mcgurk: we are in syria. together with partners. that is the basis for our coalition and having partners. if we look at the situation in osco last week, the attempted prison break, our forces have lent assistance to retake the british prison from isis fighters, it is a reminder isis remains a serious threat. that is why we are there. that is the only reason we are there. we will defend our forces from all threats. we have made that very clear to iranians and others. i should stay one more thing before leaving syria. syria activity remain a real threat to israel. we support israel's freedom of action to defending themselves. there are a lot of signs that a lot of these are tired of the regime. we support the action and we will defend our people,. -- people, period. that is the only mission, the only objective. miller: saudi arabia, the president candidate had some very tough words. a special meaning of characterization in the middle east. has that happened and if in fact it has happened, how would you differentiate the bidens adminis

without further do, brett mcgurk . brett: thank you. ok, thank you everybody for coming. what i want to do today, we

the special envoy briefing reporters on the anti eisel fight in syria under a summer eleventh mcgurk knew everyone in the region and he reportedly told colleagues this week the president's new policy on syria would make it impossible for him to continue in his post. already both congressional democrats and republicans have called trump's syria decision dangerous and deplored jim madison's departure from the pentagon now those who had been fighting alongside the americans are looking to these legislators to try to change the white house's mind dear senator lindsey graham south carolina kurds in syria appreciate your strong opposition on the wrongfulness of trumps you know a lot of old decision to withdraw from syria and your principled stance on standing by your kurdish allies the next step in fighting i so now certainly as the trumpet ministration declares it won't be us forces and resources leading the charge rosalyn jordan al-jazeera washington. brett mcgurk spain instrumental in shaping washington's policy in northern syria he was appointed as the u.s. envoy for the global coaliti

mcgurk saying isis is not defeated.e best case, worse case scenario for what happens when the u.s. leaves there? >> i can give you the worst case, the fight against isis will slow down. it's going to have to. we know that erdogan has designs on moving forces east of the euphrates to the iraqi border. he said he is going to do that. i don't know that the president has talked him out of that, maybe that's a part of the deal why we are going to leave. but if the turks move in anyway against northern syria, we're going to see what happened the last time they did this. the sdf, syrian democratic forces, mostly made up of the kurds, who the turks believe are a bunch of terrorists are going to stop fighting isis, they're the primary force on the ground against isis, they are effectism. they will stop fighting isis, they will redeploy to their home areas to defend what they believe their family and their territory. the fight against isis will take the back burner. we can continue artillery and air. we will not be able to move o

withdraw troops from syria this time america's envoy to the global coalition against i saw brett mcgurk has quit in his resignation letter he said i saw we're on the run in syria but not yet defeated as the president has said mcgurk follows defense secretary jim mattis out the door he quit on thursday telling president trump he had a right to have a secretary of defense whose views were more aligned with his a trance decision this week to pull around two hundred two thousand soldiers out of syria has rattled the s.d.f. a kurdish led force american troops had been supporting they too say the war against isis has not ended before more on this let's cross live now to john hendren in washington so john yet another high profile departure for president. yet another self-inflicted wound another fratricidal blow to this administration at a time when it could hardly afford it less the government shutdown beginning at midnight on saturday just hours ago local time and now the president has his second major defection brett mcgurk was one of the few holdovers from the obama administration he'd been

yes ok so mcgurk was also there to ensure it's fortune met in two thousand and seven no idea where he was working on the status of forces agreement were good is is is good at getting in front of somebody and telling that person what they want to hear the problem is other people are listening if you simply talk to that network that you talk about it's long been time to leave his post was supposed to leave at the beginning the time and inspiration disposed to leave last summer he was now supposed to leave two weeks from now so now he's resigning to head to head of the syria issue citing the president snarkily troops out of syria is the reason and it's just it's just not the case as to that drawdown of u.s. forces from syria very specifically just that specific. kariya first for the next minute or so. ah there are potentially all that negative consequences to this because there have been for example a couple of low level terror incidents in europe in the last year the genesis of those have been traced right back to rocca which as you and i both know was a is eisel emotional hot land that

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.

only a week ago, mr mcgurk raised fears of an early end to the campaign in a bbc interview.e military commitment doesn't end there. that's absolutely right. and there's no timeline on it. no timelines. washington is preparing for a short christmas break, but goodwill is in short supply. and with a government shutdown and questions about presidential policy, this seems like a less—than—happy holiday for donald trump. chris buckler, bbc news, washington. let's get some of the day's other news. the main opposition party in sudan says 22 people have been killed in four days of protests over a rise in the cost of bread. the leader of the opposition condemned what they had been the armed repression of the demonstrations. the protests had been muted on saturday after the authorities closed universities and shut down mobile internet services. a car bomb has killed at least 12 people in the somali capital, mogadishu. the explosion happened less that 400 metres from the presidential palace. the militant islamist group al sha bab says it was behind the killings. hundreds of people in m

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

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

eisel said he is resigning effective december thirty first mcgurk was one of the few holdovers from the obama administration back since two thousand and fifteen he was to have retired in february but apparently disagreed with the trumpet ministrations policy of pulling two thousand troops out of syria that was announced by the president in a tweet in the past few days and that also prompted defense secretary james mattis to resign so the president seems to be having some defections here and disagreement over his policy in syria the president apparently realized that this was something of a sticking point for many people so he put out a tweet defending that decision saying quote on syria we were originally going to be there for three months and that was seven years ago we never left when i became president isis was going wild now isis is largely defeated and other local countries including turkey should be able to easily take care of whatever remains we are coming home the president said ending that tweet but if there is one thing that history has shown it is that i sold or before it

only a week ago, mr mcgurk raised fears of an early end to the campaign in a bbc interview. end there. that's absolutely right. and there's no timeline on it. no timelines. washington is preparing for a short christmas break, but goodwill is in short supply. and with a government shutdown and questions about presidential policy, this seems like a less—than—happy holiday for donald trump. chris buckler, bbc news, washington. as we were hearing earlier, the top white house official in the fight against the islamic state group has quit over president trump's decision to pull us troops from syria. in brett mcgurk‘s resignation letter, leaked to the media, he said the militants were on the run but not yet defeated. it comes just a day after the us defence secretary, jim mattis, handed in his resignation, with the syria withdrawal thought to be a bone of contention there too. earlier i spoke with kamran bokhari, director of strategy and programmes at the centre for global policy based in washington, dc. i began by asking why brett mcgurk made the gesture of resignation when he was

brett mcgurk is the us special envoy to the global coalition fighting the so—called islamic state groupignation letter, he made clear his concern is that the presidentposmac claims that ifa being defeated were premature. 0nly a week ago, he raised fears of an early end to the campaign in a bbc interview. the point is that military commitment doesn't end. that is absolutely right. there is no timeline on that. no timeline. washington is preparing for a short christmas break. goodwill is in short supply. with the government shut down, this seems a less than happy holiday for donald trump. chris butler, bbc news, washington. it was the biggest factor in his decision to go. earlier, i spoke to andrew tabler, from the washington institute for near east policy. i asked him about what effect that departure would have. mister mcgurk was quite controversial in the us system because he aligns the united states with the democratic forces, an offshoot of the pkk, which is the archenemy of turkey and is designated as a terrorist organisation. it was a bit like playing with fire, but it was a strateg

the special envoy briefing reporters on the anti eisel fight in syria under a summer eleventh mcgurk knew everyone in the region and he reportedly told colleagues this week the president's new policy on syria would make it impossible for him to continue in his post. already both congressional democrats and republicans have called trump's syria decision dangerous and deployed jim madison's departure from the pentagon now those who had been fighting alongside the americans are looking to these legislators to try to change the white house's mind dear senator lindsey graham south carolina kurds in syria appreciate your strong opposition on the wrongfulness of trumps unilateral decision to withdraw from syria and your principled stance on standing by your kurdish allies the next step in fighting eisold now certain as the trumpet ministration declares it won't be u.s. forces and resources leading the charge rosalyn jordan al-jazeera washington staying with washington the us government remains partially shut down after politicians failed to break an impasse on the budget spending the stando

diplomat in the global coalition against eisold brett mcgurk has quit over trump surprise decision to pull troops out of syria it comes hot on the heels of the resignation of the u.s. defense secretary james mattis who strongly opposed the syrian decision a state department correspondent rose jordan as more u.s. president daal trump made two major foreign policy decisions this week he said he's pulling seven thousand u.s. troops out of afghanistan and trump is pulling out all two thousand u.s. service personnel from northeast syria a decision he's been defending on twitter on syria we were originally going to be there for three months and that was seven years ago we never left when i became president isis was going wild now isis is largely defeated and other local countries including turkey should be able to easily take care of whatever remains we are coming home. defense secretary jim mattis quit in protest on thursday on saturday it was revealed that a top u.s. diplomat in charge of coordinating the fight against eisold is also quitting the military mission is enduring defeat of isi

of mcgurk: the level influence is something we look at. the russians were seen as the , and moreencer recently, we have started to see the armenians eclipse them a little bit, and both of them are backing the assad regime, and we say to the russians, look at this. you guys are in bed with the assad regime, with hezbollah, with the quds force. you guys, what is your long-term strategy here, and, friendly, i do not think they have one, so they came in to try to bolster up the assad regime, and i thought they would find a path out of syria, but that is not the case. the only way to have a sustainable solution is where our forces can organize against these extremist threats. myator isakson: and that is point. given the fact that there is not one, given the fact that syria has been decimated with a civil war over four or five years, given that the armenians are backing assad pretty steadily all of the way through, there assad's to be no end on ability to stay in place. am i correct? i think you have hit the nail on the head with a very difficul

leave the role it drifts here culls mcgurk the architect of dangerous and short sighted policies in iraq and syria he's probably referencing the group's work with the george w. bush administration he was an early advocate for the surge in iraq in two thousand and seven now in an e-mail to his colleagues mcgurk said trump's decision to pull troops out of syria came as a shock and left our coalition partners confused and our fighting partners bewildered i worked this week to help manage some of the fallout but i ultimately concluded that i could not carry out these new instructions and maintain my integrity. now let us know what you think about this latest high profile departure from the trump national security team you can get in touch with us as always on twitter using the hash tag it's a news group thank you for that andrew and the impact of president trumps decision is being felt on the ground in syria al jazeera is in a harder has this report from the techie syrian border. turkish military reinforcements are being sent deep into syria to the front lines north of the city of mumba

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. to the coalition for the last two years? >> oh i think that is easy. the because the president is dealing with the secretary of state, secretary of defense. despite what people think the white house is not grand central station. not anybody in the administration gets to see the president. the president getting briefing by general dunford. chris: here is the question, if he went against the recommendations of mattis, mcgurk, dunford, the chairman of the joint chiefs. apparently pompeo or bolton, who he is listening to? >> the president listens to a bunch of different people that. >> is the national security team. >> including people who live here and ordinary americans the people he promised when he ran for office he was going to lead. we recognize this is unpopular within the beltway. we recognize it is unpopular with the defense department. it is very popular with ordinary american pe, the

your guess just mentioned the mcgurk effect. bar orfar? pictures some pictures of this three week old aardvark, which has made its public debut at prague zoo. the weather to the rest of the weakened the weekend really is looking very promising. as far as the short term is concerned, really chilly this morning. with clear skies, the temperatures dipped away and infact skies, the temperatures dipped away and in fact in some areas to barely above freezing. quite a big gap in the cloud across the uk. you can see scotland, northern ireland and northern england so here, the lowest temperatures. you can see those cool colours from scotland and the lake district to wales and northern ireland. in the south, slightly less cold. 8— 10 degrees. newcastle, first thing in the morning, two degrees above freezing but lots of sunshine on offer in the world will not change through the morning of the afternoon apart from a bit of there were the cloud. that's pretty much it. the temperatures not spectacularly high because it would have been at chilly morning.

against isis has quit over president donald trump's sudden decision to pull troops from syria brett mcgurk departure follows the resignation of defense secretary james mattis who had opposed withdrawing from syria and cutting the u.s. presence in afghanistan a partial shutdown of the federal us federal government has began after politicians failed to end their dark deadlock over spending trump refused to back down on funding for his border war forcing the congress to adjourn without a budget deal. the head of the u.n. team tasked with monitoring a cease fire in the city of data has arrived in yemen on friday the security council vote to send observers to oversee the truce between the rebels and the saudi and iraq backed yemeni government. at least ten people have been killed in sudan in protests against the rising cost of food and fuel schools and universities are closed in the least five states cities of bata and get out of the state to right now under emergency rule inflation is at seventy percent among the highest in the world. at the head of the sudan opposition party and maddy says th

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

brett mcgurk. in one of his first interviews since the agreement was reached. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in the situation room. tonight, time is running out for tiktok. now that the u.s. supreme court has upheld a law that could shut off the site for 170 million americans as soon as sunday. cnn's paula reid reports on the high court decision and whether soon to be president trump will give tiktok a reprieve. >> a unanimous supreme court allowing tiktok to be banned in the u.s. as soon as sunday amid bipartisan national security concerns over the popular apps linked to china. >> no one had argued the ban violated the first amendment, but the justices disagreed, writing tiktok scale and susceptibility to foreign adversary control, together with the vast swaths of sensitive data the platform collects, justify differential treatment to address the government's national security concerns. last year, congress passed the law banning the

brett mcgurk, your reaction to "the times'" reporting about this?well, it's quite an extraordinary report. and what strikes me is the fact that when president trump had this fateful call with president erdogan, i think quite clearly there was no process to really staff that call, to brief the president. so he fully understand the consequences if erdogan had a 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 intelligence, frankly, has come from the syrian kurdish led forces. and without those forces, our ability to really finish off the leadership of isis, in particular, baghdadi, who trump said was his number one priority, apparently he said that, we couldn't do that without these guys. >> 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 c

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

which is part of the reason why mcgurk himself was resigning.being in a position where you're hearing from top administration officials, that america's strategy is one thing, only to have that completely and totally flipped on its head. on the other side of the equation, of course, there is the reaction of america's adversaries in the region, namely the syrian regime, the russians, the iranians, and they're all welcomes this decision, and that speaks for itself. >> no doubt. what exactly does the u.s. role in syria look like going forward then? >> if the americans are completely withdrawing from the military battlefield, it is really hard to see what kind of role america is actually going to have, or at least what kind of a productive role it can have. look, america a long time took itself out of the political solution equation when it came to syria. the more significant negotiations when it came to some sort of a political solution were really just being held between the turks and the russians and the iranians and now america is effectively to

i don't know who that person is. >> you don't know brett mcgurk? >> it was an obama appoint tee -- >> he was a rehnquist clerk. he is a life long republican. he is not an obama appoint tee. this is not a democrat. >> he's well-known within the folks that follow this topic. the fact that the president of the united states doesn't know oun't cause concern. >> i want to get into this decision to withdraw from syria. mcgurk opposed it. whether or not the president knows him. mattis opposed it. pompeo opposed. john bolton opposed it. anybody on the president's senior national security team in favor of this move? >> jon, in all fairness i've not been heavily involved in that decision. i'm not the chief of staff yet. what little i know i wouldn't tell you on this program. i apologize. >> let me ask onmostion. the president is blaming in a tweet overnight the media. he's saying that the media hit me hard over this decision. they should have praised me. this is not the media. we saw lindsey graham called it a terrible mistake. marco rubio called it a mistak

the special envoy briefing reporters on the anti eisel fight in syria under a summer eleventh mcgurk knew everyone in the region and he reportedly told colleagues this week the president's new policy on syria would make it impossible for him to continue in his post already both congressional democrats and republicans have called trump syria decision dangerous and deployed jim matta says departure from the pentagon now those who had been fighting alongside the americans are looking to these legislators to try to change the white house's mind dear senator lindsey graham south carolina kurds in syria appreciate your strong opposition on the wrongfulness of trump's unilateral decision to withdraw from syria and your principled stance on standing by your kurdish allies the next step in fighting eisold now uncertain as the trumpet ministration declares it won't be u.s. forces and resources leading the charge rosalyn jordan al-jazeera washington. following trump's announcement there were reports of turkish troops being sent to the syrian border turkey certain to strike kurdish y p g targets

sullivan, brett mcgurk, steve witkoff we rlly grateful. have you played over in your mind what the moment will be like when you were able to embrace your son? just hug him and hold him and just to hear what what he experienced in those. 16 months, i'm sure it will have a lot to say. and what will you want to say to him? thank you for holding you our hero, and be strong and just, just just hug him and kiss him. well, audie, thank you so much for being with us and sharing your story not only today, but over the many months. and this obviously is still a tough road ahead here, as all of this is laid out and implemented. but we do thank you for coming on and speaking with us. thank you. lester. let's bring in nbc news international correspondent daniele hamamdjian. she's on the ground in tel aviv's hostage square. can you give us a sense of what the celebrations have been like, what the reaction has been like there tonight? yeah. good evening lester. in fact, a woman just came up to us saying she heard the news and she ran here, but she said,

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: i don't think the investigation has been concluded. markey: what is the answer to why are the shia allowed to be put in those positions where they can commit those kinds of atrocities? there is one unit of the mobilization forces on the shia side operating totally outside the law in some of the suburbs of falluja. i can't say specifically why the unit was there that government has taken measures to make sure it is addressed. those fivekey: if individuals and more are not punished in a way that is public and clear, then there will be no discouragement in the other cities. job is to makeal -- other militias will do it, get a slap on the wrist and --the end of the day, they in the years ahead, that we not have to revisit this thing. is that a goal that you have? mr. mcgurk: accountability is fundamental. markey: accountability can be just saying don't do it again. mr. mcgurk: they have to have a process and a have to be punished when violations occur. senator murphy: i know we consider mr. mcgurk to be a global citizen, but he's a isduate

brett mcgurk the u.s. envoy to the global coalition of fighting i saw has resigned in apparent protest at president trump's abrupt decision to withdraw u.s. troops from syria comes as turkey says it has put on hold a planned cross border offensive against kurdish held territory in northeast syria says it's awaiting the outcome of a meeting in january on the pullout and he's fifteen people have been killed in two car bomb attacks in somalia's capital mogadishu a vehicle laden with explosives was detonated at a military checkpoint near the presidential palace and other smaller attacks close by appeared to target civilians going to work. at least ten people have been killed in sudan during four days of protests against the rising cost of food and fuel demonstrators angry about high inflation which is running at around seventy percent cities about bharat good arraf and the entire white nile state an hour and emergency rule thousands of people attended the funerals of four palestinians killed by israeli forces

>> well, i've known brett mcgurk since we started working together in iraq in 2007.ed public servant. and i can only imagine that this was a very difficult decision for him. but as we talk about syria and the way forward, and admiral kirby made good points, the global coalition to defeat isis isn't just about boots on the ground, they have many musions ahead of it, like countering the extreme rhetoric that isis continues to spread online. and when you think about someone like brett mcgurk, if he had to go back and talk to the 78 other countries and organizations that still comprise that coalition, he would be in a much more difficult position today, when the u.s. is withdrawing. >> right. >> we cut off stabilization assistance that the state department was supposed to deliver. how is he going to ask other coalition members to continue the fight if we're pulling back? >> admirable kirby, is there any hope in your view of holding bashar al assad accountable for war crimes and maybe international courts? or do we just now live in a world where the genocide of a million

so is the departure of breath mcgurk.-- breath brett mcgu. >> shanahan long history of experience in this effort. he will be a good ally. you know, the hard part is at the end of the day if we are making decisions on twitter, right, and we are going after republicans. you saw senator corker being attacked by the president again over the weekend and on twitter. it's just crazy. the president needs to keep a focus on our real enemies, russia, china, iran, isis and al qaeda and not go after his defense secretary, u.s. senator, the chairman of the foreign relations committee. it's just bad for business. >> no surprise really to his base anyway because the president did say he didn't want to be the world's policeman. he didn't think we should have troops all over the world. >> sure. and nor should would he be. no one is sailing we should be the world's policeman. fight the terrorists who want to kill us and our allies at home. it's the christmas season. obviously terrorists are looking at this time of year to come after us and

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

but brett mcgurk was saying. >> chris: the u.s.hat he did not know. >> he was saying we have gained significant ground in syria but isis is not defeated and we need to make sure that we sustain the gains that we have made or nothing. so you see lindsey graham come out obviously to talk about the consequences of this and there have been republicans who are questioning whether we need to be leaving now and eventually they do you want to leave and they understand that president trump made this promise on the campaign trail. made a campaign promise that let us to this point now. if >> chris: president trump hammered obama for doing exactly that. let me switch to mow. there have been a lot of disruptive weeks in his presidency and acting chief of staff mick mulvaney which is why they elected him to be a disruptor. so why is this week different? >> we are actually seeing what the trump brand of disruption actually means. i think for a lot of people, is disconcerting at best. we have seen at both the national security front with general m

key members of his administration resigning last year his defense secretary james mattis and brett mcgurk eisel special envoy what this shows president. all of his predecessors were whether republican or democratic is only concerned about himself we have a moral responsibility to the kurds because without them we would not have destroyed the caliphate in a statement on monday the pentagon made clear to turkey the united states does not back turkish operations in northern syria believing it will have a destabilizing effect on the region president trump campaigned in 2016 promising to withdraw the united states from foreign wars now with the 2020 u.s. election just a little more than a year away it appears potential voters not his senior advisers are the ones trying cares about pleasing most can really help at al-jazeera the white house so let's take a look at how others have responded to trump's decision nikki haley who served as strom's 1st u.s. ambassador to the u.n. said we must always have the back so if we expect them to have our back the kurds were instrumental in our successful figh

the special envoy briefing reporters on the anti eisel fight in syria under a symbol eleventh mcgurk knew everyone in the region and he reportedly told colleagues the week the president's new policy on syria would make it impossible for him to continue in his post. already both congressional democrats and republicans have called trump's syria decision dangerous and deployed jim matta says departure from the pentagon now those who had been fighting alongside the americans are looking to these legislators to try to change the white house's mind dear senator lindsey graham south carolina kurds in syria appreciate your strong opposition on the wrongfulness of trump's unilateral decision to withdraw from syria and your principled stance on standing by your kurdish allies the next step in fighting i so now uncertain as the trumpet ministration declares it won't be u.s. forces and resources leading the charge rosalyn jordan al-jazeera washington. the us government remains partially shut down after politicians fail to break an impasse on budget spending and it's the result of a standoff over

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.

mcgurk's work spanned three administrations. now he's written an op-ed. trump said he's giving it new life. everything the administration had been trying to achieve. worse, strips the united states of any leverage with its partners and adversaries in the region. brett mcgurk, welcome back to the program. >> thank you very much for having me. >> we talked to you a lot over the years when you were all sorts of different iterations of envoy, presidential envoy. basically isis point man over the last many, many years. you have resigned. it was a public letter and a public moment. i want to ask you first the consequences of the u.s. pullout. we hear today the turkish president has decided and has offered to be, you know, the security force for manbij, the famous town in northern syria. what does it mean? is that a good thing? should the u.s. be happy the turks will take over? >> let me rewind the tape a little bit. when we started in 2014 when isis was controlling the territory in iraq and syria, 8 million iraqis and syrians were living under isis control. it

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

a special thanks to my team, particularly brett mcgurk who spent weeks and months working nonstop to reach this deal, many of those weeks and months out of the country. today's a cease-fire in gaza and the release of hostages is the result of a principled and effective policy that we have presided over for months. we got here without a wider war in the middle east. now it falls to the next administration to help implement this deal. i was pleased to have our teams speak as one voice in the final days. it was necessary, effective and unprecedented. this will require persistence and continuing support for our friends in the region and the belief in the policy backed by deterrence. as we reflect on the news from gaza today, we must also remember the victims of this war. remain mindful that the pursuit of lasting peace while never easy or quick must always be our calling. may god bless you all and may god protect our troops. all look forward to this deal being fully implement the. i'm not going to take any questions now because there is a congregation waiting for me. thank you very much.

diplomat dealing with eisel brett mcgurk quit in protest against president trump's abrupt decision to withdraw u.s. troops from syria as a state department correspondent. us president donald trump made two major foreign policy decisions this week he said he's pulling seven thousand u.s. troops out of afghanistan and trump is pulling out all two thousand u.s. service personnel from northeast syria a decision he's been defending on twitter. on syria we were originally going to be there for three months and that was seven years ago we never left when i became president isis was going wild now isis is largely defeated and other local countries including turkey should be able to easily take care of whatever remains we're coming home. defense secretary jim mattis quit in protest on thursday on saturday it was revealed that a top u.s. diplomat in charge of coordinating the fight against eisold is also quit the military mission is there enduring defeat of isis we have obviously learned a lot of lessons in the past so we know that once a physical space is defeated we can just pick up and leave

forces from syria reports of a brett mcgurk nation come just a day after defense secretary james mattis also announced he will be stepping down early next year in protest over the planned military pullout president trump shared his reaction to the news on twitter. brett mcgurk who i do not know was appointed by president obama in two thousand and fifteen was supposed to leave in february but he just resigned prior to leaving grandstander the fake news is making such a big deal about this nothing of that. a number of prominent lawmakers both democrat and republican have criticized chum's decision to get out of syria but the move has been backed by some key players in the region including america's nato ally turkey i'm a saint and i'm for the us the trump told us during our conversation will you clear the direst room here of them before and after this we will give them as long as you give us the support in terms of logistics and how they started to withdraw all they have. u.s. allies involved in the syrian conflict are not on board with washington's plans though trump's decision has been