Speaker Nancy Pelosi Denied the Use of A Military Plane.
LEMON: President Trump today denying Speaker Nancy Pelosi the use of a military plane for a trip to Afghanistan to visit troops with a congressional delegation. Is this just the latest example of this President politicizing the military? Let's discuss this now. Retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling is here, and Retired Colonel Cedric Leighton. Gentlemen, good evening. You are the perfect folks to have on talk about this, so I appreciate you coming on. Colonel Leighton, let's start with you. You once served as a Congressional Liaison. If the Commander-in-Chief decides to plays politics with the military, they really don't have any choice but to go along with it, do they?</s>COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, that's right, yeah unless you, you know, would resign (ph) on grounds of protests or when you say that, you know, maybe there is a better way to do it and convince your boss and to convince the President that is not the way to go. They generally they have to follow exactly what the President says. And they really do not have a choice in the matter at all.</s>LEMON: General Hertling, Barbara Starr has a new reporting of the mood in Pentagon. Here are some of them. I'm going to read it. It says, some of the highest ranking officers say there is a new atmosphere of unease inside the Pentagon, particularly among some of those senior ranks over the President's inclination to use the military to achieve certain partisan policy objectives. The amount of time we have to spend making sure our statements and what we say is a political as astronomically higher than ever before. One senior military official officer told CNN. What kinds of political pressures does military brass normally operate under?</s>LT. GENERAL MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, you think about it, Don, it's like dealing a tough boss that's trying to always make you laugh or do the things he wants you to do and persuade you (ph), but he takes it a step further. Because in the private sector, you're loyal to your boss, you're loyal to the company. In the military, you are loyal to the Constitution. We take that oath the first day any new military member joins the service. They take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and that's it. And you don't care what political party is in charge. So you have to be very careful about how you relate to politics. And, you know, you know you can cheer for a president. You can certainly applaud a president as part of your chair of command. You would do the same for our commander. What you can't do is go in that fine line of being part of his inner -- his or her inner circle because you defend the nation as a whole, not as a political party, not something that the president is trying to do, and especially in this case.</s>LEMON: Colonel Leighton, in his letter to Speaker Pelosi calling off her trip, the president called it a public relations event and an excursion. The president himself was in Iraq just days after the shutdown started. Does that mean he was on a PR excursion?</s>LEIGHTON: Well, you can certainly make the case that he was. And certainly, with the MAGA showing up and things like that being apart of the press coverage of that event, you can certainly say that. But I think when you look at going into a war zone and you have a congressional delegation that is planning to go into a war zone, that is, you know, definitely not your average excursion out there.</s>LEMON: The president spoke --</s>HERTLING: Don, you know --</s>LEMON: Go on, General Hertling.</s>HERTLING: If I can add to that, too, you know, with the Commander-In- Chief, you are the commander. You have the responsibility to visit your forces. What you are talking about with Pelosi visitor or Speaker of the House visit, you are talking about her responsibility for oversight and appropriations and armed services, and the kinds of things that are relegated to Congress in the constitution. So certainly, as the President has a requirement visit soldiers -- our troops, rather, across the spectrum, the Speaker of the House also has to understand how she's voting for money and how she's voting to support the president in terms of manning and equipping the services.</s>LEMON: General Hertling, the President spoke at the Pentagon earlier today after acknowledging the death of four American servicemen in Syria yesterday. He said this.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: While many Democrats in the House and the Senate would like to make a deal, Speaker Pelosi will not let them negotiate. The party has been hijacked by the open borders fringe within the party. The radical left becoming the radical Democrats.</s>LEMON: General Hertling, according to our team covering it, the room -- this is a quote, "remains silent with no applause." What's your reaction?</s>HERTLING: Yeah. Exactly what they were supposed to do, Don. And that, today, was a perfect example of using the military to politicize an audience. You can't go in front of a group of military personnel that represent the spectrum of society. There are some Democrats in that room, and the president seems to keep forgetting that he now is no longer campaigning. He's representing all Americans. So by dividing the room and saying Democrats are terrible. Pelosi is bad. They got to give me my wall. That is politicization with a military audience and that's what's wrong. And God bless all of them in that room for standing as still as they could. That's what right looks like. That's what they're supposed to do.</s>LEMON: Does anything embarrass this President, Colonel Leighton?</s>LEIGHTON: I am not sure, Don. You know this is something, you know, where General Hertling is spot on in this case because you're looking at the real proper decorum. There are traditions. And I think the real problem that we have is that we are not following certain time- tested traditions, time-tested ways of doing business. And that is a real problem because they are there for a reason. And we have a military that is apolitical for a reason. We want to make sure it defends all of us, not just a certain few of us.</s>LEMON: Thank you, gentlemen for coming on. And more importantly, thank you for your service. I appreciate it.</s>LEIGHTON: Thank you.</s>HERTLING: Pleasure, Don. Thank you.</s>LEMON: Yeah. We got breaking news to tell you about. Stay with us. A new report that says Donald Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress -- lie to Congress about the Trump Tower Moscow, details next.