right after chief of staff john kelly gave emotional remarks at the white house today after he talked about the ways that the presidents talk to grieving military families. john kelly opened it up to questions and this was the first question he got from the briefing room. why were they in niger? we were told they weren t in armored vehicles and there was no air cover. so what are the specifics about this particular incident and why were we there and why are we there? let me start by saying there is an investigation. why were they in niger? before this became a political discussion about fallen military service members, started by this president. what this actually started out
those very emotional remarks about condolences for family members of service members who are killed. but when it came to what happened in niger, he was circumspect and that there s an investigation. general mcmaster, the national security advisor, i asked him about the event in niger, and he also was relatively circumspect. the incident is under investigation, but right now they re really hiding behind the fact that it s under investigation to give us any real specifics. one of the things you talked about in the sbrointro is the confusion, that s one thing that people have been stressing to me in the last two weeks since this happened, this was a patrol they had done 29 times in the past
been the military of chad. and it s interesting, even though the chad military has been leading the fight against these groups, there haven t actually been many attacks by these groups inside chad. and there s not a lot of chadian civilians who have been joining the islamic militant groups. nigeria has a really big problem with them. nigerian troops go and fight these guys and chad does too. troops from niger fight these guys and chad goes too. mali has a big problem with these guys. chad goes too. it s not necessarily their homegrown problem. but chad leads it. this has been much worse of a problem in their neighboring countries, but chad has been the tip of the spear, in nye yeigenn mali, to a lesser extent in niger. but chad leads the fight. and all these international troops, they re all headquartered in chad, including
politico that a statement was prepared for him to give the day after the deaths happened in niger. he hasn t given that statement, he still won t talk about it. after two weeks of ignoring those deaths, the president exerted public pressure on that matter into instead this discussion and attacks about notifications and condolences for the bereft. the only reason that public discussion has happened now for four days, with all the emotional strain it has called to the country is because of the president s diversion away from something that happened in niger. i didn t pay for anything. you never do. send me what i owe. i got it. i mean, you did find money to buy those boots. are you serious? is that why you don t like them? those boots could make a unicorn cry.
1,000 troops in niger, but i think it helpful to see that map there, in part to remember which country borders which country, if you re not that familiar with that part of africa, but also just to remember, these are really large countries we re talking about. niger is a former french colony, but no terms of nigeria, it s twice the size of france, mali is about the same size, these are large, landlocked countries, that have big long international borders with each other, by necessity, they end up very mixed up and very involved in each other s business, both for the worse and for the better. and on that map, the country that s just east of niger, chad, that s the country that caused everybody, the american human rights people, the diplomats, caused their own government to