did not agree with what the admin was doing? i don t think it would have because of his fundamental, gates s fundamental insight. the president didn t think this was his war and wanted to get out. i haven t read the book like everybody else commenting on it today but from the excerpts we ve seen i think the real insights that gates provides is that president obama simply is not concerned with american national security. the notion that politics could trump a national security decision can only occur in the mind of somebody who simply doesn t pay much attention to national security. i think it is a serious charge against the president but not that there was politics involved but that national security rated so low in his mind-set. jenna: if i, and i am a military wife, right? if my husband was deployed to afghanistan right now and i heard these headlines, i would want all of the troops to be brought home. if that is the case, if the president actually does not believe, this is one of
grumbling about the limits he placed on troops. i believe obama was right in each of these decisions. that s from the book. that s secretary gates published opinion on these matters. were these substantial, rich discussions? absolutely. because the policy was so important. and it was much reported on at the time that there were differing views about how we should move forward with our policy toward afghanistan and pakistan so some of the disagreements or differing views reporting here is not different than what we ve seen in the past. jay, these are some explosive statements that he has made about the president. this is not some outside critic. this was one of his most important if not most important national security advisers. the guy he chose to keep on to run the pentagon. he says that there was a suspicion and distrust of senior
ongoing. the state department in keeping with tradition of previous administrations for many years. i don t have an update on that. that s it? that s it. looking at the president s schedule today, i think i counted no fewer than four meetings on the public schedule with vice president biden. anything i should read into that? i trust you, john, and others that covered this white house have look at scheduled before and there you have it. white house press secretary jay carney talking about what some folks in this country are talking about today. we re getting the first on-camera response to that new memoir from former defense secretary robert gates. tough assertions made in that new memoir. the book titled duty is not out until next week but making waves in washington after e excerpts were released. the president grew frustrated about the war in afghanistan.
they fight back in the media, how do they respond? this is a devastating book for precisely the reasons you said. this brings afghanistan back into the news, it raises questions about his commitment to his own war policy and it comes from bob gates has a reputation here inside the beltway as a very classy guy, not one who is self aggrandizing. the administration has to be very careful here because of gates reputation, the president himself gave bob gates a medal of freedom not to try to demonize him or discredit the messenger as it pushes back inevitably against what is in the book. jon: he has commenced pointed out, a reputation as a straight shooter, even kill guy who is above politics. you would maybe expect a book like this from him, it took where he lays out everything. he seems pretty angry.
president that their sacrifice is worth it, that the cause is just. president bush did that with the troops. when i was secretary. i did not see president obama do that. and president obama had a chance to respond to some of the comments in the book. secretary gates did an outstanding job for me as secretary of defense. as he notes, he and i and the rest of my national security team came up with a strategy for afghanistan that was the right strategy, and we are continuing to execute it. and i think that what s important is that we got the policy right. whenever you ve got men and women that you re sending into harm s way, after having already made enormous investments of blood and treasure in another