Interview With Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker
BALDWIN: You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. CNN is getting more clarity today about what happened in the hours before that ambush attack in Niger that resulted in the death of these four American soldiers. Accompanied by troops from Niger, U.S. military officials tell CNN that these soldiers were gathering intelligence on a terror leader. They came under attack on their way back to the operating base when they stopped in a village to enable Nigerian troops to replenish resupplies. They also met with local leaders as a courtesy. A remotely piloted drone arrived overhead within a couple of minutes of requests for help, but was unable to carry out airstrikes because it wasn't armed. Five Nigerian soldier were also killed. The Senate Armed Services Committee received a classified briefing today from the Pentagon. And my next guest is senior member of that committee. He is Republican Senator Roger Wicker, who is with me now. Senator, thank you so, so much for the time.</s>SEN. ROGER WICKER (R), MISSISSIPPI: Hello, Brooke. Glad to be with you.</s>BALDWIN: All right, so I know there is a lot you can't say, as this was a classified briefing.</s>WICKER: That's right.</s>BALDWIN: But of the information that you can, how can you describe to us what you learned today?</s>WICKER: Well, I think you have given a pretty good gist of what happened. Let me just say, in a general sense, I think we're right to be there. And we have some 800 troops in Niger. About 100 of them are Special Operations. And they are there in the American national interest. They are assisted greatly by our French allies and by British allies. And what we are doing is trying to prevent this area of Africa from becoming another staging ground, another training ground for terrorist groups like Boko Haram and al Qaeda. So, if we want to prevent another 9/11 being staged from a place like Afghanistan, we need to be where we are now in Africa. And so I think it's an important mission. And we got specific details about this tragedy, but also some overall guidance about where we are in the region.</s>BALDWIN: Senator, I just jotted down what you said off the top there. You said we are right to be there.</s>WICKER: Yes, ma'am.</s>BALDWIN: Do you think we should have a greater presence there, based upon what you know?</s>WICKER: Well, we're going to listen to the generals on that. But we are there in a train, assist and advise capacity. We are not there to have combat troops. And, clearly, if we are fired upon, as we were in this situation, we are going to engage and defend ourselves. But we continue to listen to the top experts in the Pentagon. And when they say we need something to get the mission done and prevent terrorism from coming to our shores, we will listen to these generals and give them what they need, give our troops what they need.</s>BALDWIN: Senator Wicker, obviously, there were questions, and I'm sure you all asked, about this 48 hours later, when Sergeant La David Johnson's body was found. He was separated from the team. Found about a mile away. Did you get any clarity into why that was?</s>WICKER: No, we didn't, actually, no.</s>BALDWIN: Were those questions asked?</s>WICKER: And the clarity we got is that the Pentagon acknowledges that they need to drill down more on that particular question and get back to us, get back to the families. The information that we have indicates that he was killed in that exchange. And it wasn't some hours later or some days later. But we don't have that information. And they are not able to tell us. But I know they owe it to the families and to the American people to get better information, and I expect they will. I thought that they were being very forthright with us. They told us what they knew and they told us what we still had questions about. Still need to dig further.</s>BALDWIN: We heard from the president yesterday and he addressed this. And he said he himself did not specifically authorize this particular mission in Niger, but that he had given his generals the authority to make these sorts of calls. Is that at all a concern for you?</s>WICKER: Well, this particular exercise was -- it turned into kinetic activity when they were fired upon. But, certainly, the commander in chief knows that we have troops in the Lake Chad area, and he knows exactly why we are there. And why we are there is to fight international terrorism and to protect Americans here in the homeland. So, that particular event would not have required authorization. Our folks were attacked and they fired back. And tragedy happened. Let me also add, I heard today on one of the news stations that these particular Americans were not highly trained. And I do want to make it clear that that is not accurate. These were Special Operations personnel. They volunteered for the most dangerous type of military action. And they were highly trained. And they are all the more honored because they stepped forward into something very, very dangerous.</s>BALDWIN: Absolutely. And we thank them and their families for their service.</s>WICKER: Absolutely.</s>BALDWIN: I hope we and the families and you get the information that we are all looking for. Senator Wicker, I appreciate you. Thank you.</s>WICKER: They owe us some more information, and I do think we will get it.</s>BALDWIN: They do. Keep asking for it. Thank you, Senator, very much.</s>WICKER: Thank you.</s>BALDWIN: Coming up next here, veteran journalist Mark Halperin of NBC News is out today after five women accused him of sexual harassment. CNN has his response to this. Also, 50 years after his assassination, President Trump is set to allow the release of highly anticipated government files on what happened to JFK -- details on what we are expecting moments from now.