mcchrystal says u.s. ambassador eikenberry covers his flank for the history books and an aide called special envoy richard holbrooke, quote, a wounded animal and general mcchrystal joked, vice president biden, who s that? an aide says, did you say bite me? sources told rolling stone that general mcchrystal looked uncomfortable and intimidated in a meeting with military brass. the only praise for the administration was saved for secretary of statehillhill. aide saying, quote, hillary head stan s back. with me is a journalist that s interviewed mcchrystal at length and doug brinkley. doug, does the president have any choice but to fire general mcchrystal? well, let me start by saying general mcchrystal s been a great american, had an incredible public service. the country owes him a lot and showed a recklessness of
throwaway line there, at the end, i m sure secretary gates agrees, it s not i assure you a throwaway line, president obama and robert gates will make the decision in tandem, and it is worth pointing out through the chain of command, had the president wanted to fire general mcchrystal after having read the rolling stone article and all of the low-level and indirect and direct insults of the other members of his team, he could have ordered secretary gates to have fired him a day-and-a-half ago. it has not happened. that doesn t mean he ll stay but it means he has a chance to save his job or it will be resolved in the face-to-face meeting and it is worth pointing t,nce of t general mcchrystal met face-to-face with secretary gates in the pentagon and currently meets with the president in the oval office and will take part in a strategy meeting in the situation room with all of the members of the president s team. looking at the schedule, it is hard to imagine the president would fire gethe
afghanistan. we are coming to talk to general mccaffrey. general mccaffrey was making a point he was surprised, colonel, by the tone of the comments. that incivility. is that part of what the president is deciding here, is this just something that s at the very least indiscreet? and very unfortunate? or is this insubordination? well, it is i would i would fire general mcchrystal, to be honest with you. it indicates a disdain not necessarily for the president of the united states because that s irrelevant. but important the chain of command. for civilian control. there problems within the administration. you could look at it as as something of the anarchy in many respects. you have the secretary of state pursuing a policy, national security adviser trying to get his toe in the door. military establishment which is the default on the i default
he s the reporter who wrote the article for rolling stone. president obama said this shows a huge failure in judgment by general mcchrystal to have done this article, to have said these things in front of a reporter. do you agree? i think it is part of general mcchrystal s personality which you see in the war over the past year. i guess what i m saying, it is a failure in judgment the fact that mcchrystal is acting as mcchrystal acts. he s a risk taker. he pushes the nfl to get the message across. in about 30 minutes, we ll look at whether president obama can really afford to fire general mcchrystal right now when we talk about michael o hanlon. he s traveled to afghanistan several times and knows mcchrystal well. also new this morning, nikki hay li now the first republican woman to win her party s