chinese leadership worried that in this kind of chaotic environment they saw, they might be subject to a wag-the-dog-style attack. esper and milley both concluded absolutely correctly that if the chinese leadership is in that kind of mood, they could make a miscalculation. they could also believe that we were in disarray, and they might seek to take advantage of it. so the notion that through a number of different levels that the you asked government would communicate to china -- don't misread the situation, take it easy, it would have been a dereliction of duty not to have made those calls. >> two more points. i don't know how meadows and pompeo knew what milley was doing and guys like cruz and rubio didn't know that. you know how close all these players are. you were there. and for them to sit quiet, especially secretary of state pompeo when he was told directly, according to general milley, and say this looks bad, this looks bad, don't you see