esper. this is the dynamic we will continue to watch. a lot of talk the president will use anger and vent it with personnel moves in these important days after the presidential election. appreciate your time today. brianna keilar picks up coverage in this breaking news story right now. >>> hello, brianna keilar. i want to welcome viewers in the united states and around the world. we continue with breaking news 48 hours after the election was called for joe biden, president trump has just fired his defense secretary. i want to go to cnn's kaitlan collins at the white house. can you give us the latest? >> reporter: bhe terminated mar esper, putting acting defense secretary in his place, and this is a role that esper would only have two more months, but it was clear the president was wanting to fire esper for some time. brianna, he came close over the summer to doing it, had to have interventions from esper allies to convince him not to fire the defense secretary campaigning to be reelected. t

esper following a series of clashes over policy. leo shane, what is the mood inside the building, the pentagon? guest: after that move the undersecretary for intelligent stepped aside and was replaced by another trump loyalist. there is a lot of uncertainty right now. there is a lot of feeling that there is years of experience, a breadth of knowledge being lost, but also just uncertainty over what these moves mean in the short term. the president going to install these folks so he can withdraw troops from afghanistan quicker, do troops out of germany quicker. these are things he has talked about in recent months and gotten pushback from congress. knows whatng -- who his priorities are going to be for the next few month regarding the military? we know regardless of what happens president trump is commander-in-chief for the next 70 days. there is plenty of time for him some large-scale changes at the pentagon. right now it is budget time among the top folks of the department of defense. they are putting together budget request for fis

fired mark esper primarily because of disagreements. question is can you describe president trump's strategy in approaching north korea because he did not give into kim jong-un's request that he was able to reduce tension without starting a war. caller: -- it is on the esper issue, a variety of things for me. the washington post reported that esper had an appearance a few months ago that -- where he was asked what it was like working under president trump and the president did not feel that trump -- that esper praised him enough. -- renaming bases named after confederate generals , that is something esper worked with people on the hill on. we appear to be in the final days of this administration and to jettison yet another defense secretary injects a lot of instability into an area where both democrats and republicans do not want to see national security be an unstable place, do not want the pentagon to be in turmoil. korea,subject of north very complex foreign policy promised to has handle this differently. of thes to be the eye behold

how does what is going on here with esper fit into that? you've covered the pentagon for a long time. how does the way things are now between the commander in chief and the cheefls , the chiefs of his armed forces, what is that like in our longer history? >> so there has been, that's another relationship that has been under tension. remember back to summer of 2017. what has become this infamous tank meeting in july 2017 where the president came in and they were really doing a worldwide wrap up of threat assessment. one of the things they talked about was afghanistan. the president called the then commander of the war in afghanistan, general nicholson a loser. he said we should fire him. and that was the beginning of what we know anyway of a time where the relationships, not just the civilians or the political poimes of the pentagon and the president but the uniforms. that relationship, i saw it degrade seriously over the summer and it started with the now infamous church walk in june. where chairman of the joint chiefs, general mark milley,

you and our colleagues at nbc reported about esper's -- reported on esper's prepared resignation lettercially came down. let's talk about the implications of this. i mean, the president only has a couple months left in office. clearly, he wanted to voice his displeasure with esper, but there are some people who are raising concerns that there might be something more nefarious going on here. what's your take on why this happened and what the impact is? >> yeah, that's right. so, the reality is, secretary esper for months now was believed to be one of the first cabinet secretaries who would be fired after the election, whether president trump was re-elected or not. there were people saying as much as he'll probably be fired or forced to resign the wednesday after the election. what changed was the fact that we didn't have results the wednesday after, so all of last week, there was sort of this tentative waiting -- is he going to get fired? is he going to be forced to resign? but the fact that that carried through the weekend and we still don't have president trump conceding the election m

defense secretary mark esper on his way out. i want to point out that president trump did this announcement and in that tweet he said he has announced that the director of the national account tourism center, he's going to be the acting secretary of defense effective immediately. harris? >> harris: thank you very much. i want to leave that tweet up. can we put that back up while i bring in bret baier? also anger and executive editor of "special report." i want people to see this for themselves. i'm pleased to announce that the highly director of the national terrorism center confirmed by the senate will be acting secretary of defense effective immediately. he went on to say, he will do a great job, mark esper has been terminated. i would like to thank him for his service. bret baier, your response? >> first of all, this had long been in the cards that president trump had not been a very happy with secretary esper and had whispered to aids that he would look after the election at possibly making a change there. it's not often the

esper was fired kay otically o -- kchaotically on a tweet, ci director esper. i'm very concerned, those are the four areas of government during a transition period that we want to keep the nation secure. that's troubling when you think about the potential repercussions of that. >> and about 70 more days of that period to work through. lieutenant general mark hurdling, many thanks for your analysis. appreciate it. >> always a pleasure, thank you, rosemary. >> well, extremely encouraging news about a coronavirus vaccine sent stocks soaring on monday. but how are investors reacting now. we will check on the markets. back in just a moment. businesses today are looking to tomorrow. adapting. innovating. setting the course. but new ways of working demand a new type of network. one that's more than just fast. you need flexibility- to work from anywhere and manage from everywhere. advanced technology. with serious security. and reliable coverage, nationwide. forward-thinking enterprises deserve forward-thinking solutions. and that's what we deliver. so bounce forward,

so it doesn't surprise me that it's esper. the reporter noted before, there are other members of the administration that trump has talked about in the past as being unhappy with. if he wants to make a big statement on the way out the door, his catchline is you're fired even if that is what the american voters have just said to him, he may not be done saying that to members of his own team. neil: all right. i don't want to push you here but you have been so good on this, i'm curious, do we know, i know he tweeted out the news he had fired defense secretary esper. that is the way that the defense secretary found out himself? do we know whether the president told him that? he would not be the first cabinet official who was fired via presidential tweet here, but what do we know? >> oh, neil, i'm actually unsure. coming to this as a pollster, i have been patched in listening to your show for the last couple minutes so everything i know has come from that reporter. i haven't had a chance to look at my phone and look at twitter. it w

esper may not be trump's last firing.es say bill barr, fbi director christopher ray and cia director would be next to go. esper's firing with trump controlling what he can't and contesting what he can't. he refuses to concede the election to biden. some are pushing him to come to grips with reality and concede. while others are telling him to keep fighting and even suggesting running again in four years. >> grover cleveland came back. donald trump should think about it. >> reporter: neither trump nor vice president mike pence have called biden or senator kamala harris. today, pence tweeted that he told his staff, quote, it ain't over until it's over and this ain't over. on the day biden announced his transition task force on the pandemic, pence met with the one that he leads for the first time in nearly 20 days. the meeting happening the same day news broke that another person in trump's orbit has contracted covid-19. hud secretary dr. ben carson tested positive today after attending an indoor election night party at the

june, esper really has been a marked man. and has been telling people that he felt he was on a short leash with the white house. this was a shock to esper and to everybody else at the senior level at the pentagon yesterday. they did not see it coming. so we'll have to see. i like to take the hopeful view, this is all going forward the -- but this is a wild card. >> we're going to come back to mark esper in a moment. we have nbc news reporting about how that happened, more in a second. dr. gupta, i want to go back to you. the nbc news tally showed yesterday nearly 134,000 new cases of covid-19 in this country yesterday. that's a new daily record. we seem to be setting a new record every day. so as we plunge farther toward thanksgiving and then into the holidays and winter is ahead of us, we played the remarks from joe biden yesterday. he said there's a dark winter ahead, what is your assessment of where we are and where we're headed here. >> you know, willie, the biggest concern here is every model has been correct. the univer

president trump and esper have really been at odds ever since this summer when esper refused to supportnvoking the insurrection act which would have allowed president trump to use active duty troops on u.s. soil to quell all of those protest happening around the country in the wake of george floyd's death. the president made this announcement official, as he often does come on twitter. he said "i'm pleased to announce that christopher miller, the highly respected director of the national counterterrorism cent center, will be acting secretary of defense effective immediately." immediately. mark esper has been terminated, i would like to thank him for his service." the president's decision to fire esper just two days after joe biden became the president-elect gives you a taste of what potentially could come over the next two months. we know fbi director has often been talked about also being on the chopping block. all well president trump continues to chip the max wright joe biden's status as the president-elect. president trump has not spoken on champ mack camera since thursday but his c

so esper, it's one of these you're fired situations. esper had his resignation ready.he president beat him to it. the question as jim acosta is saying who is next on the revenge firings? will it be chris ray? or the head of the cia? we don't know. it wouldn't surprise me if you see a bunch of these revenge firings before donald trump leaves office. let me say one more thing about transition to respond to van. fountain house of representatives wants to, if that is money is being withheld, and stuart stevens pointed this out of the lincoln project, he said why wouldn't the house just keep money for a post-election money for the trump family if they wanted to? they could do that. >> potentially. abby, we reported the results of the election at 11:24 a.m. on saturday to be precise, we were first. by monday afternoon, the president had already fired his first senior cabinet official. what does that tell you about what the next couple of months until january 20th at noon when he leaves office, what do we anticipate might occur? >> this is going to be, wolf, i think one of th

he tweeted he terminated mark esper.t week there was a report that esper prepared a letter of resignation. there is so much to discussion about what the next 2.5 months look like. the news that esper is out, not a surprise to those that knew that the president was not a big fan. he just gave an interview to military times. he did this on november 4th, the day after the election and says he was no yes man to trump. what more can we expect? >> he got cross with the president this summer in the wake of the george floyd killing. the president want today deploy active mill to control the protests, and the joint chiefs of staff chairman resisted that. in addition esper put out an order saying you cannot fly a confederate flag on military bases and he expressed openness to renaming mill paitary bases. it was only a matter of time before he was removed, but it is really telling that trump is effectively a lame duck president. he has two months left in office and he is firing his defense secretary and putting in an active defense

>> so, that was something -- you know, secretary esper really hated that.ing that stuck in his crawl. privately, he pushed back. officials around him really pushed back and said you have no idea how much he's actually standing up to president trump behind the scenes. you guys just don't know but the president doesn't listen to him. i wasn't surprised to read that at all. and it was also something last week i was really struck, carol and i put out a story about secretary esper preparing his resignation letter. i was struck by the reaction to the story both doing the reporting on it and after it came out by how much concern there was at very senior levels of the pentagon for what president trump could do in these last days of the administration. this is before the race, before we knew that president elect biden would win the election. there was a tremendous amount of concern about what president trump could do here. one of the things surrounded the insurrection act and worry there would be violence in the streets depending on the election results, which so fa

saying tersely mark esper has been terminated.ing civil unrest this summer, esper publicly disagreed with the president who wanted to deploy active duty troops to u.s. cities. >> i do not support invoking the insurrection act. >> reporter: the president named christopher miller acting secretary of defense. he arrived this afternoon, the fourth person to run the pentagon in the past four years. also tonight president trump making more unfounded allegations about election fraud. he plans to exhaust all legal options before even considering conceding. >> that word is not even in our vocabulary right now. >> reporter: the campaign has not offered any credible proof of fraud. election related lawsuits in michigan, georgia and nevada have already been dismissed for lacking evidence. but the president's team is still promising more legal action. many republican lawmakers are also insisting the election isn't over, urging president trump to stay strong. >> president trump is 100% within his rights to look into allegations of irregularitie

we know it surprised secretary esper. from white house chief of staff mark meadows just before the tweet went out. they were not expecting him to be fired via tweet and certainly not to be fired yesterday afternoon when it occurred. so the question is, why now? the concern is that maybe the decision by president trump was because he wanted to put someone in there who would not push back on certain decisions. some of the decisions that esper has pushed back on in the past several months are the use of the insurection act over the summer to quell civil unrest. secretary esper made a stance on the issue of renaming bases named after confederate leaders and generals. those are two areas he and the president clashed. there was tensions -- there was severe tension between the two men because of those. and now the concern in the national security community is, was this just president trump being vindictive and firing secretary esper because he could or does he have some other motivations here, chris? >> yeah, but they are real w

mark esper has been terminated.

esper has been terminated. i would like to thank him for his service. president named chris miller, who served as director of the national counterterrorism center as acting defense secretary. video today showed miller tripping while arriving at the pentagon. he is 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 gina haspel, the c.i.a. director, could be next in line to be fired. removing these senior officials in effect dee capitating the nation's national security bureaucracy. would be without parallel by an outgoing president who just lost reelection. >>> 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 cases reported j

. >> after months of speculation between the relationship between trump and mark esper, mark esper has been fired. trump tweeted he was terminated. esper had commanded the deployment of federal troops and attracted trump's year by -- ear by banning the display of confederate symbols. in an interview last week, he said, my soldiers do not get to quit so if i get quite, it better be over something really big. earlier we spoke with mark jenkinson, a scene or advisor -- mark jacobson, a senior advisor. he thinks mark esper termination -- >> he has to manage the transition to the incoming team. the first rule of presidential transmissions is to not create chaos and instability. make sure things stay steady. the white house has thrown that out the window and getting rid of mark esper. trump ego cannot handle the defeat and he is lashing out in a number of ways. it's problematic because you will have an incoming team who has to understand the trouble points in each agency. american allies on the rest of the world are craving the stability that will come with a biden administration and the wor

he pointed out in addition to esper who was fired the head of the u.s.ary central command general mckenzie opposes this decision. the head of the nato mission in afghanistan general miller opposes this mission. general milley also opposes this. they disagree totally with the president. they don't want troops drawn so quickly and especially during this transition period. have you ever seen anything like this where the top military brass so directly involved in protecting these troops are totally against what the president has in mind? >> no, i have not. for what i've not seen is a president to go against what the top military leaders, the ones who have literally decades of experience, many of them having fought in multiple wars, they know what they are doing. they know the logistics it takes in order to withdraw troops. to have a commander in chief not listen to those advisers and, in fact, start firing them so he can do what he wants to do. remember, wolf, that the transition time to a new president is some of the most dangerous times for our national se

esper had his resignation letter ready for go. it was a rift that deepened after he said he did not support using active-duty troops to calm protests nationwide. kaitlan, what more do you know about the president's decision to fire his defense secretary. >> white house officials are surprised it took this long. they thought it would only come immediately after tuesday. yesterday he was distracted, because he was contesting the outcome of this election. the writer had been on the wall for some time. their relationship had deteriorated. we know they clashed over the summer over the protests, and the president wanting to use active-duty troops to help control them, something that esper publicly said in what i believe was his last briefing, that he did not agree with invoking the insurrection act, even though it was something that floated publicly. the president characterize the him as a yes man, once referring to him as yes-per in a press conference. he did not agree with the president on this, but i also think what we are seeing is

in fact, esper is somebody who got 9d 0 votes for his confirmation. that's unusual in the trump era. the first two statements to hit my inbox came from slot kins. she suggested there's no reason to fire esper based on his performance. it is either purely vindictive or indicative of a president who wants to do something the defense secretary wouldn't allow him to do in this transition period and that's a cause for if not alarm but being watched closely. we'll see if republicans choose to speak up, but the general republican mo at this moment tends to be keep your head down while the election results get sorted. >> speaking of keeping your head down, lots of questions about the republican party right now and what they are and what they are not saying particularly when it comes to the election results and congratulating president-elect joe biden, even encouraging the president to conce concede. what are we expected to hear from leader mcconnell? >> i don't expect to see him rocking the boat in terms of calling for the president to concede or congratulati

as a matter of fact, mark esper worked for me in the senate. i think any secretary of defense would probably approach it the same way esper did and what he said yesterday with those remarks. but i have confidence in our system, our people, the enterprise that we will be ok regardless of who the president is. . it might be messy. it could be messy. it could result in a constitutional crisis. but our military leaders will not let anything happen in this country. steve: one of the other things that occurs to me, someone has just died from covid, and so it puts the spotlight back on the fact that nothing has been achieved in terms of the palestinian statehood issue or autonomy issue in quite a long time. do you think that issue is one that can be ignored forever, brushed under the rug? or do you think fundamentally for stability in the region in the middle east, that palestine-israel problems have to be solved in a way that we are not attending to right now? sec. hagel: i think we are going to have to pay attention to it. obviously the last four ye

esper in a memo to the white house warned the white house earlier this month it was the consensus of the u.s. military chain of command that no more troops should be withdrawn from afghanistan until conditions on the ground, specific conditions on the ground had been met and as of that memo, those conditions had not yet been met. those sources also said they believe that esper's warning to the president and to the white house about that troop draw down was one of the main reasons why he was fired last week. >> jeremy diamond over at the white house. joining us, our senior correspondent jeff zeleny, along with former ohio governor john kasich and bakari sellers. and biden's words that it's more embarrassing than debailitating. >> i think it's embarrassing and debilitating. i said to a friend -- this is a man involved in fighting this pandemic. what would it have been like had donald trump from the very beginning told the american people what was going on and these are the things we need to do and it's going to be a long road and we're going to do it together? now we just have an elect

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 withdrawal could undermine the actual negotiations since why, the argument goes, why would the taliban agree to any concessions if they know the u.s. is halfway out the door either way? that memo is believed to have been one of the main reasons why outstanding going president trump fired esper and much of his senior administration last week. getting all he can done in washington before departing. we should know the outgoing president dns to deny the reality he lost the election and, thus, is continuing to r

mark esper terminated. trumpweet, 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 ha

just first on this announcement about mark esper, esper himself described american cities as battle spaceso be dominated. it's absolutely flabbergasted and, honestly. to hear that coming from the united states of america, and i am sure that so many people are watching the show right now, hopefully agree with me, this isa hopefully agree with me, this is a very, very sad and scary time in our country, as you know leading up to the election our democracy and many of our opinions was at stake. we feel like we have overcome that challenge and then donald trump, you know, opens another chapter in his book of chaos by firing secretary esper, so it just doesn't end. what does it say to you about the likely path of the next 70 days until joe biden is supposed to be inaugurated? there must be some concerns now about doctor fauci's position? there is no doubt about that concern for doctor fauci but the next 70 days, honestly, i'd just shudder because this isn't the way, this isn't the american way. our transitions of power have always been peaceful and sea mless have always been peaceful and seamles

there was this sense around the pentagon that maybe esper would stick around a little longer. maybe the president was too preoccupied to get rid of him. and then this surprise tweet which i should say was a surprise to secretary esper and other senior officials at the pentagon. esper found out only moments before when he got a phone call from mark meadows saying the president is about to tweet this. so the question then is, why now? and the concern, again, this is a general concern i'm hearing from defense and military officials. it's not yet backed up with any kind of fact yet. but the concern is that, did the president do this to put someone in who might not push back on some of the things that secretary esper has in the past? does he have plans to do something that he wants to have someone in the position who will green light his ideas, chuck? and that's what we just don't know. >> what's -- what tact is general milley taking? >> general milley is sort of the first line of defense against this idea that we'll take, for instance, the idea that the president could invoke the

what can you tell us about trump's firing of secretary esper? >> reporter: we know he had about a five-minute heads-up, brooke, that that tweet was coming from president trump announcing he was terminating him, and that warning came from chief of staff mark meadows, who called mesper to let him know that was going to happen. it happened suddenly, but we knew it was a plan in the making, because esper and the president had clashed for months, starting when the president wanted to send troops out in the american streets, and i believe it was the first time mark esper held a press conference, saying he did not invoke putting american troops on the streets dealing with american citizens just because they were protesting police brutality. that was something president trump was furious over. he referred to him as yesper, indicating he is a yes man. if he wanted to jump in and intervene and hurt his election chances, he told him he should wait until the election is over, which he has done. but meadows calling esper to tell him this was coming is what m

and today, he fired his defense secretary mark esper in a tweet. here's our chief white house correspondent jonathan karl. >> reporter: the only glimpses we've seen of donald trump since joe biden was projected president-elect came over the weekend on the golf course. >> don't give up! don't give up! >> reporter: he is still not willing to accept defeat, fighting his battle in court and on twitter. but today, he also announced on twitter he had "terminated" his defense secretary mark esper. esper was with the president during the infamous photo-op at st. john's church, where protesters were cleared out with tear gas and flashbang ge nads. he then infuriated the president by suggesting he would object to an order to deploy the military to crack down on the demonstrations. >> mark yesper? did you call him yesper? oh, okay, some people call him yesper. >> reporter: esper hated the idea that he was seen as a yes man, telling "the military times" just last week, "who's pushed back more than anybody. name another cabinet secretary that's pushed back. hav

esper following a series of clashes over policy.ne, what is the mood inside the building, the pentagon? guest: after that move the undersecretary for intelligent stepped aside and was replaced by another trump loyalist. there is a lot of uncertainty right now. there is a lot of feeling that there is years of experience, a breadth of knowledge being lost, but also just uncertainty over what these moves mean in the short term. the president going to install these folks so he can withdraw troops from afghanistan quicker, do troops out of germany quicker. these are things he has talked about in recent months and gotten pushback from congress. knows whatng -- who his priorities are going to be for the next few month regarding the military? we know regardless of what happens president trump is commander-in-chief for the next 70 days. there is plenty of time for him some large-scale changes at the pentagon. right now it is budget time among the top folks of the department of defense. they are putting together budget request for fiscal 2022

espers stance. it is the stance that is taken by i would say all leaders at the pentagon, can we say that the pentagon and the president right now are about as is strange because they have been i wouldn't, i would say there are real issues there and you've highlighted one of them, you know, i would say the pentagon, right? because that's kind of amorphous. and most of the people serving in the pentagon are either service members or our department event civilians and all of them have sworn no, it's not to our president the constitution, but there's no doubt there were real issues between mark asked for whom i know and respect and the president and the irony here is one of my colleagues at my think tank has said is that, you know, the president, president trump kind of mocked mark as for calling them yes for money. and yet he's a yes man. and really and, but the reality is it looks like he was fired because he was anything but i guess me and other were real area differences. questions about that and a

espers stance it is the stance that is taken by i would say all leaders at the pentagon can we say that the pentagon and the president right now are about as a strange because they have been. i wouldn't i would say there are real issues there and you've highlighted one of them you know i would say the pentagon right because that's kind of amorphous and most of the people serving in the pentagon are either service members or partner defense civilians and all of them have sworn no it's not your president but the constitution but there's no doubt there were real issues between mark asked for whom i know and respect and the president and the irony here is one of my colleagues at my think tank has said is that you know the president president trump kind of mocked mark as for calling them yes for money yeah he's a yes man and really and but the reality is it looks like he was fired because he was anything but a yes ma'am in other words real area difference these questions about that and aiming at u.s. bases after confederate generals were more esper appeared to be taking action inconsistent w

in the last 72 days, mark esper has been fired. with me now -- sorry, go ahead.os: i was just going to ask you to carry on what's going -- reporter: thank you, i was doing the same -- i have made several trips to delaware ended up. every time the networks would rush here to delawar this is where joe biden was raised. he moved here as a 10-year-old from scranton, pennsylvania. this is where his wife tragically died in a car accident with his infant daughter and where he became a senator at the age of 29. with me now is the attorney general of delaware state. thank you so much for joining us. you actually worked with beau biden, joe biden's son who passed away in 2015, when he was attorney general. >> i did. i worked with him for a number of years. there is still a hole in my heart and the hearts of all delawarians. we still mourn his passing. i miss him every day. the first day i walked into the attorney general's office after i had won the election, i sat down quietly and closed all the doors, and i just thought about beau. that was his office. reporter: his fath

delivering the keynote address for the ceremony is secretary mark esper, secretary of defense. [applause] please recognize them. >> now i would like to take a moment to share a message from bob and elizabeth dole, co-chair persons of the 75th commemoration of the and world war ii. this is their message. when we were invited to cochair today's commemoration, surrounded by the waters of pearl harbor, we knew that only in the extraordinary circumstances would keep us from joining you in person. we never imagined such circumstances would come to pass. please know our hearts are with you and despite the distance, we are honored to cochair this occasion alongside our dear friend, linda hope. as a combat wounded soldier, youngest sister of a survivor, and two proud advocates for veterans, families, and caregivers, we know well the devastation and tragedy of war. at the same time, we have seen war summoned the greatest qualities which human us are capable, courage beyond measure, loyalty beyond words, sacrifice, ingenuity, and endurance beyond imagining. the attack on this harbor echoe

more now on the news that president trump has dismissed his defence secretary, mark esper.o reasons. during the summer, the two clashed over the president's suggestion that the military could be used to end the widespread protests against racial discrimination and injustice, although mark esper himself referred to american cities as "battlespaces" and said protesters needed "dominating". he's now been replaced by christopher miller who currently serves as director of the national counterterrorism centre. professorjosh kastenberg, is a professor at the university of new mexico law school. before that he had a 20—year career as a lawyer and judge in the us air force. very glad to talk to you. what you make of this, first of all? first of all, there have only been two acting defence retirees in the 71 years since the department of defence was founded. this is highly unusual, and in particular because pat sha na han unusual, and in particular because pat shanahan was ready in the department of defence, as was william howard taft, the fourth under george hw bush. what is differe

mark esper. and george washington university. he's a former army infantry officer from the moment that he assumed office in july of 2019, secretary esper has been relentless in implementing our national defense strategy and he remains committed to focusing the department of defense on the indo-pacific theater. he joins us today in the midst of his travels throughout the region to engage with allies and partners, observe high-end military exercises, meet with our service members and, of course, today, to honor our veterans. ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to introduce our keynote speaker, the 27th secretary of defense, the honorable, dr. mark esper. [ applause ] >> aloha, everyone. thank you for joining us on this special day. thank you, admiral davidson, for that kind introduction. thank you, general milley, for your words, and thank you, governor ige, for the warm welcome and hospitality. on behalf of president trump, thank you all for being here today. it is my great honor to be on the dec

for months he has been stewing over a lack of loyalty with mark esper. after they gassed and pummelled protesters at the white house, esper made it clear he was not on board. >> what i was not aware of, where we were going when we arrived at the church and what the plans were once we went there. >> reporter: in an exit interview with the military times, esper said he was no yes man for mr. trump. have you heard me on a stage saying under the exceptional leadership of blah blah, we have blah, blah, blah. this could be the beginning of a dangerous lame duck period as the president refuses to accept defeat. asked what mr. trump could do in his remaining days in office, one advisor told cnn, god, who knows. unlike former president barack obama's gracious welcome -- >> i want to emphasize to you, mr. president-elect, that we now are going to want to do everything we can to help you succeed because if you succeed, then the country succeeds. >> reporter: the trump administration may be digging in with vice president mike pence tweeting it ain't over until it's

. >>> mark esper has prepared a letter of resignation.per who has long been at odds with president trump prepared his letter because he is one of the cabinet officials long expected to be pushed out after the election in a statement he wrote in part secretary esper continues to serve the nation at the pleasure of the president esper is helping members of congress draft legislation that would strip the names of confederate leaders from military bases, a move that could put him further at odds with the president. >>> the coronavirus pandemic is not taking an election pause the nation reported over 120,000 new cases for the first time that's according to an nbc news tally. the latest numbers eclipse wednesday's previous day record by nearly 16,000 that marks the second day in a row this country has reported over 100,000 cases. >>> and just as final presidential votes are counted, the virus is surging in key battleground state pennsylvania, georgia, and north carolina all recording more than 2,000 cases in a single day. the news comes as the

mark esper.tes military academy at westpoint, harvard university and yale university. from the moment he assumed office in july 2019, mr. esper has been monumental in our defense strategy. he joins us today in the midst of his travels throughout the region to engage with allies and partners, observe high-end military exercises, meet with our service members, and, of course, today to honor our veterans. ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to introduce our keynote speaker, the 27th secretary of defense, the honorable dr. mark esper. [ applause ] >> aloha, everyone. >> aloha. >> thank you for joining us on this special day. thank you, admiral davidson, for that kind introduction. thank you, general milley, for your words, and thank you, governor ige, for the warm welcome and hospitality. on behalf of president trump, thank you all for being here today. it is my great honor to be on the deck of this historic ship as we commemorate the 75th anniversary of the end of world war ii and commemorate and r

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 act. in the middle of this pandemic, health care for 21 million americans at stake. and tonight, the key words from two conservative justices. abc's terry moran has covered the court for years for us. >> reporter: today, in their own words, we heard from the justices of the supreme court on the fate of the affordable care act, along with its guaranteed protections for millions of americans with pre-existing conditions. the trump administration and several republican-led states argued that the individual mandate at the heart of the aca requiring that all americans have health insurance should be struck down as unco

esper? >> it is certainly within the prerogative. it's highly unusual. it was widely suspected he would not continue into a second truck term, but i think that there was an exit dictation he would finish out the term until january 20. that has been the custom host of thesenior people within administration. they would normally continue until the inauguration to be able to remain with their counterparts in the new administration that are going to be coming at. it is unusual. >> do these sorts of moves -- first of all, are they unsettling to the rank-and-file members, the rank-and-file service members and to our allies when they see these administrations? guest: it does. it creates uncertainty. it will not be good for morale. career civil service workers who are there between administrations who are not yes, it's a very unsettling and for our allied partners around the world, it's this awkward time during the transition where they are not really sure who they should be coordinating with. a lot of things will just have to stay on hold. there still has to be

some people call him yesper. >> reporter: esper has denied being a yes man. he said in a new interview if his replacement is a real yes man, then god help us. >> this election is not over. far from it. >> reporter: it comes as president trump along with some republicans remain defiant about the election results even though they presented no credible evidence of voter fraud. fox news even cut away from white house press secretary kayleigh mcenany after she accused democrats of welcoming illegal voting. >> whoa, i just think we have to be very clear she's charging the other side as welcoming fraud and illegal voting. unless she has more details to back that up, i can't in good countenance continuing showing this. >> the director of the national counterterrorism center is now the acting secretary of defense taking over for mark esper. mona. >> alex, thank you. >>> for the second time in three weeks, a houston police officer has been killed. colleagues escorted the body of sergeant shawn rios to the medical examiner last night. he was a 25-year veteran of the for

that esper would only have two more months, but i

the us president donald trump has fired his defense secretary marc esper via social media esper clashed with trump in june over sending military troops to disperse protesters is being replaced by the head of the counterterrorism center christopher miller speak to a white house correspondent can really help it in washington d.c. so what more do we know about this firing. well it had long been rumored that this could happen in fact so much so that marc esper had a resignation letter that was all set to go but then the feeling was that in fact his job was secure in so this was never handed over is what we understand now it was expected that potentially if donald trump won the u.s. election that he would fire mark asked for but it appears even though donald trump has not been the projected winner that this is happening anyway and. what the concern is and all of this and why this has been talked about for so long as the 2 of publicly really had some distance in terms of their positions for some time as you alluded to back in june it was that incident in lafayette square where the president y