brett mcgurk told of his decision last night. mcgurk was set to leave his position early next year but will now depart at the end of this month after splitting with the president over syria just days after he defended the u.s. mission there. >> it would be reckless if we were to say, anyone who has looked at a conflict like this would agree with that. >> mcgurk's departure follows that of secretary james mattis who handed in his resignation on thursday. that's a day of the president's syria announcement. that announcement was reportedly sparked by a phone conversation between the president and his turkish counter part, according to "the washington post." joining me now, crihristopher hill, and michael alan, former special assistant to george w. bush and staff director for the house intelligence committee. and vivian salama, during the rise and fall of isis. ambassador hill, let's start with you on this. who is brett mcgurk and what are we lose something. >> well, you're losing a lot there. he's quite a dedicated public servant. h

mcgurk, thank you for being here.ate you making the time. >> thanks, rachel. >> i'm a layman and civilian and observer of these things. it strikes me as a sober and practical decision for us to be blowing up our own base in syria rather than allow it to fall into other's hands. it also strikes me as a very, very bad sign as to what's happening there. >> look, i don't say this lightly and i worked two years in the trump administration, he doesn't know what he's doing or talking about. he made this decision on sunday night, and without any contingency plan for our troops on the ground. and to make it worse, he cut our force, the president did, by 50% earlier this year for no reason and we already had a very small force there. and when turkey came in, very predictably, the unraveling began immediately. and our forces now on the ground don't even have enough manpower to deal with an evacuation. you know, rachel, when you're in these areas, i've been to this facility, i used to go into syria every month, every two months.

if we have the brett mcgurk sound, i would like to play it now.kay, well, we don't have it, but this is exactly what they were concerned about, a premature withdrawal. so when you have all of this going on and the president makes a decision to go, can you at all take it out of that context? do we look at this, mac, and just say, okay, the president has made a decision as presidents have beforehand, there are troops who are serving abroad in harm's way, we're going to go there for the holidays and let them know that we appreciate them, or do you have to look at it in a political context, as well? >> i think you have to look at it in a broader context. politics is part of that. but chris, the most sacred responsibility of any president of the united states is commander in chief, to keep the american people safe and we entrust that responsibility to the brave men and women who dedicate their lives and their careers to doing just that. so this needs to be a consistency in the policy, and certainly, secretary mattis was highly respected, as was special

mcgurk joins james mattis who also resigned this week.he president said he gave him a second chance after obama fired him. joining us is a foreign correspondent for "the new york times." thank you for being here with me. let me start with you. this is significant for a couple of reasons. one, this was the top official in charge of fighting isis. >> it is. >> and number two, it could be an indication of things to come. talk about the significance of the departure. >> so brett mcgurk served three administrations two republican. he was kept on after obama left specifically because he was considered so valuable to the fight against isis. this is the person, a human being, who went all over iraq and syria and cobbled together this mosaic of a coalition that ended up fighting isis for us. keep in mind it's not american troops that are actually fighting isis, but it's the kurds, the iraqis. it's the local partners that are doing this. >> and to really get inside his decision, he's basically saying, i could no longer guarantee our allies that we

according to two state department officials, we are learning that mcgurk informed secretary of state mike pompeo of his decision friday evening. now brett mcgurk was already planning to leave his position early next year but will now depart at the end of this month, just 11 days ago with a warning -- >> nobody working on these issues day to day is complacent. nobody is declaring a mission accomplishment. defeating a fiscal caliphate is a long-term campaign. >> that's another departure after the departure of james mattis. the president is standing by his decision tweeting this morning "when i became president, isis was going wild and now isis is largely defeated and other local countries, including turkey, should be able to take care of whatever remains. we're coming home. >> joining us michael mcfaul, ambassador to russia. ambassador, with brett mcgurk, and we're just learning today of his resignation that he evidently turned in friday night, what is the impact here? he was, in effect, the head prn -- person in battling isis. >> the effect is bad. the effect is bad for american natio

mcgurk was embarrassed. that's why he's resigning early. that's one of the things that keeps happening with this administration. so i think trump should look at history about. if you look at caligula who was a roman emperor back in the day, he was crazy, he was having war against the sea, making all of these like ridiculous policy maneuvers. but when he started to insult people and when he started to insult the military personally, changing the watch words, making them like get seashells as treasure, when he started insulting people he got himself into real trouble. that's what trump is is doing with the military he's insulting them. >> we went back to harding last segment and now caligula. >> you can't find an example of a defense secretary resigning in protest so this is a remarkable week indeed. >>> and coming up, as if a failing economy and a government shutdown weren't enough of a year end gift it's looking like nancy pelosi and robert mueller may give president trump a rocky start to 2019. we'll look at that when we come back. that wh

brett mcgurk, your reaction to "the times'" reporting about this? quite an extraordinary report. and what strikes me is the fact that when president trump had this call with president erdogan, this fateful call on october 6th, i think quite clearly there was no process to staff that call to brief the president, so he fully understood the consequences if erdogan had a green light to cross the border, green light to cross border, because nobody was providing more intelligence on baghdadi -- and this isn't new. this has been going on for years now. the majority of the and what's happened since then, all the kurdish areas of syria, along the border, the vast majority of them, we've abandoned those areas and they're now under the control of russia and the assad regime. our ability to continue to prosecute this campaign, to follow up on the intelligence collected from the baghdadi compound, which must be an extraordinary amount of information, is extremely limited. it's just a total breakdown in process, and it speaks to issues going on now, really, acros

brett mcgurk submitted hesitate resignation letter to mike pompeo on saturday. hesitate decision comes less than two weeks after he defended u.s. troops on the ground in the region. >> we have obviously learned a lot of lessons in the past. we know that once the physical space is defeated we can't just pick up and leave. areas we have cleared of isis, they have not returned to actually seize physical space. there's clandestine space. nobody is saying they're going to disappear. nobody's that naive. so we want to stay on the ground and make sure that stability can be maintained in these areas. >> we're talking about years? >> i'm not going to put a timeline on it at all. >> mcgurk joins defense secretary james mattis, who also resigned in protest this week. he was originally planning on leaving early next spring but sped up his departure to the end of this year following the president's decision. and today we're learning more about that phone call between president trump and turkish president erdogan. a senior white house official tells nbc news that in a phone c

mcgurk and also in contact with mr. steve witkoff and urging him to be physically in qatar in order to provide the guarantees that the biden administration has been providing for this agreement, that the trump administration would also guarantee as well. those pieces of the agreement that were needed to make sure that we could get to where we are now, as you have been living this, there have been times when it looked like a deal might be close, and then it turned out not to be. >> and i wonder how confident you are right now that this cease fire deal will indeed bring back all of the hostages still held in gaza. >> yeah, that's the billion dollar question. i think there's a lot of positive energy. i think since the elections, the trump effect has provided the negotiators extra motivation to get this done. it is a framework, but as it is being conveyed to us, there's only the first part that is being guaranteed. the second phase is still questionable as it is the middle east. it's only like a match light away from blowin

also we have now the resignation of mcgurk. i was meeting with mcgurk last week, someone who is incredibly experienced in these areas. the fact that we are losing people like mattis and mcgurk at this important point is as disturbing as the abrupt decision to move ourselves from syria and cede that ground to isis. >> congressman brendan boyle, for now from his home state of pennsylvania. we will see when you get called back. thank you so much. >>> numbers now on the shutdown. 420,000 government workers deemed essential employees are expected to work though they won't be paid. among the more than 50,000 tsa agents across the country with the holiday travel season right now reaching its peak. those tsa agents will like looly be paid retroactively. blaine alexander is at reagan international airport in d.c. he has been talking with. so of those federal employees. let's get a sense of what the latest is there. are they disgruntled? do they know they have a job to keep people saves they travel for the holidays? how are they feeling.

special envoy brett mcgurk, a top diplomat in that fight against isis, quit after the president as bankrupt decision to pull out of syria. stock markets have whipsawed back and forth as investors trying try to figure out what's going on p. the president insulting the head of the federal reserve and treasury secretary steve mnuchin calling banks to reassure everyone that everything's fine, no problems, which instead spooked investors wondering what prompted such an extreme measure from mnuchin. of course there's the ongoing mueller investigation with its growing list of indictments and flipped trump cronies. the president is a little, well, cranky. and it's unlikely to get better for him in the new year. democrats take power in the house of representatives in just eight days, and nancy pelosi, the almost certain next speaker of the house, is making it pretty clear she's not going to gift president his wall, telling "usa today," "first of all, the fact he says we're going to build a wall with cement and mexico's going to pay for, it well, he's already backed off the cement, now he's down to i

courtney kube and brett mcgurk are back with us now. courtney, what can you tell us about today's announcement? >> it's the first time we've had anyone in the information on the record now confirming what we broke in july, that hamza bin laden is believed to be dead. they didn't provide much more detail other than the fact it's a counterterrorism operation. we should be careful not to characterize that as a u.s. military counterterror operation. we know he's been dead for some time, something that officials are saying today and what we reported back in july, anywhere from one to two years is what we've been told. the location was another thing that we hadn't reported before today because candidly, the officials i've been speaking to over the summer, i had a range of different areas that they said they believed he was dead in. one of the big questions was exactly how did he die. it's believed to be some sort of an air strike. and another big question is, was he actually the target of that air strike or was he essentially collateral damag

police lynn to the special envoy, bret mcgurk, said one week ago. >> we have obviously learned a lot of lessons in the pall. we can't just pick up and leave. areas that have cleared of isis has not returned, no one is saying they're going to disappear. nobody is that naive. we want to stay on the ground and make sure that stability can be maintained. >> reporter: we're talking about years? >> i'm not going to put a timeline on it at all. >> did you hear he said no one is that naive. the united states issued a report back in july that isis still it 20 to 30 thousand fighters split evenly between iraq and syria. it also said many isis writers, plansers and senior commanders have been killed in the fighting, many, however, remain in iraq in the syria arab republic, some i'ding out in sympathetic communities and urban areas. one of the biggest concerns is isis will emerge from hiding places and make a comeback once the u.s. is gone. remember, the u.s. withdrew troops at the ends of 2011 and within 2 1/2 years isis had overtaken several of iraq's cities. it is tough to say the withdrawal

the president tweeted he did not even know who mcgurk was. this reportedly started with a phone call between president trump and turkey's president last friday. the president's decision to withdraw troops from syria without consulting his national security team. now nbc news is reporting that turkey promised to take responsibility for defeating isis if the united states left. speaking on the condition of anonymity, the claims that turkey's president erdogan said to the u.s. president, in fact, as your friend, i give you my word on this. joining me now is aaron banco, jeff jacobs and john, editor and commentator. great to have all three of you with us. let me begin with you. the president's announcement today appointing the acting department f defense secretary shanahan, what do we know about him, the way he manages, his possible governing style? >> there's not a whole lot we know about shanahan. we know he doesn't have a ton of diplomat i c diplomatic experience which is the key talking point. the question is how he will handle his post movin

i've been on the phone in one way or another all morning with brett mcgurk, with our qatari friends. and i'm very confident that we this this is moving forward and we'll see the start of implementation of the agreement on sunday. >> two americans are among the 33 hostages who would be released in the first phase of the deal, a framework president biden first proposed last may. >> the road to this deal has not been easy. i've worked in foreign policy for decades. this is one of the toughest negotiations i've ever experienced. with nowhere to turn, moscow finally agreed to releasing hostages. you know, there was no other way for this war to end than with the hostage deal. and i'm deeply satisfied this day has come. finally come. >> the deal is supposed to bring the first real break in violence in more than a year. overnight, israel launched intense airstrikes, killing at least 80 gazans, according to the palestinian health ministry run by hamas. >> incredibly, a young boy was rescued from the rubble. volunteers found him digging himself out with his own hands. >> joining me now is whit

. >> joining me now, brett mcgurk, former presidential envoy fand n nbc analyst.rett, i want your reaction to the president saying sometimes you have to let them fight a little bit like two kids in a playground. >> andrea, i heard that last night, and i've said it's obscene and it's ignorant to the situation on the ground. it's obscene because the situation that was unleashed over the last ten days, as you reported, 160,000 people displaced, half of them children, war crimes have been committed, women being pulled out of busses and shot on the side of the road, isis prisoners escaping, u.s. military personnel, this is what's most important, evacuating long held positions or handing them to the russians or bombing them so they don't get in the hands of the syrian-backed opposition. for the president to say, let them go out it and we'll come in to fix it, that's total ignorance to the situation on the ground. this was a cascading chain reaction set of events that put american personnel in grave danger and at grave risk. and the president continues to make light of i

and bret mcgurk, he served in senior positions leading the envoy to defeat isis. and let's begin with you and the situation in tehran. >> hi, ali. well, it's a very, very sensitive situation here. there is a feeling of shock in iran that qassem soleimani has been killed. he was a central figure in iranian military and politics. as you mentioned he is arguably or was arguably the second most powerful man in the country after ayatollah khamenei. and he was very dependent on qassem soleimani. they were very, very close to one another. why? because qassem soleimani had developed this incredibly powerful network of militias across the region that had made iran very, very powerful. these militias were fiercely loyal to him. he was a cultish figure to these guys. i have seen videos of qassem soleimani on the front lines in syria walking around not wearing military fatigues, not carrying a weapon. bullets firing around, and he sort of walked around with impunity when he would meet the troops there on these front lines and he would either kiss them or touch them on the sho

mcgurk had choice words with the president today. add senior director for iraq and afghanistan in the george bush white house. he was the special envoy for the campaign against isis under president obama. that's a role he continued under president trump until he resigned in protest at the end of last year. mr. mcgurk writes today, quote, trump twice abruptly reversed curse after one, a fortunately leader call and without consulting his own military advisers. if anyone still believes trump cares about america they are wrong and includes 80 countries and two dozen contributors to the military and stabilization mission in syria leading a collision requires consultation with collision partners before major decisions are taken. this is elementary. the consequences of such unreliability from the oval will reverberate well beyond syria. the value of an american handshake is depreciatindepreci. trump said we could crush isis again if it regenerated. with whom? allies would sign up? who would fight on his assuran e assuranc assurances? bottom

. >> and i just wanted to point out the actual tweet from the president today, brett mcgurk and barry mccaffrey, why are we protecting shipping lanes for many countries for zero compensation? all these other countries should be protecting their own ships in what's a dangerous part of the country. we don't even need to be there in that the u.s. has just become, by far, the largest producer of energy anywhere in the world. we have always been protecting these lanes. pompeo is asking the saudis, uae and others to join in. what do you expect them to do? >> the notion that the japanese self-defense force is going to put maritime capability in the persian gulf is laughable. senator jack reed made the main point. i spent hundreds of hours under two administrations working on the national security council. there's no process left where we get options, we get full discussion, we bring together all the elements of national power and ask the president to make the decision where he understands the downside. that whole thing on striking and response of the global hawk was impulsivity. the notion h

this one as mcgurk said to me today is that lives will be lost.is a former national security official who worked for democratic and republican presidents who said to me today the united states sanctioning turkish military action against american-backed kurdish forces is the ultimate betrayal against allies who have paid with their lives to protect american interests. the kurds have fought alongside us, against i sayist terrorists with our support and encouragement. this is a dark day where the credibility of the united states will be jeopardized in the middle east. in moscow and tehran there will be unconstrained joy as they watch the united states destroy what it means to be an ally through this singular act of betrayal. shame. >> i am glad you keyed in on that because what i keyed in on from the interview was come mcgurk referred to the american handshake. that when our ambassadors, our diplomats, cabinet officials, the secretaries certainly the president extend their hand, that that meant something and it means something to a lot of people. wit

i think it was brett mcgurk or maria von vich, but she was in that national security video, brian, andou and i covered the impeachment hearings life together. and i don't know that other than fiona hill, there was a more compelling witness to donald trump's criminality and misconduct around national security than marie yovanovitch. >> we all gasped. >> we did. i think putting these things together that these are painful times and these are scary times -- they're painful because of the tragedy of covid, the economic despair it's unleashed, and this is -- to put joe biden in the center of solving both those problems, our pain and our fear, was strategically brilliant. and i think it's time in the convention, having worked on conventions, to give this campaign some credit for execution. >> absolutely. >> it could have been a weird mix, right? we could have been trying to talk about joe biden's humanity as jill biden detailed it and that brilliant national security piece that was produced in there and all those interviews with chuck hagel and brett mcgurk. but to put it together speaking t

mcgurk had choice words with the president today.e served add senior director for iraq and afghanistan in the george bush white house. he was the special envoy for the campaign against isis under president obama. that's a role he continued under president trump until he resigned in protest at the end of last year. mr. mcgurk writes today, quote, course after one foreign leader call and two after consulting his military advisors. if anyone cares about trump and syria, he doesn't and his erratic swings heighten risk on the ground. it includes 80 countries to the military or stabilization mission in syria. leading a coalition happens before it is taken. the consequences from the oval value beyond the oval. trump said today we could crush isis again it regenerated. with whom? who would sign up? who would fight on his assurea e assuranc assurances. they deserve deliberations. erratic swings favor far more adversaries in moscow, beijing and tehran. thank you for making time. >> thank you for having me. >> so you wrote today pointedly that

. >> to discuss the administration's isis strategy i'm joined by ambassador brett mcgurk, a personalt obama and, of course, a former adviser to president bush. welcome back to "meet the press." >> honored to be here. >> based on richard's reporting right now, this new policy review, what more can you tell us about it and how soon will we see a new strategy? >> well, we're implementing the policy we put together about a year ago. it's very important to step back. it was about a year ago at this point. we didn't even have an iraqi government in place, we didn't have a coalition in place. when president obama spoke to the american people on september 10th, he said it's going to be a multi-year campaign. that was based on our assessment of isil. it's better than al qaeda and iraq, which we fought, best military in the world, took years to defeat and degrade that enemy. we said there will be a multi-year campaign. we're in the first year. we said to degrade its capabilities, remove its leaders, and maneuver around the battlefield. that's what we're doing now. >> a year later, can you say

i think they looked at mcgurke because he was there at the creation of the malaki government.ld be replicating the experience of the ambassador who had moved up. the iraqis are comfortable with someone they know and can trust and have a relationship, but obviously, politically, this has been a tough week. >> tough week for the state department. thank you very much. p.j. crowley. >>> up next, the politico briefing. mitt romney's democratic d iic doppelganger. what happens when classroom teachers get the training... ...and support they need? schools flourish and students blossom. that's why programs like... ...the mickelson exxonmobil teachers academy... ...and astronaut sally ride's science academy are helping our educators improve student success in math and science. let's shoot for the stars. let's invest in our teachers and inspire our students. let's solve this. constipated? phillips' caplets use magnesium, an ingredient that works more naturally with your colon than stimulant laxatives, for effective relief of constipation without cramps. thanks. good morning, students. to

of course our chief white house correspondent hallie jackson, a maman mcgurk. brett mcgurk, many are describing this as a watershed moment. >> thanks, andrea. i think a couple of points. when i heard this news last night my first reaction was, justice. seeing qasem soleimani removed from the face of the earth is justice. i've had former colleagues killed by proxy groups he used to control. that's my first reaction. my second reaction, and what i said, is that i think we have to resume now that what's been an overt kind of shadow war is now potentially, and we must hope for the best but plan for the worst, a state of war with iran. sending a brigade of the 82nd airborne to the middle east is not surprising, it's demonstrating what the administration is seeing internally. in 2007 and 2008 in particular when i was in the bush white house and expected a lot of time in iraq, we had 167,000 troops in iraq. we fought shia militia groups under the control of soleimani with very few restrictions. we inflicted significant casualties on those groups. we never stopped rock

she will speak to president biden's top middle east advisor, brett mcgurk. that starts right now. >>> right now on "andrea mitchell reports," israel and hamas, with crucial support from the u.s. and qatar, agreeing to a phased release of 50 hostages in exchange for a pause in the war and 150 palestinians held in israeli jails. that pause in hostilities a critical demand by the white house to permit the delivery of more fuel and other humanitarian aid. >> really now the ball is in hamas' court. if hamas has any care or concern for continuing a pause in the hostilities and any sense of responsibility, it will continue to release hostages and this pause can continue. >> the agreement calls for more hostages to be released depending on whether the pause in fighting holds. the first hostages expected to come out tomorrow. there will be ten women and children believed to include american 3-year-old aigail, a day before her 4th birthday. with me one of the key negotiators for the u.s. >>> a live report from rome where pope francis met with families of some of the i

i want to bring in brett mcgurk. it's great to have you on the show.r being here, and a good afternoon to you. >> thanks, hallie. great to be here. >> talk to me about the intelligence gathering that led to this raid, and why the president decided to pull the trigger now. it seems as though there were a confluence of events, right? good intel, good conditions on the ground that led to this being the moment. >> well, the intel came together around the summer and over the course of the fall, our military team working with the intelligence community started to put together options as we refined making sure this was the leader of isis in this house, and they're looking at who's in the house, and around the house and getting the patterns of life and that takes some time. the president got his first operational briefing about six weeks ago in december, and really walked through in exquisite detail what this operation would be like, the complexity, because there was a family living on the first floor, and he knew that, and it was kind of ironic. he was respon

end to this war in gaza, the people around him, including his national security team led by brett mcgurk. >> this is obviously a moment of great relief. >> you're right to say that it's fragile, though, and everybody understands that anything can fall apart at any given time. it still has, as you say, to go through the security cabinet. >> we'll see if that happens as smoothly as people are predicting. and this is the region where the unexpected is to be expected. but at the moment, it's a moment, obviously, of great happiness at the white house. the president has just five days left in office. this is the last big thing on his to do list. he wanted to be able to leave office. having resolved this issue. and obviously you're going to now have some politics involved in which president elect biden and trump will now, of course, claim credit because of the collaboration of his team with biden's team. but it is a rare moment where the two teams did seem to work together, and that that collaboration made a difference. >> and peter, i know you have to go and do your own reporting, but. the hop

so, again, this first picture, the picture uploaded by the special envoy, brett mcgurk, and we'll beg as they make their way from landstuhl, germany, three of the four related to the prisoner swap again we're learning this hour not in germany. and that's their second stop after leaving iran. >>> coming up, one woman who has special insight into what these u.s. prisoners freed from iran are facing. a conversation with sarah shourd, one of the hikers who endured her own detainment in that country. [ cough ] no matter what nasty cold symptoms you get, alka seltzer plus liquid gels rush liquid fast relief to your tough cold symptoms. and they outsell mucinex liquid gels 2 to 1. alka seltzer plus liquid gels. ever since i had a pretty bad accident three years ago. the medical bills - the credit card debt all piled up. i knew i had to get serious my credit. so i signed up for experian. they have real, live credit experts i can talk to. they helped educate me on how debt affected my fico score. so i could finally start managing my credit. now my credit and i - are both healing nicely. get s

. >> the president's envoy to the coalition against isis, bret saberhagen -- brett mcgurk, has said he is resigning based on what the president has done in syria. what are your thoughts on that and how dangerous that might be? >> it's perfectly understandable if the president isn't going to listen to your advice, there's really not much reason to hang around and keep giving it. the thing that is really worrisome about this from a policy perspective is the way this decision was made. can you have a debate about whether we ought to be in syria. that's a perfectly legitimate subject for a democracy to debate and argue about, but there was no process here. there was no evidence of any kind of advice, no interagency process. the president basically got on the phone apparently, from what we can reconstruct of this mess, that the president got on the phone with the president of turkey and said, okay, i'm out. and even the president of turkey at that point said, well, wait, don't do anything precipitous, don't do anything crazy here, while the president is apparently thinking he's agreeing wit

brett mcgurk, the former special presidential envoy for the global coalition to defeat isis. and our foreign affairs analyst here in new york, our own ayman mohyeldin, who has reported extensively of course from that region. and at the department of defense, courtney kube, nbc news correspondent covering national security in the pentagon. and, courtney, we need to start with you and go over a few things. first and foremost, something people are picking up on their phones in just the time we came on before the air. this is a report out of tehran that a ukrainian commercial airliner has gone down with 180 souls onboard. normally we'd be tempted to say there's no relation, but coming off a night where iranian air defenses have been on a hairtrigger, as we say, it gets your attention. do you have anything to add to this story? >> reporter: no. i mean i can totally understand, and i understand that there's probably going to be a lot of conspiracy theorists out there, but at this point we're not getting any indication that these two things are linked, brian. >> okay. now to our sto

that work was led by brett mcgurk. joining me now is joanne freeman, professor of history and american studies at yale university. professor, good to see you again. thank you for being with us. there's just a lot. the point of i think that introduction is there's a lot going on in america. there's a lot going on in the world. these are tough times. so while the president runs on things that they're going to do, and donald trump wants to get started on implementing some of these things that he's got to do at noon on monday, he inherits a complicated america and a complicated world. >> he does. and it's a good moment to point to the fact that an inauguration serves a purpose. it has a meaning, and it relates precisely to the kind of thing that you just mentioned. you have the campaign. you have all the rancor and the contest and the running around. you have the administration, and they kick in and do whatever it is that they want to do. the inauguration represents a transition, and what's supposed to happen in a normal i

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. >> joining me is brett mcgurk. thank you for being with us. how familiar you are with kayla mueller's situation and the fact that her parents are so desperate to get her remains, but for the remaining hostages, how much are they at risk without the syrian kurds on the ground being able to help us going forward? >> well that's very powerful testimony from kayla's father. it just reveals just how uniquely barbaric and truly evil baghdadi was. this is an individual responsible for tens of thousands of death, for genocide against christians, shia muslims, and enslavement and rape of innocent women. nothing can take away from the land mark day on sand that our heroic special forces and intelligence analysts were able to pull off. it's a great day for the united states and the entire civilized world. the reason we were able to do this, it's really painstaking work over a period of years and networks that have been built up in syria by our special forces and by the syrians that we're working with on ground. they provide the information, the intellige

brett mcgurk and michael mcfaul. ambassador mcfaul, i have to go to you first. i was watching "the 11th hour." you were shocked and rattled after these messages. a day later, how are you absorbing all this? >> thanks for staying up and watching. it was shocking to me. it was outrageous because in a couple of ways, it confirms that there was not just one phone call, the president says one off thing and they pull back. this was a campaign over many months to try to make this quid pro quo happen. by the way, i want top say something. even if there was not a quid pro quo, the president of the united states asking the president of ukraine to get dirt on his political opponent even if he was not offering something in return is also wrong. the texts were crystal clear it was there. more over it was not just president trump and his you know other ukrainian envoy rudy giuliani doing this. there were members, mr. volker and mr. sundland were vofrinvol and so much so they were jamming ukrainians putting it on the record. no, you have to say it on the record and you can tel

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t now, the president tweeted this, that he did not know who mcgurk was. mick mulvaney was asked about that on the sunday talk shows. take a listen. >> the president says in a tweet he didn't know brett mcgurk. how is it possible that the president doesn't know the envoy who has been representing the u.s. coalition the last two years. >> because the president is dealing with the secretary of state and secretary of defense. despite what people think, the white house is not grand central administration. not everybody in the administration gets in to see the president. >> joining us now, u.s. army retired mark kimmet and former secretary of state for political affairs wendy sherman, former undersecretary of state for political affairs, and author of "not for the faint of heart". let's start with you, ambassador, on this as we see what was a headline that just came in this afternoon when we learned that instead of in two months, the president has decided that now we are going to have the secretary of defense here out two months earlier and bringing in shanahan

. >>> let's bring in brett mcgurk, he served as the special presidential envoy to defeat isis. back. lots of discussion on whether or not this attack on soleimani was warranted. in your experience, do you believe there was a plausible threat and if there was, did it justify striking soleimani? >> my gut sense when i heard that news a week or so ago now was a sense of justice as someone who has served in iraq had colleagues killed by iranian backed militia. the second thought was preparing for the consequences and the aftermath. an act of self-the administration should stay within that justification and go through the things that soleimani has done and had the capability to do. the shifting explanations and four embassies and this, it adds to the dimension this may not have been properly gamed out. >> the two point gs you make, the first one i think everybody can be in unanimous agreement about. the second one, though, there is the reporting that both presidents bush, george w, and president obama had the ability to target general soleimani, and chose not to. is that accurate? a

joining me, brett mcgurk, jeremy bash, and peter baker, "new york times" chief white house correspondent. jeremy, it seems to me bolton is confirming while not confirming, but the fact that the democrats didn't get the same briefing the republicans got, and they weren't briefed together, and it wasn't the big eight or the gang of eight or any of the top leaders, this is not the way it has ever been done under bush, clinton, bush, and obama. >> that's right, andrea, intelligence briefings to congress, which by the way is required by the law, have always been bipartisan. so obviously the white house is playing politics. i think the question is why. and i've looked at more than a thousand pdbs during my tenure at cia and dod. there's a lot in there about the election scandal in mali or what china is doing in space. something about russians putting a bounty on the heads of the united states would absolutely jump off the page. if the president ignored it, didn't ask followup questions, or his own staff didn't want to hall him about it because they were scared he's so pro-putin he wouldn't rea

there's no guarantee that any of this is going to succeed, but brett mcgurk is going to travel thereo try. this all comes out as this administration is trying to weigh its support with israel, and its growing concerns about how israel is carrying out this war in particular. there are concerns, officials tell me, that is reeling is not doing enough to try to minimize civilian casualties. there are officials that don't believe that israel cares that the israeli government cares, that public opinion is turning against them and it all comes as conversations, i am told, between israeli officials and u.s. officials are getting increasingly testy and at the same time we are told that there's no change in the strategy that the administration will stand with israel and it will continue to give them the support it needs. he's given things like pauses and humanitarian aid. >> such great reporting. and, jeh, it gets me to my next point because you heard prime minister netanyahu's defiance when i pressed him on this, that there are protests all around the world calling for a cease-fire and an end

it should happen immediately. >> brett mcgurk, thanks again, very good to see you.being with us today. >>> governors, meanwhile, being forced to put tough restrictions back in place as covid cases surge. the impact on small businesses as a not so normal holiday season kicks off. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." this is msnbc. ports. this is nbmsc. it's open! hey. think you're managing your moderate to severe ulcerative colitis or crohn's disease? -are you ok? -i did. but even when i was there. i never knew when my symptoms would keep us apart. so, i talked to my doctor and learned... humira is for people who still have uc or crohn's symptoms after trying other medications. and humira helps people achieve remission that can last. so you can experience few or no symptoms. humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections, including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. tell your doc

so these two incidents are exactly as investigator mcgurk says. if the iranians have done this, the question is as was noted before, why was there not a notice to all mariners and aviators around the city of tehran. also, their command and control is so loose that a battery commander can shoot when none of the other advanced air defense systems around tehran has shot. fog of war is involved here, but it is going to require some serious answers. >> bret, let's talk about the u.s. position. we know there's obviously major tensions between the united states and iran, but as relates to the plane, there were no american passengers, but there were a number of passengers, there it is there again, from many of our allied nations. if and what is our responsibility here? >> i don't think we have any responsibility but i do think if president trump is sincere that he would like to de-escalate the overall situation in the wake of this tragedy, i know prime minister trudeau in canada, given 30 canadians were apparently on the plane, canadian citizens offered t

but we're not acting upon it. >> brett mcgurk, thank you very much.unique insight because you did used to work in the white house in the fnsc. we appreciate your time. >> thank you so much. >>> and another news out of russia. we have an election update. vladimir putin would be russia's president until 2036. 16 years from now. voters just approved changes to the country's constitution allowing putin to seek two more terms. it was not surprisingly a landslide with 74% of the voters backing put inbut there are widespread reports of pressure on voters and other, quote, irregularities. again, not a surprise about that either. we'll be right back. aa is made t we're helping members catch up by spreading any missed usaa insurance payments over the next twelve months so they can keep more cash in your pockets for when it matters most find out more at usaa.com for spending a perfectly reasonable amount of time on the couch with tacos from grubhub? grubhub's gonna reward you for that with a $5 off perk. (doorbell rings) - [crowd] grubhub! (fireworks exploding)

. >>> let me bring in brett mcgurk. good to talk to you, as always. first, your perspective on this. how does it change things if, in fact, russian bounties and the intelligence community assesses that russian bounties, in fact, led to the deaths of u.s. troops? >> obviously, as ken reported, it is a huge issue. what this goes to is a national security system and process that has completely broken down. there is no way that intelligence of this nature would not or should not get to the president. the way this should work, the president's first job is to protect the american people. you have to have meetings with the president. you say, "mr. president, we're following threat streams. we have high confidence in this. moderate confidence in this. low confidence in that." but the president here is saying he was never told about this so, therefore, he washes his hands of it. he is the president of the united states. he is the one talking to president putin. he had five phone calls with president putin over the course of the spring when this was coursing th

we had almost 200,000 troops in iraq when brett mcgurk was there doing fine work on the ground.hose days are gone. we don't need to send 100,000 troops in there. the irony of this is that it is well within our capability to have a limited number, a few thousand troops in syria could make all the difference in the world. this is being penny wise and pound foolish to withdraw them. >> brett, in addition to the diplomatic fallout. i know americans, all of us are, wary of the endless wars, but this does seem like the president trying to notch up a political victory so that he has a campaign talking point. i got us out of syria. >> well, maybe, but just to follow up on jim's point, we have about 1,000 troops on the ground in syria. i spent a lot of time on the ground in syria. i've seen this thing from the beginning. they are dependent upon what we call the syrian democratic forces. a force of 60,000 syrians we helped built. and the back force are the syrian kurds. if we betray them, we can't stay. we were dependent upon that force for our force protection and logistics and everythin

brett mcgurk and ambassador michael mcfaul, thank you both for being with us. appreciate that. >> thank you. >>> and coming up, as cases continue to skyrocket, the mayor of miami, who also happens to be a covid survivor, tells us about his latest attempt to stop the spread when "the 11th hour" continues. >>> florida's daily new case count increased fivefold in the last two weeks. saturday shattered the record with over 9,500 new cases in a single day. south florida's beaches will be closed over the july 4th weekend. and in the city of miami, the mayor is requiring a ten-day shutdown for any business violating covid-19 regulations. second-time offenders will be forced to shut down for 15 days. and third time offenders will be shut down for 30. for more, we welcome back miami's republican mayor, francis suarez, who is also a coronavirus survivor. your honor, thank you for joining us. the penalties here, the risk of being shut down, first, second, thirst time offense for increasing amounts of time, what are you expecting? what are you seeing in terms of compliance