montel williams is a board member of the fisher house foundation, the charity playing survivor -- payingvivor benefits to the families of fallen troops during the shutdown and the creator of living well montel.com. this makes me very angry. i'm sure it makes very many america american angry. you served for 22 years and part of the board that came to the rescue, this fisher house operation. this is ridiculous when a government shuts down and can't pay death payments to widows and children who lost their father? >> i don't know where to begin. when i came out you were interviewing and talking to two congressman. one of them had the audacity to take a shot at the secretary of defense hagel and say he did this for a political reason or he had the authority to do so. if he had the authority to do so, he would have done so without passing a bill today. you cannot find it written anymore. there was no discretionary opportunity to do this. >> his statement seems on the money to me. check hague p said i'm offended, outraged and embarrassed the defendant shut down prevented the government from ful

how montel williams is helping with benefits in the shutdown. [ male announcer ] this is brad. his day of coaching begins with knee pain, when... [ man ] hey, brad, want to trade the all-day relief of two aleve for six tylenol? what's the catch? there's no catch. you want me to give up my two aleve for six tylenol? no. for my knee pain, nothing beats my aleve. >>> >>> we would also be required to do other bad things to our people, just an example, we couldn't immediately pay death gratuities for people that die on active duty during the lapse. >> so clearly, washington knew the shutdown would put survivor benefits at risk. my next guest is doing something about that. montel williams is a board member of the fisher house foundation, the charity playing survivor -- paying survivor benefits to the families of fallen troops during the shutdown and the creator of living well montel.com. this makes me very angry. i'm sure it makes very many americans angry. you're a former naval commander, you were in the marine corps. you served for 22 years and you're part of the board that came to

montel williams now paying survivor benefits to the families of the fallen. montel joins me now.kes me very angry, i am sure it makes many americans angry. you're a former naval commander, you were in the marine corp and served for 22 years, and you have come to the rescue here with fisher house operation. this is ridiculous. government shut down, can't pay death payments to widows and children. >> i don't even know how this came about. i talked to two congressmen, one of them who had the audacity to take a shot at secretary of defense hagel saying he had the authority to do this. if he would have had authority to do so he would have done so to pass the bill today. the authority was not there, it was not written, there was no discretionary authority to do this. >> his answer seemed genuine, he said i am offended, outraged, at the government for not fulfilling this in the most timely manner, he is making his feelings very clear. >> this is not only disrespectful, this is a man right now that is shepherding the soldiers' families, the soldiers who have died. 21 have died since the

. >> you know, montel williams used to host a talk show for a long time.mber of the fisher house. he was talking to piers morgan last night. fisher house is this private entity who was bravely stepping forward and taking on some of the death benefits that because of congress initially that they're helping take care of these families. and he came on and he said, because the question is why? right? why is this happening? and he said that there are, i think he said 20% -- less than 20% of the current lawmakers serving you and me, have served. so the rest of the body of congress has never served our country. i'm curious if you think that is part of the issue here. this is, you know, compared -- the numbers were very different decades ago. do you think that's part of the reason? >> i try to avoid playing into the politics of these things. >> good for you. >> i don't want to indict the character or the motives of those who have chosen to serve their country in a different way, but i will say that things might be a little different if part of the shutdown involve