i have great relationships with most republican senators but we're not getting the job done. >> that's really not real. all the warmth of an arranged marriage. >> whether they like it or not they need each other to get things done. >> we live in a land made of ideals, not blood and soil. we will not live in a world where our ideals are absent. >> greater threat to the united states than barack obama's. >> other presidents did not call. and some presidents didn't do anything. >> when he gets backed into a corner his default is to lie,

make something up. >> it shows what a completely moral bankrupt man is our commander in chief. >> welcome to "new day." senator john mccain didn't mention the president by name but he didn't have to. former republican nominee condemning, quote, half-baked, spurious nationalism in a speech saying to abandon america's role as world leader is unpatriotic. >> president trump is also under fire for falsely claiming the president obama did not call families of troops killed in action. several aides to president obama took to twitter in the strongest language imaginable. it took president trump nearly two weeks to even address the issue on the four fallen soldiers in niger, saying that

these calls are tough on him. >> alisyn, with one eye on the legislative calendar, the president is finding himself straddling competing factions, that are at war with each other, praising senate majority leader mitch mcconnell and trying to keep the peace with his former adviser, steve bannon. >> we're probably now, at least as far as i'm concerned, closer than ever before, fighting for the same thing. >> reporter: trying to put up a united front with senator mitch mcconnell despite lobbying this criticism at the senate mcconnell leads. >> i'm not going to blame myself. i'll be honest. they are not getting the job done. >> reporter: attempting to appease the leaders he needs to get his agenda passed and the

section of the party spearheaded by his former adviser steve bannon. >> we've cut your oxygen off, mitch. >> reporter: backing anti-establishment attacks during a cabinet meeting monday morning. >> steve is very committed. he is a friend of mine. we had a few people that really disappointed us. they really, really disappointed us. i can understand fully how steve bannon feels. >> reporter: before vowing to pressure bannon to back down in a number of elections to unseat incumbent republicans. >> i'm going to see if we can't talk him out of that because frankrily they're good people. >> reporter: while accepting the liberty medal, john mccain made these comments. >> to refuse the obligations of international leadership and our duty to remain the last best hope of earth for the sake of some half-baked, spurious

nationalism, cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems -- [ applause ] -- is as unpatriotic as it is to any attachment to any dogma that americans can consign to the ash heap of history. >> i've written them personal letter letters they've been september or are going out tonight. >> reporter: making this false claim about his breads issers. >> if you look at president obama or other presidents, most of them didn't make calls. >> reporter: former white house photographer pete souza responding with this image of president obama comforting a gold star family. obama consoled the families of fallen soldiers.

former deputy chief of staff lashing out at mr. trump on twitter. mr. trump also boasting about his administration's response to hurricane-ravaged puerto rico, again placing blame on local officials. >> it was in really bad shape before. we have done -- i will say this. >> mr. president, people don't have drinking water. >> well, we've delivered tremendous amounts of water. then what you have to do is have distribution of the water by the people on the island. >> reporter: a new cnn poll shows the president's approval rating for its response to recent hurricanes has dropped 20 points since september as the majority of the island remains in the dark, one month after the storm. for the second day in a row we expect president trump to take questions from reporters today during a news conference with the prime minister of greece. this evening, we'll be watching to see if there is more thin straddling by the president when he appears before the conservative heritage foundation for a speech.

chris, back to you. >> joe, it will be interesting to see if the president has any information about how those troops walked into an ambush in niger. they certainly had weeks to figure it out. a new measure of how the president is doing. cnn poll out this morning shows that president trump's approval rating is holding steady. we do see more americans saying the president is leading the nation in the wrong direction. to get inside these numbers we have cnn's political director, david chalian, live in d.c. what do you see? >> good morning, chris. here are brand new numbers. president trump's approval rating, 37% disapprove, 57%. we've been seeing that pretty consistently, him in the 37 to 47% range the last four months. it is pretty consistent. how does this stack up historically? take a look at trump versus his predecessors. he's all the way down at the bottom for october first year of office. bill clinton was the next lowest, closest to him, ten

points higher at 47%. we asked folks if things are going well in the country today. take a look at this, chris. 46% of americans say things are going well. that's a dip of seven points from where it was in august. 54 in april. it's back to where it was after the first chaotic weeks of the trump administration. we also, of course, delved into the relationship of president trump and republicans in congress. overall, americans disapprove of the way trump handles his relationship with congressional republicans. only 32% approve. 54%, a majority, disapprove. among republicans, take a look at this. 68% of republicans approve of the way donald trump handles his relationships with the republicans in congress. only 22% disapprove. we see a similar trend when we asked folks who do you trust to handle the major issues, president trump or republicans in congress. again, overall public of americans only 30% say they trust president trump. 47% say they trust those guys,

paul ryan and mitch mcconnell. when you ask republicans -- this is what president trump is so keenly aware of -- 63% of republicans trust president trump to handle the major issues versus only 29% of republicans who trust their party's own leaders in congress. chris? >> that's the headline from this poll and explains maybe why you're seeing a lot on the gop side, certainly on the elected side not talking much about the president in a negative because he does have sway. >> david, stay with us, if you would. we want to talk about all of this. cnn political analyst david gregory is also joining us now. i want to start with this false claim that the president made that his predecessors, other presidents don't call families of the fallen. it's so ridiculous -- it's a ridiculous and sort of cruel claim. before we get to that claim i want to ask you about his own belated response. why did it take him almost two

weeks to even talk about these four fallen soldiers in niger? why did he have a belated response to the people who were killed on the "uss john mccain"? doesn't the chief of staff, particularly general john kelly, who himself lost a child -- isn't there some sort of protocol where he taps him on the shoulder and says, mr. president, it's time to respond to this, 24 hours later? >> absolutely. it's what's appropriate. it's what a president does. there's no excuse for not memorializing these fallen soldiers, particularly from a president who spent so much time talking about his fidelity to our american flag and military, who surrounds himself with military advisers, now civil ias who have military experience. it doesn't make sense yesterday

to deliberately be untruthful about what previous presidents have done, an attempted stain on his predecessors and on the presidency. that has no bearing in fact. his desire to distract, to deflect, to come up with something else to talk about, especially when he faces criticism. that very insecurity and defensiveness that we see not just here but around so many issues, around the hurricane response, around puerto rico. it's the same over and over again. >> that's why we call it out when we see it and show and try to demonstrate how it was wrong. last week we were asking him why he isn't talking about what happened in niger. let's play what he said yesterday. because it deserves to be called out. >> i will, at some point during the period of time, call the parents and the families, because i have done that, traditionally. the traditional way, if you look at president obama and other

president presidents most of them didn't make calls. >> earlier you said president obama never called the families of fallen soldiers. >> i don't know if he did. no, no, no. i was told that he didn't often. and a lot of presidents don't. president obama, i think, probably did sometimes and maybe sometimes he didn't. i don't know. that's what i was told. all i can do is ask my generals. >> not to be cynical but i can almost hear the people googling rnd somewhere around the president of trying to find examples of past presidents who didn't call and then put it out and scream fake news. he said it because he wanted to distract what was going on and tried to backtrack on it. what's the net effect of this? >> he said it because, to david gregory's point, he felt he was being criticized. >> he is. it's been two weeks and he hasn't mentioned these fallen service members, the ambush and

all the considerations that should go with that. >> right. but this is a trait we've seen in the president time and time again. when there's a larger principle at stake, four service members dead, is he the commander in chief. this is a moment that should not be him comparing himself to his predecessors. it should just be a moment for him to lead, express to the country what happened and his sympathies, of course, to the families. and yet it's about him. because whenever there is the slight e slightest hint of criticism against him he can't focus on anything but trying to defend himself, facts be damned if that's the case. >> eric holder, former attorney general, and others were quick to take to twitter to shut this down. eric holder says, stop the damn lying much you're the president. i went to dover air force base with president obama and saw him

comfort the families of both the fallen military and dea. then an obama aide tweets, that's an f'ing lie, to say president obama or past presidents did not call the family members of soldiers killed in action. he is a deranged animal. david gregory, people felt so strongly about shutting this down. >> yeah, he did. it's an attempted stain on his predecessors but also the presidency itself. why does he want to debate these points? we doesn't he have an intuitive sense and stick with that? why when people are suffering would you think we get an a plus in the job we're doing instead of saying people are hurting. that's all that matters. we're going to do everything we can because that's our

responsibility as the federal government. that's my job as president. here, too, as commander in chief, you are someone who is always in a position to be steadfast in the mission but to support the fallen and their families. you have to be able to have both at the same time instead of casting dispersions at your predecessors. >> we saw senator john mccain kind of going at the same set of instincts and their perils in terms of the stability of democracy. listen to what he said as he received this award. >> the world we've organized and led three-quarters of a century, to abandon the ideals we advanced around the globe, our duty to remain the last best hope of earth for the sake of some half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems --

>> david chalian, while people may applaud the senator for saying that, what's the reality within his own party? >> the reality is that john mccain is swimming upstream a little bit to where the grassroots base, the republican party with trump has ignited as he ran for office and has remained totally solid with as he has been in office the bannon wing of the republican party has been the forceful wing, the winning wing of late. and so john mccain is representing what is a clear view within the republican party but not a prevailing view in terms of the recent elections that the republican party has been dealing with. >> last word, david gregory? >> a very difficult time. the republican party is convulsing within itself. the democratic party is as well. two-party system is under great strain. there's a lot of identity politics in the country,

polarized electorate. retreating from the world. we're in a dangerous standoff from north korea. now you are starting to see important voices in the republican party start to call out president trump. will that continue? will that make a difference? in the end, republicans have to achieve something with president trump as president if the establishment is going to strike back. and argue that it still meets ahead of the table. and president trump is the figure that knows how to ride those various waves. >> that's why it was so intriguing to see him stand in the rose garden with mitch mcconnell, right, the very essence of the establishment. because it was a recognition from president trump that they need each other. he does need the kind of legislative accomplishment that david is talking about. >> can you have it both ways, play to mitch mcconnell and steve bannon simultaneously or

never the two shall meet? thank you, gentlemen. there are new calls for the president to step away from his nominee for drug czar after a shocking report -- shouldn't be a shock to anybody. it's been going on for a long time. we're going to tell you about a bill that the potential drug czar championed to make it easier to get opioids on to the black market. it's true. it sounds absurd but it's true. senator joe manchin from west virginia is here to talk about the law and what to do about it next. why do you do it? it's not just a pay check, you actually like what you do. even love it. and today, you can do things you never could before. ♪ ♪ you're developing ai applications on the cloud. finding insights hidden in decades of medical documents. and securing millions of iot sensors. so get back to it. and do the best work of your life. ♪ ♪

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president trump was asked about what happened to those four soldiers in niger. he said that other presidents haven't called families of fallen soldiers. it came off as a slight, an insult. two weeks after what happened in niger how come this white house and administration haven't put out information to the american people? senator joe manchin of west virginia joins us now.

we have a lot of important things to talk about this morning. >> yeah. >> this is one of them. i know you have your own questions. you're trying to get your own information. >> i am on the intelligence committee and do intend to be briefed as soon as information comes to us from the intelligence committee. that hasn't happened yet. i hope it happens sooner than later. >> are you satisfied with the president that it's difficult for him to contact these families? he's going to contact them. he's contacting them now. it's hard for him. >> chris, i'm sure president trump and president obama both contact families. that is a hard call when you're making that because, you know, we're fathers. we're grandfathers. we have children and grandchildren and when you lose a loved one, when a person loses their child, that is a tough call. i don't know how to relieve their pain. i want to know that i feel their pain. i understand as a parent what you're going through and i want

you to know i'm never going to leave you. i'm always going to be with you. i try to call everyone in my state that i know of has lost somebody, either in the military or even in industrial accident such as mining accidents. and i want them to know that when the day is done, we're there for you. call me. call my office. we're going to make sure we help you and never leave you. they need to have that assurance and i'm sure our presidents do that. i really am sure in my heart. >> i saw you in action, dealing with fallen miners and comforting families. one of the big sources of comfort you gave them was your dedication to find out how they died and make sure it didn't happen again. >> right. >> let's hope we see the same intentions and resolve with fwhchlt iger. we'll stay on it. let's talk about another crisis, opioids. you had a big dinner last night. tell us why it lifted your spirits for hope in the future? >> i want to thank jared and ivanka. they had a wonderful venue for us. that doesn't happen that often

when we come together fo as democrats and republicans truly as americans representing the whole american population, if you will. we were able to sit down for a couple of hours. we talked to each other. we talked with each other, not at each other. ivanka and jared were great hosts. they kept -- everything was moving in a direction. we had steve mnuchin there, talking about taxes. we really got into some serious content, which i think helped all sides find a pathway forward. we hope we can do that. we need tax reform that stimulates the economy, that gives the middle income earner, middle class if you will, the workers who get up every day, give them a break. >> what's your sense at that dinner? do you believe that this is going to be a set of proposals that helps the middle class more than it does the upper class? >> you know, i had a dinner maybe four weeks ago at the white house with the president. he was very direct in saying this is not a tax break for the ri

rich. that might not be the intent but the way it came out of congress because congress has been designing, putting things out. we need the white house to inject now and say hold on. let's make sure we make some adjustments here. we're very hopeful that gets done. we like to see it get done in regular order. i've asked mitch mcconnell, let's go through this process before we go down the budget, before we go down and put ourselves in budget reconciliation with a simple majority. and we're hopeful for that. that's probably not going to happen. i want to be involved. we have a lot of democrats that want to help and be involved. we want to work with our republican colleagues and find a pathway forward. ivanka was very passionate about child tax credits and we want to make sure that's there for the working family also. >> we'll look forward to what's actually put, what meat is put on those bones so we can test it and see who it helps. another crisis that's going on in this country is with opioids.

it got a lot of talk during this campaign. that was good. now ten months into the administration, we haven't seen a lot of follow-through on that talk. why does this issue matter to you so much in west virginia? >> well, we're the number one state. not another state has suffered the way west virginia has. we have more deaths per capita than any other state on opiates. i want to thank "60 minutes" for doing the in-depth review they have and the investigation they did to unveil. you talk about the swamp. that almost becomes quicksand, what happens happened in the way they have basically preyed upon the american public but upon my constituents in west virginia. i know kermit. these are great little areas that have given a lot to america, and hard workers. they have been preyed upon. this is a business model. it is absolutely criminal and sinful what has been done and to see it now unraveling. i want to think joe rannazzinni.

that should be our drug czar, someone who is passionate. if not find somebody. i have someone come to me every day that's lost someone dear to them, in their family. they know it. they have the training to be passionate about really changing this whole culture that we have right now. it has to be done. >> how do you explain the president? i know that he said representative marino has been good to him but is that why he's making him the drug czar, when this is one of the men who championed the bill that insulated drug companies from being monitored in their bulk shipments, that floods the market? that's what drove the beginning of this opioid crisis. we've never seen it come top down like this before. should he be the drug czar? >> i think not. i wrote that letter. i don't think the president had any knowledge of the congressman's background. >> how could he not? it's not like he was hanging out in cuba with some second life.

this is what he did as congressman. >> it was even brought to our attention. why weren't we even -- why did not the dea or doj from the previous administration let us know that this is going to affect their ability to oversight and investigate? >> you voted for the bill. >> there was no vote. there was not a vote, chris. this is unanimous consent. that means it comes out of the committees, the health can committee and probably judiciary at that time when senator hatch, it came out of those committees. there was no dissent. they probably thought they greased this bill. >> hif it came out of committee you're supposed to vote. >> it comes out hot ticket. let me explain to you how it works. >> please. >> it come out of committee and there was no dissent it went right to mitch mcconnell. he hot tickets it. there is no dissenting because no one has raised any concern because they think everybody is fine, doj is fine, dea says it hasn't impeded them whatsoever.

we didn't know about all the people that had been fired. we didn't know about all the people who left and took big-paying jobs for the other side. no one knew about all of this. it wasn't revealed. >> couldn't you read the bill? >> we read the bill. do you know how the bill was written? it was basically protecting people to have the end of life need that they have for these opiates or severe cancer patients. no one ever intended for them not to get their medication. >> it changed the review standard also. >> oh, it was awful. awful. >> which is what made the big difference. i don't mean to hit you with a stick unnecessarily, joe. senator, i know you care about this very much, this issue. >> i most certainly did do. >> this is the stuff that people hate and the lawmaker who championed it is now going to be the drug czar? >> he is not. over my dead body will he be the drug czar. that is not the person that a person from west virginia can look at this man, being the drug czar. a person that basically weakened it and allowed hundreds and

hundreds of thousands of people get killed. this is wrong. i'm sure when the president sees this adjustments will be made. i'm hopeful for that. we bring somebody who is passionate to have the knowledge to stop and fight this thing. i am as outraged as you. we're all outraged. how does this happen? my entire staff, you think i haven't berated them? they gave me every step of the way -- when it first came out there was some contention. this bill matured, if you will. they kept working it. they had these people, and mr. barber, being one of the top people, was able to write that bill and massage it in a way that drew no concern whatsoever. >> where does he work now? >> yeah, head of cardinal health. unbelievable. unbelievable. >> this issue matters. we're not going to leave it. we have a big documentary on this on hln friday night. we target manchester, new hampshire. a state that unfortunately has close connection in west virginia in terms of being ground zero with this problem. thank you for joining us. >> we've got to repeal the bill.

we've got to repeal that portion of the bill, degut it, if you will. >> good luck. >> we're going to do that and also we have to have someone who is passionate and congressman marino is not that person. >> good luck. somehow his name got to the president and he is the person until that changes. >> thank you. appreciate it. let's talk tax cuts. president trump promises that the middle class will benefit the most from his tax plan. is that true? we have a debate you don't want to miss, next. amazing. it can transform a frog into a prince. but it can't transform your business. for that you need dell technologies. we are transforming jet engines into turbo powered safety inspectors. dairy cows into living, breathing, data centers. and though it seems like magic, it's not. it's people and technology working together. magic can't make digital transformation happen. but we can.

i really believe we have a very good chance, and i think mitch feels the same way, of getting the tax reform done before the end of the year. >> president trump says it could make it through congress by the end of the year. the president insists the middle class will be the big winner. is that true? let's discuss it with cnn senior economics analyst stephen moore, senior economic adviser of the trump campaign and anthony chan, managing director and chief economist of chase. great to have both of you here. i know you don't see this

necessarily the same way. this will be an interesting conversation. let me start with you, anthony. the middle class the biggest beneficiary here for what you've heard of this tax plan? >> they clearly are not. suggests that the top 1% will reap 50% of the benefits of the tax cuts. that clearly shows you that it's not just the middle income tax cut. another point i will make is that when you look at the estate tax, the minimum before you actually have to pay taxes is $5.5 million. obviously not too many middle income individuals have $5.5 million estates. if you believe the estimates he's worth $3 billion and no estate tax he would save more than $1 billion over his lifetime. most middle income earners will not save over $1 billion in tacks over their lifetime. >> you're going out on a limb with that. most do not have a billion to save. how does this wash, the fact that it's the top 1% getting the

biggest bang? >> look, we don't believe that. i helped put this plan together for donald trump during the campaign. we worked very diligently to find a way to raise the wages and increase the number of jobs for middle class people. we think that our business tax system, alisyn -- actually, cutting the business tax rates is the heart and soul of the plan. as you know, we're up here at 40% tax rate on our businesses and the rest of the world is at 20% or less. our businesses, when they compete in global markets, are starting with a 20 percentage point disadvantage. that's just unamerican. we go from one of the worst tax systems to one of the best in terms of attracting businesses. i had dinner, alisyn, with fred smith, the ceo of fedex, a company that employs 100,000 americans and he basically said look, if you get that tax rate down, as donald trump is talking about, and you also do the repatriation. remember, alisyn, we want companies to be allowed to bring

money, trillions of dollars overseas back, invested in the united states, he said we're going to build new airplanes, we're going to have more vehicles. we're going to hire more workers. >> are they going to to? i mean this is a little bit -- i'm sorry to interrupt you. aren't they also going to automate things more? is he actually giving a number of how many workers he's going to hire? >> of course. >> how many? >> well, he said thousands. and that's one company. apple's ceo, tim cook, has said they'll bring 150 billion. not 150 million. $150 billion back to the united states. some of that will go to divid d dividends, to shareholders and pension funds. some of that money will be used to expand. look, there's no question about we want businesses in the united states to invest more. alisyn, you know, automation and capital investment, that's what leads to higher wages over time. and we estimate, by the way -- >> that's different than more jobs. we're getting off on a tangent whachlt do you think, anthony? >> let me say one quick thing

about this, alisyn. one quick thing. right now the problem with the u.s. economy isn't so much we're not creating enough jobs. we are. in fact, a lot of places in the country we have more jobs than we have people that can fill them. the biggest problem, i believe, and i think donald trump agrees, is that for 15 years the average middle class worker has not seen a pay raise. >> yeah, yeah, yeah. go ahead. >> when you look at the question, we're not in general disagreement. i think that the tax cut will, in fact, create jobs. the question is, are there bodies out there? we have an unemployment rate of 4.2%. that the point, the economy is close to full employment. so that's not as easy. but when you look out there of this tax cut and you ask yourself, is it going to be good for america? of course it is. but who bears the corporate tax burden? in fact, stephen doesn't like the tax policy center but here you have nonpartisan individuals, tax specialists from the reagan administration, from the bush administration. >> what do they say? >> and the clinton administration. they're saying that only 20% of the corporate tax burden is born

by workers, not the big numbers. >> another thing that the tax policy center is saying is that this, whatever the president's tax plan is would increase the deficit by $2.5 trillion, with a t, over ten years. how will that wash with republicans? certainly senator bob corker has been out front saying that he's not going to vote for something like that. >> that is a big number. i believe that number. close to $2.5 trillion. the senate believes it's $1.5 trillion. the house doesn't want the deficit to go up. it's going to be a challenge to get it through. >> how does that work, stephen? >> first of all, if you asked me a week or two ago whether the republicans could get this done this year, alisyn, i probably would have said probably not because they just didn't have their act together. things have changed a lot just in the last 48 hours. it looks like the republicans do have the 50 votes. remember when we had the health care debate, republicans couldn't get the 50 in the senate. it looks like they're there.

they're on their way to get this done. the tax policy center -- let's be clear about this. very liberal left wing group. >> it's not partisan -- hold on. they call themselves nonpartisan. hold on, stephen. >> hold on. do you consider the heritage -- >> no, no, no, tax policy center is the most left wing group. by the way, on this issue of who benefits from cutting the corporate tax, congressional budget office, alisyn ierk think you would agree, they've been pretty harsh on republican policies the last year or so. it's the official referee. the congressional budget office put out a report saying 65% of the benefits of cutting the corporate tax go to workers. >> okay. >> workers benefit when corporate tacks come down because there's more jobs here. >> let me give anthony the last word. >> we could always cherry pick studies. if you go back to the literature that we studied in graduate school when i was getting my phd in economics, he said that

basically all -- most of the tax is born by investors and not, in fact, by the workers. so the numbers are different. >> we learned that that's not true. >> we can cherry pick a study. >> sure. >> i like to focus on the nonpartisan estimates and they do not show that. >> but the tax center isn't nonpartisan. it's a left wing group. would you say the heritage foundation is nonpartisan? we are nonpartisan but we have a conservative back -- >> anthony, last word. >> let's go to the evidence. during the reagan tax cuts. >> the tax foundation center -- >> hold on a second. >> i'm going to give you the hard facts. during the reagan administration, real gdp average on compound growth rate. >> you're talking about the boom. >> during the clinton administration. >> we had a big boom in reagan year. >> economic growth was 3.8%. i am not trying to give you a study or anything. these are the hard facts. that actual growth was faster during the clinton

administration. >> they raised taxes, right. >> and, by the way, during the reagan administration was huge. 70% -- >> gentlemen, we have to leave it there. i feel as though we haven't resolved the issue. but you both have presented -- >> everybody is going to benefit! >> -- your cases. that would be interesting. >> i don't disagree with that. everybody is going to benefit. some benefit more. >> good. let's do it then! >> agreement. stephen, anthony, thank you. >> thanks, alisyn. have a great day. >> you, too. on the military front, u.s.-backed forces are driving isis out of raqqa. fighting in that syrian city is nearing its end, we're told. we have breaking details about the battle to liberate that isis stronghold, next.

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breaking news outd of syria. major military operations are wrapping up in raqqa. isis fighters are about to be completely driven out of what was their stronghold. cnn's nick paton walsh is live in moscow. what do you know, my friend?

>> reporter: chris, this really is the end of the last chapter for isis in terms of them being a territorial force. raqqa is a self declared capital, bitter fighting there over the past months. a lot of u.s. air strikes and artillery, pounding isis out of areas. many civilians used as human shields, caught and possibly killed in the crossfire there. you see here exclusive drone images we have, showing the central roundabout, which they used to behead people on, with u.s. humvees and kurdish forces on them, driving around it. the focus of the fight on the stadium where isis used to plot attacks on the west now in very much, it seems, slowly falling into the hands of those u.s.-backed kurdish forces. major operations over. still some isis cells possibly hiding in and around the ruins that has now become raqqa because of the intensity of that fight. but three questions really remaining. how many foreign fighters have

escaped? are they going to go home and plot terror attacks there? how many civilians were killed in this brutal and bloody fight and finally, where is the leader of isis, reported killed so many times, emerging in a recent recording. where is he now? does he move on. does he, quote, escape from this particular violence or does he go on to inspire attacks elsewhere? back to you, alisyn. >> nick paton walsh, thank you very much for the reporting. that video of the families fleeing and those vast ruins, as you call them, is incredible. thank you very much. up next, the brother of one of the green berets killed in niger. he will tell us about his 29-year-old brother, dustin wright.

sergeant and green beret dusten wright laid him to rest this weekend. he is one of four service members killed in niger two weeks ago. joining us is dustin wright's

brother, will wright. i am sorry for your loss and sorry to meet you under these circumstances, but we wanted to make sure your brother was remembered for the right reasons. please, tell us about how your brother lived his life? >> he lived it -- he knew what he wanted in life and went for it. he's an inspiration to myself and many other people. he lived it to the max. >> what did he tell you about why, during such troubled times, such dangerous times, he decided to go into the military service and become a green beret? >> i think he might have joined the military in the last 16 years, probably has a similar answer, and it's something you have to be called to do, something i know my brother was born to do. i knew him very well. i like to say better than

anybody on the planet. many conversations leading up to it, i knew there was no other path for him. this is what he was here to do. >> it's just who he was? >> it's just who he was. >> this is the worst kind of news for a military family to get. how did you find out what happened to your brother? >> through the regular protocol. two military officers showed up the day of his death and notified by father, and then came to my house across town and notified myself and continued that process to notify the next of kin. >> how are your parents doing? >> it's been a long process, and it has been trying. we have had a lot of support from our community, my state and our country, and my brother's brothers in arms, and we have pulled together.

i think my family is -- my mother and father, they are handling it as best as you can expect. >> did you know he was over there? were you privy to knowledge of what your brother was doing? >> yes, we are very close. i know the job he does. i have done similar jobs and knew where he was at. aware of the general situation as much as i needed to be aware, and was not in the dark at all. >> part of this grieving process for families, we always hear, is understanding the circumstances of what happened. what were you told, and do you still have questions about what happened that led to this ambush in the death of your brother and other service members? >> we have been given enough information right now to seek closer, and in the fog of war there's details that elude you

and there are pieces of the puzzle that don't quite fit, and you will never be satisfied because in the end you lost somebody you love. as time passes, we will get more information and the picture will become more clear, but we're aware of how he fought and served and how he lived his last moments, and that's what matters. >> the president said he's going to reach out to the families. we're told your family is expecting a call today, is that true? >> yes, sir, that's correct. >> do you know when? is there any protocol involved? >> well, this is something i am not familiar with, the protocol -- we have been given a general timeframe, and today is when we should be expecting it. so we look forward to that call. >> what will it mean for your parents to get a call from the president of the united states? >> i think anytime you talk to

the person in that position it's a great honor, even under certain circumstances. it's a hard call to receive, but, you know, to receive a call from the president of the united states, the leader of the free world, is a great honor, and i think it's great sentiment of respect. >> what do you make of the sense of urgency and the criticism about not hearing more in two weeks and the request for answers, what does that mean to you as a family member of one of the fallen? >> honestly, i have said the same things several times now, i am glad it has taken a little time, because my family has been extremely overwhelmed and there's so much going on and if the president called earlier, we would not have been able to give it the gravity and the seriousness it deserved, because

we were busy taking care of my brother and making sure he was laid to rest, and now that that has been taken care of, it would be better now to have that moment to share a conversation with the president and not caught in the middle of the whirlwind of the last week and a half, two weeks. >> i know you guys were as close as brothers can be, and you were a year apart, and whatever gives your family solace and comfort during this time, that's as good as a situation we can expect. thank you for telling us about your brother, and the best to your family, will. >> thank you. i would like to say to the families of the fallen that served with my brother, if you know those families, reach out and support them and we were blessed, people moved heaven and earth to make sure my brother was home, and we want the same

for those families. if anybody near them can reach out to them and show them love and thank them for their service and thank them for their sacrifice, and for loving my brother and fighting with him. >> those are beautiful words and i am sure they will matter to those families and everybody listening to them right now. again, will, the best to you. >> thank you. we are following a lot of news this morning. let's get after it. >> a relationship with this gentleman is outstanding. >> we cut your oxygen off, mitch. it's a season of war against a gop establishment. >> i can understand fully how bannon feels. >> and donald trump is playing mitch mcconnell and bannon against each other perfectly. >> it's unpatriotic. >> if you look at other