at the pentagon, acting defense secretary chris miller outline plans to draw down troops in afghanistan and iraq by mid-january to less than 3000 service members in each country. the announcement came nearly a week after secretary miller replaced mark esper as head of the defense department, under the direction of president trump. >> good afternoon. i'm chris miller, acting secretary of defense and i'm here today to update you on president trump's plan to bring the wars in afghanistan and iraq to a successful and responsible conclusion and to bring our brave service members home. from kabul to kandahar and fallujah. hundreds of thousands of america's sons and daughters who answered the call to serve in our armed services have brought us to this point. us to this point. their efforts and sacrifice will go down in history as showing the strength, commitment of a force that is unlike any the world has ever seen. just last night, i joined vice president pence and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff to have the soldiers who perished in the middle east. this was a somber and hum bling momen

what did mark esper say no to that trump thinks chris miller is going to say yes to? >> and you don't have the answer to that? >> i wish i did. one speculation -- i really do honestly. one speculation that i keep hearing is that basically miller is in place to launder his integrity through whatever tata and ezra cohen-watnick and kash patel are going to ultimately do. some speculation runs that they're there to basically ransack intelligence, particularly in ezra cohen-watnick's new directorate to make sure that ultimately when president-elect biden takes office, they'll have a whole lot of dirt that they can try and feed republican officeholders and probably to conservative media as well. other speculation, which gets like pretty scary, is that who knows if there's going to be another confrontation with iran before trump leaves? in a couple days, mike pompeo is going to go fly to the middle east, and he'll be meeting with pretty much the anti-iran coalition, the uae, saudi arabia, and israel. no one that i've talked to really knows, and i think that's both an importan

chris miller check that catego category.rk esper has been on borrowed time since june 3rd and the president decided to act today. some people will see it as an act of vengeance and petty and certainly it's been very, very, i would say tense at the pentagon expecting this ask to fall for some time. >> harris: interesting. as i just said to bret baier, the president is the president and he can hire and fire who he wants. we've seen him do that before. obviously, my team is talking to me right now. jennifer, thank you very much for the breaking news. we will come back to you as it warrants with more information or anything else. we will talk more about the president firing secretary defense mark esper and how it could affect democrats in upcoming elections admit division within the party. stay close. ♪ alright, i brought in ensure max protein to give you the protein you need with less of the sugar you don't. [grunting noise] i'll take that. woohoo! 30 grams of protein and 1 gram of sugar. ensure max protein. with nutrients to s

the president named chris miller who served as director of the national counter terrorism center as acting defense secretary. video today showed miller tripping while arriving at the pentagon. he's then seen taking off his mask before going into the building. "the new york times" reports, quote, two white house officials said mr. trump was not finished and that christopher wray, the fbi director and gena haspel, the cia director could be next in line to be fired. removing these senior officials in effect decapitating the nation's national security bureaucracy would be without parallel by an outgoing president who just lost re-election. meanwhile, over the weekend the united states passed a grim milestone. over 10 million total coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic. virus now reaches a new peak every day. it's surging in 43 of our 50 states. there have been over 240,000 deaths and over 131,000 new covid-19 daces reported just today. 131,000. over the past week the country has been averaging about 110,000 per day, and ironny of ironnies the president is surrounded by coronavirus

. >> i'm chris miller, acting secretary of defense and i'm here t mr. miller: i am here to update you on president trump's plan to bring the wars in afghanistan responsiblea conclusion and to bring our brave service members home. to canada har and fallujah. hundreds of thousands of america's sons and daughters who answered the call to serve in our armed services have brought us to this point. their efforts and sacrifice will go down in history as showing the strength, commitment of a force that is unlike any the world has ever seen. just last night, i joined vice president pence and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff to have the soldiers who perished in the middle east. this was a somber and hum bling moment that reminded us of the tremendous sacrifices of the men and women of the united states military of our armed services take an oath to defend the constitution of the united states. they serve not for personal gain but for the protection and well-being of their fellow americans and their homeland. they are champions for peace, liberty and the rule

this afternoon, acting secretary of defense chris miller announced a reduction of u.s. troops in afghanistan and iraq by january 15th, five days before president-elect becomes president. miller said to bring the wars in afghanistan and iraq to an end. u.s. troops in afghanistan and iraq will be reduced to 2,500 each and currently about 4,500 u.s. troops in afghanistan and about 3,000 troops in iraq. miller announced this move over a week after president trump fired defense secretary mark esper. i'm told by sources that esper had warned against a withdrawal from afghanistan at this point. in a classified memo, esper, sources tell me, told the white house it was the unanimous recommendation of the chain of command, meaning him, plus the commander of centcom and afghanistan troops in afghanistan they should not draw down the troops any further until conditions were met in afghanistan, conditions such as a reduction in violence and progress in diplomatic negotiations with the taliban. the fear, esper said in this memo according to to someone familiar with it, premature with

as the acting defense secretary chris miller said, all wars must end this ends all wars because it can and all wars geo politically because it's because you cannot cross the rubicon, you cannot pull a whole nation off a swift. you cannot sanction a whole country, like it is an open protocol and neutral protocol. so, you know, i think paul tudor jones recognizes that this calm in the way it because the protocol is able to turn greed into an ultra stick action which is securing the network for as trans modification in a way. but to get to that point, because i mean, isn't confiscate a ball and why this is important. what you're saying there is that i cannot use violence to grab somebody property. in the case of american foreign policy, it's all about, well, we're going to grab your oil. we're going to drop bombs on you. we're going to grab all your resources and force you to take the dollar. it's backed up as paul krugman has men with guns. he said to himself in the new york times, that was right there, published in the paper of record. and so if you have private property in this case, b

well look i i think chris miller is the wrong person at the wrong place at the wrong time but let me say that chris miller has a stellar reputation when it comes to the counterterrorism world he's been leading the national counterterrorism center he was a deputy assistant secretary working on those issues at the department defense and in uniform as part of u.s. special forces in fact was in afghanistan in the early years and again this is a 6 person with a stellar reputation in this field i hear a very good guy those who have worked with him. have been great things to say about him and they believe that he also is a man of integrity i have no reason to doubt that but the challenge is he's in a very difficult position right now where you know he's been chosen lightly because of his perceived loyalty to the president to do what the president wants to do esp or was not viewed as that in over the last many months and it's likely that he's put in a tough situation fortunately there's a very good team of political appointees left in the military services the secretaries of the navy army an

this afternoon, acting secretary of defense chris miller announced a reduction of u.s. tan and iraq by january 15th, five days before president-elect becomes president. miller said to bring the wars in afghanistan and iraq to an end. u.s. troops in afghanistan and iraq will be reduced to 2,500 each and currently about 4,500 u.s. troops in afghanistan and about 3,000 troops in iraq. miller announced this move over a week after president trump fired defense secretary mark esper. i'm told by sources that esper had warned against a withdrawal from afghanistan at this point. in a classified memo, esper, sources tell me, told the white house it was the unanimous recommendation of the chain of command, meaning him, plus the commander of centcom and afghanistan troops in af

it comes after chris miller took over for mark esper. a former aide to devin nunes takes over and ezra cohen-wat c cohen-watnick will be joining the pentagon as well. joining me now, senator tim kaine. i'm curious about the shakeup, chris miller has never served in the pentagon, now he leads the department. is he qualified, and what concerns you about these appointments? >> no, they're not qualified. they're yes-men, and the last thing we should do in the last days of a lame duck presidency is show the world we're unstable and we're losing focus in the pentagon. the president should never have pushed mark esper out. this is very, very dangerous because it's not likely in my view that adversaries would take steps against the united states. that would unify us together. but russia may do something in ukraine or georgia, north korea could do something on the south korean border. they would be confident that the president and the pentagon are not going to be focused on them. trying to do something in hong kong or taiwan. this is a time of ma

as for the new acting defense secretary, less than 24 hours into the job, this morning chris miller is holding a secure, highly classified phone conference with top u.s. military officials around the world. his top commanders. introducing himself. that's what's clear. and trying to tell them what his plans may be for the way ahead. we are watching very carefully here at the pentagon to see who may be next. >> barbara star appreciate the quick hustle on that reporting. this is not just a presidential tantrum, this has complication. evan perez. the president tweeting twice, ballot counting abuse. and like the early vaccine i told you so, twitter had to flag that too. but the attorney general of the united states stepped forward yesterday issuing a statement, you can read it two ways number one the attorney general issuing a statement all my prosecutors be on the look out for fraud or read the caveats and cautions in it, if true, could potentially impact the outcome. he's doing this to keep the president happy and even bill barr knows there's no there-there. which is it? >> i think it's a

chris miller refused to take any questions about this decision. he turned -- came out, delivered and read a prepared statement and then turned heel and walked away. there you have it. that is how america's longest war just ended. at least for the moment. it ended with somebody coming out, reading the statement, and leaving the room. you know, you better than anybody else knows, brianna, you know, thousands and thousands of troops have lost their lives in these war zones, been injured. families and personnel, their lives changed forever. what we don't have in terms of information is a much longer list of what we do have. we know it's going to come down to 2,500 troops in iraq, 2,500 troops in afghanistan. afghanistan being the critical question at the moment. because there is simply no indication that the taliban have agreed to the terms they signed up to, which is to reduce violence. that was supposed to be the condition that it would allow the u.s. to turn it over to the afghan government and eventually leave. we are being told that top u.s. mili

and that's chris miller. an interesting choice. i believe he was sworn in in early august. he's a long time special forces soldier. he has a military background. it is in the speck forces world. it is an interesting choice. he would have to choose 21 if he wants the person to be an acting secretary of defense whose senate is confirmed, who chris miller is being with nctc. but he is not going to someone completely outside the chain. he's known among military circles here, kasie. >> that seems to underscore that this is really about his anger and frustration with esper. perhaps we even saw the president-elect give his first transition speech today about coronavirus. if we know anything with president trump, he tries grab those chirons and those headlines back at every opportunity. this is something that would certainly prompt such things. so let's bring in retired general nbc news military analyst barry mccaffrey to talk about this. general, thank you so much for being with us this afternoon. i would like to get your top line reaction and your reflections on what we were talk

who's caught in the middle of this tweet is true chris miller is a highly respected. who was unanimously confirmed by the u.s. senate for his position at the counterterrorism center that said his expertise is technocratic expertise is quite narrow he is as his job title implies a counterterrorism expert a friend of mine to talk to before i got on air today said one i'm pretty sure he can tell us submarine from an aircraft carrier 2 out of 3 times now obviously they're exaggerating for effect but the point is is that produces extremely narrow he doesn't know much about them maybe doesn't know much about the airports doesn't know much about the larger defense enterprise he's a highly skilled technocratic focuses on them or. who else could be on the list i know we're speculating here but stay has been plenty of talk about the lights of the the director of the f.b.i. and well where the truck can do it or not talk to felt she people have wondered for a long time as well. right i think the names they get taught are tossed around our doctor found she gina haskell the cia dir

defense secretary chris miller.e replaced mark esper, who was fired by president trump after joe biden won the electioner in this month. troops have been gradually reduced as part of a peace deal struck earlier this year. u.s. media reports say 4,500 soldiers are now believed to be deployed in afghanistan, and 3,000 in iraq. republican senate leader mitch mcconnell is raising concerns about the timing of the latest move, and warned against any earth shaking changes to defense or foreign policy in the coming months. the planned reduction comes amid a recent resurgence of violence in afghanistan. the government and the taliban are engaged in ongoing peace talks, but they have yet to achieve a breakthrough. >>> turning to the latest on the coronavirus here in japan. infections continue to spike across many parts of the country. it's compelling officials in hokkaido to ask sapporo residents to refrain from nonessential outings and avoid risky activities such as dining in large groups. >> translator: we want all resident

. >> chris miller was a soldier and today, the acting secretary of defense and he announced a draw dawn from 4,500 to 2,500 troops. by january 15, 2001. excuse, i clear liam thinkily af where this started in 2001. >> commanders were opposed to any decrease. faced with trump's determination to bring troops home, they responded, if you want to draw down, we recommend you go to 2,500. president trump decided to go to 3,000 down to 2,500 troops in iraq where personnel remain under attack. just finishing the statement when these launch pads lit up in with rockets fired near the u.s. embassy in baghdad. reporting for cbs news, the pentagon. >>> the faa is set today to lift the grounding order on the boeing troubled 737 max fleet. the fleet was grounded after two deadly crashes killed 346 people. the faa is requiring new pilot training and software upgrades linked to a stall program. american airlines planning the first flights next month between miami and new york city. >>> coming up, tallying the damage in central america after the most powerful hurricane of the season hits the region. a lan

his replacement -- >> reporter: in his first message to the forces new acting defense secretary chris millerat some are calling mixed messages about ending america's wars. , quote, this war is not over, we are on the verge of feeding al qaeda and its associates. we must see the fight to the finish. we met the challenge, gave it our all, and now it is time to go. president trump fired his previous defense chief two days before veterans day. esper did not pull them all out, something the president has long desired for 3000 americans are still in iraq. 4500 in afghanistan. the new defense chief spearheaded -- he later led special forces during the iraq invasion. miller's new top advisors retired army colonel in the past argued for the elimination of the u.s. marine corps. now some good news in the fight against terrorism, the new york times reports al qaeda's number two leader has been killed. abdullah ahmed abdullah was responsible for the attacks on two u.s. embassies in 1998, killing hundreds of people. the state department had a $10 million bounty on his head. lucas thomason, fox news. >>>

it's not 100% clear why president trump decided on chris miller in this instance because he could have of the service secretaries. anyone who was senate confirmed. but he plucked him out of nctc where he'd only been for three months, chris. >> something to keep an eye on. courtney, thank you, as always. we appreciate it. >>> up next -- make or break for obamacare. what to expect as the supreme court prepares to take on the law that more than 20 million americans depend on for health insurance. ♪ [ sneeze ] skip to cold relief fast with alka seltzer plus severe powerfast fizz. dissolves quickly. instantly ready to start working. ♪ oh, what a relief it is! so fast! it's time for aerotrainer, with your weight and health? a more effective total body fitness solution. (announcer) aerotrainer's ergodynamic design and four patented air chambers create maximum muscle activation for better results in less time, all while maintaining safe, correct form and allows for over 20 exercises. do the aerotrainer super crunch. the pre-stretch works your abs even harder, engaging the entire core. then it'

secondly, president trump may have to get rid of the secretary deputy defense to make chris miller actingo to the dark end of the spectrum, you will bring somebody into has no knowledge of how to deal with the nuclear codes, for example. asou know i spent two years as chief of staff and senior military assistant to don rumsfeld. that stuff is hard and complicated. it takes time to understand it. that is just but one example of the turbulence in the system at an unsettled time. katty: it just underlines that this is not the normal transition. this is not what normally happens in american transitions. let's talk more about the transition. you served a supreme allied commander at nato in 2009 22013. you understand your nato allies. -- 2009-2013. you understand your nato allies. what do you think they will do? >> this is not just me talking to my middle -- my many friends across europe, at the very repeatable polls in a wide variety of countries, donald trump does not enjoy a great deal of support in almost all of the nato countries. conversely, former vice president biden is extremely well-k

as the act, chris miller said, all wars must end this ends all wars because you can and all pull a whole nation office open protocol because it's because you cannot cross the rubicon, you cannot pull a whole nation office, which i think paul tudor jones recognizes that this calm in the way it because the protocol is able to turn greed into an action which is securing the network to an action which is securing the network for as trans monfort in a way. but to get to that point, because i mean isn't confiscate a ball and why this is important and what you're to grab somebody property in the case of american for we're going to drop bombs on you. we're going to grab all your resources and force you to take the dollar. it's backed up as paul crocker . we're going drop bombs on you. we're going to grab all your resources and force you to take the dollar. it's backed up. that's. that's the end of the story and the only way to get any of my bitcoin is to offer me something that i'll trade for it. and that's peaceful trade. that's why is pro humanity and violent chaos again, we're saying, paul kr

i want to say a thanks to acting circuitry chris miller for being here today., you are here somewhere, but thank you so much for what you have done pulling all of it together. and of course, general sullivan, who we just saw on the screen, he was the chief in our early years when we were lieutenants and captains in chief, you are still our cheat. you are a great chief then and you are a great chief now. thank you for your inspiration and vision to bring this all to fruition. the passing of general hartzog, another passing. thanks for your leadership and putting all of this together. i do want to thank sergeant canola for being soldier of the year. exampleor being a great of all that is great about a soldier. thank you to all of those watching, thank you so much for participating in today's events. today is veterans day and on the the day, the 11th month, of 11th hour in 1918, the war to end all wars came to an end. of 47 the final day brutal days of fighting enemies are gone, stopping only because of the armistice declared two and the great war. that offensive

i want to say particular thanks to acting secretary chris miller for being here today.you are here somewhere, but thank you so much for what you have done pulling all of it together. and of course, general sullivan, who we just saw on the screen, he was the chief in our early years when we were lieutenants and captains in chief, you are still our chief. you were a great chief then and you are a great chief now. thank you for your inspiration and vision to bring this all to fruition. and, of course, thanks also, on the passing of general hartzog, another great general officer of the united states army. thanks for your leadership and putting all of this together. i do want to thank sergeant nakinola for being the soldier of the year. we will see him in a few minutes, but thanks for being a good example of all that is good about a soldier. thank you to all of those watching, thank you so much for participating in today's events. day, and onerans the 11th month, of the 11th hour in 1918, the war to end all wars came to an end. it was the final day of 47 brutal day of fighti

. >> reporter: chris miller was a soldier in afghanistan two decades ago, and today, as acting secretarydefense, that seemed to be on his mind acting sec when he announced a drawdown from 4,500 to 2,500 troops. >> by january 15, 2001-- excuse me, i clearly am thinking of where this started in 2001. >> reporter: senior military commanders were opposed to any decrease, but faced with president trump's determination to bring troops home, they responded, in the words of one military officer, "if you want to drawdown, we recommend you go to 2,500." president trump also decided to go from 3,000 down to 2,500 troops in iraq where u.s. personnel remain under the threat of attack by iranian- backed militias. acting secretary miller had barely finished announcing the drawdown when these launch pads lit up with rockets fired near rhe u.s. embassy in baghdad. the u.s. embassy i david martin, cbs news, the pentagon. >> o'donnell: we turn now to our exclusive cbs news investigation into sexual assault in the military. november is veterans month, when te honor the men and women who protect this country

he was replaced within an hour by chris miller, a former special operations soldier who had been director of the counterterrorism center, but only for a couple of months, david. >> well, martha, you covered washington, you covered the pentagon for years, have you ever seen an interim period like this, a defense secretary out, three more top pentagon officials tonight. and if this is unsettling for folks at home, what do your sources tell you tonight, is there any concern that this could put national security at risk? >> reporter: you know, david, no one has seen anything like this. there is concern about what this means, is the president planning a military operation? or the use of federal troops, which esper opposed. even mitch mcconnell praised esper today and republican john cornyn, a member of the senate gop leadership said of trump's decision to fire esper, "i don't think it helps him and i don't think it helps the country." david? >> all right, martha, we know you're going to say on this. >>> in the meantime, to the supreme court showdown tonight over the fate of the affordable care

balls to he was fired by donald trump on chris miller. has made it clear he wants to bring an end to the navy 2 decade old and gates moment in afghanistan and also iraq during the presidential election result. but it, john, your exit from the white house looking fairly likely he is apparently going to fulfill some of his campaign promises to bring u.s. troops home before he goes. michael maloof, a former pentagon security policy, analysts believe middle east tension will ramp up under by 2 ministration. trump is doing this for political reasons and trying to fulfill a campaign promise. he's not all the more you also got to keep in mind. he may substitute u.s. troops for private military contractors, and that is also something that's lurking in the background. but no one's talking about it. the whole notion is for him to have ever troops by next may. but then by then you may be into a 1000000000 in the streets. and the troop levels could go back up again. i think you're going to see a lot more tensions in the middle east. because of the ne

the acting defense secretary that has replaced mark kasparov to he was fired by donald trump and chris miller has made it clear he wants to bring an end to the nearly 2 decade engagement in afghanistan. and also iraq with trump still contesting the presidential election results. but in january accept from the white house looking very likely he is apparently going to fulfill some of his campaign promises to bring u.s. troops home before he goes. well, that's now cross live to former pentagon security analyst, michael maloof, while can foster then the government would fall over them within a week or 2. the other thing too is that a lot of folks are suggesting that this is tantamount to obama. troops out completely in 2011 from iraq, and we saw what happened there with the built rebuild of isis. now the problem here is that there's no commitment from taliban to be able to fill its promises of not using afghanistan as a base for attacks by al qaeda or isis on on us on the u.s. . and i'm right there that nato secretary general has expressed similar concerns. so it's going to be while trump is doin

chris miller would not be confirmed because there is not a lot of time left in this administration unless there is a change with the election results which does not look likely. officetrump came into and the whole history of the department of defense -- in the whole history of the department of defense, there had only been two acting secretaries. the president liked to have a lot of stability and continuity. before the next secretary of defense steps in, they will make sure he is confirmed and the outgoing one will stay on. under president trump, he has done this four times so it is a very front approach, much more uncertainty and chaos over at the pentagon. host: the headline at the washington times, the pentagon policy officials fall esper out the door. the chief is resigned -- resigned on tuesday as the mentorship shakes up the highest ranks following the unsettled presidential election. the acting undersecretary submitted his resignation letter on tuesday, less than 24 hour's after president trump unceremoniously dispatched mr. esper following clashes over policy. in general, what is

president tweeted out, chris will do a great job -- referring to the now acting defense secretary chris miller. mark esper has been terminated. i want to thank him for his service. that was in a tweet at the top of the hour. is this the beginning of a round of firings that has been widely speculated? again, terminated is the more that the president is using. let's get a quick check on the markets. the dow is up 4.8%. the dow is up 3.75%. a bit.daq up by are up about 10% apiece. to 22. down you would think that it is a calm reading, but it is not. trading volume is above the 30-day moving average. let's get more with tina martin adams with bloomberg intelligence. there is the exception of the generally this market is on fire. is this a one-day move? >> i think this is a continuation of a relief that began last week. now we are pricing in better economic conditions emerging as the result of a faster than expected vaccine approval. i think this is a continuation pattern. we had seen the market capped in a sideways range starting in september until the election. rotationthat was about out of big c

defense secretary chris miller and other secretaries were also in contact with the minister and testedegative, do not plan to isolate. a protester pleads guilty for his role in setting a minneapolis police precinct on fire. he helped towards a molotov cocktail but got thrown inside the precinct by another man in rights following the death of george floyd. williams tossed boxes into a fire outside the entrance. 3 alleged co-conspirators have been charged but have not pleaded guilty. aaron brockovich slamming biden's pick for the transition team. the president-elect choosing michael mccabe after chemicals were found in the water of people living nearby. brockovich writes in a new op-ed, i hope the new administration would usher in the dawning of a new day. as pick from joe biden's transition team was announced, i'm concerned and disheartened about chemical industry insider being on the list. queen elizabeth and prince philip are celebrating 73 years of marriage today. the royal couple married at westminster abbey in 1947, the queen was 21 years old. buckingham powers releasing this video

mark esper was fired, replaced by an acting defense secretary, and a lot of people around chris miller have been replaced, a lot of them seen as loyalists. president trump is known as shuffling his personnel. from political appointees to career positions. now, career positions are common, obviously in the government, but they also come with protection, civil service protections. so they would be heart ard to f for example, if president biden when he becomes president sees that as necessary. we have a president-elect right now very prepared for the job. joe biden obviously has decades of experience in national security and foreign policy issues, and so do his staff, but they need access to the classified information. so far president trump and his administration is refusing to grant that access. brianna? >> they need the current stuff, what's happening right now. vivian salama, thank you so much. >> >>> with me is john bellinger. john, thank you so much. you have a particular expertise here that's so important in this discussion. can you talk to us that the biden team needs? >> i was no

an acting defense secretary is coming in, chris miller, currently head of counter-terrorism, a formerly relatively junior d.o.d. official. being defense secretary carries enormous global power and starts and stops at the authority that you have to move troops around the world. this is essential what being defense secretary is all about at the end of the day, looking at u.s. military troops, making sure they are trained and equipped, making sure u.s. troops are where they need to be and not where they don't need to be. mr. trump has been very adamant that he wants to consider bringing all troops home, for example, by christmas, from afghanistan. he has military advice from the pentagon that that's a terrible idea. they still need to be there because of the level of violence. he wants to bring troops home eventually, if not sooner, fairly quickly, from iraq, from syria. the pentagon has been given him cautionary advice on that, not to dismantle forward u.s. military presence around the globe, that it's an important pushback, and its support of allies. will this acting secretary between no

now defense secretary mark esper fired and gone, a new acting secretary chris miller installed, other new members of the top levels of the pentagon trump loyalists clearly earmarked to carry out out what the president's wishes are. the problem is nobody knows what those are. toulouse unease and anxiety. a big question is will president trump make a big military decision before he leaves office. >> i'm kylie atwood at the state department. people are outraged after secretary pompeo's comments when he was asked about working with the biden transition at the state department he said a smooth transition to the trump administration. democrats called that incredibly scary for him to say. some told me they felt sick to their stomach after hearing those comments. others were angered because he thought appeared to undermine their world. around the world, they work to advocate for free and fair elections. they encourage world leaders not to challenge the results of elections if they were the result of a democratic process. that is precisely what president trump is doing now with the backing of

question marks tonight about what could potentially happen here, and another one is candidly is chris millerg career in special operations and special forces. he's -- i spoke with a number of people who know him well who served with him in the military over the last 24 hours or so and he's well respected but the big question is he someone who would forcefully push back on president trump and potentially these new individuals who have come into the pentagon or coming into the pentagon, would he push back if they are trying to make radical changes in these last 70days. yesterday after secretary esper was terminated, defense officials assured me that in fact, miller had addressed senior staff already and said look, i'm not planning any wide scale, you know, large changes. we're going to keep the mission going. we're going to keep the trains running as they have been but now with these other potential influencers working in the pentagon, could that change? >> could he fire general milly. he rebuked him on tv. >> president trump could fire general millie at any time. it would be uncommon but he s

and the new message to the forces, chris miller said even though the u.s.defeating al-qaeda, he wants the war to end very soon writing quote, ending wars requir requires compromise and partnership. we gave it our all and now it's time to go home. president trump released esper two days before veterans day. 3,000 troops are still in iraq, 4500 in afghanistan. new defense chief spearheaded the invasion of afghanistan with the troops. as a battalion commander and special forces he took part in the iraq invasion two years later. some have raised eyebrows among defense hawks, the retired, and they chaired this to the cavalry in the 1930's. and wants to shut down the u.s. embassy in cable as well. the new leadership has something else in common, they're defense hawks and hawks who might favor a strike on nuclear sites before january 20th. the u.s. military has 60,000 troops in the region well within range of some of iran's 9,000 ballistic missiles, neil. neil: all right. lucas tomlinson, i appreciate it. in the meantime there's a law and order issue alive and wel

conversation, it be became clear that even the iran hawks like mike pompeo, the secretary of state, and chris millernew defense secretary and certainly chairman milley, the chairman of the jont chiefs, all said this would lead to an cl s escalation you might not be able to control in the last weeks. it my be part of the national security briefing that president-elect biden is getting but not from the government or the administration. >> that seems like it would be important for president-elect biden to know. in terms of the time frame about when this can all be over, errol, and president-elect biden can move forward, it was very interesting to hear what the georgia secretary of state said in terms of the pressure that he is still under from republicans to skew the race their way, including from people like senator lindsey graham. he's basically saying they are pressuring him to not only recount but to find different results and to maybe have to throw out some legal ballots. here is what brad raffensperger said yesterday on that topic. >> they asked if the ballots could be matched back to the voters.

essential a new leadership at the pentagon that the president is dealing with, with of course chris miller now as the acting defense secretary. so the question is not only how quickly does this happen and why is the president doing it now with only two months left in office? but what effect does it have on the biden administration once they come into office and what they're going to do, because this is something that will have a lasting effect. we know the president has been wanting to make several other major moves in his time in office, essential fire the cia director is one of those, but this would have a lasting impact as soon as they start in january. >> it certainly would. i want to bring in our chief political analyst gloria borgeers and or correspondent abby fiphillip to talk about th. to kaitlan's point, who does this? who drops this into a lap of an incoming president? >> no one. i think president trump is trying to go through thinks bucket list, saying he promised to get out of these wars -- >> but gloria, he's not getting out of these wars. >> that's right. >> he's just handica

at the pentagon, acting defense secretary chris miller outline plans to draw down troops in afghanistan and iraq by mid-january to less than 3000 service members in each country. the announcement came nearly a week after secretary miller replaced mark esper as head of the defense department, under the direction of president trump.