from there, a continued search of his property, a firearm was located and a suppressor was also located. there were also other items of evidentiary value that were located that would assist in this investigation. at this time i'm going to turn it over to governor shapiro for some words. let me acknowledge and thank the law enforcement who i am joined with today beginning with lieutenant colonel bivens. i want to thank special advisory agents from the fbi to acknowledge nypd commissioner and the women and men that join me today. district attorney weaks that you will hear from shortly.

i just concluded a briefing with mayor adams and the commissioner from new york. i want to begin by thanking our fellow pennsylvania resident who acted as a hero today. pennsylvania resident saw something early this morning at mcdonald's and said something to our local police. our local police here acted quickly. i want to thank. >> he acted swiftly and he acted swiftly. safety turns on the strength of the relationship between the community and law enforcement

we have that strong relationship here i want to thank all in altoona as you helping law enforcement here in pennsylvania as we continue our investigation. you will see photos of the suspect who was here traveled between philadelphia and pittsburgh making stops in between, obviously here in altoona. i want to ask all of our fellow pennsylvanians to help us with any tips they might have by contacting us at 1-800-4-pa- tips. 1-800-4-pa-tips. the suspect was just arraigned here in the courthouse. presumably new york will file

charges very, very soon. that process will continue to play out and justice will be delivered in this case. this case has hinged on attention. in fact, the attention in this case the killing of brian thompson was helpful, no doubt n allowing us to capture the killing in alerting that individual this morning and then having that individual contact the police. but, some attention in this case. especially online has been deeply disturbing. as some have looked to celebrate instead of condemning this killer. brian thompson was a father to two. he was a husband and he was a friend to many. and, yes, he was the ceo of a health insurance company.

in america we do not kill people in cold blood to resolve policy differences. i understand people have frustration with our health care system and i have worked to address that throughout my career but i have no tolerance, nor should anyone, for one man using an illegal ghost gun to murder someone because he thinks his opinion matters most. in a civil society we are all less safe when ideloges engage in vigilantes justice. in some dark corners this killer is hailed as a hero. hear me on this, he is no hero. the real hero in this story is the person who called 911 at

mcdonald's this morning. the real hero every day in our society are the women and men who put on uniforms like these and go out in our communities to keep us safe. and this killer is not a hero, he should not be hailed. mr. thompson, i understand, was laid to rest earlier today in minnesota in a private setting. as the conversation continues about this case let's be mindful not to dehumanize him. and make him just an avatar of a system that is disliked by many. he was a father, he was a husband, and he did not deserve to die like this on the sidewalk in new york city. i again want to thank all law enforcement who is present here this evening. law enforcement works best when it works together.

and in this case you have the new york police department, working together with the altoona police department, working together with our pennsylvania state police and our partners at the federal level as well. everyone came together to solve this case and keep the public safe. i again want to ask my fellow pennsylvanians if you have any information regarding this suspect or his travels throughout pennsylvania, please share those tips with us immediately. and with that, i want to thank district attorney weaks for his important work today and invite him to the microphone to say a few words. >> thank you governor shapiro. good evening, everyone, i will echo his sentiments law enforcement works best when we work together. i want to thank district

attorney siddle. him and his staff came down in record time to assist us in altoona. the police, the state department, the fbi, the new york city police department township police department. other agencies all worked together today to do what needed to be done to seek justice. i would, i often brag about how the community in weir county is not afraid to say something to report a crime to contact local law enforcement and i often tauted how they made their community altoona or somewhere else a safer place to live. today i submit a resident from altoona and the altoona police department helped make new york city a safer place to live and kick start the process to seek justice for a senseless killing.

again, i would like to thank everybody and it is my honor to introduce deputy commissioner at this time. >> thank you. >> thank you. thank you, mr. d. a. on behalf of the new york city mayor, eric adams, my boss, police commissioner jessica tish wants to extend, once again, appreciation to the altoona police department, to your leadership team, the federals, state, local authorities and especially to the customer at the mcdonald's that seen something, said something to the mcdonald's employee that called 911 and reported this individual inside of their restaurant. the men and women behind me. the detectives, some of these detectives i have behind me have not been home since tuesday when this incident happened. they have been working this

case tirelessly, around-the- clock. when they got that call they jumped in their police car and raced down here to see if it was the individual that we were looking for. that is dedication. that is commitment, their commitment to bringing this individual to justice, those people are stand beg hind me. on behalf of the mayor and the police commissioner they send their thanks and appreciation to you as well. here is a message to the criminal element that think they want to commit a crime in new york city and cross state lines, county lines. the message is very clear. police commissioner police department will find you and bring you to justice. just look behind me. thank you. i think that with that we will

be happy to try to take a few questions. >> the question that i get for local law enforcement about the arrest specifically today. i don't know who that would be. >> refer to altoona police. >> i am curious to hear about the dynamics, if you can step to the podium, sir, if we can hear about the dynamics in the mcdonald's. there was details when the individual was asked if he had been to new york. can you speak to his demeanor and how it played out? >> sure, it was a peaceful arrest, first and foremost. the officer quickly recognized the male as a suspect from the shooting and within several minutes, seconds of the first contact, he asked the suspect if he had been in new york city recently. and that invoked a physical reaction from the suspect.

he became visibly nervous, shaking at that question. he did not really answer it directly. that statement alone really said a lot and he, the suspect did not have to say a lot after that question to show that yeah, he was very nervous at that point. >> would that be the officer that the governor mentioned who was new on the job, he was involved in that? >> yes. officer fry. step this way a little bit. >> and his partner that he was with. >> officer, could you identify yourself and maybe describe the action and what played out. and spell your name. >> patrol man . >> when we got on the scene we were able to find where he was at in the restaurant. he was wearing a blue medical mask, as soon as we asked him to pull it down and he pulled it down, my partner and i

recognized him immediately just from what we saw in the media, photos, videos. we just didn't even think twice about it. he was very cooperative with us. did not give us too many issues. once we found out his identity we took it from there. >> how did it feel six months on the job as a law enforcement officer to be part of . >> to make this arrest. >> i can not say i was expecting it by any means. it feels good to get a guy like that off of the street especially starting my career this way. >> has he asked for a lawyer yet? >> to my knowledge nehas not made any statement [ inaudible question ] >> there is a lot to do in this case. the men and women behind me are

assisting with that. so we are still looking into that. >> i am going to ask lieutenant bivins to address the questions. >> there are a lot of things to be followed up yet. in this investigation, a number of items that were found on his person, in his backpack that have been inventoried and begun to do an analysis. written documents, electric devices that are in the process of being downloaded, search warnlts are obtained. and, so, over the next hours and days those efforts will continue. we are going to take a closer look at all of the information that we can gleam from that regarding his activities up until and during the time of the homicide, his night from new york and we know he has been in pennsylvania, excuse me, for several days. part of that investigation will

also focus on trying to retrace his steps, we identified businesses for example that he frequented in this area and activities they engaged in. that led us to more evidence. all of that is becoming kind of a mountain of evidence that has to be analyzed and looked at. i am confident we will have a better idea of his activities over the past, you know, number of days in new york and in pennsylvania. addition alley we are also trying to determine that we don't have another actor or accomplice out there. that information will tell us that or any other intended targets. a lot of questions out there, unanswered yet, a lot of information that we can exam hopefully will give us some of those pieces of data that we need. you asked if someone asked

about the interview. he was initially cooperative, he is not now and so, he has been arraigned and transported and will be securely housed pending the filing of the additional charges in new york. additional charges in new york. [ inaudible question ] >> governor shapiro you mentioned he was in pittsburgh, is that correct? what do we know about that time? >> we will not get into any more details at this time. but we would like to hear from anyone who had any sightings or dealings with the individual. that is why i specifically asked for anyone with tips to share that with us.. [ inaudible question ] >> i know you have your case here what happens with the new york part of it? and how long does it take, thank you. >> that answer depends. once the larging documents are filed in the state of new york we will file a complaint

against the defendant. he will be brought against a common pleas judge shortly there after. when the defendant will be presented with the option to wave his extradition or to contest his extradition. if he waves it we, of course, will make him available to nypd and the manhattan district attorney's office as soon as, you know, we are able to arrange his transportation there. if he contests it that process typically takes between 30 and 45 days to do the paperwork. we do it all of the time in our office and that is kind of a normal procedure. >> on the matter of the backpack itself now . joining me now is former fbi official and msnbc political analyst. thank you for coming and chat with us. what did you make of what you just heard specifically and particularly josh shapiro.

pennsylvania governor, having things to say about the shooter that we have seen both online and off. >> reporter: yes, i have seen it myself. i was taken by by the happiness of the demise. we all have horror stories about health care insurance and denials of claims and battles that we engaged in or family members. but the answer, of course, to problems is not murder. and, i think one of the things that began to concern me, joy, as it went on and on was the possibility that we could have a hero fugitive. where people would not be helping to capture him. so, this ended well with a citizen doing the right thing. it was -- you know, as high- tech as we have become in law enforcement and we are on camera all of the time and high- tech facial recognition, all of

that, it came down to releasing the photos that we had, right, even though they were masked, and then letting the public do their job. it is the crowd sourcing of crime solving. and it is as sophisticated as we may get i am all about believing in releasing what you have and letting citizens get the work done for you in support of what you are doing. >> and i think that process, this is something that i think you probably thought about that we talked about behind-the- scenes just among producers is whether or not that sort of lionization of him and people's anger, legitimate anger may of made fewer people willing to do that. willing to come forward. do you think that, i mean this man's face was literally everywhere. pictures of him with a surgical mask on the back of a car. images of him all over the place. cctv all over new york. he rode away on a bike. a lot of information gathered

about him. do you think the delay in apprehending him had something to do with people's sense that maybe some people did not want him to get caught? it is a valid question. despite all of the publicity and you have to ask yourself, we will get to this, i suppose, in a few days. you got a friend, family member, colleague and his photo is everywhere and you are not identifying him to the police? he has been missing for two weeks. where is that friend or family member? we heard earlier at an nypd press conference this guy is not on their radar screen. no one called in and said, hey, i think that is my cousin, i think that is my college roommate. so, that is a fascinating question that we need to get to the bottom of. and then, we need, we all want to know why, right, joy?

where is the connection to united health care? is it that he has a become issue? i noted as i went through all of his books that he read that he posted online that one of the books in addition to the uno bomber's book which he commented extensively on and that is significant, was another book about back pain. and, dealing with medical extra and treatment for back pain which the book describes as kind of a game or a farce that doctors want to string you along with your back pain. i don't know but we want to know that. >> let's talk about some of the things that made it look like he was leaving bread crumbs for investigators, there was a backpack full of monopoly money, the world war ii firearm that had a surpresser on it. the words within on the bullet casings that match a book that

was critical of the health care industry. you can go on and on. i was fascinated by the fact that this man stayed in a youth hostile where there were six other people, strangers, who could identify him there and then took his mask down to allegedly flirt with the person at the front desk. it almost, riding away on a bike. you name it. it felt like some of bet haveior was almost behavior of someone who was leaving bread crumbs to be caught. is that something that you as an fbi -- i don't know if you were a profiler in the agency but the profile seems odd for someone trying to get away. >> reporter: yeah, there is not a profile of somebody that kills a ceo like this. this young man, bright, master's degree from an ivy league school, wealthy family, a bright future ahead of him and that is over now. he does seem to match a profile of someone who is an activist

killer. killing for a cause. if you read what he has written about the unabomber. it is ethical to murder someone around corporate greed and money. is that why he left the monopoly money for the police to see? all about money? with regard to the gun and i have to bring it up gun safety concerns thought our city. that gun that he had we know it was a ghost gun. illegal in many states and federally because it is made with a 3d printer. you can do this at home. you can go rent a 3d printer, access it at your library sometimes and say yeah i need three hours on a printer every day. that is what happened here. and, you know, make your own gun. they can not be traced. this is increasingly a problem that the police tell us they find these guns at crime scenes with increasing frequency. it is a problem and should be a part of the discussion of this

case. >> frank, always appreciate you being here to give us all of those insights, thank you very much. much appreciated. up next, one of the more unexpected responses as we have been talking about in this show so far, to that murder of thompson the ceo of united healthcare. is the outpouring of anger against the health care industry and its executives? we will talk about that when we come back talk about that when come back keke! chris! jason! boop! friends. let's go, let's go, friends! hold onto your dice. woohoo!! -nice frosting, pratt. -thank you! how we doin', keke? tastes like money to me. i can't go back to jail! wait, did you rob my bank? -hehe. -are we winning!? -ha ha ha! -oh boy! yeah! money, power, friendship. let's go!

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. we are continuing to monitor the breaking news in the united healthcare ceo's murder case. something a bit unexpected happened following the murder. a reaction not of universal horror. that a 50-year-old father of two and husband was shot dead in public but rather of, i don't want to call it glee but say not unhappiness. especially online where the internet sleuths that usually dedicate themselves for tracking down people. criminals, january 6th fugitives and more have actively been refusing to help. donald trump jr won't his x twitter, internet, do your thing, post. and the reaction was mostly,

yeah, no. popular conservatives matt walsh go up in flames when trying to attack evil liberals for celebrating the murder of a ceo. with some of the supporters replying that they had gotten it wrong. indeed, instead of universal has been stories of americans awful experiences with insurance companies, claims denied. people who have gotten sicker and died because insurance companies like united refuse to pay claims. let's be clear. a real hatred for these company that is on social media and in real life, too. at the time he was killed. thompson, ceo of the largest private insurer in the u.s. the ceo he was embroiled with a lawsuit of consolidation, united gobbled up dozens of insurance companies over the decades to become not only the

larger insurer in the u.s. but by profits the largest in the world. they exist in an industry that is all about consolidation and profit. basically four to five companies control everything and care little about health care consumers in the minds of many americans. the conversation around health care policies, corporate practices and economic frustrations goes across partisan lines and it engulfed the entire actual story of a man shot dead outside of a hotel. it is not a good time. so much so, blue cross and blue shield removed executive bios from their website. i got to say it is strange to watch an almost united public, left and right use this tragedy to go off on big business and cold-hearted insurance companies. when a majority of americans just elected a billionaire

backed by the world's richest billionaire who he now appointed with a near billionaire to run the country and slash the budget and a cabinet full of half a dozen other billionaires collective goal is to slash spending on everything that the government does for ordinary americans and cut taxes on billionaires, aka themselves f. there is one thing that the left and the right can agree on, it is that this system in america does not work for regular people. but there are so many contra dictions when it comes to what americans want to do about it. for example. americans frequently say they want their government to be run like a business. it is one of the most common things that you hear on the campaign trail. and if you ask people who voted for trump why they did it, they will say it is because he is a businessman. or that they had more money when he was president and they think that he will help the economy and make eggs and everything cost less. apparently some of them like it

when a candidate calls woman who have not given birth to children worthless trash. but i digress. they forgotten when trump was president the first time he made things cost more because he mishandled the covid pandemic and his first and only legislative success was a tax cut that ballooned the deficit and increased inflation aka making things cost more. even without the pandemic things would of cost more because of the tax cut that went to the big businesses and super rich. not to mention the policies that trump favor mass deportation, tariffs will make everything cost more. and likely create an economic disaster for the u.s. his project 2025 plans will reduce freedom and increase government control for everything from education to women's bodies and his plans to personalize the federal government by stacking it with ultraloyalists will do

nothing to make the economy better. but make a small group of his friends and himself a whole lot richer without helping anybody else. perhaps most ironic what e lon musk and the ramaswamy are proposing to do for cutting veterans benefits, health care, social security, medicare is how you run a country like a business. because businesses despite the supreme court saying they are people, are people who only care about profits. and helping veterans and old people and kids and generally, you know, helping regular people is generally not profitable. businesses do not care if you are happy or healthy or free. what they care about is if their owners, namely shareholders, their ceo and the bosses make more and more profits. businesses will raise prices or lay people off without mercy. if doing so will create more profit. it is not personal. where as government could not

be more personal. so, real talk. if you are mad at united healthcare and you voted for trump, you essentially voted for america to be run like united healthcare. it is the ultimate irony. but that is america. joining me now is the person i wanted to talk to about this with today. tom hartman and author of "the hidden history of the american dream" and tom, when i wrote -- when i was thinking about this and trying to write about this and i literally had you in mind because i think you probably can tell i was a frequent listener in to your radio show when you just heard that open. it is so ironic to me that people left and right are mad at united healthcare but voted to make america run by united healthcare, your thoughts? >> reporter: it is totally

nuts, joy, you are absolutely right. if corporations actually were people they would be psychopaths. no conscious, they have no consideration for other people's feelings, they don't have the ability to feel other people's feelings and that is how they are designed. america has a very strange relationship, the whole politics of this going back to reagan. yes, we need to run government like a business and be efficient. but running government like business. businesses are run for profit, government is life, liberty and happiness. run for the benefit of people. that is really difficult to measure those things. many of those things. i mean, you know, so the fbi stopped eight terrorists attacks how do you measure that people don't know it happened? so, it is just, it just makes no sense to me. and in particular with health care, the history of the american health care system it is absolutely shocking.

we are the only country in the developed world that does not recognize health care as a right, human right and does not cover every person. 25 million people in america with no insurance ever. and many of us are radically under insured and that is something no other country would tolerate. and it goes back to a fella named frederick hoffman in the 1890s. it is an amazing story but it basically starts with the story of this guy coming over from germany -- if i could just run into it a little bit. >> very quickly, yeah, go for it, go for it. >> 1887 germany got the world's first single pair of health care system. hoffman came over to the united states and got a gig as vice president of the prudential insurance company and in 1896 he published a book called "race, traits and tend rennessies of the american

negro" his argument was black people were genetically inferior, therefore if we denied them health care, eventually all black people would die out and solve the race problem. one of bestselling books from 1896 to 1930. he testified before congress dozens of times, testified before all kinds of states, prudential put him on nationwide tour. he was the reason fdr's single pair of health care was shot down. his teachings were cited as one of the reason yes, there say 20% hole in medicare so that poor people, read that in the south as poor black people, would not show up to the hospital and fill up the doctor's office. that is how we got a privatized health care system rather than essentially a socialized health system like everybody else has

where the government makes sure everybody is covered. it is an insane story, i wrote a book about it. astonished when i learned the back story. >> you know, that is is amazing. there is why we booked you. important history. if you go all of the way back, it is big medicine that opposed having medicare at all. they always opposed it, right? they oppose single payer and of public health care. but, also, you got americans on the right really sort of trained to also be against things like barack obama care until they get it. to want to repeal it because they think it is communism or socialism to get rid of it. same time, they, too, are suffering from a lack of access in red states they are still fighting just to get barack obama care unless they sneak it in the way it was done in kentucky. or when there is a democratic governor elected. as soon as a republican they go

back to repealing it. this disconnect people have been primed for this tea party opposition to getting the thing that they are then mad that they can not get. >> i think to a large extent what we find, pull back the curtain on the gop what you find is a group of billionaires that don't want to pay their damn taxes >> yes. >> reporter: this is the problem. [ laughter ] >> reporter: and so, you know, when barack obama came out with a program that was essentially the heritage foundation came up. mitt romney did it in massachusetts. they went to the mat and tried to take down the tea party. >> did it surprise you how gleeful people were being as a guy treated like a robin hood.

not just liberals, again, it was conservatives as well. and the only, it is not just republicans who embrace this neo-liberal idea that the market can fix anything t. is also democrats that bought into it. so were you surprised that people genuine rage was sort of elicited by this murder? >> reporter: initially, but if you look back to the 1930s and the 1920s, really the 1920s in particular, in the roaring '20s. they were roaring for the fat cats, people on wall street were making a fortune. average working people were getting shot by the police trying to organize unions. wages fell during the '20s for the working people. who was that er snarks the bank robbers, bonnie and clyde. and why? because the banks were ripping us off.

the banks were taking people's money and that was in '29 with the crash. when you think of it in that historical context it makes sense and robin hood himself, he was, you know, stealing from beating and up stealing the tax collectors for the king. and that was during an era when basically you were not aloud to own your own land. it makes sense. >> it does. now we have a king again. history is here to help but sometimes what the actual hell. tom, such a pleasure. thank you very much for being here. much appreciated. >> thank you, joy. coming up, the collapse of assad regime especially as our new king, president trump, prepares to take office. don't know anywhere trump, prepares to take office. don't know anywhere ould check s -- don't go anywhere pire. -- don't go anywhere o hose. just sleep.

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. the 50 year assad regime in syria came to an abrupt end as rebels took the capital damascus. it caught many by surprise, perhaps the dictator himself. he wasted no time to take his family and fled to russia where they were granted asylum by putin. while syrians took to the street in celebration. people could be seen pillaging

the presidential palace and going through the wealth that assad and his british-born wife lived in while many lived in poverty. he led the country for 24 years not always destined for the highest office. his father took over the country in the 1970s. and as his second son, his elder brother was the heir while he was the spare. that changed when the elder brother died in a car crash in the late 90s leaving the awkward with a list lined up for the dictorial thrown. at first, he promised reform who succeeded his father who died in 2000 but he settle into brutal dictatorship with frightening ease. he set up a lush life for himself and his oligarchs and he proved to be as brutal and ruthless as his father when in the wake of the peaceful protest in the spring between

2010 and 2012 he ordered his security forces to open fire on protesters. the protests devolved into a devastating civil war in which assad deployed chemical weapon against his own citizens. leading the overthrow of assad was 42-year-old al-golani that heads a group that is hts. it grew from an al qaida affiliate. this is the first time in half a century that the syrian people will have a real chance at deciding their own future. all of it made possible by two closest allies, russia and iran coming under pressure in two separate conflicts. putin has invested a lot of russian money and equipment propping up the assad regime. russian forces fought alongside them inside syria with a specific -- with no specific

military objective be sides murder. assad thanked putin by giving him two ports on the mediterranean sea. it was a blow to not just russia but iran. an interesting american angle to all of this. here in the u.s. the person donald trump selected to serve as director of national intelligence, the nation's highest ranking intelligence official has come under fire for her history with assad. tulsi gabbard met with the syrian dictator in 2017. she defends it. part of her goal of stopping endless wars. just yesterday nbc news reported that her outreach to the assad regime triggered concerns among staffers who were trying to set up a meeting with a syrian defector. the aids were concerned that she might leak information about the defector who hidden

his identity out of fear from the assad regime. some worried she might reveal his identity to someone associated with the syrian government. and now, that same person, tulsi gabbard is so the cusp of gaining access to america's most serious history, including on syria and russia and iran. she was trying to convince senate republicans she is fit for the job. the and we will discuss that, next the and we will discuss that, next or tired? with miebo, eyes can feel ♪ miebo ♪ ♪ ohh yeah ♪ miebo is the only prescription dry eye drop that forms a protective layer for the number one cause of dry eye: too much tear evaporation. for relief that's ♪ miebo ♪ ♪ ohh yeah ♪ remove contact lenses before using miebo. wait at least 30 minutes before putting them back in. eye redness and blurred vision may occur. ♪ miebo ♪ ♪ ohh yeah ♪ ask your eye doctor about prescription miebo. i used to leak urine when i coughed, laughed or exercised.

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the disgraced leader that fled to russia, a country that state media celebrated trump's choice of gabbard for national intelligence. joining me now is former cia director and ben roads, deputy advisory to barack obama. gentleman, before we get to tulsi gabbard, what your big picture view is on what the fall of al assad means. >> ben, you first. >> this is a seismic event to happen after 13 years. first and foremost it is an extraordinary event for the syrian people who suffered so much. a reminder that the world can turn quickly against a brutal dictatorship. right now it seems like all of the momentum is with the auto accurates, it ought autocrats.

the keynote in this regional competition, at the same time it is drawing attention in places like jordan and europe where there is prospects for internal instability as well. a lot of unknowns in what is an unstable region. along with this potential for a hopeful future for the syrians. although they have a lot of work to do. >> bad day for russia, bad day for iran. but israel is trying to take credit and make it a good day for them. benjamin netanyahu saying it say result of the pressure that they have been putting on hezbollah. and truth to that? where does the conflict that israel is involved with multiple countries play into all of this? >> i do think that assad counted on support from the outside benefits for the last

several years, russia, iran and hezbollah. the fact that the three entities are distracted or reduced capabilities really, i think, led to this very rapid collapse of the syrian military and syrian government and assad's departure. it really has changed the geo political landscape in the middle east. it is still unclear what is going to happen. this coalition of various rebel groups in syria. this is a tactical alliance that brought them together. they were involved in a lot of fighting previously. but, under this individual, al- golani they were able to bring together everything and assad could not. there is jubilation that assad is out because of his ruthless rule and torture of syrians and the death and destruction that he has been responsible for in the country. i must tell you i am worried about what will happen in syria because you do have a

government now that is trying to weave together different fractions within the hts, remaining members of the syrian government, the military, i think it is a period of great uncertainty and great risk. >> yeah, i mean there was -- he is like saddam hussein. and stepping into this on our end, who is the director of national intelligence, trump said it should be tulsi gabbard. he was asked if it was a good idea. let's listen to what he had to say. >> 2017 two secret meetings with leader assad do you have questions or concerns about the meetings? >> no, he has bigger problems right now. his country is collapsing. >> do you think it compromises her? >> i met with putin. i met with president xi.

>> you were president. >> ben? i don't know if he wants my answer to that but the reality is you got donald trump who seems to really look up to putin, you got tulsi gabbard who seems friendly issue with assad. this seems like, this feels like the makings of a mess. am i being overly panicky about that? >> reporter: no. i mean it is not just that she met with assad is a worldview she embraced. it is a russian-led rule. the u.s. is at the root of all evils, russia pushed into the war in ukraine because of the west. assad was the victim of the civil war that he started by dropping barrel bombs on innocent people and down-the- line. it was not a one-off for tulsi gabbard. and to put it in contest, it is

the person who walks in the white house briefing, situation room and how to respond. so, imagine if fast forward two months and tulsi gabbard is director when this is happening in syria? it is her and assad going down, do we trust her to bring us accurate information to the president? do we think she will not put a spin on the ball with her worldview? do we wonder what kind of contact that she has had? stuff in a basic security clearance process for mid-level government employee with a national security clearance would have trouble getting that position with views and associations she has had over the years. i think it raises questions about why does donald trump want somebody like that overseeing the intelligence community. >> i mean, the dni, one of the things that we do give the president daily briefs,

sometimes the cia director. trump says, -- let's go through his friends, mbs, and besties with benjamin netanyahu, accused war criminal and accused by the icc amnesty international accused of committing genocide, his other buddy. loves putin, and i can go on and gabbard is open to put and i know cool with assad. would you trust her to give the presidential daily brief to somebody who like trump that is already red-pilled and preexposed to like the people we see as adversaries? >> no. you want to the have somebody with intelligence experience she has none and she is the one who will be orchestrating the work of 18 intelligence agencies and departments. the principal intelligence advisory to the president of the united states. pointed out she shown

questionable judgment. meetings with assad and traffics in conspiracy theories, 2020 election or bio- weapon lab in syria. foolish enough to believe these theories or she actively traffics and propagates false information. you don't want a person like that at the helm of intelligence community. therefore i know there is a lot of angst if this is the person who is going to be their leader so it raises, i think, serious questions that i am hoping the senate will do their job and expose the lack of credentials, experience and good judgment we need in the spot. >> we like to say scaring is caring. it is strange and frightening times. thank you both very much that