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

no on prop c. >>> back with us is brett mcgurk, former envoy for the coalition to defeat isis. mr.hank you again for sticking with us. in the president's remarks today there was some consternation new national security circles when he did a couple things. one, when he confirmed that the u.s. has nuclear weapons at a u.s. air base in turkey. that is something that's sort of an open secret that officially politicians and the u.s. government doesn't talk about. he also appeared to have given out the exact number of u.s. special forces who are in the border region in this new conflict zone that's been created by his recent decision. i don't want to ask you about things you can't talk about, but i wanted to ask why both of those things are something that wouldn't typically be done and why there might be worries about the president having made those remarks today? >> i can't speak to what the president is getting at. i can speak to incirlik air base. it's a facility we have been on for decades. when we began the counter-isis campaign in september 2014 it took 10 months of negotiation for

joining us now is brett mcgurk, former special presidential envoy for the global coalition to defeatr. mcgurk resigned from the trump administration last year after the president said the u.s. would be pulling all troops out of syria. mr. mcgurk, thank you for being here. i appreciate you making the time. >> thanks, rachel. >> i'm a layman and civilian and on serve e 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 gro

to 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

much the defense secretary of the time james mattis had resigned over it and then subsequently brett mcgurk also resigned over president trump decision to withdraw now we know that after that this isn't pressure from congress especially had president trump backtracking a little bit and actually slowing down the withdrawal although a very limited withdrawal took place the u.s. and president trump himself also said that the american soldiers would stay longer while what are your thoughts the prevailing narrative has always been that the americans won't abandon the kurds who fought and defeated eisel what do you make of the confusing statements coming from the u.s. administration does the u.s. support a turkish operation in northern syria. you know i wouldn't say that the prevailing sentiment was that the united states would never abandon the kurds in fact history proves otherwise those of us who are in the previous administration like myself always pointed out that while partnering with the p.k. affiliate in northern syria was expedient and useful against isis in the short term it was always

. >> joining me now, brett mcgurk, former presidential envoy fand n nbc analyst. ett, 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 it

we heard from brett mcgurk yesterday. he is there. probably john bolton is, too, even though i don't agree with his views on a lot of stuff. we all know representative pompeo, when he was in the house, would be incensed with this defiance of congressional prerogatives. when he ran the benghazi hearings, many believe, extremely unfairly and in a partisan and biased way, he wanted everything to come out. now he's ducking, hiding. we need representative pompeo back here, the one who said things should be made public when it was a different administration. , not onlytters worse is secretary pompeo ducking, but maybe he is complicit in all of this. his name has surfaced on multiple occasions in the tail of the administration's very questionable dealings with ukraine. for instance, ambassador taylor's written statement states on august 20 ninth, at the suggestion of national security advisor john bolton -- on august 29, at the secretary of national security -- at the suggestion of national security advisor john bolton, the state department

much the defense secretary of the time james mattis had resigned over it and then subsequently brett mcgurk also resigned over president trump decision to withdraw now we know that after that this isn't pressure from congress especially had president trump backtracking a little bit and actually slowing down the withdrawal although a very limited withdrawal took place. the u.s. and president trump himself also said that the american soldiers would stay longer while what are your thoughts the prevailing narrative has always been that the americans won't abandon the kurds who fought and defeated eisel what do you make of the confusing statements coming from the u.s. administration does the u.s. support a turkish operation in northern syria. you know i wouldn't say that the prevailing sentiment was that the united states would never abandon the kurds in fact history proves otherwise those of us who are in the previous administration like myself always pointed out that while partnering with the p.k. affiliate in northern syria was expedient and useful against isis in the short term it was always

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

. >> 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

. >> and admiral and brett mcgurk this is the last inspector general report from the pentagon that saidhile the territory is gone, rakka was retaken as you have pointed out, brett. the isis fighters are resurging and the refugee camp can no longer be guarded and 18,000 fighters in iraq and syria who are coming back. so, those embers are absolutely there. the president as recently as june 29th at the g-20 specifically said at a news conference with the japanese prime minister, he specifically said he would not yield to erdogan's demands to go back in and take out our allies. watch this. >> president erdogan, he's tough, but i get along with him. he wanted to wipe out. he has a big problem with the kurds, as everyone knows. and he had a 65,000-man army at the border and he was going to wipe out the kurds who helped us with isis and we took out the caliphate. we have 100% of the caliphate and i called him and i asked him not to do it. >> can i just make a military point here, andrea. >> yeah. >> which is we don't have to send 150,000 troops here. when i commanded the mission in afghanistan

brett mcgurk come brett mcgurk ran the program is the guy who aligned us with irgc assets in iraq againstisis. if you want to understand why there's a growing corridor from baghdad to beirut, it's because we just created kill zones for attacking sunnis while never ever addressing the rise of the iranians and their shiite proxies. that is true in all the cost iraq, and it's also true in syria. this this is the thing i think e missed this. the pkk, the ypg, has about this entire time that they're supposed to be our proxy, they kept the assad government forces in the east. planes go from damascus and there are assad forces and hezbollah. then they use it to reinforce the position. if we were serious about having a counter iran program we would return to our proxy, the pkk and what it said, close down the assad position come close down the assad and help us close down assad position. we never ever said that. if you look at what brett mcgurk wrote a few months ago when he saw trump is going to pull out, he said sadly, what i think we should do is we should broker a deal whereby we take the sdf

brett mcgurk who had been the head of u.s. anti isis coalition. up to last 9 months ago says this is insane meters but it isn't the same but he said it doesn't make any sense this kind of an incursion isn't going to last it doesn't you know it only makes sense within the context of president trump's saying about iraq iraq we should have kept the oil and. you know he clearly likes oil in the end members of the administration have fed him this idea that he could keep the oil somehow n. but strategically it makes no sense legally a thing makes notes indeed i think you along with many other analysts are as flabbergasted by this decision as i think the international community will be just too alarmed as it's always good to get your insight on this thanks very much for your time later russia is sending more military police and heavy equipment to patrol parts of the taking syria border as part of its agreement with the turkish government under the deal kurdish forces are also pulling back from the front here but as they do said the bloodshed hasn't stopp

with me now is brett mcgurk. he's now an nbc news senior foreign affairs analyst.ou've heard richard sort of first-hand account of -- of at least a pause is probably even too strong of a word. but some suspension of -- of -- of hardcore military efforts by the turks. but where -- where are we, brett? and is there any way to turn this around at this point? >> well, first, richard is quite courageous to be there and it's great to have that firsthand reporting. look. i think you got to listen to what the turks are saying. erdogan today said he has an arrangement, agreement to clear an entire safe zone. it's 450 kilometers from the river all the way to the border of iraq. 30 kilometers deep. that includes all the kurdish areas of syria. all the christian majority areas of syria. u.s. officials claim that what was agreed to is much narrower in scope. i would tend to listen to the turks here because -- >> can you believe you're saying that? can you believe you have to say it that way? listen to the turks, not to our american officials. >> the truth of the matter is when

i want to bring in brett mcgurk who served under the coalition to defeat isis.gned in december of last year after president trump announced his decision to withdraw troops from syria. we're lucky to have you. i remember when you resigned, brett, i was covering the white house. if you hadn't resigned then, would this activity now trigger you to resign? >> we've seen this movie before. it's a bad movie and it's going to get worse. in december president trump, all of a sudden said everybody get out and then he revisited it, that limit our options and influence. as we speak now, we are abandoning all of our basis that we controlled and blowing up the basis as we leave. the population that supported our forces for four years are throwing potatoes and tomatoes at our trucks as we leave. this is shameful and humiliating and now we're going to collapse down to a little zone in the southwest part of the northeast syria which happens to have some oil fields. sos not a considered policy. these are spasms. and to stay in syria just to protect an oil field, that might be one

we heard from brett mcgurk yesterday. he's there. probably john bolton is too, even though i don't agree with his views on a whole lot of stuff. we all know representative pompeo, when he was in the house would be incensed with this defiance of congressional prerogatives. when he ran the ben ga disi hearings -- the benghazi hearings many believe in an anunfair -- unfair way, now he's hiding. we need representative pompeo here, the one who said things should be made public when it was a different administration. to make matters worse, not only is secretary pompeo ducking; but maybe he's complicit in all of this because his name has surfaced on multiple occasions in the tale of the administration's very questionable dealings with ukraine. for instance, ambassador taylor's written statement indicates that on august 29, at the suggestion of national security advisor john bolton, mr. taylor sent a first-person cable directly to secretary pompeo relaying his concerns about the delay in security aid. the state department stonewalling create

to 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 us 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 to care about pleasing most kymberly help at al-jazeera the white house for the turkish defense ministry says preparations for a military operation in syria have now been completed and many political figures in the us say it's kurdish allies are now left on their own the s.c.f. which spearheaded the u.s. led campaign against eis

officials from the obama administration, and i suspect brett mcgurk will want to thank for joining us today, would likely push back on this assertion. this is a debate that hope we hear more about today. but in the meantime with reports of war crimes, cease-fire violations, isis prison breaks, israeli jitters and assad regime advances one gets the sense of new dangers lurk. so in addition to addressing the key points in mike's book today, today's conversation promises to cover a lot of ground. moderating today's event is vivian salama. shias worked as a foreign correspondent in more than 60 countries with vast expanse in middle east. she served as ap baghdad bureau chief from 2014-2016 -isis blitzkrieg across iraq in syria. in april she published a children's book, the laundry home, but a syrian boy whose family was forced to flee when the civil war erupted. she covers the white house for the "wall street journal." vivian will now introduce the rest of the panel. vivian, over to you. >> it's great to be here, including with all these distinguished gentlemen, telephone i crossed paths

or insight or politically appointed republicans that that resigned not like jim mattis did or brett mcgurk the counterterrorism adviser they resigned over principle and over difference in issues these are people that had differences because of one of the riots one of them feel she resigned before the july 25 cool but had cautioned against this have a look at have a listen to to go back and look at what she had to say what was the type away from from what she had to say of those proceedings begin to go to this point about how trusted senior advisers were being kept in the middle why i think what fiona hill brought to the table and of course she was responsible on the national security council staff for russia and she's been rushed out he's been there the whole time probably one of them. as leading experts on vladimir putin as it was useful to have her inside but what she saw and what she was told by ambassador john bolton was to go talk to the senior national security council lawyers that rudy giuliani and others were run ending a run at running an endgame around the national security counc

we did hear from brett mcgurk, the former u.s. envoy to the coaliti coalition, who described this as a reckless gamble with our security. here's a man at send the of 2018, resigned from his position because of president trump's decision at the time, not carried out at the time, to withdraw u.s. forces from northeastern syria. this definitely changes the terrain in that area in a way that no one was expecting yesterday. >> ben wedeman live for us in beir beirut. thank you. >>> the british foreign secretary is getting personally involved as a family in tuhe u.. demands justice after the death of their son. the teen had been hit by a suspect on a road. the suspect was the wife of a diplomat. she left the u.k. under diplomatic immunity. she is just heartbroken and would like to see some justice. >> i spoke to them yesterday. i struggle to say the anguish this family feels. their son died in the most dire circumstances. he was so broken, he couldn't get to hospital. the hospital had to come to him and nothing could be done. they discov

to 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 to the other top stories in iraq's president has condemned attacks on protesters during violent anti-government demonstrations during a televised address but how. to address protesters demands and called on security forces to ensure the rights of iraqis are

a relationship in the trump administration, the former envoy for combating the islamic state, brett mcgurkhe tweeted out, "trump tonight after one call with a foreign leader provided a gift to russia, iran, and isis." this is somebody who worked within the trump administration being very critical of this move by the president. only one.is not the there is a substantial number of influential people who think this is a terrible mistake, and not only is it benefiting putin, but it is also benefiting iran and islamic state. jason: coming up, juul. is it the new big tobacco? it wanted customers off tobacco, now kids are getting hooked on nicotine. carol: and aramco's ipo is finally here, but will investors want it? jason: this is "bloomberg businessweek." ♪ ♪ jason: welcome back to "bloomberg businessweek." carol: join us for bloomberg businessweek every day on the radio starting at 2:00 p.m. wall street time. you can also catch up on our daily show by listening to our podcast on apple podcast, soundcloud, and bloomberg.com. jason: and find us online at businessweek.com and through our mobile a

the obama administration led by john kerry and people like john allen brand brett mcgurk assembled an anti-isis coalition of 80 nations that inexorably defeated isis on the ground. when you kill those guys, when you remove them from their caliphate, that hurts their messaging. that was a lot better than anything we ever did in terms of countering their messaging and that was an incredibly successful policy initiative by the obama administration which was continued by the current administration. i think the thing is, the site that you mentioned info wars, russian trolls, they don't have any of the infrastructure of truth that mainstream journalism does . they don't check their facts, they don't have copy editors, they don't spell things correctly . if that's a disqualifier, were going to have to expand this conversation i think. you can correct that on the internet, by the way. they don't have multiple sources for their stories t. if you analyze that story and go through it, you see these things are made up out of whole cloth as opposed to something in the new york times or washington

that already from a little bit of the tensions that we've seen with people like jim mattis and brett mcgurkace over the next month, what type of conversation is going to be had with the president and erdogan and if in fact the president will hold erdogan accountable if he defies the agreement that they initially made. >> well, he threatened to destroy, totally obliterate the turkish economy. >> we'll see if that actually happens. >> exactly. >> moving along. the senate intelligence committee has released the second volume of its report on russian interference in the 2016 election which focuses on the kremlin backed social media disinformation campaign. according to "the washington post" the committee recounts extensive russian manipulation of facebook, instagram, youtube, twitter, google, all the other major platforms with the goal of dividing americans, suppressing african-american turnout and helping elect trump president. the report also offers a set of recommendations for siphoning the u.s. defenses against foreign interference online with lawmakers urging their peers in congress to act

this was a tweet today from brett mcgurk, the former special presidential envoy to the coalition to defeat isis. he writes trump signed an authorization to impose sanctions but that no sanctions have been imposed. this is meaningless non-sense. 100,000 people are already displaced and u.s. soldiers are being fired upon. what's the bar for sanctions? frank, the question for you, what is going on? >> well, brian, we're missing something here. there is no logical reason for the president approving turkey's incursion into syria and abandoning our allies in the form of the kurds. and now as you just reported, now we see u.s. troops actually endangered by turkish incoming fire. how many u.s. soldiers will have to get injured? how many kurds will have to die? how many isis fighters will have to escape and make their way out of syria to pose a real present threat to us before some red line is crossed where these so-called sanctions actually kick in? we're missing the motivation for the president to do this and allow turkey to do it. it's like telling someone i approve of you blowing the doors off

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you had brett mcgurk as well resign over it.his time a lot of silence from those in the national security apparatus, if you will. >> you ought to expect it, as phil mentioned. i think so many of these republicans who have been silent on ukraine and china are willing to be so out there in the criticism of the president on syria. it tells you something about the president's mindset, that criticism about syria is about an issue and he doesn't really care about issues. he doesn't care about policy that much. so he's willing to tolerate that in a way that criticism about ukraine or about china, that's personal, that is existential, that deals with regime change. there's kind of a free zone for republicans to break with him on policy, which is not really a priority for this president. but there's no tolerance for any sort of dissent when it comes to impeachment because that's very personal. that's what the president really cares about. >> i want to read this excerpt for you from the story you co-wrote with robert costa. across the cou

brett mcgurk is former envoy for the global coalition to defeat isis and msnbc senior foreign affairsry pfiefer, former chief of staff to the cia during the bush administration and former senior director of the white house situation room during the obama administration. brett, let me start with you. are you surprised that the cease-fire isn't holding? >> well, no. i think what the cease-fire is, is basically, it orders all the, what we call the syrian democratic forces, to leave a besieged area and for turkish-backed opposition forces, which are heavily infiltrated with extremists, committing war crimes and other atrocities, to move in. so it's really not that great a deal. in a cascading crisis like this with americans in harm's way in particular, you want to try to buy time, so there's merit for the administration to try to buy time, but we have a long way to go. this will be decided on tuesday when erdogan meets with putin in sochi, in russia. and trump at this point is pretty much a bystander. >> brett, you heard the president celebrating that u.s.-brokered cease-fire, but in fore

james mattis, and soon thereafter his administration's point person on the fight against isis, brett mcgurkh basically resigned in protest against the president's decision. now, trump eventually walked back that decision. but now less than a year later, the president has done it again. again after a phone call with the president of turkey. although former defense secretary james mattis refuses to say anything about president trump at all, mr. mcgurk had choice words with the president today. he 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, 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 collisi

the former ambassador to combat isis brett mcgurk tweeted trump officials are working over time to sayhat he didn't give this gift to russia and iran and i don't envy them but it is false. boris sanchez breaks down the white house cramble over syria. >> reporter: facing staging bipartisan condemnation, president trump is playing catch-up and clean-up over the rapidly deteriorating situation in syria as the turkish military pushes further into the country. following the removal of u.s. troops from the region. trump is scrambling to project a harder line on turk announcing harsh economic sanctions on turkish officials and voicing his anger with erdogan during a phone call on monday. >> we're asking for a ceasefire. we put the strongest sang -- sanctions that you could imagine but we have a lot in store if they don't -- if they don't have an impact. >> reporter: trump today during a rose garden ceremony honoring the stanley cup champions demanding a ceasefire following the announcement he would dispatch vice president mike pence and national security adviser robert o'brien to turkey to ne

. >> brett mcgurk responded tweeting this is an obscene and ignorant statement and goes on to criticize do you make of it. >> this is coming when campaign about foreign policy, it is all about america first and what makes you feel good and the simple analogy that his base will understand when the reality is thousands of people have die and the united states is insecure and with russian ascending and erdogan is going to russia to meet with putin and they are the ones deciding what is happening in the region and isis has been let loose. there has to be a conversation across all candidates about how the forever wars will benefit the united states because absent a military presence we have no counter-terrorism strategy. >> we have more to talk about because hillary clinton is making a serious claim that a 2020 democrat is a russian asset and that candidate just responded in a way that might make your jaw drop. stay with us. 's a competition for the talent. employees need more than just a paycheck. you definitely want to take advantage of all the benefits you can get. 2/3 of employees said t

jim mattis and brett mcgurk resigned over trump's syria policy. you have to take notice when one issue, one singular issue has been able to unlock trump's vice grip on republican lawmakers, to unleash their outrage and locate their backbones. that issue, mind you, wasn't russia. it has not been ukraine. it is syria. so here's the deal, republicans, many of whom also criticized obama's syria policy are aware that history's long gaze is unforgiving, and when it comes to serious foreign policy blunders, voters do blame presidents and parties for decades after. think vietnam, think iraq. republicans also know that a republican president responsible for literally not indirectly, releasing thousands of terrorists into an already unstable region of the world is not something they can stand by, and they know that america will pay the price for the horrific toll this action will take on our allies and our reputation for years to come, and all this comes at the worst possible time for the president when he needs republican support the most. he's not only up

. >> brett mcgurk, former coalition, both pointed to that phone call as something worthy of investigation trying to understand what went on, on that phone call, who staffed that phone call. what did america get in exchange for greenlighting a military operation that will result in the slaughter of our closest allies in the region? do you think that phone call is worth investigating? >> oh, absolutely. and by the way, where is the secretary of defense and where is the national security council, a process to pull together diplomacy, economic leverage, cia involvement? this is unilateral dark of the night calls from the white house residence to his former business associate erdogan which then results in a precipitous withdrawal and the immediate start of combat operations. what is going on here? this is conduct that strikes at the heart of u.s. national security. >> heidi przybyla, i don't know that i could have set up your reporting any better. take us through it. >> right. well, the general there mentioned stakes and just the gravity of this situation that really for the first time we have

brett mcgurk tweeting this is an obscene and ignorant statement. 200,000 innocent people displaced, hundredsredible reports of war crimes, isis prisoners escaping, u.s. evacuating and bombing its own positions. two kids in a lot he asked? the kurdish forces, america's biggest allies in the fight against isis given five days to leave their land or else turkey will resume its military operation against them. here's how the president characterized that situation today. >> we have isis totally under guard, turkey is also guarding separately. they are watching over everything. so you have the kurds who we are dealing with and are very happy about the way things are going, i must say. the kurds, sometimes you have to go through some pain before you can get a good solution. but the kurds are very happy about it. president erdogan in turkey is satisfied with it. and we are in a very strong position. >> joining this conversation retired four-star general barry mccaffrey and at the table here in new york doug thornell. general mccaffrey, let me get to you quickly, if i can. we just heard the president

so if i were president, i'm not going to be president, i would call someone like brett mcgurk.e was obviously not phoned in advance of this stuff. that just stood out to me as how hastily this thing came together. then finally the thing i would have asked him is have you heard from anyone on the hill? they are clearly enraged at what's going on, and they have a design to sort of reelback this whether it's through some formal statement. has he heard from anyone on the hill? i kind of want to know if they are backchannelling to him to get a sense of what they can do to repair this policy change. >> what you are seeing here is now the all-too predictable consequence of a congress that has been complicit in allowing this president to run over its constitutional role of plays checks and balances. so to sam's point, there are some remedies for congress at this point, but this is like a behavior that has escalated over time. it was after those translator notes were seized during the trump/putin meeting that pompeo initially refused to come to congress and testify. we still don't know

to 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 to care about pleasing most can really help at al-jazeera the white house. this is director of the center for middle east studies at the university of oklahoma he says trump puzzler the lowly edge of what might become of kurdish full says if turkey launches a military offensive this shows the real collapse of the foreign policy

and general mccaffrey and brett mcgurk, former u.s.oy to the coalition to fight isis have both called for understanding more about what went on in this phone call. but there's one guy who knows. secretary of state mike pompeo, he was on the call with erdogan, the state department official said the official didn't characterize his views but pompeo had opposed the president's previous move to withdraw u.s. forces. so pompeo sits on the phone with zelensky, listens to donald trump ask for dirt on the bidens. mike pompeo america's secretary of state, sits on the phone, listens to donald trump green light a military operation that imperils the lives of our troops in syria and sends our kurdish allies running into the arms of assad. what's pompeo doing? >> great point. i'm glad you pointed that out. >> that was for ambassador mcfaul. we'll come back to you, general. >> but, general, i am just going to agree with you. i think that general mccaffrey said earlier is really important and that it gets to pompeo is that the normal standard operati