Mark Milley Doing News Today

Always. thank you, so much, jamie, really appreciate it. joining me now for more perspective on this is retired general james spider marks, a cnn military analyst. spider, what is your reaction to this. how extraordinary it is as were learning from the excerpts? >> it is quite extraordinary. a couple of things, kate. and thanks for having me on your show. this is about moral courage, right. if, as reported, if that reporting and if the books attributions are accurate, this is all about moral c...

Milley is very taciturn guy, hes a very private guy. hes not a self promotor. i would find it odd that he would in these descriptive terms as a moment where i saved democracy, we saved democracy, kind of a high-five moment, because moral courage is what takes place behind closed doors. personal courage is in the open and you get medals for personal courage and moral courage, you dont get recognized and walk with your head held high, we did the right thing and move on from here and have this ten ...

Reporting that he did not seek -- he doesnt seem to seek out these situations but he found himself in these situations. and barbara starr is reporting something very similar and said that according to a close source to milley, he wont sit silent while people try to use the military against americans so while hes trying his hardest to actively stay out of politics, if the events that occurred brought him into that arena temporarily, quote, so be it. what do you think of this? >> well, its true. l...

Election and that he also, and also bear in mind these joint chiefs, the chiefs of the various services incredibly close, very tight. they build, if not -- if they didnt have a previous pre-existing relationship on a personal, professional level, they create one. and so they get together and share their inner thoughts so it is not surprising that general milley got together with his brother chiefs and said, look, we may have a problem here and that would have included the resignation. so everybo...

>> right. it is very clear both i think barbara starrs reporting is extraordinary because general milley is not denying what he said in the book. or what he was concerned about. this would be the moment in time. and it is also quite clear, when you read the book, this is in great detail. there are extensive quotes. general milley cooperated with this book. and to the point of barbaras reporting about this meeting, in the book rutger and lennock write that general milley got a call from an old fr...

To see what is going on. to hear from meadows what is happening at the white house. there is also a scene described in the book between general milley and then secretary of state mike pompeo. both men lived on fort myers and they are houses were very close and they would get together at each others house and one day they get together and have what is described as a heart to heart conversation at the kitchen table and then secretary of state mike pompeo is quoted as saying that the crazies are ta...

Power. and in the book they detail how there were meetings that milley had, not just with the chiefs of the army, navy, air force, and marines, but also with white house chief of staff, mark meadows, then white house chief of staff and then secretary of state mike pompeo. >> and that gets to another aspect of your reporting which i think is fascinating and important, is that general milley eventually got to a place of doing daily conference calls with the chief of staff, with the secretary of st...