the ideal contender from the president's viewpoint is john brennan that has followed lockstep with the deceit that mr. obama has hoisted about the american people from the threat of islamic militants have spectacularly misled americans early in the first administration when he said the word jihad to do with military affairs, which is a blatant lie. i think he would be the perfect person for obama, but he was disliked at the agency as an individual. >> how important is the man at the top? >> he is very important if he is serious about the business we do. the agency, increasingly, has bet the forefront of american activity overseas. we are doing things that really belong to the military. we make mistakes, all agencies make mistakes. but under the general, javier own doctor problems that we had and they were also very clear that they were going to stand by the work force. and certainly if he happened to be the nominee, it would be difficult for the agency. >> a concern of yours, i can see. before the newsbreak today, the biggest talk in town was about the economy. president obama and the

brennan, who was the top advisor for the president with regard to in the issue and john brennan was at the c.i.a. for many, many years. so there is no information that you can really gather. and i think the congress has a right to know, but more importantly, i think the american people have to know. if you don't have a select committee that has broad-based bipartisan, they'll never find out. had you not had a watergate committee, the nixon administration was lying to the american people. they were lying to the american people and if you go back and look at it and had there not been a broad based committee of bipartisan people, fred thompson was the staff director, the american people would have never known. iran-contra had you not done that. and if you recall the valerie plain issue? they had a special prosecutor they did. >> we're not looking to put people in jail. but i think the american people need to know. and not just ice -- this committee, that committee. you need people from the judiciary, foreign relations committee, from the armed services committee and from the government

the "washington post" cites sources that said it could go to john brennan if he wants. it the post also reports that the president is considering john kerry to serve as the next defense secretary. kerry is said to covet the position of secretary of state but many insiders believe that post will go to current u.s. ambassador to the united nations susan rice. >>> new satellite images show north korea could be testing rocket engines and may be a sign that the communist regime continues developing long-range ballistic missiles. the analysis is from the u.s. korean institute at johns hopkins school of advance the international studies. attempts to have a freeze of the program collapsed when north korea launched a missile in april. >>> what about bomb-sniffing mice? one security company says the mice are great at fining the explosives because they have a heightened sense of smell and can easily fit into small places. they believe they could one day be used in airports an other places with high security. >>> heavy rains and strong winds are still wreaking havoc in italy. boats

and also, john brennan, homeland security advisor to president obama. talk to us about who may be stepping in to fill the shoes of general petraeus. guest: well, you know, morell is considered sorted of the most likely candidate because, you know, having been the deputy director, he could relatively easily just step in to the directorship, very, very intimately familiar with the agency. the other people are all possibilities, but you need to remember that intelligence jobs have been a little bit hard for the obama white house to fill recently. you had director of national intelligence, jim clapper, nominated some time ago to run the overall intelligence operation and it was reportedly very difficult for the white house to find somebody to take that job. it was reportedly offered to several other people before clapper finally took it. so it would be interesting to see who would be on the list to do this. whitelso a job where the house, you know, has not given the c.i.a. director a huge amount of latitude. controlpretty strong from the white house of what

some of you were in this room in april when john brennan gave us that kind of description of our drone program, key piece of our counter-terrorism and strategy. as he knows, john brennan knows, and many of you, i'm sure, agree, just playing whack-a-mole alone won't keep us safe. president obama understood that when, as a senator, he delivered a major speech here at the wilson center during the last campaign said, quote, "too often since 9/11, the extremist have defined us. not the only way around." so my view, we can only win the argument by, as president obama said, authoring our own story. this afternoon's panel will explore this vital question. and the vital question of our role in the world. and we have a terrific lineup. they're all dear friends and they're sitting right in the front row. i recall traumatizing phil mudd when he was a witness before my sub-committee held -- we don't have time to go into that today, but just assume i'm right. jim zogby is a singular voice in helping understand the arab perspective and was on our enormously interesting panel just a year ago entitled

and john brennan, the president's top counterterrorism advisor, has emerged as a leading candidate to fill the role unexpectedly vacated by david petraeus as director of the c.i.a. the news about susan rice's standing had all the feel of a trial balloon today, scott, as white house officials try to determine just how entrenched this republican opposition is and how difficult the confirmation process would be. >> pelley: nancy, thank you. an army prosecutor says that staff sergeant robert pwaels should be tried and executed for the massacre of 16 civilians in afghanistan. a preliminary hearing wrapped up today at joint base lewis-mcchord in washington state and john blackstone is there. >> reporter: sergeant bales, the prosecutor said, committed crimes that were heinous, brutal and methodical, murders in two afghan villages, including nine children. over three days, survivors testified on a video link from afghanistan. bales' civilian defense attorney, emma scanlon, said the army missed opportunities to examine bales for signs of traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorde

. >> john brennan is the president's top counterterrorism advisor and he's said to be a new leading candidate for c.i.a. director. >>> general william kipp ward is being demoted from a four- star general to a three-star general and will retire. he's accused of spending tens of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money on lavish travel and unauthorized expenses. defense secretary leon panetta said ward will have to repay the government $2,000 -- $82,000. >>> president obama is scheduled to hold a press conference today to discuss the fiscal cliff. he's been meeting with business and labor leaders ahead of fiscal cliff negotiations with congress, but the president is sure to be questioned about the scandal surrounding general petraeus and allen. he's also likely to be questioned about his plans to replace general petraeus. secretary of state hillary clinton and treasury secretary timothy geithner. >>> today democrat national pelosi will announce whether she'll continue in her role as house minority leader or step down. she's asked female democrats in the house including incoming freshmen to join h

and john brennan, the president's top counterterrorism advisor, has emerged as a leading candidate to fill the role unexpectedly vacated by david petraeus as director of the c.i.a. the news about susan rice's standing had all the feel of a trial balloon today, scott, as white house officials try to determine just how entrenched this republican opposition is and how difficult the confirmation process would be. >> pelley: nancy, thank you. an army prosecutor says that staff sergeant robert bales should be tried and executed for the massacre of 16 civilians in afghanistan. a preliminary hearing wrapped up today at joint base lewis- mcchord in washington state and john blackstone is there. >> reporter: sergeant bales, the prosecutor said, committed crimes that were heinous, brutal and methodical, murders in two afghan villages, including nine children. over three days, survivors testified on a video link from afghanistan. bales' civilian defense attorney, emma scanlon, said the army missed opportunities to examine bales for signs of traumatic brain injury and post- traumatic stress disord

. >>> the president's chief counterterroism adviser, john brennan, is seen as a potential top contender to replace general petraeus at the cia. officials said the cabinet talks are already in the early phases and no decisions have been made. >>> congress returns to capitol hill today with seven weeks left to fix a fiscal cliff deal. they remain at odds on how to get to the deal. on friday president obama will sit down with congressional leaders to work on a compromise plan. but before official negotiations get underway, the president will meet with influential labor and business leaders and also going to try to discuss how they think we should control the deficit. labor leaders help president obama win re-election and they are expected to make a hard push that any deals keep entitlement programs intact. >>> there is a major shakeup at a tech giant this morning. the head of microsoft is leaving the company. let's take an early look at the markets with geoff cutmore in london. >>> good morning to you. well, yes, 23-year veteran of microsoft, steven sinofsky is gone. and there are question

brennan's name has been thrown around and he was the c.e.o. of a company called analysis back in two thousand and eight when one of the contractors one of the people working for analysis inc was a contractor for the state department who accessed president obama's passport records illegally and then one of the key witnesses in that case ended up being murdered in cold blood in that case you got covered up entirely so so there are some interesting connections around some of the people who may be slotted to replace betrayal well of course up a trance has made his name for the counter insurgency strategy in both iraq and afghanistan and i really want to focus on afghanistan here because of course the the war even though it's supposed to be ramping up is really not we're seeing casualties all the time there the situation on the ground is not getting better at all and in fact flying there this evening myself what do you think that this scandal will this scandal in any way affect the situation there and are there any implications for afghanistan. i d

brennan the counter insurgency counterterrorism czar after what i was used. for the moment of course we don't know about or two point zero do you always wanted to for this to regain a little bit of credibility not only outside of the west but internally as well would be to appoint somebody fresh face which is not going to happen there are many very good candidates out there so they could corner wilkerson's kollywood paul was the chief of staff for instance but he's outside of depth in washington that sort of brought in i've said it before i'll say it again i know you're a times correspondent but you'd make a great radio show host except you talk a lot maybe one at a time asia times correspondent love to talk to small catch up with you again thank you. thank you. for asking. that britain's brain drain could soon leave the country desperately short of skilled workers according to a recent report suggests a number of professionals chasing work abroad sought in the past two decades out is probably looks of why for some you can citizens home is no longer with a wo

brennan arguing for more restraint i guess colonel davis i mean to what extent do you think a drone strikes. you know the impact of drone strikes is discussed and that impact is that it has replaced guantanamo bay and torture at guantanamo bay as being the number one recruitment tool for militants for terrorists well i guess the one good thing i took away from the article that said there is that internal debate because i think a lot of folks including myself are of the impression that the administration that kind of. solve this issue and they were all on one page in support of the program so i guess there is a little comfort in knowing that there is still some dissent and some debate. is also scary as well that you know we don't have just a drone program we have drone programs and we have a military program is governed by the law of war in international law and then we have this other program governed run by the cia which is a civilian agency that i'm not aware of what any internationally recognized legal authority for a civilian agency to go overseas and kill so it is you know ther

brennan arguing for more restraint i guess colonel davis i mean to what extent do you think a drone strikes. you know the impact of drone strikes is discuss and that impact is that it has replaced guantanamo bay and torture at guantanamo bay as being the number one recruitment tool for militants for terrorists well i guess the one good thing i took away from the article that said there is that internal debate because i think a lot of folks including myself are of the impression that you'd ministration that kind of. solve this issue when they were all on one page in support of the program so i guess there is a little comfort in knowing that there is still some dissent and some debate. it's also scary as well that you know we don't have just a drone program we have drone programs and we have a military program is governed by the law of war and international law and then we have this other program governed run by the cia which is a civilian agency that i'm not aware of what any internationally recognized legal authority for a civilian agency to go overseas and kill so it is a you know

john brennan went overboard to talk about it that was engaged in over 15 years so you can understand the visceral excitement and accomplishment and there was a tremendous amount of excitement so as often happens or as always happens individuals on the white house ba'ath, a pentagon staff talk more than they should about what happens. i don't think anyone gave away national secrets but they did deliver misinformation credit characterize the seal rate as the intense firefight. it wasn't. the seals were fired upon one's. they returned fire, the guy who shot at them died. after that there was no more shooting. going to the house room by room in the adult male were sealed once they were fired upon. they cannot wait so they went through the house shot to every adult male in-house accidentally shot the wife of of one of the men. to characterize that to wac people the firefight is a stretch. reflecting animus toward bin laden he had been the big life of luxury, i don't know about you but as somebody locked me in a house with 12 children and the three wives, five years, i would not call that

i'm as troubleed by john brennan's apparent unease as anyone might be. here is a case where the democrats who is far more hawkish than nancy. nancy is expressing concern. i'm not. i want to take out terrorists. i'm glad we got al-awlaki and i respect pakistan's sovereignty but when people are trying to destroy our nation and kill our people i am for using every resource. >>gregg: the editor of "new york times" for a decade, he penned a book called "the amateur," and describes the president as inept ideologue with inflated opinion of his own talents. is president obama's handling of national security matters evidence of that? >>guest: well, it is a mixed, kind of a mixed bag. i take issue with my friend doug, rarely am i accused of being soft on terrorists but i raise questions about the role of government. it is interesting to me that obama was so interested in coming up with rules and procedures for the next president in case he wasn't in charge on how the killings should be authorized and it will be interesting to see how quickly that happens moving fo

but you know, john brennan is somebody considered for this by the president from the very beginning. however, there were concerns over whether or not because of his sort of hard line on intelligence issues in the past that he would be able to pass congressional confirmation for this job which is something you need to do. you don't need to do that however in the job that he holds now and advising the president on counterterrorism issues. it's a possibility the president would try to push that through again. jane harman is another name we've heard. she is now of course head of the wilson center. she's been very close to the intelligence community for a number of years. she's also very passionate about what they do over there. and she hasn't tried very hard to hide that passion over the years. so she's another name we're hearing. but of course as the days go on and people sort of come back from the reeling shock of this announcement today, i think that will flush out a little bit better. >> jane harman was a member of the house intelligence committee for a long time. a long-time member

but you know, john brennan is somebody considered for this by the president from the very beginning. however, there were concerns over whether or not because of his sort of hard line on intelligence issues in the past that he would be able to pass congressional confirmation for this job which is something you need to do. you don't need to do that however in the job that he holds now and advising the president on counterterrorism issues. it's a possibility the president would try to push that through again. jane harman is another name we've heard. she is now of course head of the wilson center. she's been very close to th intelligence community for a numb of years. she's also very passionate about what they do over there and she hasn't tried very hard to hide that passion over the years. so she's another name we're hearing. but of course as the d and people sort of come back from the reeling shock of this announcement today, i think that will flush out a little bit better. >> jane harman was a member of the house intelligence committee for a long time. a long-time member of the house

but three well-placed intelligence sources say john brennan, the president's chief counterterrorism advisor was aware of the affair as early as summer of 2011. something his spokesman denies. now petraeus was scheduled to testify this week at a hearing on the september 11 terror attack that left the u.s. ambassador to libya dead, along with three other americans. of now, he will not participate. but many on capita capitol hilly they will need to hear from him and that may change. we are following this as it develops. >> dana: thank you so much. he'll have much more on this on "special report." as soon as we're done with "the five" i have to run upstairs. i have to find out more. there are more layers than any story we dealt with in a long time. are you surprised it was a criminal investigation that they were looking into? >> kimberly: no. it's cyber harassment. that is also why the f.b.i. was involved. when you receive threatening e-mails, that she perceived her life was in danger or she was in danger of a risk or threat by this, serious enough she contacted a friend in the f.b.i. that is h

obama's bungling chief terrorism advisor john brennan is going to replace general petraeus. samantha power is considering as ambassador. but susan rice could be the next secretary of state. yes the same susan rice who made the rounds on the sunday shows just days after the benghazi terrorist attack and said this. >> this was not a preplanned attack. what happened initially it was a spontaneous reaction to what had just transpired in cairo as a consequence of the video. our current assessment what happened in benghazi was in fact initially a spontaneous reaction to what had transpired hours before in cairo, almost a copycat of the demonstrations against our facility in cairo which were prompted, of course, by the video. >> sean: good luck explaining that at confirmation hearing. white house was asked about it. >> does the president have confidence that susan rice could get confirmation for any post in the future? >> i will not engage in speculation. the president believes ambassador rice has done an excellent job is grateful for her service. >> sean: joining me for reaction a

three separate intelligence sources say the president's top counter-terrorism adviser, john brennan, was told about the affair in the summer of 2011. the white house denies this. lou: thank you. jennifer griffin, fox is national security correspondent. david patraeus will not a fear of for congress to answer congressional cuts -- questions aut bnghazi. lawmakers still want to hear from him at some point. they also want to know why they were not bried by the fbi before news of the affair broke friday. fox news chief inteigence correspondent atharine heritage has the latest on that ankle. >> although the investigation began as early as june, the chair and ranking members of the house and senate intelligce committees were not notified that the cia director and is alleged lover have fallen within thscope of an fbi investigation. >> received no advance notice. it was like a lightning bot. >> with a half-dozen hearings scheduled this week on benghazi, acting ciadirectorike morale is expected to take general patraeus is placed. lawmakers say their options are open and ty intend to ask patra

separate sources say the top counterterrorism advisor john brennan was told about the affair in the summer of 2011. white house denies this. >> bret: they strongly deny it. jennifer, i understand we received reaction from the secretary of defense leon panetta about general petraeus resignation. what can you tell us about that? >> he was en route to reporters and said it was a sad situation to have a established career end in this manner. my heart obviously goes out to hip and his family. but i think he took the right step and i think it's important when you are director of the c.i.a. with all the channels that face you in that position. >> he was then asked as a former member of congress how he felt about congress not being informed about the f.b.i. investigation. to which he said, "that is another issue i think we ought to look at, because as a former director of the c.i.a., working closely with the intelligence committees you know i believe there is a responsibility to make sure that the intelligence committee are informed of issues that could effect the security of those intelligence op

three separate intelligence sources say the president's top counter-terrorism adviser, john brennan, was told about the affair in the summer of 2011. the white house denies this. lou: thank you. jennifer griffin, fox is national security correspondent. david patraeus will not a fear of for congress to answer congressional cuts -- questions about benghazi. lawmakers still want to hear from him at some point. they also want to know why they were not briefed by the fbi before news of the affair broke friday. fox news chief intelligence correspondent katharine heritage has the latest on that ankle. >> although the investigation began as early as june, the chair and ranking members of the house and senate intelligence committees were not notified that the cia director and is alleged lover have fallen within the scope of an fbi investigation. >> received no advance notice. it was like a lightning bolt. >> with a half-dozen hearings scheduled this week on benghazi, acting cia director mike morale is expected to take general patraeus is placed. lawmakers say their options are open and they i

we're seeing john brennan estimating the group is now a thousand fighters. there's individuals in yemen who put it as high as 6,000. i think the 6,000 is probably quite a bit inflated, but nevertheless, that's a significant increase in the number of al-qaeda operative, and i think one of the key questions that we have to ask is why. why has al-qaeda grown so stroná so fast? in other parts of the world, al-qaeda's suffering, but in yemen, they seem toño' be growi, and so why is that? this has been -- this has been something that a lot of people who went to yemen looked at and they have debated it. i think, you know, there's not just one driver of radicalization or one cause for why al-qaeda has more than tripled in size in just three years. some people point to economics. i think that certainly has a role, but i think it's -- it's a bit misleading to claim as john brennan did this year that the u.s. sees no evidence that u.s. air strikes, u.s. drone strikes have led to an increase in the number of operatives within al-qaeda. i think that's either incredibly

he is a strong favorite to remain there although the president's counterterrorism adviser john brennan a big candidate. >> just a slightly less serious note, apparently there's going to be some head shaving on the broadcast this week. >> a first on "this week." this is right. a great story, the top spokesman who had a bet, shawn spicer and brad woodhouse. whoever lost the election would shave their head. so this was shawn spicer was supposed to shave his head. he is the rnc spokesman and when brad found out about this, we're showing it, jon karl is doing the honors. he said he would join in and shave his head. >> he has no credentials for this. >> let's see how he does. the thing is it's for a good cause, st. baldrick's center. >> anyway, you'll be joining that helps kids with cancer so end up both shaving their heads on the show today to help kids with cancer. >> anyway, you'll be joining them? >> i'll help out the cause. >> all right, great to see you. george has a big show. actor/director ben affleck will be here and senator s dick durbin and lindsey graham with george stephanopoulo

so in that sense john brennan i think is correct. but it's the civilian casualties. it's the individuals who are being killed along with the al qaeda targets. when i was in yemen i was talking to someone whose very, very close to al qaeda and he said look you know, there's a difference between yemen and afghanistan. and afghanistan al qaeda are arabs in a nonarab country. in yemen, they're yemenees in yemen. so they move around much easier in yemen than they did in afghanistan and also they have many more identities so in yemen they can be a member of al qaeda and the tribesmen and they can be known lowell loy. maybe some know thezz am as tribesmen and others the u.s. would see them as an al qaeda member. so when u.s. targets al qaeda member the u.s. thinks they're killing an al qaeda member -- and maybe he is but who is being killed on the ground and who the yes, ma'am knees are seeing killed is a tribedsman and i think this is a challenge that the u.s. and obama administration have not really solved. and i would argue that the drones and air strikes have not actual

. >> in defense of the administration, john brennan has said that drones give us a precise ability to target our real enemies. but don't they also prevent us from having to expose american forces to hostile circumstances? >> well, they do. and there are arguments on both sides. there will be some who say that the way to reduce the violence is to ensure that americans will be killed or wounded in the process and there are others who say, no, no, no, we're not going to do that. we know who the enemies are. we're pretty good at pinpointing them. we can kill them without necessarily having too much, not zero, but too much collateral damage, and we've all read our augustine and st. thomas aquinas and realize this is a just war so we can approve the use of these weapons. but it's very, very dangerous to say that the choice is between doing something efficiently on the one hand and exposing americans to violence on the other. the president of the united states -- politicians for sure are always going to choose the path where americans do not get killed. >> michael, to colonel jack's point, w

you have right new at the white house john brennan served at highest level at c.i.a. and he is the chief counterterrorism advisor to the president. i would not be surprised to see his name put forward. and acting director is very capable. while this is shocking because we have known general petraeus and david petraeus as a man of great leadership ability and moral fiber, that is the shock, but dealing with the world issues the c.i.a. will go on and i don't think it will necessarily disrupt the way the administration deals with the other issues. >>trace: i was struck by something jennifer said, bret, because it was in secret that general petraeus and the white house had disagreements before he went to the c.i.a. and when he went to the c.i.a. this was a feeling the white house was happy he was at the c.i.a. talk about that relationship and further news you could have of the resignation. >>bret: jennifer was eloquent about the thought that general petraeus has a respect not only in the military but throughout washington as someone who is honest. someone whose word is so

john brennan, the chief counterterrorism adviser, is the leading contender to fill the spot left open by the resignation of cia director david petraeus. >>> space enthusiasts looking to the sky this morning or maybe their computer screens to catch a glimpse of a total solar eclipse. it starts later on this morning but will only be visible for a few minutes from australia. most of the path stretches over an empty span of that pacific ocean. you can still watch it via the internet, which is always cool. the camera, a robotic telescope, will stream the eclipse live starting at 11:30 this morning. that's a look at the website right there on your screen so check it out. >>> a different kind of eclipse happening in los angeles as "twilight" fans crowded the walkways outside the nokia theater hoping to get a glimpse of the stars. last night was the world premiere of "breaking dawn part 2." the final film in the "twilight" series. some 2,000 twihards walked and cheered as their favorite stars walked the red carpet. it opens nationwide on friday. some of those fans were camped out for days ove

people were involved like john brennan whoing, i -- who, i think, went overboard in talking about, engaged in hunting bin laden for more than 15 years. you can understand the visceral sense of excitement and accomplishment that folks felt, and that was also a tremendous amount of excitement in the country, and a clammor for information, and so as often happens in these cases, and, in fact, going as far to say, always happens in these circumstances, individuals on the white house staff, pentagon staff, talked more than they should have about what happened. in that sense, i don't mean they gave away -- i don't think they gave away important national secrets, but they did deliver misinformation. they characterized the seal raid as an intense fire fight, and it was not. when they hit the house, they were fired upon once. a burst of inaccurate fire. they returned fire. they don't do inaccurate fire so the guy who shot at them died. after that, there was no more shooting except the seals. methodically going through the house, room by room, and i think the fate of any adult male in that house was

john brennan was the initial pick in the winter of '08-09 to lead the cia and there were questions about whether he was implicated in the bush era interrogation detention policies in a way unacceptable for the liberal base. obama decided not to have a confirmation fight on those issue and made brennan his guy in the basement almost directly below the oval office as his counterterror adviser. they say he's more policy as the counterterrorism adviser in the west wing than at the cia, but also may have been disappointed he didn't get that john. he works extremely long, hard hours when we're relaxing on holidays. he's monitoring threat assessments. he made need a break and may want to go to the private sector. if you're asking me who would be a natural candidate, that name comes right too mind. he was a potential candidate several years ago. in the next commercial break i would recommend viewers look up a "wall street journal" story that ran a week ago about blame directed at the cia sdpai i ia petraeus. i have no idea if there's a connection to the revolution today. it was a striking story.

let's play what john brennan says about how this program works and why it's good. >> with the unprecedented ability of remotely piloted aircraft to precisely target a military objective while minimizing collateral damage, one could argue that never before has there been a weapon that allows us to distinguish more effectively between an al qaeda terrorist and innocent civilians. >> that is the defense of the obama administration today. in essence that this program is so targeted it saves civilian lives. what do you say to that in your case? >> well, i think it's very hard to assess that kind of claim without more information. information that the administration refuses to release. it's very easy for administration officials to make claims like this when there's no possibility that they're going to be held to account for the claims, no possibility that some court is going to order them to disclose information, no possibility that they'll be sksd foll -- asked follow-up questions. part of the reason we are in court asking judges to enforce the freedom of information act, asking judges to discl

brennan. there's going to be ripple effects through that security team, and it's also, as you pointed out, coming just a few days before key testimony before the senate and the house on benghazi. so there are always things in play that petraeus was central to, and now you have to -- you have to go to the bench to take care of this stuff. >> all right. greg miller, glad to have you right off the top of the show. thanks so much. >> thank you. >>> we are going to be talking with msnbc military analyst colonel jack jacobs, who personally knows general petraeus and his family. we're going to get his take on the general's resignation a bit later on this hour. here's the question for all of you, cia director petraeus, should he have resigned for having an affair? talk to me on twitter, my handle is @alexwitt. i will read some of your tweets throughout the day. >>> the other big story out of washington this morning, president obama says he's committed to working with congress to avoid the so-called fi

although the talk is that john brennan, the current homeland security adviser, is the man who could get cia if he wants it. but there's no knowledge about whether or not he wants it. and if he doesn't take it, mike morrell, the current acting director is considered the shoo-in for that job, wolf. >> he's got a full treasury secretary as well. there's speculation that jack lew could get that position. jessica, there'll be a lot of shuffling going on over at the white house. thanks very much. >> thanks, wolf. >>> the david petraeus scandal is complicating attempts by congress to investigate the attack on the u.s. consulate in bengha benghazi, libya. we'll tell you what's going on in a closed-door meeting on capitol hill, next. come on frank how long have we known each other? go to e-trade. they got killer tools man. they'll help you nail a retirement plan that's fierce. two golden crowns. you realize the odds of winning are the same as being mauled by a polar bear and a regular bear in the same day? frank! oh wow, you didn't win? i wanna show you something... it's my shocked face. [ gasps

>> brian: was john brennan's phone off the hook? were are all the people who took bows for the bin laden raid? >> steve: what he revealed during his presentation yesterday, that she was asked by the white house to make a presentation. so she did. meanwhile, while the president calls out those senators, those two male senators, there was actually a third, female, kelly ayotte -- the senator, john mccain, who was on the program yesterday, he responded to the president's challenge with this. >> i'm going to hold her accountable. she volunteered for this assignment. she's either very incompetent, when she came to explaining benghazi or misleading. but the person i blame the most is the president. >> my response to the president of the united states is we're not picking on anybody. and the buck does stop at your desk, mr. president. >> gretchen: we're kind of missing the point of why susan rice was the one who went out on the sunday talk shows. it wasn't -- if she had nothing to do with benghazi, then the next question would be, okay. so