bill, we're not done with the storm yet. it's gone all across the country. we're already hearing about another storm next week that could impact holiday travel. >> yeah, andrea, everyone wants

to know about next week. let's first get past this one and then we'll start dealing with the next one. i have to talk, our friends in the northern plains, there's weather tough people and then there's northern plains weather tough. in rapid city, you have been under a blizzard warning since monday evening, five days ago. every hour, you have had a wind gust in the last three days at least 40 miles per hour. i mean, just imagine that. three days in a row of 40-mile-per-hour winds whipping you in the face with snow, because it's blowing all over the place. even at this hour, it's still gusting to 53 miles per hour. that's just, you know, very rare unprecedented blizzard conditions in the northern plains. here's the radar in the northeast. all the big cities on the i-95 cardore, all rain, no travel issues there except wet roadways. the snow is primarily from the capital district to the mountainous areas, where the 1 to 2 feet of snow are going to fall, and about 10 million people still impacted. we're going to get an additional 6 to 12 inches, especially in

the adirondacks. but most of the big cities if you're driving on highways, the treated roadways have been fine. let's get you through your weekend. great weekend to get those checkmarks done and get your errands taken care of because the weather is going to cooperate. the only exception is coming off lake michigan and also in buffalo. that football game, as we go through saturday night in buffalo, we could have significant snow bands coming through orchard park. that should be a sight to see as the dolphins play the bills. again, thursday and friday, our two long range computers, the european model and the american gfs model say we're going to have a big storm. how close it is to the coast or off the coast is the big question mark. the blue line is the european one. the red line is the gfs, the american model. just the fact we know we're going to have a big storm, brutally cold temperatures coming in right behind the storm. that's going to be right before the christmas rush. so we're talking christmas eve eve is the big day on the east

coast for a lot of people traveling and getting over, and we're going to be dealing with possibly a big rain or snow or wind event for millions of people on the eastern seaboard. >> brace yourself. thank you so much, bill karins. and musk versus the media. why elon musk says twitter suspended some journalists and how those reporters are now firing back. >> but first, one of russia's largest attacks on kyiv since the war started. a live report from inside the capital coming. that's next. andrea mitchell reports on msnbc. when you're through with powering through, it's time for theraflu hot liquid medicine. powerful relief so you can restore and recover.

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jingle: liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. (scrooge) bah humbug! my signal is totally ghosting me! (cecily)y for what you need. 'tis the season to switch to verizon. (vo) this holiday season verizon gives you the new iphone 14 pro. plus apple watch se, ipad and beats fit pro. all on us. and unlimited plans for everyone start at just $35 a line. verizon elon musk has suspended nearly a dozen journalists from twitter including from "the new york times" and "the washington post." musk says it's because they exposed the locations of his jet and jeopardized the safety of his family. an account named elawn jet, which tracks the whereabouts of his jet and other celebrity planes using publicly available data has also been suspended but several of the now banned journalists insist they never shared musk's location. anne thompson joins us now. musk initially said he would not suspend that account, elon jet,

that had shared his jet location. so a week later, something changed. what's going on here? >> yeah, elon musk says that there was a crazy stalker, as he put it, who jumped on the hood of the car that his son was in. and that apparently is what has made all of this happen. now, even though he says that, there has been no police report filed with the los angeles police department by elon musk over that incident, as far as we know at this point. but then last night, what happened was several journalists got suspended, they had no idea why they were being suspended. i talked to one of them this morning, andrea, a man named aaron, who is an independent journalist. he has about three quarters of a million followers on twitter. he focuses on the media and politics. and last night, before he was

suspended, he tweeted the facebook link to that account you mentioned, elon jet. and he thinks that's what prompted his suspension. but the really interesting thing about it is, the information about elon musk's private jet is public information. if you want to find it, you can get it. and that's true not just for elon musk's private jet but for anyone's private jet. and so you have this argument now over, you know, what musk says is doxing, and that is using public information to threaten someone in a malicious way, and what this journalist, aaron says is, look, it's just public information. he said more than that, i didn't even tweet out the jet number or where it was or anything. all i did was tweet a link to the facebook link to the facebook page that follows elon

musk's jet. >> the real controversy, i guess, is he says he's in favor of free speech, the first amendment. but now he's very selectively shutting people down. >> well, and i think what it seems to be is what he would argue is he's not in favor of any speech that would endanger his family. and he believes that by putting out the information about his private jets, apparently, that or his private jet, that that endangers his family. and that's where the crux is here. and the question musk has been running a poll today asking twitter followers whether these journalists should be suspended just for seven days or whether they should be reinstated now. we will see what if anything he does today regarding this, but he had a twitter space event, he

called into a twitter space event last night and said look, journalists are no different from the general public, and if you put out doxing information, your account will be suspended. and because twitter is a private entity, he gets to decide what is doxing information. and apparently, doxing information under his definition is information about his private jet. andrea. >> anne thompson, you cleared it all up. thank you. >> i hope so. >> russia launched a new wave of missile attacks on kyiv and other ukrainian cities this morning. right now, he's getting up to speak at this veterans event. so let's -- let's listen in to the president. >> who are you talking about? i'm talking about my buddy, dear friend.

a combat veteran, a guy who served in the senate, and he gets it. he gets it. and that's why he's hosted event like this for decades, as a u.s. senator and before that as a congressman. i also want to thank chris coons. i'm going to use this mic if i can. is this working? i also want to thank chris coons and lisa blunt. thanks for their friendship and leadership, and john carney, you're doing a hell of a job, pal. [ applause ] i only want to regret, he used to work for me and left to become governor. and general berry, thank you for having us today. it means so much to me, and i must tell you, i ride by this

building a lot, flying back to forth to washington and wherever i'm going and it always leaves a lump in my throat. my wife's last warning today, she's still in washington, where there's 1200 people showing up at the white house beginning at noon, and they're going to be a little late, but and she said, joe, don't get emotional. not that i ever get emotional. but it means so much to me. it meant so much to beau. frank, a great friend, and i want to thank the general as well. what i want to do, there's a guy here that flew 25 missions, 25 missions in world war ii over germany. first lieutenant, young guy, 102

years old. ray, and guess what. he lives in elsmere. and my claim to fame is i used to be his county councilman. ray, thanks for being here, pal. you're the best. thank you. i may be irish, but i'm not stupid. i got a little italian in me now. but it is remarkable, ray flew 25 b-17 bombing runs during world war ii and i might add, go on to a distinguished flying cross. ray, you were part of what we

refer to as the greatest generation, but there's no generation in american history more than this present iteration like the past generation that have been deployed more, have given more than the generation represented by the people we're going to be looking at and honoring today. nobody has been in a situation where they show up for their one deployment, then two, then three, and four, and sometimes five and six. one of the last times i flew into iraq, i went up in the cockpit and it's called a silver bullet, when they fly the president, there's a special container in the plane they stick you in. i went up with a group. i was telling this to beau's father-in-law, my grade school friend sitting there, and he was taping it all, going to use it

against me. and i said, is this your first deployment? nobody raised their hand. and the crew was in there as well. the flight crew. and i said, how many second deployment? nobody raised their hand. third, three. fourth, two. fifth, four. doesn't happen very often. these kids keep getting back up. 1%, 1% of them defend 99% of us. 1%. and i think that doesn't take a single thing away from the world war ii veterans generation, but i want to tell you, it is -- it doesn't go noticed enough. how many of you who fought in iraq and afghanistan and all through these last wars we have had. how many mothers and wives and sons and daughters sat with an

empty chair at a point party, and the difference is a lot of my generation on december 7th, we celebrated the bravery of all of those who showed up, on the finnegan side of the family, four brothers all volunteered on the next day, a monday, to join. my uncle frank joined, my father was working in the ship yards. the fact of the matter is that you know, it wasn't a second thought. just showed up. it was a generation represented by you, ray, that doesn't look for accolades. you know, my dad, when i got elected vice president, he said joey, uncle frank fought in the battle of the bulge. not feeling very well now, not because of the battle of bulge, and he said he won a purple heart and he never received it.

he never got it. do you think you could help him get it? we'll surprise him. we got him the purple heart. he had won it in the battle of the bulge. and i remember coming over to the house, and i came out, and he said present it to him with the family there. i said uncle frank, you won this. he said i don't want the damn thing. i'm serious, he said i don't want it. i said what's the matter, uncle frank? you earned it. he said, yeah, but the others died. the others died. i lived. i don't want it. like a generation, this generation. and vietnam. excuse me, in iraq. i was up along the points and they asked, co asked me if i would pin on a silver star because a young man had one of his colleagues shot, fell down.

i was out there at the point. it was, i guess, about 150 feet, not straight down but a hill, and this young man climbed down the hill, put a guy on his shoulder and brought him back up. and was shot on the way up. and he got there, and i went to present it to him, too, and he said i don't want it. i don't want it. he died. he died. you understand what i'm talking about. don't you? it's real. these are women and men who are enormously consequential to not only the physical safety of this country but the character, the character of america. it's who we are. it's who we are. blood, bones, sinew, the backbone of america. and you know, we have -- my colleagues have heard me say

this for a long, long time. we have a lot of obligations as americans. we only have one sacred obligation. obligations of the old and young, to education, to take care, but only one sacred obligation. that's prepare those we send to war and care for them and their families when they come home from war. i mean that. and i know my colleagues, we mean that from the bottom of our heart. the reason i call dennis, who is one of the most qualified people i have ever worked with in washington, and asked him to become the -- to head up the v.a. nationally, is that -- >> president biden talking about denis mcdonough who of course is a former white house chief of staff under barack obama, and is now the secretary of set rn affairs, the veteran administration. and this is a day to commemorate

and to, as you can hear the president having been advised by his wife, dr. jill biden, not to be emotional today, is clearly emotional. he's on a national guard base named after his son, the late beau biden who was the attorney general as well of delaware, and is feeling very much this legislation for the burn pits, for the toxic injuries that all of these veterans have suffered. and speaking of veterans and speaking of war, a war that the u.s. is trying not to become engaged in but is doing so much to arm and train is in ukraine. where we find nbc news correspondent ellison barber in kyiv. it has been a really concerning 24 hours where you are. talk about the launch of all of the russian attacks against the capital. >> yeah, i mean, it was yet another barrage of missiles this morning. kyiv's military administrator,

they say that this city withstood one of the biggest missile attacks since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. air raid sirens went off this morning at about 8:00 a.m. at least 40 missiles according to local officials were detected in the air space just over kyiv. it sent thousands of people underground hunkering in shelters for safety. listen. >> when you wake up and go to work and you see all the panic around here and around what's happened, it's kind of making you scared. you want to just work, leave, and make a peaceful life. >> what else is there to do? i'm alive. i still have a home. >> there are other people -- >> there are other people for whom it has been a lot worse. there are a lot of friends who no longer have a house. it's really unprickable. >> in all the armed forces of

ukraine says russia fired 76 missiles at ukraine. they say 60 of those were intercepted. the ones that were not, some of those hit a critical energy infrastructure in residential areas in a southern city, a missile slammed into a residential building there. local officials say at least three people died in that strike. blackouts have been reported in at least five different regions, including here in kyiv. >> ellison barber, thank you so much. >> and we're getting a first look at thousands of newly declassified files related to the assassination of president john f. kennedy. a majority of the documents have now been released but thousands more still remain secret. despite a sweeping federal transparency law of 1992 that called for all of them to be released by 2017, five years ago. >> biden administration is releasing more than 13,000 records tied to president john f kennedy's assassination but withholding thousands more,

citing national security concerns. the documents reveal that lee harvey oswald, who said weeks earlier in the mexico he wanted to kill kennedy, was being closely tracked by both the cia and fbi. >> why weren't these documents released years earlier? >> in 1963, if americans had seen this stuff, they might have said, why did the fbi and cia let our president be assassinated? >> one document shows that the cia intercepted a phone call ozweld made to the soviet embassy in mexico city weeks before the assassination. on a wire tap arranged with the help of mexico's president. >> why wasn't that information quickly passed obto washington so the secret service could act to make sure oswald wasn't a threat to the president? >> on that fateful day, the president and first lady, jacqueline kennedy, arrived in texas on a campaign swing. riding in a limo through downtown dallas, shots ringing from a third-floor window. >> president kennedy died at

approximately 1:00 central standard time. >> oswald was arrested and charged with the murder, but a short time later in a dallas police station, he was shot and killed by jack ruby, as stunned americans watched live on nbc. >> he's been shot. he's been shot. lee oswald has been shot. >> the warren commission concluded oswald acted alone, but over the decades, kennedy's assassination has spawned countless conspiracy theories. dramatized in movies like oliver stone's "jfq". >> why was kennedy killed? who benefitted? who has the power to cover it up? >> john kennedy's assassination sadly probably will never be solved. that was since the day lee harvey oswald was killed in that police station in dallas. >> joining me now is nbc news presidential historian michael beschloss. what do you think are the

outstanding questions in what was not released, the redacted documents? >> i think two things. i think the future documents may actually show us a little bit more about this, but it will never settle the question for everyone. one is, you know, oswald was an amazingly close touch with people from the soviet union. not only as a defector to the soviet union, redefected, but also went to the soviet embassy in mexico and the same thing with the cuban embassy. lbj in 1963 dealing with all of this, the last think he would have wanted was to have a lot of information out at that time suggesting that oswald may have acted on behalf of the soviets and the cubans because, as johnson said in his private tapes, americans will demand that i get into a war that could kill 60 million people. so he saw it as a political problem. the other side of this was that

as we now see in document after document, the fbi in dallas, which was not a very big city compared to now in those days was tracking lee harvey oswald and his family, to the point that oswald not long before the assassination was complaining to fbi agents that they were bothering his wife. they knew exactly who he was, knew that he was a soviet defector, knew who he was in touch with, yet fbi never bothered to tell the secret service, get this guy out of the texas school book depository because the president's limousine is going to be within rifle range of that building for nearly a minute. so if americans had found that out in 1963, they might have said, why did the fbi let our president be killed and put him in such a vulnerable position? >> and have you figured out why the fbi did not warn the secret

service? >> one reason is bureaucratically in those days and it's less now, and it's improved after 9/11 and the department of homeland security, remember, which the commission said that there were too many silos that led to 9/11. well, there was almost hatred between j. edgar hoover and the secret service in 1963. he didn't want to tell the secret service very much, and the other intriguing question is, we know that edgar hoover hated kennedy. was very close to lyndon johnson, who was his neighbor in washington. i'm not suggesting that he deliberately did this, but you know, there may have been benign neglect that hoover may have said, okay, if kennedy is going to do these things i don't like, maybe i'm not going to strain too hard to protect him, especially in a city like dallas where the violence of the radical right had been expressed. >> and when you think about all of this, the president of mexico helped the cia with surveillance of oswald.

they were tracking him. they knew exactly where he was. >> totally. >> it seems -- >> the two together were taking pictures of coming to those embassies. there were pictures of oswald literally on the doorstep. we believe that there were tapes of what he might have said with him on the telephone. so there's a big history of oswald dealing with the soviets and the cubans before dallas 1963. just as there is of the fbi and cia not doing what they should have, and take your pick. we have to keep on asking these questions and maybe the final documents to be released will enlighten us more, but my guess is this is going to be a mystery for everyone into eternity. >> and when we have all of these conspiracy theories, the president says he's not releasing 4300 pages, the final pages, even though that law in 1992 said that everything should be out from the archives.

because of national security. is this just to help prevent embarrassment for these agencies? >> i think one reason is embarrassment because if they really show close ties between oswald and the cia, there are a lot of americans who are going to be very suspicious and say, did oswald shoot president kennedy on behalf of the cia? no document has suggested that yet, but in the climate of 2022, that's what people will say. and the other thing is that they're allowed to keep back documents because they might reveal currently used sources and methods of the fbi and currf the fbi and cia, or jeopardize relations with a friendly government like mexico. that's why it was a little bit surprised that they released that document showing how close ly the mexican and american intelligence services were acting together. >> michael, who spent his entire life on this period, other periods as well, but this period

and also the lbj tapes. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> great to have your expertise. the world cup fever, the final match set for sunday between the reigning champions and the greatest of all time player. the fans are ready. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. mitchell reports" on msnbc. is totally ghosting me! (cecily) 'tis the season to switch to verizon. (vo) this holiday season verizon gives you the new iphone 14 pro. plus apple watch se, ipad and beats fit pro. all on us. and unlimited plans for everyone start at just $35 a line. verizon meet leon the third... leon the second... and leon... the first of them all. three generations, who all bank differently with chase. leon's saving up for his first set of wheels... nice try. really? this leon's paying for his paint job on the spot... and this leon, as a chase private client, he's in the south of france, taking out cash with no atm fees. that's because this family of leons has chase. actually, it's león. ooh la la!

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go to getrefunds.com powered by innovation refunds. on sunday soccer's most coveted trophy is up for grabs. france and argentina facing off in the world cup final in front of a packed stadium along a streaming audience of millions. it's the french's fourth trip and could make them the first back to back champions. they will share the spotlight with lionel messi as he competes to secure husband first world cup victory. megan fitzgerald has covered this entire event for us. you have been there since the beginning. what are the expectations for the match? >> reporter: as you mentioned, we're looking at two high-quality soccer teams. argentina squaring off against france on sunday. what we can expect most

certainly as a good game and uh-uh venture to say a close game. you have france, the defending world cup champions, winning it all in 2018, led by mbappe. the team has a couple players that have come down with through-like symptoms. they didn't play against morocco, but france didn't seem to be missing anything. they played strong. it was a really solid game. then what you mentioned. the other hand is argentina led by messi. he has already said that this is going to be his last world cup. this is a guy who has every title in major soccer practically except for one. that's the world cup. he's going for it on sunday. you know his team is going to rally behind had him. then there's tomorrow, saturday, when we're going to see morocco against croatia. no small feat. they lost in the world cup finals against france in 2018.

morocco tide them. we saw the cinderella story going on to beat teams like spain, portugal, ronaldo's team. he walked off the field in tears. morocco has defied the odds. and even though they lost against france on wednesday, this was such a win all across the african and arabing world. i want you to listen to what fans have said about that 37. >> being here in a country and also representing america is the best of both worlds. we don't get a lot of representation, so being here and having a middle eastern country in the semifinals is truly an enmotel moment. >> such a significant moment for morocco. they didn't win, but they would be in so many ways. all eyes will be on sunday, though, when argentina squares off against france. 10:00 a.m. eastern. >> we'll be there.

thank you so much. that does it if this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." joins us monday for special coverage of the final january 6th committee meeting. katy tur and hallie jackson join he at noon eastern. chris jansing is up next t noon n chris jansing is up next of the things that matter to you most. i promise to bring you advice that fits your values. i promise our relationship will be one of trust and transparency. as a fiduciary, i promise to put your interests first, always. charles schwab is proud to support the independent financial advisors who are passionately dedicated to helping people achieve their financial goals. visit findyourindependentadvisor.com

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