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We'll see what the next guest thinks. joining me now is chuck schumer of new york. senator schumer, welcome back to "meet the press," sir. >> good morning. >> all right, i want to start actually with niger. as the senate democratic leader have you been briefed? >> not yet. i hoped to briefed early next week. >> why not? was jack reed briefed? >> no, i don't believe he was either. he sent a letter along with john mccain demanding they come in and brief him. >> i understand that. i guess if you get this briefing and you heard what senator graham believes this is part of the larger battle again...

Military. it's very emotional. >> as a member of the committee, to say nothing of a senior senator whose son is serving, have you gotten any answers to what happened in niger with these special forces? >> andrea, i would say insufficient answers. i would say a little bit and what i do know is unclassified. i would say generally. the members of the public, if they knew what military action is engaged in now, and most of this military action is premised on the 2000 authorization to go after the al qaeda relevants in afghanistan, but the numbers that normally premise that authorization is a littl...

Democratic congresswoman barbara lee of california was the only member of congress to vote against the u.s. taking military action. for more than a decade, congresswoman lee has continued pushing her colleagues to repeal that 2001 war authorization. this past june she finally had a breakthrough when the republican-led house appropriations committee approved her amendment, requiring congress to debate and approve military action in the middle east. >> the question is on the lee amendment. all those in favor say aye? >> aye. >> all those in favor say nay. >> nay. >> an opinion, but the ayes have...

Authorization and that an authorization from 16 years ago really doesn't address the fight across the nation? >> thank you, andrea, good to be with you. i think members of the house were realizing they weren't even present to vote. 300 members now who are currently serving were not serving in 2001. >> 300 out of 435. >> two-thirds. first, americans are war-weary. secondly, they want us to do our job. thirdly, we've been able to present the case in terms of where this authorization has been used unrelated to 9/11. somalia, yemen, four drone attacks, gouantanamo, you name it. that's what we're t...

With war authorization? so jeff flake and i have an authorization pending. had a really wonderful hearing yesterday with secretaries tillerson and mattis about it to hear the administrations perspective. here's what we would do. authorize action against the non state actors, taliban, al qaeda and isis for five years, have a fairly tight definition of who could be considered an associated group with those three entities. that the president would have to list the group before congress and saying they're connected to the three and engages in hoz tilts against the united states. if the president d...