>> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. >> hello, everyone, i'm kate baldwin, thank you so much for joining me. we are looking at breaking news coming out of the house. president trump is saying it's quote not our problem if turkey moves into syria saying it's between turkey and syria, marking a total shift. it comes as vice president mike pence and secretary of state mike pompeo are headed to turkey today to ask turkey to stand down. also just as american troops withdraw from northern syria

creating a vacuum for none other than russia. cnn's jeremy dimon, this is still ongoing. what else are you hearing from the president? what else are you hearing from inside? >> reporter: as the u.s. allies and syria come under blistering attacks, the president of the united states is saying what is happening to those allies is simply not our problem. those are comments the president made moments ago in the oval office where the italian president is visiting. of course, despite what the president is saying, vice president mike pence is headed to turkey to try to broker a cease-fire as the administration decides how much of a role it wants to have in syria, particularly after the president moved to withdraw u.s. forces from there. of course, he came under blistering criticism from republican allies in congress. >> that is a part of the reason we are now seeing this u.s. effort to impose some sanctions,

to send the vice president to turk why i to try and sort this out. the president is also saying that it is time for the -- for us to go home as we talks about this withdrawal of u.s. forces in syria. of course, none of those troops who are actually pulling out, nearly a thousand troops leaving syria will remain in the region, will remain in iraq, for example, kate. so none of those forces, despite the president pulling them out of syria will be coming home to the united states. kate. >> all right. jeremy, still ongoing, we will be bringing us the headlines as well, thank you so much. in the meantime, let me bring in cnn political analyst john af r avalon and washington post columnist max booth. what do you think you hear from the president coming out of this? i don't think it needs much more context. i would say, let's wait for the tape. i don't think it's required when he says turkey is moving into syria. it's not our problem. >> i would say, kate, to use the words inconsistent and

incomprehensible would be too kind for what the president is saying and doing here. it just doesn't make any sense. now remember that over the last several days, the spin from the white house has been we didn't give a green light to turkey for their invasion of northern syria, even though trump did with the sunday night conversation with erdogan saying the turks are moving in, we're moving out. oh they've imposed sanctions on turkey the last few days. now president trump is doing another back flip saying it's not our problem. this fight between turkey and the kurds. it doesn't make our sense. u.s. credibility is declining by the hour as we don't have any policy that anybody can understand. >> look. it's beyond declining. the president is actively undermining it wanted and we've seen this movie before. the president says something impulsive that contradicts american policy and strategy. the administration tries to cirque tell wagons, explain it and clean it up. right now you got the vice

president and secretary of state flying to meet 'ered wasn't saying they need him to stand down. quote. the president in an offhanded conversation in the oval says it's not our problem after he's defaulting to his isolationist instinct write is one interpretation or a willful abandonment of american leadership. it's not only about strategy, it's lives on the inline right now in real time. >> does it make sense? because you said impulsive. i hear you. we've seen this movie before. but this has been going on for days now because of the green light. and he's been, it's almost like he's walked up to the line, talked off the ledge, walk up again, talked off the ledge. he's got his top people flying over there to try to, if you don't care turkey is going in, why are you sending mike pompeo and mike pence over there to tell turk why i to stop? i mean -- from and why are you imposing sanctions on turk why i? what are you trying to achieve? why are you punishing them?

it doesn't make any sense, this is a disaster that gross worse by the day. this is such a self inflicted disaster. >> with north korea we talked about the madman theory a million times over. this is not a madman theory type of thing. >> this is madman behavior, there is no way to make sense, to rationalize this, because he very impulsively decided to give, let erdogan do what he wants without consulting with the pentagon, without consulting with his aides and now he and the rest of the administration are trying to clean up except trump's message doesn't make any sense, as john was saying, one minute he's fine and the next minute he's imposing sanctions. >> his impulse is to jump over the ledge. he keeps getting talked over the ledge by professionals. he made this without consulting our allies. >> he made this december in december. >> he was talked off it and re-engaged. this is his impulse, an

isolationist impulse to remove american leadership overseas. >> that creates a giant vacuum and emboldens four folks that are adversaries, russia, syria, iran and isis. those are the benefits by this withdrawal policy by the president. >> stand by, barbara starr is joining us from the pentagon. obviously, there is no reaction from the pentagon to what the president just said. but if general, what have you been hearing about the withdrawal of troops, the reaction what this means for the relationship with the long-standing relationship with kurdish allies on the ground, what are you hearing from there? >> reporter: well, look, it starts from the standpoint the kurdish allies on the ground the u.s. was fighting with were in the front line the key to defeating isis. the president has just told, i don't see how you can believe any differently, the commander-in-chief has just told the world, americans, u.s. troops, u.s. military families none of it matters. it is hard to see how a

commander-in-chief gives that message to the u.s. troops. remember, there are still hundreds of u.s. troops in very considerable danger inside syria in a very high threatened environment until the pentagon in the coming days can, in fact, get them all out of there. there are a number of hostile parties, the turks, the syrians regime, syrian-backed -- turkish backed militias tied to al qaeda and isis. all these people are moving around the battlefield. and there are a decreasing number of u.s. military troops, a very significant challenge to keep them safe until american, the americans can get out of there. a bit mystifying to me, at least, why an american commander-in-chief didn't start with, stay away from our troops, they will be kept safe. don't mess with them. i think it's fair to say the pentagon might have expected a very strong public message from the president of the united states that he has their back, a

very verbal message that he will see to it that they are all kept safe until they get out of there. i'm not sure i heard those words from the commander-in-chief this morning. so that is certainly one thing to look sat right now. you are seeing a number of special forces soldiers who have served in the region express dismay. because there is another concept as a commander-in-chief. >> that is the honor of the u.s. military. they made a commitment to the kurds to fight with them. to stand by them and they are not being permitted to do that. the person has made a different decision. the pentagon obeys the president's decision. but there is still a considerable sense that something did happen here that may tarnish the views of many troops about the honor that they take so seriously. kate. >> it's so important and critical, barbara, thank you always for reminding us of that one more line coming out of the

oval office, again this is ongoing. we will get the tape when it does play back. the president also says here, barbara, we are not a policing agent. it is time for us to go home. i think it's one of those things to remind folks that the kurds aren't just some folks. the kurds are a fighting force who have been a u.s. ally on the ground there fighting on the u.s.' behalf against isis with american equipment for years and done so at a great cost. >> reporter: they have do so at just a such a considerable cost, losing some, i think, the round statistic that these are people in their lives 11,000 fighters. >> yeah. >> reporter: let's remember where this all started. it was because of isis. the president of the united states has to make a decision. does he want to walk away from the spire middle east? is that really what he is saying? in which case a lot of people might ask, why the president has

been chosen in recent weeks to put a considerable number of u.s. troops into the middle east for what he considers the defense of saudi arabia and its oil fields against iranian aggression? look, you are either in a region or you are not. you either see that there are vital security interests for the world and the united states or you do not. and leave it to people a lot smarter than me to come to whatever conclusion they see. it would be a very significant decades long shift of american foreign policy, national security policy, to say that the middle east just simply doesn't matter. >> exactly. barbara, thank you so much. as are you hearing more, please come back. we will be getting more coming out of the white house as well. at this moment i want to go over to the region. let's go to cnn's arwa damon. she is on the syrian-turkish border. we were planning on speaking to you anyway what you are seeing on the ground there. i will see what the impact will be when they hear the words from

the commander-in-chief of the united states saying that it's not our problem if turk question goes into syria after all this time. >> reporter: you know, i think, kate, the kurds have been so bitterly gutted and broken by everything that has transpired that hearing that is going to be another knife into their back, but it's one that right now they probably already have grown to expect and that is exactly why we very quickly saw the kurds turn to the regime. they went to damascus and they basically had to plead with damascus and with the russians to move regime forces into northern syria, anyaer that the regime was not entirely controlling. although, there was an interesting relationship that was still ongoing between the kurds, between the kurdish administration and northern syria and damascus. those ties were never fully

severed. but the regime has nod had its forces in these areas for years right now. if we step back and look at exactly what was caused by the u.s. first withdrawing from the border area that turkey intends to capture and then announcing it was fully withdrawing from northern syria. who is the winner in all of this? it's very clear. it is russia. russia would outfire a single shot, has managed to get america out of iraq. the regime now is controlling and moving to controlled territory. it has not controlled in years. turkey might not ultimately get the full aim of the objectives of this operation and that might be a bit of a bitter pill. but, ultimately, it will be able to settle for a no -- for no ypg, no kurdish presence along it's border. so when we look at all of this it's russia that is the playmaker and the kingmaker, not

america. >> that's already what we are seeing happening. we're already seeing video from russian state -- russian tv of russian troops walking around in american military bases in syria right now. this is happening as we speak. let's see what these next things make. any minute we are expecting the president, the tape to come in from the president speaking, clearly saying much more than this one very significant headline coming out. we're going to bring that. we're going to turn that tape around as soon as it comes in. we'll bust out of the break if we have to, to bring it to you. i believe this is a critical moment to hear exactly what he says. we'll be right back after this. with amazing amenities like movie theaters, exercise rooms and swimming pools, public cafes, bars and bistros even pet care services. and there's never been an easier way to get great advice. a place for mom is a free service that pairs you with a local advisor

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did he say he was not going to do a cease-fire? >> he did not say that at all. he is meeting today with our representatives. mike pence is leaving today. we needed him to take an extra day for security reasons, but mike is leaving. mike pompeo will be meeting also. she here right now with us. he will be joining the meeting. we have a lot of great people over there we'll see. in the meantime, our soldiers are not in harm's way as they shouldn't be as two countries fight over land. >> that has nothing to do with us. and the kurds are much safer right now. but the kurds know how to fight and as i said, they're not angels. they're not angels.

you take a look. you have to go back and take a look. but they fought with us. we paid a lot of money for them to fight with us. and that's okay. and they did well when they fought with us. they didn't do so well when they didn't fight with us. when i refused to allow the americans a year-and-a-half ago to fight with the kurds against iraq. i said, wait a minute, this country, stupidly spent a fortune on fighting war with around iraq, nobody knows how they spent it. but they spent actually we're in the middle east now for $8 trillion if you can believe that stupidity. but in iraq, we're in for probably 5.5 trillion. so they're telling me, wait a minute, we spent five.5 trillion fighting in iraq and with iraq. now we're supposed to spend money to fight with the kurds against iraq. i said, no thank you. so what happens is when i says, we're not going to fight with the kurds. the kurds left. they didn't want to fight against iraq, which right now

isn't the greatest fighting force in the world. >> that happened twice. the kurds actually are pulling back substantially from turkey and syria is pulling in. syria probably will have a partner of russia, whoever they may have. i wish them all a lot of luck. russia was involved in afghanistan. it used to be called the soviet union, you no it's called russia for a reason. they've lost so much money in afghanistan that they had to downsize. a very big downsizing. so if russia wants to get involved with syria, that's really up to them. they have a problem with turkey. they have a problem at the border. it's not our border. we shouldn't be losing lives over. again we only had 28 soldiers, 26, 28. i got all different numbers. it ends up being 28, between the 26, 28. two people and they're fully accounted for. so that's the story. it's very simple, and we're watching and we're negotiating and we're trying to get turkey

to do the right thing because we'd like to stop wars regardless, whether americans are in or whether they're not in, we want to see wars stopped, it's a very important thing. on a humanitarian basis, we want to see that happen, steve. >> how will you be able arrange a cease-fire? >> yes, the answer was, no, not at all. [ speaking foreign language ]

[ speaking foreign language ]

so our view of the situation on the turkish border with syria to be for the united states strategically brilliant. our soldiers are out of there. our soldiers are totally safe. they've got to work it out. maybe they can do it without fighting. syria is protecting the kurds. that's good. we are -- and by the way, every player hates isis. everybody we are talking about. syria more than us. russia more than us. they've done a big number on russia and we're over there fighting isis, but they're over there fighting isis, too, they can handle it. and they should handle it we can fight our own battles on our own territories, but you have a lot of countries over there that hate isis as much as we do. in some cases probably more.

so they can take care of isis. we have them captured. the united states cap cured them. some were released just for effect to make us look a little bit like, oh, gee, we got to get right back in there. but you have a lot of countries over there that have power and that hate isis very much as much as we do. so i think we're in a very strategically good position. i know fake news doesn't make it look that way. we removed all of our as we said 50 soldiers but much less than 50 soldiers. they are now in a very safe location heading into an even safer location and we will help negotiate. we have tremendously powerful sancti sanctions. our country has become economic ally much more powerful than it ever was. we picked up trillions and trillions in worth. the market was up big yesterday. it will be up big today it looks like. the trade deal with china having

to do what we have done with the financial services with banks, with the farmers, has been incredible, far greater than anyone ever thought. i agree it hasn't been papered yet. it's being papered. in the meantime as you know many times china has already started buying. they want to buy. they want to make a deal. >> that i have to make a deal. their economy has been hurt very badly by what we've done and by the tariffs we've charged. we've taken in tremendous amounts of tariffs. a small portion we've given to the farmers, which is more than made up for what they've lost. [ speaking foreign language ]

[ speaking foreign language ]

and because of the new found economic power of the united states because of the facted that we've made so many trillions, many, many trillions of dollars in worth of the united states to i call it the new found economic power, if my opponent would have won, china would right now be the most powerful economic nation in the world. right now, they're not even close. if they're smart, we never will get close. but it depends on who sits in this chair. but the united states has tremendous economic power. far more power than playing around with having a few soldiers shooting each other at the border. you have a few soldiers killing

each other at the border. the power we have with sanctions and tariffs is far greater than what we are talking about w. that being said, our military is being completely rebuilt. much of the equipment has been delivered. we spent two.5 billion dollars delivering it over the past three years and our military power is at the highest level and our economic power is at the highest level. i'd always rather use economic power than military power because people are getting killed with economic power. okay. >> [ inaudible question ] [ speaking foreign language ]

[ speaking italian ]

before the members of the press introduced topics that have been discussed this morning, president trump was talking about the possible implementation of tariffs on european products following the whole affair, of course, that's a topic we will be certainly discussing this morning and i do hope we can come up with a cooperative-based approach and a frank discussion. so i think we can avoid retaliation between the two parties. italy and i, myself, personally have always felt that it's better to talk things through, to find a common solution, to find some sort of understanding from one another's stances because the alternative to that would be tariffs followed by retaliation, followed by further

tariffs. we also have to understand that we are waiting for a solution of the boeing affair as well, so, of course, within the spirit of the atlantic alliance, within the spirit of the friendship we've always had, i do feel it would be best to discuss these things and understand one another. >> well, clearly, there can't be retaliation. because this was an award we got because of the fact that the european union took advantage of past presidents and this was an award we got for the unfair treatment given to the united states by the european union. so there should be no retaliation. this was getting us even. because $7.5 billion worth of things happened, bad things happened, unfair things happened to the united states by the european union. so this was just getting us back to even. and nobody else but me would have gotten that $7.5 billion back for the taxpayers of the united states. [ speaking italian ]

we saw john bolton said rudy guiliani threw a hand grenade the way he was acting and are you concerned that bolton could be called to testify to your impeachment? >> no, john bolton. i got along with him. some people didn't. some people didn't like john bolton. i actually got along with him pretty well. it didn't work out. i don't know if he was getting along with rudy guiliani, rudy guiliani was seeking out corruption, mostly in the 2016 election. there was tremendous corruption, i think even you would admit that. the election was disgraceful for

what happened and what happened to me and what happened to the republicans. and that continues with nancy pelosi and with schiff, adam schiff got caught making up statements that he said i said that i didn't say, which is fraud. it's purely fraudulent. so it continues. so rudy was a great prosecutor. he was the great mayor in the history of new york as far as i can see. i think he's pretty muching a knowledge what he did with crime and everything else. when he saw what was going on with our election of 2016, the election i won, but the election that was absolutely kruptd by things that took place in government. we'll see what happens. the ig report is going to come out soon. we'll see what happens. i think people. i know nothing about it in terms of the report. i'm waiting for the report like everybody else, but i predict you will see things that you don't even believe the level of corruption, whether it's comey, whether it's struyk and his lover paige. whether it's so many other

people, mccabe, whether it's president obama, himself, let's see whether or not it's president obama. let's see whether or not they put that in. wait a minute, let's see whether or not. so rudy saw that. i can tell you rudy guiliani because he was very, very incensed at the horrible things that he saw as are many people. okay. and many republicans and the republicans have been treated very unfairly by the democrats. i'll say this. paul ryan would never issue a subpoena. i don't say right or wrong. he wouldn't do it. he had too much respect for our country. nancy pelosi hand them out like cookies. everybody, i don't even know these people, people there to testify. i don't know who they are. i never eastern heard of some of them. most of them. but i have all these people teske. then they leak out. they don't say the good parts. they only say the bad parts. we're not allowed to representation. we're not allowed to lawyers. we're not allowed to anything. the democrats have treated the republicans very, very badly. fortunately, we have a good

strong, smart republicans. but they never dealt, john, with the democrats the what i the democrats deal -- and the republicans won't forget it. because what they're doing, what the democrats are doing to this nation is a disgrace what they have done, the disrespect that they've shown to the presidency and it will happen to them. because if the republicans have the house, which i think they will, because of impeachment, i think because of this nonsense impeachment, it's based on a perfect phone conversation, an absolutely perfect phone conversation with the president of ukraine. a friend of mine who is a top lawyer read it, this is perfect. you didn't say did you know this was going to happen? i thought it was going to happen? there were many people listening to that conversation. if i speak to a leader to the president of italy, i know there are many intelligence people on the line with my understanding and knowledge. i don't know exactly who. i assumed there are many people. fortunately they had

transcribers, stenographers people that do this for a living on the line because we have an exact copy of the report of the call. so, the call was put out immediately when i started hearing about the whistleblower or the whistleblower's report was totally wrong. the whistleblower didn't know what he was talking about or given false information or was even worse than that. now all of a sudden schiff doesn't want to talk to the whistleblower. now all of a sudden quid pro quo doesn't matter because now they see in the call there was no quid pro quo. so rudy was seeking after corruption. i think there is nothing wrong with seeking out corruption. do you have steve? >> he's registered as a foreign lobbyist. >> i don't know what he did. >> that you have to ask, excuse me, no, you have to ask rudy those questions. don't ask me. rudy was one of many people that was incensed at the corruption that stoops during that election. pure corruption. for instance, i still ask the fbi, where is the server?

how come the fbi never got the server from the dnc? where is the server? i want to see the server. let's see what's on the server. so the server, they say, is held by a company whose primary ownership individual is from ukraine. i'd like to see the server. i think it's very important for this country to see the server! nobody wants to see it. the media never wants to see it. but i tell you, republicans want to see it! so republicans aren't treated well. here's the problem. i think we're going to take the house based on what's happening with the impeachment stuff. and the republicans can do the same thing in reverse if they ever have it. i hope it's going to be a long time. because nobody's done a better job with the economy, with our military. i rebuilt the military. our economy is the best it's ever been. we have numbers that just came out where not including taxes, the median household income for

the average american has increased $5,000 in a very short time since i have been president. nobody's ever heard of numbers like that. so people want to find out why was it so corrupt during that election? and i want to find out more than anybody else. steve. go ahead. >> one of the things that has been exposed by the kurds situation as many as 50 million weapons are at the airbase in turkey. how confident are you of those weapons' safety? >> we are confident and we have a great airbase there a powerful airbase. that airbase can take any place. it's a large, powerful airbase. turkey so people remember, turkey is a nato member. we're supposed to get along with our nato members and turkey is a nato member. do people want us to start shooting at a nato member? that would be a first. that's all involved having to do with nato.

>> -- how do you anticipate that? >> i will say this i think she's done this country a tremendous disservice. she's created a phony witch hunt. the first one failed. they're all failing. this run with is absolutely crazy. all you have to do is read the transcript of the call. read the transcript. this is an open and shut simple case. they're desperate, because they know they're going to lose the election. they're desperate to do something. because they know they will lose the election. this administration has created the strongest economy in the history of our country. we have the greatest stock market. we had over 100 times, we broke the record for stockmarket. peoples -- if you look at people's stocks, their 401ks, if you look at anything you want to look at, they're far better off now than they ever have been in this country.

record stockmarkets. enough, stockmarket is not just rich people. it's all people. because all people own in the stockmarkets. new york stock exchange. all of them. they're at record highs. nobody's ever done what we've done. so they're playing games. they figure they can't win the election. so maybe we can find some ground. we'll get somebody that trump never met. maybe they'll say something bad about trump. if they do really bad, maybe it can stick a little bit. i don't think it's going to work. they've treated the republican party with great disrespect. okay. thank you very much, thank you, everyone. thank you. my meeting with the family was really -- it was beautiful in a certain way. they did not want to meet with the person in question, but we had a very good meeting. they're very nice people and we met with the full group, with four people actually you know how it's all broken up. the meeting took place right

here at about 6:00 last night and it was very sad, to be honest. she lost and they lost their son, i believe it was going down the wrong way because that happens in europe. you go to europe and the roads are opposite. and it's very tough if you are from the united states, you do make that decision to make a right turn, when you are supposed to make a left turn. the roads are opposite. and she said that's what happened. >> that happens to a lots of people, by the way. she says that's what happened. she was in the room right out there. we met right here in this area and i offered to bring the person in question in and they weren't ready for it. but i did offer. i spoke with boris. he asked me if i'd do that i did it. unfortunately they wanted to meet with her. unfortunately when we had everybody together, they decided not to meet. perhaps they had lawyers involved by that time. i don't know exactly.

i know the people were lovely. they were very nice and they were you know desperately sad. >> families indicated at one point they were interested in meeting with her? >> i thought they were based on what i saw. they wanted to meet. now they say they only want to meet if they're in the uk and that will be up to them. but i did meet the family and i expressed condolences on behalf hoff our countf our country. thank you very much, everyone. [ inaudible question ]. >> thank you, everybody. >> wait, wait. there is a great question i am being asked. this is maybe the greatest question i have been asked for a long time. please put those mics over here, say it again. >> you are growing the biggest economy in the world, are you willing to give italy a break on tariffs? >> we are looking at it will i very strongly. as you know the 7.5 is to be divided the way which say, we've divided it up. italy has got a problem with the

way we've divided it up. they say they had much less to do with it. germany had more to do with it and france had more to do with it as an example. we will look at that more strongly, ambassador light haaser is here. oo lighthizer is here. i love that question. >> he may love that question. he didn't love much else. president trump there with the president of italy. you may never have known, that's what happens when they're in the officer these days. president trump in a permanent state of lashing out against congress for the impeachment inquiry, lashing out against the media. lashing out notably against the kurds, not lashing out on this major policy towards syria, not lashing out towards russia, not lashing out toward turkey despite their moves in the region right now. let's get back to it at the table with everybody here. here are a couple lines i would like to throw out there. then you guys can give me what you guys would like to say about

it. not only did the president say as we had talked about at the top not our problem if turkey goes into syria, also saying i wish them luck to syria, bashar al-assad and putin in their work now in syria, and also saying that it's a strategically brilliant to be removing u.s. troops now from the border. >> strategically brilliant. that's how the president of the united states is describing the ongoing slaughter of our kirdish allies right now and the withdrawal of american power from a region of the world which has gone infinitely more volatile. he is wishing russia and syria good luck as we remove ours from that region entirely and don't forget the larger backdrop. it's not just the betrayal of our allies and abandonment of honor, a word he has only passing familiarity with. the question remains as arwa damon said before, why does the

president keep advancing vladimir putin's foreign policy? because they're the big winners in the region as we shore up saudi arabia. >> yeah. when the president says he thinks it's strategically brilliant the situation at the turkish border and what he's decided to do. that is, obviously, not true according to forget anybody at this table, according to all republicans who have been speaking out against him. i mean, even as he was talking, max, reporters on capitol hill ted barrett caught up with john thune, one of the republicans in senate leadership, asked about the policy and john thune said, the policy being deployed currently is a big mistake. >> right. it's not strategically brilliant. it's a strategic disaster. i mean, you also had lindsey graham, who is generally a sycophant for trump saying if there is a revival of isis, trump will own it. that's what's going on here. one of the other things that struck me is trump has not only

betrayed our kurdish allies. he is adding insult to injury, he's attacking the kurd, oh, they're not angels, completely false suggesting that the kurds are deliberately releasing isis prisoners to force -- >> that's the second time he's sucked it. >> that's a lie. he sets them up to be slaughtered. then he insults them. this is why so many military are ashamed today who worked with the kurds to see what is going on here. at the same time he is insulting our kurdish allies. he is giving a green light to turkey. he is very anti-american right now. he is giving a green light to russia, which is our enemy. let's not forget another country he didn't mention, but iran. because when he is talking about inviting the syrian regime, if they can have it. he's taking over there it's not just the syrian regime. it's not just the turks. it's also the iranians. he claims to be opposed to iranian power. but this is the greatest gift

that the iranians can possibly get. it's the greatest gift the russians can get. it's a huge proceed to the isis campaign. it's a disaster for american interests in the middle east. >> i will wonder this aloud. i know i have said it to you guys. i wonder where the advice he is getting that this is strategically brilliant, when you know pompeo and pence are headed over there to get turk why i to stand down, when you know that every republican that he apparently listens to once in a while is saying that this is a mistake. a imwondering whe -- i'm wonder where the advice is that this is so strategically brilliant. one thing that reminds and bears repeating, if we want to be really crass about it, it's not just about the kurds. it's not just about that america's word means something. it started because it was about isis and it was about the threat of terrorism, which is a very real threat and a very real concern about the resurgence of that i mean you've worked on terrorism cases. that was a large part of your

career, jennifer. this is devolving in very real time in a very real what i. >> so what struck me the most, kate, was this, when he said, russia hates isis. they can handing it. i mean the notion that our president, first of all himself knows nothing about national security, about the men and women, hundreds of thousands that spend their careers and their life fighting terrorism, the prosecutors. the people at the cia and fbi. he doesn't listen to any of those people. not only that, he is basically saying russia can do it. we are not trusting our president to fight terrorism. we're trusting the russians to fight our terrorism battle. >> that is shocking and appalling. i couldn't really believe it. >> one thing among the fact checks. i actually want to get back to the pentagon. barbara starr is there. one thing i will read a part of the quote, barbara, the president said our soldiers are not in harm's way. and they shouldn't be. and he says that they now have been pulled back and they are no longer in harm's way s. that

what are you hearing from defence officials? >> well, no is the simple answer. look, several days ago they pulled back a small number of troops from right up against the border with between turkey and syria. he's not very clear, no surprise, programs, about what he is actually talking about. those troops have been pulled back. but right now as we're talking, there are hundreds of u.s. troops in syria. they're very much at risk. we know here at the pentagon job number one right now, the top priority, every person is taking a second seat to take those troops out of syria, obeying the president's withdrawal order and get them out safely. as we counted a little while ago, you have a lot of players on the battlefield, the russians, turkles, syrian regime, isis, al qaeda, militias on the road, all sorts of characters and there is a good deal, a very serious concern right now at the highest levels of the pentagon that they can

get all of those u.s. troops out of theroe, out of harm's way an get them i just quickly wanted to mention this notion that the president saying that others can handle america's counterterrorism fight, you have a lot of special operations forces right now not putting their name to it, but the ones who have prosecuted the war on terror speaking out about their dismay, to put it politely, about what is happening. it should not be ignored that this is extraordinary. special operations forces don't speak out. they are the quiet warriors. they obey the orders. they go about their business. it should concern pentagon leadership and everybody, when you see troops beginning to question the president's orders even on background, that is

something to pay attention to, because this very concept, american troops fight with their partners on the ground, they don't fight alone, they give their word. they have an honor code to keep their word and the president has ordered them out and sort of said it just doesn't matter anymore. >> barbara, thank you so much. i really, really appreciate the perspective. there will be more happening because today the president is set to be meeting with top congressional leaders about the issue of syria. let us see what this afternoon brings, is one thing i would say. i would just guess that there's going to be a lot more to come this afternoon after what the president just said. he also talked brief ly i guess relatively speaking about the impeachment inquiry. it kind of went into a greatest hits, guys. i don't know, i was maybe a little bit surprised that he went to such great lengths to

defend rudy giuliani, who is under investigation right now by the southern district over his work in ukraine. >> that's right. there's been a lot of back and forth here over the past few days. looked like he was letting rudy go, sending him under the bus. now he seems to be back to defending rudy although not on anything apart from this one thing that he's talking about, which is the gathering of the dirt on the supposed origins of the 2016 election investigation. he's really only defending rudy in so far as he's saying rudy was gathering information to vindicate that the investigation into me was wrongful. yes, a defense, but a limited defense. >> his mike was off but when donald trump started talking about the server again, john

avalon almost started levitating. >> tom bossert asaid said it's totally discredited theory and he went there again. >> why? >> the president's attention to some non-facts, some conspiracy theories is a fascinating thing, right? one of the flow-throughs is an ornate defense of russian interests. you ask who's advising him on this stuff? why does his gut keep leading him in russian directions? you hear russia didn't interfere in the election. no, no, the only interference and collusion was on the ukraine and he went to this secret service. it's all tied up in this investigators report that he is very invested in. that's the context in which he's defending rudy giuliani, despite the mounting legal troubles the former mayor is presenting.

what's fascinating is the way that donald trump and this entire conspiracy theory is designed really to absolve russia for interfering in our election and to deflect and project it on our allies in cra ukraine. >> when the president says the whole point of focusing on ukraine was to root out corruption, he has yet to name another person that should be called out for corruption that isn't a political rival of his that they're investigating. when asked directly about it, he simply says "i'll have to look into it." there's big news coming out of the gm and union strike. a proposed tentative deal has been reached between gm and the united auto workers after a five-week strike. we're going to go live to detroit to hear the latest, next. wow! that's ensure max protein, with high protein and 1 gram sugar. it's a sit-up, banana! bend at the waist!

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general motors has reached a tentative agreement with union workers after a five-week strike. vanessa, what's in the deal? what are you hearing? >> reporter: yeah, this deal between uaw and gm is a long time coming. as you said, nearly five weeks out here, the striking workers in sun and cold and now in a little bit of sleet. this is such welcome news to

them. in this deal, we know that it had been stalled out for a couple weeks. as soon as the gm ceo mary barra got into the room with union negotiators this week, it started to move this deal forward. we know the union had said in the past they would not sign any deal unless a couple things were in there. one, they wanted to make sure their temporary union workers with gm would become full-time employees. we know that has been wrapped up. also, the issue of mexico. they've wanted to make sure that gm would commit to moving some of their product lines back from mexico to the united states. we don't know specifics, but we know that the union has been insistent on that and said they would not sign anything that didn't include some kind of movement back from mexico to the united states. next steps now, the union's top officials have flown in here to detroit and they will be voting on this tentative agreement here tomorrow. once that vote happens and it's

approved, they will then take it back to their members across the country. people that are standing here behind me on this picket line and around the country hoping to ratify this agreement and make it final. >> thank you so much for your great reporting on this. thank you all so much for joining me today for another wild roller coaster. "inside politics" with john king starts right now. thank you, kate. welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. president trump says turkey's assault on the kurds in syria is, quote, not our problem. one of his biggest senate defenders says if one result of this mess is an isis resurgence, then the president will have blood on his hands. plus, word of a tentative deal to end the longest auto workers strike in history.

gm and