general barry mccaffrey and former ambassador christopher hill will join me next. plus new incendiary comments from new york mayor michael bloomberg, including accusations that one of the men running to replace him has been racist in his campaign. the agenda will jump into bloomberg's interview with "new york" magazine. that's coming up in just a few minutes. and ask. being active. and being with this guy. [ male announcer ] getting to know you is how we help you choose the humana medicare plan that works best for you. mi familia. ♪ [ male announcer ] we want to help you achieve your best health, so you can keep doing the things that are important to you. taking care of our customers. taking care of her. and the next thing on our list is bungee jumping. [ male announcer ] helping you -- now that's what's important to us. [ male announcer ] helping you -- peace of mind is important when so we provide it services you bucan rely on. with centurylink as your trusted it partner, you'll experience reliable uptime for the network and services you depend on. multi-layered

joining me now, barry mccaffrey, former commander in chief of u.s. forces in southern command and an msnbc military analyst. general, good morning. >> good morning, chris. >> all right. what does the attack tell you about the stability of afghanistan as the u.s. prepares its final withdrawal? >> well, of course this one incident is a minor event in a daily list of taliban atrocities across the country. the question at hand is what will happen when we're out next year? right now we still have 65,000 u.s., lots of nato allies there. we'll be gone within 18 months almost completely. can they hold it together. it's an open question. helmand in the south is going the wrong direction. the eastern provinces of the taliban have made increasing success on the battlefield. it's hard to say what's going to happen. there's an election coming up. will karzai and his government be able to let the people vote. afghanistan is a mess. >> we wake up to the news not only about this attack, which obviously brings to mind things like benghazi and there was a similar atta

to talk more about this i want to bring in clint van zandt, general barry mccaffrey is also an msnbc military analyst. gentlemen, good morning. >> good morning. >> clint, you're the profiler. let's start with the profile. he does have an arrest record. >> yeah. >> at least two prior shooting incidents. his dad said he may have ptsd from helping out in new york after 9/11. the other things that we heard from pete. what's your take based on what we've learned about him so far? >> well, the two shooting incidents that pete talks about, one of them, the neighbor above him in the apartment above him played loud music, he said. he didn't like it so he has a rifle and cranks off a round and puts a round through his ceiling up into the apartment when she's playing loud music. the police come and responds and he said i was cleaning my weapon and accidentally cranked off a round. that woman was so afraid, she moved away. another incident, he didn't like people parking in front of his apartment so he shot the tires out of their car. you don't have to be an fbi profiler to say those things shoul

we'll get some inside from msnbc military analyst and retired army general barry mccaffrey.n colorado and in new jersey and we will have live reports from the scene. but let's start overseas where taliban fighters launched a major assault on the u.s. consulate overnight. the state department says that no americans were killed, but according to

joining sus barry mccaffrey, retired general and president of mccaffrey associates.main stream a lot of the things you are saying i would imagine. i don't have to ask you any questions. but i'm going to. number one, you say there is for the way the president really had authority to do it because it's not a direct threat to the united statesment we are hearing from a lot of people it is a direct threat. >> that's probably oun one of the lowest important things i'm saying. i'm grateful he went to congress. he had no support on this unilateral limited strike. not from the occupation, nato, the arab league, jordan and egypt denounced it. the public opinion polls aren't supporting it. >> if it wasn't a direct threat, he didn't have the ability to do it. >> well, i think the president has enormous latitude as commander-in-chief to do anything he wants external to the occupation. the question is, what will happen if we duct u conduct this strike? i think if he las the legitimacy of congress, at lowest it will have more credibility trying to influence assad's thinking t. bot

joining me to talk about it, barry mccaffrey and christopher hill. gentlemen, welcome back.ee you both. >> good to be with you. >> thank you. >> general, first up to you. your reaction to this deal? >> well, look, the good news is we're talking to the russians in geneva instead of bombing the syr syria syrians, something that would be else can la toir, something not supported by nato, by congress. we've offramped a bad policy option. you know, so i suppose that's positive. the bad news is the brutal assad regime almost gets a timeout while we talk about chemical weapons. the artillery bombardments of suburbs of damascus continues. when you look at this actual so-called framework agreement, there's three things in it that are interesting. one, there's no use of military force to coerce their compliance. two, they didn't agree that arms control negotiators could go to the senior chemical warfare people and question them. three, the russians never agreed on where the chemicals were, the so-called 42 sites. so, you know, it's a work in progress. but this is a flawed -- a series

. >> joining us now msnbc military analyst retired general barry mccaffrey and kathleen hicks a senioris morning. general, i want to start with you. we all, of course, remember in the run-up to the iraq war that they had weapons of mass destruction and that turned to you to be false. do you think kerry has made the case that syria used gas on its people and how solid is that evidence? >> i knew this would be an utter disaster if it turned out six months after the strike if it was not the case. i think no question in my own mind, given the extensive number of strikes, the rocket projectiles they have discovered and the obvious evidence of 1,300 or more killed, the syrian government did it. they have conducted probably as many as 14 chemical attacks. i think the moral and humanitarian case has been made. the bigger argument, without question, and i thought representative doggett from texas was absolutely brilliant, is if you take limited military action, you end up achieving your political purpose. i think the answer is no. >> kathleen, to touch upon that a little bit more, what do you t