Transcripts For CNNW New Day 20171023 : vimarsana.com

CNNW New Day October 23, 2017

Senator graham didnt know we had 1,000 troops in niger. Did you . No, i did not. At this point, we have conflicting stories. We want to be able to get the full, accurate story and get it right. Were going to score a big legislative accomplishment here on tax reform. People closest to the president whispering in his ear all want to do big tax cuts for the wealthiest people in the country. We want the very best tax package that can actually pass. This is new day with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your new day. It is monday, october 23rd, 8 00 in the east. Lawmakers are demanding answers about the deadly military mission that claimed the lives of four u. S. Soldiers in niger. Senate Armed Services committee will hold its first hearing this week about this. This comes as leading senators admit they are stunned to learn how many u. S. Troops are in the west african nation. The senate also plans to take on the longawaited debate of the president s war authorization powers. This has been going on for years. Congress has been punting on its constitutional duty. So, for the first time, theres going to be some new context this morning. The widow of Sergeant La David Johnson, one of the soldiers killed in that niger attack, is speaking out. Myesha johnson is her name. And in a new interview on abc just this morning, she talks about what President Trump said that did make her cry. Lets hear mrs. Johnson in her own words. The questions that i have, that i need answered is, i want to know why it took them 48 hours to find my husband, why couldnt i see my husband. Every time i asked to see my husband, they wouldnt let me. What did they tell you . Theyre telling me that hes in a severe wrap, like, i wont be able to see him. I need to see him, so i will know that that is my husband. I dont know nothing. They wont show me a finger, a hand. I know my husbands body from head to toe. And they wont let me see anything. I dont know whats in that box. It could be anything for all i know. But i need to see my husband. I havent seen him since he came home. There are also a lot of questions about the phone call you received from President Trump. I know you were in a car to the airport. Tell us what happened next. Me and my family was in the limo to receive my husband from, i think it was denver dover, we went to. Dover. And we were nearly on the airport strip getting ready to get out, and he called Master Sergeant neils phone. I asked Master Sergeant neil to put his phone on speaker, so my aunt and uncle could here as well. And he goes on to saying his statement as, what he said was the president . Yes, the president. He said that he knew what he signed up for, but it hurts anyways. And i was it made me cry, because i was very angry at the tone of his voice and how he said it. He couldnt remember my husbands name. The only way he remembered my husbands name, because he told me, he had my husbands report in front of him. And thats when he actually said, la david. I heard minimum stumbling on trying to remember my husbands name. And that were hurting me the most. Because if my husband is out here fighting for our country and he risked his life for our country, why cant you remember his name . And that is what made me upset and cried even more, because my aweso husband was an awesome soldier. He did what took other soldiers to do three years in other five years. It took other soldiers five to six years to make e5. If he was here, he would have been on his way to being an e6 or an e7. My husband had high hopes in a military career. What did you say to the president . I didnt i didnt say anything. I just listened. But you were upset when you got off the phone . Oh, very. Very upset and hurt. Very. It made me cry even worse. Congresswoman wilson reported that and you explained she was in the car with you. Yes. Shes been close to your family for a long time. Yes. Yes. Miss wilson my uncleinlaw was miss wilsons Elementary School principal. And my husband was in her 5,000room model program. Thats why shes wellconnected with us. Because shes been in our family since we were since we were little kids. The president said that the congresswoman was lying about the phone call. Whatever miss wilson said was not fabricated. What she said was 100 correct. It was Master Sergeant neil, me, my aunt, my uncle and the driver and miss wilson in the car. The phone was on speakerphone. Why would we fabricate Something Like that . Is there anything you would like to say to the president now . No. I dont no, i dont have nothing to say to him. All right. Thats myeshia johnson, the widow of la david johnson, one of the four Service Members lost in this ambush attack in niger. Lets bring in our panel, senior Political Writer for 538, perry bacon. And associate editor at real clear politics, a. B. Stoddard. Perry, this is not an easy situation for the widow to be in. She just suffered the worst loss in her life, shes got a baby on the way, shes got other kids to take care of. What was the takeaway for you, from this interview . I mean, first of all, my heart goes out to her. It was really hard to watch that, to watch her grieve on television. To see how that happened, to hear her talk about it, to hear her talk about it in such detail was really emotional. And you can tell shes feeling that as well. In terms of the things we do here in washington, its clear that congresswoman wilson was absolutely correct in everything she described last week and the president repeatedly lied and dissembled and was inaccurate about what happened. Miss johnsons comments are exactly what congresswoman wilson said, and the president for whatever reason chose not to be accurate. And its also worth saying, i would like to have a president on one of those phone calls would be prepared for, would know the soldiers name, would be able to have a conversation, would say the right things. And its unfortunate that call went so poorly, that she was crying after the call ended. I mean, look, weve talked to many families who do say that the calls with the president went well. They were comforted by the president. I believe we have one coming up for you soon in this hour. So its just this one that went wrong. By a. B. , beyond what her takeaway was and how she felt about talking to the president , i didnt know that she has yet to see her husbands body. That was wow the idea that whatever happened to him, that his remains are not such in whatever condition that his wife cant identify them and see them. And so she doesnt have that level of closure of just knowing that its him that is in there. Yeah, that was really the most profound part of it, to me. Is that she needs answers about what happened and why his body is in this condition. And like she said, she can see a finger, if thats all she can see. But she really needs to know that thats him. And thats that what really happened to him. She needs answers. And like all the gold star families we hear from, she said the same thing, she echoed the same thoughts. She just wants people to know who her husband was. That he was a great soldier and had high hopes for a military career. People in these situations want us to know their names. And so while i give President Trump the benefit of the doubt of what he might have been attempting to say on that phone call, because we heard his chief of staff, general kelly, describe what he advised the president to say, that he was doing what he loved. It might have not gone the way he wanted it to go, but these families need to be treated a specific way. And running to twitter and coming up with fake stories about how somebody has lied about the phone call and obviously, thats not the way it went, makes it so much worse, makes their pain worse. She needs answers. She doesnt need a big fight on twitter with the congresswoman. You know, i think weve, for the 18th time, we should all say, its time for the president as well as congresswoman wilson to stop talking about this. I hope that her presence on television motivates need to get congress to find answers about this, to own their responsibility, to oversee military operations. But perry, people are going to be listening to hear how she vets the feud between trump and wilson. It is fair criticism that it takes two to tango here, right . Wilson has been doing her part to keep this feud going with trump. Yes, hes the president. Yes, hes the commander in chief. Yes, he should rise above. But thats not who he is. Is it fair criticism to say it takes two to tango . I dont think so, chris, i dont. I really think in this situation, as miss johnson says, wilson knows the family, she knew this mr. Johnson, shes speaking almost as a Family Member in some way, shes grieving herself. So the idea that he needs to attack her personally, i dont know. I dont think this is a both sides situation, where its equal. Like, on saturday, congresswoman wilson is at the funeral and donald trump is tweeting, attacking her. No this is not where both sides are equally to blame here. Perry, i want to stick with you for one second because of what i read in the notes what you said. After what happened with general john kelly at the podium where he was giving his side of the story and he was talking about congresswoman wilson, that you now see him in a different light. How so . What do you now think his role is in the white house . Up to now, i think a lot of people, myself included, have thought of him as someone who was kind of not involved in these feuds the president creates. The president is often very involved in a sort of culture war in the country. General kelly has generally avoided that. But i think in this instance, i was surprised to see him sort of jump into that and embrace that role. And then also embrace the role inaccurately. General kelly has not done what the president has done until now, which is say inaccurate things. And its hard to look at that video from what general kelly said on thursday and less than 24 hours later, mrs. Wilson congresswoman wilson was not doing what kelly said. Kelly wrongly, completely inaccurately described what she said. Lets listen to the president talking about what kellys experience was with this call and why he felt the way he did. He was so offended that a woman would be that somebody would be listening to that call. He was he actually couldnt believe it. Actually, he said to me, sir, this is not acceptable. This is really not and he knew i was so nice. Look, ive called many people. And i would think that every one of them appreciated it. I was very surprised to see this, to be honest with you. Look, that could all be true, a. B. It could all be true. And yes, there are counterfacts wh , why was kelly listening . And hes obviously needed on these calls given what happened in this one. But how do you analyze what kelly did in this situation, in terms of balancing his pain as a gold star parent, but he got it wrong about the fbi, he got it wrong about wilsons presence on this call. How do you balance out the exigencies here . I really think that this has been very hard for all of us who looked at general kelly as someone who sort of had the moral high ground and was kind of an unimpeachable character in public view. Until he really went after mrs. Wilson in very vigorous, negative terms, calling her names, an empty barrel, he used it several time and then he made up these facts. He might have remembered them that way, but they didnt happen that way. So people are now looking just like perry said at general kelly in a different light, not as a gold star father, but as someone speaking on behalf of the administration and in defense of President Trump. It is really not fair to criticize congresswoman wilson for being one of the people listening as an intimate of the family of the Johnson Family on speaker phone. It is fair for general kelly. He should have gotten up and said, why would he go on and talk to allisisyn camerota of c and say this man as a brain cancer and this will be his benghazi. Thats the kind of thing that is unacceptable. But instead he went after her in this way that was incorrect, unfair, and really ugly. And i think hes lost some ground that we really counted him being on. And thats really changed the game in terms of the way we look at that relationship and what he says. You know, perry, there was another striking part about everything he said. So much of what general kelly said was striking, that its hard to it takes a lot of time to unpack all of it. Obviously, we were all moved by everything he said about his son. But in terms of the politics, he also said, you know, that hes sort of had this awakening of things how much has changed. Things used to be sacred in this world. Like, for instance, women used to be treated sacredly, and gold star families used to be treated sacredly. Well, its his boss, the president , that has denigrated some of these things. I mean, we havent even talked about that, because theres so much to talk about. But that was also a strange disconnect. If you look at that speech and read it carefully, at times, it almost seemed like he was criticizing donald trump while not criticizing donald trump. I mean, i know factually, we look at it, he was defending the president. But in a lot of the comments he made, the chief violator of those things. I mean, donald trump speaks about women a certain way in his charges of Sexual Harassment. Donald trump, you know, attacked a gold star family. So its really hard to look at those comments with general kelly and not think, you know, who do you work for and what do you mean by that . Well, look, one thing is clear. That general kelly is clearly not there to modulate or criticize this president. Because that press conference would not have happened the way it did. And we just heard from a grieving widow who makes sit very clear that congresswoman wilson, as a. B. Points out, the way she talked about the president , the things that she said, fair criticism. This is a political feud. But she was there for the right reasons. And that call went the way that she says it went. A. B. , perry, thank you. Thank you, guys. So a Senate Committee is taking a closer look at the niger attack that killed these four u. S. Soldiers. Should congress authorize military force in the wake of this ambush . Should they reauthorize it . Were going to talk to a Republican Congressman about where they are with this, next. That can fix itself . Is that the work of wizards . Yes. Technical wizards. Who, with the visionary engineers at ge, developed predix giving plane engines the ability to selfdiagnose problems, and alert those who can fix them. And thats no illusion. Magic cant make Digital Transformation happen. But we can. Thats the power of pivotal, part of dell technologies. hard exhalation honey . Can we do this tomorrow . grunts of effort can we do this tomorrow . If you have Heart Failure symptoms, your risk of hospitalization could increase, making tomorrow uncertain. But entresto is a medicine that was proven, in the largest Heart Failure study ever, to help more people stay alive and out of the hospital than a leading Heart Failure medicine. Women who are pregnant must not take entresto. It can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. Dont take entresto with an ace inhibitor or aliskiren. If youve had angioedema while taking an ace or arb medicine, dont take entresto. The most serious side effects are angioedema, low blood pressure, kidney problems, or high potassium in your blood. Tomorrow, tomorrow. When can we do this again, grandpa . Well, how about tomorrow . Ask your doctor about entresto and help make tomorrow possible. Were on a mission to show drip coffee drinkers, its time to wake up to keurig. Wakey wakey rise and shine oh my gosh how are you . Well watch this. I pop that in there. Press brew. Thats it. So rich. I love it. Thats why you should be a keurig man fullbodied. Are you sure youre describing the coffee and not me . The senate Armed Services Committee Says its going to hold a hearing this week on the ambush that killed four u. S. Soldiers in niger. Top senators are admitting they did not know the u. S. Had so many troops in the west african nation. Republican and democrat. Listen. I can say this to the families. They were there to defend america. They were there to help allies. I didnt know there was 1,000 troops in niger. John mccain is right to tell the military, because this is an endless war without boundaries, no limitation on time or geography. Youve got to tell us more. Senator graham didnt know we had 1,000 troops in niger. Did you . No, i did not. Lets discuss with Republican Congressman charlie dent of pennsylvania. He visited the region surrounding niger over the summer as part of a congressional delegation. Sir, good to have you on the show. Thanks, chris. Great to be with you. So schumer doesnt know how many are in niger. President obama put the soldiers there in 2013, 800. It seems as though theres been an increase since then. Senator graham says he didnt know and that this is an unending war without boundaries. Let me ask you, why isnt the accountability here not for President Trump, he just got in there. Its on you guys. You have the congressional duty to declare war. You wont debate an aumf. Graham doesnt know whats going on because he hasnt taken the time to figure it out and vote for it. The same for schumer and the rest of you. True or not . Well, first, chris, let me say, i do think we need to update the aumf. I have been supportive of that. It has not happened. I recall the debates can during the obama administration. Many of the democrats wanted to put on a lot of operational controls on the commander in chief and a lot of the republicans didnt and we could never get to a consensus. I think that was really the issue. Now, with respect to niger, i serve on the appropriations committee. I oversee military construction projects. In 2016, we put 50 million, we appropriated 50 million to refurbish an existing base for runways to take c17s and other uavs. We have a presence there. Not just there, but within that whole lake chad region, supporting local troops to suppofight boko haram, support operations in west africa and the operation in mali. So we have all sorts of people in that region fighting a very dangerous foe, and isis in west africa, esp

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