i m not at all optimistic that that will sway mubarak. this is an existential issue. they are pulling out all the stops to save the regime. at least going forward for the people in the arab worrell, at least they should hear the president of the united states make a strong denunciation. stephen cooke, we appreciate your time. and the chairman of the joint chiefs can of staff, mike mullen, has made his first public comments today about the situation in egypt. let me take you now to the pentagon. nbc s jim mick lag shev ski is standing by. what did mr. mullen say. admiral mullen, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff did call his counterpart again there in cairo at about 9:00 eastern time this morning. this was about 30 to 45 minutes after the violence was renewed there in the square in cairo. and in their conversation, admiral mullen apparently came away with some assurances that the egyptian military would continue to act in a
but they are not delineating, not specifying as the administration what they want to see happen, whether mubarak can be replaced in the absence of free and fair elections, some sort of transition arrangement. the administration leaving all of that very ambiguous as the situation as gibbs called it very fluid and dynamic in cairo. thank you very much. let s bring in stephen cooke, senior fellow for middle east studies at the council on foreign relations. let me, a, gets your reaction to what we ve seen today, this violence, the supporters of hosni mubarak literally crashing into demonstrators on horse back and camels, whipping these people before our eyes. what is your reaction to what we ve seen? well, obviously, these pictures are horrifyinifhorrify. i spent a lot of time in kay row. this is a second home to me. it is truly horrifying to see these pictures but not entirely unexpected. if you take a close look at what president mubarak said last
taking back of this effort today, not knowing what the individual pieces were as they went by. those horses and camels, the man in the yellow shirt tackled the man who was whipping demonstrators. they drove right past our camera location early this morning. we were on morning joe and the today show talking about how today felt different. we knew they were pro-mubarak supporters. they have, it s apparent, by using street gangs without uniforms or and loosely organized, taken back at least the majority of that the square in an almost mid evil fashion at times, throwing burning molotov cocktails off rooftops. it was an unbelievable scene. we were just down there, and it s hard to describe. and so many people wondered, lester, what would happen after hosni mubarak said that he would not leave immediately. you ve got robert gibbs, the spokesperson for the white house saying a short time ago, if any of this violence is instigated by the government, it should stop immediately.