keilar, and he starts right now. this is cnn breaking news. i'm boris sanchez in for brianna keilar. live from cnn's washington headquarters, underway right now we begin with breaking news this hour. the house moving ahead with their impeachment inquiry with an important witness offering testimony on the trump administration's relationship with ukraine. former u former u.s. ambassador to ukraine, marie yovonavitch. she was ambassador before the u.s. recalled her, two months before the call between president trump and ukrainian president zelensky. she says quote, i met with the deputy secretary of state who informed me of the curtailment of my term. he said the president had lost

confidence in me and no longer wished for me to serve as his ambassador. he added there had been a concerted campaign against me and that the department had been under pressure from the president to remove me since the summer of 2018. in that call with zelensky, president trump called her bad news. she had been targeted with rudy giuliani who considered her anti-trump. her name came up as a target in the indictment of two giuliani associates unsealed yesterday. here's what she said today, i don't know mr. giuliani's motives for attacking me individuals who have been named in the press contacts of mr. giuliani may well have believed that their personal financial ambitions were stymied by anti-corruption policies in ukraine. manu raju is on capitol hill. what more can you tell us about her testimony? >> yeah, and she said that she

was incredulous that she had been dismissed by what she says were unfounded accusations by people with questionable motives is part of her testimony, her opening statement, she tries to push back at some of the allegations against her, what she calls, a smear campaign launched by people like rudy giuliani who went after her that eventually led to her dismissal, after the president had raised concerns about her performance, had levied pressure on the state department to remove her from her post, according to her sworn testimony. now, she tries to push back at some of the smears and attacks that she says were levelled against her. she says she was never asked by the obama administration to help hillary clinton or harm the trump campaign. she say there's no truth to the fact that she was disloyal to president trump. she also said she never met or spoke with hunter biden. of course and suggested also that she had never told the ukrainian government not to launch any sort of prosecution or any sort of investigation

into potential corruption. and she also said that the vice president biden never raised the issue of hunter biden in her conversations with the vice president. so all of these types of allegations had come up and all surrounds the question about the president's efforts to urge the ukrainian government to investigate his political rival, whether or not ukraine aide was held up in any way as part of that as to the ukrainian government, those are the questions they plan to get into behind closed doors. she has been there roughly three hours, answering questions from members. we have not seen many members leave yet. we do hope to hear from more. at the moment, this testimony is what a lot of lawmakers wanted to hear, exactly why she left, the reasons behind her departure, and what she knows about the president's efforts to urge the ukrainians to move ahead with the biden probe. boris. >> manu, the fact that she is testifying is a bit of a

surprise. we had seen the state department intervene when it came to gordon sondland, the u.s. ambassador to the eu. he was supposed to testify on tuesday, the white house, state department blocking that appearance. tell us about the decision for him to testify next week, and do you think he's going to turn over some of those documents that were subpoenaed? >> there is no word about whether he will turn over documents, his attorney put out a statement this morning saying that that is going to be essentially up to the state department. the state department will intervene and try to prevent other documents from going forward, but he did say he would, and he does intend to appear next week because he has been served with a subpoena to appear next week, so perhaps that's one reason why. we were also told this morning that he had yet to get guidance from the state department about whether he can appear despite having that subpoena. we have seen other administration officials, despite facing a subpoena, listen to the white house and not comply with the congressional subpoena. we'll see if that changes in any way. the circumstances of today of yovonavitch's testimony, a bit unclear. while she was a former

ambassador, she's a current state employee, and as of early this morning, she had not indicated yet whether or not the department tried to interfere with her testimony in any way. that's something we'll have to clarify in the coming hours, boris. >> manu, we know you'll keep an eyen eye on her testimony. and give us details. plenty analyst, samantha vinaigrette, who served as a senior adviser under president obama. and cnn's chief political analyst gloria borger. let's start with you. this system, this opening statement is scathing. what do you think? >> it is, and stunning and very sad, actually. i mean, you have a career diplomat talking about how the state department is being attacked and hollowed out from within, and how this can harm our nation's interests, perhaps irreparably, and she tells a story.

as a career diplomat of being called on the carpet, effectively by john sullivan who has been nominated to be the ambassador of russia. look, the president no longer has faith in you, and that, you know, he said this is not doing your job, and she was allowed to come back and still remain as part of the state department but it wasn't for cause and there had been a concerted campaign. >> right. >> and so he had to actually tell her that, and here she is now, and i'm not surprised she wanted to tell her story. but it's a story that's really going to reverberate around this country and around the world, i think, because she was removed for reasons regarding what rudy giuliani and his two friends who have now been indicted. >> it's fascinating that sullivan at one point says you didn't do anything wrong. >> right. exactly. now, the president won't like

that because the president has trashed her repeatedly and that's probably because she fought some things he didn't want her to fight. >> kari, rudy giuliani mentioned in this, he mentioned associates were indicted. should he start looking for legal representation, could he be in trouble? >> i think fact that the indictments came down yesterday in a way that was rushed, so it didn't look as if the government was really ready to indict. they had to quickly file their charges and unseal their charges because those individuals were going to depart the united states. there certainly could be an ongoing investigation that might implicate rudy giuliani. but i also think in addition to her references to him specifically, the point that's relevant, the bigger point i think she's making here in her statement today is that what is the motivation for u.s. diplomatic activities and national security decisions and how are those decisions being

made, and are they being made based on the interests of people like rudy giuliani's associates or other private persons, business interests or personal interests or the president's political interests, versus things that are being done and decisions being made in u.s. national security interests. i think that her grave concern as a career national security and diplomatic professional comes through. >> sam, this doesn't paint the greatest picture of mike pompeo, right, having the president's personal attorney dictate state department personnel as an outsider, and somebody who's not really connected to the administration in any official role. >> that's exactly right, and let's be clear, ambassador yovonavitch was likely recalled for doing her job. she was served in kiev, working on guess what, anti-corruption. she detailed that in her testimony. she wouldn't get out of the way and look the other way. we had another career ambassador resign from the state department

last night, mckinley, it looks like these political appointees were running a separate process and serving as campaign surrogates for the president. secretary of state pompeo has not come out in yovonavitch's defense despite the personal attacks against her. what we don't know is what ambassador sondland's testimony will look like and whether he will be allowed to speak freely or not, and boris, it's interesting, this is not the first time a u.s. ambassador has been the subject of a political smear campaign or conspiracy theories. that's something the russians do quite often to discredit american ambassadors overseas. this time the conspiracy theories are being propagated by members of the u.s. administration. what we have again san ambassador who fought against corruption overseas now having to come and testify about corruption here at home. >> as manu was pointing out, we don't know what the state department said to her before she came to testify. did they say you can't and she did it despite their

instructions. or did they say we would rather you not, or nothing at all. and sondland, as you were saying, who is a political appointee has been subpoenaed to testify next week. we're assuming he is planning, we're told to testify, but what about other diplomats, what about mr. taylor, with whom he was texting and who raised all of these questions about kwid pro kwoquos -- quid pro quos, wd he testify. >> all good questions. the timing is fascinating with john sullivan literally as this opening statement coming out, being named as the ambassador to russia, what do you namake of that? >> i served under a republican president and democrat, john sullivan understood there was a yearlong hit job against yovonavitch. he gave her an order to get on the next plane home despite there being no cause for calling her.

that unto it wself was a nation security risk. normally it's a month long process, so key interests don't fall by the wayside, john sullivan, like so many other senior officials felt something was wrong but did it anyways and it appears he is being rewarded for that behavior, and it brings us back to the question, why did everybody feel concern, express concern but not do anything about it. it appears the machinery of the state department and of the white house were to maybe have a feeling that something was amiss, but to implement the president's orders. >> carrie, to you, taking a step back to what gloria was talking about. it stands out that she would put the opening statement out there with the state department watching this. do you think she may have needed their approval. how would they have weighed in on this opening statement? >> if this was a follow environment and you had a state department official testifying on behalf of the state department, then yes, it would be reviewed by state department personnel. there will be an inner agency

process, even potentially. none of those enormonorms and w government usually behaves applies in this case. she is in a very unusual position. she's been in the government over 33 years. i assume that she's potentially eligible to retire, and probably will have to make decisions about whether he's going to stay in government or whether she's going to leave government. this is a statement, this is somebody on the inside who is telling members of congress in their oversight capacity and then also the public by being able to release her statement that she is sounding a warning that u.s. national security and diplomatic activities may not be being conducted in the united states' interest. that is her point. there may be some sort of shadow diplomacy going on where you have the state department supposing to be doing official things for the government and on the other hand you have this

close cadre of political officials in the white house acting in interests of something different. >> she confirms the whistleblower's account of what was going on from the whistleblower's point of view over in the white house. this was also to me like a wake up everyone, look at what is going on inside the state it want and maybe there is a war going on between the political appointees and the career diplomats. i don't know, you can speak to that better than i can, but it sure seems to me, she was standing up for the people who have spent their careers in foreign service. >> notably, the national security adviser, robert o'brien recently announced he would be stripping the nsc staff by half and installing political appointees. >> it looks like they're trying to get rid of witnesses to a crime. they can still file whistleblower complaints and if they're fired, guess what, they can still testify by congress. it's a poor legal strategy.

but the politicalization of the nsc is deeply jarring to me. i was a career civil servant, served regardless of who the president was. the reason the nsc is staffed with career officials is because they have actual expertise and years of experience with departments and agency, regardless, again, of who's president. there is a disconcerting trend which is that the political appointees run a shadow process driven by the president's personal interests and not national security ones. to me, this looks like the president is trying to make the nsc into a campaign surrogate and campaign arm rather than using them to advance u.s. national security. >> some of the reporting on this has focused on the numbers. from my perspective, it's not the numbers over different administration of both parties, the numbers have ballooned and drawn down. what matter is the quality of the people, whether there are, as samantha is describing, national security professionals who are doing this work or whether there are people who are just beholden to the president

politically, and it's not, you know, inconsequential that on the same day this announcement comes out, we have the state department tweeting that ivanka trump is speaking on peace and security. so you have a position where there's people with no national security expertise or qualifications doing diplomatic and national security work and that's really the problem. >> i do think the numbers matter. i agree with you, under clinton it was about a hundred people. under obama we got really big, about kquadruple that size. even if the president isn't using his nsc, they perform a critical function, they communicate with the departments and agencies to make sure policy is being implemented. if you get too small, you lose that. to carrie's point, it's about the quality. >> how many national security advisers does he have? >> four in three years. thank you so much. all of that drama from this opening statement. >> it's only 1:00. >> samantha vinaigrette, carrie,

gloria borger. president trump getting handed a big loss in federal appeals court today as he fails to stop a house effort to obtain years of his tax returns. that story coming up. plus, part of southern california are burning out of control today after a raging brush fire is whipped up by those santa ana winds. a live report coming up. biopharmaceutical researchers. pursuing life-changing cures in a country that fosters innovation

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a push for a senate hearing on ukraine. a group of democratic senators sent a letter to the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee urging him to call hearings on the issue. focussing on the president's phone call to ukraine's president and the military aid that the president held up. joining me now from new york to discuss is new jersey senator bob menendez, he's one of those democrats on the senate foreign relations committee who wrote that letter. first, senator, we have to ask about this testimony from the former u.s. ambassador to ukraine. marie yovonavitch. she says she was removed because of unfounded and false claims made bepeople with questionable motives, what's your reaction to that. >> marie yovonavitch is one of the premier foreign service officers we have.

an extraordinary ambassador. i sat through some of her nomination committees when i was the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee. she's one of the best of the best. she was straightforward from what i understand her testimony to be, and it is incredibly alarming that the secretary of state is not standing by our career people, incredibly alarming that she points out that private citizens, in this case, mr. giuliani and others were having a shadow diplomacy into ukraine, circumventing the u.s. embassy, and doing the bidding of the president at the end of the day. this is a manifestation of what is going on in the state department, and if you begin to connect the dots here, connect the dots to not only the ousting of the ambassador because she was insisting on the proper channels and fighting corruption in the ukraine. evidently others who had interest didn't think she was in their interest. you had the dots to these moneys

that we found out today were being funneled from foreign sources into the election cycle of the president's election cycle and ostethers, you add th conversation putin has had with the president as he relates to ukraine and other places. you get the picture that what we have here is not the national security of the united states being pursued but the president's personal interests. >> i'm glad you mentioned rudy giuliani, he is all over her opening statement. she say it is that she does not know why he had it out for her but that he did and that he wanted her to be removed. do you need to hear from rudy giuliani? do you think he needs to appear before the senate on a hearing in this? >> absolutely. you know, there's a whole host of people we want to hear before the senate foreign relations committee, because these things, in addition to whatever the house is pursuing in terms of any potential articles of impeachment, these go to the very essence of our foreign policy, how did mr. giuliani become a de facto ambassador, you know, for the united states

and ukraine. who authorized him to do that. what did secretary pompeo know? why was ambassador yovonavitch, a career ambassador, a distinguished one, ultimately moved out of her position. you know, why was moneys that the united states taxpayer and the congress gave to ukraine to defend ukraine against russian aggression that normally takes five days to price, take two months and then you have the calls of the president in between. and those who led up to the calls to ultimately lay the foundation that if you play ball with the president, then, you know, you're going to get what you need. this under mines the national security of the united states. yes, i'd like to have mr. giuliani. i want to have the secretary. i want to have ambassador yovonavitch. i want to have ambassador sondland, and there's a whole host of others who should come before the committee. we have to understand whether

this state department is pursuing the national interests of the united states, the national security of the united states or the personal interests of the president. >> now, senator, the former ambassador says that she was told by deputy secretary of state john sullivan that she was being relieved of her duties. less than an hour ago, president trump announced that sullivan is his pick to be the next ambassador to russia. does that raise any alarms for you? >> well, look, i appreciate under secretary sullivan, but he's got a lot of questions to answer. i don't believe that you can use the defense i was just taking orders. you need to stand up for yur career people. you need to push back against the politics of the white house, particularly when those politics are perverse. i need to understand what is it that he did in this regard, other than deliver the bad news to her that she was being

recalled. i want to know what his views would be as it relates to russia because i have serious concerns that president putin has greater influence on president trump than anybody else in this administration. and if you're going to be the ambassador to russia, you have to stand up for u.s. interests. i don't know what his understands are with the president on this assignment, whether this is a reward for having con fformed to what the white house wanted. there's a whole host of questions. this is going to be one tough nomination hearing as far as i'm concerned. >> all right. senator bob menendez, we look forward to that. thank you so much for the time, sir. >> thank you. meantime, federal investigators are attempting to follow the money, and what they're uncovering is an intricate and tangled web of political connections. rudy giuliani's financial dealings in ukraine are now under investigation after two of his associates were indicted for allegedly violating campaign

finance laws, accused of setting up a scheme to push out the former ambassador to ukraine, marie yovonavitch. evan perez joins me now. what have we learned about the situation. >> we know rudy giuliani is at the center of all of this. some of his financial relationships with these men is now under scrutiny by the investigators who are doing this, and so, you know, of course now rudy is going to probably going to be, have to, you know, think about where does this end, right. we know from the court documents that were released yesterday that, you know, obviously there was money going from these two men, fruman, lev parnas and igor fruman, going to one congressman at the time, pete sessions who was pushing the effort to get rid of yovonavitch, and $300,000 going to the pro trump political

action committee, and of course that was going towards the president's reelection efforts. so all of this ties in very very closely between these two men, rudy giuliani, and of course the president, and we saw just in the last few days, john dowd, the president's former attorney who has, you know, told the lawmakers on capitol hill, asking for information from these two men, that they were very closely tied to the president. according to him, he says that -- >> he doesn't know who they are. >> the president says he doesn't know who they are, but, you know, john dowd, in the cause of the democrats is saying that these men were doing the work that rudy was asking them to do to help the president. in other words, tieing them so much closer to the president than i think the president or his legal team would like at this moment. again, these two guys, it's not going to be about this em. you c -- about them. you can see the way they were treated in court.

the u.s. government, prosecutors agreed to a million dollars bond, let friends sign for it. you know, gave them the ability to communicate with each other afterwards, they are being treated very nicely. it's clear they're not the end result here. they're not the goal here. it's someone else. and so who that is, i think rudy has to be worried about that. >> he may want to seek legal counsel soon. evan perez, thank you for walking through this tangled web. we're following major news out of the most as turningikish forces continue artillery attacks against the kurds, what is this doing to stability in the region. retired rear admiral, john kirby weighs in next.

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within the last hour the pentagon announced it will be deploying 1,500 extra troops to saudi arabia. the u.s. navy is unable to send a relief aircraft carrier to deter potential iranian aggression. the announcement comes days after president trump pulled u.s. troops back from northeastern syria, a move that

was highly criticized in a bipartisan fashion. pentagon correspondent, barbara starr joins me now. how does the acting secretary of defense, frame this deployment. >> well, boris, what we now know is that the u.s. behind the scenes, the u.s. military is taking a number of steps as you talked about in syria to try and protect the u.s. forces there. they have positioned a number of u.s. forces nearby, not just for iran, but close to the syrian border in a separate issue from today's deployment. close to the syrian border to be ready to evacuate u.s. troops from syria, if the fighting gets too close to them. it is not that they expect the turks to attack u.s. forces directly but as the turks advance into syria in the coming days, there is a good deal of concern u.s. troops there, about 1,000 could get caught in the cross fire, so you have this emergency evacuation plan now in place as u.s. troops are

hunkered down. one of the big concerns continues to be whether kurdish fighters will be able to maintain their positions at prisons inside syria that are guarding isis detainees and all of this gets to the very critical point of trying to get this entire situation ratcheted back, if you will. right now, the pentagon has given the turks a very detailed list of not just where u.s. forces are located but where those critical isis detention sights are. they want to make sure that the turks pull back, but until they do, that there is no possibility of the turks miscalculating and firing on u.s. troops. boris. >> yeah, we should point out, barbara, the justification that president trump gave for removing those troops is that he wanted to bring troops home. now he's deploying some 1,500 saudi arabia. barbara starr, thank you so much, reporting from the pentagon. >> sure. after a week of mixed

messages about turkey's military operation in northern syria. one senior state department official is telling cnn the president has asked the state department to try to broker a cease fire between turkey and the kurdish led fighters. fortunately the damage has been done, cnn military and diplomatic analysts retired rear admiral john kirby breaks down the consequences of president trump's decision. >> so let's take a look first at the humanitarian crisis, that is the most pressing issue right now, some 15 aid agencies are picturing a major humanitarian crisis. there's little indication that the turks or the americans have a plan for how to deal with this. you have thousands of people being displaced by fighting in northeast syria. our cnn reporting is showing disturbing p disturbing images of people having to leave their homes. they can't go to refugee camps, because those camps, erdogan wants to empty and there's

500,000 syrians living just along that border. we're going to continue to see this flow of refugees, and also going to continue to see, unfortunately, civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure in the region with very little indication that there's any international plan to come in and provide aid and sustain that aid over what could be a months long process here. the next big concern is of course the fight against isis, our syrian democratic forces who have been partnering with the united states military and going after isis inside syria have now indicated that they are going to suspend all operations against isis. another factor here is this camp down at al hall near the iraqi border where thousands of isis fight skpe fighters and their families with being held. they are still there. there's tno guarantees that the forces are going to continue to want to do that while their cam

p -- come ppadres are hit hard. to recruit, train, maybe even resource itself for further operations inside and outside the region. that's a very real concern. the counter isis fight is going to be put in some jeopardy here. next, of course, is u.s. leadership, and credibility in the region. we have already damaged that credibility with our syrian democratic forces allies. i don't think they're going to want to come to our assistance in the future anytime soon but we're also strange our relations with turkey, a major nato ally, and we are giving russia and iran much more flexibility inside syria now. this is a gift to both of these countries that want a foothold in syria for their own purposes, russia so that they can have a presence in the middle east, iran so they can build a bridge to lebanon to provide fighters there against israel and of course israel is another factor here, i can imagine that they are none too happy that we have stepped back here because we are making it easier for iran and iran is making it harder on israel, so there's a lot of

regional tensions here that we have to look at, and finally we have heard that the state department is interested in brokering a cease fire, and they are going to explore opportunities for a cease fire between the turks and kirdurds. we want the fighting to stop. it's going to be difficult to get there. we have tried to meet before, difficult to overcome. you have to have incentives for both sides to want to stop fighting, there's no indication they want to step away from this. the operation is two days old and the credibility, especially with the kurds, it's unlikely they're going to want to accept an american mediation role when we have proven we're not willing to stand behind them and have their back and prove to be a reliable ally, so while a cease fire certainly would be a good thing for everybody, including all of those thousands and thousands of civilians, it's going to be a long road for the united states -- row for the

united states to hoe. back to you. >> thank you for that. we are following a big loss for president trump today in a federal appeals court, as he fails to stop a house effort to obtain years of his tax returns. that story coming up. ( ♪ ) only tylenol® rapid release gels have laser drilled holes. they release medicine fast, for fast pain relief. tylenol®.

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we're following some breaking news right now, the treasury secretary steve mnuchin expected to take the podium at the white house briefing room. we'll go straight to him. >> giving the treasury department in consultation with himself and secretary pompeo very significant new sanctions authorities that can be targeted at any person associated with the government of turkey, any portion of the government. this will be both primary sanctions and secondary about the ongoing military offensive, and potential targeting of civilians, civilian infrastructure, ethnic or religious minorities and also the president wants to make very clear it is imperative that turkey not allow even a single isis fighter to escape.

again, i want to emphasize at this point, we are not activating the sanctions, but as the president has said, he will provide very significant authorities based upon the continuing efforts. so he will be signing this. they will be active. we will be working in consultation with the department of defense and department of state to monitoring this very quickly. we are putting financial institutions on notice that they should be careful, and that there could be sanctions. again, there are no sanctions at this time, but this will be the broadest executive authorities delegated to us. >> when you spoke with the president, was there any concern about the actions he took that led to this and can you tell us when would you put in sanctions, what would it take for you to actually activate them? >> no, i don't think he thinks his actions are what led to this. it is a complicated situation. it's a situation that we're all

concerned about. and the humanitarian situation. and there are very clear discussions that will be going on between the department of defense and the state department. i just got off the phone with the finance minister, and we will be communicating specifics that we're not going to telegraph. >> thank you, mr. secretary, can you give us an update on the china trade negotiations. >> i didn't think anybody would be asking me about that. >> is it possible we get to the end of the day today with no new specific deals agreed to or are we definitely going to see -- >> i wanted to make sure everybody knew in advance i wasn't talking about china because i didn't want to think i was calling a specific china meeting. we have had a productive two days of discussions, ambassador lig lighthouse with myself, meeting with the vice premier, i

wouldn't be surprised if he decided to invite a few of you in. i'm not going to make any other comments in advance of us meeting with the president. >> the stock market is very optimistic about what it sees at the u.s. office, is it right to be optimistic? >> the stock market is always right? >> is there reason for optimism? >> again, i'm not going to make anymore comments. i have said we have had a productive two days of discussions, we'll be making more announcements after we meet with the president. >> so far turkey has not been dissuaded by anything this administration has done or the president has said, what makes you confident that the announcement that you just made is going to change turkey's -- >> i don't agree with your premise. i'm not going to comment on specific confidential discussions that have been going on on different levels, so i don't think that's a good premise. but again, these are very powerful sanctions, we hope we don't have to use them.

but we can shut down the turkish economy if we need to. >> how does the threat of these sanctions help these u.s. allies who say they have been abandoned? >> again, it's a it's a complicated military discussion going on. the department of defense as i said, we have expectations. this is a way of making sure that we protect the humanitarian issues and others on the ground. >> mr. secretary -- >> as far as you know has any plans specifically changed about president erdogan still visiting the white house? i haven't heard anything one way or the other. >> what kind of consultations are you having with lindsey graham and those critical of the pullout of troops in syria?

>> secretary pompeo is speaking to them daily. i've spoke to the secretary multiple times a day. the message to congress is, i know people can contemplating sanctions. we're on top of sanctions. the president will use them when necessary. thank you, everybody. that was the treasury secretary steve mnuchin at the podium at the white house press briefing room announcing the president is not activating sanctions on turkey but authorizing several state officials including secretary of state mike prp pvompeo and othe use sanctions entering a safe zone in syria targeting the ypg and replacing tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of civilians. pamela, isn't this is slap on the wrist considering that president trump opened up the kurds to this attack by moving u.s. troops out of that area?

>> reporter: you heard secretary mnuchin saying he didn't believe the president believed his actions led to this and didn't specify what it could take necessarily for the sanctions to actually be put in action. he made clear today the president is following through on what he had said initially, that he was considering sanctions. they said they are getting those ready to go but not actually activating the use of those sanctions saying this is, of course, in response to the military offensive by turkey that we have seen over the last several days, where not only the kurds have been targeted but civilians as well. so steve mnuchin there said this is really, a humanitarian crisis that is going on there, but you're right. this happened after the president had pulled out u.s. troops in that area, which angered a lot of his allies including lindsey graham to name one that even happened.

several days after the turkey military offensive steve mnuchin announcing sanctions, getting them ready to go but again not specifying what it will take what threshold needs to be crossed to actually put those sanctions on turkey. he did say if they wanted to they could hurt turkey the economy but hope they don't have to do that. >> pamela brown, stand by. i want to turn our arwa damon on the border of syria and turkey as we speak. arwa, i hope you've been able to hear the news coming from the white house. the united states not activating sanctions against turkey but authorizing key figures in the administration to enact those sanctions if -- it's unclear at this point what the line is. the president hasn't been specific what line turkey had to cross for him to get involve ared in this. how is all of this, this mess the united states created, being received on the ground? >> reporter: well, a couple of things, i think, are worth pointing out and looking back and on previous statements that

had been made and turkey's reaction to them has been. first of all, turkey is not backing down no matter what it's being threatened with. trump has already said that he would destroy turkey economically if turkey crossed an undetermined red line. we don't know exactly what that is in this offensive against the kurds. the kurds in northern syria. and turkey, in response to criticism it has been getting from europe has in turned to unn refugees on to europe basically meaning that turkey would once again open the gates to the refugee route to europe from here. also we've heard even russia, president putin saying he was concerned that this turkish fsive would allow isis, we've heard from others as well, regroup and launch a number of counterattacks and reverse the gains that have been made. turkey's point in all of this

has been very simple and very straightforward. from turkey's perspective, this is how they see it and this is what their response is. they say we have waited. we have been patient from our perspective. the ypg is a terrorist organization, one and the same as the pkk. we no longer have taspatience a going it alone and we warned you about this before. >> stay safe, arwa damon. following breaking news. hope you stay with us. more news after the break.

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don't wait. get started today. to learn more about the range of aarp medicare supplement plans and their rates, call or go online today to request your free decision guide. oh, and happy birthday... or retirement... in advance. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. hi there. i'm brooke baldwin. you're watching cnn on this friday afternoon. a lot to talk ab's begin with news just in to cnn. the u.s. and chinese negotiators have put together a preliminary partial trade deal. straight to the white house to our senior white house correspondent pamela brown who has some of those breaking details. what exactly has been reached between these two sides? >> reporter: we're still trying to figure out what exactly has been reached. we don't have the