Mark Milley Doing News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

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 we're 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 courage and all senior leaders, all level of leadership, break down that senior barrier, all levels ...

Milley is very taciturn guy, he's a very private guy. he's 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 don't get recognized and walk with your head held high, we did the right thing and move on from here and have this ten second memory. >> and in spite of that, thats an interesting point. because i've been thinking ab...

Reporting that he did not seek -- he doesn't 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 won't sit silent while people try to use the military against americans so while he's 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, it's true. look, there is a very, very thin line, kate, between political and military. we often conflate th...

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 didn't 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 everybody is prepared to resign and everybody has to be prepared to walk. what we heard from day one, it i...

>> right. it is very clear both i think barbara starr's 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 barbara's reporting about this meeting, in the book rutger and lennock write that general milley got a call from an old friend. >> that person is anonymous in the book, but it's clearly someone very important who calls h...