envoy to the anti-isis coalition brett mcgurk also resigned in protest. here's former defense secretary leon panetta on why he finds the situation so concerning. >> if you're in the white house where you really have to look at the situation and try to do what with you can to try to provide a little better stability for the country. there's just too much chaos, too many crises going on. i've been in politics over 50 years in a number of positions, and working under nine presidents, i've never seen a situation like this. jon: gillian turner has more. >> reporter: the latest member of president trump's national security team to resign in protest over the decision to withdraw american troops from the ongoing syrian civil war is brett mcgurk. foreign policy leaders from president trump's own party say they don't blame him for leaving. >> i would not be surprised if they have not had a immediating. he was leaving -- meeting. he was leaving in february, but as mattis just did, one of the greats patriots i've ever met in my public service, general mattis. but as

>> mcgurk: yes. >> kroft: or use their own version of the code. >> mcgurk: something similar-- "son of result, what was once abstract theory has now become a distinct possibility. if you can do this to an uranium-enrichment plant, why couldn't you do it to a nuclear power reactor in the united states or an electric company? >> Ó murchú: you could do that to those facilities. it's not easy. it's a difficult task, and that's why stuxnet was so sophisticated, but it could be done. >> langner: you don't need many billions, you just need a couple of millions. and this would buy you a decent cyber attack, for example, against the u.s. power grid. >> kroft: if you were a terrorist group or a failed nation-state, and you had a couple of million dollars, where would you go to find the people that knew how to do this? >> langner: on the internet. >> kroft: they're out there? >> langner: sure. >> kroft: most of the nation's critical infrastructure is privately owned, and extremely vulnerable to a highly sophisticated cyber weapon like stuxnet. >> i can't think of another area in homeland security

mcgurk? or miss slotkin? >> i'll attack a first sttake a. it's important to review the history that both brett and i worked on the original 2008 with iraq that did say by the end of 2011 that we would be out of iraq. so that timetable was set in 2008. there was quite a bit of discussion and debate about what should happen at that time. i really do think the point that brett made is critical. iraqi leaders could not get it through their parliament. we had iraqi leaders at that time saying i don't think it's necessary. we don't want you in. they're a sovereign country. we didn't have will on the other side. that's a critical factor. >> it's certainly a factor. the united states is a pretty substantial country on the globe and we have a lot of involvement there and our officials were meeting with their officials and there were relationships and, yes, they certainly have to degree with it. the effort that was made and the decision to pull all the troops out, it's mind boggling to think, looking b

. >> reporter: overnight president trump reacting to the resignation of brett mcgurk. after the top u.s. envoy to the global coalition to defeat isis said he could not carry out the president's orders to withdraw from syria and, quote, maintain my integrity. the president hitting back in a flurry of tweets, calling mcgurk a grand-standing and downplaying his resignation as a nothing event. president trump said if anyone else made st critics of the syria decision are actually alice of the president. >> this decision is a disaster. on multiple were tsat leave w. >> reporter: mcgurk's announcement comes on the heels of the resignation of secretary of defense james mattis who in his resignation letter wrote we cannot protect our interests without maintaining strong alliances, the example mattis specifically mentioned, mcgurk's defeat isis coalition. >> as the u.s. pulls out, there will be other players in the region who will rush in to fill the void, syria, saudi arabia, russia, iran. all of these countries will have a vested interest in moving in. when the u.s. moves out.

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

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

now it's careful to note that mcgurk was scheduled to leave in february. he was going in march to take up a position at stanford university, has a young child, was looking to have a life after government for a while. but really one of the best and brightest of the u.s. administration security team felt that he could no longer implement the president's policy on syria. i'm also told that the resignation of defense secretary mattis in large part because of the -- >> elise, i'm sorry, i've got to interrupt you. we're going to talk more on this departure of brett mcgurk, special envoy, his resignation, but let's go to capitol hill senate majority leader mitch mcconnell talking about this ongoing government shutdown and what they're working on to propose a bill. >> understanding that no further votes will occur until the president and senate democrats have reached an agreement to resolve this. let me say that again. we've pushed the pause button until the president from whom we will need a signature and senate does democrats from whom we will need votes reach a

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

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

mcgurk for being here. i want to focus on the effort to address the issue and i know you indicated in your written testimony that isil controls 80% of the energy supply and accounts for 50% of their revenues about $509 a year since 2014. my first question is who is purchasing this oil generating $500 million of revenue and you also indicate there are 100 members a decentralized management team is so a 1600 personnel. what are we doing to get this individual is facilitating the site and in a terrorist organization? >> thank you, congressman. to elaborate, you are right. we believe the overall revenue about a billion dollars a year, less than that now. $500 from energy products. you know, it is purchased by a lot of middlemen and hard to tell exactly where it's going. russians claim turkey despite most of it. that is not true. what is happiness itself to middlemen and goes to a third party in third party and is hard to trace from isil to the end-user. it is a significant revenue stream and we are now signific

mcgurk: it is a great question. the camp david meeting is interesting because that is when we thought, and this is reflected somewhat in the book, but that would be a key moment that hard questions are going to be asked. it ended up being a cover for a secret tip of a new sense of a new government and things are moving. i have to say, it is reflected in the book, but nobody supported sending more forces to iraq. it was a very small number. some of the colonels in the council of colonels, but not the consensus. state department. we had a debate about clear hold build in 2005, which would have been a counterinsurgency-type thing. that did not go anywhere, and the state department really swung totally against any real talk of more resources. so, from our perch, it was frustrating. and then there were things outside of my purview, even next door to me. stephen hadley asked bill, two doors down from us, to actually look at this, is this even feasible militarily. i did not know bill was working on that. so there was a lot

secondly, senator mcgurk -- secretary mcgurk, you said a formal request for assistance was received in may. were there any informal requests through other avenues, including from the iraqi ambassador to the u.s. made before that? and how do you define formal request? if certain individuals are asking for help, what modeality needs to be employed to say oh, now they've actually asked? third thirdly, el baredai was in u.s. custody and he said i'll see you in new york. we know that he now has emerged as the leader of isil or isis, i should say and obviously has posed an enormous threat to life and liberty of iraqis, christians and perhaps even to the united states. my question is, especially in light of what has happened with guantanamo, as a result of the 2012 intelligence act, it was required for the administration to tell us how many of those who were released from gitmo went back into battle. and the report suggested that of the 613 released, 104 were confirmed to go back into the battle against americans and our allies, 74 probably went back, but they couldn't confirm it, for a total

mcgurk. special emigrant visas, basically, that if someone in iraq and a citizen of iraq has helped american forces in ways that put them at substantial risk, we expedite their visas pursuant to the special immigrant visa program. and as i said, these are individuals that live under threat today. i know that the process has been expedited and that the u.s. has admitted as many applicants in fiscal year 2012 as it did in all of 2011. so there is progress. but there is still a backlog. and the question i have for you, i don't know if you have a number, but if you don't, if you could get it to us, the number of cases of special emigrant visas, how many of those are in the pipeline for the so-called principle applicants. and number two, how many cases are pending for applicants through the direct access visa process, if you can just tell us about that? >> thank you, senator. this issue is very important to me, and it's a very personal issue to me. i had the opportunity to discuss it in some depth

mcgurk? >> one point, congressman. i think what i laid out in my opening testimony is a way forward that is focused upon the hard realities we face on the ground now. that's within the fabric of the iraqi constitution. that can harness their very significant national resources to empower local communities in order to deny space to these terrorist groups. and that is a model in which recognizes the principle of authority and federalism which is embedded in the iraqi constitution. were iraq to wish to develop more regions, such as the region that exists in the kurdish region, there's a process for doing that through the iraqi constitution. >> but mr. mcgurk, again, i agree with you. that ought to be how it works. the maliki government has significantly alienated huge swaths of its own country. and in the process has opened the door for receptivity to isis. that's one of the reasons they've had so little difficulty in addition to the collapse of the iraqi four divisions which we helped train and equip. but they've lost a

mcgurk: we are preparing for all contingencies. in part you spoke about damascus, isis has been able to infiltrate what has been an assad stronghold and talk to what you are seeing in libya. how is the growth of foreign fighters there and the kind of structure different than what is happening in syria? mr. mcgurk: isil took credit for the car bombings. and we have no reason to doubt it was isil. they have done a number of attacks in damascus before. isil is a threat to everybody. and all of our partners in the region, we try to make this point. there are different depth perceptions. but isil is a threat to everybody and a threat to the people in damascus. and we want to unite ranks as much as possible against isil. libya is a bit of a different situation. you don't have the sectarian dynamic like we have in iraq and syria, but we do see isil using the same tactics that it used in syria. it establishes itself, eliminates all competitors and tries to attract the migrants in rica and own open source propaganda, they are saying don't g

for all of the sympathizers out there brett mcgurk obama appointees loading up airplanes in $1.8 billion in cash and sending it to iran as part of the horrific iran nuclear deal, now terminated approved by quote little bob corker.

you mentioned brent mcgurk provided powerful testimony to this committee back in july about the threat that isis really does represent being able to funnel 30 or 50 suits bombers. now we see those suits bombers come from australia, jeremy, america, with was ports and they could easily--don't we increase

mcgurk, 192 t-walls were up. the big progress is that 43 t-walls are up, in addition 17,500 t walls. they save lives, put them up. number two, the iraqi jewish archives ted deutsche and i and many other members are concerned. i don't want them to be shipped back. the iraqi government incorrectly states these papers are theirs. that is not true. we hope you continue to work on that. the bigger issue that brings that together obviously since the departure of the troops, al qaeda's reemergence causes iraq to take a turn for the worse. and al qaeda safe haven so we've got to rebuild our influence there. thank you, mr. chairman, for calling this hearing. >> thank you, ms. ross slay ton. mr. deutsche of florida. >> thank mr. chairman and ranking member engle for holding this hearing. in the stability in the iraq government and the syria conflict, the number of al qaeda affiliated fighters in iraq has reached levels not seen since 2006. the off-shoot is now the primary perpetrator of violence. al qaeda disavowed the use

mcgurk saying he could no longer serve the president in this policy against syria.se lavin, cnn. >>> let's bring in julian zeleny and siraj hasmi. thank you both for joining us. first, i'm going to start with siraj. let's remind our viewers what the president tweeted. so president trump is essentially admitting to not knowing the guy leading the fight against isis after declaring they were defeated. stop me if i'm wrong here, but shouldn't they have been having these conversations? should not there be briefings that would have him know who mcgrk um mcgurk was? >> quite possibly. it should give americans pause when russian president vladimir putin and iranian ayatollah. it cannot be understated. it's possible he might be inflating his own significance but he did get turkey on board with basically trying to stave off defeating the kurds and the kurds were absolutely integral and critical in defeating isis. they lost upwards of 10,000 troops in fighting isis. the fact that president trump doesn't know who mcgurk is not a good sign but he is the commander in chief and i

published you know but the media still will go like oh let's let's listen to john mcgurk about what the far rider thinking in ways that they don't really you know irish media there's a certain... deference to the far right in ways that you know no one's asking what the far left or the hard left are thinking you know but we do kind of make those concessions to the far right you like as well. the threat that these guys have posed as they've kind of been building up momentum has been kind of uh understated and not recognized by the kind of politicians and the media at every step, the official policy of drew harris, uh the guard of commissioner and the minister for justice allen macinty was that we need to keep these guys a light touch because somehow would be playing into their hands by arresting them and prosecuting them um and so in the absence of the state taking action against them they've... been able to kind of metastasize into this really really dangerous force that's going around burning down accomodation for uh asylum seekers and refugees all the while um the media has um you

mcgurk, thank you, mr. chairman, i yield back.>> t >> thank you, mr. engel. this morning we're pleased to be joined by special presidential o envoy brett mcgurk. rece mr. mcgurk was recently promoted from deputy special presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter isil. prior to these assignments ser special envoy mcgurk served as the deputy assistant secretary of state for iraq and iran. mr. mcgurk has been a valuable voice in the administration, pressing for a morrow bust u.s.a role.tion, i appreciate that.d without objection the witness'sr full preparedd statement will b made a part of the record and members will have five calendar days to submit statements, questions and extra neous materials. so wek yo askchairm if you can your remarks. >> thanks mr. chairman, ranking member engel, other members of the committee.ppear b it's a real honor to be here. i first appeared before you in r november of 2013 to talk about what we knew was al qaeda in nu i aq and the emerging threats of isil. i've been back a number of timeo since then. this i deeply valu

mcgurk, let's quick go back to the kurds. i've been made aware of the fact the baghdad government is basically in arrears on current budget by about $6 billion. is that accurate? >> there are a lot of ways to do the accounting and the math. baghdad claims the kurds owe them money. kurds claim that baghdad owes them money. in that space is where a deal lies. i think that's going to be part of the conversation in forming a new government. >> if it is true baghdad owes them as much as $6 billion, with u.s. support kurds ability to export oil and obtain that revenue so they can keep themselves going? >> we want to get as much oil on to international markets as possible from all parks of iraq. that is something we very strongly support we worked very hard over the last six months to get a deal on the table by which the kurds would have exported as much oil as they possibly could through some of the existing arrangements with the revenue-sharing allocations that exist. that deal almost succeeded, but it ran up against the election

we're continuing our conversation now with brett mcgurk of the national security council under president biden. brett, i just want to pick up where we left off. just this past week president biden gave one of his last interviews and he shared a private conversation with prime minister netanyahu. take a listen to it. >> i said, bibi, i said, you can't be carpet bombing these communities. and he said to me, well, you did it. you carpet bombed -- not his exact words, but you carpet bombed berlin. you dropped a nuclear weapon. you killed thousands of innocent people because you had to in order to win a war. >> president biden went on to say that's why the entire u.n. and international order was created, to stop that from ever happening again. how much do you think israel's standing in the world has been damaged by the conduct of its military? >> well, that was a conversation early on when the debate was whether or not the israelis should go in on the ground. we had a debate with them about that. ultimately we supported them and they were right because hamas was living in 400 miles of tunnels

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

mcgurk: let me say turkey faces a real threat from the pkk. we have to recognize that. the conflict between turkey and the pkk, which flared up and began and run the timeline when they killed a number of turkish police officers. i've been clear about that. turkey has the right to respond in its own self-defense. at the same time, the conflict has escalated to the point where we want to work very hard to try to deescalate it. the vice president discussed this last week. the more it is going on, the more it drives people to the ranks of the extreme militarism. which is very dangerous. we want to protect turkey against the pkk. that's something we're going to continue to help them do. we also want to strengthen the kurds in northern syria. they are joined a conglomeration , build a coalition force with arabs and christians under the banner of the syrian democratic forces. they put out a political platform. it makes clear they want to be part of syria.

our special envoy to the global coalition for isis here us, brett mcgurk. i know you heard from him a couple of weeks ago and he wanted to come in today to update you on where things hand. without further do, brett mcgurk. brett: thank you. ok, thank you everybody for coming. what i wanted to do today, you heard from the secretary, about a trip around the world. everything going on in the world in activity at the state department. what i thought i would do is drill in a little bit more about what he discussed, one of our key priorities here in the state department about the campaign , against isis. so, i want to focus on the overall campaign, it is a global campaign. but dive in a little bit to the so-called caliphate in iraq and syria. bring you into what we are doing every day and how it is working, interagency, throughout the government, and particularly with our diplomats here at the state department. some topline points, i think it is important, if you go back to when isis arrived on the international scene, back in 2014, we had 40,000 foreign fighters

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

business, melissa francis, democratic strategist julie roginsky, and today's #oneluckyguy, bernard mcgurk and, sir, you are outnumbered. >> i'm honored to be outnumbered, and by the way, happy friday eve. the holiday season is in full swing. the christmas tree got lit last night, i'm a happy guy to be sitting here with you ladies. sandra: wow, you're pumped up. julie: loving that, very christmas-y. >> and with the news that's following, this is fantastic. i love the whole thing. meghan: let's get this thing started. melissa: what is he drinking? [laughter] melissa: president-elect donald trump on his way to indianapolis, both men heading out to visit carrier's factory and announce a deal to keep a thousand jobs in indiana. it's an agreement that allows mr. trump to deliver on one of his biggest campaign promises

mcgurk, but ms. slotkin, if you would like to weigh in, please do. one of the things that has not gotten a whole lot of attention but has -- you mentioned it in your testimony, and certainly we've seen it in other places where extremist islam has been in charge, that the plight of iraqi women and girls has borne the brunt of a lot of the violence as they've advanced through iraq. can you talk about what we can do and what is being done to help address this? >> first, senators, the fact that you're asking the question is number one. we have to put international focus and attention on this problem. in n mosul, the situation with isil goes from bad to worst. they've first gone after the christians, then kurds, and now they're going after women, particularly young women. this is a serious international problem. the governor the iraq, foreign minister of iraq, wrote a letter to the secretary general of the united nations asking for international assistance against this threat to their people. so it is something that we need the entire efforts of the entir

mcgurk. he appeared before the house foreign affairs committee on the rising threat of al-qaeda in iraq. mr. mcgurk also provided an update on the u.s. response earths in the us -- efforts specifically in the cities of fallujah and ramadi. al-qaeda's central leadership this week announced it was cutting ties with the islamic state of iraq. >> this hearing will come to order. this morning we consider al-qaeda's resurgence in iraq, an unfortunate reality is that al-qaeda in iraq -- now known as the islamic state of iraq and the levant or isis as you see it in the papers -- is growing steadily in size, it's growing steadily in power and influence, and its militant ranks have blossomed. last summer isis carried out attacks on two different prisons in iraq, and in those attacks freed hundreds of experienced al-qaeda fighters and leaders. the group is now able to carry out approximately 40 mass casualty attacks every month. multiple car bombings struck the capital this morning. the nearly 9,000 dea

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

joining me from washington, brett mcgurk, u.s. deputy assistant secretary of state for iraq and iran. he served as adviser to the u.s. ambassador to iraq. i am pleased to have him on this program. welcome. and you tell me, there is a new york times report that said the united states may be prepared to send u.s. troops are rescue refugees? >> i haven't seen that report but what that is probably referring to is a commitment that the president has addressed the american people, that we are committed to breaking the siege of mount sinjar where thousands of innocent people, yazidis, are trapped on this mountain, surrounded by isil terrorists. we have been doing airstrikes on the north side of that mountain. those strikes have been very effective. they have allowed a lot of them to get off the mountain. we are now actively undergoing an assessment to determine how many people are left and what we can do. >> you are basically saying we will do everything we have to do to get these refugees to safety. >> charlie, the helicopter that crash

>> 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

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

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.

plus, brett mcgurk the u.s. diplomat among our allies quit. kentucky republican rand paul supports the president's decision the new number three in the house republican leadership wyoming liz cheney opposes it. we'll talk with them both. delaware democratic senator we'll talk about what happenedo it'sll comingn "face the nation." good morning, welcome to "face the nation." congress has gone home for christmas but president trump has cancelled his trip to florida and will stay at the white house as almost 400,000 federal workers are now on furlough and another 400,000 are working without pay until at least thursday. when the senate returns. some national parks and tourist sites have been affected but other government services will continue including tsa screeners and postal service. we begin today with kentucky republican senator rand paul he sits on the homeland securiro waa lot autag2n dollar debt. with this in mind, do you intend to vote for any kind of spending bill that includes billions of dollars from u.s. taxpayers without any offset? >

mcgurk, who was appointed by president obama and retained by mr. trump, warned earlier this month that it would be "reckless" to bring u.s. troopsi home from his departure comes just a day after defense secretary james hettis also quit over policy differences with administration. in a series of tweets today, president trump defended the decision to leave syria, saying "now isis is largely defeated and other local countries, including turkey, should be able to easily take care of whatever remains." finaial markets were rattled this week by the shutdown and news of defense secretary james mattis' resignatn. see what that means for the u.s. economy at pbs.org/newshour. for our year-end broadcasts, thought we'd let you hear from the team of producers who bring you our newshour weekend stories each weeto gain some insight into our production and journalistic process, and maybe even hear few war stories ong the way. newshour weekend's hnii srsan recently sat down with the team of chris booker, laura fong, and mori rothman.an >> sreenivall right, chris, l

only a week ago, mr mcgurk raised fears of an early end to the campaign in a bbc interview.litary 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 moroc

brett mcgurk.e has decided to step down. the president's decision has been turned into a formal directive. the executive order for syria has been signed by james mattis. cnn has learned that days before the president decided to withdrawal, he made a phone call to turkish phone call to recep tayyip erdogan. we have more from istanbul. what do we know? >> reporter: before that decision by trump was announced, we know there was a phone call between trump and his turkish counterpart recep tayyip erdogan. in that phone call, trump asked the turkish president can you handle isis. erdogan responded yes, as long as we have support from you. he said okay, we are done. turkey is going to be taking care of the isis presence in syria. this leaves the u.s. allies on the ground in syria in a lurch. turkey views that fighting force an extension of a territory group. the u.s. is leaving the troops on the ground in a tough place. mattis's resignation came after they said they would bury the members of the kurdish f

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

we go to brett mcgurk an official in the bush and obama administration, where he focused on iraq and afghanistan policy. he's now a fellow at the council on foreign relations. and michael desch, a professor of political science at the university of notre dame, author of "civilian role of the military: the changing security environment." brett mcgurk, it was done swiftly and decisively by the president with support from both democrats and republicans but does the removal of stanley mcchrystal also create an occasion for opening a political debate over the prosecution of the war in afghanistan? >> its had that potential this morning at 9:00 or 10:00. following up from the other panel which had it very well analyzed, i think the president put a real mark. he took ownership again of this policy. he said the policy's not changing. and by putting dave petraeus in chand, that sends a resounding message throughout the military chain command, throughout the civilian ranks, the afghan partners and to the pakistanies. again, the president today, really an extraordinary day. but, again, it's wha

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

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