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and so again that statement not meeting standards and practices, this turned ny -- into a legal issue. it wasn't an issue around journalistic -- it wasn't an issue to whether they believed me or had enough information to move forward. they opted not to move forward after dragging me through six months of corroboration for nothing. >> martha: you believe there were people at the very top of >> announcer: involved in that decision. why do you believe that and who do you think they were. >> i was told it was the head of nbc universal. the head lawyer. so the head lawyer was talking directly with simmons' attorney.
0.0018, about 240 transgender people in the military is the estimate about of 1.3 million. so it hasn't been a big issue for the military. >> pete williams, thanks so much for being here. good to see you in person. >> nice having you here. >> joining me now, retired staff sergeant shane ortega, the first openly trans soldier in the military. thank you for joining us. what's your reaction to the court's decision? >> obviously i'm extremely disappointed. but you know, my first reaction is that i wasn't surprised by this. our supreme court had been stacked by the trump administration. besides that, this is a reflection of the entirety of our society. this incapacity to communicate with other people and not actually know our own historic history, those fundamental tenants of our constitution, who is unequivocally considered human, who is not. i encourage americans to go out,
each other is doing that. we're just hoping this ends and they come to some kind of resolution. >> you've said that american express and some of your local utilities have been understanding and are allowing you to pay your bills a little later, but you're not seeing the same for the usaa. you're saying it's giving you false information. explain that. >> yeah, well, the big issue with them is they did just donate a lot of money to coast guard mutual assistance, which is excellent. that was very helpful. the problem was that they were offering us a very low interest loan, which is wonderful, except it takes a hard hit to your credit. so unfortunately, other banks were offering, you know, a loan because they know the money is coming. it's just a matter of when. they weren't taking a hit to your credit. so that was the issue that we were running into with usaa. >> you're saying that some people have been harassing you and claiming your husband is not really in the military.
>> unfortunately, with the coast guard, a lot of people don't realize that they are a military branch. so this issue and us not being the only military branch not being covered by the dod -- or being funded by the dod -- basically has fueled that problem. so yeah, i have gotten messages. i have gotten comments. you know, to tell me husband to sign up for other services, that he's not a real branch, that he's not military. so you know, on top of dealing with all of this, we're dealing with that. >> as if not being in the military would somehow make it better. that doesn't really make any sense. >> right. >> you guys are stationed in kentucky. that's mitch mcconnell territory. >> yes. >> do you have a message to mitch mcconnell or anybody else from the president to anybody in congress? >> with me being a coast guard suppose, i cannot really take a
homeland security. but you did that. nothing happened. why were you one of the few who was willing to break with the party in order to get people paid? >> i can't speak for everybody else in terms of their decisions for making -- for taking whatever vote they take on that issue. i will say this, to the extent we can release hostages out of the negotiation, we ought to do that. but i also think, you know, because coast guard now falls under homeland, used to fall under dod, then i think we need to get this thing done. not just for coast guardsmen and women but for anybody that's working under that. this is wrong for them to work -- they'll be paid, they'll be made whole, but most americans live one paycheck away from default or disaster. it's wrong for us not to be able to have a discussion. i thought donald trump putting forward a proposal was a good start. i want to see -- if the democrats don't like it, that's fine. that's their prerogative. but put forward a counterproposal. but that counterproposal can't start with the words no barrier
longer, according to pete williams. it was an issue when it first came up during the obama administration, but since then the controversy surrounding it had died down. the pentagon seemed, the military seemed to figure out a way to work with this. it wasn't an issue. work with transgender soldiers. why do you think the president made it an issue again? >> you know, it really enflames his base to sort of see progressive movements, right? i'm going to use that term sort of leisurely, not concretely. it really enflames his base. they get angry about things that are considered equity for other people. it attacks those fundamental issues of how our country is built. if we don't understand our historic implications of our culture, if we don't understand the documents of discovery, if we don't understand manifest destiny, we don't understand the pay tree y patriarchy. that impacts how we move as military systems, how we interact with each other, the
so in an ordinary criminal case, i would have been in orbit if that had happened. but in this particular case, i came at the end of literally four investigations, which was why i'm so clear that mueller was not involved in the case involving the four men wrongfully accused because his name was literally in not a single report. so everything had already been leaked and was out virtually by the time i got the case. it wasn't an issue. but i mean i take chuck's point that you don't -- you know, you don't leak in the middle of an investigation, and you certainly don't leak in the middle of an investigation as fraught as this one is. >> i want to clarify just the case you're talking about, which you wrote the op-ed about. tell me about that case and why you wrote the op-ed defending mueller. >> well, there had been statements made by alan dershowitz, by hannity, by limbaugh that were that somehow bob mueller was responsible for keeping -- was responsible, that
someone on the hill subpoenaed a bunch of investigative documents about the case? >> well, by the time i got to the case, everything had already been out. so in an ordinary criminal case, i would have been in orbit if that had happened. but in this particular case, i came at the end of literally four investigations, which was why i'm so clear that mueller was not involved in the case involving the four men wrongfully accused because his name was literally in not a single report. so everything had already been leaked and was out virtually by the time i got the case. it wasn't an issue. but i mean i take chuck's point that you don't -- you know, you don't leak in the middle of an investigation, and you certainly don't leak in the middle of an investigation as fraught as this one is. >> i want to clarify just the case you're talking about, which you wrote the op-ed about. tell me about that case and why you wrote the op-ed defending mueller. >> well, there had been
overreaction. it's lunacy. it's political correctness just -- it's just stupid. i can't imagine why espn is still holding the line and not backing down and saying we really screwed up. he's going to be there. the guy can get a standing ovation at the beginning of the game, and espn would get higher ratings than for any virginia game for years? . >> the part of the initial statement that got me is at the end they said we're sorry this became an issue. it wasn't an issue. nobody knew about it. they made it an issue by creating this. the other side was they were worried about his safety, i guess. i don't know who was threatening robert lee. >> from whom? >> but the game and with all due respect to the two teams, uva against william and mary, i don't think a lot of people were going to be watching that. it wasn't going to become an international meme to have robert lee. if it was, someone would have put that out and people would
it was pretty explosive saying millions of dollars trying to do work for this russian billionaire and specifically this report says that they pitched him a plan to greatly benefit the putin government and thus paid all this money so sean spicer was asked about this today and if i'm roughly quoting him he said no paul manafort was simply hired as for the campaign to count delegates. did i hear that right? >> yeah. >> well paul manafort was the chairman of the campaign something like four months. and had an important role including delegates, but they didn't have to count delegates. >> so it wasn't an issue. >> it wasn't an issue. and even though sean spicer sort of apologized for saying that manafort had a small role in the campaign, he also made it seem less than it was.