former ambassador thomas pickering, the chairman of the accountability review board and vice chair mike mullentestify. >>> a senate foreign relations committee hearing the nomination of carolyn kennedy for ambassador to japan will be considered. >>> jimmy fallon is 39. trisha yearwood turns 49 and adam west, 85, till going strong there. adam, there he is. >>> coming up on "today" matt lauer talks to justin timberlake. >>> keep it here for more. i'm richard lui with bill karins, a hello kitty lover. have a good one. >>> just in, new video after an explosion and fire at an oklahoma factory. firefighters have backed off this morning letting the fire burn itself out. the latest details neck. >> san jose remove as crosswalk from a busy street in front of a middle school. outraged parents demanding action. >> the plans to close the golden gate bridge for an entire weekend. >> right now we'll take you live to the other picturesque bridge. digital video does that. yes. it's modern times. there we go. we straighten it out, all in focus. that is your bay bridge, ladies and gentlemen, on this thursday, s

among those testifying admiral mike mullen t vice chairman of the benghazi accountability review board, the chairman of that board former ambassador thomas pickering will be testifying. bay area native and u.s. ambassador christopher stevens and three other americans all died in that attack. >> the washington navy yard is open for business again this morning, most workers will be allowed to return for work today even as questions remain about how a shooter was able to get in and whether gun control laws would have made a difference. the building where contractor aaron alexis shot and killed a dozen people on monday is still closed, so is the gym in which the fbi is using as a base. the veterans administration revealed it treated alexis for insomnia but never for mental illness. they say reports of his paranoia never made it up the chain. the >> what should have been done, wasn't done, should have been more done. >> there is no reason to believe that any kind of background check would have stopped this tragedy. >> a large rally for gun control is set for later this morning on capitol hi

>> another issue that raised eyebrows was the close contact between admiral mike mullen, one of the co-chairs of the investigation and mrs. clinton's chief of staff you see there, cheryl mills. she exchanged messages, for lack of a better word, with mullen over the. of a senior state department official. this was seen to undercut all of the claims that that investigation was impartial. >> catherine live for us, thank you very much. let's go now to the crisis in syria. secretary of state john kerry today said the facts are even clearer now that the united nations has released its report on last month's deadly chemical weapons attack. >> the world can decide whether it was used by the regime, which has used chemical weapons before, the regime which had the rockets, and the weapons, or whether the opposition secretly went unnoticed into territory they don't control to fire rockets they don't have, containing sarin that they don't possess, to kill their own people, and that without even being noticed, thigh just dissembled it all and packed up and got out of the center of damascus controlled by a

with that, mike mullen and investor bickering. my next guest will be attending the hearing.joining us to discuss the investigation, the latest republican bush to defund obamacare, member of the house oversight and judiciary committees, chair of the immigration and border security subcommittee. congressman, good to have you with us. this is a bold stroke by the leadership in about 180 degrees away from the initial offering of the speaker last week to the senate democrats in which he decoupled the continuing resolution, the budget, defunding obamacare. what happened? >> i think if the speaker were here talking to you, he would tell you his preference was always to have this ideological battle over the debt ceiling as opposed to the continuing resolution. for most of your viewers, that is a pretty boring point but appears matters but he wants a fight fight over the debt ceiling or to the speaker's credit when people went to him and persuaded him we would rather fight now than later, he agreed. i think that is what you look for. wherever your leader is, an open mind and willingn

than a year ago that left 4 people dead thomas pickering and former chairman of the staff general mike mullen today stood by the board's findings. the investigation began with low level employees and found middle managers to blame. th told lawmakers there was no need to go hire. >> they didn't interview the secretary of state. she interviewed four of the five members of the board? >> yes. >> it looks like sort of an inside job of an investigation. department of state lacking at the department of state. >> they acknowledged clinton's role in select the investigators for the board which is mostly interview summaryings rather than depositions. republican law americas say there hasn't been a measure of credibility. there w the review was comprehensive. >> elizabeth prann live for us in washington, thank you. >>> talk about the criminal conviction of former congressman tom delay. there wasn't enough evidence of finding him guilty of illegally funding money to republican candidates. delay said a big part of his conviction was where they tried him. >> it was unconstitutional number one to try me in

the other is retired admiral mike mullen. they will handle the questions and answers first.hat democrats are saying folks like you will find out all the questions have been laid out and they have been answered and all the criticism from the right will be squelched. what do you think about that? >> we, let me ask you this, or let me ask my friend elijah cummings. can you tell me when hillary clinton became aware there were security issues in benghazi? can you tell me why client hillary clinton did not close the facility because only she can? can you ask me did the president call any allies during the siege, can you help? can you tell me the origin of falls talking points that susan rice perpetuated on five sunday talk shows? those are the same questions we've had ford 12 months. i know my democratic colleagues would like to change the conversation. i get that. there will be victims, family members on the second panel. so i would encourage anyone who is interested in benghazi to ask them, are you satisfied with the answers you've gotten today? bill: sounds like some day very s

review, former admiral mike mullen and ambassador thomas pickering will testify before the house oversightay. forbes releasing its list of the 400 richest people in this country. microsoft co-founder bill gates not only the richest american with a network of $72 billion, also the richest in the world reclaiming the title from mexico's carlos slim. warren buffett maintains second place with 58 a half billion dollars. the head of berkshire hathaway is also last year's biggest earner adding 12 and a half million dollars to his fortune. coracle co-founder of larry ellison did not do badly either rounding out the top three at $41 billion. up next, american students being eclipsed by their peers all around the world. fax that could end up in danger in our nation's prosperity, so says the author of a new book. he joins us here next. >> thirty years of your david stockwell was ronald reagan's financial backing. now he is saying watch out for all this money printing. here comes another crash. 9:20 a.m. eastern. this man is about to be the millionth customer. would you mind if i go ahead of you? ins

mike mullen and tom pickering are expected to testify. >> senator john mccain striking back at vladamirputin by writing an op-ed pe piece for a russian outlet. it was publiced by the electronic news website written under the headline russians deserve better than putin. mckanl accuses him and his associates of corruption by rigging elections, and controlling the media. the arizona republican blasts putin for sighting with bashar assad in that country's civil war. speaking directly to the russian people mccain writes he is more proper russian because he respects their right to self determination. when i criticize your government it's not because i'm anti-russian, it is because i believe you deserve a government that believes in you and answers to you. and i long for the day when you have it. pretty strong words. >> i'm not surprised one, that somebody fired back at putin for his big op-ed and i'm not surprised at john mccain. for months the federal open markets committee has been hinting and saying it will wind down its easy money policies. >> wall street has been readyingy for that. and

the house oversight committee taking testimony from ambassador tom pickerring and admiral mike mullenakers want to know who was responsible for policy decisions which led to weak security. they also want to know why the review board failed to conduct more thorough interviews, an assertion which admiral mullen flatly rejected. >> we received the full cooperation of all witnesses and in every state department office. we interviewed everyone we thought it was necessary to interview. we operated independently and we were given freedom to pursue the investigation as we deemed necessary. gregg: jonah goldberg, join us, editor-at-large for nationalreview.online. isn't, or wasn't hillary clinton the top, accountable person at the department of state as secretary of state, and is it inex-flick ab, if not incompetent to fail to interview her? >> it might be inexplicable, it might be incompetent or it might be explicable and the explicable part might simply be they didn't want to ask her questions they didn't want answers to and, you know, i listened to the, i listen to the beginning of this hea

darrel issa announced mike mullen and former ambassador thom thomas pickering will preside. >>> stilln on the domestic dispute that had george zimmerman detained now trying to salvage video from an ipad that was smashed during altercation. it's a key part of evidence they are reviewing. plus a big upset for democrats in the first ever recall election. is there a bigger problem for the national party coming down the road? we'll talk to senior political editor mark murray. [announcer] there's no hiding the goodness of the latest from beneful baked delights. new heartfuls are made with real bacon... ...and oven-baked to crisp perfection. new heartfuls from beneful baked delights. constipated? yeah. mm. some laxatives like dulcolax can cause cramps. but phillips' caplets don't. they have magnesium. for effective relief of occasional constipation. thanks. [ phillips' lady ] live the regular life. phillips'. from capital one... boris earns unlimited rewards for his small business. can i get the smith contract, please? thank you. that's three new paper shredders. [ boris ] put 'em on my spar

the ambassador thomas pickering and admiral mike mullen said they had unfetter ed access to everyone, and including the government oversight committee will hold the hearings on the 19th where pickering and mullen will be witnesses and specifically asked about the question processes they used in the arb hearings. >> and catherine, this is called a draft and there are 100 pages in totality and we expect to see the rest of it when? >> probably early next week, we were told, because there not be fundamental changes to the language. >> all right. catherine, we will bring you back later, because you are reading all of it, and i am going through it as well, and we will break it down with the first guest of the hour. we will come back to you. >>> and rick grin nell is responsible for four ambassadors to the united nations, and i'm glad you are here tonight, as well as a fox contributor. >> thank you for having me. >> if you have to describe what you have read in terms of what you been able to see in the draft report, how would you describe it? >> the most shocking thing is doug franz from the

mike mullen. where it goes from here remains to be scleen but republicans as valid and important a concern as this is they have also ored a political points and eager to keep doing this. look. it was a serious situation and people lost their lives and the state department is probably still reeling from this and part of the reason we saw the reaction we saw in yemen and other countries when there was a credible threat and you saw in response to that a lot of democrats and republicans saying perhaps it was the right november hindsight but certainly the oversight committee still eager to get to the bottom of this. host: in fairness there was a polite hearing. and for caroline kennedy who testified in her confirmation hearing expected to be confirmed as the first female fweefedskwla pan and of course the daughter of the late president john f. kennedy. guest: if you can show that picture. she now and the irony is had caroline kennedy decided to serve in the senate, instead of leaving herself open for t

thomas pickering and his investigative panel co-chair mike mullen told congress that not a single militaryne could make it to the rescue during the eight hours americans were under threat in benghazi. >> there were no strip alert aircraft ready to go. >> it was libya after a revolution on 9/11. we had been bombed twice prior. there's nobody that's ready to go? >> everybody in the military wanted to move forward. it became a physics problem, and it's a time and distance problem. >> reporter: what message do you think that might send to our enemies that there we were for a pretty long period of time apparently unable to help? >> it would send a message to our enemies if we don't posture ourselves in a different way and change, that we're weak and vulnerable, and that's not the message we want to send. >> reporter: pickering says change is in the works. the military has begun to adjust its readiness stance in some regions. he and his co-chair, mullen, say they were fiercely independent. >> we had unfettered access to state department personnel and documents. >> reporter: but republicans quest

my previous captain and one of my lifetime mentors admiral mike mullen mention they had a few years ago. there is a concern that the national economy of the united states was a key national security consideration. i think the recent sequestration policy has put additional risk and additional challenge within the armed forces to manage operations and maintenance. we have to be ready. those forces are ready now, but it becomes more difficult as the senator just indicated to plan if you are ready for reserves, your fuel, your beans and bullets and black oil isn't ready to go. we need to think about that and listen to the senator consider what general dempsey has said. >> and that brings into the picture russia's involvement to some degree. they have ships in the eastern mediterranean. they have strategic interest because they is a -- they have a port, the only port, and what is their interest? what are their capabilities should a u.s. ship launch an attack? >> they have interest in the high seas as the navy does and the nato navy in the mediterranean. i actually watched the helicopter carr

mike mullen, the vice chairman of the panel, actually called cheryl mills, the chief of staff to hillary clinton because he was concerned that another state department official who was going to appear before congress might not represent the state department well. he was in effect giving pr advice or a head's up, at the same time he is supposed to be investigating these people? they also didn't look into things lying the talking points, why the video became such a central part of the benghazi story. they didn't do a lot of things that i think most americans would have expected they would have done and what they did do, they weren't independent. bill: that leaves a lot of questions without answers. quickly what happens next then? >> well darrell issa subpoenaed an additional two people who had information about the response that night. i think you have other committees, including intelligence committee looking to talk to survivors. we still don't at this date a year later have any first-hand accounts from the survivors. cia affiliated personnel who were on the ground in benghazi. i think w

mike mullen, former chairman of the joint chiefs -- they didn't suggest harsher actions should be taken. mr. kennedy yesterday at that hearing told the chairman that there was serious accountability, so going it was going to be one of the republican points and pushing this forward. host: are there missing pieces, in your view? guest: it depends on who you ask. this has been a partisan issue on the hill. democrats say that this is essentially a witchhunt, that republicans are grasping at straws, and they point to this accountability review board as proof that this has been investigated. that is part of the reason we go after thisa report, that the white house will frequently say that we had this arb report and accountability there, so by poking holes in the report, it pokes holes in the white house therent, that there is no out there. host: we are talking about the benghazi attacks over year ago and some of the congressional oversight and hearings occurring yesterday and again today and the most recent hearing will be 3 at 9:30 this morning. darrell issa's the chairman, elijah cummings i

affairs committee hearing will include the long-awaited ambassador thomas pickering and admiral mike mullenafter the benghazi terrorist attack. oversite commit chairman darrell issa has been critical of that report, which he and others say failed to punish the higher ups in the state department. a spokeswoman, however, says the agency is welcoming the question ing. >> we've seen reports of a report released by chairman issa in advance of his hearing on thursday. for many months he heads oversight committee and he has been criticizing the work of the account absent review board. so we are pleased that ambassador pickering and admiral mullen will have the opportunity on thursday to directly answer chairman issa's questions regarding the accountability review board's procedures, findings and recommendations. >> this just one day after undersecretary patrick kennedy was grilled in regards to the facts. mid level managers were placed on temporary leave after the fallout. they were then reassigned. he was also pressed about the security level of that day. >> with additional -- was additional secu

among those chosen, admiral mike mullen, with his impeccable reputation and unparalleled experience.nd his reports that made last december showing that there were failures at senior levels within tuberose at the state department. that led to an adequate secretary black and benghazi. secretary clinton accepted all of the recommendations of the arb. the state department is implementing or is in the process of implementing all of the recommendations and we support the work of the arb. as well as the efforts of the state department. we introduce the this is noncontroversial legislation, much of which was incorporated into the state department authorization bill that the committee recently passed, to help improve diplomatic security planning, strength and physical security and enhanced security training. mr. chairman, are committee has a responsibility to ensure that our brave distal bats have the -- brave diplomats have a security that they deserve. there is a certain amount of risk inherent in these occupations and that effective diplomacy cannot be conducted from behind the walls of th

reviewountability chairman and admiral mike mullen both testified. hours. just over two >> the committee will come to order. the oversight committee exists to secure two fundamentals. americans have the right to know the money washington takes from them is well spent. americans deserve an effective government that works for them. our duty is to protect these rights. our responsibility is to hold government accountable to for what they know is important for how they decide. our job is to work in partnership with watchdogs to deliver the facts to the american people and bring reform to the bureaucracy. this is our mission. consent to unanimous read into the record statements from two witnesses that will not , family of the victims of the attack. kate, a letter from quigley. -- says >> members of the house four americans including my brother was killed. i am unable to do so but submit for consideration the following questions concerning the events that led to my brothers death in because i am not aware of the answers, these questions have been provided. first,

the two people that headed it up was ambassador pickering and ambassador mike mullen. i rather ambassador pickering to el he was ambassador salvador appointed by ronald reagan. i was a jesuit at the time. i didn't appreciate what we were doing. that being said, i followed his areer and he's somewhat of a sergei of americans. he was probably the most . phisticated foreign policy could you or could not criticize him for the a.r.b. report? i find it somewhat interesting -- i don't know if he was republican or democrat, but he seemed to be supported by republicans. >> i think an officer appointed by the director of national intelligence, ambassador pickering with his long service, under as you know, both republican and democratic presidents, admiral michael mullen who rows up the ranks of -- rose up the ranks, captain breeb at the i bush administration at the department of agriculture and at the united nations. and so this compilation of individuals represents the full spectrum, i believe, and as i mentioned earlier, when you read the report, it is not complementary of the

the two people that headed up was ambassador pickering and admiral mike mullen. i remember he was the bads ambassador to el door. i didn't agree with the policy at the time would you criticize or not criticize him or the arb report. i find it somewhat interesting sin he was republican or democrat. age membership is including an officer of appointed by the director of major intelligence both republican and democratic presidents, admiral michael mullen who is ranks of the chairman of joint steve of staff. kathleen, long service in both, i believe it was in the bush administration with the department of agriculture and the united nations, and so this compilation of individuals represent the full spectrum, as i believe. as i mentioned earlier, when you read the record, it is not climate tear of the state department. >> i did the read report. it was not -- it was not up to the task here. it's experience as serving as a ambassador and undersecretary of state, and u.s. representative to the united nations, and in the assignment that is difficult as israel then soviet un

among those chosen to serve on the arp were ambassador pickering and admiral mike mullen who have hadmpeccable reputations. in its report submitted last december the board found that there were quote systematic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels within two bureaus at the state department unquote that led to inadequate security in benghazi. secretary clinton took personal responsibility for the attacks and accepted all of the recommendations of the arp. the state department under the leadership of secretary kerry has implemented or is in the process of implementing all the recommendations to support the work of the arp and the efforts of the state department today introduced the embassy security and enhancement act of 2013. this noncontroversial legislation much of which was incorporated in the state department authorization bill that the amedi recently passed would help improve diplomatic security planning strengthens security and enhanced security training. mr. chairman are committee has a responsibility to ensure that our brave diplomats and aid wor