and isis calabro.mosul at 1.6 my people in it, there were 46,000 isis fighter and get the city was destroyed. yet 1.6 million were exited put into the refugee camps or the refugee system. in the old city of mosul u.n. estimated 600 isis fighters and 60,000 civilians. that is an incredible ratio, for everyone isis fighter killed, you killed 60 civilians. killed or injured 60 civilians. human rights watch now estimates that 1 million iraqis that are missing in iraq. that's a lot of people. we don't talk about that. we're not looking at what happens five years from now, what happens ten years from now, what's happening now? so if we pull out of syria it is a win for iran, a win for russia, i went for assad, when for isis. it's a defeat for kurdish allies. it is a win for a nato ally that's acting like a nato ally, and the president runs the risk of doing -- or doing what he said obama did in 2008. president trump said obama pulled out of iraq too soon and it led to the rise of isis. if the president pulls

againls isis. that was challenged by ignoring local dynamics in the north of iraq, but also the shift of hands from one force to another. that whole thing opened so much potential for isis in those areas. i fear this is the moment that is similar, comparable to what happened in 2017 in iraq and would be worse in syria because syria is, again, it is fragile and pieces are scattered around. so many stake holders vying for one thing or another. >> thank you, hassan. i hope we don't have another panel in two years about isis. we'll watch that. thank you. general? >> first of all, i want to thank not only you for putting this together and my co-panelists, i think we have had a deeper debate inside this room that you don't hear inside this town. well done to you all as well. second, to counter point, i spend most of my time in iraq working over there. i have very strong connections with federal police, border police, administrators. iraqi military and security force believe they have isis under control.

isis. using this argukes for staying in syria simply to complete the destruction of isis carries over to the fact, well, if they're not completely defeated there, we need to stay, then the question is, why aren't tpwhe 23 other countries? that's number one. because really, at this point, it's somebody else's problem. once something is not an existential threat to the united states, the question is, do we want to put our blood and treasure, as we did the other day, on the line when somebody else ought to be doing the job? the second point i'd make is, candidly, we're ahead of our skis in syria. we have one purpose to be in syria, and that is to defeat and destroy isis. we were starting to see inevitable signs of mission creep inside syria. they were talking about training 40,000 local troops. that's a multiyear prospect. candidly, if there is any kind of post-syria resolution or political resolution, if we were there, no doubt we'd be signing up for sector northeast in the peace enforcement

i am in isis fighter or in isis collaborator. basically to individuals, one steeped in each to the judge that says you're in isis fighter in your lawyers will defend you for about two minutes and say you're not done in the judge will say the evidence is overwhelming. you are now going to be sentenced to death and executed for being in isis collaborator. the punishment for collaborator is no different in isis fighter. this is d. education on steroids. deep ratification takes you on eligible for a technocrat position. the sentences you to death or puts you in prison for a long time. again, it goes back to that 10-year-old sunni female 50s mom, dad, uncle, whatever relative in prison or executed for having the violin under isis rule for three years and simply going along. i'm not a terrorist sympathizer. [inaudible] certain things like not every is a terror. only the ones that are. how do you reform somebody? i got asked a great question the other day. you believe a terrorist can be reformed? i do. you can have sunni muslim scholars

>> about isis, right? >> iranians. >> yes. >> i saw that firsthand where people, even supporters of the syrian regime, when they started to see iranians going into these areas and attack, they became worried because iran and shia militias -- not shia militia -- iran's always been seen suspiciously because there were attempts to shia-tize areas and targeted specific tribes who traced their origins to the prophet's family and target those people to say your origins are shia, so try to shia-tize these areas. there's all that extra sensitive dynamic when it comes to shia militias. so once we see shia militias there it's a problem. also the kurds, it was kind of critical of allowing the ypg to expand in these areas. and i might see problems with the shift, reversing that now for practical reasons but it's also a very sensitive issue for these people to be controlled by out-of-towners. people from out of town. they're not from there. this is an extra sensitive issue for these people. one final point i want to ma

to fight isis. there's been a lot of debate and we are hoping that we won't cover all of it because that will take probably many hours. we are trying to focus only on the withdrawal decision and what it could mean on the ground in the relationship with turkey. how do nato allies figure out how to do this. i'm sure in the q&a session, many issues will come up and we will try to respond as much as possible. q&a session, many issues will come up and we will try to respond as much as possible. panele a distinguished here with me. to my we have a distinguished panel here with me. current defense counsel but he appears on cnn and i'm not going to go into the long bio. you can read it in the handout. we appreciate him being here to discuss this issue with us. >> he is with georgetown as well to his left, he is no less prominent analyst. with the washington institute for iranian policy. we are very grateful they are here. we are hoping at some point he will make it but we will proceed without him at this po

isis claimed responsibility. ts mid-december, the president declared isis defeated and announced plans to withdraw. po are on the ground inside syria tonight, but we begin with avid martin at the pentagon. hdwarning-- some of the images e e graphic. >> reporter: the attack was recorded on a security camera. ede person wearing a suicide vest blew himself up in front of a restaurant where american soldiers patrolling the city had stopped to eat lunch. e o soldiers, one civilian, and one contractor were killed, and three more service men wounded. w was the single worst loss of ofe since american troops went into syria more than three years ago. gruesome pictures of the blood- spattered aftermath, which showed many syrians had been killed as well, made a cruel mockery of vice president rynce's claim of victory delivered hours later, even though both he and the president had been briefed by then that opsricans had been killed. >> we are bringing our troops home. he caliphate has crumbled, and isis has been defeated. t

isis claims responsibility. tonight, republican senator lynnlynn lindsay grey graham says he is worried president trump emboldened the group. there will be no reversal for troop with recall. we are following a political power play against the president by the house speaker nancy pelosi. she's effectively dis-inviting mr. trump from delivering his state of the union address to congress on january 29. citing security concerns from the government shutdown. this hour, i will talk to republican congressman and military veteran chris stewart and our correspondents and analysts are standing by. we will hear from other reporters who are following this. let's go to our chief white house correspondent jim acosta. first, our pentagon correspo correspondent barbara starr is getting information. what are you learning about the syria attack? >> this is the largest single suicide attack against american troops in syria. tonight, isis far from defected. without warning, a suicide blast on the busy streets in northern syria. u.s

isis claiming responsibility for it. we were just in the town of manbij the day before yesterday, which is a town that was under isis control until about september 2016, at which point the kurdish-led syrian democratic forces took control of the city. we found the u.s. base right there on the outskirts of the city flying the u.s. flag. a number of u.s. servicemen are based there. there's also a regime and russian presence just about ten minutes away from the city. listen, the difficulty you have with towns like manbij is even when you clear them out, even when you talk back the territory, it is very difficult to deal with sleeper cells. we have been hearing from a number of commanders, kurdish commanders and others, that this is the problem they're facing now on the ground in a lot of territory that they currently hold. the difficulty of trying to deal with the mentality of the people trying to root out those isis sleeper cells that tell exist there. manbij is a town of 100,000 people. it's a large town. we were just by

isis has been defeated. >> he said we had crushed the is isis. ever since the president said he has been withdrawing he has been tweeting last month we have defeated isis and syria. my only reason for being there during the trump presidency. >> we have won against isis. we have taken back the land and now it's time for our troops to come back home. >> a message he repeated during his visit with u.s. troops in iraq over the holidays. >> we are no longer the suckers. people aren't looking at us as suckers. i love you folks because most of you are nodding your head this way. we are respected again as a nation. >> the lack of clarity ton the syria policy after house speaker pelosi told mr. trump to reschedule his upcoming state of the union address writing in a letter i suggest we work together to determine another suitable date after government has reopened or for you to consider delivering your state of the union in writing to the congress on january 29th. >> most are furloughed or victims of the shutdown. >> department of homeland security rejektd

the last pocket of isis territory. to see troops firing aybarage of motherrers towards isis position. right be side them u.s. forces opening fire too. the commander here told us the u.s. military has been indispensable providing artillery and vital air strikes. yet isis is paper sis atlanta enemy with counter attacks, including truck bombs and the sue sued bombingoann re than a dozen other people. he had dense isis is evolving to a underground terror network. this makes it harder for american allies to understand the decision to withdraw two thousand u.s. troops at such a critical time. >> we fought this war together the commander told us. america has a responsibility to support us and not suddenly abandon us. >> they fear a with draw of u.s. forces would result in a security vacuum. -- kurdish to invade and isis to regroup. calling in thousands of isis detainees held. >> the continuation of isis prisoners what to do with families. children and wives in refugee camps including foreigners. >> children born to the wrong

>> i have a book on isis called "isis, a history."hate that isis established in syria and iraq has been mostly, mostly, dismantled, isis has been able to restructure its forces and shift to a new face of fighting called insurgency. units fighting, sleeping cell, like the sleeping cell that targeted american forces in manjib. in fact, in my humble views, the next fight against isis in syria, not to mention iraq, libya, egypt and yemen, is as difficult as the first phase. before we celebrate defeat of isis -- one more point to your american viewers. it was president barack obama who set up american strategy in syria and iraq. he started the fight against isis. what president trump did was to escalate, speed up, basically letting american commanders take action into their own hands. sadly, hundreds of civilians have been killed in syria and iraq as a result of president trump's basically empowering american commanders to basically use this proportionate force against isis. so the reality is the fight against isis has a long way to go. wh

weeks. >> we have won against isis.e have beaten them badly. >> the consequences of the withdraw now becoming more clear. >> it does not end groups historically. it means they have to shift strategies to a gorilla style campaign. that is what isis has now done. >> and tonight two u.s. officials tell cnn there are no plans to change president trump's withdraw from syria. >> all right. thanks so much. >>> cnn chief international is now ton ground in northern syria. you have been to syria more than a dozen times. you were down to street from where this happened. are you surprised by this attack? >> well, i would say i'm surprised in the sense that it was liberated back in september of 2016. it has been quite some time since they took control of that town. i'm surprised also that there's a u.s. base on the outskirts of the town. we went and drove right by that. the u.s. flag flying. there is a significant u.s. presence. i'm surprised we haven't seen anything in terms of a brazen attack like this. i'm not surprised. i can te

isis, the rise of isis. what did that lead to? reinserting tens of thousands if not more u.s. troops. we have seen this movie before. >> in the middle east two things. presence matters and credibility matters. an american handshake has to matter and your presence on the ground matters. that does not mean we should have planned to stay in syria forever for 20 years. it does mean we should have presence on the ground to help us in a negotiation with adversaries like russia and our presence on the ground helps at the table. having been a diplomat on the table you want that at your back. the consistency of american foreign policy and the leadership behind you and presence on the ground. that's what a diplomat needs to get things done. we pulled the pluggen oh it. >> brett mcgurk, former presidential envoy for syria and isis. thank you very much indeed. >> thank you, christiane. >> hard to know how one will navigate without of the difficult tunnel now. we are turning to a day of moral reflection. america is marking martin luther king day. no public holiday for congress because of t

cnn's new video of isis in action, battling u.s. forces and undermining president trump's claim that the terror group has been defeated. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you are in "the situation room." >>> this is cnn breaking news. >> the president's disputes with members of his own team on global policy. tonight, he is trying to paint over his disagreements with his intel chiefs claiming they were misquoted during public testimony in which they clearly contradicted him. this as the senate showed overwhelming support for a rebuke of mr. trump's troop withdrawal plans in syria and afghanistan. at the same time, mr. trump is growing more entrenched in his battle with democrats over his border wall, dismissing any compromise that doesn't include wall funding. >>> also breaking, cnn has learned that senate investigators obtained new information. it shows donald trump junior's mysterious phone calls around the 2016 trump tower meeting were not with his father as many had specul

we give them co—ordinate for isis locations and air force co—ordinate for isis locations and airforcend other hillary do all they can. the american onslaught has been ferocious. the coalition reported 575 airstrike on 1100 targets during the first two weeks of this month alone. but while these ground forces are making forces, on the sharp end of this fight, though one here is talking about isis being defeated. you have been on the. describe what it is like air. translation: they are still putting up translation: they are still putting up strong resistance, firefights. they still do not want to surrender. as we left, we thought this destruction caused by, the fiesta is fighting this region has seen since the against isis began. this is what an isis retrieve looks like between heavy artillery, american and coalition airstrikes, hardly a building is left standing. and for all the talk of withdrawing american troops as we are on our way out, a convoy of us led coalition forces was on its way in, headed straight for the frontline. 0ne commander said he isis is now fighting for their very e

isis has claimed responsibility. remember, it was just a few weeks ago the president justified his decision to pull u.s. troops out of syria. >> we have won against isis. we've beaten them and we've beaten them badly. >> republican senator lindsey graham a staunch ally of president trump has been harshly critical of the president's strategy in syria saying he is concerned the president's statements have emboldened isis. >> my concern by the statements made by president trump is that it sets in motion enthusiasm by the enemy we're fighting. you make people who are trying to help wonder about us. and as they get bolder, the people we're trying to help are going to get more uncertain. i saw this in iraq. and i'm now seeing it in syria. >> strong words from lindsey graham there. now some of the video you're about to see may be disturbing, a warning there as we get to istanbul with the latest. >> reporter: that devastating attack in the city in northern syria claiming 19 lives according to the syrian observatory for human

isis has claimed responsibility for the attack. across the country, women oall ages, nationalities and races turned out today for the annual national women's march. this is the third anniversary oh event which, this year, has been marred by controversy and division. pbs newshour weekend's megan thompson has the story. >> shut down the shutdown. >> reporter: marchers began arriving early this morning in downtown washington, d.c. for the third annual women's marchme people rom all over the united states and came with all rnnds of conce >> my biggest concern is the tax cut that was implemented last year. >> i feel as though thathe country has been turned upside down. c's a joke. it's acus. >> i've never felt like our country has been so divisive, and i feel like the discrimination and the bigotry is really on the rise here. >> as a young girl, i want to grow up in a worhaldt is equal, i have equalrt opitiesa males. >> sophie is director of communications for the women's march. >> our message today is really that women are rising up.pe

the isis state has been defeated. as i said in that speech, the president wants to bring our troops home. he wants to make sure we hand off the fight of the isis in syria, what remains in isis in syria to collision partners and we continue to support them with american assets in the region. the isis group has crumbled thanks to the courage of our armed forces in the region. we will continue to drive isis from the region and the face of

in a real sense, the isis state has been defeated but we will not rest or relent until we drive isisnot only from the region but from the face of the earth. >>chris: mr. vice president, thank you. thank you especially for switching signals. instead of going to one place, coming here.

russia hates isis more than we do. isis, maybe not as much as we do. these are countries that hate isis and they can do the fighting in the neighborhood also. we are fighting them in their neighborhood. , were pulling out of syria won't be finally pulled out until isis -- it's going quickly. >> how many months. ? president trump: john bolton is over there and we have two great stars and john bolton is doing a great job in mike pompeo is doing a great job. they are very strong and they work hard. and as you know, they are doing things very good. we are coming up was a very good results. in no hurry, i have acting's and my acting's are doing really great. david is doing great and mick mulvaney is doing great as chief of staff. i sort of like acting. it gives me more flexibility. do you understand that? i like acting very live a few that are acting and we have a great, great cabinet. if you look at my cabinet, we have a fantastic cabinet. i think we are doing a great job in the shutdown negotiation. we have no choice. -- and totally involved. but i'm invo

it's not just the isis component of it, the u.s.g away which has the largest al qaeda presence anywhere in the world. so two major jihadist groups, one which was involved in the 9/11 attack, before isis walks away. >> i spoke with the leader of afghanistan. he said, i spent a lot of time fighting in iraq and afghanistan. i don't want to replay this movie here. he's talking about afghanistan, but is that movie about to replay there? >> i think it is about to replay there. the one question is how much are the russians -- the russians have been the main power in syria and they've been able to, with syria's help, been able to take over west of syria. will the russians move into the east now and try to take over territory that isis once controlled? >> seth, i appreciate you coming on, really appreciate your report. we actually have numbers, facts and figures when we have these political discussions. it's really important. thank you. >> thanks, kate. >>> the supreme court weighing on four major issues this morning, touching on everything

we have wiped out isis and iraq. -- in iraq. we have wiped out isis.nd we are doing it for two reasons we are doing it because we do not want them coming here. but we are doing it for a number of reasons. we are helping other countries when we do that, too. you have to remember. iran hates isis more than we do. if that is possible. russia hates isis more than we do. turkey hates isis, maybe not as much as we do. but these are countries that hate isis. and they can do a little of the fighting in their neighborhood also because we are fighting them in their neighborhood. with that being said, we are pulling out of syria, but we will not be finally pulled out until isis is gone. it is going quickly. reporter: how many months? reporter: [inaudible] president trump: john bolton is right now over there. i have two great stars. john bolton is doing a great job. mike pompeo is doing a great job. they are very strong and they work hard. as you know, they are doing things that are very, very good . we are coming up with good results. reporter: [inaudible] presid

we have not confirmed it but isis is claiming responsibility. >> isis is claiming responsibility. it is not confirmed. there are many cases where they do claim responsibility for attacks and it turns out to be another perpetrator. nonetheless, we know that president trump on his holiday trip to iraq had been told by top commanders isis was not fully defeated in the area and that isis was still very much present in certain areas of syria. this area of manbij in northern syria you have against turkish border is unsettled for any number of reasons. the turks to the north are trying to push back. the u.s. backed fighters in the the area would like to see a zone where there are no kurds. the russians want assad to take control of the area. there's a lot of reasons there may be violence in this particular region. the u.s. has conducted about a dozen joint patrols with the turks in recent months to try to bring some stability to manbij. this is the big uncertainty. the president calling for a withdrawal of troops from syria, not immediately anymore as he did initially. they are working o

an isis presence in egypt. isis presence is not going to mount up an n ain armo cars. >> the vice president came under criticism for the timing of those. isis is defeated, lits rally hours after we learned of the death of mult pell service members there. >> i probably would not have said it in the two days following this until the families are noteifiified. that's probably not great timing. >> the president is on his way to your neck of virginia, not washington, to talk about the missile defense review. this will be a big announcement from him and we're headed back toward the star wars reagan-era days. what do we expect to hear in the next 25 minutes? >> so a lot of this review is sort of theoretical. it's things they are hoping to develop and field in the years ahead. we won't see a lot of things fielded within the next year twoeor two. what people are going to talk about is the u.s. needing to have a defense against hypersonic missiles. these are things both the russians and chinese have. missiles that fly lo

has beaten b isis badly. how do you reconcile what we're hearing from this white house and what you know to be true on the ground in syria? >> we were down right by the front lines of the war against isis today. this is near the iraqi border. the caliphate has not crumbled. it's nearing collapse, but there are several towns, there's still fierce resistance and everyday fighting and casualties on all sides happening ever single day. and more to the point, what did the commanders tell us when we were down by the front lines? they said, listen n the next few weeks or couple months, we'll probably take the next fewvi villages but we can't take the minds and hearts of thevi villagers with us. these people have been living under isis rule for years and years. and the militia, the u.s.-led coalition is working with on the ground is kurdish led. there are a lot of sectarian and ethnic tensions bubbling beneath the surface here. the minute you have a power vacuum, you can be sure that isis will be back. >> clarissa wa

troops won't leave syria until isis is gone, but is israel concerned about even more than isis? president is reassuring a key ally. you're rey to share with the world? get published now, call for your free publisher kit today! who doesni do.ve a deal? check out the united explorer card. savin' on this! savin' on this! savin' in here. rewarded! learn more at the explorer card dot com. thyou had a good run, but it's time to sell or trade it in, and you need to know what it's worth. with truecar, just enter your license plate and see your car's value in real time. sports package and low mileage? nice. incident with a shopping cart... not so nice. sunroof? real nice. within minutes, you'll have a true cash offer and you can head to a local certified dealership to cash out or trade in. enjoy a better way to sell or trade in your car with truecar. stimulant laxatives forcefully stimulate i switched to stimulant-free miralax for my constipation. the nerves in your colon. miralax is different. it works with the water in your body to unblock your system naturally. and miralax doesn't cau

the isis state has been defeated. as i said in that speech, the president wants to bring our troops home. he wants to make sure we hand off the fight of the isis in syria, what remains in isis in syria to collision partners and we continue to support them with american assets in the region. the isis group has crumbled thanks to the courage of our armed forces in the region. we will continue to drive isis from the region and the face of the eater r. earth. >> brennan: mr. vice president thank you for your time today. >> thank you, margaret. brennan: next up we talk to adam schiff. >> brennan: we're back with adam schiff, a calf democrat and ally to speaker pelosi. adam schiff, welcome to "face the nation." would you like to respond to anything the vice president just said? >> i think the vice president and president know what the president announced yesterday would not go anywhere. it wasn't intended to. i think it was a effort to prop up the president's sagging poll numbers. it did nothing to get us close together shu

this is what an isis retreat looks like. between heavy artillery, american and coalition air strike, hardly a building is left standing. and for all the talk of withdrawing american troops as we were on our way out, a convoy of u.s.-led coalition forces was on its way in, headed straight for the front line. one commander here said isis is now fighting for their very existence, a fight that is far from over. charlie d'agata, cbs news, ash shafa, eastern syria. >>> closer to home, president trump hosted several congressional democrats at the white house, trying to convince politeas shutdown s plan for a in u.s. history. house speaker nancy pelosi sent her own message to the white house, insisting the upcoming state of the union address should be postponed until the government is back up and running. major garrett reports. >> reporter: the letter from house speaker nancy pelosi proposed delaying the january 29th address until the government reopened, citing security concerns because the secret service and other agencies have be

isis has claimed responsibility. the same isis that president trump recently said was defeated.ere is how it was in a press release, claiming fallen troops are looking down from heaven in approval. >> we have won against isis. we've beaten them and we've beaten them badly. we've taken back the land. but they've killed isis who hurts the world and we're proud to have done it, and i'll tell you they're up there looking down on us, and there is nobody happier or more proud of their families to put them in a position where they've done such good for so many people. so our boys, our young women, our men, they're all coming back, and they're coming back now. we won, and that's the way we want it, and that's the way they want it. >> they're coming back now, he said. he said the pullout would be effective immediately. he later denied saying that and instead said this. >> i said let's get out of syria. let's bring our young people home. and they said, sir, could we have six more months. you have six more months. let's go, and i gave them six months. let's get out. and they said, sir, cou

does isis leadership have communications with isis adherence, isis loyalists here in the united statesin europe, people that might attack against u.s. interests? that is really one of the really central questions in this assessment. >> let's take a moment as we look at sort of the broad global threat assessment here to the fbi director christopher wray speaking moments ago about russia. >> not only do the russians continue to do it in 2018. we have seen an indication that they are continuing to adapt their model and other countries are taking a very interestinged eye in that approach. >> the concerns about election security once again. >> it is interesting is election security was the first thing that the director of national intelligence mentioned. this was before he got into russia, iran, north korea and china. election security was something he wanted to hit right off the bat. he said countries not just russia are looking at 2016, 2018 at what was accomplished then and looking ahead to 2020 at what could be a very different landscape suggesting that they liked what they saw in 2016

. >> we have won against isis. >> translator: isis is intent on resurging. >> the commander and chiefnd the intel officials he appointed on very different grounds. >>> and the sales for the holidays, what it means for the most widely known stocks on the planet. you probably have apple shares somewhere in your 401(k). good morning, everyone. i'm christine romans. >> good morning, i'm dave riggs. 4:00 a.m. in the east. it feels like 50 below in minneapolis. cold does not describe the truly life-threatening conditions for a huge swath of the u.s. more than 300 million americans will see temps below freezing. that's more than 80% of the population. in minnesota, those windchills will drop to a historic 70 degrees bls degrees below zero. >> there's a windchill of minus 62 in swift county. and the state patrol reported 153 crashes during the storm. this multicar pileup captured by a facebook user. oh, my goodness. and blowing snow reduced visibility in buffalo to near zero. >> school is cancelled in states, postal delivery. and check before you head out and if you don't have to, don't. let'

, he has unleashed a new way -- a new branch to a certain extent of isis that is isis's clandestine service and terrorist arm, which will harry us all the way out the door. >> as a deployed veteran of reecht wars no one needs to remind you that it's tougher to bomb an idea, it's tougher to root out a movement, and isn't that a factor here? >> it absolutely is a factor. i've written three books on al qaeda and isis ideology and how to kill it. it is an idea that you cannot kill using conventional methods. you can shoot a man, you can drop a bomb. but if you cannot root out the belief system, this cultist belief that they are the executors of god's will on earth and that no matter what you do to them right down to the individual last soldier, they will fight to meet whatever goals that their leadership has imposed on them. right now that is viability of their ideology in a covert setting with maximum american and syrian and kurdish pressure on top of them they are acting like balls of mercury. you squish, it it just breaks up, goes into a million separate small places. but the moment we lift

on isis, the president says ice -- isis in syria is defeated.n you hear this assessment from coats. could these things both be true? >> well, yes sort of. the intelligence professionals have a pretty firm grasp on this. the physical caliphate, the territory on the ground that isis controls certainly diminished after the fighting in both iraq and syria. isis still very much alive. the director there talking about the return to guerilla war fare. remember it was several days ago an isis suicide attack killed four americans in northern syria. they are very much able to still conduct this kind of guerilla war fare. they can do this at their own will. there is very little question about that. the larger strategic question on the table is a threat perhaps isis can pose in europe, pose to u.s. territory. so the question is this. do they have the finances, the communications infrastructure, the networking to inspire and communicate, to plan and carry out attacks outside the areas of syria and iraq? isis fighters are considered to be dispersed in many ar

says isis has been defeated. and the president that insists he's been tough on russia and the ambassador says that's not true and someone has to account for what trump and putin talked about. all of it gets underway on the 11th hour on wednesday night. >> good evening. day 727 of the trump administration. this government shutdown will roll into day 27 at the end of this hour. there was a lot of news but no movement on the shutdown today and we'll get to all of that in a moment, but first that sound you may have heard about two hours ago, especially on the east coast, that was the sound of goal posts being moved. rudy giuliani appeared on cnn tonight and talked about the russians, about collusion and the trump campaign. >> i never said there was no collusion. >> yes you have. >> i have not. i said there's not a single bit of evidence the president of the united states committed a crime and conspired with the russians to hack the dnc. >> the only thing we can say here is that happened and we'll talk about that in a

isis says it defeated. there are thousands of isis fighters still in iraq and syria and they will exploit any reduction to strengthen. north korea not that it is not denuking today but that it will not denuke. it sees it as essential to survival. iran saying that iran still to this day complying with the nuclear agreement despite the u.s. withdraw and despite the many claims it is not contradicting on that. on russia, as you know, the president has doubted the intelligence committee about the 2016 election and set that aside you had him saying forget 2016. they are interfering in 2018 and 2020 again and you're not seeing a response from this president to that. you're aware the president raising doubts but the president saying not only is it real but already causing national security threats to this country. one thing i have to tell you today from the intelligence, what they were briefing about was the southern border. it is despite the claims of national emergency. so what was behind this truth speaking to

here we go. >> we have won against isis. >> isis is intent on resurging. >> with ear well on our way. we signed an agreement. >> north korea will seek to retain its wmd capabilities. >> it's not just, max, that they're contradicting one another and that the president doesn't believe his own intel community and calls them naive, et cetera, this is as he heads into a second sum mitt wimit wi jong-un. i wonder the risk of that. >> this is a huge risk. this is the most powerful american the world, poppy and he is not listening to his own intelligence community and who knows who he's listening to, probably "fox & friends" or vladimir putin or some other source of information and the fact is that he is not acting on the best information available. now i had a little bit of hope this morning seeing some of the earlier tweets where he was implicitly conceding that, yes, kim jong-un has not actually denuclearized, isis has not actually been defeated so i thought hallelujah, welcome to the world of rationality, this is finally something fact-based in president trump's twitter feed but then a fe

what's horrible in this, any claim that isis has defeated is wrong. isis is not defeated. their space on the battlefield has sh ruchk and that's something that we have to keep at the front of the mind. how does it inform our decisions of the timing of things like withdrawal. >> senator, the vice president this morning very clearly said, isis has been defeated. the caliphate has crumbled and our troops are crumbling. zbli have no way of knowing what he knew. i'll go to the content of the statement. when the president tweeted it out we knew at the moment he tweeted it out he was wrong. i'm on the military committee. i'm on the foreign relations committee we get briefings about the situation in syria. it's good that the isis ballotle field space has shrunk but to suggest that they're defeated, it's inaccurate. >> house speaker pelosi today says president trump should not come to the state of the union. she says that's because the secret service hasn't been funded for 26 days. is anyone's security in jeopardy? >> well, look, i think it would be very, very odd, very, very odd t

troops to oust isis.lding a better bank starts with looking at something old, and saying, "really?" so capital one is building something completely new. capital one cafes. inviting places with people here to help you, not sell you. and savings and checking accounts with no fees or minimums. because that's how it should be. you can open one from right here or anywhere in 5 minutes. seriously, 5 minutes... this is banking reimagined. what's in your wallet? sorry, is that too loud?oud. you don't need any more hormones in your house. that's why you chose kraft natural cheese. made with fresh milk without the added hormone rbst. it's cheese as it should be. i can't tell you anything about myself. but believe me... i'm not your average consumer. that's why i switched to liberty mutual. they customized my car insurance, so i only pay for what i need. and as a man... uh... or a woman... with very specific needs that i can't tell you about- say cheese. mr. landry? oh no. hi mr. landry! liberty mutual customizes yo

but dan turncoats who disputed president's public statement on isis, north korea and iran. >> isis is intent on resurging and still commands thousands of fighter, in iraq. and -- unlikely to completely give up nuclear weapon, and we too not believe that iran is currently undertaking activities we judge necessary to produce a nuka-- nuclear device. kennedy: how would you know? president he was not having it. tweeting this morning, the intelligence people seem to be passive and naive when it comes to dangers of iran. when i became president iran was making trouble all over middle east they are different but, a source of potential danger and conflict they are testing rockets last week, some more, and coming very close to the edge, their economy is now crashing, that is only thing holding them back. be careful, rain, perhaps intelligence should if back-to-schooback to-- should g, no he didn't, yes he did. a left wing media that had a real hissy fit. >> trump and his intelligence chiefs are worlds apart on isis, russia and the border. >> a public repeudin repudiatios own people. >> growing

now isis claiming responsibility. the attack coming after president trump announced troops were pulling out. richard engel is in syria for us tonight. >>> also breakin the feds arrest a man accused of plotting an attack on the white house. our pete williams has late details. >>> an american among the dead in that massacre at a luxury hotel overseas. he was a young ceo who helped with rescue efforts on 9/11. we're at the scene. erupts over the state n ad ess. >>> another major storm brewing from coast to coast. a foot of snow in parts of the northeast. al roker is here. >>> it changed this teenager's life. but it's the most expensive drug in america. >> $850,000. how do you justify that? >> how could one treatment cost that much? >>> families demanding answers as a doctor is accused of giving their loved ones fatal doses to hasten their deaths. the hospital says there could be dozens of cases. >>> and a big change on the american road. what's in, what's out, and why more people are ditching their sedans. >>> good eveni

in the case of isis, they were already on the path to doing that. this is going to make it easier for them. it is a lot harder to target an insurgency than it is to target a caliphate. i am deeply concerned that the u.s. withdrawal is going to provide greater operational safety, in essence, more space in which they can plot a tack the united states -- attack the united states and our interests around the world and even here in the homeland. there is real reason to be concerned about that. 9/11 doesn't happen if al qaeda doesn't have safe haven in afghanistan. i fear what isis might be able to do if they are able in portions of syria to establish a safe haven, try to inspire terrorist attacks abroad and even direct this. but one of the other by-products is the impact it has in regards to israel. envision for a moment, a small country only nine or ten miles wide. it faces a threat to its north in syria. in syria already in addition to isis and all these other criminal and terrorist elements there are a, you have a growing iranian presence. that growin

support for isis still lingers here.back we pass through another recently liberated area. this is what is left now of the town. you can see it's been basically completed obliterated. and to many of the people who were living in areas like this and others this is what liberation looks like, miles and miles of rubble. many here fear that buried in the destruction the seeds are being sewn for another war. once the village of susa is taken, wolf, there are really just a handful of towns and villages that are left under isis control. but i think what our experience and our journey down the front lines showed us and what we saw with that explosion which is hours away from the front line is even that victory is vulnerable and tenuous at best. wolf? >> clarissa ward on the ground for us in syria. be careful on the ground there. we will continue to wait for your excellent, excellent reporting. thanks so much for doing what you're doing. we are grateful to you. and our viewers thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in the