>> reporter: james wilbur, the last part about his daughter getting up and walking out of the cemetery was a response about the judge's statement in the hearing that they're going to have to give sean grayson when he's let out the least restrictive conditions possible per that appellate court ruling, that phrase really stuck with her father. it's worth noting that sean grayson's attorney declined to comment on the record about this case. his client pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder charges and the state's attorney plan to appeal the appellate ruling to the illinois state supreme court so this could get dragged out longer. we've reached out to see how soon that might happen. we'll keep maggie vespa, thank much. thank you for joining me. i am jose diaz-balart. you can always join me on social media.

andrea mitchell picks up with more news right now. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," bipartisan criticism after a stunning reversal to pardon his son, hunter, after saying before the election he would not. democrats and republicans voicing outrage over president trump's selection for kash patel to run the fbi. a whistleblower report is raising questions about the suitability of pete hegseth to run the pentagon. and a new military challenge from rebels seeing an opening after iran and hezbollah have been weekend. good day, everyone. i am andrea mitchell in washington.

president biden's about-face issuing a full and unconditional pardon of his son, hunter, has republicans and democrats fuming over the president mindscape rationale. for years, president biden and his aides respecting the judicial process and now he has issued the most wide-ranging pardon since ford pardoned nixon. in a statement the president said, quote, hunter was singled out only because he is my son and that is wrong, adding raw politics has infected this process and led to a miscarriage of justice. a position that strongly echoes president-elect trump claims weaponized justice system. moments ago the white house secretary reiterated the president mindscape -- president mindscape statement aboard air force one. >> we have laid out pretty clearly what he was thinking. his statement lays out pretty

clearly he believes in the department of justice and believes his son was singled out. >> trump calling the part in an abuse and miscarriage of justice, conflating hunter 's prosecution with a january 6th rioters. as press reported last night after the bidens spent thanksgiving together with his family on nantucket, the president issued a sweeping pardon for any and all offenses his son may have committed over the past decade including hunter's federal conviction for illegally buying a gun and his guilty plea for tax evasion, both of which he was scheduled to be sentenced for this month. the pardon into his dealings with ukraine and china when his father was vice president. we begin with managing editor carol lee who broke the story, peter baker traveling with the

president in angola, former deputy assistant attorney general harry littman, and former federal prosecutor williams. how did this pardon come together? did it come together over the nantucket holiday when they were all together? what is the back story? >> reporter: this goes back for several months, andrea, according to our reporting. the president and those around him had never taken is off the table although publicly he was saying he would not do this. that was particularly the case after hunter biden's conviction in june and then you fast- forward to during the election because remember back in june president biden was running for reelection and there was a political backdrop hanging over it and that continued until after the november election and after that the people around the president and expected this

to happen, something that became almost inevitable, however it was over the weekend in nantucket the president was with his family, with hunter biden, with his daughter, the first lady, and they finalized this decision and went through all of the paperwork, started to notify senior staff at the white house and the president decided ultimately to do this very sweeping pardon and one of the questions is what that have been the case if president trump hadn't won the election? in other words, would the president have on this broad on a pardon if it were vice president harris in the white house for the next four years? >> peter, you started your latest story with a powerful line, president-elect donald j. trump and president biden agree on one thing, the biden justice department has been politicized.

talk about the decision. you have covered both presidents and you know them so well. thanks for being with us. you must be jetlagged. >> reporter: [ laughter ] right. well, here in angola, the pardon has followed a president biden. he just landed for a two day visit shadowed by his decision to absolve his son but one of the things striking about this decision is he uses the same language president-elect trump used about the justice department, complaining selective prosecution, that politics has infused the process. that is not surprising for president-elect trump who has always tried to put questions into law enforcement. he used his first term to go after his enemies and promised to use the justice department in his second term to enact retribution but president biden has made a point of being the defender of the justice system, the one who says it is neutral and not part of politics is now saying that's not the case at least when it comes to his own

son. that's a striking situation that will be used by republicans as ammunition in the days moving forward. the president himself says the justice department can't be trusted not to take into account politics when it makes decisions and democrats are upset about that. democrats believe the president while understandably a father would want to spare his son prison time put his family's interests ahead of the country's. >> peter, to be clear, the prosecutor was a prosecutor in the state of delaware held over as one of the few u.s. attorneys held over precisely by president biden coming in to office to make sure there was the appearance of noninterference from the white house in the ongoing investigation into his son. >> reporter: absolutely. this prosecutor had special counsel status designed to

insulate him from politics and the justice department is of course denying politics played any role in this prosecution or the prosecution of former president, now president-elect trump. a very different situation. hunter biden has been prosecuted and found guilty, pleaded guilty on relatively modest charges compared to what president-elect trump has been accused of, who had been charged with trying to overturn an election that he lost and endangered national security by taking classified documents that were not his but the fact is biden's in his statement attacking the justice system with regard to his own son will, of course, used by his adversaries to justify whatever they decide comes next in terms of politicizing the justice department because they are saying they are simply doing what joe biden says the justice department already does. >> i believe michael bennet, the democratic senator from colorado has come out against

the party. harry, you have covered all of this. all offenses back to 2014, the year hunter first joined the board. that was controversial but was not charged with anything regarding that. the president seems to be protecting all of the possible trump investigations which have been promised because hunter biden has been with donald trump and for ears. counterintuitively, i know you're position on this after reading what you have been writing to us because there is an argument that if not for the plea deal that fell apart because of a bad plea agreement leaving the judge little options , the delaware judge, not that that agreement -- most of these

federal tax cases are not prosecuted if the tax is repaid and he was an admitted addict and filed for a gun application not admitting to his addiction, which is not something that is generally a criminal prosecution. >> yes, look. everything peter said was right and it will be something that will make it harder for democrats. you need to have two more sentences and they are both true. the first is as you rightly point out it is not that the justice department, it was this separate process of an independent counsel who didn't answer at all to the normal supervisor structure. second, andrea, this is just a fact, he was subjected to far harsher treatment than the doj would normally provide.

that is the classic case for executive clemency. compared to what obama did in office, he commuted 300 sentences because the people were guilty but received far harsher treatment than the general treatment. he said, look, we will commute. that is a standard reason to use them in c. it's true for political reasons. he's giving them and other democrats but that doesn't speak to the fairness or orthodoxy of clemency here. it is down the middle in the clear facts of the case. >> let me read you the criticism that i alluded to a moment ago. on social media he said president biden's decision to put personal ahead of duty erodes the face of the justice system is fair and equal to all. a gallup survey shows trust and confidence in the judicial branch fell from 76% in 2009 to

48% this fall. much of that may be caused by conspiracy theories by donald trump and his supporters and january 6th prosecutions and alike, but the public thinks the justice department is corrupt. >> i think it is incredibly problematic anything harry is right, that joe biden was treated more harshly here than he would have if he were joe smith and i think president biden's pardon is a concession that the kids -- system is broken and the institutions are not holding up and there have been intervening events that support that. appointing pam bondi to head the doj, his intention to head kash patel for fbi, they supported the idea of the fraud election. frankly the intervening event

of president trump winning another term is in itself the american people his own conduct leading an insurrection against our democracy. i don't think it is we have lost trust in the institutions. president biden, while i think he is doing the right thing here, that is recognition institutions are not holding up and cannot be trusted even with his own son and that is something we all have to reckon with. >> peter, would it have made more sense for the bidens to see what hunter's sentence would be and then issue the pardon? would there still be time in the end perhaps if he had not been given jail time? >> reporter: yeah, i think that's right. this bypassed the usual processes set up by the justice department for a pardon. you should be eligible for executive clemency until after you have served your sentence and this is obviously a

different situation. it is not the first time we have had a presidential relative, you know, benefit from executive clemency but it is the first time that a son has been given a pardon. what carol lee reported is pretty important to remember. if in fact what her people are telling her is correct and president biden kept this on the table while he was publicly saying he would rule it out that leads to all kinds of other questions as well. what changed between june when he said no pardon and today when he said yes, he was the, and karine jean-pierre was asked about that and said, well, you wrestle with it. that's fine, but he was wrestling with it in june as well and what has changed is there has been an election since then. the motivator may be the party said he was worried about what the justice department might do with his son in the next administration and that is why he gave the sweeping set of immunity here to his son for

any crimes committed over the last decade, not just the ones he is actually being convicted of. >> peter, i am being told that dr. jill biden at the unveiling of the christmas decorations at the white house has just said an answer to a question, of course, i support the pardon of my son. just to also point out that for the family as mike memoli has, you know, written and talked to us about this morning and last night, for the family, nantucket is a poignant place. every thanksgiving, the family together, it was the last trip they took with bo and he was there with hunter, his wife, little bow who is four or five years old and ashley biden, their daughter. it was a smaller family in there must've been a lot of time . we saw them just yesterday

and over the weekend at the a tree lighting and shopping and downtown nantucket in the mainstream area. there was no hint of this then, but just your insight into the family dynamic there? >> reporter: yeah, you are absolutely right. this has been a painful situation for president biden. of course, a father of a son who has struggled with addiction and got into trouble. and biden feels guilt about that. he feels guilty. when he says his son was singled out because he was his son, he feels guilty about that and blames himself on some level for that attention to him. of course, whether or not hunter biden would have gotten the millions of dollars in business if his last name hadn't been biden as well, so there is good and bad that comes with being a presidential son but as a personal matter, this have hunted him, tortured him and obviously you can

surmise very clearly that nantucket this thanksgiving, this was a popular conversation he felt the pressure to stand up for his son one last time and not allow him to go to prison over these issues and he has decided he will take the hit and for that it comes politically because he does love his son. >> and carol lee, you broke this story. it was not an easy story to break by any means. you are very familiar with just how emotionally fraught this was. the president already feeling if he had not run for reelection controversially as it turns out, that maybe this would not have happened to his son, feeling some guilt, some regrets, and some responsibility as well. this is a very emotional time for him and his family. >> reporter: it is, andrea.

it has been a very trying thing for the first lady. if you recall, she was a presence at hunter biden's trial in delaware almost every day and it was a very emotional time. a lot of things were aired that were very private and took place during a very dark time in hunter biden's life. he is an addict. it is widely known this is a son that his father is worried about, as any parent would be if they had a child struggling with addiction. this is very personal for the president, personnel for the first lady, and emotional time for the -- and hunter biden has been a topic of conversation and is very much now in the political sphere. because he has the president of the united states and someone who said he would restore the justice department and get

things back to normal after the trump administration, he is taking a shot at the justice department by saying this has been politicized. it's a real political issue and obviously a familial issue. >> carol, thanks to you. peter, thanks to you for going above and beyond the call. i appreciate you being on today. and of course, to harry and temidayo. thank you. in 90 seconds, how members of congress are reacting to president-elect's choice of kash patel to lead the fbi. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports," and this is msnbc . tremfya blocks a key source of inflammation. at one year, many people experienced remission...

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yeah, every night! hmm... i see. (limu squawks) only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ president-elect donald trump has nominated kash patel, an extreme loyalist and conspiracy theorist to be the fbi director despite having literal federal management experience and supporting groups like q1 on among others. he will need to be confirmed by the senate but before that, mr. trump will need to fire christopher wray, appointed by donald trump in 2017 and has three more years left in his term. the fbi director has a 10 year term.

hotel, former federal prosecutor, has promoted false claims about the 2020 election and trump's perceived enemies at the fbi and in the media. >> we will go out and find the conspirators not just in government but in the media. yes, we will come after people in the media who lied about american citizens who helped joe biden rigged the presidential elections and we will come after you whether it's criminally or civilly. we are putting you all on notice. >> bill hagerty came out in support of patel yesterday. >> he represents the time and change we need to see in the fbi. he covers what has happened in the fbi and i look forward to him taking it apart. >> joining us now, ken dilanian, former assistant fbi director for counterintelligence, and tom nichols, staff writer for the atlantic. welcome, all. ken, first, to you. why is kash patel causing among

other things -- i mean, i think you can quote what bill said as attorney general. i am very familiar what happened at cia when she was supposed to accept him as her deputy the first time around. >> reporter: he said over my dead body and i think there are two basic issues with kash patel. one is the issue of qualifications. he spent years as a public defender and three years in the national security division. that is the extent of his legal experience and he had a few jobs in the trump administration. nothing that would remotely qualify him to lead such a significant department with 10,000 fbi agents, huge national security job, and then there is the question of his worldview, his views of donald trump, and he has without evidence accused it of being corrupt, motivated by politics, run by a mysterious deep state.

the concerns i'm hearing, he would essentially be a lackey and eliminate whatever independents there would be from donald trump at the fbi. >> there is a republican senator who expressed support for current fbi director chris wray on sunday, which is a suggestion that that's not an open job that patel has been named for. that's why. >> the president picked a very good man to be the director of the fbi. when he did that in his first term. will he meet with him behind closed doors? i've got no objection to the way he has handled himself so i have no complaints about the way he has done his job. >> frank, there are some indications and i will ask ken to weigh in on his reporting that chris wray may have wanted to step down and give donald

trump his choice because he was so critical of chris wray and the fbi director might be reconsidering that or wait to be fired to put an exclamation point on this choice which is controversial inside the agency. >> reporter: if i were to advise chris wray, and i'm not, i would advise him to hang in there and let trump make trump fire him. make trump break another norm because as you lead in width, the fbi director's are also in 10 year terms for the very reason of avoiding the politicizing of the fbi so we hear about the politicization of the fbi, yet donald trump will become the first president to fire two fbi directors while president and that is the ultimate politicizing. naming kash patel is where we are heading with politicizing the fbi. it's not the remarkable lack of

qualifications that concern me the most about kash patel, it is the fact he has said on record he's going after people trump doesn't like. we have seen this before in the fbi. a guy named j. edgar hoover repeatedly illegally wiretapped people he perceived wrongly as a threat and i hope we are not heading there again. >> tom nichols, you write in the atlantic that some of trump's nominations seem like a trollish flex. you say kash patel is the perfect nominee. explain. >> it's almost like trump is putting the nominations out there and daring anyone to stop him. they serve two purposes. one, if they succeed, he gets these unhinged loyalists. i think ken and frank pointed

out this is not about lack of qualifications. he's out there on the fringe with a lot of this stuff and of course he knew he would be throwing a cannonball into the pool. he does this on purpose as a political shock and awe approach to disorient his opponents. if he gets away with that he gets the loyalist fbi but in doing so he shows everyone around him he can simply flatten them, he can push the senate around, that he doesn't care about the missions and institutions like the fbi. he says i want what i want, the people who will serve me and i don't care about the fbi solving crimes or protecting america from foreign entities and spies. he makes it very clear i don't care about that. you are either on my side or you are not and nominee like patel forces people to pick sides clearly and i think trump

is counting people will fold and take his side. >> ken dilanian, as tom alluded to, the fbi has a counterterrorism function, counterintelligence, and counterterror. they are basically charged in part with protecting our borders from terrorists. >> reporter: yeah. >> they have enormous powers, the power to go to a judge. write down yours or anyone else's phone numbers and say that you have some evidence that you are talking to some terrorist overseas and they can look at anything. they can bang down your door in the middle of the night. they have such broad powers. under the case of j. edgar hoover, we know know who he was spying on. you know? lots of people in our society including reverend dr. martin

luther king jr. >> reporter: it is an intelligence agency. there are a lot of safeguards but there is a lot of power and it happens in secret and it can be abused. we have seen it before and that is the real concern here, andrea. >> ken dilanian, tom nichols, frank figliuzzi, i appreciate it. up next, pete hegseth, trump's choice to lead the defense department. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports," and this is msnbc . (agent) we've always said never sell a house in the winter. that's not true. with opendoor, you can skip the showings and get a real cash offer. you are disguising my voice, right? (director) ahhh, of course. (agent with altered voice) foof, just checking. (vo) it's true. opendoor makes selling easy, in any season. carl: believe me, when it comes to investing,

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new revelations now about president-elect trump's choice to lead the department of defense. new yorker magazine reporting a whistleblower, and other documents, suggest pete hegseth was forced to resign from previous leadership positions for legit alcohol abuse, mismanagement, and sexist behavior. nbc news has not seen the

whistleblower complaint or other documents, has not received a response from the trump transition team when asked for comment. a lawyer for hegseth declined comment to nbc news and told the new yorker he would not comment on outlan claims. this is the new york times reported on an email of the weekend from hegseth's mother sent in 2018 condemning him for how she says he was treating women. multiple women. a sentiment she says she now regrets and apologizes now for sending. joining me now, garrett haake and ali vitali. welcome, both. happy thanksgiving aftermath. i hope you both caught a break. everybody is heading back today. garrett, there is no break. >> reporter: never. >> it's a fire hose from

thanksgiving morning or whatever. garrett, the transition team, how are they defending pete hegseth? lack of qualification, never ran anything, never had management ability. we credit him and honor him for his service in iraq and afghanistan. multiple allegations now, allegations about the way he treats women, his policy projection on the record against women in the military, now allegations about intoxication. >> reporter: right now they are not particularly defending him. i just made a round of phone calls i came up here and i got nothing back from hegseth's attorney who has spoken to the new yorker about some of the other allegations against him. anything that will come will

come from the transition office. he has a long time to twist in the wind before he gets to a confirmation hearing. he's expected on capitol hill today to address these allegations himself, but for now the silence is as notable as anything they have said in the past to defend him. they have been much more focused on kash patel today. something they are more excited about in this moment than hegseth who frankly has a lot of explaining to do among a lot of sets of issues now. >> slated to be the next chair of the judiciary committee, i think lindsey graham is stepping down from that. he says patel must prove to congress he will restore public trust in the fbi so what are you hearing from other lawmakers about pete hegseth? >> reporter: you are right to point out they are coming back to town today and they've got a fresh round of nominees to react to. that said, what gaetz nomination and pulling out

ultimately taught us is really establishing in real time how much these senators are willing to take from the trump transition team. we saw the few of them willing to be critical of gaetz, there are less willing to be critical of hegseth and if anyone is doing the explaining, it is largely the republican senators on capitol hill who downplayed allegations of sexual misconduct despite the fact there was a lengthy and detailed police report we only just obtained the night before. when it comes to kash patel, an equally controversial nominee , a position that is not currently vacant, there is going to be a lot of conversation about what these senators will allow. some have come forward and said i like the job chris wray is doing. why do we need to replace him? but the level and degree republican senators will break with the president-elect, that is the thing we are establishing in real time here.

>> yes, that's either praise for wray or criticism -- you know, of the kash patel possibility. >> reporter: he's up for reelection in 2026. how far does he want to go on that topic to say he still likes chris wray? >> reporter: there are a few senators. thom tillis of north carolina is another. the 2026 cycle could be the last calling we see of anyone not marching in maga lockstep . >> speaking of pardons because we were a few minutes ago -- >> reporter: mm-hmm. >> i want you to hear dr. jill biden at the christmas declaration event, the annual event she meets with the press and let's see what she had to say. >> of course i support the pardon of my son. >> i believe that is, of

course, i support the pardon of my son. how emotional that was. we were discussing that moments ago with carol lee and several other colleagues. and pointing out with peter baker and carol lee just how emotionally fraught this decision was for the presidents. one thing that occurred to me was another possible future nominees, a man named to be the ambassador to france. and perhaps, you know, this takes one of the criticism democrats might hold against him. he was pardoned by trump, the father in law of ivanka trump. he has no interest in diplomacy. he is a real estate guy convicted of tax fraud and had a very unseemly family background because there was a long history established in the trial of having gotten a prostitute to implicate his

brother in law, his sister's husband, part of a scheme he was involved in. >> reporter: i think what republicans will say about the charles kushner episode, he was tried and convicted, just like hunter biden, but was sentenced and completed his sentence before he was pardoned. he was pardoned for a specific thing. folks in the trump camp are frustrated hunter biden was pardoned broadly from x date to y date. their argument is we don't even know what the president is pardoning him for and we are investigating the same type of behavior. you are saying there may be more there than just the crimes he was convicted of. that will further every conspiracy theory and a lot of frustration on the right that i think is understandable. >> ali, when it comes to hunter, he is such a special case. his brother, beau, and hunter were both terribly injured in

an accident that killed their sister and mother. of course, joe biden stepped in years later and became their mother. well, and every possible way. but hunter has always been, you know, a troubled case. an emotional case for the biden parents. i just know that back in 2019, ukraine was such a big issue and i asked biden staff people, well, why didn't you go to the vice president and say he should enjoin this company? you know, with ukraine. it was a potential conflict, an embarrassment. they said you have to understand because of his addictions we were fearful the biden's would wake up to discovering their son had died of an overdose somewhere and they were in constant, you know, fear about hunter. >> reporter: absolutely harrowing and you, who have

covered biden so extensively, and those of us who covered him during the 2020 campaign, family was a specific case especially when it came to hunter. i will say democrats are criticizing the move and have made the point to say, hey, i get it as a father but they still feel this erodes trust in law enforcement and in the role of a president, not just a president that is a father, but the head of this country. >> to leave it where we started, kash patel. in the national security field which i cover every day, kash patel is like a fire alarm. you know, a huge, huge red flag. there is going to have to be a lot of examination for those. this will be a hearing if it gets that far. >> reporter: all of those republican senators. >> no matter how many people

are, you know, actually -- >> reporter: mm-hmm. >> -- up for reelection. >> reporter: 100%. >> thanks very much, garrett. >> reporter: you bet. >> thanks, ali. up next, more threats in gaza as another hostage family is mourning the loss of their son by hamas. and three more world central kitchen workers are targeted by israel. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc . ["the glory of love" plays] giving. ♪ giving that's possible through the power of dell ai with intel. so those who receive can find the joy

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i am forever ditching regular coffee. the tattoo artist drank a little too much coffee, and then he crashed, hard. so now maybe i do have some regrets. do not get a tattoo if your tattoo guy does not drink everyday dose. everyday dose coffee, functional coffee for all the energy without the jitters or crash. it's kind of the same right, do you notice it? you do? okay. we're learning today an american who was thought to be hostage in gaza for more than a year -- in fact died on october 7th. military announcing overnight that omer neutra was killed in the october 7th attacks. he was in the idf. omer was born and raised in

the u.s., grew up in long island before moving to israel and enlisting in the military. president biden releasing this statement. jill and i haven't -- are devastated and outraged to learn the death of omer neutra , an american citizen, whose body hamas has been holding since they killed him during their brutal terror attack on october 7th. i spoke to his parents in january, among other times. tell me about your son. tell me about omer . >> he is a people person. >> a people person? >> a people person. if you asked him his favorite thing to do, he would say stay up all night with friends around and everywhere he goes, he makes the community around him. he is this guy with a big smile. he can be a little bit goofy at times, but also serious and he

kind of breaks the ice for everyone and connects. he is a connector. >> our condolences to the neutra family, who we have come to know here and in israel. in joining me now from beirut is matt bradley. matt, what else do we know about what happened to omer? >> reporter: actually we don't know much because normally in these situations the idf would announce the death of someone who died as a hostage in the gaza strip, there would be intelligence of what led to it but now we don't really know why the idf decided to release this information about the death of neutra more than a year ago during those october 7th attacks. he was thought to have been alive and kept as a hostage all this time. we know he was a tank commander and was killed according to the idf on october 7th. there is also news over this past weekend of another american

israeli hostage discovered to be alive, released in a propaganda video. his mother gave us the propaganda video in which hamas releasedco to some sort of deal to free the remaining hostages. there are about 30 of them, or a little more than 30 of them that are thought to have been killed. his mother has renewed a push to get a deal to bring some measure of peace to the gaza strip and free the remaining hostages. she spoke to my colleague, hala gorani, over the weekend. here is what she said. >> i asked, please, benjamin netanyahu, be strong for the country. be strong for israel and release them. >> reporter: the fact is, andrea, despite the renewed interest because of the revelations around these two israelis, the fact is there is no real optimism around the

push for a new deal that would free these remaining hostages even though there has been a peace treaty here in lebanon, where i am now, between israel and hezbollah. it doesn't look as though despite a bit of talk of this that one deal may lead to another. andrea? >> matt bradley, thank you very much. our condolences and our deepest sympathies with the neutra family. up next, the conflict overseas. the city of aleppo pushing back rebel forces. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports." this is msnbc. with liberty mutual. customize and sa— (balloon doug pops & deflates) and then i wake up. and you have this dream every night? yeah, every night!

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>> russia, of course, has made it clear it continues to support assad which was determined in putting down g other rebels who were actually supported by the u.s. you know, some of the other forces in the north. >> we have been in syria. we have a limited number of troops in syria. they are there to fight against the islamic state. again, the u.s. interest here is the weakening of assad, which weakens iran. >> during your deep experiences as admiral and working for bob gates to previous defense secretaries, let me ask you about the president-elect's choice of defense secretary pete hegseth. there are disturbing allegations about intoxication

and qualifications. i was very involved covering the john tower failed nomination by george bush because of the chairman of the services committee's concerns about his alleged alcoholism. >> indeed. famously president trump nt himself does not consume alcohol. by all reports is not enamored of those who can't control themselves. i think this will be another drip in the faucet of concern about this nominee. it kind of began as you will recall with allegations of sexual assault. those were never fully put to rest. more recently over the weekend, a release of an email from his mother to him about his character and abuse of women. these are a number of dripping concerns. and ngnow add to it the most

recent report you are alluding to. i think it is a nomination in trouble not just on the character issues but as you said, andrea, let's face it, the people in the office of the secretary of defense have their hand on their nuclear codes and are managing a budget of $900 billion. you need people of real stature and experience. secretary bob gates i would put in the mix, a democrat. secretary panetta, former chief of staff f to the president and former director of the cia as was secretary gates. that is the kind of timber you want to cut from to create a secretary of defense. mr. james stavridis, we will have to leave it there. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." follow us on social media and watch highlights anytime on youtube. ts just go to msnbc.com /andrea.

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