also here, melissa bryant, a former army intellence officer and the chief policy officer of the iraq and afghanistan veterans of america. thank you to your both. >> thank you. i >> schifriaac, let me start with you. what has been the relationship between these three men and the v. a. overall? >> you basihave thee these guys down in mar-a-lago who for the past year and a h been acting as a shadow leadership for the department of veterans and foreign affairs and weighing in on all manner of personnel decision des officially having no role in government, never having served vernmentilitary or go previously, and not really having any direct experience that's relevant to this. they've been kind of hovering over the officials who areth actually i government and telling them how they think things should be done. >> schifrin: so a president's cabinet, they all have infseorml ad, right? everybody gets advice from outside of government. why is this a big deal? why is this unusual?t' >> idefinitely different the way they've been assigned a particular agency under teir purview. we've never reall