we also tried to combat isis disinformation. that's all coming around and part of that is because trump himself is the disinformationist in cleehief. not only here but around the world. >> we're excited to have the book. we're excited to have you. thank you for being here today. my thanks to mara. i'm nicolle wallace. "mtp daily" with the fabulous chuck starts now. if it's monday, it's a former administration insider behind closed doors on capitol hill. president trump's former top aide on russia is testifying right now and the white house is worried. plus, a victory for america's adversaries. 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 and ukrainian policy. a source tells nbc news that ms. hill was prepared to tell congress that the president's personal attorney, rudy giuliani, and e.u. ambassador gordon sondland went around the national security council and normal white house procedure to pursue a shadow foreign policy on ukraine. and to try and dig up dirt on the bidens in ukraine. and house investigators will hear from sondland himself on thursday, who plans to defy state department orders and appear before congress. according to the washington post, sondland will testify that giuliani had him work on getting ukraine to announce a corruption investigation into a company tied to hunter biden in exchange for a white house visit for the ukrainian president. nbc news is reporting that sondland will also testify that his denial of a quid pro quo on ukrainian military aide was based solely on president

trump's personal assurances. in other words, he only denied it because president trump told him to. and all of this is happening after "the new york times" reported this weekend that the president's lawyer, rudy giuliani, is under federal criminal investigation into whether he violated foreign lobbying laws in his work in ukraine. joining me now is nbc's hans nickels at the white house and nbc's jeff bennett is on capitol hill. so many, many hours behind closed doors, jeff. do we have any idea what's going on with fiona hill? >> well, katie, i can tell you our reporting has been born out in the sense that we are getting some reporting that she has conveyed what we were told that she would convey to these house investigators. that it's her view that rudy giuliani, the president's outside attorney, and gordon sondland, the ambassador to the e.u. who is set to testify later in the week, those two men ran, as you put it, a shadow foreign policy on ukraine. running the trapping outside the

formal, normal processes and procedures. not working in the national interest but working in their own self-interest at the behest of president trump. i'm also told she's gone a step further to defend the work and the reputation of marie yovanovitch, the former ambassador to ukraine, who was ousted at least in some part having to do with the disinformation campaign that rudy giuliani set about. trying to -- trying to smear her because remember she was one of those officials who raised concerns about the work that giuliani was doing. now, fiona hill has always been sort of an intriguing person, intriguing choice at least for president trump to pick her to serve as his top russia expert. she is a well-known russia hawk. she's putin skeptic. at times, she found herself at odds with president trump given his state of desire to make nice with vladimir putin. but given her reported testimony, katy, given what we've heard from kurt, what we've heard from marie yovanovitch, you can see the pieces coming together.

how democrats are going to stitch together this argument they're making against president trump. they say they know the what and why. what they're doing now is try to get to the bottom of how. how it is in their view that he solicited foreign interference in the u.s. election. >> and why are republicans not happy with this being behind closed doors, jeff? >> reporter: this is one of the talking points that we've heard from republicans. i think this is their chief talking point. they talk about the process. they're making the point that if this is going to be an impeachment process, it should happen out in the open. democrats make the point that, yes, there will come a time for the public to find out what democrats have learned in this process. but adam schiff, the chairman of the house intelligence committee, has made clear he doesn't want witnesses to be tipped off by one another. he doesn't want the white house to know what some of these witnesses are saying behind closed doors. at least not yet. now, members of congress returned to the hill here tomorrow so you can imagine that as this impeachment inquiry moves forward into the next few weeks, there will be a time that will come for some of these --

from some of these hearings to move out into the public. but for right now, the depositio depositions they're taking are certainly happening behind closed doors. >> and hans, why is the white house worried about fiona hill's testimony in particular? >> fiona hill has a great deal of information about what the white house's posture and strategy was on the ukraine up to a certain point. so she in particular can be helpful in explaining what was happening with marie yovanovitch and why she was ultimately demoted from her position as ambassador. but she wasn't there for the actual phone call between the president of ukraine and president trump that's really at the center of the democrats' investigation into their inquiry on impeachment. you know, so when you look at the overall white house strategy right now, think of it almost in two tracks. they've got a legal strategy and pr strategy. the pr strategy is firmly in the hands of the president's thumbs. that's the president talking as well as tweeting. and then you have the legal strategy and there seems to be an acknowledgment that they need to beef up their legal team.

rudy giuliani speaking moments ago with my colleague saying they are looking, signaling that they are looking to bring on more legal help. implicit in that is that they are going to have to up their game and they may have to bring in additional counselors to try to craft the president's legal strategy. and katy, just real quick. make a slightly awkward turn here but we do have new sanctions from the president. president announcing sanctions on turkey. he's not being real specific. he's talking about what's happening in terms of additional sanctions for steel. he's saying trade talks are off. but we still don't have an affirmative statement from the president about what he's going to do to erdogan and if erdogan, the president of turkey, will be personally sanctioned. >> we have a full discussion on syria and turkey coming up. hans, one more question to you. what about sondland? later this week, he is going to testify according to our reporting and recording from multiple outlets now that the quid pro quo text message he sent diplomat bill taylor was

basically dictated by the president. >> and that just adds another layer of is -- is sondland on the president's side of this? or does he want to sort of side with the democrats? what the president -- excuse me what sondland has indicated is he's happy to testify even not withstanding the state department's objections. different views on whether or not sondland's actually going to testify. but he isn't turning over any notes, any documents, because he says those belong to the state department. so it's still an open question here whether or not the white house has a legal strategy to try to prevent anyone from testifying that's still in the employ of the united states government. >> they were going to hire trey gatty, former congressman. but that fell apart over the weekend as well. thank you, guys, very much. for more on the legal implications of all of this for the president and for rudy giuliani, i'm joined by nbc legal analyst. she's also a former assistant u.s. attorney in the southern

district of new york. also the same office rudy giuliani used to head. so this news that the scny is looking into what rudy giuliani was look overseas in ukraine, explain what they're doing. also, very weird since giuliani used to run the office. >> it is unusual. but, you know, more credit to them for doing that and in many ways, i think that they're looking at giuliani, who used to be former u.s. attorney. you know, and saying what are you doing? right? it makes it all the more sort of shocking and incredulous that he might have committed crimes like this. and that he's hiding behind this veil of being the president's lawyer. i mean, i almost wish we could stop calling him that because none of this stuff that he's doing with respect to ukraine, giuliani, is as a lawyer, a legal matter, pertaining to the president. i mean, if he is -- what it looks like they're getting at here is they're looking at his

work with these two men who have now been indicted. parnas and furthermoren. to amongst other things, get ambassador of ukraine out. why? some people in ukraine didn't want her because she is a corruption fighter. giuliani didn't want her because she didn't like what he was doing on the side and behind the back of the state department. those are not legitimate reasons and giuliani isn't acting legitimately as the president's lawyer in doing that. there's no privilege here. >> why is there no privilege here? is it because he said the state department sent me and he's got text messages with state department officials? >> well, i mean, there's no privilege. i -- i would flip the question around. why on earth would there be a privilege? right? there's no attorney/client privilege because, again, he's not really acting as trump's personal lawyer here. he's acting as sort of an agent, a fixer, you know, not even a legitimate agent. right? i mean, he's doing things that he's not in a position legitimately to be doing.

namely, why is rudy giuliani, who has no security clearance that we know of, no real security clearance, no bona fides, no credentials with the state department, why is he working to get an ambassador, u.s. ambassador, out of office? i mean, there's no legitimate explanation for that. >> so i'm wondering how were the democrats in your opinion building their case? i guess the -- the allegation is that the president nefariously was trying to get the government of ukraine to investigate his political rivals. both what happened in 2016 and joe biden for 2020. the president says it's all fine but now what you're seeing are ambassadors, diplomats, text messages that show that behind the scenes, the president was directing -- seemed to be directing rudy giuliani. and there was a deliverable -- what -- what about the case that they're building? what do you make of it? >> i think they're building a good case and i -- i think the

way it's working is you've got sort of the hard evidence. right? you've got the phone call between trump and za liens ki. you've got the text messages of people in real time saying, whoa, what's going on? now, what they need to do is find out what the whoa was, right? what made people say that? was it because -- was there any -- you don't need this, right? all you need for impeachment and i think is very bad would be showing that trump and giuliani were soliciting this help for their campaign, which they pretty clearly were doing just on the face of the phone call and text messages. but we want to find out everything that happened and i think what we're going to dig into is was there a deliberate withholding of the aid to ukraine in exchange for that digging up dirt? >> can barr get involved in this? >> well, i mean, barr -- >> in the investigation. >> he could. yeah. so far, he hasn't and that's good. you know, there are certain kinds of charges where the scny

needs to go to barr for permission. the kind of public corruption type charges, campaign finance charges, technically they have to get a sort of consult from the department of justice. he doesn't actually approve them. but u y you know, you're not going to go do this if you're a u.s. attorney without giving a heads up to the department of justice. i think at this point now that they've had these charges, they've had this press conference, there's so much out there in the public realm. and i know bill barr is not -- you know, doesn't really seem to care that much about what people think. but even for him at this point, if he tried to shut it down, it seems to me that impeachment proceedings for him would begin the next day. >> meme, thank you so much for joining us. and ahead, the political fall out of today's testimony from a white house insider and the question surrounding the president's future as support for impeachment grows among the american public. plus, the president has still not condemned a violent video showing a fake president trump attacking, killing journalists. we'll talk to a former trump

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. the radical democrats policies are crazy. their politicians are corrupt. their candidates are terrible. and they know they can't win on election day so they're pursuing an illegal, invalid, and unconstitutional [ bleep ] impeachment. >> welcome back. lashing out at his critics and the house impeachment investigation. seemingly growing increasingly agitated as he gets increasingly isolated. just today, the president has tweeted more than a dozen times on everything from impeachment to hunter biden to syria and the kurds. former majority leader harry reid and dancing with the stars. seriously. one thing he did not mention. he did not mention this.

let's underscore that. a violent video played at a pro-trump conference at trump's doral resort last week. this is a still frame from the video, which was obtained by "the new york times." we're not going to play it. this is a very tame version of what it actually depicts but it does depict a fake version of president trump shooting and stabbing and murdering members of the media, lawmakers, and others as well. this morning, the white house said that president trump had not seen the video and that he would see it soon but that he condemned it based upon everything he's heard. but we have yet to hear from the president himself on this video. joining me now, former trump campaign advisor sam nunberg. political analyst and new york times reporter. serena is also a political analyst and a former clinton campaign advisor. and john hortz, he's the editor of commentary magazine and an msnbc contributor. we're going to put the video on hold for a moment.

sam, first i want to get your take on what's the president's state of mind right now. he's tweeting a lot. he's swearing a lot at campaign rallies. he seems angry. >> well, he certainly feels under siege. i think the president is the one person within his inner circle who still believes that there is a chance he won't be impeached. this is somebody as you would well know, katy, does not want to go down in the history books as a president who faced articles of impeachment. even if it could help him as his campaign is arguing against an election against elizabeth warren, it is something he's fought vociferously. i don't know if he was prepared for the backlash that he received after abandoning the kurds for erdogan. it was very funny because he spoke at the family research council on saturday and he had a prayer with pastor andrew brunson, who is the pastor he gained a lot of credit for with the evangelical voters for getting released from turkey. the man was held there by erdogan. so i think this is where he

needs to remember that even though he has the senate under control as of now and he ultimately will because he has around 30 points more approval in the state of kentucky than mitch mcconnell. he can't do actions that will go in the face of his core of base. >> that's a good point. he has 30 points more approval in kentucky than mitch mcconnell does. seems like he has his arms tied behind his back. but i wonder, nick, if this is the perfect storm for the president. what we're seeing now. impeachment support ticking upwards. the president swearing and going a bit nutty on campaign rallies. and the serious stuff, which is just getting worse and worse by the day. could this be what -- i mean, if he's going to break, if there's going to be a crack, is this when it will happen? >> i think we've all -- in the media, in washington, gotten in the habit of thinking of politics as static and unchanging. >> yeah. >> thinking too much about his hard core supporters and not enough about the people in the middle who didn't like him much

the first time, voted for him anyway. those people can be moved and will move and are moving and politics is not static and people are responsive to public opinion. >> does syria do it? is syria what -- >> i don't know if syria alone. i'm not sure americans are predisposed to care as much as they ought to. >> isis fighters getting released. maybe not the kurds but isis fighters getting released. >> it is a real contrast to his message of strength and independence that he has taken these actions that have enabled russia and isis to move back into the region, which is astonishing. and if, in fact, any connection to his interest in turkey, that's going to be bad for him. >> what do you think? >> i've think we've already broken him. i think the country is just in the middle of the process of perhaps breaking. holding together. >> democrats? >> oh, no. as a country. i'm not just talking as a party. i'm talking as a country. president. we've broken him. the presidency has broken him. no adult person should behave the way he behaves. if it was your parent, your

friend tweeting in the middle of the night in all capital letters and cursing and acting the way that president trump is behaving, you'd probably be concerned about that person. and i'm not saying that to be flip. i think it's actually very concerning and we are uncomfortable talking about that because that delves into sort of the psychology and the medical issues. but i think that it is a relevant issue that we can't just cast aside because it's uncomfortable. because, again, going -- i mean, john and i had this debate last week about how scary it is to live in this reality where donald trump behaving this way has the nuclear launch codes. so every single day that we wake up, that is our reality. and while, you know, folks are like, oh, you know, calm down. you know, that's what he would say to me. calm down. you're going too far. i think that we have to remember that reality because that is something that is true regardless of whether or not it makes us scared or not. that is a fact. he has the nuclear launch codes

and regardless of whether or not the specific process through which -- >> let's not get into the same debate we had last week. >> no, i'm not getting into the same debate. >> it's an ongoing national security threat and just because it makes us uncomfortable doesn't mean we can ignore it. >> i'm not saying to ignore it. i want to get john's take on what republicans -- because republicans hold the cards in whether -- if he's impeached, whether he gets convicted in the senate. he needs 20 republicans. that's a giant number. but what are republicans looking at? i mean, republicans are -- are up in arms over his syria decision. lindsey graham up in arms over his syria decision. are they watching this? and will there be a point with this where they say, gosh, i just can't any longer? >> i think they could say i just can't any longer but not necessarily on impeachment. on policy terms. in other words, saying this is just too much. i can't handle it. i can't handle what he's done here. he has reversed, you know, 20 years of american policy in the middle east and he's reversed 20

years of republican efforts to make a certain argument about how the world works and what happens if you -- if you withdrawal before you've established -- >> he is too dangerous. >> no. here's what i think. okay. if 2020 is sequel. right? trump election part two. you know how in sequels, they have to up the explosions? they have to have more explosions. they have to have, you know, better special effects. >> you think he's just going to the extreme because he needs to one up himself? >> i think what we see here is if he was don rickels in 2016, he's sam kenison in 2019. he's getting harsher. he's getting harder. he's cursing because he's already, you know, like the other stuff is now might seem a little tame. he's now going to these rallies. how is he going to match the energy and the enthusiasm of 2015-2016? he's got to up the temperature under them and we're here. it's october and he's already

going, you know, bonzo. so, you know, we ghot another year of this. >> and there's already been violence directly associated with his specific rhetoric. >> that is scary for this reason. the rallies in 2016 got very scary in some -- in some particular places. especially, towards the end of the campaign. sam, i'm going to direct this to you because i had a conversation that's seared in my brain with a campaign staffer towards the end of 2016 when things were getting really hairy out there. when journalists were getting screamed at. when supporters were coming up against the fences and giving us the bird and calling us traitors. it got really ugly. and i talked to a campaign staffer and i said does he care if one of us gets hurt? and the campaign staffer, he being donald trump, said no. and i said are you sure he doesn't care if one of us gets hurt? and the campaign staffer said, no, he does not care. so in looking at the video that

was played at a trump pac event of media members getting slaughtered by the president, media members or his -- his political rivals getting slaughtered by the president. is there a reason why we've only seen a campaign or a white house statement from the white house communications director and not from the president himself? >> well, i'm sure you will by tomorrow or so. >> you think so? >> maybe on twitter once he watches the news cycle. but yeah. >> why once he watches the news cycle? this is the guy who commented on a viral video of a -- of a -- of a beverage truck in an airport spinning out of control last week. >> look, i'm not a special pleader for behavior like that and i think that something like this was -- it -- it's absolutely disgusting and it does -- and it does the president, it does his core supporters no help. it doesn't do any service to them. and the idea that somebody would think that this was something

that would be smart to show, especially at a rally or at an organization of young people, really goes to show that these groups need to be better -- better organized. but at the end of the day, from a more objective point of view, katy, when we talk about the republican party, donald trump is still raising record amounts of money. he's still getting record amounts of people to show up at his rallies as an incumbent. and he's still polling very well in florida and ohio. so while we all see this, we have to also remember that the voters are giving him a pathway for the party itself to be able to have an argument that, look, this guy, we don't like him. and a lot of senators don't. but he has -- he's electable and he is controlling the purse strings of the party. >> can i just say nick i think made an important point, which is a lot of people voted for him not liking him in 2016. but deciding that they were going to give him a shot because hillary was the alternative or whatever reason they had. and now, they really know who he

is. and we don't know what effect that has. in other words, is there still a hidden trump vote that's going to pop out of nowhere? or is it going to be the reverse? which is he can't sell himself as an unknown. he -- >> what's going to be the breaking point? is it going to be the impeachment hearing and everything going on with the shadow campaign in ukraine showing the president potentially didn potentially wanted to get a foreign government to meddle in the election? is it escalating his behavior at rallies? >> i'm not sure it's a breaking point question. people always forget in discussions how campaigns are won and lost. it's not about if you win the white working class vote. it's about if you win part of it or more of it or even more than that. right? slice of the electorate. so is trump going to lose too much oxygen in too many different groups across the board? not all the white working class vote. but chunks of it. >> only won by 77,000 votes in

michigan. >> oh i remember that number every day. >> i think there are a lot of things that could compound and turn off those segments in different ways. and i finally say, you know what? this guy. forget about it. i've had enough of him. i'm going to try a democrat this time. >> there is a flipside to that, though. even more so than trump's base. but there are black people and they vote so especially african-american women who have so much power. >> exactly. they win the elections. if you look all the data, we win elections. we won in november 2013. the gender gap was wide and it was mainly women of color. so that's one example. jug jones is another example where black women made the difference. i think while it's true about the white working class margins, it's absolutely also true that turnout was down 7% among black voters in 2016. candidate that actually speaks to the issues that black voters care about. so you're not just saying here's

my plan for black people and it's all about criminal justice reform. that is insulting and too many democratic campaigns do that. so that's one way to not do it correctly. but i think that you have to speak about issues of social justice and racism. if you are ignoring the issue of racism as a democratic candidate in 2020, you're doing it wrong. >> zerlena, nick, john, you guys are sticking with us. sam, thank you so much for lending your expertise. coming up, deteriorating situation in syria. we're going live to the region as president trump responds to pressure from his own party over his actions in turkey. ♪ applebee's new pasta and grill combos.

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learn more at freestylelibre.us welcome back. tonight in 2020 vision, the bidens are fighting back in a new way against president trump, who continued his attacks on hunter on twitter today. in an attempt to blunt the president's attacks on his international business ties, hunter biden announced that he will resign his position with the chinese investment firm. in a statement from his lawyer, hunter also promised that if his father were elected, he would quote comply with any and all guidelines or standards president biden may issue to address purported conflicts of interest. hunter will agree not to serve on boards of or work on behalf of foreign-owned companies. meanwhile, the former vice president is forcefully pushing back against the president's attacks.

>> no one in my family will have an office in the white house, will sit in meetings as if they're cabinet member, will in fact have any business relationship with anyone that relates to a foreign corporation or foreign country. period. period. no one. no one has asserted my son did a single thing wrong. no one has asserted that i have done anything wrong except the lying president. that's the only thing. that's the focus. >> and biden also called the president out in his new anti-corruption plan calling trump's white house quote the most corrupt administration in modern history. we expect biden will be questioned about this all at tomorrow night's democratic debate and heading into that debate, a new national poll has elizabeth warren holding a narrow lead over biden. 30% to 27%. bernie comes in third at 11. mayor pete at eight. and harris at four.

no other candidate polled above 2%. and be sure to watch msnbc's post debate analysis tomorrow night coverage with brian williams, nicolle wallace, chris hayes, starts immediately following the debate. we'll be right back. we'll be right back. ? i want free access to research. yep, td ameritrade's got that. free access to every platform. yeah, that too. i want to know what i'm paying upfront. yes, absolutely. now offering zero commissions on online trades. and grew it tony $36 billion dollars.986 in 2010, i signed the giving pledge to fund good causes. then i left my business to combat climate change, fix our democracy, and hold president trump accountable. last year, we ran the largest youth voter mobilization in history - helping double turnout and win back the house. i'm tom steyer and i approve this message. let's make change happen!

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welcome back. president trump announced about 90 minutes ago that he will soon halt trade negotiations with turkey and authorize new sanctions in response to its military offensive in northern syria. the president released a statement that reads in part turkey's action is precipitating a humanitarian crisis and setting conditions for possible war crimes. turkey must ensure the safety of civilians, including religious and ethnic minorities and is now or may be in the future responsible for the ongoing detention of isis terrorists in the region. this all comes after president trump essentially gave turkey a green light to launch its

military offensive in the first place by announcing withdrawal of u.s. troops in that region. a decision that forced kurds there to now turn to syria's government, once their sworn enemy, for protection against turkey which considers the kurds its enemy. nbc news senior international correspondent kira simmons is live in turkey just north of the syrian border. and kerry, your picture is breaking up but hopefully we'll be able to stick with you the next few minutesme. last week, we were talking about what would happen if the president imposed sanctions on turkey. whether that would -- would sway erdogan not to continue this offensive in northern syria. today, he's -- he is going further where those sanctions. what's the word over there? >> yeah, katy. i mean, the picture may be breaking up but the picture here is pretty clear i have to say. and you remember that last week you and i spoke about it and i said i didn't think the sanctions would have that much

impact. frankly, i stick to that. i mean, look. reality is that so often u.s. foreign policy missteps come down to u.s. leaders more obsessed with what's going on inside the beltway than what's actually happening around the world. and right now, you appear to have the president racing congressional leaders to see who can impose economic penalties on turkey fast enough. well, just a short distance from here inside syria, forces loyal to ankora and forces loyal to domascus are racing to grab pieces of syrian territory. i mean, the sound of turkish artillery is far louder than any tweet president trump can set off. so, you know, will it have an impact? the truth is that economic penalties take months to have an impact and we are talking about situation in syria that is changing by the hour. certainly, by the day. i suspect that very soon you

will see syrian dough mass cuss forces facing up against turkish forces. the real fear is whether those two forces are going to come into collision with each other and president putin is probably the only person, the only leader, who's really able to solve that. you know, back in 2016, katy, i guess you could argue that americans voted for withdrawal from the world and for other countries to take their role in sorting the world's issues out. if that is the case, i guess those american voters have got what they wanted. but i don't -- can't imagine people who voted for president trump really wanted to see iran empowered and perhaps even russia empowered. president assad empowered. >> what if they say listen, it's their region. why should we be involved in their region? bring our troops home. >> yeah. it's a great question. i'll tell you what. i'll put it like this. there is -- there are isis, committed isis members, who are

spilling out in syria for whatever reason. be it because the kurds have walked away from those camps or prisons or because the kurds have willfully let them go. there's no evidence of that. so that's an american foreign policy issue. and i'll make another point, too, katy. because if this thing unravels, spirals in an even worse way and you see clashes between turkey and president assad backed by russia, backed by iran, then you could easily see america sucked back into this situation. so i just -- it's just not as easy as that and i wish it was. another point, too. there are still american troops here in syria. there are american troops in syria standing defensively to stop iran from spreading further closer to the israeli border. so, you know, is president trump going to withdrawal those troops from syria? and terrify jerusalem? this is not a simple world. .

and i'm afraid that america has huge vested interest in this region. will continue to have and really can't -- can't avoid that. >> who else has a vested interest in making sure isis combatants don't escape and -- and reform the califate? >> yeah. another great question. i think there's some real politic in this, which is that the fact is that if president assad's forces do take over huge new swaths of syria get those back if you like, the isis members they encounter will be treated -- will not be treated simp sympathetically. assad's forces will have no sympathy for isis forces. so we have to see what plays out on the ground. but it's got to be a worry for the west to see such hardened jihadists seemingly disappearing. >> nbc's keer simmons in turkey.

thank you very much. ahead, the clash between the president and his own party overture ki overtu over turkey's actions in syria. over turkey's actions in syria g from national. because national lets me lose the wait at the counter... ...and choose any car in the aisle. and i don't wait when i return, thanks to drop & go. at national, i can lose the wait...and keep it off. looking good, patrick. i know. (vo) go national. go like a pro. i felt i couldn't be at my best for my family. in only 8 weeks with mavyret, i was cured and left those doubts behind. i faced reminders of my hep c every day. but in only 8 weeks with mavyret, i was cured. even hanging with friends i worried about my hep c. but in only 8 weeks with mavyret, i was cured. mavyret is the only 8-week cure

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a stronger sanctions package than what the white house is suggesting. and at a time when the president needs strong support from republican senators, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell also broke away from the president and released a statement today condemning his actions. he said quote i am gravely concerned by the recent events in syria and by our nation's response thus far. adding, i look forward to discussing what the united states can do to avoid a strategic calamity with my senate colleagues and with senior administration officials. nick, zelena, and jon hortz are all back. he said the united states a bunch of times. didn't say president trump's name. interesting. >> he's gravely concerned. there is lots and lots of grave concern in the senate over this. >> or the potential for a catastrophe like he's describing. mitch mcconnell at least is trying to step in here and be a

serious person. but it does demonstrate the republicans are cowards because they cannot criticize the president on these other issues but clearly they are capable. >> what's the difference between the two issues? >> one issue their base, the republican base probably isn't going to get too pissed off at them for criticizing donald trump over syria, because americans, that's not the number one issue on our minds. but with all these other issues, i think they're worried that if they're seen as joining up with democrats and trying to take this inquiry seriously, that they're sort of betraying the president. but here is the thing. the question you're asking republicans at this moment. i just want to say one more thing. >> go ahead. >> the question we're asking in this moment is do you think crimes are illegal? because the president stood on television and committed a crime. we have spent many years through mueller coming to a collective understanding that you cannot get foreign help in an election

and he did it on television. >> ted cruz said it was wrong, ted cruz. >> the syria thing is a very specific kind of calamity. trump got on the phone sunday night, announced that we were withdrawing our military umbrella over the kurds, and by wednesday, the turks were killing the kurds and isis fighters who had been held in captivity by the kurds were walking out of jail, like this happened directly as a result of one phone call with no intercession. so there is no -- it's not like there are shades of gray here. trump did something and there was an immediate world response to what happened. the turks launched a broadside against the kurds in syria. and now he's saying we're going to redeploy our forces in the middle east to protect the middle east from the isis fighters. >> do any of us know what that

really means? i think we give him too much credit sometimes. >> i think he is having a lot of trouble spinning this as some form of the american interest. when you see that isis captives are being released, when you see our allies in one of the few corners of syria that is occupied by folks that like us for the most part and share some of our values being executed on the side of the road by people working for a strongman in turkey, it is very hard to argue that our national interest is being served, or even some vague idea of strength is being served. we are being played over there right now, and this is an everything bagel of calamities and death. this is terrible. >> how much worse does it need to get before there is a revolution, a rebellion among republicans. >> well there is going to be, tomorrow. if you want them to shift their focus on to a matter that is more to -- if you want this to bleed over into ukraine, that might not happen and would in fact i think lessen the response

on syria, which is to say there is nowhere for trump to hide here. he said this morning that the kurds had betrayed us because they were looking for some kind of alliance with somebody so they couldn't get slaughtered. he used the term. they betrayed us. we betrayed them. they didn't betray us. this is an astonishing thing the he has done. >> can another president come in and fix this and rebuild our alliances? or have we broken it? >> sure we can fix it. but the -- >> can they trust americans from administration to administration? >> well, one of the things, one of the reasons you don't behave the way trump has behaved here is precisely that. you don't want to leave future presidents with fewer arrows to serve and protect the american interest. and if america's word appears to be insanely unreliable, going after trump's presidentsy ends and i'm not him, so everything is going to be fine, that's not

necessarily going to happen. >> do you need a bigger name officials, former officials or even officials that might still work in the administration to come out and condemn the president or explain to the american public why this syria stuff is such a big deal? is it enough for senator mcconnell or lindsey graham to say this is a bad decision? >> as a pr matter maybe it would help the trump anti-syria attitude to have john bolton come out forthrightly or one of these officials coming out forthrightly. it will matter more if republican officials separate themselves from trump. that's actually meaningful. >> i think we're already seeing the movement. honestly, wooer seeing the movement. the statement from mcconnell is evidence from that. i believe it bleeds into the impeachment to have that kind of a front. >> nick confessore, zerlina maxwell, john podhoretz,

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welcome to fowler, indiana. home to three of bp's wind farms. which, every day, generate enough electricity to power over 150,000 homes. and of course, fowler. at bp, we see possibilities everywhere. in case you missed it, don't stand too close to the irony, you might get burned. consider leave parnas and igor fruman, perhaps the krantz and guildenstern of the white house.

>> two successful preposterouses, igor, the handsome one, owns a club in ukraine that's called mafia rave, which i think counts as a full confession. and then lev, the shy one, owns a security business, i swear to you, fraud guarantee. >> fraud guarantee and mafia rave, everyone. those are real names of real businesses. while there are many more details to come, there is already one truth that is beyond dispute. if your business name sounds kind of illegal, it might be a good idea to change the business name. that's why you don't see dry-cleaners money launders or kitchen renovation contractors called counter-fitters, or a commercial landscaper called shady business, or tennis lessons from the racketeers. take my advice. don't let your company fall to a

shady name. because that's an awfully nice business you've got there. it would be a shame if something happened to it. "the beat with ari melber" starts right now. ari melber, that's the first one of those i have done in a while. very fun. >> what do you call those? >> we call them "in case you missed it." >> and what's the inspiration? >> fraud guarantee and mafia rave, as we just illustrated. >> have you considered introducing a laugh track? or you consider the silence after each punch line? >> no, because the laugh is my own. it's 6:00 and 17 seconds, and i know your epa is yelling at you to get on with the news. >> well, katy tur, we always love to see you in the toss. and a special thank you for joining us for your first fallback friday. you were great together. >> you're invited back. katy tur, thank you very much. >> thanks. welcome to "the beat" tonight. we are tracking several