nbc's hans nichols joins us from kandahar, afghanistan. hans, that was a pretty frank assessment from the general this thanksgiving, no? >> well, what the general wants to do and what i think everyone here wants to do is provide accurate information up the chain of command to political leaders so they can make decisions they need to make. sometimes there's signalings from generals. you remember general nicholson in february was calling for more troops. an additional number of troops have arrived in afghanistan. the number is roughly around 14,000. there are about 3,000 down here in kandahar. in reality, the troops that they're talking about is part of this new strategy won't arrive for a couple of months. those are going to be advisers at the brigade level. they will be advising much more closely out front with the afghans, helping them bolster, make progress against the taliban. because the strategy here is not necessarily to defeat the taliban but to force them to the negotiating table. with isis in the east of the country, still pockets

hans nichols, kabul, afghanistan. >>> still ahead, black friday deals are already here. we're going to tell you the best times to buy electronics, clothing, toys and more for everyone on your list. we'll be back. >>> we're back now with a closer look at the price you pay for all those holiday gifts. while black friday is almost upon us, in many ways it's already here. stores rolling out deals to compete with online competition. an nbc news business correspondent jo ling kent tells us how to get the most bang for your buck. >> it's here! >> reporter: to fend off online giant amazon big name stores are already pushing some of their best deals. >> it's black friday at jcpenney and the challenge is on. >> get 50% off your entire purchase. >> some things we bought today and some things we're going to wait. >> reporter: when should you check the items off your list? experts say thanksgiving day will feature the deepest discounts online for video games, computers and sporting goods. on black friday it's tablets and tvs online and in stores look for cookware and beauty products.

with details our pentagon correspondent hans nichols. >> reporter: sergeant bowe bergdahl leaving court today in civilian clothes, free but dishonorably discharged, his rank knocked down to private. after pleading guilty to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy bergdahl had been facing a possible life sentence. >> i think he's still absorbing this. it's a tremendous relief, obviously. >> reporter: president trump blasting the ruling, tweeting the decision on sergeant bergdahl is a complete and total disgrace to our country and to our military. echoing comments he made about bergdahl during the campaign. >> he's a traitor. a no good traitor who should have been executed. >> reporter: comments bergdahl's lawyers objected to and the judge said could spark a more lenient sentence. >> he's already been hammered by the taliban for five years. that was sufficient self-imposed punishment. >> reporter: bergdahl has been a lightning rod since his dramatic release seen squinting into the sun, gaunt and confused after five years of torture living at times in a cage. in a controversial exchange

>> hans nichols at the pentagon tonight, thanks. >>> this evening, there are new charges stemming from a fraternity hazing death at penn state. fraternity brothers accused of leaving a pledge to die after a night of heavy drinking. authorities now say they have recovered video that shows some of what happened that night. video they allege the fraternity brothers deleted. here's nbc's kristen dahlgren with more. >> reporter: as tim piazza's parents brace themselves for the first holiday season without their son, a dozen more of his would-be fraternity brothers now face charges. >> they then left him to die alone, and they tried to cover it up. >> reporter: the new evidence comes from a basement camera inside penn state's beta thetapi fraterni fraternity. surveillance video the district attorney says was intentionally deleted but now restored by the fbi. >> what you see is you see the brothers coming up to him, and bringing him the alcohol, and putting it up to his mouth. >> reporter: the new charges range from involuntary manslaughter to hazing. one brother charged with tampering with e

pentagon correspondent hans nichols is in afghanistan and spent some time with them. >> flying above southern afghanistan, the pilots alter their routes to avoid taliban territory. >> obviously some areas are higher threat than others. >> president trump decided to stay in afghanistan. they noticed an increase in car bombs. that means helicopter is the preferred mode of transport. the roads are still too risky. >> the danger exists inside this heavily secured base, shared with the afghan national army. the taliban have forces in the past. in june, seven american soldiers were wounded in northern afghanist afghanistan. three americans were killed in a separate incident in eastern afghanistan. >> the biggest twlet currently is green on blue or afghan on u.s. forces. >> that's where guardian angels come in. benjamin ransom, whose job it is to watch over any gathering of nato and afghan troops. >> the guardian angels advise the ana. >> in southern afghanistan, almost half the nato troops are guardian angels. they will need more to protect the soldiers president trump has deployed to afgh

nbc news pentagon correspondent hans nichols is in kandahar. >> reporter: the message delivered to a remote base by a u.s. commander to his afghan counterpart, stay on offense. the goal really is to stand up the afghan forces, help them defeat the taliban, and so the taliban can be forced to negotiating table. here after 16 years of war the taliban controls 40% of the country. general john nicholson, the top commander in afghanistan, says the goal is to retake most of that territory in two years. as of right now, stalemate or winning? >> oh, we're still in a stalemate. we're only 90 days into this new policy. >> reporter: that new policy includes more american troops and trainers to fight alongside the afghans. a topic discussed over tea between brigadier general and general nazar. >> that's a decisive effort for me to get those 700 new soldiers trained. >> reporter: the fight isn't only against the taliban. isis is also a threat. in april the u.s. dropped one of its most powerful bombs on an isis stronghold. you dropped the mother of all bombs. >> yes. >> big boom. >> yes. it was ef

hans nichols. and ken is over in our washington bureau. let's go through the meeting the president is talking about and quickly deflecting from, which is a strategy we have seen from him before. in that room back in march of 2016, the president says he doesn't remember much of that, jeff sessions, george papadopoulos, donald trump talking about what papadopoulos did or did not say, jd gordon in there as well. walk us through what we know, lay out the facts. >> reporter: so jd gordon confirmed to kasie hunt his account to "the new york times," hallie, that this guy, george papadopoulos, the low-level 29-year-old campaign volunteer, went right into a pitch in this meeting. he explained that he had a contact in london, the russian ambassador, who could help broker a meeting between donald trump and vladimir putin. and what gordon tells us is that jeff sessions immediately spoke up, said that is a bad idea, and by the way, we should never talk about this again because it would look bad for the campaign. and now, of course, members of congress

hans nichols for us. >> two months after the hurricane in puerto rico.lunteers working to make things better for people at the island. before you and your rheumatologist move to another treatment, ask if xeljanz xr is right for you. xeljanz xr is a once-daily pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well. it can reduce pain, swelling and further joint damage, even without methotrexate. xeljanz xr can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections, lymphoma and other cancers have happened. don't start xeljanz xr if you have an infection. tears in the stomach or intestines, low blood cell counts and higher liver tests and cholesterol levels have happened. your doctor should perform blood tests before you start and while taking xeljanz xr, and monitor certain liver tests. tell your doctor if you were in a region where fungal infections are common and if you have had tb, hepatitis b or c, or are prone to infections. xeljanz xr can reduce the symptoms of ra, even without

nbc pentagon correspondent hans nichols is in kabul and brin u >> reporter: for the first time hitting the taliban where it hurts, targeting the drug labs that double as money machines for the insurgency. f-22 stealth fighters and b-52 bombers drop 2,000-pound bombs to obliterate heroin refinery, one cooking 50 barrels of drugs, according to the pentagon. the top smander in afghanistan, john nicholson says the air strikes deep in taliban territory were only the beginning. >> so now we're going to strike them in these areas then we're going to work with the afghan army as they go on their offensive operations in spring to expand control into these areas. >> reporter: it's all part of president trump's new afghanistan strategy including an additional 3,000 troops. before their arrival, america's longest war was at a stalemate. the new goal, bolster the democratically elected government. military officials here say the taliban didn't make any significant gains last year but the group still controls 40% of the tr bumper opium harvest this year, an increase of 87%, leading to potentially ch

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hans nichols has more. >> reporter: the mission starts before dawn. lieutenant robbe ed bbickler and his team trying to keep safe. >> there was a loud muffled sound of a blast. and everything was just like pitch dark. >> reporter: specialist zane brant says he's thankful to be alive on his first thanksgiving outside of the u.s. today, he reenlisted. a reminder that even on holidays, troops here are on guard. >> we don't have any pinpoint locations. but they could be in any one of these houses. >> reporter: he's referring to the taliban. they're firing mortars five miles away. the goal is deterrence. you have taliban positions just up there. the roads and villages are too risky for convo convoys. so choppers delivered thanksgiving meals. back in kandahar, the commander, john nicholson, dishes up dinner. he tells nbc news the war is still a stalemate but will turn against the taliban in a few months. >> the new authorities i've been given allow me to go after the enemy in new ways. so previously, i could use air power and close support of afghan forces.

hans nichols is standing by. hans, this is one of the more anticipated statements from the president in a long time. >> reporter: well, he had that big tease before he left asia, how he wanted to make a big announcement on trade. what we're hearing from aides here, he's going to talk about his trip in asia. clearly this morning, ali, the president expressing his displeasure at the news coverage he was getting taking particular aim at the "new york times," the failing "new york times," the president called them, on twitter, about their coverage. he wants to tout their successes. it's a cool situation, in the diplomatic room, meaning reporters are steps away. see if these asked about the senate race in alabama and also about the tax bill. we know the president has had conversations today with speaker ryan, mcconnell. >> mark: a-- and heard from capitol hill, the republican from wisconsin coming out against the tax bill saying it favors corporations above other businesses. ali, a lot on the agenda. see whether or not

our own hans nichols. i want to bring in my very favorite aly velshi, but i know you must have heard a minute ago when i was talking to hans, before we talked about the amount of men and women who are serving. when we're back here at home living our lives every day, unfortunately it is very easy and all too common to forget. >> that's right. >> how many people are overseas and the huge commitment they make to this country. >> and it doesn't matter whether you agree with why they're there or you agree with the wars they're fighting or your puzzled as to why we're in other consistent consistent -- countries, it doesn't matter a bit to them and their families. they are going out there to keep us safe and thank you for remembering that they are the people we should be thankful for. i'm thankful for you too, my friend. sorry i'm not with you today, but it is grateful to be with you every day. >> well, i'll see you next week. i'll hand -- you know, i love to say because you are canadian, you could have taken all

nbc's pentagon correspondent hans nichols has more from kabul, afghanistan. hans?rter: kasie, the direct targeting by u.s. and afghan forces of drug processing facilities in southern afghanistan controlled by the taliban marks a new chapter in the 16-year war here. this is an important source of revenue for the taliban. an estimated $200 million per year. earlier year, speaking to officials in kabul, they make it so clear that you need to cut off the taliban's source of funding. i asked general niat a press conference what we can expect in terms of more bombings and he made it clear this is only the beginning. >> in the last 90 days with u.s. policy announcement, we started developing targets immediately. >> reporter: it's clear the taliban had a record year in terms of open upcultivation. they had 87% increase. it's also clear like in the u.s. with the opioid crisis, they're having a problem domestically here with heroin consumption. some 18% of children in rural areas have tried an opium product. this new strategy is part of the president's approach to afghanista

hans nichols at the white house. hans, thank you very much. >>> facing renewed scrutiny from democrats for comments in front of a senate committee in october for court documents sealed this week. the president's comments on the south lawn following a string of tweets over the last 24 hours, calling out the justice department for its lack of action against hillary clinton. also back in the headlines thanks to former dnc chairwoman donna brazil. her revelations about the clinton campaign, draws major interest from the president and likely from millions of bernie sanders voters. we want to break it all down now with nbc correspondent kristen welker, "new york times" washington correspondent michael schmidt. kristen, i want to play the president's response to your question this morning about george papadopoulos. let's play that first. take a listen. >> i don't remember much about that meeting. it was a very unimportant meeting, took place a long time ago. don't remember much about it. all i can tell you is this. there was

our own hans nichols. g in my very favorite aly velshi, but i know you must have heard a minute ago when i was talking to hans, before we talked about the amount of men and women who are serving. when we're back here at home living our lives every day, unfortunately it is very easy and all too common to forget. >> that's right. >> how many people are overseas and the huge commitment they make to this country. >> and it doesn't matter whether you agree with why they're there

nbc pentagon correspondent hans nichols has more on this story. hans, let's set this scene here.han was in the trump administration's original defense spending request. so why was the money not in the original request? what's the latest? >> a couple reasons for that. number one, if you do it as an emergency request, you don't have to follow these offset rules in the budget control act. number two and perhaps more crucially, it's the speed with which the north koreans have been developing their listed capabilities. it was in may they first successfully tested the icbm. they did the high loft where it went way up in the air. at the pentagon we continued to hear from officials on how serious it was that north korea was obtaining this sort of capability. so in a lot of ways it's a response to the velocity with which the north koreans have advanced their ballistic missile program. the ideas they're talking about, you can put up some stealth fighters, the f-22. the f-35 has been deployed to okinawa. you can also do something with the drone and just have drones out there on top of the s

let's bring in my friend and colleague hans nichols. hans this is a 12-day trip for the president.in store? >> well, he wants to focus on north korea, trying to solve that issue and due nuclearize the peninsula. we're under lockdown at the white house. there was a security incident after the president had left. he hits japan, then he goes to north korea. he won't be going to the dmz. that was reported in some south korea papers where it was sort of encouraging him to go. and then he ends up in china. then ends the trip in the philippines. the diplomacy on this is very difficult. the president's claiming he has great support from china, great support from south korea. one thing i think we learned yesterday was there's a time on on the north korea strategy. h. h.r. mcmaster speaking from this room said a couple of months. economic pressure, diplomatic pressure. and then it's the or else. the or else comments we hear so frequently from president trump, stef. >> all right, thank you, hans nichols. we're going to obviously keep a close eye on that trip. >>> coming up, a bombshell from t

pentagon correspondent hans nichols joins us now. hans, i'm sure you were listening to the discussion pete and i were having about the break groun and what exactly what wrong between the pentagon and law enforcement. how was this man able to buy guns even though he was not supposed to? >> katie, the short and unsatisfactory answer is they don't know and that's why they're doing a comprehensive review. we heard from secretary mattis here recently. he's in brussels. he's pledging to get to the bottom of this and if they find the problems how to correct it. specifically to the air force problem, excuse me, they don't know if this was an administrative error or some sort of systemic issue they need to address. what they do know is this data was not inputted into the federal database, the ncnis. that needed to happen. and it didn't happen. now, senator mccain on capitol hill addressed this very issue. >> the problem arose with the congress in sequestration which cut readiness, training, equipment and ability to defend the nation. it lies w

nbc's hans nichols is at the white house. hans, feel a rose ceremony coming on. what can we expect?esident's words, he may be talking about trade, about $300 billion. he's talking about announcements, maybe triple that. that gets you to $1 trillion in trade deals the president is teasing this big drum roll of what he may be announcing. in terms of specifics, he only mentioned $12 billion in boeing aircraft that vietnam agreed to buy. so it's difficult for me to see how he's going to get to triple the $300 billion. here's however what he told reporters when he was traveling. >> we've had a tremendously successful trip. tremendous amounts of work was done on trade. we've explained that the united states is open for trade. but we want reciprocal trade. we want fair trade for the united states. because with past administrations, as i said in china, as i said very loud and very clear, the united states has been taken advantage of. >> he's given us a time line on when he'll make this announcement. he says he wants to give the press at least a day to recover and then he'll make this announ

and i want to go to the pentagon with hans nichols. you heard what mariana had to say, what is the air force saying? how do they plan to prevent this again? >> reporter: was this a single failure or is there a larger systemic problem in inputting this kind of data into the federal system? the federal system is called nics, this is what everyone needs to report into so that individuals can be put on a no buy list. here's what the air force secretary had to say about it earlier on cnbc. >> we are checking all of the air force databases. and there are several of them to find out and confirm that all court-martial convictions for these kinds of offenses have been reported in the civilian database. >> have you thought about whether the air force will have to accept some formal liability from the families as a result of this? >> i'm more interested in responsibility. we take responsibility and we're going to find out what happened. and fix it. >> reporter: we know that the system does function. we don't know how well it works, but we know it

hans nichols. he joins us now from the white house. ns, that's an interesting response from the president. >> reporter: well, the president is giving the temporal answer that he's here at the bhoois. he was spotted by some heading in earlier. the swirl on this started a few hours ago with "the new york times" citing unnamed officials. nbc has not confirmed the reporting. what "the times" is reporting is there is a plan in place to take rex tillerson out of the state department, relieve him with mike pompeo currently the cia director in a couple of weeks. e now, "the times" notes the president has not signed off on this plan. but they say this is a plan that's been generated by his chief of staff john kelly. and that's what the president was responding to the. clearly not directly answering the question. merely stating that rex tillerson is where the white house sits. stephanie? >> so pompeo goes to rex's job. who goes to pompeo's job? >> reportedly tom cotton down in arkansas. senate republicans would not lose the seat if indeed cotton

nbc pentagon correspondent hans nichols and nbc military analyst and retired four-star general barry mccaffrey join us. to hans, tell us what happened in this sentencing. >> bowe bergdahl opted for a trial by a judge not a jury. that judge said he does not have to do any additional time ruling those five years in captivity may have been enough when the taliban held him. we just heard from president trump. he tweeted about this. here is what he said. the decision on sergeant bergdahl is a complete and total disgrace to our country and to our military. during the campaign, after president obama swapped bergdahl for five taliban prisoners, the president -- excuse me, then-candidate trump talked about potentially executing bergdahl, what would have been done in the good old days and now criticizing this decision. bergdahl's rank was reduced all the way to the lowest rank possible. that's e-1, a private. he will have to for fit $1,000 for a ten-month period for every month he's paid in that period. unclear what happens if he's discharged and no longer paid. he also will not receive any mil

hans nichols is at the white house. gabe, let's start with you. you spoke to the chairman of the roy moore campaign, bill armstead, earlier today? >> reporter: yeah, that's right, ali. as you i think inned, he had heard this latest accuser, beverly young he talked about this yearbook he allegedly signed at least a week before the alleged assault. she claims that it was 40 years ago and the campaign manager says, look, he never signed it. not only does he not know the woman despite her showing what appears, she claims to be his signature, he says he never actually signed this document now we are actually hear iing - we spoke with a -- somebody that knew of roy moore several decades ago at the gadsen mall where several local residents say that roy moore used to hang out. they said he used to pursue young women at the mall. the employee we with worked at the record store there in the early '80s. it was his understanding moore had been banned from the mall, he had spoken with the police officer there and that quote the police officer told him that if

hans nichols at the pentagon. i want to go to the story, the reporter who has been involved in the breaking this news on the shooter previously escaping a mental health facility. i'm joined on the phone by mario diez. he's an investigative reporter for our nbc station kprc in houston. he has helped break this news. mario, walk us through what you have uncovered. >> reporter: all right, what the channel 2 investigates team uncovered here this morning is that in june of 2012, june 7th, you had the shooter, devin kelley, who at the time was at a behavioral center, facility in new mexico, in santa theresa new mexico, the name was park behavioral health services. the el paso police department receives a call right before midnight on june the 7th stating that there was a person contacting them stating that they were concerned an individual appears to have then escaped from the health facility there. what happened was the el paso police department ends up connecting with this individual. we are not sure whether it was a

thank you very much for that hans nichols for us reporting on bowe bergdahl.tin. you were in the middle of a sentence where you said for those people out there saying you can't blame barack obama, you can't blame barack obama for having done this, why did brk not care about the dnc? >> because that really wasn't his focus. it was really about being for america. that was that he controlled the agenda. the problem here is what precipitated the dnc needing hillary clinton. they were broke. why were they broke? he shifted his campaign in 2012 to the dnc. they had massive debt. had to take loans out. they didn't have enough money for 2014 midterms. now you're stuck in 2016. the question you have to ask is why was the dnc having massive debt when you try to run? so you have a total infrastructure that was failing. that is you did not have a strong chair who was not afraid of the officers. the president wasn't caring about the party. so you had literally a party that was dying on the vine, all of a sudden hillary clinton said when i came in, i had no -- nothing that

it can only be reduced. >> hans nichols, thank you very much. >> president trump is remaining open toadimir putin at the economic summit in vietnam next week. >> are you going to talk to putin? >> we may have a meeting with putin. again, putin is very important -- >> syria. >> we have to talk about ukraine. >> this comes just days after representatives from the nation's tech giants went to capitol hill this week to testify about russia's efforts to use their platforms during the 2016 election. the witnesses included clint watts, who warned of russia's growing influence. >> the kremlin playbook will be adopted by authoritarians, unregulated global corporations will use this to weaken other countries. whether they realize or not, they've become the leading disseminator of news around the world. >> joining me now, chairman of the human rights foundation, russian pro democracy activist and former world chess champion and author of "deep thinking." and frankly, there's no one else you want to talk to about how russia tries to influence people and potentially co-opt them for their own purpo

our hans nichols is in afghanistan with some of them. we'll have a report from kandahar next. ♪ one is the only number ♪ that you'll ever need ♪ staying ahead isn't about waiting for a chance. ♪ because one is... it's about the one bold choice you make that moves you forward. ♪ ...that you ever need the one and only cadillac escalade. come in for our season's best offers and drive out with the perfect 2017 cadillac escalade for you. get this low mileage lease from around $899 per month. ( ♪ ) from around $899 per month. if yor crohn's symptoms are holding you back, and your current treatment hasn't worked well enough, it may be time for a change. ask your doctor about entyvio, the only biologic developed and approved just for uc and crohn's. entyvio works at the site of inflammation in the gi tract and is clinically proven to help many patients achieve both symptom relief and remission. infusion and serious allergic reactions can happen during or after treatment. entyvio may increase risk of infection, which can be serious. pml, a rare,

hans nichols at the pentagon for us. >>> for more on all of this i'm joined by david chipman, formerent at the atf and former policy adviser for americans for responsible solutions as well as cliff van sent, former fbi profiler and msnbc contributor and author of "facing down evil" thanks to you both. david, start with you. based on what you just heard from hans, we're just trying to figure out that given the court-martial he faced for the very serious things that he was found responsible for doing, should this, this man have been able to get a gun? >> well, actually, i was thinking about your prior, pete williams testimony. where he said that the person had actually been -- convicted of -- fracturing someone's skull. and to me, i think we should all agree that if the government knows that someone has fractured a child's skull, and abused his wife, he should be prohibited from possessing a gun or buying a gun. so clearly, that's what we need to focus on. it's the most relevant information we've received, and how we define it is up to our legislators, who apparently earlier just want

hans nichols joins us from the pentagon along with kevin barron from defense one. with you. i am told by a source familiar with senator corker's thinking that while many of these debates are overdue and you'll hear a lot of, i think, probably spin in the days leading up to tuesday's hearing that it's been really since the bush presidency that we debated as a country, military authority that if donald trump wasn't the president, this hearing would not be taking place on tuesday. >> that's exactly right. there's no doubt about that. we've heard that from nuclear watchers. just today, our organization had -- our defense one summit. we had not only one of the top nuclear watchdogs who you're familiar with on this show, but we had the ops director from strategic command. the j-3. the two-star general who has a finger on the button. the country is talking about nuclear weapons and nuclear war like it hasn't in some time. that's true. and a lot of external reasons for that. but going as far as strike authorities, first strike authorities, questioning the president's compe

we'll see whether or not this withstands full certainty, craig. >> hans nichols at the white house, hans, thank you. let's bring in lonnie chang, he is the director of domestic policy studies at stanford. he was a policy adviser to the 2012 romneybarrow is an msnbc contributor. again, a live look here at the house floor where lawmakers in the lower chamber are voting or expected to start voting any moment now. democratic minority leader nancy pelosi there no doubt probably not extolling the virtues of this bill. josh barrow. again, house likely to pass it. what happens in the senate? >> well, think the senate is the tougher chamber for this. first of all republicans have a narrower majority there and the bill that they're work on in the senate looks quite different from the house bill in a number of ways. it would repeal the individual mandate in obamacare. that's a popular idea with a lot of republicans. the mandate is unpopular broadly with the public. but that would cause significant disruption in insurance markets. maine senator collins has said she's very reluctant to do anything to

i want to go first to nbc's hans nichols at the pentagon. hans, what do we know about this? >> what the pentagon is trying to figure out this morning is just how successful the re-entry was. they know it re-entered because they saw a splashdown. they don't know how controlled it was. now, one of the things they'll be looking at is to see whether or not there are fins on the nose of the rocket. that's usually an indication. they still haven't confirmed this is an entirely new capability from the north koreans. they do know the speed with which they launched this. around 24 hours ago they started picking up some intelligence there could be a launch and it could be imminent. that's what you get if this does turn out to be a road mobile launch. it just gives them a lot less time from the time they decide to launch, gas up that missile. it's a liquid fufl missile most likely and then go ahead and hit the ignition button. >> how is the pentagon responding this morning? >> they're continuing to say the diplomatic efforts and diplomatic efforts are the lead. they will continue to wo

. >> hans nichols is doing double duty over at the white house. because i'm here and not there. but thank you. tell us what we're learning about this launch, what president trump's saying, and what you're hearing from your sources at the pentagon. >> reporter: the initial assessment from officials at the pentagon is this is a three-stage missile. that would mark the first time they had three stages to a liquid fuel missile. the other thing we're hearing at the pentagon is how different this missile is. it does represent a new variant. they haven't given it a designation on the u.s. side yet. but when you look at what this missile does and how they launched it, another key difference is how quickly they launched it. they didn't have a big lead time. in the pentagon, the term they have of that is left of launch. how much time, how much preparation does u.s. intelligence have to take a look at what they doiring. they did see some viewing stands being built. but in any sort of conflict, of building viewing stands. so that's the situation in terms of w

now, i want to go to nbc's hans nichols who's live at the white house. hans, the president was tweeting last night and again this morning about the suspect. and i understand, as an american, as a mom on halloween, as someone who used to live right next to that bike path, the president's fury and sentiment are shared by so many people. but he is the president of the united states and his words matter. >> well, he's trying to tap into some emotional anger and talking about at least initially sending the suspect to guantanamo bay. this morning, he had part of that emotion, right, he was consistent on this notion of the death penalty for the suspect. but he's inconsistent on whether or not he wants to go to guantanamo or send him to guantanamo. it seemed to me as a president searching for an argument on why not to send someone to guantanamo, here's what he said, we'd love to send the nyc terrorist to guantanamo but statistically that process takes much longer than going through the federal system. there is also something appropriate about keeping him in the h

hans nichols has been tracking the investigation. the very latest on the investigation, hans? >> well, the investigation is ongoing, kristen. what officials are causing us is until the investigation is indeed complete, don't read too much into local reports that haven't been corroborated. the initial report from the pentagon was that david johnson, starting with david johnson, never went into hostile hands. never went into the enemies -- they were never in control of him. it can always change. as you mentioned, there's a team on the ground that has gone to tongo-tongo. the investigation is taking place across three continents and interviewing as many as they can. 100 interviews already conducted. and they are trying to get a timeline to the families. they have told the families they ultimately let them know what happened around january. that is the deadline for that. that's how thorough this investigation is going to be and how some four soldiers, of the american forces, were overwhelmed and ambushed in niger and and four of them los

. >> the presiding general, nicholson, in afghanistan has told hans nichols he feels they're in a stalemate. given what he asked the president for, but that there's a stalemate there. what breaks the stalemate there? given that this is, by the way, one of the hardest places to get the upper hand in, in all of history. >> we're going to need a little bit more air power to maintain the edge and move out. we also need to bring in more trainers. again, we ought to keep this in perspective, ali. we've gone down from 150,000 troops when i led that mission, and down to about 15,000 troops. it's a 90% drop. they're only doing training and some special operations. we need more trainers, more air power. if we combine those two things, we can move this forward quite effectively. there is still hope in afghanistan. >> thank you for being with us. hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend. dean of the fletcher school at tufts university, former nato supreme allied commander. >>> up next, ousted national security advisers mike's flynn's team cuts ties with president trump's lawyers. a shift in robert muell

hans nichols is following that. what went wrong here? >> they think it was an administrative error. but they don't. . they don't know if they have a systemic problem here in reporting all the cases to the federal authorities as they happen across the country across all service branches. it's been happening over the last 24 to 48 hours is all the services are trying to figure out to what extent are they in compliance with this federal requirement. let me break that down in two different parts. the first part is the idea that any general court-martial should be considered a felony and therefore be recorded. not a lot of clarity at least this morning from the pentagon on whether or not that is automatically done by all three, four services. the navy takes care of the marines. the separate issue is the lautenberg amendment. when there is a crime under civilian codes as domestic violence, whether or not that automatically gets reported. because there isn't anything in the military that translates directly to domestic violence. they're trying to harmonize this. that's the longer term goal

pete williams joins us, along with hans nichols at the pentagon. pete, do we know anything more about why he targeted this small church in this tiny community? >> not definitively. there's no connection to terrorism, they say. it is becoming clearer and clearer, according to the federal officials i've just talked to, that he had a troubled past, that the reason he targeted this church is because the relatives of his current wife lived there, but they were apparently estranged. he had a troubled past. in addition to his discharge from the military, many of the people who knew him say he had a very volatile temper. they describe him as a troubled person. so that is the picture that's emerging. one other thing here, stephanie, is the circumstances of his conviction in the military. should that have been entered into the system, that would then be checked when he bought the gun. we know he bought the gun, an apparently legal sale, just last year in the san antonio air yra. why, if these factors in his military background were true, if in the system, wo

hans nichols at the pentagon. kelly o'donnell in honolulu. we'll be back with you as we follow this trip. >>> former acting attorney general sally yates answered questions from members of the house intelligence committee today for about three hours. according to florida congressman tom rooney yates was asked about collusion and whether she leaked classified information about michael flynn's ongoing foreign ties to the press. but it's the march 2016 meeting, this one, attended by president trump and jeff sessions and george papadopolos that's making headlines. like this headline from the "new york times." trump and sessions denied knowing about russian contacts. records suggest otherwise. joining me now, one of those reporters from the "new york times." he's an msnbc contributor and contributed to that story. matt, quite simply, there are two narratives here. one is that both the president and jeff sessions said clearly on numerous occasions they had no contact with anybody who knew anything about russia, and both of them were in that meeting

katie beck is in gadston, alabama, and hans nichols is standing by for us at the white house. we've been promised a big speech on trade, which is what they would rather be talking about. everyone expecting an answer on roy moore. what's the thinking inside the white house, hans? >> reporter: we know this consideration is dominating the strategy sessions inside the white house, along with taxes. we know president trump this morning -- he got back late last anight from asia -- has had phone conversations with speaker ryan and speaker mcconnell as they try to game out their next steps legislatively and potentially on what they're going to do about roy moore. quickly you mentioned that victim from the alabama state gop. we've just heard from the last hour, senator shelby from the state of alabama, he's saying he will likely write in a candidate. he didn't say who, but now attorney general jeff sessions would be an ideal candidate. >> let's talk about the reaction on the ground from voters as well as local party officials to this effort by the national party to throw roy moore over

hans nichols is there. >> reporter: you can see here, for the rest of us, it serves as a reminder that we are a country at war. >> reporter: the war is a combination of fighting and fun. >> at the annual turkey bowl, it is officers verses enlisted from the first b82nd. no one wore rank but they did keep score. the enlisted won. >> this gives us about an hour where we can relax. >> reporter: morning work outs were more intense. >> if you can haul it, you can have it. >> reporter: now the u.s. mission had two prongs, targeting the taliban from the sky and training forces police officers on the ground. >> you got to go back. >> reporter: cooking for 3,000 soldiers here of its army exercise. >> what's a trick against dry turkey? >> that's classified, we cannot discuss that. >> reporter: and a helicopter mission to deliver the meal while it is still hot to a forward base. the so called red devils prepare the out going rounds. >> reporter: they're firing about five miles away of 30 seconds air time. the goal is deterrence. you have taliban positions up there. >> rickey taylor is on his night

hans nichols is there. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. as you can see, it is already meal time here in afghanistan for the first brigade combat team 82nd airborne. for them it's a taste of home. for the rest of us it serves as a reminder we're still a country at war. f trump has sent to afghanistan, the war is a combination of fighting. and fun. at the annual turkey bowl, it's officers versus enlisted from the first combat brigade of the 82nd airborne. no one wore rank. but they did keep score. the enlisted won. >> so this gives us about an hour where we can just relax. and see each other in a more relaxed environment. >> reporter: in anticipation of all that turkey, morning workouts were a little more intense. >> if you haul it, you can have it. >> now in its 16th year, the u.s. mission has two prongs. targeting the taliban from the sky and training forces including afghan police officers on the ground. cooking thanksgiving dinner for almost 3,000 soldiers is its own military exercise. >> what's an army trick? you're out here, an army af