hour with we"weekends with alex witt". now it's time for "up" with david gura. break news on "up". i'm david gura. we are about an hour away from what the white house says will be a major speech from president trump. last night on twitter he wrote, something very big has happen. and since then, we have learned that a u.s.-led raid targeted the world's most wanted terrorist, head of isis, in northwest syria. this comes amid a troubling week of the president. the house's impeachment inquiry continues. it is something his former chief of staff all but admits is coming. he said he warned not to pick a yes man as a successor saying

that would lead to impeachment. there is no coordinated response from the white house. it is the president in charge of communications doing what he does, distraction and deflection. which brings us back to that speech about to take place at 9:00 eastern time today. up with me this morning, hans nichols, matt bradley in the middle east, jack jacobs, hayes brown for buzzfeed news. and david coren, washington bureau chief and msnbc contributor. let's get right to the breaking news, overnight raid by special ops forces targeting the leader of isis abu bakr al baghdadi. it was located in northwestern syria where there was a suspected isis safe house. the video here appears to show the aftermath of that operation. sources telling nbc news the special ops raid was conducted

using helicopters, jets, drones, and u.s. forces fired from the air before landing on the ground. officials telling nbc news they are conducting forensic testing to identify the identities of the dead who do not believe al baghdadi is among them. the president expected to make an announcement at 9:00 a.m. weupt to sta i want to start at the white house. he has not said what it will specifically be like. >> david, we know the president personally approved this operation. they were here late last night monitoring developments from the situation room. what i think we will get today from the president is, one, the details. we will get confirmation, whether or not this was baghdadi. they have dna evidence backing it up. we will get a sense what the coordination was like. to what role did the turks play? were the kurds involved?

they are claiming they helped with intelligence. a lot of regional players claiming credit on this. we will find out if there are any u.s. casualties. it doesn't appear so. we may get clarity on what his syria policy is going forward. he talked about it frequently. he used it as a reason for why u.s. troops need to withdraw from syria. part of the broader retrenchment pulling back from the middle east and ultimately coming back home. we will see if the president leaves any sort of footprint and what footprint in terms of u.s. troops in syria and how he tries to coordinate his entire message in the middle east. the wanted terrorist had a $25 million bounty on his head. >> as you mentioned, we heard from the turks. we heard from kurdish fighters they were helping with the raid. a successful historic operation

as a result of joint intelligence work with the united states of america. put this into recent historical content if you would. they helped in the fight against isis for so many years. how strayed is it to read that statement and learn they may have been involved in the operation despite what's happened the last few weeks. . >> it is easy to see how they could have been. they have so many isis detainees going through intelligence gathering. the occurred, with all the isis fighters, are sitting on a treasure trove of intelligence. it is also significant, as you are sort of hinting at, david, the leader of the sdf, is publicly praising the u.s. there is an indication that even though there is a lot of talk of betrayal, including from our own richard engel, feel they have been a little bit left behind. there is still operational work taking place. that's significant because, as the president has tweeted and the secretary of defense has

confirmed, there are plans to keep a couple hundred u.s. troops where the oil fields are. they will be working with their kurdish partners. how, david, this actually works, that's an open question. at least from where they're heading, it seems the u.s. and the kurds will be allies in some parts of eastern syria, more towards the north they will be with the assad regime and the russians. we don't know to what extent turkey will abide by the deconfliction zone. it will ultimately be a place where they resettle, syrian refugees. david? >> let's ask about the timing of this announcement scheduled to take place 9:00 eastern time. this is not customarily when we hear from the president. weather there is a major announcement. it does coincide with the sunday shows. many of the sunday shows. what should we make of that, the timing, the way it was teased on twitter last night, the way it was announced by the press

secretary last night as well. >> this president elects to play pentagon press secretary. when they want to claim success, it is dictated by the operational details. with bin laden, we found out a full 24 hours. >> hans nichols, thank you very much. i will turn now to matt bradley, my colleague in beirut, lebanon. he spent a lot of his career covering isis. i want to ask you about the location of this raid, i.d. lick, in northwest syria. perhaps you heard a few moments ago, hans nichols mentioning there is fear of isis detainees. there were a lot in this area. what should we make of the fact that it seems -- again, we haven't confirmed this. but it seems the leader was holed up in northwest syria. this would be a surprise to a lot of people. >> reporter: yeah, it was a

surprise to a lot of people. northwest, syria, specifically idlib province, is a depository for all the rejects. every treaty crafted between the syrian regime of bashar al assad and rebel groups, they would move to retreat rebel groups into idlib province. by this time, by the end of the world, the final days of this bloody civil war, everybody was populating idlib is some former rebel from some group, mostly jihadi groups, most of them islamic state. remember, islamic state was ajee hadi group. but there were other jihadi groups populating the civil war. we saw a group in idlib that was very much at odds with isis. they were fighting isis. this would not have been

friendly territory at all for a man like abu bakr al baghdadi. that's why people are so surprised by this. this wasn't a safe place to be. he might have been ratted out. this is a place that would have been really hostile. also of course the timing is interesting. it seems to be coming right on the back of president trump withdrawing from northern syria, withdrawing his troops and moving out, allowing the turks to move in. the turks had lots of connections with these rebel elements in idlib province. in fact, when the turks moved in, it was militia groups, a lot of them, jihadi groups from idlib province that was the tip of the spear. they were doing a lot of fighting on the ground. the turks and erdogan had a lot of connections there. >> matt, in the past, reports of his demise were mature. he was absent five years. we saw him for five years's time. help us understand where he might have been at home, if

there was a lot of transit between syria and iraq by al baghdadi. >> reporter: no one really knew. we heard he made his home in mosul. the caliphate called the real crown jewel. they were a terrorist organization. islamic state, the thing that made them special throughout the world, they had this caliphate. so abu bakr al baghdadi could have found refuge in that state. that was basically defeated back in march. the caliphate was destroyed in eastern syria. so he became an exile. he had to become a tpaoufugitiv. people thought he was hiding out probably somewhere around the syrian-iraqi border where there

was support among syrian antagonists of that regime and the regime of bashar al assad. it would prove a lot of people who had opinions about where al baghdadi was totally wrong. >> matt bradley, in beirut for us. he is mentioning the border with turkey. now to richard. you have been checking with sources who have some sense of what happened there last night. what are you hearing from the ground there of what happened and what that site looks like today? >> reporter: so i know this area. i've crossed through this border region a half dozen times or so. it is a smuggling town. it is a place where people go if they want to get into turkey or come from turkey illegally. it is a place that isis itself has used many, many times. it goes back even before isis where people were smuggling

cigarettes, sugar, gasoline, anything that they could buy cheaply and sell more expensively in turkey, or vice versa, was moving through this town, through this area. as the syrian civil war was rising up, that border became very, very fluid. it became a main transit route for foreign fighters to go into syria to join isis or to join other groups. i don't think it's surprising at all that he was there. that would be an escape route. he could have there go into turkey, blend in and go into a country, if that's why he was there. frankly there is no other reason to be a couple miles from the turkish border on a smuggling route unless you plan to use it in some way. so that's where he was. what it looks like today, there was a big hole in the middle of the town. we have just had a crew there filming. there was a crater where a farmhouse had been.

kaorg to a witness 500 yards away, he could here the helicopters over his house. he could feel the wind blowing into his house. they were opening fire. they were circling. this lasted quite a while. he said he didn't know what people were shooting at. neighbors were looking out of their windows. everyone turned off the lights. they went into the corner. he had other family in nearby buildings which is common in villages like these. they were all trying to figure out what was going on and to avoid the helicopters that were circling and firing. then there was a landing, a ground assault on a building. he couldn't see exactly what was happening in this building. but he knew it was a ground assault on a building that was a few hundred yards away. then he started hearing incoming fire. missile fire. he said he heard jets overhead.

not sure if that's where they were coming from. officials confirmed there were jets and drones involved in this operation. then the choppers left. it ended with two big explosions. and now we have a grew there now filming in the area. we will begin getting the pictures out later. there were at least two locations that were hit. one building closer to the witness's house, and then this main target that is now just a hole in the groupnd. >> rich engel in northwest syria. as richard was talking, we saw images from the syrian journalist distributed. we have been talking around who al baghdadi is or was. he had a $25 million bounty on his head. how integral as to what isis is today. richard said the caliphate had

diminished. >> he was the one who took it from al qaeda in iraq, to using his network inside prisons in iraq and syria. it became an economy into itself. he turned it into something real from a terrorist group to a statement that controlled territory. it is something that had a real power to it. over the years we have seen people in the government who tried to follow decapitation theory, you cut off the head, it loses all of the danger. we have not seen that. you kill one terrorist leader, they have another leader. so i don't think this means that isis will suddenly give up on, you know, any sort of terror attacks. but i do think it means that they will have a new marter to look towards. they will need to elect a new leader. >> i was read building this this

morning. i saw a tweet from the middle east correspondent. something he tweeted was small request as the east coast wakes up. can we please make a man for countless thousands days into a psycho drama about american politics and trump? this has been a bad week for the president. >> we can. the question is can trump? does he congratulate himself for this brilliant raid when seven years ago he said obama should not get any credit for what happened. will he make this about himself? will he say his brilliant brain and his decision to move out of turkey and let syria go, the kurds -- the british journal tweeted out that she was talking to iraqi officials who say --

now, this is just what they say -- that they captured some isis prisoners, including a currier for al baghdadi in september. and he gave them, or his wife gave them, the coordinates for where al baghdadi was. so it's possible this has nothing to do with the recent decisions to go into -- to let turkey go into syria. so we will see how trump tries to put it all together. it will take a couple days for richard engel and hans to piece out what happened. >> let me turn to you and get your reaction to how this raid was conducted. as i said, the defense department indicating jets and drones were used. richard engel saying there were forces on the ground as well. i think a lot of people will draw this parallel to the raid of osama bin laden? how good is that parallel as you see it? >> pretty good parallel. except when we went in to get osama bin laden, we landed

directly on the objective. here they had an objective rally point. the night stalkers would bring the delta force of whoever came in, put them in the objective rally point near the objective, and while they were there they'd pepper the place, the objective, with lights of fire, as you heard from richard. and then assault the objective. the assault would have taken very little time at all. the raid probably took an hour. the majority was likely the search for and accumulation of all the intelligence information which they then carted away and which will form the basis perhaps for future raids. >> general jack jacobs, thank you for joining us. still ahead, a year's long manhunt. more on the military operation we have been talking about carried out overnight in

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this is "up". i'm david gura. as we await word from the white house about that raid that took place overnight targeting the leader of isis, abu bakr al baghdadi. the president scheduled to make a statement within the hour. much of the word first learned

of mr. baghdadi in 2014 when they overran one-third of iraq and half of neighboring sorry kra and declared the territory a caliphate. then a video surfaced of him in april cross-legged on the ground with a rifle by his right elbow. he has been erroneously reported killed or wounded multiple times. >> in the paft we have foolishing released hundreds and hundreds only to meet them again on the battlefield, including the isis leader al baghdadi, who we captured, who we had, who we released. >> joining us is pentagon correspondent courtney kube. how was this mission under

taken. what are you hearing from the defense department about what went into this raid and how long it had been planned? >> reporter: so we know the elite special operators who were involved just arrived in the region about a week ago to start planning for it and to refine their plans for it. that also included making sure that this actionable intelligence that they had gone was accurate and they had the most up to date and most accurate information so when they actually were given the approval to go on with this raid to carry it out, they had the best intelligence possible. this was the delta force who did this. they are the most secretive and elite of the u.s. military. it stands the reason we may not learn a lot of details about it. as you mentioned in your lead-in, he has been head of isis for some time.

in 2014 when he declared the caliphate, he stood only miles from us here and spoke to his followers. there have been a number of times in the course of the next five years where there have been reports that he might be wounded, injured or even killed that have not proven true that we think. the wounded ones we're not really sure about. there was a time we thought he might be wounded and laid up and not going anywhere. he put out this new video just earlier this year that you mentioned. he believed he was trying to bring himself back to the leadership of isis. and to show he was still in control of the terror organization. we are waiting to hear from president trump what exactly he is going to say about this, how much detail he's going to share about the military raid and about any intelligence gathering any other nations that might have been involved that led to this raid, david. >> we'll check in with you a little bit later as we approach the speech from the president of

the united states. former chief of staff and security analyst and jobi warwick for the "washington post" and author of "black flags," the rise of isis. joey, let me start with you. it came out in april showing a grayer bearded al baghdadi. this is a far cry from what we saw at the beginning of his tenure when there were slickly produced videos designed to recruit people to that group. this looking more like proof of life video you could say after that five years. help us understand the role that he was playing in this group. without a caliphate now. >> you're right in that his absence was striking. there were almost no pictures of

him. and no audio. they declared the start of this organization. that seemed partly by design. he always led from the shadows. it is significant because he was not a very visible leader. even behind the scenes we understand he is not a warrior. he doesn't have a fighting background to speak of. he's more of a spiritual leader. he was this person symbolically in charge of the organization. >> it involves al qaeda as well. jeremy spent amount of time with leon panetta at the cia and defense department. we were talking about the parallel between this raid and the raid that targeted osama bin laden. you were involved in that back in 2010, 2011, leading cia

efforts to under take the raid. help us understand that. >> first, bin laden was the responsible for the death of 3,000 americans on u.s. soil. for that reason, he was infamous, a household name. it was something the entire nation was focused on. big effort internationally. and of course it was months in the planning. this, we don't know the details yet. we don't know how long the u.s. intelligence community and special operations teams had information or intelligence. we know they were working on this very hard case trying to pinpoint the location of abu bakr for many years. we don't know how much time there was planning for this raid and how high up the decision-making had to go in order to green light it. >> let me turn to you lastly here quickly. i want to ask you about the

genesis of all of this. we know al baghdadi was held in iraq for some time. how much of his ideology was engendered there? >> well, he was an extremist in the sense he was a devoted jihadist before he was arrested back in 2004. he was a very low-level guy. he made connections, became respected as someone as a spiritual leader. that was the founding university where they got their start. later on, he rose to power. other people around him were being killed and taken out of action. he became this accidental leader at the end and became a good one in the sense that he could bring the jihadies and saddam loyalists who created a unique and brutal organization.

>> value the time. thank you very much. literally wrote the book on isis. thanks to skwrarb my bash as well. up next, john kelly breaking his silence. the former chief of staff warned the president before he left office and the eyebrow-raising comments from the white house next. yebrow-raising comments from the white house next do you have concerns about mild memory loss related to aging? prevagen is the number one pharmacist-recommended memory support brand.

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this is "up". i'm david gura. he called his white house tenure the least enjoyable job he has ever had. this morning the former chief of staff is back in the spotlight with comments on impeachment. >> when you're still in the process of trying to find someone to take my place. i said whatever you do, don't hire a yes man, someone that's going to tell you -- won't tell you the truth. don't do that. because if you do, i believe you will be impeached. i have an awful lot of, to say the least, second thoughts about leaving. >> john kelly taking a dig at yes man, something he has been criticized of being. nowadays he serves on the

umbrella organization of the largest housing facility for migrant children. it was a one-two punch by the administration. they said the conversation john kelly claims they had never happened. the president also added he would have thrown john kelly out of his office if it had. this, in my estimation, was the most remarkable statement by press secretary. she calls him totally unequipped to handle the genius of our great president. >> there is no chance. come on! that's so obvious. >> the spelling was correct, so i don't know. >> she used spell-check. >> your reaction to all of this and how we regard john kelly. he said perhaps he saw this coming, he witnessed thing that would have been impeachable

offenses. what do you make of all of that. >> there is an arrogance about it. he was in the white house with the family separation policy. he was incapable of doing anything with the genius of our president. i don't make much of it, frankly. >> you have john kelly who left, mattis left, and h.r. mcmaster and other people. they have witnessed the president. we get hints, innuendos that this man is not fit to be commander in chief. to come out and say he would have been impeached if not for me. tell us what's going on. the american public deserves the truth. the reports came out that he told the russians he didn't care about the a attack. h.r. mcmaster was there for that. the public needs to know if these things are true. >> more than that, there are people telling him he shouldn't

be doing certain things. john bolton got -- let's not have lightning strike me here. buff john bolton said don't do this july 25th call. don't do this with giuliani. don't have this second policy. what did that get us? the 25th call, the foreign policy, and giuliani in charge. it's not that he doesn't have strong people around him. it is that he is not listening to them. >> they are protecting the constitution, the white house, the country. they are also protecting him. that has come across during the conversations they had with karl rove in sea island, georgia as well. he saw things that could have been impeachable, he stepped in to stop them. >> right. >> how much does that engender confidence in him? >> i think one of the things that is most fascinating is the way is saying i am so much

smarter than the president. i am a hero, a savior. that is something we have seen a lot from advisers who left office. disaster would have struck because if it weren't for me. i have regrets. should i have stayed for longer. and done what exactly? that being said, i will say mick mulvaney is just so closely tied inside of all of the mess that's been happening. we know mulvaney is the one who passed on to put a halt to the military aid to ukraine, the exact quid pro quo situation that congress is investigating. in a way, john kelly is right. he did install a yes man. >> i looked at the "washington

post", regularly leaves the west wing to visit his home in south carolina, golf. >> right. that wasn't kelly. so that's a shot. that tells you what's happening to poor mulvaney. we will see how much longer. >> he has three jobs. >> by the time kelly left, i heard approximate people he was barely doing his job. 9:00 a.m., he was saying i'm off to the gym. now mick mulvaney is golfing a lot. there is not a lot of operations at the white house. that's a scary thing. they have given up on having the president do anything sane. it is monitor what he says, or more importantly, what he tweets. if we hear from john bolton

where they are trying to get him in the impeachment inquiry, there is a question whether he will appear. >> the president hinting something big happening. the state department phillip reeker was telling investigators he was in the dark for eight-hour closed door testimony. in his testimony, reeker is said to have told house members his efforts to defend the ukraine were overruled by top state leadership. >> the testimony was, in broad terms, was a good day for the president, a good day for the american people. >> what we have is one continuous stream of criminal conduct by the president of the united states. >> for mark meadows, it's always sunny. >> any day that doesn't include an impeachable offense is a good

day. i think he is talking about something important. eo january sreufp sent in an unidentified package to the white house, and later slammed by the president of the united states based on this. it will be interesting to see if we can figure out who sent that package and why was the package sent. >> it's all part of the giuliani show. >> we don't know who sent it. we need to know that. >> the two indicted earlier going around capitol hill, part of the indictment is they were giving money to one republican member of congress to try to get him to go after -- >> no. that's not the packet. that's other stuff. so reeker was trying to deal with that and trying to get pompeo to say something. and he got the famous pompeo silence in return.

and so he does fill in parts of the story. maybe not impeachable offense, but he is filling in the back story. >> and john bolton shares counsel, who filed suit against having to testify on capitol hill. how essential is it to get john bolton to sit down and move on to whatever comes next? >> first, behind closed doors. then probably move to open hearings about what he saw and heard. >> you think he wants to do it? >> i think he does. john bolton, for all of his policy details, he very much believes in doing things by the book. he basically has absorbed the book. he is the book. and so he has worked this so he's left a paper trail behind him saying, okay, i want it to be clear that fee oiona hill, it

you to know x, y, z. it depends on whether tomorrow his deputy shows up for testimony on the hill. he tried to hifile suit. any judge will say you have to listen to the subpoena. that could be appealed. it could take more time. >> let me go over here. >> i'm actually very much in favor of this lawsuit. >> really? for the clarity? >> i think we need the clarity. i think the appellate courts will move quickly on it. one of the white house's allegations is this is completely improper. and now we have federal court ruling. no, it is not improper. this is appropriate. so we can build on that. i do think it will be done quickly. it will provide clarity for everybody. we need that. >> the best quote is getting these to his political enemies.

he goes this is a drug deal. wait a second. national security adviser to the president is describing an act as a drug deal. we have to get him in front of the public. this would be a great testimony. >> last question on this point. looking to the "washington post", incredible piece about the degree to which the republicans in the house have been slandering these witnesses, trying to bring things back to conspiracy theories. how much is that sticking? this ferment of conspiracy theories on the hill. . >> i would be surprised they show a fair amount of support for the impeachment, even for removing trump before he is impeached and tried. so i think what's happening is they are totally solidifying their base into believing everything is a conspiracy, everything is a deep state against trump. i don't know how they square that with al baghdadi. but i think they're pulling these stunts like they did this week with the scif.

they just want to turn this into a circus. they want to try to confuse the public. so far it's not working. all right. still ahead, what led to the uprising of isis in syria after the escape of hundreds of militants threatens around the world. s threatens around the world. mornings were made for better things than rheumatoid arthritis or psoriatic arthritis. when considering another treatment,

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that's the power of edge-to-edge intelligence. we are following breaking news. an overnight raid by u.s. special forces killed abu bakr al baghdadi. that raid conducted a few weeks after president trump announced the u.s. would be pulling out of syria. since the start of the syrian war in 2011, they have steadily increased despite efforts by obama to stay out. however, in september of 2014, after the growth of the islamic state, the u.s., along with western allies, led their first round of air raids on syria with the u.s. deploying nearly 2,000 forces.

president trump pulled out of the middle east conflicts. president trump has been vocal about his plans to extract the u.s. from the middle east. most recently saying let someone else fight over this long bloodstained sand. trump announced a full troop withdrawal. it wasn't until march 2019 that u.s. forces, along with global allies and kurdish forces, did finally gain back the last of the isis held territory. despite the pushback, u.s. troops were helped to stabilize the situation in syria. after this month's announcement of a withdraw, chaos again. breaking news this morning. ken delaney talking to house intelligence committee sources as house intelligence chairman schiff has not received any notification or briefing about what took place overnight. ken saying this is an extraordinary development that he would not have been notified. we'll have you weigh in on the minutes we have left in this hour as we wait for the

president to speak. . >> there is the tkpapbg of eight. the congressional leaders on either side of the aisle, as well as, you know, the heads of the intelligence committees and the fact that schiff wasn't told this would be happening is blatantly political. they are clearly saying because we don't agree what you are doing in terms of impeachment, we don't trust you, we will not tell you about these actual things you have oversight over. which is not really the best strategy when the argument is you are blocking congress from doing their jobs to continue to block congress from doing their jobs and be nontransparent about the executive branch. i don't know how that will work out in terms of your impeachment argument. >> in the absence of trust, this currency in washington, d.c.

democrats who talk to each other, we have seen the erosion of that the last two years. >> people throw the term constitution crisis around a lot. we have a gigantic military and national security apparatus that gets to do all sorts of things that we in the public aren't talking about. the reason that works in a democracy, you have congressional oversight. our representatives get to see what's happening. they get to talk to the president. there is supposed to be a bipartisan agreement on thiss fundamental element. i'm not going to tell schiff about anything because schiff is a bad guy. our whole system is kind of breaking down if these norms aren't adhered to my members of congress. >> or there norms, traditions, things that happen v to happen. is this in the grounds of that? >> i don't know why you say maybe we're in a constitutional crisis. we are definitely in a

constitutional crisis. a congressional committee asking the white house to cooperate and the white house said, with no legal basis, you're not going to cooperate. where i come from, that's a constitutional crisis. on the scale of this one, i think that is the more important constitutional crisis >> we'll leave it there. thank you for being with us. thanks to my colleagues in the field. we are moments away from the remarks the president is expected to deliver in the white house on the raid against the world's most wanted terrorists. the comments coming up next here on msnbc. ext here on msnbc (burke) at farmers insurance, we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. even a- (ernie) lost rubber duckie? (burke) you mean this one? (ernie) rubber duckie! (cookie) what about a broken cookie jar? (burke) again, cookie? (cookie) yeah. me bad. (grover) yoooooow! oh! what about monsters having accidents? i am okay by the way! (burke) depends. did you cause the accident, grover? (grover) cause an accident? maybe... (bert) how do you know all this stuff? (burke) just comes with experience. (all muppets) yup. ♪ we are farmers. ♪ bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum

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this is "up". i'm david gura. we begin this hour with breaking news out of the middle east. word overnight that the world's most wanted terrorist, abu bakr al baghdadi, was killed in northwest syria. we await confirmation from the white house regarding the death of that terrorist. operation sources tell nbc they knew nothing about it. this all happening as we head into another week of testimony on hill in the house's impeachment inquiry. going to his ultimate distraction and deflection. which brings us to that major announcement. we expect at any moment now the president will more details on that overnight raid.

up with me is kelly o'donnell at the white house. former director for the national. fellowship rung for the "washington post" and his colleague with us as well. aaron, just get us up to speed. it took place last night. >> reporter: under the cover of darkness, u.s. forces by drone, helicopter. they attacked in idlib province, a compound as well as a convoy. firing on the compound

completely flattening it according to footage and stills we have seen from the foot ppag. we have also heard from the kurdish sdf saying this was the result of a product of some five months of intelligence gathering on the part of kurdish officials yet to corroborate that as well. >> let me turn to my colleague kelly o'donnell ahead of the president's remarks. as erin was outlining, this was a long time in the works. >> well, good morning, david. this has been days in the making. of course required the

president's go ahead for the operational execution to take place. i was working here of course on saturday. and the president returned to the white house at about 4:20 in the afternoon after spending friday night at camp david and the early part of saturday at his virginia golf course. the president and other officials provide details about where in the timeline of the execution of the operation and the president being in a situation room with the vice president, with the secretary of defense, with all of the officials who would be essential in that time period. certainly just situationally here there was a lot of activity which in the trump era is not always unusual to the events of yesterday, it is interesting to see that there was a greater presence of individuals and officials here at the white house. what we expect is that the president will talk about as an

achievement for his administration. one of the things to be looking for in his remarks, will he attempt to make any line between his highly controversial decision regarding pulling back u.s. troops, abandoning, as some critics would say, kurds that would be allies for a generation. some saying the kurds have gone along with this plan. he tried to make a line between this operational success and his decisions. he is often a critic of agencies of government, and clearly they had to play an important role in providing actionable intense that would help those military personnel, delta forces it's been described, actually go on the ground and the air cover and all the components required here. what would the president say about that? what does it mean going forward?

the president has taken credit for the territorial control that isis had. and at the same time this is a question about what is the future of isis if its leader is now dead. of course we know that baghdady has been presumed ed many times before. the forensic work that has been done and the evidence, what will the president say? and how much will he release? operators have to move in the most dangerous plates in the world. will, because of the high value target nature of this and the discuss militarily and arguably politically will the president give more detail than might otherwise be expected. he is someone who often does like to give the sorts of details beginning with his big tease tweet where he said

something big just happened many hours ago without any follow-up. >> let me ask you first, though, just about the response to it. the way that president obama spoke after that raid took place. how ill lust active is that as we look ahead to what president trump might say today. >> it's interesting washington was certainly gripped back with the osama bin laden killing by people filling the streets. the public response was notably very emotional. i can recall there were people lining the street around the white house. even standing in trees in the park across the way. today we have the marine corps. marathon being run in washington. there are many road closures.

it would be hard for people to get around as they normally would. many in washington were focused. the night before the announcement was one of washington's big gala's, the white house correspondents dinner. the media establish was all in one ballroom at the time the president knew these events were going to take place. there are some interesting parallels about how washington was preoccupied perhaps at the time this was happening. what will the public reaction be? and what would be the tone of these two presidents. there's very little similar between barack obama and donald trump in the way they address these situations. we will have another way to mark and measure that coming up in a short while. >> our viewers know the work you have done at the white house. how extraordinary it was that

adam schiff, the chairman of the house intelligence committee was not notified of this raid. ken delaney saying it is extraordinary that that wouldn't have been made. >> there is something known as the group of eight, the leadership of the house and senate. those eight officials stand apart from all other members of congress when there are moments of national emergency, national crisis, high-level khrafclassif information. typically they would read in those eight, mitch mcconnell, the people who would have the responsibilities to keep america's secrets and the oversight. so it is notable that adam schiff would not be notified in this case as it's been reported by our team. of course we know that there is a separate parallel track in

existence where the president is at public war perhaps we will have to do more reporting on this. was there any sort of a political overtone in a break with protocol if, in fact, that notification has not come. as we have been standing here, it's also possible phones have been picked up and notifications made. that's typically done by a chief of staff if not the president directly. it is possible before he steps before cameras that will take place. we just don't yet know. >> kelly o'donnell at the white house. waiting for the president to make remarks presumably on the raid that took place in northwestern syria. retired general mccaffrey. jets and drones were involved. forces on the ground as well. this has been attributed, as kelly said, to delta force, jsoc

out of fort bragg, north carolina. get us up to speed on who would have conducted this raid. >> i think it would be hard to underestimate the importance of this strike. there's been a lot of discussion. obviously there is a successor named in the hierarchy of isis. but taking out this key figure has not just symbolic importance but indeed given the compartmented nature of how these terrorist organizations run. it will set them back considerably to pull back together as their own command and control. there is an air force three star general, scott howell, commander of jsoc, fort bragg, he used the army's delta force, 160th special aviation regiment, would have run the helicopters and probably the drones also. and in every operation there is u.s. air power.

it is a significant strike. it would have been approved at the highest levels. by the way, president trump is very responsive on rules of engagement. and on taking risks to allow jsoc to operate in syria, iraq, and elsewhere. >> head of national counterterrorism center and senior fellow for the council on foreign realizelations. there is a parallel to be drawn here with osama bin laden. you were integrally involved with. help us understand how good that is from&what we know from this mission so far. >> we are still learning a lot. some of the early reporting, the force that he referred to was in the region forum to a week beforehand. that suggests this didn't all come together in a 24-hour

period. it also suggests to me, like the bin laden raid, at some point the president approved a concept of operations. but then it was probably left to the military and the commanders in the field, as it should be, to decide on the precise timing for the raid. and so i suspect that's one parallel that might exist. kelly of course talked about other parallels in the way the president may portray what has happened today. we'll have to wait and see how this played out. the obama administration tried to be careful and measured about what it claimed about the results on the bin laden raid. we knew we faced a significant global problem with al qaeda. >> again, let me turn to you. you have traveled to northern syria many times on over the last two years. you know the area well. if i was a sense of what it is like and what the leader of this terrorist group might be doing there. we had a $25 million bounty his head. he was shuttling between syria and iraq.

>> it took place in north western syria, where 3 million people have been displaced by the syrian civil war since 2011. it is significant that it happened in northwest syria, an area the u.s. does not have a presence. it is worth noting this is a real moment where folks spent the last half decade battling the islamic state. 2014, the united states backed the group of syrian kurds from the air. they were fighting isis from the ground in the town of kobani. that was the first defeat that the islamic defeat was handed. this is now five years later. it is both a symbolic moment and also a moment where you do hope that while there's no question that the islamic state will continue as you go into it, this does setback, as the general talked about, command and

control, and really the ideological magnate he was for people he really did embody. i interviewed followers of the islamic state who told me they have come because of his call, to come and build his caliphate. to see him no longer in the war, for those who continue to believe in the ideology of isis. >> we are waiting for the president. we see the podium there. how is this being introduced to the public. 9:00 in the morning on a sunday. this feels similar to the announcement he made on syria a couple of weeks back. give us the context of that, if you could. >> obviously there is a necessity borne of why this is happening now. the fact that this happened last night. he has to do it as soon as he can in order to get on the news.

at the same time, it's not ideal. sunday mornings, people turn on their tvs and talk about political news. for me, i mean, just to look at this very narrow and probably the least important slice here. for me what i am interested in is how does this affect what -- how the nation views president trump moving forward. this is the sort of moment that president trump relishes and hopes will be the sort of thing that changes people's minds about him. i'm not sure that's going to happen. i went back and look what happened to president obama after the bin laden raid. we saw a quick bump, but it came back down as well. it will be interesting if he is able to say anything that changes people's minds about his presidency, which so far have been rigid. >> there was the cryptic tweet last night where he said something important just happened. which hraeufrpblaunched a bunch.

there is distraction here. he can take the narrative so squarely has been focused on capitol hill. the depositions that have been taking place, to change the conversation to something else entirely. >> in the middle of the nats game, fighting for attention. that being said, tonight the president will throw out or attend the world series game. he is probably not going to be that well received. we will see how far this news bump goes. but i also am curious as to how the president is going to use this news, amid all the uproar from his republican allies about withdrawing from northeastern syria. and if he is going to use this sort of bolster the argument that we have defeated isis. weather that's accurate. because as our reports show right now, it's not. i can see the president using this as a talking point to show

this is why we need to withdraw from these endless wars. we are winning. and taking a lot of credit for it. this president likes to take credit for things that don't happen under his watch. >> former head of the national terrorism season, colleague ken delaney. he telling ken this is potent l potentially still doesn't come close to overcoming the step back the u.s. took in abandoning ground partners against isis in syria. let's tease that out a little bit if we could. so much criticism from both sides of the aisle. yes, this is momentous to an

extent. as we understand it, likely killed in this raid. we'll look for confirmation of that from the president in a few moments. more broadly speaking, what about its presence. >> both could be true. an important step forward in our efforts against isis. and i think it is. we can talk about why that is so. none of it changes the fundamentals with respect to broader involvement in syria and the partnership we have with the ypg, the syrian kurds which has been the action on our current isis strategy. there are still a whole host of senior leaders in the isis hierarchy involved in deeply threatening things that haven't been taken off the battlefield. so the idea that we would be sacrificing some of our capability and walking away or certainly curtailing significantly our ability to carry out counterterrorism operations, that has so many troubled by the president's decisions. isis is getting a boost here with the president's decisions

about syria. that doesn't change simply because their leader has been taken off the battlefield. >> so much of your research has centered on what isis have brought in this region. yes, the caliphate is gone. isis lives on. i know you talked to isis fighters. you looked into what happened next as an institution. help us understand that. there is this fear, as i understand it, legitimate fear there have been prison breaks. they are back on the battlefield. how worried should national security experts be about that? >> this really is a product of having on-the-ground information. when you talk to folks who have been living this war the last five years, both on the u.s. side and the syrian side, they will say to you it's that partnership between the u.s. and the u.s.-backed forces on the ground, in communities that really allowed them to back isis into a corner and finally force them earlier this year to give up their territorial hold on syria. now you have this moment where everybody is saying, okay,

what's the next chapter? because it is much easier to kill a terrorist than it is to kill an ideology. the islamic state has a hold on both people's huge fears in the region and some people who continue to believe the caliphate will rise again who are there. that is why so many folks have said, listen, we need to continue the stability and the very fragile but real progress that's being made on the ground in northern syria because those folks are living every single day the fight against extremism. one teacher said the children she taught were playing beheadings and hangings because they had seen so many horrible things under islamic state. the teachers have been looking to say, look, they're not coming back. you can play like normal children. and i think that's really the fight that you see now. to keep some kind of fragile normalcy under way. >> as kelly o'donnell said just a couple of moments ago, a huge

focus of the president's remarks might center on the partnerships on the raid last night. the head of the sdf, the kurdish fighters, largely praising what happened here and saying they worked in concert with the united states on this raid. for five months there have been joint intel cooperation on the ground, accurate monitoring until we achieve a joint operation. thanks to everybody he writes who participates in this great mission incident to get your sense of the importance of this as we look ahead to the president's remarks. we have not heard from the u.s. about these partnerships. we have heard from the turks, the sdf. how will you be paying attention to that? >> well, there is no question that our liaison, special operations forces with the syrian kurds has been instrumental, not just in fighting the battle but in understanding what we're up

against. it has been damaged severely by president trump's unilateral impulsive decision to withdraw. our cia assets, nsa, the other intelligence agencies, have enormous capacity to intercept, monitor, and try to track al baghdadi, as we said, for more than five years. information came from a senior wife of a killed isis operative. the question i would have is to what extent do the turks, the europeans coming out of germany, uk, elsewhere, passing through turkey, and joining al baghdadi's organization. there's so many players in this region you need a score card to follow it. but we definitely still have maybe 15,000 isis fighters in

the region. there's another 10,000 or so who may well escape kurdish control in the coming weeks. so isis is not down and out by this operation. >> i'm hoping we can go to matt bradley. spent a lot of his career on isis. a minute until we go to the president. talk about russia's role in all of this. the president's remarks just about an hour away. matt? >> reporter: yeah. russia's role in all of this, not clear if russia can play a role in this competing episode where everybody will want to claim as fast and convincingly as they can, some kind of credit fort death of abu bakr al baghdadi. we saw the turkish government, iraqi government, forces on the ground in syria. all of these people rushing to

claim credit. they all want a piece of the action. >> all right. we'll have to leave it there. the president of the united states walking to the lectern. let's hear what he has to say on this sunday morning. >> last night the united states brought the world's number one terrorist leader to justice. abu bakr al baghdadi is dead. he was the founder and leader of isis. the most ruthless and violent terror organization anywhere in the world. the united states has been searching for al baghdadi for many years, capturing or killing

al baghdadi has been the top national security priority of my administration. u.s. special operations forces executed a dangerous and daring nighttime rhame in northwestern syria and accomplished their mission in grand staoeufplt the u.s. personnel were incredible. i got to watch much of it. no personnel were lost in the operation, while a large number of baghdadi's fighters died with him. he died after running into a dead-end tunnel, whimpering, crying and screaming all the way. the compound had been cleared by this time with people either surrendering or being shot and killed.

eleven young children were moved out of the house and are uninjured. the only ones remaining were al baghdadi in the tunnel, and he had dragged three of his young children with him. they were led to certain death. he reached the end of the tunnel as our dogs chased him down. he ignited his vest, killing himself and the three children. his body was mutilated by the blast, the tunnel caved in on him, in addition. but test results gave certainly immediate and totally positive identification it was him. the thug who tried so hard to intimidate others spent his last moments in utter fear, total

dread, with the american forces bearing down on him. we were in the compound for approximately two hours. and after the mission was accomplished, we took highly sensitive material and information from the raid, much having to do with isis, origins, future plans, things that we very much want. baghdadi's demise represents america's relentless pursuit of terrorist leaders and our commitment to the enduring and total defeat of isis and other terrorist organizations. our reach is very long. as you know last month we announced we recently killed hamza bin laden, the violent son of osama bin laden, who was

saying very bad things about people, about our country, about the world. he was the heir apparent to al qaeda. terrorists who oppress and murder innocent people should never sleep soundly knowing that we will completely destroy them. these savage monsters will not escape their fate and they will not escape the final judgment of god. baghdadi has been on the run for many years, long before i took office. by my direction as commander in chief of the united states, we obliterated his caliphate 100% in march of this year. today's events are another reminder that we will continue to pursue the remaining isis

terrorists to their brutal end. that also goes for other terrorist organizations. they are likewise in our sights. al baghdadi and the losers who worked for him, and losers they are. they had no idea what they were getting into. in some cases, they were very frightened puppies. in other cases, they were hard-core killers. but they killed many, many people. their murder of innocent americans james foley, steven sack love, peter kasich and kayla mueller were especially heinous. the shocking publicized murder of jordanian pilot, a wonderful

young man spoke to the king of jordan. they all knew him. they all loved him. he was burned alive in a cage for all to see. and the execution of christians in libya and egypt, as well as the genocidal mass murder of ysidis. the history of our world, the forced religious conversions, the orange suits prior to so many beheadings, all of which were openly displayed for the world to see. this was all that abu bakr al baghdadi, this is what he wanted. this is what he was proud of. he was a sick and depraved man. and now he's gone.

baghdadi was vicious and violent and he died in a vicious and violent way as a coward running and crying. this raid was impeccable and could only have taken place with the acknowledgment and help of certain other nations and people. i want to thank the nations of russia, turkey, syria, and iraq, and i also want to thank the syria kurds for certain support they were able to give us. this was a very, very dangerous mission. thank you as well to the great intelligence professionals who helped make this very successful journey possible. i want to thank the soldiers and sailors, airmen, marines involved in last night's operation.

you are the very best there is anywhere in the world. no matter where you go, there is nobody even close. i want to thank general mark millie and our joint chiefs of staff, and i also want to thank our professionals who work in other agencies of the united states government and were critical to the missions mission's unbelievable success. last night was a great night for the united states and for the world. a brutal killer, one who has caused so much hardship and death, has violently been eliminated. he will never again harm another innocent man, woman, or child. he died like a dog. he died like a coward. the world is now a much safer place.

god bless america. thank you. any questions? >> when did the operation get started? >> we had him under surveillance for a couple of weeks. we knew a little bit about where he was going, where he was heading. we had very good information that he was going to another location. he didn't go. two or three efforts were canceled because he decided to change his mind, constantly changing his mind. and finally we saw that he was here, held up here. we knew something about the compound. we knew it had tunnels. they were dead end for the most part. we had it covered too just in case. the level of intelligence, the level of work was pretty amazing. when we landed with eight

helicopters, a large crew of brilliant fighters ran out of those helicopters and blew holes into the side of the willing building, not wanting to go through the main door because it was booby-trapped. i got to watch it along with general milley, vice president pence, others, in the situation room. we watched it to clearly. >> how did you -- >> i don't want to say how, but we had absolutely perfect, as though you were watching a movie. that and the technology there alone is really great. a big part of the trip that was of great danger was the -- it was approximately an hour and 10-minute flight. we were flying over very, very dangerous territory. in fact, some of our leaders

said that that could be the most dangerous flying in and flying out. and that's why last night we were so quiet about it. we didn't say anything. and i didn't make my remark until after they had landed safely in a certain area. but the flight in, the flight out, was a very, very dangerous part. there was a chance that we would have met unbelievable fire. russia treated us great. they opened up. we had a fly over certain russian-held areas. russia was great. iraq was excellent. we really had great cooperation. and you have to understand they didn't know what we were doing and where we were going exactly. but the isis fighters are hated as much by russia and some of these other countries as they are by us. and that's why i say they should

start doing a lot of the fighting now. and they will be able to. i really believe they will be able to. yes, jennifer. >> [inaudible question]. >> they gave us not a military role but they gave us some information that turned out to be helpful, the kurds. >> can you tell us what the role of turkey might have been and iraq? what was the role of turkey? >> turkey, we dealt with them. they know we were going in. we flew over some territory. they were terrific. flo problem. they could start shooting. and then we will take them out. but a lot of bad things can happen. plus, it was a very secret mission. we flew very, very low and very, very fast. but it was a very dangerous part of the mission. getting in and getting out, too, equal. we wanted an identical -- we took an identical route. we met with gunfire coming in,

but it was local gunfire. that gunfire was immediately terminated. these people are amazing. they had the gunfire terminated immediately, meaning they were shot from the air ships. >> -- the timing, you talked earlier about pulling troops out, you know, troops back in. -- the timing of when this operation -- >> from the first day i came to office, and now we're getting close to three years, i would sale where is al baghdadi? i want al baghdadi. and we would kill terrorist leaders, but they were names i never heard of. they were names that weren't recognizable. and they weren't the big names. some good ones, some important ones but they weren't the big ones. i would say where is al baghdadi? a couple of weeks ago they were able to scope them out. they are very smart.

they are not into cell phones any more. they are technically brilliant. they use the internet better than almost anybody in the world, perhaps other than were donald trump. but they use the internet incredibly well. but what they have done through recruiting and everything. he died like a dog. he died like a coward. he was whimpering, screaming, and crying. and frankly i think it's something that should be brought out so that his followers and all of these young kids that want to leave various countries, including the united states, they should see how he died. he didn't die a hero. he died a coward. crying, whimpering, screaming and bringing three kids with him. to die. certain death. and he knew the tunnel had no end. i mean, it was a closed end tunnel. not a good place to be. >> this was before you made the

announcement -- >> i've been looking for him for three years. i've been looking for him -- i started getting very positive feedback about a month ago. and we had some incredible intelligence officials that did a great job. that's what they should be focused on. >> about what time did this operation start yesterday, sir? >> this operation started two weeks ago in terms of the real operation. because we had him scoped. we thought he would be in a certain location. he was. things started checking out very well. we were involved on our own team with brilliant people who i have gone to know, brilliant people that love our country. highly intelligent people. and we've had it pretty well scoped out for a couple of weeks. but he tends to change immediately. he had a lot of cash. he tends to change on a dime. he will be going to a certain

location. all of a sudden he will go someplace else and you will have to cancel. but this was one where we knew he was there. and you can never be 100% sure. because you're basing it on technology more than anything else. but we thought he was there. then we got a confirmation. and when we went in, they were greeted with a lot of fire power. a lot of fire power. i'll tell you, these guys, they do a job, they are so brave and so good. and so importantly, many of his people were killed and we'll announce the exact number the next 24 hours. many were killed. we lost nobody. think of that. it's incredible. >> you told -- >> the dog, the canine was hurt. went into the tunnel. but we lost nobody.

>> [inaudible question]. >> spoke to the russians. >> what did you tell them -- >> we told them we were coming in. and they said thank you for telling us. they were very good. >> did you tell them why? >> no. they did not know why. >> was there -- >> we told them we think you're going to be very happy. again, they hate isis as much as we do. you know what isis has done to russia. so, no, we did not tell them. they did not know the mission. they knew we were going over an area that they had a lot of fire power. >> had you notified the congressional leaders, pelosi -- >> we identified some. others are being notified now as i speak. we were going to notify them last night, but we decided not to do that because washington leaks like i've never seen before. there is no country in the world that leaks like we do. and washington is a leaking machine. and i told my people we will not

notify them until the -- our great people are out. not just in, but out. i don't want to have them greeted with fire power like you wouldn't believe. we were able to get in. it was top secret. it was kept. no leaks, no nothing. the only people that knew were the few people that i dealt with. mark millie and the joint chiefs of staff were incredible. we had tremendous backup. robert o'brien, secretary esper, secretary pompeo, pence, i told you, he was great. a very small group of people that knew about this. we had very, very few people. a leak would have caused the deaths of all of them. now, they're so good that i think nothing was going to stop them anyway, if you want to know the truth. we had them also surrounded by massive air power up in the air yesterday surrounded at very high levels.

we were very low. we had tremendous air power. >> and you watched all of this from the sit room? who were you with in the sit room? >> secretary esper, a few of the joint chiefs, mark millie, some generals. we had some very great military people in that room. and we had some great intelligence people. robert o'brien. yes? >> was the pullout of all the syrian troops last night strategically tied with this raid? >> great question. and you're doing a great job, by the way. your network is doing great, by the way. please let them know. the pullout had nothing to do with this. in fact, we found this out at a similar time. very good question because we found out at a similar time. we were after these leaders. and we have others in sight.

very bad oneones. but this is the big one. this is the biggest one perhaps that we have ever captured. because this is the one that built isis and beyond and was looking to rebuild it again. very, very strongly looking to rebuild it again. that's why he went to this province, this area. you know, a lot of people -- i was watching this morning&hearing, why was he there. people were so surprised. that's where he was trying to rebuild from because that was the place that made most sense, if you're looking to rebuild. yeah? >> you said in your tweet last night -- at what moment -- >> right after i knew they had landed safely. >> when they returned? >> and that was to notify you guys, so you wouldn't be out playing golf or tennis or otherwise being in disposed. >> where had they landed? >> i would rather not say. but we landed in a friendly port in a friendly country.

>> any -- about your decision to withdraw? >> no. we don't want to keep soldiers between syria and turkey for the next 200 years. they have been fighting for hundreds of years. we're out. but we are leaving soldiers to secure the oil. and we may have to file the for the oil. it's okay. maybe somebody else wants the oil. in which case they have a hell of a fight. but there is massive amounts of oil. we are securing it for a number of reasons. number one, it stops isis. we have taken it. secured. number two, and, again, somebody else may claim it. but either we'll negotiate a deal with whoever is claiming it if we think it's fair or militarily stop them from quickly. we have tremendous power in that part of the world. we have, you know, the airport is right nearby. a very big, very monstrous, very

powerful airport and very expensive airport that was built years ago. we're in there for doctor we're in the middle east now for $8 trillion. so we don't want to be keeping syria and turkey. they're going to have to make their own decision. the kurds have worked along incredibly with us. to be honest, it was much easier to work after three days of fighting. that was a brutal three days. we would have said to the kurds, hey, do you mind moving over seven miles? they were in the middle of mosul. could you mind moving over? because i have to say, turkey has taken tremendous deaths from that part of the world. we call it a safe zone. but it was anything but a safe zone. turkey lost thousands and thousands of people from the safe zone. they have always want thad safe zone for a years. i'm glad i was able to help them get it. i want our soldiers home.

or fighting something that is meaningful. i'll tell you who loves us being there, russia and china. because while they build their military, we are depleting our military there. russia loves us being there. they like us for being there for two reasons. because we kill isis, we kill terrorists, and they are very close to russia. we're 8,000 miles away. now, maybe they can get here. but we have done well with homeland security and the ban, which by the way, is approved by the united states supreme court, as you know. there was a reporter that said we lost the case. and he was right in the early court. he just refused to say that we won the case in the supreme court. so, you know. but we have a very effective ban. it's very hard for people to come to our country. but it is many thousands of miles away. whereas russia is right there. turkey is right there. syria is there. they're all right there. excuse me, iran is right there.

iraq is right there. they all hate isis. so we don't, you know -- in theory, they should do something. i'll give you something else, the european nations have been a tremendous disappointment. because i personally called, but my people called a lot. take your isis fighters and they didn't want them. they said we don't want them. they came from france. they came from germany. they came from the uk. they came from a lot of countries. and i actually said to them, you don't take them, i'm going to drop them right on your border and you can have fun capturing them again. but the united states taxpayer is not going to pay for the next 50 years. you see what guantanamo costs. we're not going to pay tens of billions of dollars because we were good enough to capture people that want to go back to germany, france, uk and other parts of europe. and they can walk back. they can't walk to our country. we have lots of water in between

our country and them. so, yeah, go. >> you mentioned you met -- gone to know brilliant people along this process who helped provide information and advice along the way. is there any one in particular or would you like to give anyone credit for getting to this point today? >> well, i would. but if i mention one, i have to mention so many. i spoke to senator richard burr this morning. as you know, he is very involved with intelligence and the committee. and he's a great gentleman. i spoke with lindsey graham a little while ago. he's right over here. he has been very much involved in the subject. he's a very strong hawk. but i think lindsey agrees with what we're doing now. and, again, there are plenty of other countries that can help them patrol. i don't want to leave 1,000, 2,000 to 3,000 soldiers on the bothered. but where lindsey and i totally agree is the oil.

the oil is so valuable for many reasons. it fueled isis. number one. number two, it helps the kurds. because it's basically been taken away from the kurds. they were able to live with that oil. and number three, it can help us. we should be able to take some also. what what i intend to do perhaps is make a deal with an exxonmobil or one of our great companies to go in there and do it properly. right now it's not big. it's big old underground but not big oil up top. much of the machinery has been shot and dead. it's been through wars. and spread out the wealth. but, no, we're protecting the oil. we are securing the oil. now, that doesn't mean we don't make a deal at some point. but i don't want to be the -- they're fighting for a thousand years, they're fighting for centuries. i want to bring our soldiers back home. but i do want to secure the oil.

if you read about the history of donald trump, i was a civilian. i had absolutely nothing to do with going into iraq, and i was totally against it. but i always used to say, if they're going to go in -- nobody cared that much, but it got written about. if they're going to go in -- i'm sure you read the statement. if they're going into iraq, keep the oil. they never did. they never did. i know lindsey graham had a bill where basically we would have been paid back for all of the billions of dollars that we have spent. many, many billions of dollars. i hate to say it, it's actually trillions of dollars. but many billions of dollars. by one vote they were unable to get it approved in the senate. they had big opposition from people who shouldn't have opposed lookic a president. if you did that, iraq would be a much different story today. they would be owing us a lot of money. they would be treating us much

differently. but i will say iraq was very good with respect to the raid last night. >> -- you got back to the white house around 4:30 yesterday afternoon. did you immediately go back to the situation room. >> i knew for three days. look, nobody was even hurt. our canine, as they call it. i call it a dog. a beautiful dog. a talented dog, was injured and brought back. but we had no soldier injured. and they did a lot of shooting and a lot of blasting. even not going through the front door. you think you would go through the door. if you're a normal person you say knock, knock, may i come in. the fact is they blasted their way into the house in a very heavy wall and it took them literally seconds. by the time those things went

off they had a beautiful big hole and they ran in and got everyone by surprise. unbelievably brilliant as fighters. i can't imagine there could be anybody better. and these, as you know, are our top operations people. >> -- is there any indication of that? >> we don't know that. but he was the last one out. and his people had either been killed, which there were many, or gave up. and came out. because with the 11 children that came out, we were able to do that. we don't know if they were his children. they might have been. but as i said, three died in the tunnel. and the tunnel collapsed with the explosion. but you had other fighters coming out also. and they are being brought back. they are right now we have them imprison imprisoned. >> do you remember what time you went into the situation room?

>> hwell, i started at 5:00. we were pretty much gathered at 5:00 yesterday. we were in contact all day long through hopeful live secure phones. i'll let you know tomorrow. nothing seemed to leak, they we change. but we gathered more or less at 5:00. the attack started moments after that. the liftoff started moments after that. again, the element of attack that they were most afraid of was getting from our base into that compound because there's tremendous firepower that we were flying over. and i won't go into it, but you had a very big russian presence in one area. you had a turkish presence. you had a syrian presence. and you're flying low. it's very dangerous. and there were shots made, but we think these were people that were shooting that were

indiscriminately shooting. the helicopters took some shots but we think these were people that were just random people that don't like to see helicopters, i guess. >> was there any kind of dna test done or -- >> so, that's another part of the genius of these people. they brought his -- they have his dna, more of it than they want even, and they brought it with them with lab technicians who were with them. and they assumed that this was baghdadi. they thought visually it was him, but they assumed it was him, and they did a sight -- an on-site test. they got samples. and to get to his body, they had to remove a lot of deprbris because the tunnel had collapsed, but these people are very good at that. and they brought body parts back with them. there wasn't much left.

the vest blew up, but there were still substantial pieces that they brought back. so they did an on-site test because we had to know this. and it was a very quick call that took place about 15 minutes after he was killed. and it was positive. it was -- this is a confirmation, sir. >> there was also a report that his wife had -- or one of his wives had detonated a vest. >> so there were two women. both wives, both wearing vests. they had not detonated, but the fact that they were dead and they had vests on made it very difficult for our men because they had vests on. and it made it very difficult for our men because you never know what's going to happen. they never detonated, but they

were dead. >> the possible successors. have you been briefed on -- >> yeah, we know the successors, and we've already got them in our sights and we'll tell you that right now but we know the successors. bin laden was a big thing, but this is the biggest there is. this is the worst ever. osama bin laden was very big, but osama bin laden became big with the world trade center. this is a man who built a whole -- as he would like to call it a country, a caliphate, and was trying to do it again. and i had not heard too much about his health. i've heard stories about he may not have been in good health. but he died -- he died in a ruthless, vicious manner. that i can tell you. >> were any adults taken -- >> yes, we have people that were taken. we have -- many of the people died on the site, but we have people that were taken. and the children, we are -- we

left them under care of somebody that we understand. >> how many? >> 11 children. >> 11 children? how many adults. >> i'd rather not say. i'd leave that to the generals. but a small group. more dead than alive. >> which special operations teams were involved? >> many of them. and at the top level. and people that were truly incredible at their craft. i've never seen anything like it. >> as far as partnerships go, were there any other forces involved? or was this only american troops? >> no, only american forces. only american forces, but we were given great cooperation. >> did the u.s. rely -- >> we told the russians we're coming in because we had to go over them. and they were curious, but we said we're coming. we said one way or the other -- look, we're coming, but they were very cooperative.

they really were good. and we did say it would be a mission that they'd like, too, because, you know, they hate isis as much as we do. >> for intel purposes, was there any foreign intel that proved useful along the way in this operation? >> so we had our own intel. we got very little help. we didn't need very much help. we have some incredible people. when we use our intelligence correctly, what we can do is incredible. when we waste our time with intelligence, that hurts our country because we had poor leadership at the top. that's not good. but i've gotten to many of the intel people and i would say they are spectacular. they'll not want to talk about it. they want to keep it quiet. the last thing they want because he's their -- these are great patriots. but the people that i've been dealing with are incredible people. and it's really a deserving name, intelligence. i've dealt with some people that aren't very intelligent having to do with intel.

but this is the top people and it was incredible. it was flawless. and it was very complicated. so i do appreciate russia, turkey, iraq. and syria to an extent because, you know, we're flying into syria. a lot of syrian people with lots of guns. so we had good cover for probably the most dangerous part. it would not sound -- when you fly in, it doesn't sound like that would be the most dangerous when you're going into shooting and all of the things that happened once they broke into that pretty powerful compound. that was a very strong compound. and as i said, had tunnels. but the most dangerous part, we had great cooperation with -- y ma'am. >> did you inform speaker pelosi ahead of time? >> no, i didn't do that. i wanted to make sure this is kept secret. i didn't want to have men lost and women. i don't want to have people lost. >> do you anticipate inviting

the special forces teams to the white house after? >> oh, yeah, they'll be invited. i don't know if they'll want to have their faces shown, to be honest with you. they want -- they are incredible for the country. they aren't looking for public relations. but they love doing what they're doing. i've seen it. first lady was out there recently looking at what they do. she came back and said, wow, i've never seen anything like that. the training. you know, all of the training and the power of the people. the men and women, the strength, the physical strength, the mental strength. these are incredible people. these are very unique people. >> you mentioned wimpering. could you hear that on your video hook-up. >> the wimpering of baghdadi? >> i don't want to talk about it, but he was screaming, crying and wimpering. and he was scared out of his mind. and think of james foley.

think of kayla. think of the things he did to kayla. what he did to foley and so many others. and for those people that say, oh, isn't this a little violent? think of how many times have you seen men, i think in all cases men, for the most part, but in terms of this, where you see the orange suits and you see the ocean. and they are beheaded. or how many of you got to see, because it was out there, the jordanian pilot whose plane went out. they captured him and put him in a cage and set him on fire. and the king of jordan actually attacked very powerfully when that happened. they've never seen a thing like that. but he set him on fire. this was al baghdadi. and you should never, ever hopefully see a thing like that again. now there will be new people emerge, but this was the worst

of this particular world. this was the worst. probably in certain ways the smartest. he was also a coward. and he didn't want to die. but think of it. everybody was out. and we were able to search him down and find him in the tunnel. we knew the tunnel existed. and that's where he was. >> and you've taken a lot of heat for this syria pullout. you think this will change the standing -- yore standing? >> i don't have a syria pullout. i just don't want to guard syria for the rest of our lives. it's dangerous. they've been fighting for centuries. i don't want to have my people, 2,000 men and women or a thousand or 28. we had 28. i don't want them there. i don't want them. now i will secure the oil. that happens to be in a certain part, but that's tremendous money involved. i would love to, you know, the oil in -- i'll tell you a story in iraq. so they spent -- president bush

went in. i strongly disagreed with it, even though it wasn't my expertise at the time, but i have a very good instinct about things. they went in and i said that's a tremendous mistake. and there were no weapons of mass destruction. it turned out i was right. i was right for other reasons, but it turned out on much to everything else. they had no weapons of mass destruction because that would be a reason to go in. but they had none. but i heard recently that iraq over the last number of years actually discriminates against america in oil leases. in other words, some oil companies from other countries, after all we've done, have an advantage in iraq for the oil. i said keep the oil. give them what they need. keep the oil. why should we -- we go