white house. we have an less from jeremy bash. john feider and charlie sykes are here. chris, let me start with you there at the white house. we heard sean spicer defending the separation. break it down for us if you can. reporter: it s still not clear how this misinformation got out there. it s clear that it was misinformation, although we might not have ever learned it if that picture hadn t come out. let s go pack to the beginning, because sean spicer referred repeatedly to a statement put out by the department of defense, and he kept referring us to the department of defense. and the white house has been in many ways pointing the finger there. the fact is, they never said where it was going. that was in a series of responses by people in this administration. here s a series of statements,
yesterday. i always liked general mcchrystal all the times i met with him. i know he works very hard. my reaction was i was surprised. i couldn t believe general mcchrystal being the good soldier i think he is at least in this article not being a very good soldier. bill: we have been led to believe he s an excellent soldier. the kind of general that people on the ground this is the kind of guy the men and women over there want to fight for. if mcchrystal is removed what happens to the strategy on how to win in afghanistan. i don t think anybody is irreplaceable. in the civilian and military side. to see one person in the position and imagine no one else can do it. there are a lot of able military officers who have been intimately involved in what s going on in afghanistan who
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
could carry forward with the operation. i happen to think general mcchrystal has the most experience, clearly understands the plan the best, and as senator reid has said, someone the troops admire and is a capable soldier who has had a great career. i would hope he and president obama and the civilian folks can work out their differences and he could continue to do his job. but that remains to be seen based on those comments. this is an opportunity for both sides. you want the civilian and military sides of this on the same page. that s clear even if this article hadn t come out, that fact would be there. hopefully this will give them the opportunity to deal with it and move forward. bill: it raises a good points. this extends beyond the commandecommander-in-chief. it s your support staff whether it s in kabul or richard holbrooke. and how these people cooperate
we can t fight the way we want to. there has not been enough face to face meetings between the general and the commander-in-chief. major garrett will tell us how many times they actually have met. and whether niece meetings have been constructive and whether there is any legitimacy in this article we are reading from rolling stone. remember this guy? he had one mission. finding the most wanted terrorist in the world. that was cut short by an arrest in pakistan. now he s headed somewhere else. we ll fill if you on that in moments on america s newsroom. can i eat heart healthy without giving up taste?