long? >> on how long >> you see this happen with supreme court justices frequently. the idea they are going to visit with senators who are part of key committees, starts are given a chance to ask questions behind closed doors before they go to the full public view of a confirmation hearing. that is what hegseth is working toward. we would see that at some point in the early part of next year for all these minees. you've got other key members and all have so-called sherpas that are guiding them through the process of how to maneuver here on capitol hill. >> thank you so very much. appreciate it. before we go, some good news to share.

trooper, you'll remember the dog that was found tied to a fence before hurricane milton hit florida. he's found a new forever home. he was rescued by florida highway patrol and after a flood of applications has now been adopted, instantly connecting with his new family, carla and frank, and their dog, dallas. when trooper and dallas met, it was love at first sight with tails wagging excitingly. look at them. that's when they meet. this is great. this is a dog that was left out and tied to a post as the hurricane was arriving. just how cruel can you be? well, there's good news and that's a good way to wrap up this hour for me. i'm jose diaz-balart. you can watch clips from the show on youtube at msnbc.com/jdb. andrea mitchell picks up with

more news now. the latest on the man hunt for the gunman who killed brian thompson in manhattan, including the words written on the shell casings at the scene. in washington, president-elect trump's pick to run the pentagon, defiant despite increasing scrutiny amid a wave of new revelations putting his cabinet bid in jeopardy. and today, elon musk and vivek ramaswamy grabbing the spotlight on capitol hill to try to sell their new department of government efficiency to trump allies. and an update investigating secret service failures during the first assassination attempt failure on donald trump. good day, i'm andrea

mitchell in washington. the nypd has released new images of the suspect wanted in the murder of brian thompson outside a midtown manhattan hotel. these new images showing the suspect's face without the mask. that is a big, new clue. detectives are hoping someone will recognize this man amid chilling new details of what he left at the scene. a senior new york city law enforcement official briefed on the investigation saying this new piece of evidence since yesterday, bullet casings used in the attack found on the street were inscribed with the words, defend, deny, and depose. it's now been more than 24 hours since the start of the man hunt. police say he targeted thompson, waiting for the ceo to leave his hotel. detectives still have not identified the gunman nor his motive. a senior new york city law enforcement official briefed on the investigation telling nbc news the suspect bought several items including a water bottle

and two energy bars at a local starbucks before the shooting. police were able to find those items as more evidence. new york city mayor adams, himself a former police captain in the nypd, telling "morning joe" even he was shocked by this brazen attack. >> in all of my years of law enforcement, i have never seen a silencer before. so that was a really something that was shocking to us all and so we're on the right path and we believe we're going to apprehend this person. >> thompson's wife telling nbc news that her husband had received threats possibly over a lack of coverage, but thompson did not change his travel routine. he was not accompanied by personal security as most major ceos of major big companies are. we begin with nbc news national law enforcement correspondent, tom winter, and clint watts. tom, in that last point, it's

usually required by insurance on a ceo of a big company that there be personal security when they travel. that is standard operating procedure. that's one of the reasons it was surprising that he was walking on the street by himself even just across the street from his hotel to the hotel where this publicly advertised shareholders meeting was. >> so, andrea, i think a couple of things. one, you never know when these particular situations, whether or not somebody declined that coverage or whether they had the option to. those are all great items of inquiry for us from a reporting standpoint. our colleague, melissa colorado, of wnbc here in new york, was at a hospital on the upper west side of new york city. apparently the same hostile where you saw those face photos we just got. they're very clear. they clearly show the suspect's face, the person the nypd believes is the suspect.

apparently, detectives arrived at that hostile last night sometime between 6:30 and 7:00 p.m. according to an eyewitness interview. in fact, this individual had been staying at one of the rooms in a bunk bed. so that's just some of the initial indications of where this is, but again, a hostel on the upper west side appears to be where the photos were taken and those are the first full face photos we've been able to see. that's a significant step forward. it is possible the nypd's facial recognition unit might have some success with this. it's not foolproof. it takes time to comb through and go through the databases and do the work they do, but they've done incredible work in the past and as yet another clue as to where this individual was or where this individual might be and so that's something that

they're in the process of digging through. there's been a number of leads that have been helpful to investigators in this case and the nypd. there's been a number of leads that have washed out. there's been a lot of rumors as there usually is and i think we've chased down about two dozen of them at this point. they're getting more and more evidence. and these photos from yesterday that occurred before the shooting, this is off of surveillance video from a starbucks near the shooting site, apparently according to our reporting, this individual purchased a couple of energy or protein bars. also purchased a water bottle at that location and because of the nypd's investigative work, they were able to track down where those items were discarded and those items of evidence are now being examined by the nypd. so a number of things they've come up with. certainly the cell phone. you're looking at the list there. not exhaustive.

the remarks put on the shell casings, those are pretty small so i'm curious to find out how those were written on there but those are certainly helping to drive this investigation at this hour, which we've got a lot of things we're still tracking down. >> indeed, first of all, clint, the words defend, deny, and depose, does that trigger anything with you in terms of any known group or organization or do you think more likely it has to do with motive? >> andrea, not with any known group that i'm aware of, but it would seem to suggest motive. yesterday, some of the scenarios being debated were that it was a contract killer or some sort of a hired hit man. that would not likely be the case. you wouldn't see some sort of scrawling on the firing on the cases of the bullets. so that doesn't make sense to me. and this makes more sense that

when you see these kind of words put out there, it's ideological or personal grievance very focused on the individual that was targeted. i would imagine in terms of motive, this takes you down a different path than what we saw yesterday because watching the shooter in the video, it just seems very adept at using a firearm. the way he eared the round. he had been doing some shooting before. so all of that kind of led to a couple of different scenarios. i think this puts in the camp of person motive. very specific to this individual that was killed. >> what really strikes me, also, and i'm just a layman in all this. clint, you're the expert. the fact that he was seen without the mask. and those pictures, the facial recognition. i mean, i can think of a host of ways that that can help them identify him. just by us publicizing the image. somebody will call more likely as has happened in previous investigations.

that indicates that he may have had training on a gun at a range. familiarity with a gun and the way he cleared the jam fairly adeptly, but he's not a pro if he had his face out there. >> that's right, andrea. this individual, while they did obviously some reconnaissance, they were very focused on the target. had some weapons training and were experienced with weapons. they did make some mistakes by leaving signatures like going to a starbucks. probably making some sort of purchase there. the nypd's already done a great job of tracking the individual and coming up with that face which would probably turn over many more leads and they possibly know the name of the individual now. i wouldn't be surprised if we hear that in the coming hours which would allow them to pursue on this individual nationwide. so lot of progress since this time yesterday and i'm hopeful with this kind of evidence here and the pictures, we'll start the see more evidence pop up and

more tips and leads that are viable for law enforcement to pursue. >> there was some suggestion that he was seen, tom, earlier in the day with a battery for an electric vehicle. can you clarify that? not in midtown, the upper west side. not sure if that was confirmed and reported on. >> i know what you're referring to. yeah, sure thing. there's been a lot of different things that have come up in the course of this. the idea was that there was an e bike battery. so it's kind of a sleeve that covers up the actual battery that you would insert into a large e bike. it's rectangular in shape. and so that's something that i think they're still trying to track down but it would be consistent, of course, with what they were just talking about when we began the program, which is that idea that he was staying on the upper west side. again, more kind of bread crumbs if you will to the overall

investigation and certainly something they're in the process of tracking down. obviously, we're continue to, there's multiple components of this investigation. there's what's happening in new york. this idea that the wife of the victim in this, brian thompson, somebody who has two children, you know, certainly somebody who did not expect what obviously happened to him yesterday morning, that there were reported threats to him. so that's another avenue that we can't forget. and assuredly, the nypd is already going down that path. were those threats checked out at the time? was there more to it? could that help out with respect to this individual and potentially putting somebody in handcuffs. so all those things are being looked at and i think it's important that you know, some of the initial information we've heard from some of the witnesses or in this case, the family member, the wife of the individual who was killed here, keep all those things in mind as

potential avenues for this case going forward. >> and clint, security executive whose firm had provided thompson with protection in the past told "the wall street journal" he was shocked thompson did not have personal security with him. as you pointed out earlier, that people can say no, i don't want the security. i want to just walk across the street. he was going from a starbucks, going from his hotel. but there is a, an insurance requirement on a lot of these ceos that requires that level of security. >> that's correct, andrea. a lot of companies would have personal protection agents assigned to them. one thing about this, it was very early in the morning. i think around 6:45 when this occurred. it's also one of those situations where an executive decided that wanted to go for a stroll. possibly a walk. or maybe they wanted to go pick up something to eat and security wasn't scheduled. so there are many examples of that kind of happening over time

where significant leaders, they have a preplanned security. maybe they were supposed to have security during this trip and made an unexpected trip outside and this individual happened to be waiting for him. i think we need to wait to hear more from the company. but at that time of day, maybe he just decided to, he wanted to leave the hotel room and this individual happened to be waiting for him. >> yeah, i'm familiar with that in the past from people who try to take walks or get away without the security when they feel they're safe. it's very common in washington. as well. >> even former presidents, right, andrea? >> yes, i've covered some of those. jimmy carter went fishing, we didn't know about it. leaving from camp david. once with george h.w. bush on thanksgiving weekend when he first was the president-elect, he wanted to go without his security detail and without a motorcade and he was vice president, so he had his

security detail, but he wanted to go without the press corp. so we were all renting cars and racing down a very narrow road and that didn't go too well either. let me just say in honor of the late president george herbert walker bush, he then came out of a hardware store i think and said to all of us, okay, i give up. you can follow me and barb wants to invite you all over for ine and cheese so i'm going to buy it and come over to the house. tom winter, clint watts. this is so compelling. thank you for that. in just 90 seconds, the latest on pete hegseth and some other nominees president-elect trump's picked to lead the pentagon. his fight to win over republican senators underway today as he goes door to door on capitol hill. lawmakers beginning to meet with elon musk and vivek ramaswamy on

their budget cut proposals. big day in washington. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. y in washingt. this is "arenda mitchell reports" on msnbc. up again? so congested! you need sinex saline from vicks. just sinex, breathe, ahhhh! what is — wow! sinex. breathe. ahhhhhh! ( ♪♪ ) eggs make all our family moments better. especially when they're eggland's best.

taste so fresh and amazing. ( ♪♪ ) deliciously superior nutrition, too. for us, it's eggs any style. as long as they're the best. eggland's best. ( ♪♪ ) pete hegseth, president-elect trump's embattled pick for defense secretary, is trying to salvage his bid to lead the pentagon despite multiple reports of excessive drinking and sexual misconduct as well as controversial policy statements against women serving in combat. the former fox host and combat

veteran back at the capitol today as he vows to fight and brushes off an allegation of sexual assault for which he was never charged and says was consental. in an interview with megyn kelly, he denied he ever had a problem with alcohol following a report that many of his former fox colleagues were concerned about his drinking and how it interfered with his work. >> what you're seeing right now with me is the art of the smear. first of all, i've never had a drinking problem. no one's ever approached me and said you should really look at getting help. never. this is the biggest deployment of my life and there won't be a drop of alcohol on my lips while i'm doing it. >> however, in a 2021 interview, hegseth admitted to self-medicating with alcohol after a tour in remark and a close call with an rpg. i'd like around at 10:00,

what am i going to do today? how about i drink some beers? go have lunch and have some beers? meet my buddies. one beer leads to many, leads to self-medication, leads to i've earned this. >> two sources telling nbc news the president-elect is considering alternatives including florida governor and navy veteran, ron desantis, and army national guard vet iowa senator, joni ernst. republican on the armed services committee who met with hegseth on wednesday. >> would you support the hegseth nomination? >> it was a conversation -- >> thank you. >> and joining us now, nbc news capitol hill correspondent, ali vitali. nbc news senior capitol hill correspondent, garrett haake. reuters correspondent, jeff mason, and former republican

congressman from florida, msnbc political analyst, david jolly. so, garrett, you caught up with hegseth on capitol hill today as he's meeting the senators and we should point out as kelly o'donnell noted, he's accompanied on these calls with senators on the committee. with his wife. this is very unusual. that is not usually taking place. it certainly could inhibit their questioning him about some of the sexual misconduct allegations. any case, talk to me about his response and some of the comments today. >> reporter: that's an unusual step and within the last 24 hours, we've seen a shift in how he's conducting himself through this process. he's decided to lean in much more in terms of defending himself. this is the first time he's answered any of my questions about this process and note his

answer here when i asked him about what, if anything, might cause him to end his pursuit of this job. listen to a bit of our conversation. do you feel like you're making progress in these meetings? >> great meetings. appreciate the process. senators give great advice and this is how the process works. not going to be tried out here. it's going to be discussed inside the offices, how rebuild our military. put the war fighters first. >> reporter: any circumstances where you would withdraw from this process? >> i'm here with the support of president donald trump. as long as he supports me, which he told me this morning, i'll be here. >> reporter: andrea, on that question of advice, he was leaving a sit-down with mike rounds of south dakota. i just ran over here from talking with rounds about that meeting. he said among the pieces of advise he gave him, to answer these questions more forthrightly. he needs to be open with the

public and with senators about the challenges he's faced. that said, the one other question i asked him was what is he, hegseth, telling senators about his drinking, about whether or not he will drink should he get this confirmation. hegseth told me that's something he's keeping between him and the senators for now. andrea? >> and to ali vitali. first of all, there's a big indication, difference i'd say, between hegseth and matt gaetz in that gaetz was universally disliked. not just in the house, but in the senate where he criticized john cornyn and other influential senators. so, he didn't have any kind of base of support. i think it's fair to say hegseth came in as a fox contributor with a pretty clean slate on that count. but any indication now of a shift or collapse of support among republicans? >> i think these two men, though nominated for positions in the

same cabinet, cut very different profiles on capitol hill. so i'm not sure that while gaetz was the first nominee to come and then ultimately be pulled from contention, i'm not sure that his case is the best one for us to look at as a paradigm for how all of these other controversial or problematic nominees will be treated certainly because hegseth now is not in these meetings defending matters of policy. at least not entirely. though there are questions, for example, the way he's talked about how women should not be serving in the military and various other pieces. that doesn't seem to be the key controversy point. at least not right now. instead, he's speaking to matters of character. i do think that over the course of the last few days and certainly garrett and i as we're passing each other in the hallway here, have talked about this. the idea that there's a mood shift, a tone shift, not just from hegseth who's changing his

interaction strategy, but also from senators who are saying they're keen to seeing this process play out, but behind the scenes, this is really a tough climb for hegseth and he might be in a hole he can't climb out of. that being said, we're in the new trump era. it's always been playing to an audience of once and he's not wrong when he says as long as trump is backing him, he will stay in this fight. >> and of course, it's hard to read the tea leaves as much reporting as our teams are doing, but it was only moments before matt gaetz dropped out and announced his own withdrawal that he was saying and everyone was saying he was in it and everyone was reporting that he was in it and was going to fight it off. using this truma lot of reporting that governor desantis has been considered. joni ernst as possible replacements.

senator hagerty. what do you know about that, if anything, if desantis would be a good alternative. >> i think fighting to save the nomination is hegseth's only strategy. one, to convince senators but also to ali's point for the audience of one. if he's going to be saved by donald trump, he has to prove he's a fighter. that's what the former president really likes to see in his cabinet picks but it does appear though this may be dead man walking for pete hegseth. everyone on this panel's been in politics long enough to know sources around the president-elect don't leak out alternative names. if the president-elect didn't serious about pulling the rug out from under hegseth. and one of those names is joni ernst herself would be a commanding pick in republican circles, sail through confirmation. ron desantis would likely sail through confirmation as well. the intriguing thing about desantis. we know the animosity between the two is real, but he has the opportunity to appoint the next

florida senator should marco rubio be confirmed. they want that seat to go to lara trump. is there a deal to be made? it feels kind of icky transactional. he may say you can be sec def if my daughter-in-law can be the next senator. >> stranger things have happened. i want to ask, bring in jeff mason here and ask you about elon musk and let me clear up one thing about hegseth. the over under here or gut check, because alcoholism or excessive drinking, whatever you want to call it, not speaking medically, but drinking on the job and you know, a lot of reporting, credible reporting of it interfering with his work and social interactions, is a serious impediment to being secretary of defense. i covered the howard nomination.

the first one i should say that went down because of united decision making he drank too much. he's a former chairman of the armed services committee and they rejected him. led by a democrat, by sam nun, who is interested first in military policy and protecting the pentagon. that was the decision. and you know, here, there's a lot of reporting backed up by a lot of evidence. >> indeed. and to tie it back into what the others on the panel were saying, there's a interested party of one and donald trump himself is not a drinker. in fact, i remember him saying one time in a moment of self-awareness at the white house when he was still in office, can you imagine how i would be if i did drink? >> well, his brother, you know, probably -- >> absolutely. >> died very young because of, you know, alcohol. >> because of alcohol. so he has a specific family relationship with that as well. not saying that would

necessarily influence his take on hegseth, but it might. in general, having these stories out there, not to mention the potential for someone to be in that post and then have those stories continue. especially if alcohol did continue to be a part of his life. not something the president-elect wants to see. >> let me ask you briefly about elon musk and vivek ramaswamy because they are saying that they can cut 2 trillion from the budget deficit. rather, it's a $2 trillion deficit that they can cut 500 million right off the bat without going back to congress. and they can cut 75% of the workforce. and 500 million, if you add up what they say they can cut because it hasn't been officially appropriated, but it's authorized money so you have to go back to congress, number one. number two, it's for all veterans benefits if you just give some examples. head start and a lot of the other really important vital programs add up to $500 million

there and 75% of the workforce according to analysis by steven rattner today on "morning joe," republican presidencies have increased the workforce for a lot of reasons, the financial services. perhaps a lot of other reasons, covid, but more than democrats have. >> not to mention the fact that tax cuts have also driven up the deficit and that's something -- >> there's that. >> democrats hammer against republicans as well. one, they will have to go to congress and two, a lot of these cuts are going to impact people who are citizens and voters that donald trump is going to still want. and the republican party is still going to need. obviously, there's a big difference philosophically between the democrats and republicans on things like subsidies and money for the poor, but there's still a lot, this impacts people in states across the country that are both red and blue. >> jeff mason, thank you. and of course, garrett haake,

ali vitali who need roller skates to do all the reporting they're doing. and david jolly. sunday, kristen welker is going to have an exclusive interview with president-elect trump. his first network interview since his victory. next, i'll speak to the top democrat on the house committee on the impact of kash patel and tulsi gabbard. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." this is msnbc. you're watching "l reports. this is msnbc. five times more cleaning power than brushing and flossing alone. get a next level clean... ahhhhh with listerine. feel the whoa! liberty mutual customized my car insurance so i saved hundreds. with the money i saved i thought i'd get a wax figure of myself. 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

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the choice for fbi director is going after his critics. former adviser to vice president mike pence, olivia troy, posting on her x account yesterday that patel sent a letter to her lawyer quote threatening legal action and demanding i retract my comments on msnbc about his unfitness to serve as fbi director. she wrote this aligns with the threats against the media and political opponents revealing how he might confirm himself if confirmed in the role. my priority remains the safety and security of the american people. i'm not the only one who's expressed concerns about him so why me. nbc news has reached out to

patel's law firm about this. patel is a former federal prosecutor who's said he would go after journalists. >> we will find the conspirators not just in government, but the media. we're going to go after people in the media who helped joe biden rig presidential elections. we're going to come after you. whether criminally or civilly. >> joining me now is jim himes of connecticut. the top democrat on the house intelligence committee. congressman, to be frank, i noticed olivia's posting because it was reposted by senator murphy from connecticut. so, you know, there is a notice among those who have to vote on his confirmation, that kash patel is going after people who criticize him. what's your reaction? >> not at all surprised, right? so, you know, i worked with kash patel when he was a member of

the republican staff working for devin nunez and he was distinguished mainly by his willingness to say and do anything to support donald trump. even if it was fan tas cal stuff. that's why he's been given this position. absolutely no law enforcement experience. and you know, you played the clip, right, a commitment to deeply, deeply unconstitutional ideas. so i don't know if this particular nomination is worse than the matt gaetz nomination or better, but it is something that should cause senators, if they have any self-respect, to say advice and consent means nothing if kash patel is confirmed to be fbi director. >> well, there's also the fact that matt gaetz has been rejected, pressure to withdraw. hegseth is under fire for a lot of, you know, established allegations that he denies. is there going to be the fear, you know the hill, your

colleagues in the senate. is there going to be fear, who do you go after? tulsi gabbard for justifiable reasons, they say. do you go after kash patel? how many of these bullets can you take, figuratively, for the team? >> you know, there was an america once where i think a senator would say i've got two obligations here to the constitution. one is to make sure that the individual is qualified and again, i would suggest that somebody who's never been in law enforcement probably shouldn't have their internship atop the federal bureau of investigation. question number two, if i were a senator would be does this individual have the character and commitment to really abide by the oath we all take? which is that you will support and defend the constitution of the united states. not support and defend donald trump. so again, there was an america where that's what senators would do. but you asked the right question, which is you know, at some point, donald trump is going to get tired of these

heretical senators who are not just saying you know, yes, sir, may i have another. so the politics are going to become increasingly difficult as donald trump continues to offer. by the way, i won't say they've been universal. there have been some good nominations, too, but as he continues to offer these whacky nominations, the politics in the senate are going to get pretty tough. >> yeah, marco rubio for secretary of state is one example of someone who the senate intelligence committee, democrats have said he's been working as a partner and doing great work. he's experienced. he knows the team. >> john is experienced. he was on the intelligence committee. jay clayton, former chair of the sec for southern district of new york. there have been some good nominations here. there have also been some outrageously silly nominations and that's what we see with kash patel. >> and mike waltz has experience as a member of congress. donald trump has already tapped tulsi gabbard to be his director

of national intelligence. you're on the house committee. she's been accused of repeating russian propaganda, visited al assad twice, is not an enemy of the u.s. have you heard anything more from your colleagues in the senate about her confirmation because she's kind of going under the radar but what i'm hearing even from experienced diplomats among our five eye partners, five countries we get so much intelligence from, is that they will not share certain sources and methods. if she is the person editing, if she's the dni editing the presidential daily brief and they are just going to hold stuff back. >> that's always a risk. always a risk. and you know, when we use the word sources and methods.

remember, a source is often a technology that if discovered would put people's lives at risk or it can be an individual. a human being in a place like baghdad or moscow or beijing who could be killed if that information was mishandled. with respect to gabbard, being dni is largely a management task of a roughly $90 billion a year operation which does very dangerous things. she's never run anything more complicated than a house congressional office. you were right to focus on the fact that if there's one job they have, it's to always tell the absolute truth and be careful about how you do that. this is your job with respect to the president and the fact she's promoted conspiracy theories over and over again. again, if i were a senator, that would be something i would want to understand and ask her about.

>> congressman himes, thank you. >> thank you. and next, a heated moment during a hearing with the bipartisan congressional task force wrapping up their report on the first attempted assassination of the now president-elect. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. president-ele. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. there we were, driver versus reptile. our battle was legendary. (♪♪) wait a second. you don't own a pet snake, do you? phew maybe now my friends will believe me. if this is what we did for one delivery, see what we can do for your business. fedex. [clears throat] sounds like you need to vaporize that sore throat. vapocool drops? it's sore throat relief with a rush of vicks vapors. ♪ vapocooooool ♪ whoa. vaporize sore throat pain with vicks vapocool drops.

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the house task force held

its final hearing this morning and while the acting director of the secret service was there to testify on the failures that led to the shooting which he has acknowledged in several news conferences, this hearing took an explosive turn on an unrelated subject leading to a heated change between acting director row and pat fallon. this is when fallon showed a still frame of the most recent 9/11 ceremonies at ground zero. and challenged the fact that the agent in charge, particularly row, was not standing in close proximity to his protectee, jd vance. while row tried to explain he was there in a totally separate role. he was honoring his fallen colleagues because he had been in the first responders to 9/11. on that very day. and many of his colleagues had died. >> i am a public servant who has served in nation and you -- on

our country's darkest day! >> committee will come to order. >> i'm asking you serious questions for the american people and they're very simple. they're not trick questions. were you the special agent in charge that day? >> i was there representing the -- sir. did not affect protective operations! >> you want to be visible because -- you endangered the president's life! because you put those agents out of position! >> let me just repeat, let me introduce first of all our justice correspondent, ken dilanian and bobby mcdonald. as he explained, i try to set it up. he was being accused of not protecting the incoming vice president of the united states. by having not been there in charge of the detail.

he was there representing the agency as he does, as the senior official because so many secret service members died on 9/11. as first responders and he was one of them there in that first response. can that exchange just says so much and you saw that the congressman did not back down, accusing him of dereliction of duty. >> and they say civility is is on the decline in american politics, andrea. what a moment. but look, pat fallon is a former notre dame football player, a massachusetts native who got elected to congress in texas. so no shrinking violet. acting director row has sort of portrayed himself as the classic law enforcement official. there to save the secret service. what i think that illustrated though was a distrust and animus towards row in the maga faction in the house with the idea he's

not going to be secret service director under trump. it is interesting because row was there all along throughout these failures that have been well documented but has portrayed himself as a reformer. he was deputy director, he was there, too, but he has come in and suggested he's cleaning everything up and that's what he suggested today. they've made a lot of changes, everyone agreed things are headed in a good direction but what seems clear is that the maga faction is not too happy with him and they want him gone. >> and bobby, what questions do remain unanswered about the multiple failures that have been acknowledged? >> well, good i think things were moving along nicely for acting director row until that exchange. i think he was being treated very fairly by members of the bipartisan committee. i think they've been very happy with his cooperation and the

transparency he's shown over the last several months. i think he has shown some changes made into an agency which you know as well as anybody is a little bit of a dinosaur, had some cultural issues. i think we need to dig deeper on how we got to where we got to. why did that complacency in the way we're doing our process in butler, how do we come out of that and support the great work the men and women of the secret service do every day. albeit we aren't very good on july 13th. >> i think the reason for the anger expressed by the witness by the secret service director was to bring 9/11 in and to take a picture, a still photo, and try to extrapolate from it. could have been questions raised going into that hearing to do a little more fact checking about what was really going on. >> well, i think he should have expected that to be coming as part of the questioning. that issue has been talked

around here after it happened with former agents and what not. i think he should have expected that to be portrayed and maybe held a cooler head with respect to the answer. >> thanks for the context. appreciate it. next, israeli leaders are pushing back against a new amnesty international report accusing israel of genocide against palestinians in gaza. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. gaza you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. 've worked ha. you fixed it. you looked after it. maybe it's time for your home to start taking care of you. we've invested in our home, we've worked on it, we had a whole lot of equity just sitting there, you paid down the mortgage, invested in your home. i guess, you could say, your home owes you. if you're 62 or older and own your home, learn how you could access a portion of your home equity to give you cash. a reverse mortgage can put more money in your pocket by

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amnesty international in london says israel is committing quote genocide. allegations israel is calling entirely baseless. in a new report, the group writes our findings must serve as a wake up call to the international community. this is genocide. it must stop now. israel's foreign ministry responding a deplorable and fanatical agency has once again produced a fabricated report that is false and based on lies. last night in southern gaza, the israeli military bombs a tent encampment which had been designated as a humanitarian zone. israel saying the air strike targeted senior hamas militants and "the washington post" is reporting that president-elect trump's newly named envoy, steve whitkoff, met with leaders in

late november in an effort to try to revive a cease fire and hostage deal in gaza. hala joins us from jerusalem. the state department has denied this is genocide, which is a legal term applied in darfur and other places where there is a concerted attempt to eliminate particular ethnic population. amnesty's report coming after the international criminal court issued a warrant against prime minister netanyahu and the former defense minister and a late hamas leader who was assassinated, targeted assassination for war crimes, crimes against humanity. why this report now? and what will be the impact? >> reporter: so amnesty says that it took them several months to compile this report which is why it takes time. it's almost 300 pages and also importantly, genocide is not a

term ever used lightly. in fact, this is the first time amnesty says that it has used that term to describe the actions of government in a conflict situation while the conflict and the war was ongoing. so this is a first for amnesty. as you mentioned, israel is pushing back hard against this calling amnesty international a fanatical and deplorable organization. now, amnesty international is saying israel has been using starvation as a weapon of war. not just military bombardments but the annihilation essentially of the infrastructure, of everything that can potentially support life inside of the gaza strip. so therefore, according to amnesty, this meets the definition of genocide. genocide, which was a term coined only in 1948 as many viewers know. it was after the nazi holocaust that that term was coined to describe exactly what amnesty is alleging the israeli military is actually doing inside of gaza.

i mentioned starvation because the u.n. is saying among other organizations that hunger has been used as a weapon of war. at one point, 8 million people in extreme food insecurity among other things that they are suffering in the besieged enclave. so this is a report that israel says is baseless but that amnesty says it has taken it months to compile and stands behind. >> and of course, isaac they spent nine hours in the car cabinet leading them to reopen the rafah gate. there's only been a trickle of truckloads in more than a year. thank you very much and that does it for us. remember, follow us on social media at mitchell reports. you can rewatch highlights

anytime on youtube. just go to msnbc.com/andrea. chris jansing reports starts after the short break. chris jansing reports starts after the short break. it kills 99.9% of bad breath germs for five times more cleaning power than brushing and flossing alone. get a next level clean... . with listerine. feel the whoa! i love that my daughter still needs me. but sometimes i can't help due to burning and stabbing pain in my hands, so i use nervive. nervive's clinical dose of ala reduces nerve discomfort in as little as seven days. now i can help again feel the difference with nervive.

good day, i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. unmasking a suspected killer. new york city police releasing these first images showing