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Wait to decide on potential presidential pardons until after trials. the president was criticized saying he would give preemptive pardons for anyone convicted. it centers around eddie gallagher. he's accused of premeditated murder. many say he is innocent. gallagher's lawyer currently works for the trump organization. so, the question here, should the president pardon these men. i spoke to rachel, a professor criminal and national security law. she served as a military legal adviser on criminal law and issues of war. >> preemptively pardoning service members accused of war crimes not only unde...

Resonating around the world. >> that's the man some feel could be the next secretary of state. one of his predecessors disagreed with him, leon panetta said when you tweet something like that out there you don't know what the consequences are going to be. and the consequences could be lives. the u.s. and south korea beginning aerial military drills today. 230 aircraft and 12,000 personnel are participating in the annual five day air exercise. it's zindesigned to enhance the combat effectiveness of both nations. the stealth fighters are in south korea for the drills. >> the exercise follows n...

Back on the implementation process. our focus must always be on what is best for military's combat effectiveness leading to victory on the battlefield. hallie, this is a secretary of defense who has said in public hearings of the past he doesn't care with who anyone sleeps with or personal lives, he kicares about their ability to kill the enemy. secretary mattis put a pause in there and frozen this policy. in a lot of ways what happened yesterday is what officials have been telegraphing all along. they're going to study this issue and try to do right by all the servicemen and women who are in ...

On what is best on the military's combat effectiveness. >> this is quite unusual, isn't it? >> yes, it's very unusual. >> we were discussing the president's reaction because it was unusual. this, secretary of defense telling a president thank you so much for your input. we will take it under advisement as we decide what to do with our armed forces. >> the whole way the policy had been rolled out was unusual. remember it was the tweets and the white house had the announcement. there's a sense that mattis is being a little freer and feels like he can challenge the president a little more. >>. >>...

They are there to kill people and blow stuff up. they are not there to be socially engineered. we want people who are transgendered to live happy lives. but we want unit cohesion and we want combat effectiveness, and that is why the president is doing this out of the warmth of his consideration for this population. >> kurt, apparently it caught military leaders off guard, including his joint chiefs of staff. is this simply a play to his base? >> yes. this has nothing to do with military cohesion or the costs of having the health care for transgender service members, of which by the way going t...