Filing past mandela. we have seen tears, john, outward signs of the grief that people feel. i think it was a sign that this was a man loved byall. all walks of life. heads of government, heads of state. leaders of pop culture and snow biz all here to pay their respects. john, i really wanto mark one moment that really stood out to me. and that was seeing nelson mandela s widow grash sha mi michelle. and she was just sobbing. you could see she lost her partner. he was ill. he was old. people had been preparing themselves for this. but the reality of seeing his remains really brings it home to them. they re the father of this democracy and the pillar of the mandela family has gone.
Have earned and that you need when you need them. [ applause ] we re going to keep helping our newest veterans and their families pursue their education under the post 9/11 gi bill. we are going to keep demanding that the rights and dignity of every veteran are upheld including for push are for the disabilities treaties so our disabled veterans have the same opportunity to travel and study around the world has r as everybody else. and with the help of michelle and dr. jill biden and joining forces, we re going to keep fighting to give every veteran who has fought for america to pursue the american dream. a fair shot at the jobs and opportunity you need to help us rebuild and grow here at home.
Applause. good morning, everyone. thank you. thank you secretary for your lifetime of service to our nation and for being a tireless advocate on behalf of america s veterans. to vice president biden and dr. jill biden, secretary hagel and perez, admiral, major buchanan, most of all to our outstanding veterans service organizations, men and women in uniform, and to the proud veterans and family members joining us in this sacred place. mi michelle and i are honored to be with you today again. to the gold star families and brothers and sisters in arms who have walked the paths of these
tamron hall. tamron filling in while ann is away a little bit today. and mr. roker not here on the plaza because he is out in des moines, iowa, helping out some really wonderful people. just opened up the doors of those penske trucks a couple minutes ago, unloaded the loot and, al, first of all, congratulations on clearing it out because you had monsoonal rains this morning and i know you made an awful lot of people happy. yeah, we really were very lucky. mother nature took care of us. the heaviest storms moved to the north and the south and we ve gotten a pretty clear break. we are thrilled to help the iowa homeless youth centers and we have more for them coming up. all right, al. what do you have coming up. today s money 911 emergencies, how to avoid hundreds of dollars in overdraft fees. people are complaining about that certainly, to getting yourself out of financial entanglements with your ex. we re going to tackle those money emergencies and also it s a quintess
captions paid for by nbc-universal television and good morning. welcome to today on a wednesday morning. i m matt lauer. and i m meredith vieira. all eyes are on the white house this morning and that face-to-face meeting between president obama and general stanley mcchrystal. what seems to be ironic, general mcchrystal was put in charge in afghanistan in part because he wasn t afraid to speak his mind. but now it s his words that could come back to haunt him. the controversy is over disparaging remarks about president obama and top administration officials made by general mcchrystal and his staff in a rolling stone article. this is all playing out at a very critical time, just a year before the president wants to start pulling troops out of afghanistan. so how big of a disruption would it be to fire the general right now? just ahead, we ll talk about that with retired general barry mccaffrey who is now an nbc news military analyst. also ahead, a new jailhouse inte