bob costas a little younger, about half of bob woodward age as woodward notes in acknowledgment but he's already made a name for himself as national political reporter at the post where he's worked for nearly eight years following several years at the "national review." he's also served as moderator and managing editor of washington week on pbs and as a political analyst for nbc news and msnbc. no doubt many of you watching have heard or read some of the highlights of "peril." general milley has called -- chinese fears about trump possibly launching an attack or vice president mike pence searching for whether there indeed was some way he and cox could reject the election result only be told by none other than dan quayle to forget it. there's much more to this explosive page turner of a book which reads like like a thd will lead you aghast not only at how close the country came to the brink but also how perilous the future remains. the conversation with the authors will be pulitzer prize-winning columnist at the post who in his four decades with the paper also has covered city hall, repor

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honor to be doing this tonight, brad i've known you for many years and my predecessor at the post bob costa i've known you since she came to work at the washington post in a very quickly saw and admired your persistence as a reporter, this is a great young reporter and bob woodward i've known you for 41 and a half years, you hired me at the washington post. >> that was a mistake. >> you can try to atone for that if you want but it's too late to take it back. and you are the great reporter of our time, it's a real privilege to be here with the two of you to talk about peril, my first question is the making of the book. how does this collaboration come about and bob woodward you've done other books with collaborators and co-authors in you've done on your own what seems to have been a match made in heaven actually come about? >> it was a match made in trump's hotel in washington in 2016 costa said to me trump might be president he was on the verge of getting the nomination and he said we should go interview him. we did and i got two titles from the interview, i always bring out fear or a use f

still with us are the authors bob woodward and bob costa. bob this isn't the question that lends itself well to a 62nd reply. but i will try. a lot of the people in my life who are smart and thoughtful, some recognizable names from our broadcast, have been in touch with me to say, in their view, right now is the time to worry. your book makes it clear, down to the last page, that we came close. how close are we right now? >> well, you can't predict the future. but what bob costa i and i found in eight or nine months of reporting, going off line, not writing for the washington post or going on television, is that there was a national security crisis in this country. that war with china was dangerously possible. there is a call that we have the transcript of, between anc pelosi, the speaker of the house, and chairman milley, in which on january 8th, two days after the insurrection at the capitol, in which she -- i don't know if you have had the chance to look at it. but it's an extraordinary transcript of the leader of the house, the speaker of

bob woodward and bob costa have no subpoena power. ources than they could wish nor. they put it in their book "peril." bob woodward and robert costa join us now. bob and robert, congratulations on the book. it's extraordinary. what is your reaction, bob, to this first round of subpoenas, and how did they square with what these aides and allies of the president were doing on around january 6 based on your reporting? >> well, the question is, of course, what happened and ultimately what did trump know, and we describe an extraordinary phone call between bannon and trump right before the insurrection in which bannon, who was the former top aide to trump, the chief strategist in the white house, tell him he had been fired at that point, but in the trump world you go and you come back. ban no one says to trump, we will strangle the biden presidency in the crib. and that is a foreshadowing, of course, of the violence that we saw the next day. so they're trying -- they're working around the edges in a very logical way. now bannon, what we hav

and now peril, coauthored by bob woodward and robert costa. bob woodward book, is like a large christmas tree with dozens of unique ornaments that you've never seen before, and news media headlines immediately focused on the biggest, and most important ornaments on that tree, and we all eagerly read those first news reports about a bobbled workbook, but the reason to read the book, the reason to order this book tonight and get it that your bookstore tomorrow, is to see how the whole story fits together, and see all of those ornaments on the tree that the news media never gets to. because there are just too many of them. the little jolt that aren't quite so newsworthy. like donald trump's views on body fat. on page 28 donald trump tells it overweight attorney general william barnes, this about his weight. and on page 1:25, when he gets covid-19, donald trump tells her quote and then there is the jam of mitch mcconnell gleefully calling donald trump a moron to his colleagues in the republic stan, on page 1:26, the book has mitch mcconnell, happil

leading off our discussion tonight, bob woodward, two-time pulitzer prize winning author, robert costa national political reporter for "the washington post." they are the co-authors of the new already best seller "peril." bob woodward, let me begin with you, and that scene just described, that's in your book, on january 5th, this is the night before what became an attack on the capitol and there's the president of the united states believing and insisting to his vice president that he can change the outcome of the presidential election the next day. mike pence saying i've tried, in effect. i've hoped that i could find a way to do that, and i can't find it. and that's how close we came to a different electoral college count in the congress the next day. >> yes, more than that. actually, the legitimacy of the presidency was at stake because if pence had wavered at all and stood there in the senate and the house and said i can't decide, i'm going home, we would have had a constitutional crisis like we've never seen before in this country. but pence did stick to the law and the constitutio

bob costa and i think he's going to run again. clearly he has support. some of the polling shows he would beat biden. trump out there, we have the demo democracy. anyone can run for president. we know what he did for four years. and what he did is not worry enough about the people in the country, worried about his own political standing, his impulses, and i think the basic theme of our book is, his actions were not just a problem in the united states, it was a national security emergency that we did. now, we were quite surprised to discover this. >> we started off thinking it was a crisis. and we concluded based on our reporting it's an emergency. that's why the peril remains. this was a situation during the transition where the cia director after the secretary of defense esper was fired worried of a right-wing coup happening behind the scenes privately. and you had the erosion of all the people around president trump not corralling him in the presidency. that's why we believe, based on our reporting, that the peril does remain. the system barely held to

bob woodward and robert costa are unioning us now. today. >> it's good to have you with us. there are some pieces of the book that have come out. what was most striking to you that have not been released to the public? >> wow. i guess the overall that this was a national security crisis that trump brought because countries like china, russia, iran looked at what was occurring in the united states. if you go back and look at what trump said before the election, it was scary to people abroad. after the january 6th insurrection and china ignited on this point the chairman of the joint chief, mark milley had these calls with the chinese military and made it very clear, we are going to stabilize things. let's not have a war in a period of miscommunications and high tension. as history shows, that's when you have an incident or even a war. >> so, bob, i read the milley part early on like everybody did and read the entire book. i was shot shocked by his actions because i guess like you were especially because you were in the middle of it. i

it goes back to 2016, when bob costa, who's less than half my age, said we should interview a presidentialdidate named donald trump and we interviewed him at his hotel in washington. costa realized he should be taken seriously in that moment. i went on to write a couple of books on trump. turns out costa is the expert on trump in so many ways. and congress and the democratic party. and i looked for someone more experienced that i could lean on. he is an engine of perspective and balance and i do maybe one or two interviews a day and he'd do six or seven. >> let me tell you, bob, mr. costa -- oh, no, you're not going to jump in here. you're not going to jump in here. i was going to say to bob that mr. costa is the rising tide that lifts all votes and that's why he was a frequent guest because he all made us look better. and i'm going to cut you off from saying and i remember of your lead traits, the size and depth of your roladex, including many conversations and so much reporting pertaining to mr. bannon. and it strikes me that mr. bannon has had an undercelebrated and certainly under repo

let's bring in best, bob costas. with, that's further proof that when the crowd that says stick to sports makes that statement all it ever meant is stick to supports when you are saying i don't want to hear or i don't agree with. but if you are saying something i agree with, the microphone we want to hear. >> exactly. so lebron james, big voice, big presence says i was skeptical but i did the research. i asked the right people. it's the right choice for me and my family so i did it but i'm not going to use my platform to tell other people to do with their body. what down think? >> it's good he got vaccinated. he's had, i think, some missteps but by in large he's an admirable person personally and public intentions but he could do so much more good in this case than just i'm vaccinated and it's not my place to tell anybody else anything. if he did the research, then that research also includes that virtually everybody who is hospitalized, seriously ill and virtually everybody who dies is among the unvaccinated at this

let's bring in the best, bob costas.ator cruz says, hats off, i stand with -- that's further proof that when the crowd that says stick to sports makes that statement, but if you are saying something i agree with, the microphone is yours. the platform is yours. you can be a regular on fox news. if you are saying what we want to hear. >> exactly. so, lebron james. big voice. big presence. says i was skeptical. >> yep. >> but i did the research. i asked the right people. it's the right choice for me, and for my family, so i did it. but i'm not going to use my platform to tell other people to do with their body. what do you think? >> it's good that he got vaccinated. he's had, i think, some missteps but by and large, i think he is an admirable person but he could do so much more good in this case than just a perfunctory i'm vaccinated and it's not my place to tell anybody else anything. if he did the research, then that research also includes that virtually everybody who is hospitalized, seriously ill, and virtually everybod

bob costa, to his credit, listens to those of rallies. and people in our business are overlooking these rallies. may i ask costa -- he knows this cold because he looked at the trump rallies in most recent months. >> go ahead. >> wood ward and i often talk about the trump rallies don't get much attention these days. that's understandable. he's not a president anymore. but when you listen to some of the recent rallies trump has held, you see this almost warlike language. he takes the language of winston churchill, actually, never surrender, never give up, never give in, whipping up thousands of people across the country at different interval this is summer and spring. and you see this person, this former president, really keeping those core supporters, those core voters with him. as bob and i talked about five, six years ago, when we first started covering then candidate trump, you have to take this seriously. look at what happened on january 6th. look at what happened in this country over the past five years. to turn away is the wrong thing

please welcome bob woodward and robert costa! k. thanks for being here. hey, robert. hey, fellas. thanks for being here. bob, always good to have you on. >> thank you, thank you. >> stephen: robert, nice to meet you, having you on for the first time. i want to say, as i have confessed already, i am not fully finished with this book. and it's not because it's not a good read. it is really compelling. it's just that i have to close it every so often to quietly weep. ( laughter ) and then start it again. and i mean that somewhat sincerely, because what really is upsetting about this is not even so much what you're reporting in here. because having read "fear" and "rage," nothing in here is surprising. while shocking and upsetting, the path was laid for the behavior that is in this book. but it is-- it is-- it is upsetting to read. and i was wondering, was it upsetting to write? >> yes. we were-- look, the theme here-- and it was a discovery for us, that this was a national security crisis. we've kind of thought all of trump was a dom

and i've said this before and bob costa said it before. when this sis all washed out, those who are saying that general milley actually was treasonous in what he did, i think are going to owe the general an apology. >> so let's talk about the fact that -- of the steps he took to try to prevent any sort of nuclear strike because at one point you write that milley -- general milley tells speaker pelosi there's not a snowball's chance in hell this president or any president can launch weapons illegally, immorally without proper soings. but i have to ask, based on the chain of command and there are people who have been trying to change this -- >> yes. >> -- did milley take any steps that would have led him to be able to stop trump if he was about to launch or just to bring him in the loop? >> yeah, to bring him in the loop so he would be at the table and presumably raise his hand and say, wait a minute, is this necessary? is this one of these occasions when we're going to use nuclear weapons? >> presidents have the power pretty much unilateral

bob costas, thank you so much. it. >> thank you, jim. >>> as we head to break, we want to show you part of bruce springsteen's emotional performance the ground zero today. it was something to watch. take a look. ♪ when all of our summers have come to an end ♪ i'll see you in my dream ♪ we'll meet and live and laugh again ♪ i'll see you in my dreams ♪ up around the riverbend ♪ for death is not the end ♪ because i'll see you ♪ at carvana, get personalized terms, browse for cars that fit your budget, then customize your down payment and monthly payment. and these aren't made-up numbers. it's what you'll really pay, right down to the penny. whether you're shopping or just looking. it only takes a few seconds, and it won't affect your credit score. finally! a totally different way to finance your ride. only from carvana. the new way to buy a car. i see you found the snacks. mmm, delicious! i need this recipe. everyone thinks i made them, but it's actually d-con. what was that? judy? d-con. mice love it to death. [whispe

bob woodward and robert costa join us now. congratulations on the book. your reaction, bob, to the first round of subpoenas? how do they square with what the a aides and allies of the president were doing based on your reporting? >> the question is what happened and ultimately what did trump know. we describe extraordinary phone call between bannon and trump, right before the insurrection, in which bannon, who was the former top aide to trump, the chief strategist in the white house, he had been fired by that point, but as you know in the trump world, you go and then you come back, and bannon says to trump, we will strangle the biden presidency in the crib. that is a foreshadowing, of course, of the violence that we saw the next day. they're trying -- they are working around the edges in a very logical way. now bannon -- what we have in our book, bannon has publically confirmed. >> robert, bannon is one of the of the people being subpoenaed. the book reveals how instrumental he was in the final days of the presidency. as bob said, by then, it was known tha

now according to a new book by bob woodward and bob costa, apparently he went even further than that.ar, millie called his counterpart in china, general. he did not tell his boss, the president come about this call either before he made at or after. here was millie's message for the chinese military. "general lee, i want to assure you the american government is stable and everything is going to be okay. we are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you. and then reportedly millie said this, generally, you and i have known each other for five years. if we are going to attack, i'm going to call you ahead of time, it is not going to be a surprise. let that sink in, if we are going to attack, i'm going to call you ahead of time. it's not going to be a surprise. so according to this account, our country positivist top defense officials secretly colluded with the chief military rival to undercut the president of the united states. how would you describe that? deep state is not strong enough. that's treason. it is a crime. it apparently mark millie is not the only pers

but in this new book, one of the things that bob woodward and robert costa report. is that mike pence is far more reluctant to do his job, far more reluctant to do is constitutional duty, that the public has suggested. and bottom line vice president pence did not ultimately exceed to trump solutions, to block -- to leave trump in power or under the election powers honorable, but it was not apparently for a lack of him trying to find a way to do that. this is from bob woodward and robert costa in late december pence phoned former vice president dan quail, at 70 for the ones boyish looking quail was living the private gulf playing life he loved in arizona. the two men shared a unique profile, indiana republicans who have become. vice president pence wanted advice, despite the electoral college casting its ballot for biden on december 14th, trump was convinced that pence could throw the election to trump on january, six when congress certified the final count. pence explained to's fellow in, dan quail, that trump was pressuring him to intervene to ensure biden would no

this is a long-term project that bob costa and i worked on.ts and documents and transcripts of the milley/pelosi call, for instance. which tells you that he agreed with her assertion that president trump was acting crazy. he said today, well, look, i'm not qualified to determine if the mental condition of the president of the united states. but as we used to in the old days call, that's a nondenial denial. >> let me ask you about that because in his testimony yesterday and today, he said as you correctly point out, he said i'm not qualified to determine the former president's mental health. but in your book, nancy pelosi is quoted as saying, you got the transcript, he's crazy and what he did yesterday is further evidence of his craziness. she's referring to trump. milley said, quote, madam speaker, i agree with you on everything. >> yes. well, that was very well reported. and it is documented. and he's saying now, i don't know whether he's claiming he said to pelosi or he just said, look, i'm not qualified to determine the mental capacity of t

word woodward and bob costa. we've obtained a copy tonight, evidence of speed-reading here, a rachel maddow specialty. this book has important news in it. what this book is about broadly speaking the peril it's describing in its title is just how fraught and dangerous the period was for the country surrounding the 2020 election and immediately thereafter. and in the broader possible strokes, of course, we know it was fraught and dangerous, right? we had our national capitol come under a violent attack. but the thing that is so bracing and nerve-wracking and important about this new book is what it reveals about how much worse it was than we knew, how much closer we came to real disaster than we have known before now. so, again, this comes out next week. we have obtained a copy of it. this is how the book starts. quote, two days after the january 6th, 2021 violent sought on the united states capitol by supporters of president donald trump, general mark milley, the nation's senior military joint chiefs of staff pla

authors bob woodward and robert costa who described the calls in their new book "peril" join us shortly. general milley testified he spoke with bob woodward for the book, as well as the authorities of two other best-sellers, which for any author might be tempered somewhat by his subsequent mission that he's actually read none of the three. but the main focus today was the final chapter of this country's 20-year involvement in afghanistan, and the country's sudden collapse during which allied forces conducted a near-miraculous airborne evacuation but also saw 13 american troops and many more afghan civilians killed in a suicide bombing. the question has always been could different choices by this president and the former president have kept the taliban at bay? generals milley and mackenzie, who goes by frank, were asked about the former administration's deal with the taliban in qatar, known as the doha agreement. >> did the doha agreement affect the morale of the afghan forces, i.e., was there a sense now that even though it was months away, that the united states was leaving since we ha

one of the things bob costa and i found, there were memos and as you know as a legal matter, when youy giuliani sent to senator lindsey graham of south carolina and a memo that white house lawyer john eastman sent to senator mike lee of utah two of the most conservative pro trump republicans in the senate and perhaps in the country and so they looked at the allegations of stolen election and they concluded across the board there was zero evidence to support this so if you look at it, if you had a presentation to a jury of 12 americans, they would look at this and they might have political feelings pro trump or anti trump, butthe documentation is so solid in the investigations and the conclusions of trump's friends just this week trump denounced senators graham and senators lee saying that they gave up and that they should be embarrassed for abandoning his stolen election claim, but if you look at it through a neutral lens and given the political schism in this country, it's hard, but that's what costa and i were able to do, and it's clear, there is no evidence of the stolen election.

bob costas is here to sort it all out for us. bob, do you think there's something unique to these athletes? or do you think, if we drill down on other professions, carpenters, architects, who knows, we'd find the same propensity of anti-vaxing? >> well, i think what we should say, despite the fact that many of us are disappointed that it's not closer to 100%. and you get some of the ignorant attitudes from athletes that you hear elsewhere. overall, among the leagues -- not talking about tennis now where the most prominent player, novak djokovic, is among the vaccine resistant as he goes for the grand slam. but among the leagues, nba, nfl, major league baseball, i'm guessing nhl, the rate of vaccination is actually higher than the population at large. overall, it's around 90 to 93% and the nfl is one example. >> carson wenz, earlier today, had the following to say on this issue. >> i respect everybody else's decision. and, you know, i just ask that everybody does the same for me. i know that's not the world we live in. not everyon

pulitzer prize-winning editor of the "washington post" bob woodward and political reporter for the "washington post" robert costaes what we just heard during the testimony yesterday dovetail with your reporting? explain once again what exactly general milley was doing in those calls with china. >> well, they're on a hair-trigger with china, as we know. there are all these exercises around taiwan, around the -- in the south china sea. it's definitely true, and it's consistent with our reporting in the book. the idea is to avoid war, to de-conflict. if you put yourself in milley's shoes here, four days before the election, october 30th, they get intelligence that china thinks we're going to attack them. this is the worst environment for a military man.oh, my god, we're going to attack them. you might get a pearl harbor where somebody will take the first move advantage, as they call it. so he's trying to close this down. this is a crisis moment. this is a practical time when he has to talk to general lee and say, "no, no, this is in the a situation where we are going to attack," like they had in their five-year rel

programming note, on monday the "washington post's" bob woodward and bob costa will appear here with is is bob's first book about the presidency and his first book with costa. the paired team will join us monday night right here on "the last word," 10:00 p.m. eastern, msnbc. that is "the last word." the "11th hour with brian williams" starts now. >>> well, good evening. once again, day 240 of the biden administration, and tonight there is alarming new reporting about that rally planned for this coming saturday at the u.s. capitol in support of those original rioters and insurrectionists who attacked the building on january 6. the news tonight is that the gathering and potential mayhem could start early, as in tomorrow. cnn reporting tonht

word woodward and bob costa.ght, evidence of speed-reading here, a rachel maddow specialty. this book has important news in it. what this book is about broadly speaking the peril it's describing in its title is just how fraught and dangerous the period was for the country surrounding the 2020 election and immediately thereafter. and in the broader possible strokes, of course, we know it was fraught and dangerous, right? we had our national capitol come under a violent attack. but the thing that is so bracing and nerve-wracking and important about this new book is what it reveals about how much worse it

. >> john avlon, cnn talked to bob c costa tonight in the president's attempt to overturn the election. this is what he said about the subpoenas. >> the question is, of course, what happened and ultimately what did trump know, and we describe an extraordinary phone call between bannon and trump right before the insurrection in which bannon, who is the former top aide to trump, told him he had been fired by that point, but as you know, in the trump world you go and you come back. and bannon says to trump, we will strangle the biden presidency in the crib. and that is a foreshadowing, of course, of the violence that we saw the next day. >> steve bannon knows a lot about what went down during this crucial period. the question is, can he be compelled to talk? >> it's an interesting question because he was not serving in government at that time unlike the other three. but i think the revelations in the woodward and costa book are one of the things that brought bannon back to the fore. he is talking to the president. and his comments to the president about strangling the biden administration

it is by washington post journalist bob woodward and robert costa. it is not published. it's not being published till next week. we obtained a copy tonight, evidence of speed reading here. on the rachel maddow show specialty. this book has important news in it. what's the book is about broadly speaking, the peril it's describing its title, is just how fraught and dangerous the period was for the country surrounding the 2020 election, and immediately thereafter. and in the broadest possible structure, we know it was fraud and dangerous. we had our national capital come under violent attack. but the thing that is so bracing in nerve-racking, and important about this new book, is what it reveals about how much worse it was than we knew. how much closer we came to real disaster, then we have known before now. again, this comes out next, week we have obtained a copy of it. this is how the book starts. quote. two days after the january 6th 2021 violinists on the u.s. capitol by supporters of president donald trump, general mark milley, the national security military officer in

well, joseph, and bob costa is about to be here. it is amazing, that this book. and this is my thinned down version. don't get me started. my prep strategy. but this book is had 00 pages long and it's a totally shellacking of donald trump. then you get to the final portion, and you've got john mclaughlin, the pollster going in and saying to trump, hey, this is looking pretty good for 2024. there will be buyer's remorse for trump. which is belied in the first 400 pages and then here we are to an extent. to an extent. remember, i want to know what you think, go to my website @smerconish.com. the dip in president biden's approval rating what is that, normal al fluctuation or perma? >>> still to come, four confidants of former president trump subpoenaed for role in january 6th. the letters in the new book "peril" robert costas is here to discuss. and enrollment in american colleges now 60/40 female. the largest gender gap until higher education. and a involve reversal from the ratio 50 years ago. i'll ask scott galloway, why is this happening and where's it heading?

bob woodward, robert costa, welcome back to pbs. >> good to see you. >> woodruff: before we talk aboutls of the book, bob woodward, this is your third book looking at donald trump. was he different at the end of his term than he was at the beginning? >> he's always shocking and different, but also always the same, and this -- you know, in a way, the reporting on trump is a quest. who is he? what does he really care about? what is he doing? what is his political appeal to so many people in the country? and just, if you zoom in on the reality now, the idea that he and nixon -- when nixon left and resigned, he didn't do around and campaign, trump is campaigning. >> woodruff: is campaigning and i want to ask you about that. robert costa, so much important reporting in this book, including about, as i just mentioned, about how trump's advisors at different points, at many points, were trying to keep him from carrying out acts that would have been either violated the constitution or have been purely illegal, and there's one example in here i want to ask you about, it was to 20, the attorney

tom: robert costa out of notre dame holding court in cambridge and with him is bob woodward. e teamed up for "peril." why did you pick robert costa? you could've picked anyone. bob: because he is the best reporter i have ever seen. his work ethic makes mine look weak. he just threw himself into this. he understands the republican party, he understands washington like no one. he taught me a great deal and it was -- i was saying to somebody, who did most of the work? i said actually we each did 60%. it is the kind of partnership where everyone over performs. i think over performance for him is just a natural state. tom: congratulations on the book. this is woodward and costa. woodward with the courage to say i will find somebody to do this with me. the immediacy of the book is stunning. you have done loads of interviews. i want to talk about the future. you into your book by saying the -- you end your book by saying the peril remains. robert: i cannot have a better partner than bob woodward. the peril remains is a theme that runs throughout the book. it is not an opinion, it is

got new reporting from journalists who have seen bob woodward and robert costa's new book and sort of a new revelation that is an old revelation that the top general was so fearful of trump efforts to cling to power, they were preparing for the possibility he may start a war. in fact, specifically this anecdote claims a war with china. this comes as police have to reinstall a fence around the capitol ahead of a planned far right rally in defense of those who were arrested for the january 6th insurrection. so whether it is defense around the capitol, recall in california, voting restriction laws in texas or the next crop of secretary of states in red states, more examples of the dangers of trump's anti-democratic message. it is clearly a thet to our democracy. jacob ward is in california. steve patterson at polls in sacramento, i have matt gorman and amy walter with us. jacob, let me start with you down where you are. i'm just curious, a lot of people mail in the ballots. what are you seeing today, a trickle of folks that hand them in? what are you seeing out there? >> reporter: well,

the authors bob woodward and robert costa are speaking about it for the first time.ing america" today if they thought they were reporting on treasonous behavior in detailing the phone calls joint chiefs chairman general mark milley held with his chinese counterpart in the final months of the trump presidency. here's what they said about that. >> no, not at all. there's nothing hidden about this. it is a top-secret back channel. >> he was not going rogue. he was reading people in throughout the national security and military community trying to contain a situation. >> hearing from woodward and costa themselves was really interesting this morning, john. they clearly do not think these calls from milley were even getting close to treasonous. what does that do, though, to the, i don't know, backlash really that milley has been facing over the details of this book as they were coming out in the last week? >> reporter: well, there are a couple kinds of backlash, kate. the treason talk, which is i think most people consider nonsensical, comes from donald trump and people cl

in all candor, i have to say these are friends and colleagues of mine, bob woodward and bob costa and their book has a lot of really interesting new material. i think this tells us, you know, exactly what pelosi was describing just then in london. the grievous concern was not just some democrats as -- as speaker pelosi and as we reported at the time said to milley. you know, the president's not stable. you know he's not stable, right? what are you doing about it? i think this gives you more detail about how much milley took her seriously. how much he, himself, was worried not about somebody pushing the nuclear button but just wanting to batten down the hatches. make sure everybody in the chain of command understood how this was going to happen. what were the rules of the road? and how were they going to make sure that those rules were followed even with a president who was behaving in a, you know, let's face it, a pretty unhinged way after the election and much more dramatically after january 6th. >> michael, looking at this new general milley reporting. i -- you have said that the fo

bob costa and i don't carry any partisan water on this. look at the facts and and we looked hard and this is a bogus claim. >> i have known you and robert costa a long time and this is the larger picture, this is the peril that we still pace. >> actually the title is from biden's inaugural address. he said we're in a winter of peril nap is turning tout be an under statement. >> i'm just saying the peril of what lies ahead, the peril of the big lie. >> overwhelm. hospitals are struggling to keep up the with the number of covid patients. dr. anthony fauci joins us next. patients dr. anthony fauci joins us next. [music: "i swear"] jaycee tried gain flings for the first time the other day... and forgot where she was. you can always spot a first time gain flings user. ♪ (vo) this is more than glass and steel... and stone. it's awe. beauty. the measure of progress. it's where people meet people. where cultures and bonds are made between us. where we create things together. open each other's minds. raise each other's ambitions. and do together, w

his alleged belief in the big lie, but in the first part where they are playing the interview with bob costaward about the new book because of legitimacy, he does confirm there that he spoke to the president on january 5th. the question is why was donald trump talking to his fighter, if you will, that brought back into the circle steve bannon the day before that big rally? >> right. it may not mean anything, john. i mean, i do want to be clear here. i don't want to suggest that we know more than we do. he had been talking to bannon, trump, for many days in the lead up to january 6th and he was talking to him after that. there was an,effort -- people around trump in -- in the furthest right-leaning circles of the republican party so what was happening in terms of trump's unwillingness to acknowledge biden's legitimacy as a chance to tag biden's president and damage his presidency out of the gate and the question is there a direct correlation is was there a plan and an effort to try to organize around january 6th and that's what the select committee is trying to figure out. >> that's why we sh

the book by bob woodward and robert costa called "peril. kws the report that marc milley took secret steps to prevent president trump from launching a military strike or nuclear launch and the top general called his counterpart in china. what he reportedly assured china the u.s. would not do. here's jon karl. >> reporter: in their soon to be released book "peril", bob woodward and robert costa report that china was so concerned about donald trump's behavior in the final days of the 2020 presidential campaign that joint chiefs chairman general mark milley took the extraordinary step of secretly reaching out directly to china's top general. "general li, i want to assure you that the american government is stable and everything is going to be okay," milley told him, according to the book. "we are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you." one reason for china's concerns? trump's incendiary words about china and coronavirus. >> there's a plague coming over from china, here it comes. what a disgrace. what a disgrace. >>

. >> let me ask you quickly about the new bob woodward and bob costa book. it claims bill barr talked with the former president in april 2020, wanted to give him some advice winning back the suburbs. barr reportedly telling donald trump that he had repair work to do with republicans and independents who may have liked his politics but not his personality, saying they think you're a bleeping bleep hole, and after trump lost, barr said there was no widespread election fraud. trump reportedly told him, you must have said that because you hate trump. you must really hate trump. i always wonder why he talks in third person, but moving on from that, we hear these stories over and over again. how important is it to keep telling these stories? do these revelations sustain interest and relevance? >> well, alex, i sure hope they do because my wife and i are working on own book on the trump presidency. from our own reporting, we can confirm that reporting about bill barr, he did in fact have that conversation with the president in the spring of 2020, warning as he had

. >> what about chicago in 1960, let me move on to the book by bob woodward and robert costa, which sayspublican senators lindsey graham and mike lee, two trump allies, rejected the election fraud claims by rudy giuliani and other trump lawyers after the election lindsey graham calling it third grade stuff and here's alex, the statement trump sent to the media. they should be ashamed of themselves for not putting up the fight necessary to win, do the media love it when trump seems to turn on his own allies? >> i think that's always the story that the media likes, but what i would say that these books aren't new, you know, going back to theodore white with the making of the president and back in the 60's you can always have these, you always have these books come after the elections with the anonymous sources in narrative form. it's always usually pretty easy to spot whose cooperated with the books because they happen to tell the anecdotes that make them look good, but i think that in terms of the reporting of this , and the president's response to this , it's kind of a wash because it's

we are joined by bob woodward and rob costa. let me begin.o rubio talked about treasonous behavior as well. as you reported on milley's talks, did you think you were documenting treasonous behavior? >> no, not at all. the best way to tell you that is what we found. two days after the insurrection of the capitol was a moment of maximum tension, and milley talked to a back channel, top secret back channel -- >> others were on the calls, right? >> pardon? >> others were on the calls? >> i don't know whether others were on the call. what we do know and report which i think is significant here, after the call, he then gave a full briefing to four people, gina haspel, the cia director said to her, watch everything. 360. talked to paul nakasone who had headed the national security agency which does worldwide eaves dropping and said needles up which is an expression which means listen everywhere. he talked to the chiefs, the head of the army, navy, marine corps, air force, and said full-time watch everything, and then he called the admiral in charge

the book is entitled "peril," bob woodward, robert costa. guys, thank you so much for writing this book. must read. appreciate it very very much. >> thank you. >> just ahead, we're going to drill down on the new subpoenas for trump loyalists to testify in the investigation of the insurrection. a prominent member of the january 6th select committee, adam schiff, he's standing by live. we'll discuss when we come back. shows 97% less breakage. strong hair with new dove breakage remedy. trading isn't just a hobby. it's your future. so you don't lose sight of the big picture, even when you're focused on what's happening right now. and thinkorswim trading™ is right there with you. to help you become a smarter investor. with an innovative trading platform full of customizable tools. dedicated trade desk pros and a passionate trader community sharing strategies right on the platform. because we take trading as seriously as you do. thinkorswim trading™ from td ameritrade. (vo) how do you know when you've found your team? whether you're winning, or ju

. >> greg: all right, according to a new book out next week by bob woodward and bob costa, chairman mark would start a war with china, which is absurd, that he secretly called a top chinese general twice, assuring him trump would not attack. it would have been nice if he had asked to stop releasing deadly airborne pathogens all over the world, but you know, maybe next phone call. even more damning, milley reportedly told china "if we are going to attack, i'm going to call you had a time." so what did he say when the chinese called him back? "hold on, i'm kissing the taliban's -- online one." milley's calls were not secret, it happened all the time between military leaders, and though not so much of the good ones. i doubt patton ever messaged him on linkedin -- i don't think linked in and existed back then, but you get the point. try telling milley's defenders in the media. >> i'm sorry, republicans don't like this, are you so stupid? i've just got to ask, are you so stupid, are you so ignorant of how things work that you don't know that from time to time, generals talk to generals. this

you listen to the comments, congresswoman edwards, what robert costa and bob woodward with describing was general milley in a hostage situation, where the very nature of the american public ways facing a potential -- and the actions that i think general milley were taking were trying to deal with a terrorist takeover. frankly, until we start speaking in the language of what is front of us. however dangerous it may be, i don't think we're doing justice to the point. i think that means calling donald trump what he is. he's a terrorist. donald trump is a terrorist. this radicalized fringe element of what is today's gop, again, using violent threats, threats against fame, in some cases literal violence. when that happens, i think one has to recognize the impact on the poll issing is clear, but the impact on the republic is even clearer. tested all the way to the bring could be tested again. i think we're just in an ongoing slow-moving coup objective, but, you know, with donald trump, with all that we have learned about him, with all that we have learned. >> my working theory until recentl

now, thanks to a new book by bob woodward and bob costa, we havel learned that milley secretly collaborateditary lot rival, the government of china. on october 30th last year, according to the book, milley called his counterpart in china, the chinese general. he did not tell his boss about the call, before or after. here was milley's conversation of the chinese military. "we are not going to conduct any operations. general lee, you and i have known each other for five years. if we are going to attack i'm going to call you ahead of time. it's not going to be a surprise." it t is hard to believe that conversation actually took place, but apparently it did. more than 24 hours after it was reported, mark milley has not denied it. instead, his spokesman released a statement today confirming that milley does regularly speak to chinese military officials,fn but claiming that those calls are authorized by civilian leaders at the pentagon, but that turns out to be a lie. just hours ago, the former secretary of defense christopher miller told fox news he has no idea what mark milley is talking about.