jimmy panetta who served in afghanistan as an intelligence officer in the u.s. navy reserve.nks so much for being with us. this dissent communication, you know how important that is and it goes directly to the secretary has to be read at the highest levels and it is a rare communication with diplomats on the field, very privileged and it's sacred within the state department culture that they have that ability to communicate especially in an emergency, and it's not clear what was done, the state department says they started cutting red tape, but you guys authorized the cutting of red tape with the defense supplemental appropriation back in july. >> yes. first of all, thanks for having me, andrea. these are definitely going to be questions that we're going to be asking in our capacity in the united states congress especially when it comes to the oversight and the hearings that we've already demanded in the congress and in the senate on the foreign affairs committee and the armed services committee. you hope that these types of cables are read and taken into account and these ty

joining me democratic congressman jimmy panetta.o afghanistan in 2007 as an intel officer in the u.s. navy reserve. awarded the bronze starr. thank you for taking the time this morning. >> thank you, jim. i appreciate this opportunity. >> first i want to ask you, given your personal experience there having served in afghanistan to see it end this way, do you feel that the sacrifice you and your fellow service members made were in v vain? >> i think you've got to realize there are, what, 175,000 men and women in uniform that served. each and every service member is going to have their own feelings. i was assigned to a special operations task force that basically focused on counterterrorism. we completed our mission. i'm proud of my mission, proud of every single troop that served and sacrificed in afghanistan. but clearly seeing these images that are coming out of afghanistan at this point is absolutely disappointing, disheartening and border line sickening to be honest with you. but the way we make up for that is focusing on what yo

with me is democratic congressman jimmy panetta of california, member of the armed services committee war veteran himself. thanks for joining us. i appreciate it. >> thank you. >> i want to give you the opportunity to react as an afghanistan war veteran yourself to the events yesterday. >> well, look, i think last week was a punch in the gut. yesterday was a, felt like a knockout to be honest. honestly my heart aches for the marines, their family members, the civilians, men, women and children on the ground but we have a mission to complete at this point and so we have to realize that we have to continue to go forward like we've done and evacuate the people and what it comes down to is hopefully leave no one behind. with the august 31st date, that may not happen. we have to realize that but we have to make every effort possible to complete the mission up to that date and do what's necessary after that date to get people out of there who need to get out of afghanistan. >> before we talk more policy, i want to get into that, give us a glimpse what it is like, i was thinking about it thi

ainsley: even democrats jimmy panetta of california, a democrat saying this is not as running as smoothlyail and one phone number. every single lawmaker is supposed to call that one number to help get your constituents that are trapped over there, their family members out. and that's uncalled for. people are saying brian mast said that's a death sentence. >> absolutely. and we are -- we're directing all of that to the state department. and, again, this is something we have worked on for months. i was at the white house april-may time frame asking them to start processing these sivs. we were trying to work with the national security advisers for the president all to no avail. brian: senator, as you know and we have got to go to break. always told don't leave a man or woman behind even if they lost their lives. risk their lives to get back their bodies. we are leaving 15,000 americans. ainsley: if not more. brian: in a war zone, the general secretary of defense says can't do anything about it. unacceptable. senator, thanks so much. ainsley: thank you. steve: thank you, senator. brian: all r