we have our guests joining us now including court any kube and phil rutger. let's start with courtney, you have reported all of the ins and outs of this withdrawal, the missteps, what went well, what didn't go well, what was your assessment from the take away from the republicans approaching this fact line here? >> there has been really remarkable moments in this hearing. i see that as someone who covered a lot of hearings in the past. some of the most remarkable moments have come from the chairman of the count chiefs. he said in his words that the war was a strategic loss. because the enemy are in kabul. that's a really chairman of the joint chiefs. he also talked about the noncombatant evacuation being a strategic failure. again, because the taliban had moved in, the, quote/unquote, the enemy were in kabul. so that in and of itself was, you know -- it's pretty amazing to hear. we also heard, you played a little bit of the back and forth of him and senator blackburn, you know, he was expecting to get a lot of questions about the book, including the one writt

>> woodward, yes, costa, no. >> did you talk to carol and phil rutger for their book? >> yes. >> he said he does not regret those conversations. >> i believe that part of my job is to communicate to the media what we do as a government, what we do as a military to explain to the people. >> reporter: one of the more striking concerns about what afghanistan looks like and what could happen there in the coming months, general milley also said it's possible that al qaeda could reconstitute itself within as little as six months. asked whether prlt joe biden still has confidence in the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff who was brought in under president donald trump, jen psaki said yes and also noted they worked together over the course of the past few months and the relationship between biden and milley is probably different than that between trump and milley. >> probably a safe bet. >>> let's bring in retired lieutenant general hurtling. given what you just heard in oren's piece, do you get the sense that milley is trying to rehabilitate his reputation since the lafaye

. >> off talking to phil rutger. >> those comments were in the press because that's where you put themtelligence committee or armed services comm committee. >> with respect to the intelligence, i have it right here. i'll b

joining our coverage, phil rutger, "washington post" senior washington correspondent. year." joining us former state department employee also. phil, i will start with you with what you are learning from the new book. >> nicolle, they are interesting revelations and they fit a pattern regarding milley and sort of his character and his thoughts, his concern, his alarm really in that whole period between the election last november and biden finally taking that oath of office january 20th. he feared a coup but he also feared that president trump was so erratic, not a man of sound mind, that he could try to do something dangerous or unconstitutional or as woodward and costa report in this book potentially launch some sort of a war with china, that he wanted to tip off the chinese. it is going to have reverberations to come in washington because we are already hearing from senator marco rubio, the florida republican, saying that biden rather should fire general milley as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff because what he did was undermining the commander in chief. >> rick

and while the guy sitting next to you was talking to phil rutger and doing his thing with bob woodward, we were buying into the big lie, that this was evr going to be successful and we could ever rely on the afghanistan government for anything at all. general milley, you gave up the game earlier when you said you wanted to address elements of your personal conduct in question. we're not questioning your personal conduct. we're questioning in your official capacity, undermining the chain of command, which is what you did. >> i did not undermine the chain of command. >> you obabsolutely did. >> did not. >> i believe you guys probably won't resign. you seem to be very happy failing up over there. if i was president, you all would be fired. you have letdown the people who wear the uniform in my district and around the country. and you're far more interested in how people think about you and inside of washington books than you care about winning -- >> gentleman's time has expired. >> thank you, mr. chair and gentleman, i apologize for the behavior of my colleague. i'm deeply, deeply appreci