chinese leadership worried that in this kind of chaotic environment they saw, they might be subject to a wag-the-dog-style attack. esper and milley both concluded absolutely correctly that if the chinese leadership is in that kind of mood, they could make a miscalculation. they could also believe that we were in disarray, and they might seek to take advantage of it. so the notion that through a number of different levels that the you asked government would communicate to china don t misread the situation, take it easy, it would have been a dereliction of duty not to have made those calls. two more points. i don t know how meadows and pompeo knew what milley was doing and guys like cruz and rubio didn t know that. you know how close all these players are. you were there. and for them to sit quiet, especially secretary of state pompeo when he was told directly, according to general milley, and say this looks bad, this looks bad, don t you see
there are political ambitions at stake. pompeo is running for president. i think that s pretty clear what about the senators, rubio, hawley. how can have questions for milley and not have them for the people you told that didn t let you know that they knew? yeah. may i just say, i m not sure pompeo would have communicated to those people or mark meadows that milley was calling the chinese because it was so standard operating procedure, so regular order, so by the book, it wasn t a big deal. yet pompeo pretends it could have been wrong and it s got to be investigated. i mean, look, it s really obvious this was a hit on milley. you got to call it straight and those guys have to answer questions now that they want to see milley answer. yeah. look, in politics in washington, we know there s ample ambition.
the organization that has given him an a-plus top rating and some members of his own party. rubio now says he supports raising the minimum age for raising a rifle from 18 to 21. i absolutely believe that in this country, if you are 18 years of age, you should not be able to buy a rifle and i will support a law that takes that right away. reporter: a dramatic change from his initial reaction in the aftermath of the parkland shooting. on the senate floor last week, one day after the shooting, rubio didn t have any specific answers if if we do something, it should be something that works. and the struggle up to this point has been that most of the proposals that have been offered would not have prevented, not just yesterday s tragedy, but any of those in recent history. reporter: and another shift last night at cnn s town hall, rubio now says he is open to limiting large-capacity magazines. i traditionally have not supported looking at magazine
going to tell you what we re going to do. reporter: under pressure from an emotional and grieving audience, florida senator marco rubio showed new openness to a number of more restrictive gun measures. breaking with the nra. the organization that has given him an a-plus top rating and some members of his own party. rubio now says he supports raising the minimum age for raising a rifle from 18 to 21. i absolutely believe that in this country, if you are 18 years of age, you should not be able to buy a rifle and i will support a law that takes that right away. reporter: a dramatic change from his initial reaction in the aftermath of the parkland shooting. on the senate floor last week, one day after the shooting, rubio didn t have any specific answers. if we do something, it should be something that works. and the struggle up to this point has been that most of the proposals that have been offered would not have prevented, not just yesterday s tragedy, but
all right, welcome back. senator marco rubio taking quick action to fire his chief of staff over what he called improper conduct with a subordinate. the employee wasn t mentioned by name, but rubio s chief of staff has been identified as clint reed. in a statement rubio said he became aware of the allegations for the first time on friday. by saturday afternoon, rubio had fired the chief of staff, saying he had sufficient evidence that the staffer violated office policies regarding proper relations between a supervisor and their subordinates. joining me right now to discuss this, alice stewart is back, cnn political commentator and former communications director for senator ted cruz, and jim kessler also back, a former legislative policy director for senator chuck schumer. alice, you first. rubio didn t waste any time dealing with this after being told about it on friday and then