>> strong evidence that they are non-human higher intelligence. >> i echo my colleague's comments, sir. >> genuinely do not know. >> don't know, but we must find out. >> non-human higher intelligence. this is the second major hearing on uaps in this congressional term. the pentagon's official position is that -- official, i should say. the pentagon's official position is that there is no evidence that these sightings or ufos are anything but just unidentified. that wraps up

>> right now, many in congress reeling after president trump chooses matt gaetz for attorney general, and he has abruptly resigned from congress, as the health ethics committee is voting on a potentially scathing report, which would now be dead, that would be a resolved jurisdiction if they move on with the new member. and congresswoman, tulsi gabbard is the choice for director of national intelligence, joining me this hour to break it down, former trop national security advisor, john bolton, tennessee senator, bill haggerty on the confirmation fights ahead, and congressman, jim hines, on a potentially massive shape up to the intelligence committee.

good day everyone, i'm andrea mitchell in washington, shock waves are being felt over president-elect trump's pick of congressman, matt gaetz, a man who bragged about being nicknamed, the trumpist lawmaker in congress, gaetz had been investigated by the geo day -- doj on sexual trafficking charges, at the time he was named, like trump, accusing the doj of weaponizing these investigations. >> i don't care if it takes every second of our time and every ounce of our energy, we either get this government back

on our side or we defund and get rid of, abolish the fbi, cdc, atf, doj, every last one of them if they do not come to heal. and i don't think it is too much to ask. i don't believe that means hearings where we yell at people, i think that means a fundamental reshaping of this government, a reshaping of this town.>> as attorney general, there is concern that gaetz would end the independence from the oval office, using it to target the president elects opponents, when trump made the announcement, he resigned his

house seat, which he did not have to do unless he is confirmed. but that ended the ethics committee jurisdiction over him. the washington post citing multiple sources saying the committee was set to release a highly damaging report about gaetz tomorrow, but his resignation would officially end that investigation, and any ethics investigations over him. and tulsi gabbard was picked as director of national intelligence, she has never worked in the intelligence world, she has been accused of amplifying russian propaganda, has questioned assessments and secretly met dictators. we begin with yvonne hilliard in west palm beach, nbc news correspondent, ryan nobles, and chief of staff to president mike pence, former trop aid, steve bannon tells nbc news, trump is going to hit the justice department with a blowtorch and matt gaetz is

that torch, is donald trump testing the limits of what he can get for senators in a confirmation hearing ?>> it is going to be a first inning play to see how the ball game is going to play out, andrea. this is going to come down to whether democrats are able to convince four senators, four republican senators to join their forces in order to block some of these potential nominees and in the case of donald trump, it is going to be a matter of convincing 49 senators to stick by his picks. and it's not just matt gaetz, it is tulsi gabbard and potentially others that are going to face a very difficult confirmation process in which they are going to face not only is a series of questions likely from democratic senators but also those like lisa murkowski and susan collins, todd young notably, bill cassidy, yes, the likes of mitt romney retiring, but there are several senators

who have shown reticence towards donald trump executive use of power and showed eagerness to stick by and ensure that the senate continues to perform as an advising consent body and that is where you cited yesterday with a majority, now majority leader john thune being the selection in the private ballot to be the next leader, somebody who was among the three individuals to put their name forward to replace mitch mcconnell, the only one that did not outright commit to allowing recess appointments in this trump administration so i think there's a clear indication that there could be some holdups to these potential nominees and if they do acquiesce to the likes of matt gaetz, i think that is a clear indication that donald trump has a majority of allied backers inside this republican majority.>> and ryan, let's talk about this because the house ethics committee is scheduled to meet today, what

we know about the matt gaetz report, and he didn't have to resign, not until he was confirmed. but it narrows the house majority until they can replace him, which takes a while. they have just won according to nbc control of the house, by yesterday, by a very slim majority, just a handful of votes. >> and i should point out, we have breaking news, within the last few minutes, the clerk of the house read the resignation letter of matt gaetz on the floor, so he is officially no longer a member of congress, his resignation effective november 13th, as you rightly point out, that does make the work of the house ethics committee that much more difficult. they no longer have jurisdiction over him as a private citizen, so i think that the question hanging over this conversation right now is will this report ever see the light of day? the ethics committee has a series of meetings, the subcommittee, the committee itself meets every friday,

where they are going to perhaps explore all the options that they have at their disposal and maybe even perhaps though to release the report public. they also could have the option of having that report to the senate ethics committee and it could become part of the discussion of the confirmation process, and i have to tell you, i talked to several senators this morning who believe that maybe they won't ever see the report itself, but the underlying information, all the evidence that was collected by the health ethics committee, that is something they will be able to get their hands on and it will be a part of their confirmation process into matt gaetz. there is a degree of skepticism among senate republicans, it's no guarantee that he has the votes to become the next attorney general. listen to what a democrat said about what his republican colleagues are saying.>> matt gaetz has chosen to resign from the house but he can't choose to conceal that information. i can name between five and 10 republicans who are seriously

considering voting against this nomination, and insisting that there be a vote. >> now, he didn't say the names of those republican senators, so as a democrat we should take that with a grain of skepticism until they come forward and put their name behind the vote, this is a live ball, donald trump won by a wide margin, lindsey graham put out a very long post where he talked about his deliberative process and how his inclination is to defer to the will of the president that just won the election, that seems to be opening the door to voting yes on matt gaetz, he is currently the chair of the judiciary committee, but it is revealing where this could possibly be headed.>> just to follow on that, i saw a quote, with senator john cornyn who is a republican stalwart, he was in a three-way leadership contest yesterday from texas, former

judge, so he was saying that he wants to see the results of the ethics report. and you have already seen what lisa murkowski and collins, what those two senators had said and being very skeptical about his qualifications. can you get to three or four? >> yes, i mean listen, i talked to three senators in the last few minutes to said they want the information related to the ethics report, whether or not they get the report itself and it is a simple math equation right now for the trump administration, they can lose four votes if mccormick holds on in pennsylvania. it is not hard to get to those four votes when you start the head counting that there's going to be a ton of pressure put on these republican senators in the wake of trumps convincing win, and this is going to be the first test of just how much control donald trump has over the senate in this new administration.>> and

let's talk about this because lindsey graham obviously is already signaling that he has so much to say about the judiciary committee, the functions, at least he did share that. so, and he's always going to end up in donald trump's campaign, he did on ukraine funding which was close to his heart. >> well, i think you can share the incentive that there needs to be a lot of reform at the doj without naming a sexual trafficker to be the attorney general of the united states, the top law-enforcement job in america.>> we should say accused sexual trafficker but to your point, his good friend and alleged co-conspirator is serving an 11 year jail sentence right now.>> and there are other members in the house that have talked about these other antics.>> and he bragged about his exploits on the house

floor. >> i think this is a big strategic blunder for a lot of reasons, you should not put somebody like that on top of the law-enforcement job, period. but for matt gaetz, he is more assuring his will, and i think they will be asking for some of the victims to testify in these various hearings and for the notion that the trump campaign wants to have recessed appointments which i think the reality is that both, on republican and democrat leadership in the senate, they refuse to drag on confirmations way too long. but you hurt your case here, senate republicans are not going to go into recess if they think it'll provide an avenue for donald trump to appoint matt gaetz to the attorney general, so your whole initiative on the recess appointments is also a part of this charade.>> and one of the things, joy stands talked about from the lawyers perspective

about the justice department, because our colleague and friend, david rohde was at doj when it was announced and said in addition to the shockwave, there was not going to be mass resignations, we've had that in the past, when they had real problems with cabinet choices, but the professionals are determined to stay and try to protect secrets and other things that they don't have access to from being abused, intelligence point >> this morning i hear from friends and former colleagues at doj that people had all but made the decision to resign and retire, have hardened their resolve and made a decision that they will stick around. andrea, i think we have to resist the temptation to talk about this like it is a normal nomination for an attorney

general. because it is not, it confirms donald trump's intent to damage, if not destroy the institution. there are a wide range of people who are qualified to be attorney general, you have to have managerial experience, it is a large agency. you must know law-enforcement, you should know the civil sides , the practice, but to some extent when you get a job like that, you are learning on the job, many people are qualified to take on that responsibility. matt gaetz is not, he practiced law for a couple of years before going into politics, has no experience as a prosecutor, his only experience with the criminal justice system is a target of a federal investigation as you have discussed and based on his temperament and the judgment or lack thereof that we see him exhibiting on the hill on a daily basis, this is not someone who should control the power that is really enabled at the justice department, someone who will break down any meaningful barriers that prevent the white house and donald trump from using the power of the criminal justice

system to reward his friends and to punish his enemies. it's not normal, we shouldn't pretend that it is.>> and to even compare this to john mitchell who served time as attorney general, when he was first appointed, he was a lawyer from a respected firm in new york city. so there's nothing to worry about his appointment. what are the appeals courts think about these appointments? >> recess appointments are permitted under the constitution, they are meant for emergency situations where a key position becomes vacant while the senate is on recess and it let's the president make that temporary appointment. the supreme court wasn't particularly excited about president obama using this as a mechanism to get someone in office, at least temporarily when they didn't appear to have the votes for confirmation. they said no to obama for violating some of the technical rules, george bush also used

recess appointments to get at least in one case, a federal judge on the bench who didn't have the votes for confirmation at that point in time, so it's not like it is unheard of, what donald trump wants to do is unprecedented, he wants to take all of these votes out of the senate's advice and consent function, that is something that the courts may well be interested in taking a look at.>> and of course when the founders, just to put this is to the constitution, because it took weeks for them to get from one to new york which was then the capital, it was not something, the recesses were very long. ryan, we understate the fact that now the president controls both houses and this is so unusual, the white house, the house and the senate and there is a difference but he has made

some really controversial choices as well as some widely praised choices, marco rubio at stake, somebody who has worked in a bipartisan way, as well as praise from democrats. but, some of the more recent ones including tulsi gabbard, we are going to talk more about that in a moment, are really pushing the limits.>> i think it is important to state, even if the president is of the same party of the party that holds the majorities in the house and senate, congress is still a coequal branch of government, they aren't an appendage of the executive branch, they are just there to do the president bidding, it is their responsibility to check on the administration even if they share the same views, and in the past, we have seen members of the president same party stand up and say i don't necessarily think this is the best way to handle the

situation. so, it is important to point out, even though donald trump won the election, the democrats were very successful in a number of competitive races across the country including several of the swing states where democrats won elections, even in places where donald trump won so he certainly has a mandate on some level but the way the founders built this republic was on the idea that they all work together, not just in the bidding of one individual, so we will have to see how this plays out. >> thanks to all of you and in just 90 seconds, more reaction to the other choices, with jim hines, this is msnbc. is msnbc tos can keep coming back. start to break away from uc with tremfya... with rapid relief at 4 weeks. tremfya blocks a key source of inflammation. at one year, many people experienced remission...

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>> as we were just saying, trump has selected former democratic congresswoman, tulsi gabbard as his director of national intelligence, she has been accused of echoing russian propaganda and visiting the syrian president without notification, joining now is jim hines of connecticut, the top democrat on the house intelligence committee, thank you for being with us. so, has the director of national intelligence, overseeing 18 intelligence agencies, she would choose who is going to brief the president,

she would shape the intelligence assessments that go to the president, the vice president, all of the top officials, economic policymakers, what are your concerns about her getting this post for which she has no experience?>> yes, yesterday was a tough day because two people with no experience in the realms that they would be asked to oversee, matt gaetz and tulsi gabbard were offered by the president, some of the most sensitive and maybe even dangerous roles that the government has, and it is indicative of the fact, i don't know either one terribly well but, it is indicative of the fact that the people in the house who know these two individuals test have said that they should be nowhere near the roles that they have been promised. you know, take matt gaetz for example, he is a chaos agent, no respect for the rule of law, tulsi gabbard would be overseeing an organization whose sole purpose is to speak very clear and analytically

derived truth to power and she obviously traded in conspiracy theories about bio labs in ukraine and other things that suggest a lack of fitness for the job. again, what we have is a united states senate which is designed to prevent pre-sizing these apartments and it'll be a real test because you couldn't pick two people who should be more obviously stopped by the united states senate but the test is, does donald trump now own the united states senate? we might find that out soon. >> within a month of her announcing that she was running for president, there were at least 20 stories on english language controlled news sites, shortly after russia invaded ukraine, she tweeted, this war and suffering could have been avoided if the biden administration had acknowledged russia's legitimate security concerns regarding ukraine becoming a member of nato, that

was repeating russian propaganda. >> well, there's two ways you can think about tulsi gabbard, you can approach them traditionally and say that statement that you just read could not be further from the truth. ukraine was never on a path to join nato and by the way, even if that is a legitimate fear of the russians which it is not, the absolute wrong thing to do is to invade another independent sovereign country which is what the russians did. but the point is, that neither tulsi gabbard or matt gaetz live in the realm of facts, truth and analysis, they live in this world of conspiracy theory, of earning it all down sensibilities, of go visit one of the world's biggest butchers, so you are after the right, but i know these two and facts and truth and analysis are not what derive their statements, their conclusions or what would drive them to the top of the intelligence

committee or the department of justice. >> and we know how critical the u.s. intelligence was to warn europe and zelensky and ukraine that russia was going to invade on this very point. they shared intelligence, they went public with it, bill burns went and visited, it was brief at the summit meeting, two days before the invasion, so at least they had a heads up because they were resisting accepting that information, meanwhile as you were just talking about, when she was in congress in 2017, she took a secret trip to syria and later said that he is not the enemy of the people and that she was skeptical, but syria was behind a chemical weapons attack that killed dozens. so what does that make her? a national security risk potentially?>> what americans need to focus on right now, and

around this building, the republicans are saying donald trump got elected to shake things up, to disrupt. it releases you from any obligation to be discerning. he could shake things up by encouraging air traffic controllers who are federal employees to have a couple of cocktails by going to work, not a good idea. and what makes these two nominations so troublesome is that the dni and the attorney general very literally make life or death decisions about who will live and who will die. the attorney general makes decisions about what americans will be prosecuted. the director of national intelligence makes decisions about who gets surveilled and what protections exist for americans and americans who are caught up on the other side of the aisle or this notion of isn't disruption great? needs to remember we are not talking about the secretary of commerce, we are talking about

two individuals who literally have the authority to decide who lives and who dies and if you look at tulsi gabbard and matt gaetz and say those are the right people, we are in a lot of trouble.>> and the attorney general has a huge intelligence component also, counterterrorism and domestic surveillance, all kinds of intelligence sharing. will the allies be willing to share their closely held secret sources and methods with us, including the brits, our closest allies, it is hardwired i understand that. isn't there a way to compartmentalize the most important secrets if someone like tulsi gabbard and matt gaetz are in the cabinet? >> you highlighted a very important question, one of the reasons that we have not seen dramatic terrorist attacks on u.s. soil and that we have stopped dramatic terrorist attacks all over the world is because we do share, and outside as well with countries that are not members. and of course, these are people making decisions and watch matt

gaetz on youtube for three minutes and ask yourself whether the british or the israelis are going to say yeah, that is the guy we are going to bring into the room when we are making our most sensitive decisions and the effect of that thinking is going to be to make us all less safe in the long run.>> unless we won the israelis about their citizens not being safe in asia, and of course in amsterdam. thank you so much, appreciate it. next, i will speak to a leading republican senator as members of the incoming majority face the questions about confirming some of donald trump's cabinet choices. you are watching andrea mitchell reports on msnbc. on m.

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>> many republican senators were stunned that matt gaetz is donald trump's choice to be attorney general, they say questions about whether he will be confirmed by the senate. >> i don't think it is a serious nomination, we need to have a serious attorney general and i'm looking forward to the opportunity to consider somebody that is serious. this one, this one was not on my bingo card.>> i was shocked that he has been nominated, if the nomination proceeds, i'm sure that there will be an expensive background check by

the fbi, and public hearings and a lot of questions.>> joining me now is the tennessee republican, bill haggerty. what is your reaction to matt gaetz as attorney general, right now, would you support it? >> it is amazing to me that people are reacting the way they are, what you just showed because there has been no one better at channeling the american public's frustration with weaponization through the department of justice than matt gaetz, you can understand the president's frustration with the doj, during his campaign. they used a fake dossier to spy on him, look what happened in the first trump administration, this fake host, the doj investigated him for years doing that, in 2020, the doj went to big tech and had them censor hunter biden's laptop.

and if you think about what just happened, the doj, their colleagues around the country brought five different cases to try president biden's top opponent, president trump. i can understand his frustration and wanting to put an agent of change in place.>> i don't want to litigate what happened with donald trump because there is a lot of evidence to support the indictments -- >> the american people spoke louder than anybody, and their reaction to all of this. >> but a trump appointed judge cut that off and it wasn't fully vetted, so let's just talk about that was the legal system at work, no question. >> it was not working, it was weapon iced -- weaponized.

>> he has been an outspoken critic but what about his personal record, there were questions about him, he was on the house floor sharing photos of women, bragging about his sexual exploits about the medication that he used, the drugs that he used, the ethics investigation has not been released yet, it has been cut off, it was supposed to be voted on tomorrow but his resignation has aborted that. but what about all of the questions and the allegations against him, his co-conspirator and his friend is serving an 11 year jail time for the sexual trafficking. he was planning to investigate there.>> you said it yourself, these are allegations, it's amazing that you are more upset about allegations then you are about the weaponization of the government, the doj sending their agents to spy on the parents that go to the school board meetings, it is just

amazing, as the american public sees this, they see somebody like matt gaetz who is willing to stand up and call it all wrong.>> this is the same justice department that indicted and prosecuted joe biden. >> think about what they did in 2020, they reached out to big tech and got information to censor that laptop. if you think about the political, dirty tricks that have gone on with the biden administration, you have so- called intelligence experts to sign a letter saying the laptop was russian disinformation, and basically brokered a deal to censor the laptop. this doj has got huge problems. >> there's a lot of evidence and reporting to contradict that, let me ask you about reports from our team that jd vance and matt gaetz have both been working the phones to get

a read on what his chances are of getting confirmed, have you received a call?>> i have not received a call because i think they know there is no problem with me, i withdrew the process of being jammed up by the democrats, when i went to confirmation, i turned my paperwork in on the 21st of january, 2017, i didn't get through the process until late july, it was an important post and we couldn't fill it, because of obstruction. the american public has spoken so clearly, we need to allow him to fill his cabinet and get to work, bringing our department of justice back in line to stop weaponization and take control of the bureaucracy and bring it back to the people. >> you are a former businessman, you were an experienced ambassador that has worked in japan, there was no controversy over that appointment, what do you think -- >> i was held up for months because of an obstructionist

democrat senate, i think trump needs every tool at his disposal to get his cabinet running.>> let me ask about his other choices, pete hegseth , a fox news commentator, combat veteran, but he has never run an $800 billion operation, overseeing 1.3 million active duty service members, does he have the management experience from being on fox news on weekends to run something as important as the pentagon?>> pete is a graduate of reston, harvard, he is my constituent at tennessee, he is an inspirational leader, if you think about the people we have right now, refusing to hold anybody accountable with what happened with afghanistan, the department of defense has been mismanaged, he needs to change dramatically, they need to stop

working on pronouns and get back to what we need, and he can do that.>> i have worked with them, as i said. i have voted for certain biden appointees, i don't agree with them on every point, but they need to have a chance to have -- be heard and to serve.>> i think you have taken yourself out of contention for secretary of state, which you have been supposedly considered. >> this is just speculation.>> let me ask you about secretary of treasury because that is a job not yet filled and arguably you have a lot of experience in that. >> again, i have avoided speculation in this regard, president trump is going to make these decisions and they are going to be very personal

to him, he is going to put together a team that is comfortable and that he can work well with, i will respond to the mandate that the american public delivered last week.>> but you have certainly not ruled out wanting to be in the cabinet. >> i have avoided that and i will continue to do so, i have a great career in business as you mentioned, it is an honor to serve as the u.s. ambassador in japan, and there's no greater honor than what i have right now to represent the people of tennessee and the united states senate.>> senator bill haggerty, thank you very much. next, new reaction from former trump national security adviser, john bolton, on the latest cabinet choices from president-elect trump. this is msnbc. is msnbc. re of s. cool right? look at this craftmanship. i mean they even got my nostrils right. it's just nice to know that years after i'm gone this guy will be standing the test of ti...

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>> we are continuing to get reaction to tulsi gabbard as trump's choice for director of national intelligence. she will be in charge of the intelligence assessments of the president and the widespread policy decisions made by him and all of his top advisers. joining me now is john bolton from the national security adviser to donald trump and former u.s. ambassador to the united nations. you called this a serious threat to our national security, please explain. >> well, i don't think she has the qualifications for the job and while we are on the

subject, i don't think matt gaetz does either, and i respect senator haggerty, but even if everything he said about the justice department was true, let's just assume that for the sake of argument, that is not the issue, the issue is matt gaetz and the issue for director of national intelligence is tulsi gabbard. she doesn't have any experience in intelligence matters. she has demonstrated repeatedly that she doesn't understand international affairs, she has been quoted as saying that effectively, putin was justified in having russia invade ukraine because there were secret american biological weapons, laboratories in ukraine. this is fantasyland stuff. i think the answer here, the nominations clearly are going to be made, it is customary for every senior nominee of the president to have a full field fdi background investigation particularly insensitive national security and law enforcement matters.

those investigations could begin now and a smooth transition where the incoming president has announced his senior appointees, secretary of state and so the outgoing administration can let the fbi do the investigation and the way the fbi starts its interviews, and mr. john smith is considered for senior government job and i would like to speak to you about him, that can happen now. those interviews including full field investigations for tulsi gabbard and matt gaetz could be done basically by january 1st. senate committees can hold hearings before the 20th of january, bill mentioned that he had been held up, and so was i, i got a recessed appointment, i know how this works. the difference now is, republicans controlled the senate, so they can control the timing of the hearings and like many other presidents from ronald reagan to george w. bush,

the bulk of the cabinet if they are qualified and are good character can be confirmed on or a few days after the 20th of january, so there's no argument yet that the democrats have obstructed anybody, i'm sure they will try that that is what a republican majority is all about. let's get the fbi investigation then let's talk about tulsi gabbard and matt gaetz, i can't wait.>> i believe that the memorandum of understanding under the presidential transition act has to be signed by the president-elect and he has not done that yet. i know he hasn't done that broadly, people can talk to each other but i don't think they can launch these investigations.>> don't be formalistic about this, if trump wants an expedited consideration -- >> i'm saying he needs to trigger it.>> look, he can ask the president and the president can do that, it has been done informally for decades, when there really was cooperation in

transitions, they don't want the full field investigations, let's be clear on that. i think this is a case where i hope republicans vote against these two nominees because they will be embarrassed in history if these people are confirmed and performed the way it is perfectly predictable they will perform.>> what do you think about pete hegseth for the defense secretary ? >> i think he is in a completely different category from matt gaetz and tulsi gabbard, again, bill said he is a princeton graduate, i don't think that much of a princeton education, but -- >> don't say that, my producers are from princeton.>> well, he had a distinguished record in the military, he worked a lot on veterans issues, he was under very serious consideration in the first trump term for being secretary of veterans affairs, that

didn't happen, but i think he was a serious candidate for that. it depends on who the full team is of defense, if you hired a ceo of a major american corporation, maybe one in the defense industry, i know that would set off alarms for some people, i think it would be a good idea to be the chief operating officer of the department and have a strong team. i think pete hegseth has a lot to answer for, for some of the things he has written such as suggesting brown, the current chief he fired, i think that would be a mistake, at least in the abstract. that is what the confirmation process is for. i would give him a chance, i think he has a steep hill to climb, but he's not matt gaetz or tulsi gabbard, let's be clear about that. >> john bolton, ambassador, thank you very much. next, former nato supreme allied commander on the president-elect tries to run the pentagon and what it means

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wave, pete hegseth has never managed anything, certainly not on the scale of an $800 billion department of defense. we certainly have enough going on with ukraine and the war in the middle east, what do you make of him being tasked to manage and lead this powerful military? >> i think you hit the good news which is he is a veteran and he fought in these forever wars, secondly, he's an excellent communicator, and that is a significant part of the role of secretary of defense, but andrea, you also hit the great lacuna in his record, he has never managed anything big, anything remotely like the department of defense, as you say, $800 billion per year budget, 3 million troops,

in active and reserve, it is the largest organization in the world, it is on combat duty around the world, that is a big task but, just to finish, i think back on the secretary of defense, i worked directly for, i worked for five, and i will highlight, one republican, one democrat. one was bob gates who was a career cia officer, then a university president, big organizations. other, for a democrat, also cia, chief of staff of the white house, elected to the congress, that is frankly the kind of resume you are looking for for somebody to step into the department of defense.>> and they share deep suspicions of the military, criticisms of the military, a number of the generals from all parties, other appointees of republicans

and democrats pushed back against him on decisions he wants to make. he is also against women in combat. just listen to what he said not so long ago.>> obviously you are going to bring in a secretary of defense but any general that was involved, general or admiral or whatever that was involved in any of the ddi woke [bleep] . >> one of the things that they called woke is women, donald trump hasn't, but pete hegseth has, women in combat as he referenced earlier . the senator from illinois who suffered so previously after serving in iraq, the women pilots, women have contributed a lot to this.>> enormously, and just two weeks ago in the navy, we lost two young naval

aviators, flying one of our most advanced jets, the f-18 growler, they were lost in those kind of high-intensity operations. i have served as captain of a ship that had about 20% of my crew as women, it was an exceptional combat ship, and it also won the batten berg cup as the top ship in the atlantic fleet, couldn't have done it without the women. the other part of the commentary from pete hegseth that kind of rocks me back is this cavalier, we are going to fire the chairman of the joint chief of staff, that would be a terrible way to start a term as secretary of defense. and by the way, that chairman of the joint chief, general brown was promoted to four stars and became the chief of the air force by president donald trump, who called him a great man and a great leader in

the oval office. i think president trump had it right that day, he's not someone you want to preempt too early to fire.>> and finally, tulsi gabbard in charge of all u.s. intelligence. what are the risks? >> i think enormous, i thought john bolton shredded her prerequisites pretty clearly, in addition to the fact that she has zero experience around the intelligence world, and going into that job, director of national intelligence, to sit on top of all of the various intelligence agencies, she has no credibility as a result of that. and secondly, these mysterious engagements with syria and russia, i'm waiting to see the results of that fbi investigation to see what the real scope of that was, probably not a good choice for

that position.>> thank you so much. before we go, huge congratulations to my good friend, craig melvin as he prepares to fill some big shoes of the today show, the next co- anchor alongside savanna. he was here more than a decade ago but he had a successful run at our local nbc station, wrc here in washington, and has been a valued member of our family ever since, all of us here are really excited to see such an exceptional journalist lead us into the future, sending a lot of love and congratulations to craig and lindsay and the whole family. that does it for this edition of andrea mitchell reports, follow us on social media, you can watch highlights from the show anytime on youtube. tuckit s

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