that is the exact same thing milley said and we've learned today that milley conducted his call to the top chinese general in consultation with and with the approval of secretary esper. that call from milley was on october 30th of 2020. and there was one more call after that. this a call from milley to the same chinese general on january 8th this year. significantly, january 8th is two days after the insurrection. now, this is according to a new book by the reporters bob woodward and robert costa. we learned the calls were not secret. not like milley got on the phone and called his counterpart and now it's leaking out. not at all. we learned there were 15 people on each of those two calls. during the discussion on january 8th. he said we're 100% steady. everything is fine. democracy can be sloppy sometimes. according to the book milley went as far to promise his counterpart he would alert them on a strike to the u.s. in the october call approved by esper. the white house's defense in high gear, the president making his support for milley clear. >> sir, did general milley do the right t

you referenced chairman milley. nothing we saw suggested that this government and security force would collapse in 11 days. >> sean: my sources tell me that the cia and our intelligence community bailed out 7 weeks early and warned you every day. let's release all of that intel you were handed every day. you didn't see it coming in april, may, june, july? ine though they were on the march. that's the taliban on the move. the intel community warned them daily. the world watched the taliban on the move for months. you have full control of kabul. you could have evacuateuated americans and allies and taken the 80 billion dollars and our military equipment had you acted in a timely manner and used drone strikes to push back the taliban. lies and stupid. blinken is just lying. he needs to go. he and biden knew what was happening on the ground. that will come out in reports that some are bleaching right now on their computers. instead of stopping the taliban's advance and supporting the afghan military with air support tha

in other words, milley was acting alone. milley said he entered pla are working together, almost like allies. but that was total nonsense. milley acts like china wants to dance with us could not dominate us. people are wenrick my goodness, white wound biden can milley? i will tell you why. because biden's team sees everything in terms of short-term political expediency. instead across party lines and stuff like vaccination the biden team decided to the object that the governor of florida and consult the american people. in the of demanding a credibility for the afghanistan disaster, the biden team to attack president trump again. time and again, they have placed their calyn thompson talking points ahead of what is best for the country. they are bidding everything on the fact that no matter how incapable no matter how divisive the archived they will never really suffered politically. because enough mickens despised trump than anyone would ever agree with him. effect discuss this latest effort -- episode shows us once again th

milley said and everything that they did. were milley and policy colluding? were they staging a military political coup? anointing themselves commander-in-chief? obvious dust by the way, august as joe biden's cognitive decline imagine what would happen if this were done to him. imagine the average. and three congress, by the continue to subpoena all of the documents every single last one of them and every single transcript. a partnerer ltch according to woodward and costa, there are meeting no. there or e-mails but there letter. there are further documents and maybe the most important of all, surrounding millie's called with pelosi and likely his counterpart in china. plus that he was monitors single official cultic there is definitely immigrant out there. woodward and costa say they have all this information. all of the serious matter is being investigated, due to the severity of the allegation and our belief and due process and the perception of innocence, this is so serious that the only way i see to handle this is to immediately appoint ay commission. itc

milley had just won gold ensuring the peaceful power transfer of power and he told you, milley telling pompeo, we got a plane, four engines. we have got no landing gear. but we are going to plant this plane and we are going to clean it safely. i have known you a long time, mr. secretary. is that true? >> i have no recollection of the conversation like that. we were about to head over the ridge of foreign policy to this administration. we have seen what that means for the united states of america. if someone asks, what was i excited about january 20th and the fact that we were no longer we were no longer going to have the capacity to secure american freedom? what is important to know is all this has the predicate that some help there was this fear. there were members concerned that don trump was going to engaged in some kind of drug activity or some kind of act of work to flesh out. this never happened. it is patently absurd. the entire predicate for all of this assessment that woodward has laid out, we will see what turns out. but make no mistake about it. during that entire time i ser

i think general milley took some very prudent measures. know, as a former member of the joint staff, the j7, i remember when the chairman would pull all of the staff officers in, would pull all of the brigadier generals, the one stars that were working the shift in the national military command center, as jamie just said, and say, hey, we're in a tense -- and this was during the start of the afghan war. we are in a tense situation, make sure your reporting is right, make sure the processes and procedures are run the right way. the problem is that we are talking about a commander in chief that as the book describes was so far off the rails that general milley felt concern about that, and, as jamie just said, he also called the general who was the national security -- the guy that runs the signals and said, hey, keep your needles up. make sure you are monitoring foreign countries. make sure you are seeing what is going on. he also calls gina haspel, as jamie just said, the head of the cia and says, make sure if there's any warning coming in

milley needs to resign, austin needs to resign. milley, he is sitting here trading gossip with bob woodward while afghanistan literally burns erie literally burns. the account ability has got to start right there. he needs to resign, austin needs to resign, the president should fire them. >> sean: you said that to austin, don't only we are not leaving americans behind, why did you have to remind him of that? >> you know, it's just extraordinary that he would sit there until the committee -- because what he said, sean, was we haven't left americans behind. he said that, he's under oath that he actually said that. you know what, it's a joe biden talking point. joe biden's white house is said we didn't actually leave americans behind. guess what? we are not in afghanistan, the american civilians sigil are, many of our fellow citizens still there, still trapped, and they are denying it. the administration is denying it. it is just shameful. for that reason alone, austin and really ought to resign. if >> sean: did we ever get an answer

an elf the leaked milley chats. is there anyone trustworthy among biden's military or diplomatic leadership or cabin at this point? >> you know, makes you wonder if anyone in this administration, laura, willing or able tell the truth. that is a dangerous part in the united states of america. and to listen to what he was saying today is not true, this administration materially altered the conditions of withdrawal and they are the ones responsible. joe biden is responsible for the withdrawal that resulted in 13 service members dead, that resulted in hundreds of american civilians left behind. until there is some accountability here, i will not rubber-stamp these nominees and not just let them sail through the senate. there needs to be accountability for this humiliation that this country has suffered at the hands of joe biden. can i just say this too, laura? for joe biden to call this an extraordinary success as he did to say the death of these marines and service members, these civilians left behind to the enemy is a

milley having the concerns, fine. milley wanted to do something about the concerns, fine. milley calling his chinese counterpart, meeting with top brass, telling the chinese counterpart, don't worry, everything is going to be fine, i will let you know if we will attack you, and telling the top military brass, you come to me no matter who tells you what, do you believe that that is going too far? >> look, on the call with the chinese, i think we need more information. if milley actually did say to a foreign adversary, i will warn you before we hit you, and if we had a credible reason to hit an adversary, that's dangerous talk. we don't have all the details. it sounds to me like milley was trying to reach out to foreign counterparts to say, let's keep the temperature low, you may hear insane rhetoric out of washington, but let's try to keep it from going to war. like many statesmen have throughout history to try to keep temperatures low. i hope that's the case. i think we need to ask those questions. i think general milley owes answers on that front. >> myles taylor, invalua

. >> and milley told him. shouldn't pompeo -- shouldn't meadows, shouldn't miller and esper be put in that same position as milley today and say why didn't you tell us when you heard us making the accusations, why didn't you tell us that you knew that he had done this? and why was it okay for you? because if it was wrong for milley to do it, it would have been wrong for them in different ways. shouldn't that be done now? >> well, i think -- i think we know why they haven't said it. there are political ambitions at stake. pompeo is running for president. i think that's pretty clear -- >> what about the senators, rubio, hawley. how can have questions for milley and not have them for the people you told that didn't let you know that they knew? >> yeah. may i just say, i'm not sure pompeo would have communicated to those people or mark meadows that milley was calling the chinese because it was so standard operating procedure, so regular order, so by the book, it wasn't a big deal. >> yet pompeo pretends it could h

just as bad as general milley., this over the horizon stuff, they think it's "the wizard of oz" over the rainbow, over the horizon, that's a phrase that has absolutely no meaning. no intelligence whatsoever left in afghanistan and you point out night after night, hostages, the whole country has been held hostage by biden for eight months. let me tell you what's going to happen to most of the american citizens. they are not coming back. let me tell you what will happen to most of the american green card holders, they are not coming back. let me tell you what will happen visaose 80,000 or so holders, patriots who served with us. they are not coming back. they hope you forget it. now they go to war on florida, texas, read southern states that biden has no hope of winning. what are they doing now? biden is holding back monoclonal antibodies from florida and southern states that have been using these antibodies effectively to save people's lives once they get the coronavirus. out of nowhere! no warning to any of the sta

and milley also reports that -- i'm sorry, woodward and costa also report that milley thought that trump was in serious mental decline. and at one point he turns to his senior staff, and he says, quote, you never know what a president's trigger point is. against this backdrop, milley, it's january 8th. it's two days after the assault on the capitol. gets a phone call from speaker nancy pelosi. woodward and costa obtained an exclusive transcript of this call. and pelosi is as concerned about milley. they have a very blunt and dramatic call. pelosi wants to know are the nuclear weapons safe from trump. here's part of the exchange from the book. pelosi, who knows what he might do. he's crazy. you know he's crazy. he's been crazy for a long time. so don't say you don't know what his state of mind is. he's crazy, and what he did yesterday, meaning january 6th, is further evidence of his craziness. general milley responds, madame speaker, i agree with you on everything. so, ana, general milley in that call reassures nancy pelosi according to woodward and costa's reporting. but when he gets off

>> milley felt that's the case. and if you look at this and you go to the environment, the first call was october 30th, four days before the election. the most contentious election in modern history. and trump was out there accusing china. it's the china virus. he was saying things about the election. and all of a sudden, you get, which milley acknowledged today, very sensitive intelligence that the chinese think we're going to attack them. that is the disaster environment for somebody in the military because, as milley told his senior staff, you might wind up getting a pearl harbor. someone will make the first move. and we don't know what would have happened if he hadn't done this, but if you look at -- these are reasonable precautions. we found no evidence, and bob costa and i had months to look at this, that milley had done anything other than what he felt in a crisis moment was, i'm going to do the maximum amount to protect the united states. >> protect the united states and make sure no lives were shed unnecess

a crisis, that is exactly what general milley should have been doing. >> general milley is interesting. when he testified recently before congress he was asked about critical race theory, and he talked about how he's studied it and what everyone thinks of it. he just was talking about the importance of understanding reading his works and carl marx. i thought it was interesting to hear general discuss, you know, the kind of education of a general and staying abreast of theories and policies. >> that's exactly what we expect of our senior leadership. we expect them to be convergent with what congress was, talk with people at the political level, the social level. we expect them to understand our soldiers and impact on our soldiers. that's why we've had a great armed forces. that's why america views it as the sort of number one most respected institution because we have leetaders like mark milley. >> to those who look at what milley had done and saying general milley may have been horrified by president trump or what he was up to but perhaps he should have quit or been public about it rat

and general milley didn't come out and say he never said that. >> general milley did confirm he spoke to not only woodward and costa, but a lot of authors, and there are new books. general milley also admitted that the afghanistan withdrawal, the way it unfolded has undermined u.s. credibility. the adversaries are happy, allies are upset. what does this do for u.s. national security? >> listen, i have heard from european diplomats, diplomats with our closest allies who are concerned about this very thing. we know that america's adversaries watch. they watched the gulf war, made conclusions about american capabilities. they watched america's long involvements in iraq and afghanistan. learned about america's vulnerabilities to fighting insurgencies and so far. we know they watch the exit as well. and the question is, does russia look at u.s. departure from afghanistan and leaving its allies and say, what does that mean about the eastern members of nato? what would happen if we meddled in estonia again? would the u.s. react consequentially? an open question. china looks and says, what wo

>> who is right is general milley, mark milley is correct. look, when the president of the united states does not pick up the phone when this is going on and call his allies like he didn't call boris johnson or macron in france, what kind of political credibility do you have when you don't talk to your nato alliance, you have a problem there and he didn't do it. problem on political side, sure milley was talking to counter parts, nato alliance counter parts. >> john: one other point here, that is general milleys involvement in reaching out to general li, chinese counterpart, he said he informed pompeo and mark meadows about the phone calls. were you ever in that loop? >> no, john, i was not, i was not told that. national security advisor was not told that. he made the comment, two associates of acting secretary of defense. what mark milley should have done, if he called me, pick up the phone and call the president of the united states before you make a phone call to adversary and the chinese, make no mistake are adversary of ours. look at the

>> what general milley was seeing was desperation.ere was a sudden precipitous decline in donald's psychological health. he had never been psychologically healthy, and we've been hearing reports for the last five years about his erratic behavior, his outbursts, his temper, his inability to focus or grasp even the most basic information. what happened after he lost the election was the incredible stressor of having for the first time in his life lost something that he couldn't lie, cheat, or steal his way out of. so his desperation is what general milley was dealing with, and i have no doubt in my mind that it made donald's behavior even more alarming, even though i don't think it pointed to a mental decline. >> there are so many passages in this book, when i get in there and read every line that make me think of you, make me think, oh, mary trump's reaction to this, and there's this moment where he's been told that you cannot, you know, you just cannot use the insurrection act to bring troops to washington, d.c., to take over and crus

general mark milley's message at that meeting? no one was so act on any orders for military strikes, even from the president unless milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs was personally involved in the signoff as called for by pentagon protocols. details of the top secret pentagon meeting among many of the startling revelations about the final days of trump in "peril", a book. our cnn special correspondent obtained an early copy of the book. >> john, woodward and costa, as you say, report that general mark milley took top secret action to limit president trump's ability to make a military strike or to use nuclear weapons. let me just set the stage from the book. according to woodward and costa, milley is deeply shaken from the assault on the capitol on the 6th. we believes trump, to your point, is unstable, unpredictable, and woodward and costa write, milley believes that trump is in serious mental decline. he also has been talking back channel to the chinese. he is aware from intelligence that the chinese are on edge, because o

trump's ally in capitol hill are accusing milley of treason, because they can. and some lawmakers are demanding that he resign, or be fired today the current president stood by the chairman. >> >> reporter: >> i have great confidence in general milley. >> general milley will no doubt be asked about all of this, when he testifies before the senator on services committee next week. also tonight new data on the devastating toll of the pandemic, nbc news recording the virus has now won in every 500 americans. one out of every eight americans have become infected. today both pfizer and moderna released their new research to try and make a case for booster shots. they warned the vaccine immunity may fade overtime. on friday the fda's vaccine advisory group will review pfizer's request to okay booster shots ahead of the administration, expected rollout of the booster shots. and a footnote, hear a lot of people are already getting their booster shots, regardless of what the fda says, or things. there is one other story that is developing tonight. axios is now reporting

but you have mark milley admitting it. want to go back to what leslie saying there was no problem here. remember the media hysteria when general mike flynn called with the approval of the incoming commander in chief, his counter part in russia, his life was destroyed for that here you have mark milley who the acting secretary of defense says he wasn't authorized to make these calls which undermind our country and -- undermined our country, which made it seem like things were unstable. you have mark milley who said of the strike that we heard about a couple weeks ago, i remember the morning of media buzz, we heard just before that was going on, that there had been a righteous strike where supposedly isis-k terrorists were taken out, instead it was seven children and other people. he's got so many problems going on. yet the media are so restrained how they talk about it, wanting to give him the benefit of the doubt. they is extremely important, has nothing to do with trump. it those to do with do you have a republic, a chain

general milley to resign.we all know the way we left afghanistan or in the process of leaving has been disaster. it's been so messy. and now stories are coming out from the pentagon going, you know, we know we were in charge of doing it. but the boss told us and we said don't do it but he did it so, sorry. ainsley: we still have hundreds of americans. at least 100 that we know of behind enemy lines there. steve: but the evacuation flights have paused because of measles. for a week. brian: all states got a call yesterday and told how many afghan refugees they are going to be told to take. top of the list texas is number two and number one taking the most would be california. i guess that's the price you pay for having the president show up. you get to take 10,000 people you know nothing about. meanwhile. ainsley: 6:10 on the east coast. gabby petito's boyfriend a person of interest in her disappearance. the latest twist in this case. brian: comedian jim brewer not laughing about vaccine mandates. >> why would y

general milley, yes or no to this. did you talk to bob woodward or bob costa for their book "peril." >> woodward yes, costa know. >> did you talk about to the authors of the book alone can i fix it? >> yes. >> did you talk to michael bender his book "frankly we did win this election, the inside story of how trump lost." >> yes. >> and were you accurately represented in these the books? >> i haven't read any of the books so i don't know. i've seen press reporting of it. >> okay. >> i haven't read the book. >> let's have you read the books and then let us know if you were accurately portrayed. >> happy to do that. >> senator blackburn, we're adhering to the five-minute rule. thank you. >> senator rosen, please. >> thank you, chairman reed, ranking member inhofe for tolding today's hearing. the critical part of this committee's oversight responsibilities. it's an opportunity for the american people to get answers about our withdrawal from afghanistan and how we plan to counter terrorist threats in the future. i also want

why is general milley making a phone call? he's making it because i assume they picked up intelligence and that the chinese were expressing some concern. so making a phone call, knowing we're not doing -- by the way, i checked with senior trump officials who would have been privacy to any conversation concerning china during this time frame. there's no way he would have been outside of that discussion. no discussion taken place whatsoever. so the chinese are reacting to some conclusions. i would imagine our knowledge of that is quite sensitive in terms of the intelligence itself. general milley is making a phone call to provide re-assurances, which is his job. i mean, he's executing his responsibility and doing it in concert with his own advisers and sharing that with the interagency. i don't know if they briefed the president on this phone call or not. i have no idea about that. not briefing them would also not be unusual. it had to do with the sense of urgency and what the issue was. but i take this at milley's statement at

>> i have great confidence in general milley. >> john: i have confidence in general milley. >> the president shutting down any question about whether or not he has confidence in his chairman of the joint chief amid allegations general milley may have exceeded his authority. spokesperson for general milley denied reported calls to his chinese military counterpart saying milley assurances was to maintain strategic stability, the meeting regarding nuclear weapon protocol to remind uniform leaders in the pentagon of robust procedure in light of media reporting on the subject. general milley continues to act and advise within authority in lawful control of the military and his oath to the constitution. white house press secretary jen psaki refused to comment on the allegations in this book and shared the president's full endorsement of milley. >> what is the president's response to this criticism that the chairman of the joint chiefs exceeded his authority, his civilian authority? >> president's opinion is he a man of honor, a man the president is confident in his leadership, pat

why wouldn't members of congress call mark milley?ken to him, and demandwh a public answer lie today, now? >> tucker, needs to happen immediately and i'm actually shocked it has not happened, either. youy, know, mark milley is a four-star general who acts like he wants to be a democrat politician. he is actually -- he did a coup against a sitting president of the united states, and the members of congress need to grow a backbone, get a spine comments are holding people accountable. >> tucker: yeah, when you start making racist statements in congressional testimony and pretend it didn't happen, and you're the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, maybe there is a problem. then when you are on the record threatening the sitting president, who you work, for with violence, "we have the guns," and no one says anything, maybe our deepest fears about washington are true. >> they are, tucker, it is a cesspool down there. you know it, and i know it. they say washington, d.c., is insanity surrounded by the rest of the united states. so, benedi

milley replied, "i agree with you on everything."illey, the authors write, "was certain trump had gone into a serious mental decline." during a meeting at the pentagon, according to the book, milley, who is actually not in the chain of command, told the top military leadership they were not to sign off on any order to use nuclear weapons without his sign-off. "no matter what you are told, you do the procedure," milley told them. "you do the process. and i'm part of that procedure." according to the book, milley looked everyone in the eye and asked each one of them to say they agreed. >> this is really something. jon, former president trump responding a short time ago? >> reporter: just a few minutes ago in an interview on news max, the former president said that if it is actually true, that general milley reached out to the chinese and, quote, was willing to advise them of an attack or about advance of an attack, that's treason. trump also said that the idea he was going to attack china is, quote, the most ridiculous thing he has eve

this is pretty drastic stuff that general milley did. if he really, really thought -- this is the least expansionist president we've had in a long time. sending the nukes out sounds irrational. >> neil: the book lays out it wasn't like a nuclear war. there was no accident -- >> why call them. why call -- >> neil: milley set the fear for that and it might have produced more harm than his fears about what the president might do. >> think about it, neil. he's calling the chinese that are covering up probably the source and cause of covid. this is dangerous, dangerous stuff. general milley is a patriot. he's a general, fought in many battles. what le did is reckless if you talk to the people i talked to and common sense tells you. >> neil: all right. charlie gasparino, thanks. these are charges and allegations in this blockbuster bob woodward book. i must stress, we reached out to the principal players and yet to hear back a statement from the pentagon. general milley is still in power. if we get anything, we'll let you know. the upshot is t

that was milley's assessment and the assessment of others.nd that -- and, of course, that january 8th call comes two days after an insurrection at the u.s. capitol. all of these factors, along with the president going outside of the usual channels on afghanistan -- cnn's reported on that memo. it's in our book, as well. all of these factors played into milley's decision to make these calls, and to take certain steps. >> so, bob, when general milley was asked about his call with speaker pelosi, robert costa talked about trump unraveling. and her concerns about then-president trump's mental stability. he said today he was, quote, not qualified to evaluate the mental fitness or the health of a former president, present president, or anybody else or anybody in this room. that's not my job. go ahead. >> yeah. but i -- i think that statement is not a denial. he said very clearly, and by the way, this is added in, ad-lib, to the formal statement he presented this morning to the committee. and as you said, i am not qualified to determine the mental h

you had milley canceling exercises in south china sea.okay i'll cancel this, so you know we're not being provocative. no one should say in this situation, china they are not our enemy, you consider covid has killed over 4.5 million people worldwide. and you see treatment of uighurs there or protesters of hong kong, this is or enemy, the fact that we're having these conversations is the thing. even if you believe it was okay for general milley to have these conversations, no one is excusing fact he did not let president know he is canceling the exercises in south china sea. >> he has no place to think that donald trump will launch nuclear missiles against china, donald trump, probably foremost president in my lifetime who did not like military conflict if he could avoid it. we'll be right back. mark: welcome back. everyone was out on get donald trump. certainly the intelligent agencies, law enforcement agents, media and democrats. that say lot of people. -- that is a lot of people. as news points out michael susman was indicted and a super

you had milley canceling exercises in south china sea.so you know we're not being provocative. no one should say in this situation, china they are not our enemy, you consider covid has killed over 4.5 million people worldwide. and you see treatment of uighurs there or protesters of hong kong, this is or enemy, the fact that we're having these conversations is the thing. even if you believe it was okay for general milley to have these conversations, no one is excusing fact he did not let president know he is canceling the exercises in south china sea. >> he has no place to think that donald trump will launch nuclear missiles against china, donald trump, probably foremost probably foremost president in my lifetime ♪ music playing. ♪ there's an america we build ♪ ♪ and one we explore one that's been paved and one that's forever wild but freedom means you don't have to choose just one adventure ♪ ♪ you get both. introducing the all-new 3-row jeep grand cherokee l jeep. there's only one. one of my favorite supplements is qunol turmeric. turmer

>> i have confidence in general milley. >> phil, stay with us. let's listen to john kirby. >> these are in violation of u.n. security council resolutions and highlight the impact of the illicit weapons program. our commitment to the defense of the republic of korea and japan remains ironclad and i think you saw it statement earlier today about that. this morning secretary austin welcomed the australian minister for defense, peter dutton here to the pentagon. we're proud to stand alongside our allies to strengthen deterrence and defend our shared values and interests in the indo-pacific region. the u.s./australia relationship is what we're proud to call the unbreakable alliance. our increasing conversions and alignment on most important strategic rashes atest to the endure value and cooperating closely on strategic capabilities, regional engagement and of course military operations. and ultimately we're cooperating on all that strengthens our ability to deter threats. tomorrow secretary austin and minister dutton will join secretary of state blink

he turns around and attacks milley. milley was not alone. what we have learned in the book was milley was not the only person who thought that donald trump was dangerous, unstable and unpredictable. woodward and costa quote gina haspel as saying, this is a highly dangerous situation. we're going to lash out for his ego. this is after a meeting about iran. she said it another time, quote, we're on the way to a right wing coup. the whole thing is insanity. he's acting like a six year old with a tantrum. even then secretary of state mike pompeo, who is considered a loyalist, said after the election that trump was, quote, in a very dark place. >> no question. i remember from talking to my sources at the time that, you know, we had sources telling us that he was out of his mind. >> right. >> at the time. general hertling, let me turn to you next. president biden has said he has great confidence in the joint chiefs chairman general milley. do you see any red flags with how milley handled all this? >> i don't, jim, not at all. i suggest his contact

as general milley just said, that assessment was made. we tasked him to make that assessment on the 25th and he came back and provided his best military advice. >> secretary, kabul fell on august 15th. it feels clear that we had thousands of americans -- clear to members of this committee through phone calls, thousands of americans in afghanistan behind taliban lines on august 15th and it took ten days to ask these general officers? i suspect the answer might be a little different if you were asking them 16 days out, not 5 days out. again, my time is limited. i want to move on to another matter. president biden's evacuation screwed things up coming and going related to afghan refugees. we brought out thousands with no potential connection about whom we know nothing and cannot be effective vetted. you now have female troops who have been assaulted, afghan evacuees committing sex crimes at ft. mccoy. what are we to make of this? what steps are we taking to ensure that thousands of afghans about whom we know nothing are not going to be a men

general milley replied, i agree with you on everything.re so's on capitol hill confirming those exact words to me tonight. someone like general mley, who is not seen as political or a democrat or a republican, here he is on the phone with a democrat who is a target of armor president trump's anger saying i agree with you. i want to point out another conversation general milley had with gina haspel, former cia director. she reportedly told general milley, we are on the way to a right-wing coup, going back to the idea of january 6 shaking people up. extraordinary conversations underlying the idea that former president trump was seen as someone who was a loose cannon in his own and nest ration. -- administration. judy: nick, you said you have an understanding now of what it was that general milley did with regards to u.s. policy towards deploying nuclear weapons. nick: this is a routine meeting, even though the context truly was extraordinary. in january, there was a prescheduled quarterly check in with nuclear command. a defense official, --

he criticized milley. said it was treasonous and i think what we're seeing here is something we watch with donald trump for four years, which is when he is being attacked, when he doesn't like the narrative, he wants to turn it around on someone else. i think what we're seeing is the book came out, we started describing the attacks on him. what top officials, not just general milley was saying about that this is donald trump trying to turn the tables on general milley. let me give you a couple of quotes from the book of people other than general milley. gina haspel said this is dangerous. are we going to lash out for his ego? this was over a meeting about iran. she also said are we on our way to a right wing coup after the election. mike pompeo who is seen as very loyal to donald trump, then secretary of state says, he's in a dark place. according to a top national security official that i spoke to, this official said milley did not go rogue as far as china is concerned or going into the war room. what's r

mark milley's involved in lafayette park issuing his opinions? mark milley is a very very busy man.o forth. i'm going to give you my opinion. i study history. i see lincoln with his generals. i see fdr with his generals. i have never seen, my opinion, a more pathetic, incompetent, blow hard as a general in my life. and you know, when it came to afghanistan, we needed a [inaudible]. we needed someone like that. we had one. general miller the commander on the ground in afghanistan, who opposed the idea of withdrawing especially the way that they withdrew and predicted exactly what would happen. mark milley blew him off, apparently. joe biden blew him off. and now we have american citizens, american allies, american green card holders in enemy territory being held as hostages. we will be right back. ♪ ♪ qunol is the number one cardiologist recommended form of coq10. qunol has 3 times better absorption than regular coq10. the brand i trust is qunol. >> jillian: this is fox news live. the biden administration is at odds with the border patrol over these controversial images of agents on

, chairman of the joint chiefs >> i have co infn general milley >> reporter: milley under scrutiny afterve claims in a new book by bob woodward and robert costa, including milley reveal nuclear launch protocols. milley do the procedure, you do the process, and i'm part of that procedure. milley also sought to reassure a top chinese general that the american government is stable, then reportedly telling the u.s. adversary, "if we're going to attack, i'm going to call you ahead of time. it's not going to be a surprise." some republican officials said milley should be fired for going around an elected commander in chief. >> the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff ignoring the constitution, deciding he's going to call a potential adversary, and enemy of the united states, and collude with them >> if true, there is a word for it and it seems like treasonous activity to me >> reporter: 41 years in uniform, former president trump chose milley for joint chiefs chairman in 2018 last year milley apologi protesters were cleared with tear gas tuesday the former president china and slammed the mill

, i am thinking milley vanilly. some secrets to hide. you bring up a good point about woodward. i actually personally know someone who is directly quoted in a woodward book who never spoke to him, who try to get it corrected because the quote was wrong and could not get that fixed. i think it rings a little bit true, but -- >> greg: can i ask you a question? why is -- i am the host of the show -- >> please, go ahead. >> greg: how do people keep having woodward in the white house? i mean, trump even had him in the white house. where does he sit? i was at the white house, i never saw woodward there. where is he all the time doing this stuff? >> didn't he interview the former cia director on his deathbed, but nobody saw him come in or out of the hospital? >> greg: yeah. >> i want that kind of job. you don't have to do anything. he is nowhere to be found. >> greg: yes. tyrus, thoughts? >> i, you know, i just feel like this whole thing is, well, what is the word i'm looking for -- [bleep]. [applause] there is no reason f

, chairman of the joint chiefs. >> i have great confidence in general milley. >> reporter: milley under scrutiny after explosive claims in a new book by bob woodward and robert costa, including milley convening top officers after the january insurrection to review nuclear launch protocols milley reportedly telling them, no matter what you were told, you do the procedure, you do the process, and i'm part of that procedure. milley also sought to reassure a top chinese general that the american government is stable, then reportedly telling the u.s. adversary, "if we're going to attack, i'm going to call you ahead of time. it's not going to be a surprise." some republican officials said milley should be fired for going around an elected commander in chief. >> the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, a military leader basically ignoring the constitution, deciding he is going to call a potential adversary and an enemy of the united states and collude with them. >> if true, there is a word for it, and it sure seems like treasonous activity to me. >> reporter: 41 years in uniform former presi

general milley a hero or trader is critics allege?after the 2020 election milley became alarmed by trump's erratic behavior and reportedly was worried the former president start a war with china and the story goes, milley became even more content article january 6 rights. the book claims milley called chinese counterparts, tries to reassure them to u.s. government was stable and he notify china in the event of an attack. any military person will tell you that's not up the chain of command. the president is commander-in-chief and gets to make the final call when and if to push the button and that's why many people call for milley to resign or be fired but today john kirby, said milley did everything by the book. >> i see nothing in what i've read that would cause any concern. it's not only common, it's expected that chairman of the joint chiefs of staff would continue to have counterpart conversations. liz: it's not the conversations with the conversation, it's the content of the conversations. u.s. senators call for milley to be asked

milley will have to address. this was not mark milley.ther. and that the head of the pentagon mark esper decided to do something on china by himself and mark milley was following that. that's a less sexy story but it has the added benefit of being the truth. >> you say milley wasn't freelancie ing but you make it clear dod was freelancing here. you talk about a breakdown in communications following the lafayette square situation, breakdown between dod and the white house and furthermore that it wasn't even clear, as your reporting shows, that china was actually really concerned the u.s. would take military action. >> right, right. first of all, there's no evidence that donald trump was about to nuke china, right? there was crazy stuff going out the white house, mypillow guy and rudy were trying to convince him machines were hacked. that's different than saying donald trump was going to attack china. there's no evidence for that. milley and esper said it's getting hot in here, let's turn down the temperature. the white house guys the trump

ultimately, sort of the last person standing in this is milley, because barr had left early and milley is the person who sees in trump drastic problems. he thinks he's actually mentally lost it since the election. and he is taking it upon himself to try and prevent any sort of missignal from the united states convincing china that we want war. the intelligence, as you were laying out at the top there, how the united states believed that the chinese believed that we were going to launch an attack. it's just an extraordinary thing. and that donald trump was going to do this to make himself essentially the hero. look, it never happens, but if you're milley and you know that you're not surrounded by a cabinet of folks who can help you to contain trump, you know there's a lot of enablers around trump. reading between the lines in the book it seems to me that milley was concerned that trump may tell someone in his orbit to launch a strike or to launch a nuclear weapon and that's why he holds this extraordinary meeting in the pentagon where he says to the commanders that -- refreshing them on

it is donald trump who chose milley to be the joint chiefs chairman but now he is saying milley should be tried for treason. >> if it is actually true, which is hard to believe, that he would have called china and done these things and was willing to advise them of an attack or in advance of an attack, that's treason. >> reporter: milley is scheduled to go before congress later this month in what is sure to be a fiery hearing with tough questions about afghanistan and now about whether he undermined civilian control of the military and, david, whether or not he should resign. >> jon karl back with us again tonight. thank you, jon. >>> now to that new provocation from north korea, its first ballistic missile test in six months, releasing new images tonight of what they say are two short-range ballistic missiles, traveling some 500 miles, falling into the sea west of japan. just hours before, south korea tested its first submarine-launched ballistic missile. the u.s. tonight calling it a violation of multiple u.n. security council resolutions. >>> when we come back here on the broadcast

i think milley was not sure. so he sees this moment in a way to protect the country from this theoretical possibility of a catastrophe. just really quick to jump in on that, i think it's very important for people to read the full book to get the context of what chairman milley was doing. page 1:29 is so important. when he -- you've tried to make a routine call. for military leaders, he was trying to reassure him when he says that we are going to attack at some point. it has always been like this throughout history. read the full conversation, he's trying to calm down general lee and the chinese. it is a very tense situation just days before the election, october 30th 2020. and the whole book is about the context of our reporting. not just things are pulled out or cherry picked. >> we are going to have to squeeze in a commercial break right here. when we come back, we are going to have to talk about that call that general milley made. the controversy that it has sparked since he reporting has become public. we wil