general barry mccaffrey, and frank figliuzzky. coming up, today the president said drugs are pouring into our country because we don't have a wall. we happen to have president clinton's former drug czar standing by to talk about that very point when we come back. if you have medicare, listen up. medicare alone only covers 80% of your cost, leaving you to pay the rest. changes to medicare are no laughing matter. if you don't know the plans available now, you might end up with a doctor you're not so comfortable with, or even worse, being forced to pay thousands in medical expenses due to coverage limitations. that'll be how much? understanding all the options, let's face it, it can be downright confusing. that's why i love healthmarkets, your insurance marketplace. they search thousands of plans from leading insurance companies to find a plan that's right for you. plans that have prescription drug coverage, dental and vision care, and that offer extra benefits you may not even know were available. some plans may eliminate your out o

well, with us for more tonight, general barry mccaffrey, retired u.s. army four star general.e cold war and a couple of hot ones, he is a decorated veteran of combat as well. and with us tonight, also frank figluzzi, former prosecutor who has worked for one robert mueller. general, short and sweet, first question to you, will you please tell folks the real history? >> well, it's an astonishing assertion by the president. it sounds as if the talking points are written by the gru. december 1979, the soviets went into afghanistan under the brezhnev doctrine to take a socialist friendly government and keep them in power. they brutalized the country. they were there for a decade. they took 50,000 killed and wounded. they killed a couple of million afghan civilians. they drove 4 million afghans into exile in iran and pakistan. it was a tragic operation from the start, had nothing to do with terrorism and the soviet union. i think he must have grabbed pieces of history and he's thinking of chechnya or whatever. but this is a truly astonishing, ignorant statement by the president. >>

joining me now is barry mccaffrey.l, good to see you what are the chances this time it could be for real and especially after you have a president withdrawing troops from syria and oh, yeah, afghanistan, too he'sal read there. he wants out >> yeah. no question. look, i've dealt with the ambassador and the special envoy kalil assad before first time i met him in the half bombed-out u.s. embassy in kabul with coagulated dried blood on the rug between us he is a brilliant, experienced man. my guess is after six days of talks with the taliban, no afghan officials present, what we are looking for is a way out. i think the taliban now have probably half the country largely under their control. the central government is incurring casualties that are unsustainable with the police and the army if u.s. forces withdraw afghanistan implodes i think it's a short-term solution nobody negotiates away the military victory and the taliban right now are winning. >> and he, of course, the american president wants out and that's an impetu

he rooks a lot like general barry mccaffrey because he was among his many other titles including u.s.y commander, general mccaffrey was the derek fer of the office of drug control policy under clinton. so, general, this is a simple question. would it make it safer? what would it do with our relationship to our neighbor to the south? >> i'll tell you, i certainly was a drug policy director in a different era. we had bipartisan support in congress and reasonable dialogue and we had the department of justice and treasury and. that's what's lacking here. when you look at the southwest frontier, they do a lot of good in the particularly populated areas. you no longer have 10,000 people running through the port of entry and san diego. when it comes to its function, it assists the 45,000 men and women of the border protection, no question. if you want to deal with a dug issue, you don't do it with a southwest border. you've got to get an addiction in baltimore and detroit and other cities across the united states. you've got to look at the two largest cities. but the drugs that come through

we're in a very bad situation. >> general barry mccaffrey, thank you for taking the time tonight. >>good to be with you. >> coming up, this russian operative recently pleaded guilty to conspiring against the u.s. but is she the reason an american man is behind russian bars tonight accused of espionage? we'll ask a former u.s. ambassador to russia and a former cia official when "the 11th hour" continues. fficial when "the 11th hour" continues >>> there's no way ou" continues >>> there's no way ? he definitely wouldn't do anything to break the laws. and i can't imagine that he would have broken spy laws. in any country, let alone in russia. >> that was the twin brother of an american being detained in russia on espionage charges. u.s. ambassador john huntsman was allowed to visit paul whelan today and offered the embassy's support. whelan is accused of spying but the kremlin hasn't offered any details on what led to his arrest. wheel sn a former marine whose family says he was in moscow for a friend's wedding. but the timing of the arrest is raising flags for u.s. intelligence officia

>> here to talk about all of it, general barry mccaffrey, a former battlefield commander in the gulf war, retired u.s. army four-star general. general, thanks for joining us. this -- it's interesting we spoke in the last block about mitt romney, incoming u.s. senator. in this op-ed he wrote critical of some aspects of donald trump's performance as president. and mitt romney said one of the reasons he chose to write that op-ed was the exit of james mattis from this administration and the resignation letter that james mattis penned. to see the president going after his now former defense secretary in public, it is to put it mildly an unusual situation. in any administration. what do you make of it? >> well, it was one of the more cringe-worthy moments i've ever encountered. i hope everybody around that table was just ashamed of being present. my wife actually cried over this incident, to hear a president of the united states talking in such a manner about jim mattis, four-star marine. by the way, mcchrystal. general mcchrystal, admiral mcraven, these guys aren't pentagon staff generals

general barry mccaffrey, retired u.s. army four-star general, heavily decorated combat veteran of vietnam and the gulf war. his decades of service to this country include the title drug czar. he was the director of the office of national drug control policy under president clinton, also the u.s. joint military commander for the latin america region. general, i just want to play for you a snippet from the speech. when we come back, i'd like you to react to it. here it is. >> our southern border is a pipeline for vast quantities of illegal drugs, including meth, heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl. every week 300 of our citizens are killed by heroin alone. 90% of which floods across from our southern border. more americans will die from drugs this year than were killed in the entire vietnam war. >> general, any problem with any of what you just heard? >> well, brian, today was one of the more inane days in american government i've seen recently. a couple of thoughts. first of all, there really isn't much of a new crisis at the bo

. >> general barry mccaffrey, that's why it's always a pleasure to have you on the broadcast. that's we thank the folks at home. that's our broadcast on a tuesday night. thank you so much for being here with us. good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. i am a family man. i am a techie dad. i believe the best technology should feel effortless. like magic. at comcast, it's my job to develop, apps and tools that simplify your experience. my name is mike, i'm in product development at comcast. we're working to make things simple, easy and awesome. brand-new thing about that scandal. stood with meow when it mattered most so i've asked my team to send me a list of every american patriotev who donates to the official secure the border fund. pleasebo make a special contribution of $5 by 9:00 p.m. eastern00 time to our official secure the border fund to have your name sent to me after my speech." that was all a lie. in the finer print of the e-mail, it says the contributions are to the trump make america great again committee. that is the president's re-election committe

former national security officials from speaking out about the latest break from four star general barry mccaffrey. incredible, willful blindness by trump to looming threats to u.s. national security. he has denied the evidence of our own intelligence officials. he has concealed from his own cabinet and congress private dealings with putin and kim jong-un. we are in trouble. that's where we start with some of our favorite reporters and friends. jonathan, associated press white house reporter, and msnbc political analyst. matthew mill e a former chief spokesman at the department of justice, journalist alicia me n menendez and in washington, a former cia officer, john siefrt. i talked to former intelligence officials who from the moment they walked into trump tower and briefed the president-elect about the intelligence community's assessment on russia's role of meddling in the 2016 election, through the khashoggi murder and slaughter, through the constant, bizarre, now suspicious interactions with vladimir putin and others, have had their eye on what is really unprecedented hostility from the intell

with me, general barry mccaffrey, former battlefield commander, four star general. us. appreciate it. is there a national security emergency at the southern border? >> no, of course not. we've got a broad policy of asylum seekers and immigrants which is ill thought out and unworkable. the border has around 700 miles of some obstacle planned. arguably could use another 300 miles as assistance to border patrol. congress doesn't agree. congress has power of the purse. it is impossible for me to believe that an order by mr. trump to the pentagon would be legally enforceable in the court system, it would divert in theory billions of dollars appropriated by congress for military training and maintenance and deployment activities and divert it to a different function. normally when you reprogram any dollars in the federal government, you have to go back to the house appropriations committee and request permission. there's no way that would happen. so i think this is mostly a political gesture. >> so if the president were declare a national emergency here, from what i under

. >> general barry mccaffrey, that's why it's always a pleasure to have you on the broadcast. that's going to be our last word for tonight. general, we thank you very much. we thank the folks at home. that's our broadcast on a tuesday night. thank you so much for being here with us. good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. >>> i want to thank all of you for joining us at home this hour. happy to have you with us. let me give you a sense how the next hour will go. president trump's first prime time address from the oval office will start momentarily. we expect it to be short, under ten minutes, then house speaker nancy pelosi and the senate leader chuck schumer will give a rebuttal on behalf of the democratic party. that should follow quickly after the president's speech. after that, we'll have expert help sorting out the claims made in the various speeches and hear from freshman congresswoman alexandria cortez who will join us live for her first interview on this show. but we also tonight are going to be talking about the tons of news that broke today that i thi