Transcripts For MSNBCW Andrea Mitchell Reports 20171020

Were because were at war. Find out the expectations of the special project in niger. President trump having his first victory. Passing of a senate bill overnight that could pave wathe way for tax cuts. Mr. President , this is not a bad bill, it is a horrific bill, an extremely cruel bill and the worst ever presented in the history of our country. We have a very simple message from across the country. We want to take more money out of washingtons pockets and put more in yours. And taking on trump. George w. Bush and barack obama silent no more. Both taking not very subtle shots at the current president. We have seen the return of isolationist sentiments, forgetting that American Security is directly threatened by the chaos and despair of distant places. Were a nation waiting for a reminder of its better self. If you have to fight a campaign by dividing people, youre not going to be able to govern them. You wont be able to unite them later if thats how you start. And good day. Im Andrea Mitchell in washington with new fallout by the call made by president trump, the pregnant wife of a fallen soldier. On thursday, chief of staff john kelly speaking in the White House Briefing room tried to quiet the controversy by describing what happens when a soldier is killed in combat, made all the more wrenching with his own detailed experience when his son was killed in afghanistan. A longtime friend and mentor of the slain soldier and his family, sergeant la david johnson, for listening in on the condolences call to the sergeants widow and mother. It actually stuns me to listen in on that conversation. Absolutely stuns me. I thought at least that was sacred. The president followed up with a tweet late last night writing, the fake news is going crazy with wacky congresswoman wilson, who was secretly on a very personal call and gave a total lie on content. She fought back. I wasnt listening in, i was in a call that was being taken by speakerphone. I wasnt listening in. Please dont characterize it as that. At the same time there are Unanswered Questions about the operation in niger over the lack of air cover, whether an unrelated decision posed by the pentagon to extend the travel ban to include chad led to with the drawithdrawal of cracked trs in chad. Joining me reporter courtney kobe. Kelly, first to you. That briefing, people were just holding their breath. It was difficult, painful to watch. It was clearly the chief of staff taking one for the boss in a very personal way, some people questioning his facts and the fact that he went after the congresswoman so angerrily as well. Reporter you highlighted where the president wanted to make his own voice heard using what weve seen before, using kind of a mocking term referring to congresswoman wilson, calling her wacky congresswoman wilson, pointing out the d for democrats, making point this is someone who is a critical adversary of the president. John kelly is taking some criticism for the way he addressed her. The back story, the congresswoman is a personal friend to the fallen soldier and his family and had a reason to be there beyond being a member of congress. Making it more personal criticizing the fbi unveiling in her district in florida, suggesting she had taken credit when we have looked at a tape first obtained by the sun sentinel of her remarks, and it seemed by arguing a very boilerplate congressional response for a member of Congress Role in a new building in ones district. Not something where she was specifically taking credit but talking about her role and that of the other member of congress am florida to bring that about. So the sort of personal criticism from the chief of staff toward this member of congress may be the area where he will be open to criticism himself, and that is, of course, separate from him trying to explain the intent of the president , trying to offer that he gave the president the words that may have been heard in a very different way by the Johnson Family in terms of a young man who was where he wanted to be serving with his fellow soldiers in arms, and that that was a a part part of sort of credo for those who serve. That may not have been said in the way john kelly would have said it or in a way that was comforting to the family. Thats part of the subtext here and the president who invoked barack obama and his pattern of calling or not calling made this political himself when he was in the rose garden earlier in the week. Andrea . Thats what started this whole sad, sorry chapter with the president trying to blame his predecessors for the fact that all these days after the terrible incident, he had not there hadnt been a statement, he hadnt called. He had been preoccupied or speaking and tweeting on other things but there had been no comment from the president about the deaths of four special forces troops. Kelly, thank you. And courtney kube, on to the investigation. We know there is always a military investigation. The fbi is involved, the cia apparently involved. Senators led by john mccain questioning why they didnt have more information, and also the question of air cover. What can you tell us about what they were doing there and whether they were exposed by the withdrawal of chadian troops just a day or so before . So we still have more questions than we do answers on exactly what happened that day, and in part thats because its still under investigation and the u. S. Military takes that very seriously and they want to be very careful to protect the information before its all complete and they have a real complete picture of what happened here. What we do know, there are groups of these special forces. This is the Third Special forces group. They go out frequently in these 12man teams and they do training. They train the nigerian military. It focuses on everything from interdicting goods and individuals to human rights training of the special forces. One important part of their job is called key leader engagement. Its working with the locals, getting in with them, both so they feel welcome in the area and they provide information thats helpful and intelligent. They had done a similar patrol 29 times in the past six months, weve learned, without any kind of engagement, and in this case they were ambushed. There were dozens of these militants. The latest assessment that we know of, based on u. S. Military intelligence, was that it seems it was this isis affiliate, isis gs, but not still 100 clear. You mentioned chad. I know thats an idea thats been floating around now. Rachel maddow talked about it extensively last night. We dont know if that played any way into it. We do know the chad mission was focused largely on boco horan, but you were right to point out it all came at the same time. Was there a shift in power . Was the withdrawal of the chadian troops giving any sort of movement . Im sure there are people at the africa command, at the pentagon who know a lot more than we do right now, but were still waiting to get those answers, andrea. One of the things i found so interesting was that john mccain has been so tough on the pentagon on this. He has a Good Relationship with defense secretary mattis, but why does the senate feel so uninformed and why are they pressing so hard publicly about it . I think any time you have a situation like this look, john mccain was a military man, so i would think that, like many other military, they would look at this and say, how is it possible that in this day and age, the u. S. Military was able to be ambushed like this by there are reports of 40 to 50 militants that ambushed them. How does that happen . Before they go out on a patrol, they look at the intelligence, they look at the threat environment, and how did they not know if there was a massing of that many militants in the area . How did they not know that . Senator mccain was pretty outspoken this week and he even compared it to former admiral carter and said it was even more strained then than it is now. Thank you, courtney. Nbc has learned that the defense secretary this hour is meeting with his counterpart in france, and france was key in helping locate the victims and bring them home. Theyve been great partners there as well. I think we have to wait. And i think secretary mattis is taking the right approach. Let me get all the facts and i will certainly come to capitol hill and lay it out. I dont think it will be necessary for a subpoena. I know secretary mattis well. He worked in my office when i was at the pentagon and ive kept a friendship up with him. I have enormous respect for him and i think hell do everything he can to make it clear what the mission was, what the intelligence was or whether that intelligence was lacking. Having been in that situation before myself, i recall a very tragic thing that happened near the end of my term at the pentagon, and that was u. S. S. Cole. October 1st october 12 in 2000. And did we anticipate there would be a Suicide Attack at that time . Should we have anticipated it . What was the intelligence . We had to go through all of that to find out exactly why they were allowed to get through. What were the rules of engagement . Why were the soldiers on board allowed to have 50 caliber machine guns at the ready . When we talk about this, its also been reported that the National Security council had a statement of condolence prepared a day or so later, and inexplicably it wasnt released. It was the silence on this subject that led to the questions of the president which led him, for whatever reason, to blame his predecessors rather than saying, well make the call and rigwrite the letter. I think we need to give time for the Johnson Family to grieve in private and take this off the front pages. I dont like whats happened, i dont like the name calling going on. Obviously i dont believe the president intended to be insulting. It may have been viewed that way, but i think the family needs to be left alone and taken off the front page and stop insulting members of congress and vice versa, the president going after a member of congress. Thats enough. Were saddened by this. Im sorry the president didnt just say, i didnt get in touch with the family, i intend to do that. The family deserves more, the country deserves more. Were going through enough with the rise of xi jinping. We have secretary tillerson giving a speech at csis talking about the growing relationship, strategic relationship and partnership with india. These are issues we have to address as well as what are we doing in chad or niger or wherever we might be at any given moment . What are the resources necessary . What is the intelligence we can provide . How do we protect our soldiers out there risking their lives for us. Those are the issues we need to be getting back to rather than back and forth and magnifying this in a way that is not helpful to this country. No disagreement, its just, again, a tweet late last night from the president attacking a member of congress who was very close to this young man. Well, i would like to see the president not have a default set that every time something someone is critical of him or some criticism is leveled toward him that he goes back and attacks president obama. He is the commander in chief. Simply take the criticism, saying im sorry you feel that way, lets move on. Rather than engaging in name calling, and it undermines respect for the office, and i think he should cease and desist from that. Chief of staff kelly, general kelly, has made the point what the military goes through to take care of those who have lost their lives and the service of this country. Lets let it be in the past now and go forward and find out why it happened and how it happened. To that point, chief of staff kelly, and we all respect and honor the service of his entire family. He has a son on fifth deployment as we speak and a daughter in public service, and hes very sensitive to the grief of family and siblings, and they spent a lot of time at walter reed. The chief of staff spoke about why he was noticeably absent day before yesterday when all of this was erupting. The only thing i could do to collect my thoughts was to go and walk among the finest men and women on this earth. You can always find them because theyre in Arlington National cemetary. I went over there for an hour and a half, walked among the stones, some of whom i put there because they were doing what i told them to do when they were killed. We should really leave this story with those comments, shouldnt we . General kelly is speaking from the heart, from his experience, from his loss, from his service to the country. I think he spoke eloquently. I think we should stop there and still grieve with him as hes still grieving for his son, still worried about his current son who is serving in iraq or afghanistan, and lets go forward now. Stop looking back at this other than finding out what happened. No more name calling. Its not worthy of this country being engaged in this on a daybyday basis. Weve got to stop it. And those are the four fallen soldiers. Those are the people we should be thinking of. As always, bill kohn, thank you very much. Coming up, first step. Senate republicans tapping the budget. Could tax cuts be next . Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. Stay with us. Liberty mutual saved us almost eight hundred dollars when we switched our auto and home insurance. With liberty, we could afford a real babysitter instead of your brother. Hey. Oh. Thats my robe. Is it . You could save seven hundred eighty two dollars when liberty stands with you. Liberty mutual insurance. Everyone deserves attention, whether youve saved a lot or just a little. At pnc investments, we believe youre more than just a number. So we provide personal Financial Advice for every retirement investor. An overnight victory for president trump. Republican Senate Members finally passing the buck in a vote that could pave the way for tax cuts. The president said tax reform this could be would be, quote, the biggest in the history of our country. Well, nbcs derek hague joins us from kapcapitol hill. Rand paul the only senator to vote against. Hes been ailing. It has to have a house vote, is that correct . Thats right. The president inserted some language into the bill to make some changes the house had asked for, so now this bill goes back over to them with the hope the house will pass the senate bill of the budget without having to go to the House Committee which just continues to drag this process out. At this stage, then, with all that has to happen, and you only have a certain number of le legislative days, how likely is it they will Reach Agreement on a tax bill . Do they have an outline that republicans are at least supporting . Andrea, weve seen so far a set of principles but nothing approaching an actual bill yet has been released. There is still a long way to go in this process. Republicans agree in theory on this outline and they agree on a couple main points, but there is still so much that has yet to be decided. And frankly we have not yet seen the full force of all the outside groups that will get involved in this process. And the last time they tried to do tax reform, and they did back in 1986 under ronald reagan, you had bakesically every lobbying group across the country getting involved with the tax break. Thats likely to happen here, too. Then uyou have the economy, whih is not a divide in substance but at least in language. The president saying the one thing hes locked in on is this cut to the Corporate Tax rate, and almost Everything Else is negotiable, and theyre really trying to sell the idea of this as a middle class tax cut while also trying to attract democrats who has a lot of balls in the air. I talked to Clair Mccaskill yesterday, and she said, look, the president is talking about tax cuts skr, and thats somethi could get behind, but what were hearing from the Republican Senate is not about tax cuts. So they still have to get behind it if indeed theyre going to try to attract any democratic votes on this. Good luck on your holiday season, garrett. Garrett hague on capitol hill. Could be one of those christmas weeks on capitol hill. Thanks, garrett. Coming up, mike pences former spokesperson responding to an unflattering new profile of his former boss. Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. For the holidays, we get a gift for mom and dad. And every year, we split it equally. Except for one of us. I write them a poem instead. And one for each of you too. Thats actually yours. That one. Yeah. Regardless, were stuck with the bill. To many, words are the most valuable currency. Last i checked, stores dont take words. Some do. Not everyone can be that poetic voice of a generation. I know right . Such a burden. The bank of america mobile banking app. The fast, secure and simple way to send money. For her compassion and care. He spent decades fighting to give families a second chance. But to help others, they first had to protect themselves. I have afib. Even for a nurse, its complicated. And it puts me at higher risk of stroke. That would be devastating. I had to learn all i could to help protect myself. Once i got the facts, my doctor and i chose xarelto®. Xarelto®. To help keep me protected. Oncedaily xarelto®, a latestgeneration blood thinner. Significantly lowers the risk of stroke in people with afib not caused by a heart valve problem. 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Tell your doctor before all planned medical or dental procedures. And before starting xarelto®about any conditions, such as kidney, liver, or bleeding problems. Its important to learn all you can. To help protect yourself from a stroke. Talk to your doctor about xarelto®. Theres more to know™. Have you any wool . Eep, no sir, no sir, some nincompoop stole all my wool sweaters, smart tv and gaming system. Luckily, the Geico Insurance agency recently helped baa baa with renters insurance. Everything stolen was replaced. And the hooligan who lives down the lane was caught selling the stolen goods online. Visit geico. Com and see how easy it is to switch and save on renters insurance. Vice president mike pences former secretary mark louder paints a picture of not only mike pence but also president trump. First about the new yorker profile. Jane meador was here and said it portrayed the president and Vice President joking. They spend a lot of time together in the offices, they speak a lot when one of them happens to be on the road anywhere in the world. It is a close relationship and something thats developed during the campaign. The president said he didnt know him prior to him joining the ticket, maybe met him a couple times at random events, but nothing like the relationship they have now. But they come from completely different worlds socially and culturally. They door, but they really compliment each other. The Vice President is focused on bringing out the president s agenda. There was in narrative and this fantasy that was written about a casino bill that was signed by the it was enacted by the i understand i cant answer legislature that was characterized as an executive order. That was a law passed by the then General Assembly and the governor allowed it to become law without his signature. So this narrative thats weaved is false on the face of it. We should point out Pulitzer Prize winner, famous author as well. Moving on to the hill and other agenda items. How much harder is it to get taxes and get support for the agenda when you have so much criticism from the president of mitch mcconnell, the republican leader. You heard what bob corker had to say, and for all the attempts to patch things up the other day in the rose garden. I heard it described by a former White House Press secretary that the only people that have one lead story are the media, that theres always about a dozen or so lead stories going on all the time in the white house, which is really true. None of these things are distracting from whats going on with the advancing of the president s agenda. The people are still working on tax reform, theyre going to continue working on it and theyll continue working on National Security, on the other issues. I do have confidence at the end of the day that when republicans are asked to make a yes or no vote, theyre going to stand by their principles and whats good for their constituents. Theyre going to cut taxes and try to grow the economy. You come from the Republican Party from former governor pence, budget chair mike pence. He certainly would not fit into the steve bannon theory of governance. How disruptive is steve bannon and the threat to primary to take on all these senators . The thing i would tell you is obviously steve is on the outside now. Hes not with the white house any longer. He is supporting the views that he believes and encouraging people to do so. But when i look at republicans who may be fearing a challenge from mr. Bannon or people that he might align themselves with, where is the best place for them to be . Thats standing next to the president of the United States and moving forward on the agenda that he was elected to do and they were elected to do in advance themselves. When you get tax reform done, when you cut taxes, when you continue to move the ball forward on repealing and replacing obamacare, a sitting member of congress that might be worried about a challenge from certain factions or certain groups, i think the best place to be is standing next to the president. There was no progress on repealing or replacing obamacare, no big legislative victory. That work is continuing. I think youll see tax reform bit end of the year. The president is something that wanted stuff done yesterday, so theyll continue moving forward in that respect. I do think youll see action on health care, whether that be through the legislature or what the president can do through executive action to provide more competition, more opportunities for Small Businesses to get together and provide health care to their employees, and thats really the kind of things that americans want. One of the things that was most surprising to political observers, especially of republican politics, is george w. Bush. His speech yesterday. Lets listen to a piece of it. Weve seen our discourse degraded by casual cruelty. At times it can seem like the forces pulling us apart are stronger than the forces binding us together. Argument turns too easily into animosity. Disagreement escalates into dehumanization. There is point after point after point in this speech and the one he gave later at west point last night, which is a very thinly veiled, not very subtle criticism of president trump. I would say its criticism on both sides. We have seen and we continue to see to this day that democrats are engaged in policies that are based on class warfare as opposed to working together. Weve had no support on any of the president s initiatives in terms of tax cuts and those kinds of things. And weve gotten to a point where you cant have a disagreement with somebody politically without demonizing them. I think thats on both sides, and thats something i think many people would get around going, just because we might have a disagreement on policy doesnt mean we have a bad person. There can be agreement on everything. A buildup from north korea on threats. Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. Now that we have your attention. Capri sun has four updated drinks. Now with only the good stuff. Do you know how to use those . Nope. Get those kids some new capri sun with moderate to severe Rheumatoid Arthritis . How do you chase what you love do what i did. Ask your doctor about humira. 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Sorry, the tape is being put together. Lets talk about growth in north korea and in iran as well today. North korea, mike pompeo, mike pompeo saying we have to be prepared for military action. He seemed to be dialing it up in his speech here yesterday. This has been part of the u. S. s talking points all along, but the question is where are we taking the rhetoric ultimately . Does this pressure north korea and some of the surrounding regions into an intellectual dialogue . There has to be some concrete offers from the United States on how they want to engage diplomacy. The fact is there is no plan. This back and forth, do we want diplomacy or do we not, dont waste your time on tweelts frts the president. As the secretary of state comes back from china after seeing president xi, there is no strategy of what would we expect from them. There is not even a strategy of how do we frame a set of talks, which is usually what the secretary of state should get out of a trip like this. He should come back saying, they agreed to a meeting, or an initiative. Either its going to be shown that our rhetoric is empty, which is very dangerous for foreign american policy, or we would be forced to do what were threatening, which would mean war. And i just wanted to pause here for a moment. Well talk on the other side, but we can together watch that video of the president in the oval office with the u. N. Secretary general. Thank you very much. Its great to have the secretary general with us. Weve become friends even before i was doing what im doing right now. We were friends, we knew each other. You have done a very, very spectacular job at the United Nations, and i can tell speaking with you, you are appreciated. Nick is in a very unique class. But its an honor to have you, and thank you very much for being here. Thank you, mr. President. I must say im extremely grateful for the support you have given us in addition to our process with the General Assembly. We live in a messy world, but we need a strong United States. And we need very strong action between the United States and the u. N. I must say the u. N. Has tremendous potential. It has not been used near as much as it should be, but the United Nations has tremendous potential. We have just started. But the United Nations has this great, great its almost a power to bring people together like nothing else. It hasnt been used. You are really starting to get your arms around it, and i have a feeling that things will happen with the United Nations like you havent seen before. To have this group of nations in one location with one person, which is you leading it strongly, i think, in terms of world peace and other things and many other things were working on, i just wish you luck because the potential that you have is really unlimited. Good luck. Thank you very much. I need luck. Thank you all very much. I believe the president was asked whether he had authorized the military action in niger. Im with former Senior Adviser to president obamas special representative for afghanistan and pakistan, and thats dean of the Johns Hopkins school of advanced international studies. This is a different donald trump, though. This is a trump who is trying to make nice with the u. N. After a speech to the General Assembly that was widely criticized by people in the room and around the world. Foreign policy experts thinking it was, you know, unnecessarily personal and pugnacious and bombastic and also inaccurate in some of the things that were charged. But here he is trying to make up to the u. N. Secretary general and suggesting that they can work with the u. N. Despite every criticism that he made during the campaign. Actually, the speeches that he gave were directed at countries like iran and north korea. But the comments that he made about the u. N. Was largely about the marble in the General Assembly, that he could have done better than that, and he withdrew his comments about unesco. He has never challenged the fact that the United Nations needs reforms, and hes very clear gutierrez came here knowing exactly how to handle trump. He first thanked him for the reforms, and he said we want to work with you, and therefore i think he gave trump the opportunity to say the United Nations is doing a good job and we need it. What about the fact that the administration is blowing up nafta this week, not really negotiating, according to both canada and mexico, and also, of course, the decision on iran . I think the biggest trouble here for the United Nations is that, first of all, trump is generally opposed to Multilateral International deeds and alliances, which is the principle under which United Nations operates. When he tells the secretary general that youre a place that brings people together, thats great. But what do people do when they get together . They form multilateral deals that he doesnt like. Secondly, the iran deal is legislated as a United Nations Security Council deal. The United States actually used the Security Council in order to make the iran deal a property of the international community, and now by reneging on that, essentially the United States is undermining that u. S. Resolution that it itself introduced. Thank you on all things. Good to see you again. Well be right back. The friends, the independence. And since we planned for it, that student debt is the one experience, im glad shell miss when you have the right financial advisor, life can be brilliant. Ameriprise their leadership is instinctive. Theyre experts in things you havent heard of researchers of technologies that one day, you will. Some call them the best of the best. Some call them veterans. We call them our team. Our recent online sales success seems a little. Strange . Nk na. 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Didnt necessarily have a plan for Something Like this happening, and so the french came in and played a huge role in that. And the idea that there was a massive intelligence failure, i think, is going to really feed what weve already seen on capitol hill, which is a number of lawmakers raising very significant questions for the administration about what exactly happened. So you can see the congress was starting to look into this as well. John mccain is going to be meeting with secretary mattis this afternoon, weve reported, and there was no air cover. If not for the french jets, there would have been an even worse disaster, potentially. Jean cummings, the other piece of this is pompeo, giving a speech yesterday suggested the russian interference in our election had no impact according to the analysis. That is not what was concluded. What was concluded by all the agencies in that consensus document back when they addition. No, it certainly wasnt. They hadnt even investigated whether it had an impact. They didnt even explore that particular question. So, the cia had to come out and correct the record after he spoke. Because the report concluded that the russians did interfere and try to influence the outcome of it, but they didnt say whether or not they had succeeded in that second question. Thats influencing the outcome. They gave no judgment on that. And, jeremy, in the last day weve heard george w. Bush speaking out in a way that he has not hes not been giving political speeches of any sort. Even when president obama was president. Now a very pointed speech, which is clearly about donald trump. It clearly was. Without mentioning trumps name, i gave a sneering indictment of Trump Presidency and trumpism and what that has done to corrode american politics. Not just american politics. I mean, this is its a difference in both substance and style. I think if you look at what bush said in that speech, he talked a lot about the ways that donald trump had directly pulled back from the bush legacy, right . The legacy of being a dominant world power that understood its place in the global community. Donald trump really rejects the idea that there is a global community. This notion that you reach out beyond your partisan borders. That you try to build the Republican Party as bush did into something bigger with a more Diverse Membership and donald trump has rejected that as well. Rather than playing to the base, indeed. Carol, when we also look at what bush was saying, president obama coming out and campaigning in virginia. We wanted to talk about this tightening virginia race. Its the first time weve heard from him on the trail. Its interesting. He said before he left office that he wanted to take a more stepped back approach and wasnt going to speak out so much. As things started to build, and it was clear his whole legacy would be unravld, he said he would speak out in certain instances. His speech yesterday, i talked people close to him who worked on the speech said he didnt want to go after trump by name, per se, just like president bush, president obama knows anything he says is going to be read in those terms of what kind of message, cloaked or whatever, is going to be is intending to be sent on president trump. So, he wasnt as harsh as he was during the campaign but he said some specific things and specifically talked about health care. As he sees the legacy unraveling. Its interesting its in virginia, that charolettesville is concerned about the way the country is taking. This is a very tight race. Virginia is always quirky, and the polls are showing it could be neck and neck. Ed gillespie, former Republican Party chair, former bush aide as well, doing very well against ralph northam, lieutenant governor, who is not know to be a good retail politician. Its close. The first poll was an oddity where it had gillespie ahead by a point. If you do the average, north an is ahead by five or ten points. Its very hard to tell. All of the poltz polls in the state are very different. Northam may be good at retail but his ads are fabulous. Hes a former army doctor. He has a very unusual democratic background for a democratic candidate, and hes selling that. He has a new ad out that says he would work with tlump if he can. Gillespie has even been afraid to say president trump. Its an unusual race. Watching gillespies ads, theres no sign hes a republican even. Not at all. He has a big problem with the base, too. Remember, he was almost beat in the primary by a farright candidate. That basically came out and very excited about donald trump, not excited about gillespie. Jeremy, jean, carol, thanks all of you. More ahead. Dad molly, can you please take out the trash . sigh dad molly trash whoo mom hey, molly . Its time to go bell ringing class, lets turn to page 136, recessive traits skip generations. Who would like to read . molly i reprogrammed the robots to do the inspection. Its running much faster now. See . Its amazing, molly. Thank you. [ speaking Foreign Language ] shes on the front lines, its the civil war in yemen. Shes the first woman to report for al jazeera. Shes being honored this week for her courage under fire. You just saw it. She did not miss a beat when the explosion went off behind her. She has reported for four years now. Shes only 25 years old. She was honored by the International Womens Media Foundation this week as one of the honorees for covering the civil war in yemen. Even though shes being awarded here in the United States, the state department would not approve her visa. Nbc news is looking into why. It does beg a question, what threat can a 25yearold woman journalist braving the civil war in yemen possibly present to the United States . If she does not embody u. S. Values, i dont know who does. That does it for this week for this edition of Andrea Mitchell reports. Remember to follow the showon line, on facebook and twitter mitchellreports and craig melvin is up next right here on nbc. Good to see you. Enjoy your weekend. Good afternoon to you. Craig melvin. In washington, d. C. On this friday. We start with breaking news. New reporting just into nbc that a massive intelligence failure led to that attack in niger that left four u. S. Servicemen dead. Just a few hours from now defense secretary jim mattis heading to the hill to answer john mccains questions about that attack. Also this afternoon, the continuing crisis from this catastrophic hurricane season. Ill talk to a member