His pregnant wife and two small kids, ages 2 and 6. The investigation intensifying, surrounding a search for details of what happened in that ambush in niger in all four green berets are killed, including sergeant la David Johnson. And his fellow comrades there, dustin wright, Jeremiah Johnson, brian black. The formal investigation, under way into the ambush that killed johnson and his comrades there, early reports indicating johnsons body was found nearly a mile from where the other soldiers were killed. Lawmakers are demanding answers about what happened, what went wrong, and many u. S. Civilians also asking why were these troops in niger in the first place. Senator lindsay gram issuing this warning. The war is headed to africa. Its begin to go morph, as we suppress the enemy in the mid east, theyre going to move, theyre not going to quit. Lets bring in cnns senior diplomatic correspondent. The michele, the fbi on the ground interviewing people trying to collect evidence. Are we learning anything more about the investigation . Reporter . Yeah. I think most of the details coming out over the past two days have focus the on the investigation itself. Whos handling it, we know that Africa Command is leading it. The but as you mentioned, the fbi is also involved. U. S. Intelligence agencies, they say it includes all four branches of the military. And that additional u. S. Troops were immediately sent to the capital after that happened. They wanted to push back on some things. They want to emphasize amid sz criticism and questions that the search for la David Johnson started immediately after it was realized that he was missing. The u. S. Troops also had help from france and niger. That doesnt change the fact that there are these questions coming from people like senato john mccain, whos chairman of the senator Arms Services committee, wondering why there has been so Little Information even two weeks after that happened. So a few things that we know now including this elements of the investigation is that this question over why a french planes came about 30 minutes after the fire fight started, why didnt they drop bombs on. The initially, it was reported at least by some, that they didnt have authorization to do that by niger. Now we know, according to u. S. Officials they were concerned about causing further harm, that they couldnt really tell on the ground who were u. S. Soldiers and who were enemy combat ants. So, details like that, we think were going to see more, probably in the near term, but the investigation could take a long time. So what the pentagon has been wanting to emphasize too is that the u. S. Does not leave soldiers behind. They wanted to say that people shouldnt criticize the actions of other members of this team at this point. Not the least because we dont know too many details at this point. And also, saying that as the media is looking for information, people shouldnt equate that searching for more details with the army with the pentagons ability to have that information available. So theres obviously things that they know they dont want to say, but there have been questions too, based on some sorting thats been out there over whether the u. S. Ambassador to niger may have been resistant to cooperate or approve or support requests by the military for additional equipment and medical support to troops in niger. The state department flatout says no to the question of was any of that support denied to these troops. They say that didnt happen. But theyre not being so quick to answer the questions over, well, what was there bushback . H were any of these concerns, if there were any, elevated to the level of secretary tillerson . Fredricka. All right. Thank you so much. Of course the answers cannot come soon enough for the grieving family members of sergeant la David Johnson being laid to rest. Bryan black, 5, Jeremiah Johnson and dustin right age 29. All four kwiilled in an ambush. The fbi has joined the investigation as the pentagon tries to pin down an exact time line of what happened. Our elise labott is following those details. Reporter cnn has learn the srgeant johnson was found a mile away. The pentagon is still looking at the exact circumstances of how johnson became separated. Officials say the entire team led by green berets has been interviewed about the last time they saw johnson. Nigerian force found his body 48 hours after he had become separated. Defend secretary james mattis was on capitol hill today a to meet john mccain. I felt we were not getting sufficient amount of information, and we are clearing a lot of that up now. We can do better at communication. We can always improve on communication, and thats exactly what well do. Mattis is defending his troops in the face of criticism. Having seen some of the news reports, u. S. Military does not leave its troops behind. And i would just ask you not to question the actions of the troops who were caught not fire fight and question whether or not they did everything they could in order to bring everyone out at once. U. S. Officials are starting to provide a clear picture of the circumstances surrounding the attack. The u. S. Team stopped in a town on the niger border so the nigeriens they were working with could pick up supplies including food and water, and then meet with village elders. Investigators believe the ambush may have started when the u. S. Soldiers were back at their vehicles. Perhaps even driving, with four americans dead, the fbi is assisting nigerien authorities. Providing tech alassistance and gathering evidence. Routine step when u. S. Citizens are killed overseas. The first thing theyre going to speak with the military personnel who survived the attack. Theyre going to to be analyzing lec electronic nick evidence, email. All the Security Forces throughout there who might have information regarding the movement of the people who attacked them. About 1,000 u. S. Troops are in niger supporting a frenchled campaign against extremists. Senator Lindsay Graham now saying the war on terror is morphing and we could see more u. S. Action in africa. We dont want the next 9 11 coming from niger. He received full military honors and a thanks from mattis. Thank you for your support. French fighter jets arrived on the scene to help the u. S. Troops, but cnn has learned they didnt fire on the militants because they couldnt id targets apt risked hitting the u. S. And Nigerien Forces on the ground. Thanks so much to elise labott for that report. Still ahead, President Trump ignited a fire storm when he said he had contacted every gold star family killed in action under his watch. Well now, a new report calls into question whether the white house knew that statement was inaccurate. When the president made it. The well be right back. There are 130 Million Girls around the world who are not in school today. Girls are not in school because of Economic Issues and they have to work. Theres early child marriage, theres war and conflict. At the malala fund we help girls stay in school. There are some really amazing people around the world doing incredible work. The malala fund invests in Education Champions who work in the community and do advocacy and pave the way so that girls can actually go to school. To have the expertise of our financial partner, citi, guiding us is very important. 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Made specifically for indoor cats. Purina cat chow. Nutrition to build better lives. Dlam that he made on tuesday when he said that he had contacted quoting virtually everybody in the military families who had been killed since his inauguration. Our reporter for the congressional quart early roll call found a stunning email. He showed not only had he not contact at the families, the white house did not even have an uptodate list of those who had been killed and started scrambling for a list of names and family contacts. Let me bring in john donnelly, Senior Writer and reporter for roll call. Tell me how you learned about these pentagon documents, email exchanges between the pentagon and white house. First of all you did a nice job summarizing it. And i cant really tell you how i learned it because that would be revealing a source, but i will tell that you i did see the email chain which involved senior people in the white house, and the executive secretary for defense secretary james mattis. It was clear from the email exchange that even after the president had said via radio interview Tuesday Morning that he had contacted virtually everybody, meaning virtually all the gold star families, that they in fact, as you summarized it nicely, they didnt even have all the contact information, and they were scrambling to make sure they had an uptodate list of all those who were either killed by enemy fire, or who had died in some other way, say in military action. Of course without revealing your sources, they were characterized perhaps the word choice, the tenor this in exchange that ensued after the president would publicly say this, i think it was october 17, and then a scramble took place. White house staffers, people trying to recover, knowing that what the president said, right, according to your reporting was not true. Yes. There was one email that indicated that the reason that they wanted to get this information was because they want the the president to be able to contact all the families. That implies that he had not contacted all the families, and so thats the gist of it. The emails were mailing the president wants this asap and they used thatasap. And the replies were here it comes. Two es pretty masttter of fact t it was clear they were trying to fill in the gaps and make sure they got it right going forward, and maybe make sure they contacted more families as soon as possible so it could be accurate as soon as possible to say we have contacted all of the families. So john, how does this add to sequence of events that the public saw unfold before our ve eyes this week involving the florida congresswoman and, as were speaking, sergeant la David Johnson is being laid to rest, one of the four green berets killed in the ambush in niger, and it was the congresswoman whose comments raised eyebrows in the white house as she said myesha johnson, the wife of the sergeant said the president didnt even seem to know his name. So now, what youre reporting, how does that add to the accusations coming from the congresswoman . Her account of that phone call . Well, my reporting did not really speak to that issue. Did not really speak to her account or the president s response. What i what my reports show is that the president had not spoken completely accurately when he said that he had contacted virtually all of the gold star families, and it shows what we actually found out it wasnt accurate because news organizations contacted families who had not been contacted. So, in the subsequent days that became apparent. But what my report showed is that the white house itself knew his top aides knew that it wasnt accurate and they were scrambling to try to get it right. Let me back up real quick and say it isnt that important that the president didnt call every military family. But whats important is that he said that he did. Ant this is a pattern of saying something that is not completely accurate, and then anybody who questions it is criticized in personal terms, and he has to say not only that he has contacted the family, as his predecessors have done, he has to say he has done it better. He has to suggest that hes better at this than anybody else ever. And that kind of pattern has gotten him in trouble. And any customarily when the white house does reach out to family members of fallen soldiers, its not always in the form of a phone call. Oftentimes they may get a letter, but that this president talked about virtually every family, did it leave the impression it was a phone call that there was direct contact . I think it might have left that impression. He certainly wasnt clear about it. And so then thats really the essence of the problem is that hes not speaking very precisely about this sort of thing. And then, when he is caught, saying something that is not doesnt sound too true, he gets defensive and starts lashing out at his critics, and i mean that may please some people in his base, but it also i think hurts him politically. Do you reach out to anybody in the white house or i should say what was the response when you reached out to the white house for a response from your reporting of these documents in the form of emails . They gave me a statement, but it didnt reflect the reality of the emails. The react is as i reported, that they that the white house aides realized that they needed to get the story straight asap and that the story that the president had told on tuesday was not entirely straight. John donnelly, of roll call. Thanks so much for your time and reporting. Thanks so much. Well be right back. You nervous . All right. Despite his very public firing this summer steve bannon is fiercely defending President Trumps ideals to the establishment. He delivered a blistering attack on former president bush. President bush to me embarrassed himself. Speech writer wrote a speech. Its clear he didnt understand anything he was talking about. He was no idea whether hes coming or going. Just like it was when he was president of the united states. Is there has not been a more destrikative pressy than george bushs. Cnns reporter joining me now from the white house. Hell tell us more about the white house that bannon is playing. Reporter this is something that steve bannon vowed to do when he left the position as chief strategist. The to attack anyone that would challenge the president and his agenda. We certainly see him do things like this before aggressively going after establishth republicans whether senator bob corker or mitch mcconnell. This is a vicious attack on a former president questioning his intelligence at one point in his speech before California Republicans on yesterday, bannon said that george w. Bush didnt know what he was talking about when giving the speech on thursday talking about the dangers of nativism, saying trade protectionism was bad for the country, at one point saying that bigotry was emboldened by the current state of politics in this country. The president didnt mention President Trump or steve bannon by name but several times alluded to conspiracy theories, things that make it clear that his intention was to single out the politics of this administration. Bannon has been doing fundraising to go after republicans in the 2018 mid term elections. Keep in mind these are people the president will need to move his agenda forward whether or on things like tax reform or health care reform. It is certainly a curious dynam dynamic. All right. Thanks so much. Thank you for being with me this afternoon. So much more strait straight ahead. Ill see you at the top of the hour and see you tomorrow in the news room. It pushes us. We push back. We even push each other. To challenge conventional thinking. Find smarter solutions. Thats what makes us one of the leaders in precision Cancer Treatment. Forging ahead with technology that wasnt available to Cancer Patients just a short time ago. Like advanced genomic testing. 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