retired four star army general barry mccaffrey and jack jacobs on what happened today in that white house briefing room when the 11th hour continues. i love you, basement guest bathroom. your privacy makes you my number 1 place to go number 2. i love you, but sometimes you stink. febreze air effects doesn't just mask, it cleans away odors. because the things you love the most can stink. and try febreze small spaces to clean away odors for up to 30 days. breathe happy with febreze. you know what's difficult? adulting... hi, guys. i'm back. time to slay! no,i have a long time girlfriend. you know what's easy? building your website with godaddy. get your domain today and get a free trial of gocentral. build a better website in under an hour. alright, looks like we've got chips, ppretzels!retzels? plain, sourdough, spicy, sesame, chocolate covered, peanut butter filled, plain. great. so what are we gonna watch? oh! show me fall tv. only xfinity x1 brings you the best hand selected picks this fall. >>> we're back and about that appearance today in the briefing room, politico describes it this

thank you both, general barry mccaffery, colonel jack jacobs. another break for us. >>> coming up, what are u.s. military forces doing in niger in africa? what's the mission? will it change at all after losing four of our very best there? what we are learning about all of it when "the 11th hour" continues. but some people still like cable. just like some people like banging their head on a low ceiling. drinking spoiled milk. camping in poison ivy. getting a papercut. and having their arm trapped in a vending machine. but for everyone else, there's directv. for #1 rated customer satisfaction over cable switch to directv. call 1-800-directv. moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis was intense. my mom's pain from i wondered if she could do the stuff she does for us which is kinda, a lot. and if that pain could mean something worse. joint pain could mean joint damage. enbrel helps relieve joint pain, and helps stop further damage enbrel may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculosis, ly

thank you both, general barry mccaffery, colonel jack jacobs. another break for us. >>> coming up, what are u.s. military forces doing in niger in africa? what's the mission? will it change at all after losing four of our very best there? what we are learning about all of it when "the 11th hour" continues. building a website in under an hour is easy with gocentral... ...from godaddy! in fact, 68% of people who have built their... ...website using gocentral, did it in under an hour, and you can too. build a better website - in under an hour. with gocentral from godaddy. >>> senator, on the niger mission, what does the committee need to know in terms of details? >> everything. everything. >> can you be more specific? >> everything. >> what steps are you taking, senator, to get to the bottom of this? what steps are you taking -- >> may require a subpoena, but i did have a good conversation with general mcmaster and they said they would be briefing us. we have a long friendship and we'll hopefully get all the details. >> do you feel the administrati

military analyst jack jacobs joins us next. on believe the health we aof our water sourcesany is essential to the health of our communities. which is why we're helping to replenish the mighty rio grande as well as over 30 watersheds across the country. we're also leading water projects in more than 100 communities. and for every drop we use... we're working to give one back. because our products rely on the same thing as we all do... clean water. and we care about it like our business depends on it. >>> turning to the rising tenses between the u.s. and north korea. the trump administration revealing it is in grekt contact wi direct contact with the north. rex tillerson made the announcement during his visit to china. the two countries have been trading public threats with the north declaring its missiles can reach the u.s. and president trump vowing to, quote, totally destroy north korea. joining me now, colonel jack jacobs. what do you make of this new development? >> well, i think secretary tillerson is not skilled enough in

. >> joining me now, msnbc military analyst, colonel jack jacobs. i first want to get your reaction to "the new york times" article. what do you make of this discrepancy and this is why it's taking so long to figure out precisely what happened? >> in any situation like this, a combat situation, there are going to be varying accounts. in addition to that, you've got witnesses who are dead and not surprisingly everybody else who's left had a different view of what went on. and finally, there is being conducted an article 15-6 investigation. there are certain procedures they have to go through. an officer has to be appointed to do it. it's going to take some time to get all of the witnesses remaining, to get them to testify and get all of that information into the report. >> so, sir, how significant is the presence, in terms of the footprint of u.s. military in niger and across africa and how significant from the reasons for our being there? >> it's interesting that most people don't realize that we're there. we have a significant number of people in a

one of them happens to be here, our friend and colleague jack jacobs. he remains here with us, as does historian and author john meacham. jack, i have to threaten you that we have a photo of you and president nixon the day you were awarded. how has the action of being -- there you are. how has the action of being awarded the medal of honor changed? >> well, our wars have changed. we used to fight continuously, and now we fight in fragmented place at fragmented times with a force that's an all-volunteer force and therefore not necessarily representative of everybody. we -- i think there's a large and i think in certain cases insurmountable gap that's opened up between the people who've served and the people who are serving. that wasn't the case back in the day. >> our friend paul rykoff made this point last week. he's the founter of iraq and afghanistan veterans administration, iava. he's tired of the military used as a shield, hearing people blaming the sthant take a knee protest in the nfl on the troops somehow vaguely, hearing that we can't question ge

joining me now is colonel jack jaco jacobs. let me ask you about what we just heard. do you agree?are we sliding into world war i iii by next summer in. >> the war didn't end. we have a cease fire but no arm cyst. and we've lost soldiers since then and the south koreans have as well. there's been shootings there and incidents in the past. but what general mccaffrcafee i saying that it's driving the possibility of an actual increase in the situation outside of our control. and part of that is going to be as a result of not being able to convince our allies in the region, particularly south korea, that we're serious about defending them, that we're serious about doing things to reduce tensions and so on. and that's going to make it much more likely that there will be a very bad incident between north and south korea and perhaps our own troops in south korea in the near future. it's entirely possible. >> there there real back channel communications going on with north korea as secretary of state tillerson suggested or has president trump put a stop to that? >> we do have back channel

joining me now, colonel jack jacobs. great to have you here.state rex tillerson says that theist has several channels open for pyongyang. what does it mean and talk about the potential impact. >> well, tim sallerson said tha have both indirect through china and perhaps other channels. an direct channels. and what has gotten everybody excited is the fact that we're talking or suggesting that we are speaking directly to the north koreans. the problem with talking about the talks in public is that it makes it extremely difficult then to actually conduct negotiations. so that is the first problem. second, it makes it extremely difficult in dealing with our allies. there is an election taking place in japan and this talk about grekt discussidirect disc north korea has fueled a glal f great deal of speculation inside japan and making it a lot easier foropponents to gain the upper hand in the election. so talking about discussions in public is probably not the way to conduct diplomacy if you want any diplomacy to be successful. >> colonel, have we see

army colonel jack jacobs and wendy hunter, who lost her husband in a suicide attack in afghanistan. thank you both for joining me. very much appreciate it. whitney, i want to start with you. what's your reaction to what you've been hearing over the last six days? >> i don't really have -- it's consumed a lot of my thoughts. it really has. i don't know what to believe necessarily. all i know is that i just want these men, the fallen soldiers, my husband, christopher harris, the four who were killed in niger, i just want them to be remembered and honored in the way that they deserve. >> do you think, whitney, that didn't happen with everything that took place over the last six days? do you think that that very point that you just made was lost? >> i don't know that it was lost. i don't know if it was handled appropriately, but it's not my position to make that call. i'm just here to speak on behalf of my husband and for the fallen soldiers and for the gold star families, because i know that i am in that position, and i just -- i want us and the gold star families to just, to be respec

army veteran jack jacobs. jack teachers future second lieutenants at west point how to avoid the mistakes of the past. what concerns you about all this about loose talks of nuclear weapons and north korea. >> i'm more complacent about north korea than most people. >> why? >> i think it's unlikely that kim jong-un is going to do anything silly because his whole purpose in life is to remain in power. and launching an attack on the united states is dysfunctional to achieving that objective. >> and what about the home team? >> that's different altogether, which is why it's important to have people around the president who try to instruct him on the right thing to do. having said that, the president at the end of the day can do whatever he wants, and that is concerning. >> jeremy said you can lunge, tackle, say stop, don't do that, can try to make a phone call down the chain but you can't stop the command. you further said they drill on this three times every cycle. >> it's possible in the korean context we could be

. >> charlie sykes, i want to play a clip of a mutual friend of ours, jack jacobs. he was on msnbc this afternoon and was asked about all of it. >> to reduce the exchange between the president of the united states and the widow of a slain warrior to a public spat is not only the height of inepiitude like i said, it speaks to an ignorance that's extremely difficult to find anywhere else in public life. >> charlie, that's tough to watch especially for us who know jack. this entire subject made people feel angry, sad, vaguely ill especially today across this country. >> no, the whole story is tragic. and it's of course totally self-inflicted. george will earlier on this air said just remember donald trump is barely on speaking terms with the english language. but what i do think is very clear that donald trump does not speak the language of empathy. and we were in that car. we didn't hear the conversation. i by the way, i do think the initial account should have been treated with perhaps some skepticism. but here you have the intersection of this accountability and pre

army general jack jacobs. a highly decorated combat veteran in vietnam.ne of only 72 living recipients of the medal of honor, we're also happy to say he's an msnbc military analyst. i've been wanting to get your reaction to this, at times, ugly political debate that's spilled out into the open from dealings with gold star families that should remain so private. >> well, there's no more difficult nor even onerous task than having to tell the next of kin that a loved one's been killed. a lot of us have had to do it, and you never forget it. but to turn that solemn duty, that job into counting political coupe is very distasteful. it's almost obscene, actually. it's kind of perverse, and it's -- no, sr., i don't like it very much. >> that is the word david axelrod used tonight, he called it an obscenity. to the mechanics of what happened here, and there will, i'm quite sure a congressional look into this, what are american troops, say nothing of four of our very best, doing in niger in africa? >> we have special forces troops just about everywhere. they're in

. >> charlie sykes, i want to play a brief clip from a mutual friend of ours, jack jacobs, one of 72 living recipients of the medal of honor. he was on msnbc this afternoon and was asked about all of it. >> to reduce the exchange between a president of the united states and a widow of a slain warrior to a public spec is not only the height of inhe want tud, like i said, it speaks to an ignorance that's extremely difficult to find anywhere else in public life. >> charlie, that's stuff to watch, especially for those of us who know jack. this entire subject made people feel angry, sad, vaguely ill, especially today across this country. >> you know, the whole story is tragic and it's of course totally self-inflicted. george will earlier on this air said, you know, just remember that donald trump has, you know, barely -- is barely on speaking terms with the english language. but what i do think is very clear is that donald trump does not speak the language of empathy. and, you know, we weren't in that car. we didn't hear the conversation, but obviously -- and by the way, i think the initi

. >> joining me is jack jacobs, and laura and matt are still with us. jack, you were awarded a medal by president nixon and have been involved in politics in every presidency since then. have you heard anything like this from two men, former republican and democrat, with this one message? >> no, i'm pretty old, and i can go back a long way. and i can't remember any of this happening. maybe after he was defeated by andrew jackson and john quincy adams went to the congress, maybe he castigated a sitting president at that time. but i can't remember this ever happening, certainly not in my lifetime. >> making this all the more pointed, general kelly speaks on the same theme yesterday. i want to play just a little bit more of what he said in the briefing room. >> when i was a kid growing up, a lot of things were sacred in our country. women were sacred. looked upon with great honor. that is obviously not the case we have seen anymore from recent cases. life, the dignity of life is sacred, that's gone. religion, that seems to be gone as well. gold-star familie

colonel jack jacobs, always good to see you. malcolm nance, karine, sarah, appreciate you all being here. appreciate the discussion. coming up, politics aside there are so many questions about what actually happened in niger. more on that next. patients thate that complain about dry mouth they feel that they have to drink a lot of water medications seem to be the number one cause for dry mouth. i like to recommend biotene. it replenishes the moisture in your mouth. biotene definitely works! when it comes to strong bones, are you on the right path? we have postmenopausal osteoporosis... ..and a high risk for fracture, so with our doctors... ...we chose prolia®... ...to help make our bones stronger. only prolia® helps strengthen bones... ...by stopping cells that damage them... ...with 1 shot every 6 months. do not take prolia® if you have low blood calcium, are pregnant, are allergic to it, or take xgeva®. serious allergic reactions, like low blood pressure; trouble breathing; throat tightness; face, lip or tongue swelling... ...

army kernel jack jacobs. good to have you with us. a lot of questions surrounding what happened in niger. we heard from secretary chief of staff. both coming to offer their insight. i wanted to get your thoughts in terms of the two operations this administration has carried out. raid in yemen back in january that was deadly and this superintendant in niger where americans were ambushed. is this any criticism to look at the planning of the operations to have these two high profile incidents happen in a short period of time. >> never enough planning and never enough intelligence. hard to say exactly what there was about the raid in yemen that they could have found out that they didn't know, but i can they will you a little bit about what happened in niger because the same sort of thing happened to me as what i suspect happened there. your training themselves which means you take them out on practice runs and all the rest of it. at some juncture they actually go out and conduct an operation and you go with them. when i was in vietnam, we

. >> steve submit, our friend jack jacobs keeps using the word obscene to describe this week. and we know why he's saying that, because at the heart of this story four of our best dead in a field in central africa. at the heart of this story, what it's like to be a gold star family in this country turned into an obscene distraction. i want to get your take on what's been happening this week and what we witnessed there in the briefing room today. >> well, first off, obscene is exactly right for it. it is an obscene display. i can't think of a more disgusting moment in american politics in my lifetime than the one we have fallen into into this sewer over these issues. the person who did it, of course, is the president of the united states, donald trump, who sought to make himself look good by disparaging his predecessor's commitments to the families of fallen american heroes who gave what lincoln described as the last full measure of devotion to the country. as for the press secretary and her appallingly ignorant statement, perhaps she is unaware of the national security adviser

jeremy bash, colonel jack jacobs. coming up, an update on americans who need attention in two very different places. hi, i'm the internet! you know what's difficult? armless bowling. you got this, jimmy! you know what's easy? building your website with godaddy. pick a domain name. choose a design. you can build a website in under an hour. now that's a strike! get your domain today and get a free trial of gocentral. build a better website in under an hour. i love you. >>> last thing before we go here tonight as a gentle reminder to remember our fellow americans in northern california and in puerto rico, victims of two very different and violent displays of nature. it's now been 21 days since hurricane maria made landfall in puerto rico. the government anoupsed today the death toll has risen to 48. the guardian quotes fema officials as saying the government and its partners are only providing 200,000 meals a day to meet the needs of over 2 million people who need food. they also report fema's contract with world central

. >> jack jacobs honor and privilege to know you, my friend. thank you, and let me say, thank you to all of the service men and women and their families who are a part of that small number of people who are helping us all stay safe. >>> we have a lot more to come. harsh homecoming. attorney general jeff sessions facing his former colleagues on the senate jish afore the first time since his confirmation hearing. hearing titled the "oversight of thes justice department" quickly turched to one dominant subject. russia. jeff sessions refused to answer many of the topics despite democrats warnings before the hearing they expected him to come to play. >> did the president ever mention to you his concern about lifting the cloud on the russia investigation? >> senator feinstein, that calls for a communication that i've had with the president and i believe it remains confidential. i have never had a meeting with any russian officials to discuss any kind of coordinating campaign effort. >> did you conspire with russia or an agent of the russian governmen

the ethics and public policy center and msnbc military analyst, medal of honor recipient colonel jack jacobs. you have been covering this story as reluctantly as we all have since monday. can you bring us up to speed? again, i used this word yesterday. seemingly surreal developments of the white house in a bit of a dispute over the way this call went down with the family of that soldier who paid the ultimate price. >> a remarkable back and forth over the gravest of presidential obligations, their contacts, their communication with gold star families. the families who have lost a loved one at war, serving for this country. the president earlier today, essentially saying that this congresswoman had, in his words, totally fabricated the account of the call saying it was sad, saying there was proof to show otherwise. sarah huckabee sanders pressed on that proof. turns out no recordings, no tapes. the proof is the series of other individuals, aides to the president in the room. among them, the president's chief of staff, general john kelly who lost his own son in afghanistan in 2010. a topic that

we are joined now by nicole wallace and retired conditional jack jacobs.know how this started at the beginning of the week, with the president saying he calls service members' families who have fallen and other presidents haven't. that started this off. as a veteran yourself, and a medal of honor recipient, what do you make of the fact that we're having this conversation? >> we shouldn't have this conversation. these things are the best kept quiet. if the president is going to call next of kin, which is an extremely difficult thing to do. those of us in the service have made these kind of calls and visits, that's between him and the family. bringing it into the public view, i think demeans it. and it's a very bad thing to do. we would be better off if we weren't talking about this at all. >> let me turn to you, nicolle. for several months, we've been asking, what can john kelly do in this white house? can he bring order to the white house? can he control the president from acting on certain instincts? what did we learn about the importance of john kelly to