0 tonight's last word. the 11th hour with brian williams, starts now. >> good evening once again day 272 of the biden administration, and this evening flags at the white house, lives throughout washington and the u.s. facility throughout the country and around the world are at half staff in honor of colin paul who died this morning, general paul was 84 years old, he died of covid complications while battling both parkinson's and multiple myeloma. we will have more and much more of its life and legacy just ahead. tonight is also the eve of the first major legal showdown for the special house committee, investigating the january 6th riot and insurrection. and a little over 20 hours, the committee is scheduled to formally vote on whether to adopt a report recommending criminal contempt charges against trump advisor steve bannon, who had failed to comply with the subpoena. earlier tonight they released the report on ben interfusions. it outlines what the committee wants from him. and it recommends that he'd be referred to the justice department for prosecution. bannon argues that he doesn't have to comply because of donald trump's attempt to assert donald trump's -- to try and keep this activity and those of his aides and allies from congressional scrutiny. tonight members of the committee flatly rejected that argument. >> his claim of executive privilege is just really a stretch. first, he was not even an employee of the white house, or the federal government. and so we would not ordinarily be covered by any of the executive privilege claim. and let's say this in plain english, there must be something trump does not want the committee to see, pertaining to one six, because just today his lawyers filed suit in a d.c. district court against both the committee and the national archives in an attempt to keep the documents from his white house term private. trump was also occupied with a separate legal matter today, he spent four and a half hours testifying of their or the behind closed door, in trump tower in manhattan, today's deposition was for a lawsuit brought by protesters who say that his security team rough them up back in september 2015. as for the nation's current president, he is stepping up efforts to get a democratic agreement on his bills to rebuild infrastructure and expand that social safety net. >> tomorrow he will host two different meetings with house members here at the white house. one with moderates, and one with progressive members. we are encouraged at the excel it with talks, and eager to get this done. >> the speaker has told her house members that she wants to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill by october 31. that would be 13 days from now. meanwhile, as the administration continues efforts to end up endemic over 45 million covid cases have now been confirmed. in the u.s., over 730,000 americans have now been lost to the virus. with that, we want to return to the news that made so many people pause and reflect today, the death of colin powell. son of immigrants who became the most admired man in america for a time. one of the most important unelected political figures of the past half century, easily. a reluctant warrior as we'd like to say. and a public servant to the court. and before we bring in our first guest tonight, nbc news senior washington correspondent andrea mitchell has his look of his for decades to his service to this country. >> he was the first black chairman of the joint of chief leading the charge in that zone. >> our strategy to go after this army is very simple. first we will cut them off, then we're gonna. call >> colin tell host started as an intimate man started to tourism vietnam instantly became a household name. later as america's first black secretary of state. so coming to covid paul was believe x needed, but suffered from prostate cancer, and in recent years multiple myeloma, and parkinson's. once america's popular figures urged him to run for president. >> any regrets that you did not run? you wrote in the book a wrenching your decision was. >> i had to decide about it because -- but after a few weeks of it i realized that this is just not me. this is not what i believe. >> his so-called party bond, rule of, or if you break it you own. let him to privately oppose the iraq war. we were with him in afghanistan in 2002. >> what is it gonna take to put the country back together? >> it is going to take the effort of the whole international community. >> a low point of the year later making a point of -- mistakingly accepting the cia's pretext of invading iraq. no weapons were ever found. an episode he said, he deeply regretted. in 2008 pow broke from the republican party endorsing barack obama. and strongly criticizing donald trump's challenge to obama's birth rate. >> the correct answer is, he's not a, muslim he's a christian, he's always been a question. but the real right answer is, what if he is? is there something wrong with being a muslim in this country? the answers. no that's not. america >> tributes tonight from around the world including president biden. >> he's not in only a different in a patriot. one of our great military meet the teary leaders and a man in a decent. >> we also stayed on in the spotlight one exception to this moment, two years ago. >> when i walked up to him, you said your general colin powell. >> he's said yes i. >> i knew it was one of, me. >> when anthony manager and amputee pulling over to help and fix it. paul later writing on facebook thank you anthony, you touch my soul and reminded me of what this country is all about. let's stop screaming at each other, let's just take care of each other. >> andrea mitchell with that remembrance tonight. a family spokeswoman says that, almond paul, the generals wife of nearly 60 years is sadly also covid positive. but thankfully is recovering well at home. with all of that, let's bring in our starting line on this monday night peter baker, veteran journalist and often chief white house correspondent for the new york times. jacqueline alemany, political reporter for the washington post and the washington post and the earlier too. two and retired four star u.s. army, barry r mccaffrey, once served as colin paul's personal assistance. general is a come back to vietnam former battlefield commander in the gulf. former cabinet member, former member of the national security. good evening and welcome to you. all general i'd like to begin with you. as a young man, you both went off to vietnam you both returned seriously wounded comeback veterans, you both retired with four stars on your shoulder. no easy feat. you both spent over 30 years in the u.s. military and then transitioned, still in public service to civilian jobs. so the question is how will you remember your friend colin powell? >> in a lot of ways, my wife and i are both extremely sad about it. his passing, and our thoughts go out to him and his entire. family a remarkable man. a tremendous judgment, with very hard worker, essentially humility even though he was at the center of global interaction. chiefs, and presidents, and prime minister. but eventually if you walk into a white house reception with 300 people, there he would seek out a young soldier in uniform, a law enforcement officer, a single mom. he always tried to connect with the people to make the society work. and finally, i think in my judgment, watching the close range, he was an extremely sophisticated man. with sort of an outspoken plane american men are going. but he really understood american politics, an international community. we absolutely loved him. particularly the people in uniform that served within. >> peter baker, it should be noted that he loved cars, and was willing to talk about cars for hours at a time. and it was easily the best of all of the restore in all of northern virginia, certainly the most passionate. on the political front he endorsed barack obama. not just a drive-by, it was thorough, it was sincere, he meant it, and he cut any remaining ties with the republican parties after one six. talk for a moment, peter, about the giant of public life that has just left us. >> brian, i think that is exactly the word, the word giant to use about general paul, because he was a giant in washington. and a real powerful way. not just as military service. not just a services. country but is mastery of a capitol where it was easy to get lost. it was easy to get overpowered. to follow into biological tracks. that wasn't him, he was a republican, but the nazi endorsed, as you pointed, out a couple of democratic presidents. he worked for republican presidents, he worked for democratic presidents. it was not about partisanship, it was about his version, and his vision of integrity and service to the country. and i think that he crossed lines that are so hard to cross in today's days, his passing is not just a passing of an individual, but in some ways a passing of an era. and they talked about him running in 1996. he the party, would've been happy to have not mandated him. it was like an eisenhower figure. he was a republican that democrats would have certainly been happy to have him on their side because he did inspire people beyond party lines. he inspired them with his example. he inspired with his wisdom. he inspired them with his personality, his magnetism. he inspired with his maturity. which is where we all see a lot in washington these days. and i think when we lost colin paul today, we lost one of the exam floors of an air. that is behind us in some ways. >> he's behind a doctrine that bears's name, militarily. jacqui, we move to you and the comparatively mundane, yet very urgent business of the one six committee. and kind of a dual question. what is the business transpiring tomorrow? and what is donald trump arguing in this lawsuit? could that affect anything that the committee is going to? do >> yes brian, would it define republican party that colin powell was a part two as opposed to what we are seeing right now from the former president. and who are arguing today that the records request from the house select committee investigating january six are overly broad and have no legitimate purpose are also seeing steve bannon most likely to be held in criminal content by the house select committee tomorrow who voted at 7:30 pm. and is likely to proceed on to the house floor as soon as possible essentially by the end of the week that would think it referred to the justice department. we heard from the justice department last week that they were stressing their independence, saying that they were not going to be influenced in anyway. by president biden's encouraging statement in himself that had been impressing for his agency and being force for the subpoenas not as much information as possible. and not the most comprehensive stored record as possible at the events that occurred on january six. and that insurrection. >> general, back to the topic of your friend and fellow fourth star, colin paul died it seems to me, unsure that the american story was going to have the happy ending that he worked and wished and dream for. having both of you fought, and been wounded in the course of defending democracy, democracy at the time of his death is a little blurry and something of a question mark. talk about the american story arc that his life, and your life have both encompass. >> well certainly general paul, his former anima current jamaican work, the parents and education new york city, a city full of minorities struggling to achieve something, is incredible record in the armed enforcement. normally, there's a couple of hundred in the year group after 20 years. we are all sort of equally good. somebody is going to run the army or the joint staff. paul, is better than anybody in the shared group, plus minus a couple of years. so he was an on usual public figure. very courteous, in public, and private. very demanding. tremendous amount of personal homework. i think that i talk to him periodically, or visit him just in the office over the last several years. he was shocked by what was going on in the u.s. government. we had an extra legal, extra constitutional of the guest environment, not just for president, trump but also in the behavior of the congress, and six january. so i think it did shake his confidence in what we were up to. but he was an enduring optimist. i think he knows, will work our way through this eventually. >> peter baker again, as we switch topics back and forth, to this trump lawsuit, it seems to me that it brings with it the first direct legal confrontation, unless i'm missing something with the biden white house. what does that do to the mathematics here? >> typically when we have an executive privilege claim by exceeding president of course, the purpose of executive privilege is to protect the confidentiality and communication for commander-in-chief, the governing the country, what president trump in his regards to steve bannon, it is a novel claim, the idea that he can speak with somebody who didn't work for the government, who wasn't advising him on governing the country. he was in fact talking to him about his political efforts to overturn the election. that is not what executive privilege has traditionally been used to guard. and it has never, as far as my can tell anyway, has been successfully agreed by somebody outside of government who constituted as covered by exact ability. because basically what you'd be seeing, then if you agree with, that is that any conversation that any president had with any person on the planet with therefore be somehow shielded under executive privilege. because there had been no limits to that. as hard as it is to see. that but it's possible because we never tested how far as we've tested. now steve bannon was not a governor, as you said in the earlier clip he was not advising the president of united states of governing the country. they were talking about politics. they were talking about power, and they were talking about how to keep power, not how to wielded in service to the country. that's an awfully vocal clean. >> jacqui, sadly it falls on you to give the democrats who are watching the answer they may not want to hear. to the question, how long could the ban in matter conceivably dry out? >> well, it's contempt, in a post to civil contempt. which is what we saw under trump -- was that if you helped people in criminal contempt it was just going to get referred to, bill barr's justice department. which inevitably would, most likely, take no action to actually hold these people accountable and complying with any sort of subpoena. that being said, the timeline here is really unclear, the justice department has not indicated one way or the other wet this process is going to look like. steve bannon could face potentially a year in prison, or 100,000 dollar fine if they do decide to hold him in criminal contempt. but democrats, i have to remind you and are under some time constraints. we've heard from legal experts, time and time again, throughout our reporting over these past few months saying that, if they want to be successful in trying. so again, the timeline unclear, but in democrat's minds, and why they're willing to take such aggressive action here is. cause they want to get this done as quickly as possible, the criminal content is a way to do that. >> on this unusual night, during this unusual times, we are so thankful for three friends of this broad chris. peter baker, jack lee alam a, and general -- appreciate you starting us off. coming up for us, president biden's running up against the clock and members of his own party who must know if his agenda fails, his presidency could be doomed to failure as well. we'll talk live with former senator al franken. and later, as one writer puts it, the gop is being asked to accept a permanent state of obedience to the leaser of the last presidential election. why some republicans may be starting to sweat 2022 a little, will explain all of it as the 11th hour is just getting underway on this monday night. as our nation honors statesman. n honors statesman n honors statesman ehicle noises, horns beeping,) (engines revving, cars hi (sfx: continued vehicle calamity.) just think, he'll be driving for real soon. every new chevy equinox comes standard with chevy safety assist, including automatic emergency braking. find new peace of mind. find new roads. chevrolet.