good morning. i'm a lis ya menendez. the syrian government has fallen and russia says the syrian president has left the country. assad relinquished the presidency for a peaceful transition of power, but nbc

news has not confirmed his departure. this comes after a coalition of syrian rebels mounted a weeks-long offense against the syrian government. the rebels claimed victory this morning, leading to celebrations in the streets. this marks a critical turning point in the nation's 13-year civil war as the rebels vow a new chapter. joining us from tel aviv, international correspondent raf sanchez. >> good morning. this is a fast-moving story. what can you tell us about the reaction from the russians and about the fall of syria, and what this may mean for how the ripple effect plays out across the region? >> reporter: well, good morning. let's start with that ripple effect. just breaking in the last couple of minutes, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu, as well as israel's defense minister, have traveled to the israeli controlled golan heights, which borders syria. israel's prime minister is

saying that this is a historic day in the history of the middle east. he is celebrating the fall of the assad regime in the sense this was a close iranian ally who helped iran funnel weapons to hezbollah, the militant group in southern lebanon, which israel has been fighting for the last year or so. but he's saying that, while developments in syria creates new very important opportunities for the state of israel, it is also not without risks. now, those risks, the main rebel group here called hts is a group that has origins in al qaeda. it is an islamist group ideologically, it's not a million miles off of hamas. it is a group that is considered technically by the united states to be a terrorist organization, and so there are reasons for israel to be concerned about a syria that is governed by hts.

we should say this is a group that has gone to great, great lengths to try to stress that it has moderated since its time as an add al qaeda affiliate. they have been stressing they are not a threat to syria's minority groups, shias, christians. but you can understand why this is of concern to israel, why they have rushed troops up to golan heights, to the border with syria. also very closely monitoring the situation, as you said, is russia. the russian government is the first to officially confirm that bashar assad has resigned as president of syria, a position he held for 24 years, a position his father held for 30 years before that. the russians are confirming that assad has left syria. they are not saying where. and that will be one of the big questions, where has assad gone,

is there any possibility that he will face accountability for the mass war crimes committed by his forces over the course of the last 13 years, including the use of chemical weapons against civilian areas. those are among the many, many questions this morning, including how will this new rebel government convert their victory on the battlefield into actual governance of one of the key countries in the middle east. >> raf, you have president-elect trump saying the u.s. should not get involved, should, quote, let it all play out. has there been any response from the international community to that assertion? >> reporter: what's interesting is the united states is involved in the sense that there are a thousand u.s. military personnel who are up in the northeast of syria and down in the south near the border with jordan. so whether we like it or not,

there are american boots on the ground. at this point, there is no indication that they are in harm's way. they are geographically far away from where the main fighting had been, which was kind of along the western spine of syria. hts has given no indication that it is looking for a fight with the united states. instead, it is saying that it wants to have good relations with the countries of the world. but when president trump is saying that the united states should not get bogged down inside of syria, he is sort of washing his hands of the outcome here. and it was notable that he is saying he's looking to both russia and to china to shape the next stage of both the political and the military situation inside of syria. you'll remember that president trump did actually order strikes against bashar al-assad in

response for the use of chemical weapons. that is something that president obama threatened to do, but then did not do. that is something that a lot of people here in the region interpreted as a sign that the united states was not prepared to really step up inside of syria. but you are getting an indication from that early statement from president-elect trump that he does not want to get bogged down in syria and that he is prepared to let this messy situation play out. and to some extent it sounds like, let it be shaped by the russians and chinese, guys. >> all right, nbc's raf sanchez, thank you so much. joining us, senior fellow at the carnegie endowment for international peace, former arab-israeli negotiator. good to see you. what's your assessment of the swift-moving pieces in syria

right now, aaron, in terms of not just what we just heard from raf about the syrians sort of now having to grapple with this new reality on the ground, but the fact that you potentially have the russians and the chinese playing a role in what comes next, according to how incoming president trump sees it? >> yes, it's fascinating. thanks for having me. this is the second time in barely a year, a little over a year, where powers large and small and most intelligence organizations missed this rapid evolution of hts. october 7th was the first sort of intelligence failure. this, i think, was the second. and it's rather extraordinary. beginning november 27th, this group, which is a coalition of sunni islamists, formally tied to hts and its leader, jelani,

to al qaeda and to isis. those ties have now been broken. managed to basically demonstrate that the assad regime had been fundamentally hollowed out, and within a matter of a week took aleppo, and entered damascus as well today. look, i think the situation, we have to be very sober and realistic, and i think we can have a lot of hope. but i think we need to look at reality. the excitement understandable, the joy of the end of a brutal autocratic drug-exporting mafia like regime, the assad family, they're gone now. but we've also seen in cases where there was tremendous elation in yemen, in libya, in iraq, in tunisia, where the elation was turned to dysfunction and where at

autocrats or no governance at all managed to rule the day. so we'll see, frankly, if hts can manage a country of 23 million people. it's going to take an extraordinary amount of international support. and you have a situation where jelani has been designated by the treasury department and by the department of state hts as a foreign terrorist organization. it's complicated. great powers, powers large and small are going to congeal to play a role. the israelis are worried on one hand, but also see an opportunity with the rollback of iranian influence. i think we have to wait and watch, and, frankly, hope, i suspect with the trump administration we'll be doing a lot of hoping from the sidelines and not involved, that, in fact, this transition can be worked out in a way that benefits the syrian people. >> let's talk about that. some early indicators, you have

jelani reassuring minorities they'll not interfere with them. he's telling the international community he opposes the attacks, but we're learning as we're on air the military operations department is setting up a curfew in damascus, 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. what are the early indicators that you look for as you seek to understand whether this moderation, supposed moderation is in word only or also in deed? >> yeah, i think jelani was quoted in a "new york times" article, he put on a suit for one of the interviews. clearly he's sending all the right signals, expanding space for minority groups, the transition with the sunni syrian prime minister, you saw that on video, being escorted to a hotel, both agreeing somehow this will be a political transition. this is an islamist conservative group which managed to rule

quite functionally. the question is, syria is also very secular and damascus is not terribly traditional, so the real question is, how much islamic stricture and islamic rule is hts going to demand? are they going to step back and watch a political transition sponsored by the u.n. and the international community take root? it's hard to say. what we haven't seen is the looting and the retribution that occurred in iraq and other places, particularly in libya against gaddafi and those supporting him. whether or not as the prisons empty out and as the true face of the assad regime is revealed again and again in brutality and torture and forced disappearances, whether or not the sunni elements can maintain a sense of discipline and not seek retribution against the minority remains to be seen. i think we'll know better in the weeks to come what jelani's real

objectives are. he was quoted in "the new york times," i think, as saying, yes, he's interested in a political transition, but that's going to have to come later. so i imagine they're going to want to consolidate their power in damascus, no small task. 2.5 million people. it's going to be quite a heavy lift. >> real quick on this one, admittedly we're in the middle of a presidential transition, and president-elect trump has already indicated that, as you noted, a little bit more hands off, let the russians and the chinese play in the region. i'm sure that there are people in washington and elsewhere, our allies abroad, who would like to see the u.s. not just sit on the sidelines and allow china and russia to determine ultimately the outcome on the ground there. what do you think the biden administration in its eight

weeks or six to eight weeks that are left can or should do in this situation? because as i noted coming in, this is fast moving. things are going to happen over the next days and weeks before the end of december that may require a little bit more hands on. we don't know. but how does the biden administration sort of stand in that transition, deal with the issue on the ground real time, but also know that another administration is coming in? >> yeah, it's a terrific question. i think two or three things. number one, we have 900 to 1,000 americans deployed in the eastern part of this country, far away now from the center of potential conflict. we've got to tend to their well-being and welfare. number two, tracking chemical weapons. the organization for the prevention of the use of chemical weapons is not satisfied with syria's declaration that they've given up most of their chemical assets. they haven't. so tracking that is going to be

important. reassuring our allies. the israelis are nervous for the first time since 1974, the israelis actually deployed forces into the buffer zone, which is now manned by the u.n. disengagement force, an agreement that has existed since 1974. so we have to reassure the jordanians, our iraqi friends, the israelis. and then i think we're going to have to wrestle with the issue of what to do hts. it's a foreign terrorist organization, no support can be given. that means what do we do about humanitarian assistance? there may be waivers. but if the u.s. is going to play a role -- and, again, we have to at least i think allow for the reality that in an ingovernable syria, isis can make a recovery. so there's going to be a debate in washington. it may not be much of a debate.

president trump wanted those 900 americans out. it seems to me he's putting the responsibility on the russians and the chinese for the responsibility in syria, basically he's saying anybody but the u.s. and i doubt, frankly, whether donald trump, who has little conception, the national interest is going to want to spend any american resources, financial, economic, and additional deployment of american forces in syria. >> all right. aaron david miller, thank you for being with us this morning. next, congressman eric swalwell on the congressional response. you're watching "the weekend" on msnbc. ♪ ♪ ♪ (vo) whether your phone's broken or old, we've got you. with verizon, trade in any phone, any condition. and for a limited time, get iphone 16 pro with apple intelligence. get four, on us.

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. the overnight upheaval in syria shows just how tense the world is at the moment. and those times, folks, bottom line, require competent leaders and competent diplomats. if donald trump has his way, a former fox news host will be leading the department of defense and someone who is

supposedly an assad apologist will be overseeing national intelligence. joining us to discuss the democratic congressman eric swalwell of california. good to have you back at the table. look, let's start right up front with ambassador john bolton's assessment of tulsi gabbard, who has been proposed as our next director of national intelligence. >> i think she's totally unequaled to be dni, and i think her positions put her beyond the outer most fringe of american politics. when she visited assad in syria, he was effectively a russian-iranian ally, and what she said about syria not being a direct threat to the united states, that was her justification for going, is completely false. it's going to be very interesting to see what the files that may be uncovered in the syrian government, if the rebels succeed in capturing

damascus, what they show about a number of americans. >> so now it's real, right? real events in syria on the ground, obvious relationships that tulsi had prior to this moment. how do you see this changing how the members, the senate -- i know it's not your responsibility in the house, but, you know, capitol hill is capitol hill. how does this change the way folks look at her potentially as the next dni? >> they're going to wonder who is going to be looking out for america's interests in that region. she was completely wrong about assad. he killed at least half a million people. he's gone like a coward, he left the country. and russia is losing there, at least until january 20 when their preferred guy comes back into power here. but i think when you step back, the real question is going to be, where does donald trump put

his focus? and there's a parallel into what happened in october 7 where benjamin netanyahu comes into power, he's got corruption charges within, he's focusing on his political enemies, he's moving the idf to the west bank to protect the settlers there who are expanding, and he's taking his eye off the ball. his greatest threat is in gaza and he's missed intel warnings. donald trump comes into power and he's going to focus so inwardly on going after his political enemies, going after hard-working undocumented immigrants who he wants to get caught up in this national roundup rather than just focusing on the violent individuals. what does it mean to us if he takes his eye off the ball when you have a mess going on in this part of the world and you have people over there who are not our friends? with china and russia also regrouping and getting stronger. does he make us weaker by doing this? it's really going to be a question of where does donald

trump focus and does he have the attention span to look at all of these threats in the world and not just go after who he sees as personal enemies to him. >> congressman, you were, of course, a member of the homeland security security. are you scheduled to receive a classified briefing on what is unfolding in syria? if you are, which questions do you have going into that briefing? >> so, we expect that on monday when we are back. my questions, of course, are going to be what is russia's presence now in syria with assad gone? are they holding back and waiting for donald trump to come back into power so that he can help them in ukraine and then put them back in a resource position where they can make syria a bigger mess? look, from just a humanitarian standpoint, i just want the people of syria not to live under a brutal dictator. that doesn't mean we have to put u.s. troops there, it just means we have to care and have policies that reflect that. one other point, though, israel was not incredibly helpful when

it came to ukraine. you have a jewish president of ukraine in zelenskyy, a very historic figure in how he bravely has defended democracy there. and i was often being told by israel leaders that, because of russia's presence in syria, that limited what they can do. so i wonder if this changes israel's ability to help a democratic country like ukraine as they need to beat back russia now more than ever. >> the other aspect of this -- i mean, you mentioned donald trump and how he will look at this, whether he's just going to stay more fixed on the personal as opposed to the more expansive part of the responsibilities of being president. he said in response to the syrian news on truth social, quote, in any event, syria is a mess, but it is not our friend and the united states should have nothing to do with it. this is not our fight. let it play out.

do not get involved. this isolationist ideology that has re-emerged within the republican party stands in exact opposite of where reagan looked at the world and saw the russians for who they were and what they were, and realized the americans had a role to play. president-elect trump is basically saying let the russians handle this, the middle east. let them figure it out. the chinese, if you're available, you can help, too. how do members on the intelligence committee, senate and house, on foreign affairs, senate and house, look at this? do you suspect that there's going to be a complete abdication of any involvement by the united states government in what happens next in this region? >> that's what donald trump is telegraphing, and it's concerning because his focus and

his muscle is going to be turned inward. now, i agree with the american people that the primary resources of the united states need to be spent here. we need security at the border, absolutely, we need security at our own border. once you get that, you can address the workforce crisis issues with immigration. people want to see their costs come down, they want to know, what are we doing to increase their pathways to better jobs so they can dream bigger. that has to be our focus. that does not mean we are not engaging in this region and understanding where threats could emerge. i just fear that this guy who has a long enemy list and is putting un-qualified people to come in and carry out that list for him, will take his eye off the ball internationally and leave countries who don't like us and terrorist groups that don't like us in a better position to hit us or take advantage of us. and that's not leadership. >> congressman, i want to loop back to michael's first question on gabecause in addition to what we heard from bolton,

you also have 100 former national security officials who say they are alarmed at the prospect of her leading the intel community. quote, several of mrs. gabbard's past actions call into question her ability to deliver unbiased intelligence briefings to the president and entire national security apparatus. following her trip to syria, ms. gabbard aligned herself with russian and syrian officials. there's gabbard, hegseth. i just want to push a little bit. do you think that what we are watching unfold does change the cal calculus for some republicans in the senate who might not have wanted to have this fight? >> yes. the trick is you can't put it on just one. when you put it on just one person, they shrink. and the beauty of gaetz not being the nominee is that no one can say who the senator was that took out gaetz. and so they need to find a way to collectively come together to take down these nominees. by the way, i thought it was so interesting, michael, that pete

hegseth, a man who said no woman should ever go into combat, sent his poor mom into combat to try and save his butt. i feel bad for her. >> she did have thoughts about him, too, before that. >> yeah. >> when your momma tells you you're not much of a man, yeah, that puts you in a very interesting position. >> congressman eric swalwell, thank you so much for being with us. next, how donald trump is responding to syria. this is "the weekend" weekend ♪♪ over 600,000 usps employees working in sync to ensure everything sent on its holiday ride ends with a moment of joy. ♪♪ the united states postal service.

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so donald trump is calling out russia for their role in propping up the assad regime, writing on truth social that bashar al assad reportedly fled because, quote, putin was not interested in protecting him any longer. trump went on to call for a cease-fire in ukraine. yesterday, trump met with

ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy in paris before the grand reopening of the notre dame cathedral. joining us now is the guardian's senior political correspondent, hugo lowell, and atlanta journal constitutional columnist, sophia nelson. >> good to see you both. let me start and show you this, the trilateral was all smiles and hand shakes. emmanuel macron achieved a diplomatic milestone, hosting the first meeting between ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy and president-elect donald trump since he won the election in november. talk to me about the stakes and the way the president-elect is positioning himself. >> what was fascinating about that meeting was the fact that p they put everyone together for the trilateral and this is europe rolling out the carpet. trump got a number one spot at the notre dame opening, he got one of the best seats. and this is like macron and nato saying, we really want you to be

on our side here, because, for us, it really matters. europeans have a very long history of having to fight off aggression from the east and russia in particular, and so this matters a lot to europeans i think in a way that sometimes may be -- members of congress don't always comprehend how big of a deal it is for the eu and for nato in particular. and it was interesting how they brought everyone together in that moment to have macron and zelenskyy, and then showing a united front to say, look, you might be coming in as the incoming president, but we are all united. so you have to deal with all of us and you have to deal with all of us wanting to support ukraine and ongoing conflicts, and now also in syria. and i think that was a very deliberate moment, obviously, but i think it was one that carried extra significance. >> so, sophia, to hugo's point, it matters a lot to our european allies, it matters a lot to macron, but does it matter to

donald trump? donald trump in that setting has a very different view of the men in that room and a very different view of the situation. now on the heels of that, you have syria this morning, assad is out, hts is on the ground and controlling things, the rebels. democrats and republicans in congress are now considering appointees of this incoming administration, specifically with respect to the director of national intelligence, tulsi gabbard. what's your assessment at this point when you look at this? and i'll give you a little bit of help. >> it's a lot, michael. >> i know, i know. but it's sunday morning, you can handle it. >> i've got it. let's go! >> it's been reported by nbc,

gabbard has been accused of echoing propaganda from russia and the assad regime, including intelligence assessments that the syrian government carried out multiple chemical weapons attacks on its own people. there are records, there's a history of gabbard and assad and syria. what's your take? >> well, it's sunday morning, so there is a god. and i say that because this couldn't be a worse series of events for tulsi gabbard's nomination than what's unfolding in syria right now. positive in that i think we all agree that assad was a dictator, horrible, vicious leader, and i'm glad he's been deposed. i don't think we know what that looks like yet and i think it does have to play out to echo trump's sentiments on twitter yesterday. but i think the bottom line is i think this helps to sink her nomination and give the republican senate more of an ability to have that backbone to

say, yeah, i don't think she's the right person, particularly at this moment, and it will be interesting to see what they do. i'm not optimistic, but i do think there will be a lot of pressure to not have her be there. i think to your broader question of does it matter to donald trump what the eu is doing, what europe is doing, i think that macron and the new prime minister of the uk and others in nato will have to stand shoulder to shoulder and they will have to push him and say, listen, we're going to go it alone if you don't line up with the rest of the world. but you know trump, i don't know that's going to be much of a persuasive stick, if you will, to get him in line, because he does what he wants to do. >> as we're on air, we have breaking news, a statement by putin's press secretary, quote, we have carefully read the statement which the u.s. president-elect donald trump delivered. russia is open to negotiations on ukraine and welcomes peace initiatives coming. your reaction?

>> that's quite an extraordinary moment, actually. because if you think about it, i wonder if this is a setback on multiple fronts for russia, and how trump is going to deal with this, we'll have to see. russia has substantial interest, let's just deal with syria for the moment. we have bases there, the fact that they pulled back their support from assad and the fact that they may have to now pull back their presence in syria is one thing. the fact that they have to pull back their presence potentially from ukraine suggests they're on the back foot. this is an incredible opportunity for trump to step in if he wants to. this is the guy that's been promising that he's going to end the war in ukraine in 24 hours. trump for the first time maybe has the upper hand and we'll see how he responds to this. because obviously he's not the president yet. >> and what the contours of those negotiations are given the folks we know he has already brought into his inner circle that will be part of the negotiations. >> and i wonder about the timing as well on a different note. because from russia's perspective you see kind of

biden's time coming to an end, trump coming in. you see people like tulsi gabbard who might be sympathetic to russia and i'm processing in real time, but i also wonder if this is russia saying, we're on the back foot but we might have a sympathetic administration coming in. now is the time to start making overtures. it's reminiscent of 2016. they were having their own communications, the trump transition was having communications with the russian embassy in washington, and i wonder if this is a repeat tactic of an attempt to get around the current administration and curry favor with trump. >> the thing that's interesting in light of this new news, sophia, is what is the biden administration doing? trump is not the president. he's the president-elect. and yet everyone seems to be, like, moving in this space as if he is. and i get that part of it, he's an incoming administration and he's so volatile and

unpredictable, people want to try to put a lid on as much of his crazy as they can. but you still have a sitting president right down the street here. i mean, how does biden deal with this? because biden at this point in my view, given these developments, could probably bring to a closure a number of things in 24 hours if he really wanted to. >> i think two things. one, the deal that trump and putin are going to want to offer zelenskyy is one he can't accept, because it's going to mean conceding territory and it's also going to mean saying he's not going to join nato. that's going to be unacceptable to him. and i think the hard-liners in the ukrainian government who feel like, rightly so, listen, this was a war of aggression by putin. this wasn't something that happened and ukraine was the aggressor and they should cede something. i think that's a problem. back to biden and harris, i think he's got 40 days left, something like that. i think he's going to have a statement probably here shortly, and i think that you're going to

see jake sullivan and others try to come up, like you said, with some type of agreement now. but putin is not going to want to do that because he's going to want to wait until his boy trump gets in. that's the problem i see. >> hugo lowell and sophia nelson, thank you both. really appreciate it. next we have new pictures of the person of interest in the shooting of a ceo in new york city. city. with who you love? get back to better breathing with fasenra, an add-on treatment for eosinophilic asthma taken once every 8 weeks. fasenra is not for sudden breathing problems. serious allergic reactions may occur. get help for swelling of your face, mouth, tongue, or trouble breathing. don't stop your asthma treatments without talking with your doctor. tell your doctor if your asthma worsens or you have a parasitic infection. headache and sore throat may occur. ask your doctor if fasenra is right for you. the promise of this nation should extend to all from new york to new mexico, from alaska to alabama.

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breaking news in new york city, authorities still searching for the person who killed unitedhealthcare ceo brian thompson. officials released more information about what was in that gray backpack they recovered in central park, inside a jacket and monopoly money. just last night police released two new photos of the possible suspect who appears to be wearing a black hoodie and a blue medical face mask. tra pricilla thompson has been following all the developments. what's the latest? >> reporter: given there's not been an arrest or public identification of this person, these new images could be huge. you see this person of interest in the back seat of what appears to be a taxi cab, and you have perhaps the clearest picture yet of their eyes, and then there's that second image which appears to have captured this person walking down the sidewalk. so you couple those images with what is already out there from the hostel when law enforcement says he flashed a smile at that woman that he was flirting with,

and you have a really clear picture of this person. again, authorities are asking the public, if you see this person, if you know this person, to please reach out to them. we also heard from mayor eric adams yesterday, again, no identification made publicly. but him appearing to suggest that details like that may be being held close right now, but that authorities are getting closer here. take a listen to what he had to say. >> the manner in which they were able to follow his footsteps to recover evidence, some of it is known, some of it is unknown, but the net is tightening. we're going to bring this person to justice. >> reporter: and police have put together a very robust timeline here, and they do have a number of pieces of evidence, including the backpack that potentially belonged to the shooter. they did not find a gun in that backpack, but they did find a jacket. unclear at this point if it is the jacket that is seen in that

video when the shooting took place. they also found that monopoly money. so we know they have taken that to a lab. it has been scrubbed for dna evidence, for fingerprints, and police did say that at some point they were able to pick up some kind of dna. that is still being processed. of course, we know the nypd is in atlanta scrubbing through videos from the bus station there where the bus into new york city originated from. they're also looking at the other stops along that route coming into new york city for any additional images or evidence that could potentially come from that. alicia, michael. >> just real quick for you, the atlanta piece is very interesting in terms of how you sort of figure out the traveling portions. how is the coordination on the ground with folks in atlanta, what type of surveillance do they have? we've been very fortunate in new york to have cabs and other

modes of transportation and buildings having cameras available. same kind of setup there? they're combing through that type of information as well? >> reporter: yeah, so new york city is definitely a place with a lot of cameras everywhere. i would suspect that most cities across the country do not have that level of cameras in public places. but we do know that the bus originated there and that the bus station did have cameras, and that is what police and the nypd are looking at. we know atlanta police were in contact with the nypd about two days after all of this happened. and then finally in the last 24 hours we learned there were nypd detectives on the ground there. we don't know if the suspect got on the bus in atlanta. it's one piece of this. all of those other stops along the route are going to be important, and talking to witnesses if they saw them, and, of course, those cameras. >> nbc's priscilla thompson in new york city, thank you. we've got much more to come.

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i'm struck, michael, by the fact that you have president-elect trump saying he doesn't want anything to do with what is happening in syria, as though we do not right now have u.s. troops stationed in eastern syria, a part of the counterterrorism mission. and then at the same time, big decisions that he's going to have to make. yes, senate republicans are going to have to make them, too. but we talked a little bit about tulsi gabbard. there's also hegseth hanging in the balance here. >> so, yeah, there's all of that, and the fact that already president-elect trump is basically saying, russia, you deal with it, china, you come in and help them. that's a problem, that's a problem. that's why i asked the congressman about, you know, how concerned should all the members

be, not just about the picks that are being put up, but about the attitude of a president who is already washing his hands of a major event in the middle east like this. i was struck at certain points in the conversation this morning, certainly listening to you in the first hour at 7:00 a.m. unpack all of this for the country, about a hearing, a congressional hearing in 2018 in which a syrian defector who had risked his life was coming to congress to talk about what was going on in syria, the hardships, the criminality of the assad regime, and the staffers, democrats and republicans, were very concerned about having this defector in a room with tulsi gabbard, because they were concerned about what she would then report out not to

the press outside the hall, but to the russian government and to the assad government. specifically the identity of this particular defector. so much so that they put him in a hoodie and covered his face so that she couldn't see who he was. that should tell you everything you need to know about this appointee, in my view. and the fact that members of congress went to great lengths to avoid exposing someone who was defecting from the hardships of the assad regime and calling them out and informing congress of what was going on, that they would go to that length tells me a lot. and then there's pete hegseth. i go back to the fact nobody knows you like your momma knows you, and she can go on fox news and backpedal all she wants. but in the moment she wrote

those words to her son, basically saying that you are not the kind of man that i raised, says a lot about his leadership in this moment. so when your momma don't back you, maybe the rest of the country shouldn't either. and that is something that's going to be particularly important, i think, for senators now to look at, both hegseth and gabbard, when they consider these very sensitive positions in our government at this hour with what's going on and developing in syria right now. >> absolutely. and in focus, the stakes in focus like never before. we have got another hour of "the weekend" ahead. john brennan will be back with us and we'll be joined by evette clark, and do not forget to follow our show on social media. our handle everywhere is at the weekend msnbc. do not go anywhere.

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weekend." we continue following breaking news from the middle east. the brutal regime of the bassar al assad is over. today syrians entered the presidential palace in damascus and celebrated in the streets across the country. this after a coalition of syrian militant groups toppled the syrian government breaking through a stalemate in the nation's 13-year civil war. russia