. this morning, president trump is facing fierce backlash from lawmakers on both sides of aisle for his decision to withdraw troops from the northern border of syria. even some of the president's closest allies are saying the move would be a mistake. >> plus, president trump says he is not concerned about the second whistle-blower who has come forward about his phone call with the leader of ukraine. this, as house democrats weigh whether to mask the identity of the first whistle-blower. >> and america's federal deficit is ballooning the congressional budget office says the deficit for 2019 is estimated at just under $1 trillion.

i was just emphasizing the trillion. i didn't want anyone to be confused with trillion. >> $1 trillion. >> the numbers seem weird. >> dr. evil? >> good morning, everyone. tuesday, october 8th, i'm ayman mohyeldin alongside yasmin vossoughian. we want to begin with president trump defending his decision to defend troops from northern syria as key republicans and allies urge him to not allow them to be open to assault from turkey. and the announcement blind-sided not just america's kurdish partners in the fight against isis but senior officials at the pentagon, at the state department, and even at the white house, including lawmakers on capitol hill, and u.s. allies in europe and around the middle east. the one person the president did consult with before making the decision? turkish president erdogan. >> why are you siding with an

authoritarian leader and not our kurdish allies? >> i'm not siding with anybody. we've been in syria for many years. syria was supposed to be a short-term hit. just a very short-term hit. and we were supposed to be in and out. i don't want anything bad to happen to our people and i told that to president erdogan. i said don't hurt any of our people, get any of our people get hurt, big trouble. >> those remarks saw the president's tweet threatening to quote totally destroy and obliterate turkey's economy if turkey does anything that i, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be offlimits. >> so in a rare show of bipartisanship, top lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are coming together to condemn president trump's decision to withdraw u.s. forces from the northern border of syria. a number of republicans lawmakers including many of trump's top allies are voicing their opposition, majority leader mitch mcconnell put out a statement saying this is a precipitous withdrawal of u.s. forces from syria would benefit the russia, assad regime and

increase the risk that isis and other terrorist groups regroup. senator lindsey graham, one of the strongest defenders of the president, 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 slaughter of allies. so far the only two republicans who have come sought , come out support of the move is rand paul and lee. and conservative voices critical to the president's decision, pat robertson had an interesting twist on it. here is what he had to say. >> the president who allowed khashoggi to be put in pieces, without any repercussions whatsoever, is now allowing the christians and the kurds to be massacred by the turks. and i believe, and i want to say this with great solemnity, the

president of the united states may lose the mandate of heaven if he allows this to happen. >> trump's decision to pull troops from northern syria is once again raising questions about business dealings. the "washington post" posts out the first person to suggest that donald trump would have a conflict of interest in dealing with turkey and president erdogan is trump himself. back in 2015. >> i have a little conflict of interest because i have a major, major building in istanbul that is a tremendously successful job, it is called trump towers, two tower, instead of one, and it is two, not one, and i've gotten to know turkey, they are an incredible leader, a strong leader. >> and the trump organization launched the trump powers in 2012 and donald trump tweeted celebrations of the project several times while there and ivanka trump a senior official

in the white house, wrote at the time, thank you, president erdogan for joining us to celebrate the twin towers. >> and we have more from bloomberg, anna edgerton. what does president trump's rollout of this major troop withdrawal reveal about his foreign policy approach and the kind of divisions it has created in the republican party? >> in some ways it is very on brand. it started with a tweet. and let's kind of walk back by senior officials speaking mostly on background and got a very strong response from republicans from the hill and it was notable how strong lindsey graham's pushback was. he had a very vigorous disagreement with the president on this and notably on fox and friends which he probably expected the president to be watching so it will be interesting to see how republicans respond over the next few days as this policy is played out a little bit more. and we better understand the repercussions of this policy. >> we have already seen especially amidst the impeachment talk and the impeachment inquiry, about the

fractured republican party, which is becoming more so, it seems, by the day. how is this furthering that narrative? >> that's an excellent point and we have to point out that senate republicans are a very important group tore the president to keep in his field. so if the house ends up impeaching the president, it will be up to the senate to decide whether or not they want to remove him from office. so far, republicans have not really sprung to the president's defense. even though they have criticized democrats for going ahead to move forward with the impeachment process. so if you can keep senate republicans together, that's his best chance to protect against being removed from office, if it gets to that. >> and really quickly, there was an excellent piece yesterday, about the humiliation of lindsey graham, that's what it was titled, about the kind of deal, the deal many of these republicans made with president trump, which is they would turn a blind eye to some of his more outlandish comment, egregious comment, outlandish comment, with the hopes they would be

able to yield some influence on foreign policy in the case of lindsey graham on the issue of syria and kurds. that hasn't panned out. what is the implications of that. for those who have stood bit president. and now feel they have been abandoned on these decisions. >> in the case of lindsey graham, it is not just turned a blind eye, he vigorously defended the president in every outrage and moment of controversy, lindsey graham is on the front lines of his defense. and there was a case in the summer of last year, the last time that president trump tried to pull troops out of syria when lindsey graham was able to convince the president to walk back that decision and influenced by other so-called adults in the room like then defense secretary jim mattis but now we're seeing the limits of the influence that lindsey graham has, and you can see how the influence that lindsey graham would like to assert on foreign policy is not necessarily playing out in the president's policies. >> you think all of the times that lindsey graham playing golf with the president saying i have

the president's ear on this and ultimately yesterday, as we saw, no, he doesn't. >> the one thing that republicans could be outspoken on, with the president, is foreign policy. not just domestic matters. >> all right, anna edgerton, thank you very much. we will talk to you again in a little bit. stick around for us. the congressional budget office announced yesterday that the u.s. ran a budget deficit of just under $1 trillion this fiscal year. according to the associated press, despite low unemployment rates and continuing economic growth, the $984 billion deficit came in $200 billion more than last year. the cbo says deficits have been growing faster than the size of the economy for four years in a row and washington has no appetite to deal with it but the symbolic has yet to hit the $1 trillion during president obama's first term, it could jump if the economy goes into recession. a scary thought there. still ahead, will the

president's personal attorney rudy giuliani cooperate with the impeachment inquiry? what he is saying in a new interview with the daily beast. >> plus, house democrats issued new subpoenas related to president trump's decision to suspend u.s. aid to ukraine. legal analyst danny cevallos is here to weigh in on all of that. we are back in just a moment. at in the storied tradition of his great-great-grandmother, goldi knows to never compromise. too shabby!

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contact with ukrainian officials have so far not agreed to turn over documents. and john dowd who represents igor, wrote in a letter to the house intelligence committee, their asks were overly broad and unduly burdensome. the two business associates missed yesterday's deadline to comply with the requests and two congressional sources telling nbc news they will be served with subpoenas if they do not cooperate going forward. and house democrats have subpoenaed two trump administration officials surrounding the decision to suspend u.s. aid to ukraine. the intelligence committee in tandem with the oversight and foreign affairs committees has demanded documents and communications from mike esper and russell vought. democrats are looking into the white house's decision to withhold critical military assistance to ukraine that was appropriated by congress to counter russian aggressions.

the officials are expected to comply with the request by october 15. let's talk about this. joining us on the set, msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos. good to see you. >> good morning. >> let's talk about the latest subpoenas issued by the house democrats relating to withholding aid. what do you make of them? >> more steps in the investigation to determine whether or not there was some form of a quid pro quo. but again, quid pro quo is not necessarily an immediate this for that between the two parties. so given that broad definition, what congress is looking into, is whether or not there was something maybe days, weeks, months before, or after that constituted something that would approximate a quid pro quo. because if it does, while the president obviously cannot be indicted for a white collar crime like corruption or bribery, he most certainly can be impeached for crimes that are not necessarily crimes within the u.s. crimes code. so let's talk a little bit about rudy giuliani and two of his

associates. also trying to kind of complicate or reject what is coming out from the various house committees for more information. how does that complicate matters? and where do the democrats go from here? what legal mechanisms do they have to get that information going forward? >> i saw the letter which astonishingly it is true, he writes in a comic sans font, it looks like it is a font that looks like handwriting. but he has some valid basis for objection in that if he needs more time to review the subpoena, needs more time to consider its scope, that should be allowed. some of his arguments are little more, well, let's say stretched, because he's claiming in one sense that these gentlemen assisted rudy giuliani who was a private citizen but arguably carrying out some mission of the state department, but we don't really know yet, so these men were assisting him, and then he was assisting the president, should there be some kind of privilege extended. and then really interestingly,

he turns around and makes a different privilege argument that these gentlemen working with rudy giuliani may be entitled to a kind of attorney-client privilege or a work product privilege. different privileges that apply when an attorney arguably in this case, rudy giuliani, is providing legal advice and services. but he has to be providing legal advice and services for privileges to apply. the attorney-client privilege doesn't automatically apply because i'm a lawyer and we happen to be talking about something legal right now. >> what is the end game here, when you have giuliani saying basically i haven't made up my mind and one of the issues is that he thinks this is an illicit committee, you have the attorney saying the chairman is a liar, and he's going to go in front of the committee with the chairman who he believes is a liar. what do you make of ha? what's the ending there? >> the end game, as usual, is the courts and if they want to fight this out, this he can take it to the courts and in that case, the advantage arguably goes to giuliani, because this will result in delay.

and delay is to the benefit of somebody who is subpoenaed like rudy giuliani. because if he can run out the clock, then there may be a new congress, or something may change, and the subpoenas just sort of dissipate into the ether. so any kind of delay at this point. there is very little disincentive for rudy giuliani to not fight these subpoenas, and take them to court. >> all right. danny cevallos, always a pleasure. thank you, my friend. >> thank you. let's switch gears and bring in nbc meteorologist bill karins for a quick check on weather. good morning. lots of clouds lingering on the east coast a gloomy weather pattern. would he have a storm system that will try to develop into subtropical. not like a pur prop, pure tropical system but kind of a hybrid. a spin down in florida. a spin off the coast here and a lot of light rain, and showery type weather, interior sections of new england. and so here is how we're looking at it, the hurricane center says it has a 30% chance of a subtropical system. over the next couple of days as it drifts to the north.

right now, soaking the outser banks, that's about it. that's how we're limited but by the time we get to tomorrow, the storm will be about 250 miles off the coastline of southern new england, away from new york city, and a lot of the heavy rain will be off the coast and then heading back in areas here, of southern new england but it will be windy. there will be some strong winds at the coast and high waves, too, and there will be periods of rain that move onshore with this storm system and it lingers into thursday and even friday. i think that's the bigger story is it kind of going to sit here and send bands of rain occasionally to the coastal areas of new england and don't plan on seeing the areas of sun in coastal new england or central new england, all the way through friday. it may not be to saturday until we we the weather beginning to improve. and the heaviest rain, cape cod and long island. two or three inches and not any flooding rains and anywhere in green and the interior sections of northern new england, about a half inch. it is in the really the high impact of a storm, and i don't think there is going to be a lot

of travel delays, i think the worst of it would be the from the winds, especially as we go through thursday, notice the winds in the 40s, 20s, out on nantucket, about 43, that's as we go into thursday and friday. maybe minor airport delays with that. still some great weather to be had in the middle of the country and enjoy it while it lasts. temperatures today, perfect from dallas to oklahoma city to st. louis, all of the midwest looks great. dodging showers and storms in the southeast and notice the temperatures here. salt lake city, 73. billings montana, from 71 today, to a high of 29 on wednesday. we have a snowstorm coming, not just for the northern rockies, but the northern plains. we will talk about that coming up. >> that is a shock. >> thanks, bill. still ahead, health updates on jimmy carter who fell in his home in georgia over the weekend. coming up. information. a wealth of perspective. ♪

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the abuse of power is the defining characteristic of the trump presidency. a president who puts his own interests ahead of the public good and national security, also poses a threat to each and every american's daily lives. >> and senator and 2020 candidate bernie sanders says he is feeling very good, after a heart attack that left him hospitalized last week. the presidential candidate and his wife jane took a short walk around their vermont neighborhood, while holding hands yesterday afternoon. during a rainstorm. >> how you are feeling, senator? >> i feel very good, thank you. >> when can we expect to see you back on the trail? >> soon. getting back to work a little bit right now. but mostly i'm trying to, do i used to walk a good distance every day and i'm trying to get back into that habit. that's what i'm going to do right now. >> so his wife telling nbc, he has been deep in his ipad and making work-related calls

throughout the day. and former president jimmy carter was back to building homes for habitat for humanity, why just a day after suffering a fall in his home, with the left eye and severe bruising and greeted by a cheering crowd just before building the home with an organization in nashville, tennessee. carter received 14 stitches after falling at his home on sunday. he did not let his injuries keep him from drilling and sawing to the nonprofit close to his heart and involved many years and we're glad it see him up and back to work. >> absolutely. and richard engel is standing by with reaction to the president's decision to withdraw troops from northern syria. without consulting anybody but the president of turkey. we're back in a moment. presiden. we're back in a moment ozempic®♪ (announcer) people with type 2 diabetes are excited about the potential of once-weekly ozempic®. in a study with ozempic®, a majority of adults lowered their blood sugar and reached an a1c

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welcome back, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside ayman mohyeldin. we continue to follow the latest on president trump's controversial decision to immediately withdraw all u.s. troops from northern syria ahead of a long-planned turkish military assault. it is smashing chaos in both the middle east and in washington and we have both angles from chief foreign correspondent richard engel. >> with criticis saying it puts kurds against isis at risk and open to attack. president trump is defending his plan to pull u.s. troops out of

northern syria. >> we only have 50 people in that area, it is a small sector, and i don't want them hurt or killed. >> tweeting it is time to get out of the ridiculous wars and the kurds are blasting it as a betrayal, warning they could face ethnic cleansing, even genocide, by turkey, which is preparing to launch an attack against them. the kurds fought shoulder to shoulder, with u.s. special operations forces, for four years against isis. we joined them extensively on the front lines. and saw how much elite u.s. military units relied on them to fight the terror group. >> they led it and they paid for it, in blood. >> what kind of partners did you find them to be? >> committed. dedicated. formidable. >> the president's plan is being slammed by many of his allies calling it catastrophic and a grave mistake. republican senator lindsey graham saying it is a stain on america's honor. >> this decision was made with apparently with no consultation or deliberation with military experts and advisers and that's

how presidents get themselves into trouble. >> after the backlash, the president tweeting, if turkey does anything that i, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider offlimits, i will totally obliterate and destroy the economy of turkey. but there are now also fears about these detention camps. holding tens of thousands of isis fighters and their families. the kurds say they now have to focus on defending themselves, not securing the camps. let's bring in nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel on the ground in istanbul. bring us up to date, richard, as to what you've been hearing and seeing on the ground over the last 24 hours or so since this decision was made. >> reporter: this decision has caused a lot of confusion. and i think people right now in the u.s. military, in syria, that we've been in communication with, turkish official, turkish military, they don't know exactly what is going to happen next. they don't know how far this

green light has been extended. has the green light now been taken away? yesterday, it was very clear, there was this conversation over the weekend, between president trump and president erdogan, the turkish president and in that conversation, president trump strongly suggested that the turks could go ahead, launch their long-awaited offensive into the kurdish region of northern syria, and then the white house followed that up with a statement, affirming that fact, that the u.s. would not oppose an operation by turkey in northern syria. then the kurds started screaming out, what is going on, we're being betrayed, we're going to get massacred and very real concerns that that could happen. there has been huge opposition in washington, including from some of president trump's normal supporters, and he issued that very strange self agran dizing tweet about his great and unmatched wisdom, how we attack

turkey if he went too far aernl dialing it back and giving some sort of warning to turkey and feem frankly don't know is this offensive going to happen? in a smaller way? people are trying to figure out what it was the president said to erdogan, what message erdogan received, and then what this bizarre warning to turkey means amid all of this confusion. so you asked what's the latest, people are scratching their heads trying to figure out what trump, what his policy is, regarding the kurds. >> richard, stay with us for a moment. i want to bring in nbc news correspondent hans nichols from washington, d.c. covering the white house and the pentagon as well. hans, good to have you with us. as you saw richard kind of lay out the confusion that has bee fallen washington as well as the region, let's talk a little bit about what the president intended to do with this because there are questions as to whether or not he was actually signaling to the turkish president that he can have a go ahead, but then as richard was

saying, the next day, you and i were both on the air when that tweet came out saying if he does, i will totally obliterate and destroy his economy. >> reporter: so it's unclear what the president's initial intentions were. i think when you saw the administration officials try to clarify it throughout the day, they tried to couch this as really just a tactical movement, not part of a broader strategic strategy or strategic push in syria. but the central tension and what we are hearing from the administration, from the president on down, is that in one moment he cast this as being about getting out of syria, and getting out of the endless wars and the other moment he says this is just 50 to 100 troops, this is either a slight adjustment along the border and forced posture to make things a little bit easier with the turks, or it is part of the long-hinted at drawdown, the total removal of the thousand u.s. troops serving in syria. they haven't resolved that tension. it might be unresolvable because it is inconsistent.

and that's where we really begin the morning, where the president has this rhetoric about this being part of getting out of foreign wars, that's what he thought he got elected to do, and at the same time, is suggesting that just 50 troops up there, and they're just getting out of the way a little bit, and boy, we don't really know what's going to happen. >> hey, hans, there is a news week piece out yesterday with an intelligence leader on the call with the turkish president and the president was outnegotiated and basically rolled by the turkish leader and that the president has no spine. what have you heard about this specific interaction between the turkish leader and the president, this phone call? >> so nbc news has some reporting on this as well. and you know, when you look at who was on the call, you have mike pompeo, the secretary of state, also on the call, and the backdrop to all of this is the united nations general assembly meeting and later in september, earlier in september, excuse me, where there wasn't a meeting between trump and erdogan. and according to nbc, erdogan felt sleighted by.

that and the president tried to right that by taking this phone call, and the phone call at least according to our reporting, almost spiralled out of control, the president offered a visit to the white house, at a certain point he almost said he was going to take all troops out of syria, because he was, you know, concerned about what would happen, so if the turks came in, he strongly suggested that that would be his reaction. the reaction he ended up settling on, on twitter, was this idea of total economic obliteration. you know, another tension on, this this is going to be semantic, but when you talk to officials at the pentagon and the white house, they refer to the kurd, as partner, which is they definitely are and they refer to the turks as allies, turkey is a nato ally, there is article five implication, attack on one is an attack on all, and yet, there are these huge fissures in the u.s./turkish relationship, we saw it with air defense systems. this is a challenging problem for any administration. it is even more challenging when

the president sometimes, i don't want to say freelance, but does diplomacy without the full complement of everyone weighing in. >> maybe they will release the transcript of that call at some point in the coming days. >> let's go back to istanbul quickly. richard, a question for you. given what we heard there, the big question now is how does this tip the balance in terms of what is happening inside syria. you have the russian, the iranians and the turks are trying to get closer to the russians, could that also be a factor in whether or not turkey goes forward with this operation inside syria? >> reporter: so quite revealing what hans was saying how first the president was, wanting to make up to erdogan, for having snubbed him, and then he apparently gave the green light to attack, that's what erdogan certainly thought, he announced a military operation was under way, and now, u.s. officials saying no, no, it was just a tactical move, and then ultimately in the end president trump, while he said he wanted to make friends with erdogan,

and apologize for having snubbed him apparently at the u.n., then comes out and says he will obliterate the turkish economy which is a strange way of making friends, so that's just from the turkish perspective. the kurds feel even more like a ball at the end of the string. they have been, they have had this alliance with the u.s. military, with the u.s. administration, for several years now, for four years now, but every time this happens, every time there is inconsistency from president trump mainly, they think, do they need to find new backers? and those other backers would either be iran, or the syrian regime. and they don't want to do, it they're uncomfortable with that, they would rather stick with the americans, this is based on conversations i've had with the most senior kurdish leader, but they can't go on forever, because their future is at stake. so if the u.s. continues to be inconsistent, and does in fact allow this offensive to go forward, i think they will definitely pursue even further

the conversations with the assad regime and with russia. >> richard engel and hans nichols, thank you very much. we will see you both coming up on "morning joe" in a little bit. let's turn to impeachment for a moment, taking questions during a briefing with military leaders at the white house yesterday, president trump told reporters he is not worried about the second whistle-blower that has come forward regarding his july phone call with the president of ukraine. >> mr. president, are you concerned with the second whistle-blower and what they may reveal about the conversation. >> not at all, it was a perfect call, he had sten graphers who took it down, it is a perfect call, this is a scam, a scam by the democrats to win an election they are not going to win in 200. >> what reflects a growing distrust of the colleagues, republicans of the house is looking at masking the whistle-blower, and three officials familiar with the deliberations tell the "washington post" the steps in consideration include having the whistle-blower testify from a remote location, and obscuring

the individual's appearance, and voice. in the house, democrats say that without the unusual precautions for the whistle-blower, republicans on the house intelligence committee could learn and then leak the name of the individual. >> the senior congressional official tefling the coast that the committee chair adam schiff does not want to burden the whistle-blower's identity while members of the house intel committee, democratic congress member of illinois, saying the cautions are necessary given president trump's rhetoric toward the whistle-blower. >> this extremely unusual situation unfortunately demands extreme measures, in terms of protecting the security of the whistle-blower. we cannot allow the president to somehow get to the whistle-blower or threaten him, or discourage him or her, from telling their side of the story. >> meanwhile, nbc news survey of the house democratic caucus revealed a dozen lawmakers support the resignation of president trump's ambassador to the european union, gordon

sondland. following revelations about the key role in the unfolding ukraine scandal. sondland is set to be deposed on capitol hill today. as part of the house impeachment inquiry. still ahead we will show you what happened when the acting secretary of homeland security tried to address a conference on immigration yesterday. >> and rejecting the argument that the presidency makes him immune from criminal investigations, a judge orders the president to turn over his tax returns. we're going to tell you what's next in this ongoing fight. your first look at "morning joe," is back in a moment. joe," is back in a moment. ♪ ♪ create up to 12 combinations with applebee's new pasta and grill combos starting at $9.99. and get more bites for

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also given that this is primarily an audience of immigration lawyers, advocates and law students, it's also talking about some of the fundamental issues we face with the current legal framework, and its ability to address large scale immigration. okay. thank you. have a good day.

>> and just like that. >> and just like that. >> acting homeland security secretary kevin mcaleenan walking off stage after being drowned out by protesters at an immigration conference yesterday. protesters at the georgetown university hosting an event appeared to shout multiple names who have died in immigration custody in recent months including several children. condemning the statement saying the first amendment guarantees all americans the right to free speech and assembly, and unfortunately those that right was robbed from many who were scheduled to speak at georgeton and the acting secretary did not have the opportunity to engage in robust dialogue due to the few activists. and the second circuit court of appeals, after a last-minute delay preventing new york prosecutors obtaining eight years of business and tax record, blocking a subpoena by

manhattan district attorney, the stay was issued shortly after a u.s. district court judge rejected trump's claim that he was immune from a criminal investigation, related to hush money payments made to stormy daniels and karen mcdougal. trump has consistently cited an ongoing audit as the reason for withholding his tax records. let's get a check on the weather with nbc meteorologist bill karins. >> good tuesday morning. in october, we can get some tropical development. this is our third most active month, after september, and august. and we have about a 50% chance of one that is way out in the atlantic. not worried about. that but a 10% and a 30% chance of two storms that are potentially going to develop right off the east coast. if they do, they will remain weak. but they will give us rough surf. gusty winds. and occasional rain along the coastal areas. those are the five-day development zones. the other big story, there is a winter blast coming into montana later today. winter storm warnings are up for a few areas. winter storm watches from

wyoming through south and north dakota and a section in nebraska and this is the snow footprint, by the time the storm is all done, the area of blue, a huge area of three to six inches and into the areas of the dack tass, we could see up to nine inches of snow and in colorado, the first snow in the foothills, even denver could see a couple of flakes but mostly up in the mountains. the temperature change is going to be dramatic, as it gets to this time of the year. so we're in the 50s today. in areas in montana. that's not too bad. look at salt lake city. 73. and rapid city at 77 today. you will be shoveling snow in about two days from now. by the time we get to wednesday, the cold moves in and eventually sweep all the way through the northern plains, into the midwest. even areas like chicago on saturday will only be in the 40s. maybe obviously a high of 50 degrees. so yes, we have the huge snowstorm, about ten days ago, and this is going to be the second one already, of the fall season, in the northern rockies. >> ski season. >> a great start. >> a good start. >> thanks, bill. >> always a bright side to

things. still ahead, the president's go had alone strategy on syria and the war over impeachment and china's vice grip over corporate america. we have a first look at axios just ahead. biopharmaceutical researchers. driven each day to pursue life-changing cures... in a country built on fostering innovation. here, they find breakthroughs... like a way to fight cancer by arming a patient's own t-cells... and a new therapy that gives the blind a working gene so they can see again. because it's not just about the next breakthrough... it's all the ones after that.

we've got word now that we have the whistleblower complaint. >> it would depend on whether zelensky showed a willingness to, quote, play ball. >> he saw the pressure of the ukrainian leader to take actions to help the president's wept 20 re-election bid. >> they were, quote, directed by white house lawyers to remove the electronic transcript from the computer system. >> it's all been an incredible 24 hours. welcome back, everyone. let's get to business. the trump administration placed 28 chinese organizations on a trading blacklist yesterday. we're joined live from london. good to have you with you. what is behind the decision and

how could it affect the trade talks? >> 28 companies were added to the blacklist yesterday. mostly tech companies and manufacturers of surveillance equipment. they are a leading exporter of surveillance technology. clearly the decision stops them in their tracks. when it comes to the trade talks this weeks it's raising the bar of getting a deal done. it's a high level. especially given that this is one of the first times that we've seen the u.s. wrap in human rights concerns with their economic deals with china. so even though we heard from a commerce department spokesperson says saying the action was not related to the upcoming talks, there's a lot of investor nervousness in the air. southwest airlines are now officially suing boeing saying that the company had misled them over the safety of the boeing 737 max planes. these are planes that have been grounded for seven months after

the two fatal crashes. they say that the plane's grounding has cost them more than a hundred million dollars in lost income. they had 34 of those planes and more orders for the boeing 737 max than any other airline in the u.s. boeing said we believe this lawsuit is meritless and will defend against? >> it finally, e-cigarettes, kroger and walgreens are the latest retailers to announce they'll stop selling e-cigarettes in their stores. this after walmart made a similar decision in september. both companies are citing health concerns as well as increasingly risk to environment. finally, the center for disease control and prevention has identified at least 18 confirmed deaths and more than a thousand cases of poisoning on back of e-cigarettes. a big story there. >> scary trend. all right.

thanks for that update. up next, mike allen of axios has a look at this morning's one big thing. coming up on "morning joe," republicans may be standing by the president through the impeachment push, but his decision to withdrawal troops from northern syria has his staunchest defenders pushing back and pushing back hard. >> joe and mika will have the fallout from capitol hill including current international guard adam kinzinger. "morning joe," everyone, just moments away. s away. e to geic. it was easy. folks, can it get any better than this? is that what i think it is? that is an armada of tiny sushi boats. awesome! i forgot to pack lunch. you had one job... chopsticks wasabi and soy! comin' in a little hot. it only gets better when you switch and save with geico.

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. all right. joining us now from washington, d.c. the cofounder of axios, mike allen. what is the one big thing for today? >> the axios one big thing is china's vice grip on corporate america. this isn't the only time we've seen china use its market power to try to bully american companies and restrict free

speech speech. after an nba tweet, the rockets houston general manager tweeted just an image backing the pro democracy protesters in hong kong that you see there, it had this furious reaction from china, from china basketball. and even of the companies in china, this embarrassing statement both from the nba and from the houston rockets prostrating themselves to china trying to back off. but it hasn't totally worked. and we've seen this also with china pushing american companies to make changes in their maps, on their websites often having do with hong kong, taiwan, chinese extreme sensitivity about the other parts it considers all one countries. and so the why it matters is the china is such a massive market is able to get u.s. companies to either shut up or change their practices in ways that they wouldn't even at home. >> we also know that president

trump is facing some intense backlash from republicans who believe he has abandoned a key ally of the kurds in the fight against isis. what kind of peril does he find himself in right now? >> yeah, he's on a lonely road just at a time that he needs friends. so republicans are warning him both the global security risk of pulling back in syria and of the political risk. so start with global security and the worries about the consequences of the resurgence of isis. politically, the very senators that president trump needs to get his back at the top of the list are going to put lindsey graham and marco rubio, are horrified by this decision. and behind the scenes we're told they were taken by surprise by this. they weren't read in. they had no idea and are very, very concerned about this. last night the white house did a briefing for reporters, a phone call where they said that this

was not as dramatic as people thought and saying that the u.s. would not be responsible for any resurgence of isis. so what does that add up to? it adds up to confusion, especially with people that the president needs out there make the case for him. >> so, mike, the ongoing impeachment inquiry has caused a rift between pro trump media and conservative leaning news out lets. what's happening many this divide? >> ever since the president's inauguration, the conserve dif media has been four square behind him. but now we have both because of impeachment and syria, that's really being tested. and for the first time we have conservative outlets who have in the past been very pro trump are pulling back and are either being skeptical or critical and we have that great axios illustration there, and we have them attacking each other, something else that's new. >> all right, mike allen, thank

you very much. we'll be reading axios a.m. in just a bit and you can sign up for the newsletter by going to signup.axios.com. >> that does it for us on this tuesday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. thank you very much, everybody. i want to start by wishing my very good friend prime minister abe of japan, a happy birthday. he's 39 years old today. please extend my wishes to the prime minister. >> president trump -- >> people say he's not on top of his game. he's on top of it. i mean, that really shows that you have the details when you're able to remember birthday of one of america's most important allies. >> shinzo abe. >> maybe he is on top of his game. >> no, because that was 2