they called in the assad government to reinforce them, but the assad government is only coming in slowly. the assad government has moved into several locations but not as many as the kurds need right now. as those reenforcements from the assad army are arriving, the kurds are still fighting. they are still trying to push back the militias primarily, because right now it is the militias who are doing the ground fighting and it's the militias, according to numerous witnesses, they say the militias are carrying out atrocities. so this land grab is real. both the turks and their militias want to hold as much territory as possible, perhaps to keep it, perhaps to negotiate it away at a later date. the syrian army and the kurds, who are now joined together are trying to control as much territory as possible to keep the turks from taking a piece of syria. and in the middle of all of this are u.s. troops in this country, around 1,000. they are now in their phase of deliberate withdrawal. they are consolidating to more secure locations so that they can pull out according to the administration's or

called animal assad. putin, who's long wanted his foothole in the middle east. and now, basically we have handed syria to him. and iran. >> so talk about dynamics of that now. now, the major players in syria will be assad, iran, and russia. and now, the kurds making this alliance with bashar al assad because it seems they have no other choice besides being literally wiped out from syria if they don't make that alliance. >> absolutely. it's a deal with the devil but it's the only thing they possibly could have done. the kurds, as we know, and we've heard over and over again, have been betrayed since world war i when they were promised their own land. in 2017, i witnessed the referendum, which was their chance to try to get something of a state that they've yearned for, that they've been promised time and time again. i saw them fighting. they are among the most noble people. they empower women. they believe in freedom of speech. they were our true allies. >> one of their female political leaders killed. >>

>> well a nightmare scenario, assad won. he es mated tdecimated the kurd project and ran back to assad for protection, a man who slaughtered a half million syrian civilians, the guy that used chemical weapons against his own people, it guy that butchered the syrians simply standing for more democracy, social justice and then we see putin that basically is the king maker, the deal maker of the middle east, the rise of isis on the other side, a force that was killed, butchered, decimated basically is revived and then turkey playing another role and dismissing the american -- i mean, american role in the middle east ends now, ends today with shame, betrayal, and genocide. >> michael, russia had its only i think foreign middle eastern base in syria, an assad syria, it was true before the war. it was the reason that putin went all in to defend assad and the reason i think in the balance it mattered to putin more than it mattered to us. quite clearly given that, does this actually mean anything extra, this sort of rapid withdrawal

as the kurds do a deal with president assad in damascus, there are those assad forces coming up through the country that could meet with those turkish-backed militia who have always vowed to fight against damascus. it's a tricky situation. in the background president putin is able to pick up the phone to president assad and erdogan. you asked about the humanitarian situation. we still have the situation of just thousands of civilians who have fled. we've seen some of those civilians celebrating ironically as president i sadassad's force arrived in the kurdish areas, that tells you how desperate they've been faced with the turkish military. the humanitarian situation is not good. there are dozens of casualties. you could say perhaps you might have expected more, but what people really fear is that this all leads to a clash between turkey and the syrian army, and of course the syrians backed by iran and russia and just where all that leads. on the other hand, i mentioned putin, perhaps putin is able to get a deal done that prevents that kind of clash. i don't think we could be confident o

the other half going to bashar al assad. and then who knows how this is going to play out on the ground, as these two sides fight it out and there are militias moving around. and the people who are providing the only kind of security on the ground, who were the kurds, are now the -- the armed kurds, are now being told to leave. >> and as you just mentioned, it seems now they're being slandered as well by the vice president and our secretary of state. allow me just to mention two things before we move on. one, the president yesterday seemed to confirm that we have nuclear warheads in turkey, usually, all the time, u.s. officials do not confirm the location of where we are nuclear warheads. the president seemed to do so yesterday. and now the u.s. is bombing its own military sites, our own military sites in syria in order to reduce their usefulness. richard engel, keir simmons, gentlemen thank you very much. >> let >>. >>> let's turn now to the inquiry. acting chief of staff mick mulvaney just addressed reporters at the white

the assad regime in russia behind it. this thing actually raises a lot more questions than it gives answers. the reason being, the kurds have presented this as their salvation. russia is coming in now to protect us from this turkish onslaught. however, president erdogan of turkey is saying he's continuing to advance southward into syria. he's gunning for minbij, which is an important city. he already controls albab and jerodis. and he's said he coordinated with russia on kobani. it's the first place where the ppk and the militia posed in 2015. if turkey were to take this city as part of some macchavialian deal. i think they've been sold a pup here. they think russia and syria has their back. and another important thing, again, these deals are preliminary and have not been confirmed, but i'm seeing a lot of good reporting on them, the ftf is to be dissolved. this militia, this proxy armory which was largely responsible for defeating isis, is likely to melt into something called the fifth corps, which is a russian-run milit

so now their allies have made the deal with assad. so everyone here is saying president trump started this. the turks moved in with this brutal force that i think really shocked a lot of people, and now there is potentially some effort from the trump administration to fix this. just in the last few hours we hear that vice president pence is going to come here on a diplomatic mission, and he is going to save the day and work out some sort of agreement between now the kurds and the syrian government and turkey. so that's what happened. and that's how it's unfolding, and we are seeing the map that the lines in the sand, the map of the middle east redrawn as we speak. >> and richard, so in terms of those two onmarching forces in which both the kurds and u.s. forces are in trouble, do you anticipate that actually the turkish military and the arab militias that are fighting with them and the syrian army with the russian forces that are backing them up, that they will actually come into military conflict in terms of trying to figure out wher

the assad forces are in kobani. it's done. >> chris, when they asked me about this meeting yesterday, well, it's kind of like the president burned the house down and now he wants to invite us over to talk about remodeling. you're right, it is done but the president's position at this point is number one there was nothing he could have done about it, as i said i think i disagree for a number of reasons and number two, now they're going to sanction turkey to force turkey into a cease-fire. at the same time he spent a lot of time in the meeting talking about how it didn't make sense to punish turkey because it would push turkey away from us. but if you're going to sanction them into oblivion, there's no consistency to the policy. there's no clear plan. there's a bunch of half-baked ideas that contradict themselves, and that is incredibly dangerous for our national security interests not just in syria, by the way. if you're looking at this and thinking of partnering with the u.s., you've got to be deeply concerned about

what is happening with assad, is assad going to allow turkey to just take over this northern border area or are they going to try to recapture it for themselves? >> reporter: okay. so if you look at that statement by president trump, he said the kurds are happy. they are not happy. they think that they will be extinguished. he said that the turks are satisfied. the tucks are a lot more than satisfied, fwhaechb asking for this safe zone for a long time and he said that the u.s. is in a strong position. the u.s. is in a very weak position. the u.s. is pulling out its troops and vladimir putin is in the strongest position. the reason i say that is this ceasefire because supposed to last five days and we're already at the end of day one. at the end of those five days, four days from now, the reason it was supposed to last five days is at the end of it, president erdogan goes to meet with vladimir putin. he is in you the peace broker here. he has relations with turkey, vladimir putin has relations with the assad regime. so the future of this so-called safe zone, the future of where the kurds

why won't she criticize assad? she called hillary more bad names in a tweet yesterday than assad. >> what do you think, is that fair? >> to me, it's just a lot of noise, frankly, that the democrats don't need at this point. i'm not sure it helps anyone on the democratic side when hillary clinton gets involved unless she's raising money for the dnc. that's very helpful and something she does well. but as far as going after congresswoman gabbard, i just don't understand, this is a woman who served our military. yes, there's a lot of issues i would take up with her and i certainly couldn't support someone with her positions. but it's just not worthy of hillary clinton. and she doesn't need to relive 2016. we need to look at 2020. >> abdul, isn't there political impact, these are marks on the race as democrats are trying to decide whether to defend gabbard against that russian asset claim. >> i'll be honest with you. i think this is cynical politics at its worst. i think hillary clinton is trying to stay relevant. she'

have turned to assad. which means after going down to a quarter of syria with russian and iranian intervention, and now this moment, assad has reconstituted. >> right. they were really clear eyed about what civil war means and they were careful not to get involved. they had an agreement with the regime from the beginning. we're going to control our areas but won't rebel against you. because of that, isis attacked them. they control oil fields in the kurdish region. they control oil refineries and lots of valuable real estate. the war kind of came to them. and then partnership with the u.s. began. and now the same soldiers that the u.s. trained, armed, think about it this way from a counterintelligence standpoint. soldiers who worked with the most elite united states military are now going to work with assad and russia and bring you all that knowledge with them and by force, with no other choice saying hey, please protect us. they don't have any leverage and what goes on after that. >> what do you think --

assad and

the kurds turn to assad's army to protect them. what is the president doing? ordering the pentagon to pull out all remaining american troops so they don't get caught in the cross fire. >> it's shocking to me to hear a u.s. secretary of defense say, hey, we're going to pull the troops back because they're at risk. our troops are always at risk. they're prepared to be at risk. >>> the insider. president trump's former top russia advisor fiona hill testifying right now under subpoena from the impeachment committee where she is expected to say rudy giuliani and the eu ambassador were conducting a shadow foreign policy in ukraine. >> i want to know what fiona hill, who was running the

if you look at the map, iran is empowered as you've been pointing out, the russians, the syrians, assad, all of our putative enemies are empowered by this position. and it was a pause, the difference between a pause and a cease fire is a little d distinction as well. >> it is.

forces from syria would only benefit russia, iran, and the assad regime. and it would increase the risk that isis and other terrorist

i said to my generals why should we be fighting for syria and assad to protect the land of our enemy. anyone who wants to protect syria and assisting the kurds is good with me, russia, china, or

a deal for their survival with assad. the russians and iranians are deeply committed to assad. this situation is becoming worse and worse and worse. and the israelis recognize that. and it's their neighborhood that is going to be severely impacted immediately. again, the other factor too is, we have to recognize that the president has basically the national security apparatus of the united states. he is firing people from the nsc, doing so many things like that. in the interim between the mattis departure and this, there was no real planning about, well, what if the president decided to withdraw, how do we protect these -- how do we secure these isis prisoners, how do we go ahead and ensure there's not a huge upheaval in syria that spreads out of syria, into iraq, into the levant, towards israel. none of this has been planned for. this was an impulsive, uninformed strategic mistake of the first order. >> senator jack reed, thank you so much. >>> coming up, the latest on the arrest of two associates of rudy giuliani, one w

assad has been a magnet for isis. the counter-isis operations are no longer taking place with the u.s. and the kurds. what does this all adds up to? this adds up to the fact that isis has been relieved of all the pressure it was under, a significant number of isis fighters have escaped, and right now we no longer have the people there who are keeping a lid on this problem, which is the u.s. special forces working with the kurds. so in addition to eviscerating u.s. credibility he's also reignited the threat to the united states. this is a catastrophic outcome that he's trying to spin. let's be very clear, his spin is filled with lies. isis fighters did escape. he's not getting the u.s. out of this region, he's actually added thousands of u.s. troops to the region in recent weeks and months with a recent deployment to saudi arabia. it's trying to spin his way out of fact that he made a decision to allow turkey to green light this operation that has put american national security at extreme danger. >> john mclaughlin, wh

assad and putin begin to fill the power vacuum. and joe biden hits back at president trump like never before. armed with his new government ethics plan. >>> welcome to monday. it's meet the press daily. i'm katy tur in for chuck todd. the first of two white house insiders with extensive knowledge of the president's dealings with ukraine is testifying before congress right this moment. president trump's former russia advisor fiona hill is still behind closed doors with three congressional committees after arriving on capitol hill about eight hours ago. we're keeping an eye on the room where that testimony is happening and if we spot a lawmaker who can clue us in on the details of what is going on in that room, we will go there live. and while we don't know yet exactly what ms. hill is saying, we do know her appearance has the white house worried. a former senior white house official tells nbc news that hill's appearance has caused concern among those close to trump because she played a central role in the administration's russian an

of the basically clamped down by assad against the opposition. and in fact, what you have now in syria is that intensified gio strategic rivalists. you have turkey, russia, iran, the kurds, assad is on the turkish/syrian border. you have space isis, not just isis, you're talking about we have never said a word about al qaeda affiliates. you have 30 or 20,000 between 20 and 30,000 al qaeda affiliates in syria, not to mention iraq. so, we keep talking about the kurds and absolutely important that donald trump basically threw the kurds under the bus, but remember it provided a very important gift to the russians. he empowered assad further in syria and he also poured gasoline in the raging fire and the gio strategic struggle in syria and this all plays into the hands of isis and al qaeda. >> joby, is there a replacement for baghdadi waiting in the wings? i know your whole book is about how when one leader dies a new one fills that power vacuum. >> the next one will be number four. and what we have seen is each incarnation has been slightly worse or

faced with medical-ish shilitia the assad government. it's probably from their perspective the only choice they had. >> all right. richard engel with important reporting on the ground in northern syria, richard, thanks for bringing it, please stay safe out there. >>> with me now is ambassador dennis ross, an expert in both the middle east and russia. he's a councilor and the author of "be strong and of good courage." ambassador ross, nice to see you. you heard this report from richard engel. the lead today in "the new york times" by david sanger is heartbreaking because every warning everybody had about what would happen if the united states pulled back, it seemed it all happened within days. normally we have to wait months or years for a policy impact. >> not in this case. look, i think the only word you can use is "appalling." what we see here is a combination of things. number one, the very forces that fought and died did the brunt of the fighting and dying in terms of defeating isis but not destroying it, were the kurdish forces that

and leaving bashar al-assad alone would work into a russian plan. so just clear that up. how does that work? how do you separate the idea that your view of policing the world does seem to relate, at least in part, syria? >> well, look, those talking points that they're using about assad and syria are the exact same talking points that they used against saddam hussein in iraq and ga dafy in libya. and this is my whole point. look, ali, i served in iraq in a medical unit where every single day, the very first thing i did every day was i went through a list name by name of every american casualty and injury that had occurred the day before in that regime change war that people like hilary clinton voted for and advocated for. so they can't tell me i don't know what i'm talking about. i've been there. i've seen the loss of life. >> you have. you have. >> the terribly high human cost and the cost and the toll that it's taken on the american people. >> and because of that, that gives you a stage and a platform and an understanding of foreign affairs that p

they were trapped between this turkish offensive, and president assad's forces. they have, i have been in that part of syria, in the past, that they have worked alongside the syrian forces at times, particularly when they were fighting isis, at the same time, of course, damascus was their foe, but they have done this deal with president assad and that means they have done this deal with russia and there are reports this morning, of russians being seen in an american base. now we don't know if those reports are accurate, but if that is the case, i just, looking at the communication for the u.s., you know, i was saying yesterday, we were on our way to another location, we passed some kurd irk vi, kurdish villages a they asked us who we were and we said american television, and they said cowards. >> and ke richard. -- it is a stark contrast to what is happening on the ground. >> thank you very much, keir. >>> still ahead mike allen of axios joins us with a preview of this morning's amp yose a.m. and dig into two of the issues that are sure to come up in the democrat

they weren't getting the kind of rights that they had longed for under bashar al assad. they have long been oppressed by turkey. they thought finally the americans are here. if we help them out, we can get something of our own. they had an autonomous area here with protection for the last four years. and they have developed a unique society. it is one of the still one of the only safe places in the region. you can drive around. and now that area, that pocket that they have carved out with u.s. support is under attack. and it is not just an assault. it is a settlement campaign. and that's what i think people really need to understand. the turks are not just coming in to eliminate this kurdish controlled pocket. they are opening the doors and they talk about this only for between 1 to 3 million refugees who are going to come and live here, arab refugees meaning nonkurdish refugees. so when the kurds say this is the start of an ethnic cleansing campaign that president trump opened the door for, it is very easy to see what they're talking about. >> and president erdogan of t

they're waiting for president assad's forces so everything is playing out in that town and across syria. there is the fog of war, no question. and one of the allegations over the weekend that has many people crying out is the allegations of war crimes. that's by turkish-backed malitia. we're going to show you some pictures that are disturbing. we stopped the video before it gets to the most disturbing part. but what you're seeing here are allegations of turkish-backed malitia executing kurdish fighters who have their hands tied behind their back. people are talking about this and a number of other incidents as a war crime. it illustrates really why the kurds, seeing that they had no longer the support of washington, have turned to their old enknee in damascus and asked damascus for help. they've done a deal and now president assad's forces appear to be sweeping across syria and taking charge with the kurds. now, of course damascus is backed by president putin. president putin at the same time speaking to president erdogan. so he is so often described as a master in the case of syria rig

assad is staying. if he were aligned with the kurds and they were giving some semiautonomy in the region, it could develop as it has in iraq. what if the kurds were under syrian sovereignty but had a semiautonomous region? you might find some peace with that and syria would guarantee they're not going to have incursions to turkey, which means everybody needs to be at the table having this discussion. >> quickly, the president at the same time this week quietly sent more troops to saudi arabia and claims that the saudis are going to pay for those troops. are you comfortable with the u.s. military being treated almost like a mercenary force for the saudis? >> i'm not. in fact, i would withhold troops and arms from the saudis until we see better behavior. i think our arms are uniquely belong to the american people and that we shouldn't be sending them to the saudis until we see a change in their behavior, but it's inconsistent to say we're not going to be there for endless senseless wars and then to have

because assad has been russia's client. and when russia goes in there and assad is powered so too is iran. that's why we have to race to bolster saudi arabia and other allies in the nation. that's why israel is against this. that's why every american ally and members on both sides of the aisle think this is a horrible, horrible development. >> jake, i hear from republicans sometimes that say why are you so mean to us now? i am disgusted that they've given donald trump so much latitude that he did this. >> yeah. i think the world is going to come crashing on donald trump's doorstep in the next couple days on this topic specifically. so the treasury department today say that the president was going to sign an executive order which is aimed to dissuade turkey from human rights abuse. >> they're almost done. >> sanctions are going to pass with massive bipartisan numbers as jeremy said. it's going to be veto proof unless lindsay graham backs down which i don't think he is. because he says we are going forward with this no matter

their stated goal has been to re-establish assad's control of all of syria out to all of its borders. about a third of the nation of syria, about a third of assad's country has been out of his control for years because it was controlled by the kurds that we were allied with instead of assad's government. they had our support to do so. until this past week when president trump announced that the u.s. government would be turning tail and abandoning the kurds, pulling out u.s. troops, inviting turkey to come into the territory and wipe them out. turkey got what it wanted. the syrian government backed by putin and the russian military, they were able to come in and seize back basically a third of that country basically at the invitation of the u.s. government. here, free play, here you go. i know we've been supporting the kurds who've been holding this territory for years now, but you can have it now. anything else you would like? at the same time, it hasn't received as much attention, but after president trump's pressure on ukraine to help him with his re-election effort, this thing for

it's a win for assad. it's at least giving new life to isis and president trump is trying to defend the decision in tweets but he has not come forward and fully explained what happened and why he did what he did and when to the american people. there's been no address or sort of formal communication from him to explain what's happening. all we're seeing are the images coming over of death and destruction. >> a.b., you've been at the intersection of journalism and mostly republican politics all your life. mostly, i want to listen to you some more. among the names you just name checked were pence and pompeo. if the way you lay it out is anything approaching end game here, this means the entire management structure of this administration has dirt on its hands here. >> this is the problem. we've known for months and mick mulvaney, acting chief of staff, froze the aid. we didn't know that. we've known that for a few weeks. for months we've known he had marginalized john bolton and mulvaney had built his own ver

and we have basically given them over to the turks, to assad. they had to call in assad for help. vladimir putin where erdogan is going next week to sochi. and they have to give up their weapons. they're going to be slaughtered. >> we have forced the kurds to pick between abusive spouses or parents that they were trying to get away from. i hate to put it that way. but they're throwing in the arms of murderers. people that want them dead. >> this -- we say that we want the kurds to drop their weapons, it makes it sound like they have sophisticated armory. they don't. turkey has the second largest military in nato. they are incredibly sophisticated and they're using our arms on our allies who made sure isis was contained so we didn't have to have the issue here at home. >> but the president says it's 7,000 miles away. we don't have to worry about them. it's europe's problem. >> i'm old enough to remember when -- when house republicans wanted to open a special inquiry on benghazi because they were upset about a talking point. they were upset about a talking point. this is -- this is

he stuck with assad from the very beginning even when assad was accused around the world of using chemical weapons. that's what the world will see. >> richard, always a pleasure to have you on the show. thank you so much. >>> a lot more to get to including congressman alexandria oh cac i don't cortez grilling mark zuckerberg about whether facebook should allow candidates to lie in ads. >> so you won't take down lies or won't take down lies? that's a simple yes or no. right away, called my mom, called my sisters. i'm from cameroon, congo, and...the bantu people. i had ivory coast, and ghana...togo. i was grateful... i just felt more connected... to who i am. greater details. richer stories. and now with health insights. get your dna kit at ancestry.com. and i recently had hi, ia heart attack. it changed my life. but i'm a survivor. after my heart attack, my doctor prescribed brilinta. it's for people who have been hospitalized for a heart attack. brilinta is taken with a low-dose aspirin. no more than 100 milligrams as it affects how well brilinta works. brilinta helps keep platelets from s

to putin, to erdogan, to assad, that the americans want to leave. it also significantly decreased our leverage and influence to manage the situation. so it happened on october 6th in this phone call. the president just threw all of our leverage out the window. i'm afraid that now the future of syria will be determined by actors who are quite hostile to our interests, and that includes iran, assad, and erdogan, and putting 1,000 troops in western iraq is good because we want to help the iraqis, but it's not going to make a significant difference. one final point. leaving syria cedes so much influence to our adversaries. it's ceded influence to iran. that's why we're seeing increased tension in the region and the president has sent 14,000 troops to the region since may. he can't tell his political rallies he's getting troops out of endless wars when he's sending 14 times the amount back into the region. >> an excellent point to end on there. brett mcgurk, the former special envoy who was essentially in charge of the isis policy for presidents obama an

the kurds are liable if not likely to align themselves with assad now, and russia. the united states will have lost a vital way of ensuring that isis remains on its heels. all of our allies in the region are now convinced that we are not going to stand by our allies. and not just in this region but in other regions as well. the kurds may say that they can come up to the border and they'll phyfight toe-to-toe wit the turks. but we're not going to fight the turks air to air. we're not going to drop bombs on turkish formations that are attacking our allies, the kurds. every possible thing that can happen here, every single one, is bad. and that's not even mentioning the humanitarian crisis here and the release of all or most of isis' fighters who have been pent up there. i can say one more thing that is of interest here, and that is, what is erdogan interested in doing? well, two things. i think they were mentioned before but it's worth repeating. first is to destroy the kurds who have been fighting for three decades for a homeland, and the second thing is to find a pl

assad has killed 500,000 people in syria. the kurds understand that they're facing not just ethnic cleansing, but assad's people are going to go door to door to find the kurds and kill them sooner or later. this is a childish understanding of the brutal realities facing our allies, the kurds. again, the question in my mind is, what caused mr. trump's behavior toward turkey? why would he agree to something so egregiously harmful to our own national security interests? that question needs to get asked. but i think, look, our armed forces have been at this for a long time now. they're pushing a generational warfare. they've had 60,000 killed and wounded. and so for mr. trump to be making these sort of impulsive gestures to include in afghanistan as opposed to coming up with a strategy using diplomacy and covert action to get us out of there, it's just astonishing. the armed forces have had a heavy burden to be dealt with in this manner. >> general, you have pointed out to our audience so many times that jim mattis is one of the

can trust russia and iran and the assad regime and turkey rather, because they are right there in the region, to handle the potential groundswell, the potential response that is to the president's decision here to abandon the kurds. i think those things are open questions and things that senate republicans are version very worried about. >> don't we already know the answer, whether the u.s. can trust russia and iran, especially in that region and bashar al assad, the leader of syria, considering their interests in syria, and what's taking place historically the last couple of years there? >> right, and this essentially sparks at alliance, a new found alliance between president erdogan in turkey, and president buti putin, that spells bad news for the united states and that's something that i think the president's allies on capitol hill are trying to counsel him against with actions against it and whether that is sanction, or troop movement in the region, i think that remains to be seen, but that is something that the president is going to be hearing a lot from, from republicans. >> and

the kurds aligning themselves with russia and syrian president bashar al assad. the deal paves the way for them to face off with turkish forces. it was announced shortly after the trump administration announced they're preparing a deliberate withdrawal of u.s. troops in the region. joining me is erin live for us along turkey's border with syria. erin, what's the latest? >> reporter: well, jeff, the situation is rapidly evolving tonight. we saw syrian forces enter the kurdish city of hasaka. they entered to sounds of celebration after their arrival. remember, the kurds were very worried, very scared at the prospect of this turkish incursion. they're worried it would lead to an all out massacre of their people, which is why the kurdish sdf reached this deal tonight with asaad's forces welcoming them into north eastern syria. a deal to push back turkish forces, back beyond the border, but it does not come without a price. details of the deal are unclear at this point. but we did hear from a military leader, kurdish military leader saying that he was with deep reserv

the beneficiaries here are the turks, the assad regime, the iranians, the russians, vladimir putin, and not least, isis, which has begun to reconstitute itself as a real threat. >> you've written that not since mccarthy has the state department suffered this way. >> i was proud to serve five presidents, ten secretaries of state from both parties. i've seen a lot of highs and lows in american foreign policy, as you have, over recent decades. but i've never seen anything quite like this. i didn't write those words lightly. but i'm deeply worried about the hollowing out of the state department and american diplomacy. i'm deeply worried about the side lining of career expertise today. >> to that point, this is mick mulvaney in the briefing room yesterday. >> elections have consequences. foreign policy is going to change from the obama administration to the trump administration. and what you're seeing now, i believe, is a group of mostly career politicians -- career bureaucrats saying, you know what, i don't like president trump's politics so i'm not participate in this witch hunt they're un

assad's not a friend of ours. why are we protecting their land? and syria also has a relationship with the kurds. who by the way are no angels. if russia is going to help in protecting the kurds, that's a good thing, not the bad thing. the pkk part of the kurds as you know is probably worse at terror and more of a terrorist threat in many ways than isis. so it is a very semi-complicated, not too complicated if you're smart, but it is a semi-complicated problem. and i think it's a problem that we have very nicely under control. >> it was quite a day of developments yesterday. >> there was so much to unpack in all of the statements that the president said. even reading the letter, i spent the better part of yesterday afternoon actually just trying to confirm if that letter was genuine. i sent it to some turkish officials to get some comments on it. >> did you actually get the letter. >>> is this an official letter that you sent from the white house because it sounds a little comical, talk to you later. >> call you later. >> and as you said, quite a

, slammed the move in a series of tweets and ensures a isis comeback and forces kurds to align with assad and iran and destroys turkey's relationship with congress and says abandoning the kurds would be a stain on america's honor. >> isis is not defeated my friend. the biggest lie being told by the administration that isis is defeated. the caliphate destroyed. but there are thousands of fighters over there and no, the caliphate would not have been destroyed without the kurds. this impulsive decision by the president has undone all of the gains we've made, thrown the region into further chaos, iran is licking their chops, and if i'm an isis fighter, i've got a second lease on life. this to me is just unnerving to its core. >> and other republicans are also criticizing the president's decision. senator marco rubio said reports of a u.s. troop are true, the trump administration has made a grave mistake. former governor mike huckabee called it a huge mistake to abandon kurds and former ambassador nikki haley said this, leaving the kurds to die is a mistake. and it will likely result in the sl

way those isis fighters, if assad gets to him first he is going to kill them. if the turkish army get to them first, and the kurds will eventually let them go, they will be free to revive the isis insurrection. so it's hard to know what's going on inside the u.s. government. the security process is gone, it's broken. this is mr. trump home alone impulsively making decisions. >> what would you surmise? i mean, we understand that the pretense given for secretary mattis' resignation as secretary of defense was a disagreement over this policy in syria. we have learned through news reports that john bolton was very opposed to donald trump doing this. he got on the phone with erdogan. you and i have now talked about it over the last few weeks. what in your mind explains this action which has no defenders, no enthusiasts, no one supporting it except donald trump, vladimir putin, and erdogan? >> hard to know. normally, if you throw your allies under the bus, if you turn your back on somebody that protected u.s. national security issues, in this case it's only the perso

assad's not a friend of ours. why are we protecting their land? and syria also has a relationship with the kurds, who, by the way, are no angels. okay? >> ben, you've spent countless hours in the oval office in discussions with president of the united states, barack obama. imagine yourself, this is hard to do, imagine yourself in the trump oval office. he says those things with those question marks. what do you say? >> look, i couldn't imagine saying it -- because it's such an astonishing thing for him to say. we made this alliance with the kurds to fight our common enemy of isis. that's why we're there. not protecting syria for assad. 11,000 kurds died in the fight against isis with our support. we began this in the obama administration, continued under president trump. because of what he's done, people are dying. some of these trump decisions, they play out on twitter, they look like a reality show. people need to be clear here, people, the kurds who fought with us to defeat isis, are currently being killed because of what donald trump did, beca

this is a congresswoman who decided to visit bashar al assad in syria. so it's not as if she hasn't raised suspicion about why are you hanging out with assad? but there's -- this is without evidence. >> if you're going to call somebody an american, a member of congress, someone who has served in our military, if you're going to call them a to present some u have an evidence. but there is some concern about jill stein did and that will hurt the democratic chances in 2020. >> some of this comes with the right being obsessed with tulsi. the right wing and twitter world has a love affair of some sort with tulsi gabbard. at least trump world does. >> that part of the right is noninterventionist and so they like tulsi gabbard? >> is that the only reason they like tulsi gabbard? >> but i mean they don't -- well, now because she wants to remove all the troops. nonetheless, i think there's sometimes a mistake. even though putin and some other americans have coincidental interests, that is they both stand for the same thing, there's an assumption that they're in c

the last administration said ass assad must go. they could have easily produced that outcome but they didn't. in fact they talked about the red line in the sand but didn't honor their commitment has children died. i did honor my commitment with 58 tomahawks, eight long years after president obama's ill-fated push at regime change, u.s. troops are still on the ground in syria. more than half a million people are dead. hundreds of thousands are terribly injured. and millions more syrians are displaced. it really is a nightmare of misery. across the middle east we have seen anguish on a colossal scale. we have spent $8 trillion on wars in the middle east, never really wanting to win those wars. but after all that money was spent and all those lives lost, the young men and women, gravely wounded, so many, the middle east is less safe, less stable, and less secure than before these conflicts began. the same people pushing for these wars are often the ones demanding america open its doors to unlimited migration from war torn regions, imp

iran, russia, assad and isis, and there's a deeper problem here. this gives iran open running room in syria. they've been an ally of assad right along and what they're looking for is a path to the mediterranean, a land bridge and this opens it up and it endangers israel in a very serious way and that is geostrategic and the deeper thing is what you touched on. we have no credibility. the kurds literally died for us. 11,000 of their fighters died in the fight against isis. they came to our defense. they worked with us and the president talks about how we won, we won. it was a coalition and the kurds were the bloody end of the spear and to walk away, i think is going have ramifications for years. who's going to come to our aid if we -- if we need help? that's a very deep problem here. i said to somebody the other day, this isn't america first. this is america alone, and you know, the successes of this country going back throughout history have always been through alliances and basically -- >> right. >> now nobody's going to trust us. >> you know, sen