Charged with an Illegal Campaign finance in which they are said to have funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars at least some of which was from a secret russian source that the indictment doesnt spell out. Those donations were directed to the main superpac supporting President Trumps Reelection Campaign and lots and lots of republican politicians and campaign groups. As spelled out in the indictment of lev and igor, one of the things they leveraged with those Illegal Campaign donations was an effort by texas republican congressman Pete Sessions to pile on americas ambassador in ukraine, to get Marie Yovanovitch fire from her ambassadorship and brought back to the United States. Congressman Pete Sessions, according to the indictment, basically took those donations that turned out to be illegal donations. He then took the meeting with the guys who had funneled him those illegal donation, and then thereafter he wrote the letter they wanted, demanding the resignation of americas ambassador in ukraine. Well, after their initial Court Appearance on thursday morning in the same Federal District where Dulles Airport is, the Eastern District of virginia, lev and igor, mr. Parnas and mr. Fruman were held in custody in anticipation of their formal arraignment in federal court in new york city later this week, on thursday of this week. But now the wall street journal is reporting tonight that the two men have met their bail conditions. They apparently have each put up a Million Dollars. And so they are sprung. They are no longer in the federal jail where they had been being held since late last week. Theyre out on bail. According to the bail conditions, they are out wearing active gps ankle bracelets. Also according to the bail condition sheets which we obtained tonight, they are not allowed to have any contact with each other about their case unless theyre in the presence of counsel. Again, both men are expected in federal court in new york on thursday to face these charges. But that wall street journal reporting tonight about them getting out on bail as of this evening, that appears in this article in the journal about the president s personal attorney. Not that one. That one is already in federal prison. Its the next one, Rudy Giuliani who has professed over the past several days to being just bewildered by these now multiple reports that the u. S. Attorneys office he used to run back in the 80s, the federal Prosecutors Office in the Southern District of new york, there have been these reports that Rudy Giuliani himself is now under investigation by his old office. He has professed to be just flabbergasted by these reports. He has no idea what that even means. Well, multiple news organizations have now reported that in the wall street journal advances that story considerably tonight with the news that not only are federal prosecutors in the Southern District of new york investigating mayor giuliani, in part for his alleged role in the conspiracy that prosecutors allege against lev and igor, his associates, who are just out tonight on Million Dollars bail, but according to the wall street journal, prosecutors are also in addition to looking at whether he was part of that conspiracy that has already been charged, theyre also reportedly looking at his business dealings in the nation of ukraine, including his finances, his meetings, and his work for a city mayor there. This investigation in sdny reportedly includes investigators looking at mr. Giulianis bank records. And while Rudy Giulianis bank records i imagine might be a sort of scary place to get lost, the journal does spell out a little of why federal investigators might want to be looking in those records. For example, the journal tonight describes a 2017 deal that mr. Giulianis Security Company did with a city in the prorussian eastern part of ukraine. So this was a contract giulianis company did with the city administration, according to the journal, to, quote, streamline municipal emergency services. Okay. Weird thing about this contract that giuliani signed up for with that city is that even though that contract was with that city, it wasnt the city that paid him for it. The entity that paid Rudy Giuliani and his Security Firm for that contract was just a guy, a guy pictured here with president donald trump. His name is pavel fuchs. His name has surfaced time and again, President Trumps reported business dealings with russia. He keeps turning up in those reports, because pavel fuchs had tried to negotiate a deal with donald trump in moscow to put the trump name on a new trump tower in moscow city. And then a few years later, once donald trump is president , Rudy Giuliani signs a deal that on paper look likes some city in Eastern Ukraine is hiring him to do something, but in reality, its that same guy who was trying to negotiate a trump tower deal with donald trump in moscow that guy is now just sending checks to rudy and making it look like its a city contract . Why did they do it that way . Why did that happen . Do you think the city of kharkiv in Eastern Ukraine ever got its streamlined emergency Municipal Services out of this deal . So we will see where this is going, but the president s personal attorney, the other president s personal attorney, the one who is not in federal prison is reportedly now reported by mult approximately news sources now to be under serious federal investigation. And not to put too fine a point on it, if you kind oft put together this array, youve now got the president s first personal lawyer in federal prison, in part for committing Campaign Finance felonies that federal prosecutors say the president not only participated in, he directed the commission of those felonies. He is individual 1 in those crimes. The president s subsequent personal lawyer is himself reportedly under investigation by that same federal Prosecutors Office that put Michael Cohen in jail. The president is in the middle of impeachment proceedings for having tried to enlist a foreign power to help him against the democrats in 2020. Rudy giuliani, the president s personal lawyer, who is under investigation for a number of different strands of this scheme related to what the president is now being impeached for with the help of a clown car pull of up standing citizens. Rudy giuliani was working on this scheme for the president to try to get help from this foreign country in this next election with the help of lev and igor, who are now indicted for allegedly having funneled illegal russian Campaign Donations to russian politicians, including the protrump superpac. Giuliani was also reportedly working with the Campaign Chairman who is now a federal prisoner to help put together this scheme for which the president is now being impeached. Giuliani is also using material that he obtained from dimitri fertash where he is wanted on felony charges related to a gigantic bribery scheme. Federal prosecutors call mr. Firtash an Upper Echelon associate of russian organized crime. And so that looks to be kind of the president s team here. This appears to have been, like, his squad as he was trying to pull off this operation for which he has now been caught in which ukraine would help him versus the democrats and joe biden specifically for 2020. So thats the president s side of the impeachment proceeding right now. Obviously, this is going great for him. Who wouldnt want to be on this team . If youre having a hard time keeping track of the president s squad for this operation, it is sort of easy to remember if you just consider them by their circumstances. The guys on the bottom are out on bail. The guy in the middle on the top is fighting extradition. The guy on the top in the right is already in prison, and the by on the top in left is under investigation by the u. S. Attorneys office he used to run, currently having his banking records read through by federal prosecutors. Thats who the president was working on this thing. So clearly, as the more we learn about it, the better this is looking, right . A key part of this scheme these guys wither trying to pull off with President Trump involved ousting the u. S. Ambassador to ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch. She was pulled out of the embassy, apparently with the consent of secretary of state mike pompeo in the spring of this year. Ambassador yovanovitch testified on friday that she was told to get out of ukraine, quote, on the next plane. In her Opening Statement before her ninehour deposition on friday, she spelled out how the number two official in the state department told her it was on the president s orders that she was being recalled from her ambassadorship, even though she was told she had done nothing wrong. If that in fact was the conclusion of the state department, that she had done nothing wrong and was being pulled out anyway just because the president wanted her out, it is all the more remarkable that the secretary of state mike pompeo we now know was sitting there on the call between President Trump and president zelensky of ukraine when President Trump apropos of nothing brought up the u. S. Ambassador to ukraine and told the ukrainian president that she was, in his words, bad news. President trump then threatened the former u. S. Ambassador, saying she was, quote, going to go through some things. Like pompeo sitting there on that call, listening to that. Last week a Senior State Department official Michael Mckinley, a Senior Adviser to mike pompeo, resigned from the department in protest over pompeos failure to support state department personnel, particularly that ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch. We now know that pompeo not only had her fire on the president s orders, he did sit there silently while the president threatened her on a call to a foreign leader, even though he and his own department knew she had done nothing wrong. It is hard to imagine that mike pompeo gets to stay on as secretary of state in these circumstances. Well, tonight you can add plus one to that, because just before getting on the air tonight, we learned that that recently resigned Senior Adviser to mike pompeo, Michael Mckinley, the one who reportedly stepped down in protest of pompeos behavior, Michael Mckinley is now scheduled to testify in the impeachment inquiry against President Trump. His deposition is scheduled for the day after tomorrow. At the same time we learned that, we also learned that a current defense Department Official, Deputy Assistant secretary of defense laura cooper has also been scheduled to testify in the impeachment inquiry on friday of this week. We know that part of her area of part of her remit within the Defense Department involved both russia and ukraine. We dont yet know what the impeachment inquiries want laura cooper to testify about, but she reportedly has been called. And we know that the white house has been trying to stop all sorts of different people from giving testimony as part of these impeachment proceedings, both current officials and former officials. But whatever theyre trying to stop people from testifying no longer seems to be working. Ambassador yovanovitchs testimony on friday would have seemed to have been a key breakthrough on that point. Early this morning we saw fiona hill arrive at the capitol for her testimony. She was the senior official at the National Security council inside the white house with responsibility for russia and ukraine. That means she was President Trumps top adviser on russia and ukraine. She was in that role at the trump National Security counsel when ambassador yovanovitch got forced out of her job in april. Peter baker and nicholas sfandos expressed strenuous opposition to being fired. Considering yovanovitchs firing to be, quote, an egregious abuse. It is hard to figure out the extent of the white houses efforts to block fiona hill from testifying today. Ultimately we know she did testify. The committees did provide her a subpoena in advance of her testimony. It is exactly unclear the sequence of events, when the subpoena arrived, if she would have been able to testify without it what exactly that means, but she testified. Unlike Marie Yovanovitch, she did not release an Opening Statement. She did not hand over any documents from her tenure as a key ukraine adviser to President Trump. Thats reportedly because she didnt take any documents with her when she quit the National Security council this summer. She quit in july, just less than a week before President Trumps fateful call with the ukrainian president that has now led to his impeachment. According to the times today, fiona hill was expected to confirm that there was a quid pro quo being demanded by the Trump White House, that the Ukrainian Government was told by the Trump Administration they wouldnt get a white house meeting unless they made a commitment for some kind of investigations that the administration wanted, and we know that what the president wanted investigated was joe biden. But while weve had a bunch of reporting as to what fiona hill was expected to have said today, she only emerged from her deposition immediately before i got on the air tonight, after ten hours of questioning. And so we sort of are still waiting to find out what may have happened, what may have transpired over the course of those ten hours. Again, as you know, it was behind closed doors. We expect that her deposition will eventually be made public. But as to what she said today, well we have only the barest sense. Republicans have complained that the witnesses in the impeachment proceedings thus far havent been testifying in public. They say they want public testimony. They dont like that these things are happening behind closed doors. Democratic congressman denny heck was asked about that today by reporters after he stepped out of the fiona hill deposition this evening, after she had been going for hours and hours and hours. Denny heck said republicans are only complaining about the closed door nature of this testimony because they need some excuse to justify the white house not cooperating with the investigation. But i wanted to play you what congressman heck said in part, because he also suggested that republicans might want to be careful what they wish for in terms of this testimony becoming public. He is suggest thanksgiving probably wouldnt like if the American Public got to hear what was being said behind closed doors. You want to know what i think about that . I think the minority who is using this as an excuse du jour, and there shouldnt be a Single Person standing here who believes for one second that if they these were open that. Wouldnt invent another excuse for the administration not to cooperate. Im not done. They wouldnt invent another excuse for the administration not to cooperate. But heres what i really believe. They are darned lucky these werent public. So fiona hill testified today. We are expecting another Senior State Department official george kent to testify tomorrow. Well have more on that coming up in few minutes in the show. The recently resigned in protest Senior Adviser to secretary of state mike pompeo, a man named Michael Mckinley is expected to testify on wednesday. Ambassador gordon sondland, who was basically sent in to handle ukraine matters along with Rudy Giuliani after they ousted Marie Yovanovitch, he was reportedly involved in basically collecting on the quid pro quo in ukraine. According to republican senator ron johnson, sondland is the man who described the demanded quid pro quo to him explicitly. Sondland is expected to testify on thursday of this week, and then on friday, well have the Senior Defense official laura cooper. She, as i mentioned, is a new addition. She has been, interestingly, a part of the public face of the administration in assuring ukraine that we will always stand by them, particularly when it comes to military aid. Military aid we now know is allegedly what the white house was withholding to try to leverage from them this help against democrats for the president s reelection. So laura cooper having been busy reassuring the ukrainians we would always stand by them, and that that military aid is something they can count on, she is reportedly now going to be testifying at the end of this week in the president s impeachment. So with all that on deck this week, i think well continue to be just as nuts as things have been. That said, the impeachment of the president at its core remains a simple thing. You cant ask a foreign power for assistance with your Reelection Campaign. You cant even ask, no matter what they give. The effort by the president to carry out that scheme, though, wasnt as simple a matter. It turns out to have involved this amazing array of true crime allst allstars, right . And because this was him trying to lempbl a foreign power into doing this on his behalf, he wasnt just demanding it, he was trying force them into doing it. It also involves the Foreign Policy and u. S. Defense policy establishment. All of the Security Apparatus of the u. S. Government were all brought to bear on this illegal scheme to get that country to help the president get reelected. And that part of what the president is being impeached for, his use of the National Security apparatus, his use of military aid, his use of diplomatic pressure, his use of sort of shadow diplomacy working with all of these crooks working with giuliani, that is all, coincidentally or not, coming to the surface right now while real american Foreign Policy and defense policy is collapsing into catastrophe. Were going to be speaking live with Nbcs Richard Engel from Northern Syria in just a few minutes. The kurdish fighters that the u. S. Military was aligned with for years inside syria. President trump inexplicably last week told turkey we would step away from them, and turkey was essentially free to come into the territory that our kurdish allies had been holding so turkey could take it for their own purposes. With us abandoning our allies there, our kurdish allies, predictably as of yesterday have made a formal alliance with somebody else who they can count on more reliably. Theyve turned for support and protection against turkey to their next best option, i is russia and the syrian regime, which is propped up by the russian military. Russia props up the syrian dictator bashar al assad. The kurdish fighters who had been our allies fighting against isis have now left us because we left them. Theyre now instead switching sides. So theyre siding with assad and the russians instead, which leaves nobody fighting isis anymore at all. It also means that u. S. Troops are one of the stranded abandoned parties here. U. S. Troops in the region have been reportedly pinned down and bracketed by turkish artillery fire since the president s surprise announcement that u. S. Troops would get out of the way and allow turkey to advance. Them being bracketed by artillery fire means they have been deliberately targeted by a Foreign Military that is supposed by one of our nato allies. Aside from Everything Else going wrong here, there is now a serious question as to the safety of these american troops, even while they are being withdrawn. The Defense Department has announced that President Trump has now ordered them all out, but were still not even sure how that all happens with turkish troops and turkish supported troops controlling a key road out of the region. The plans for withdrawing u. S. Troops are very uncertain. This is from David Stenger tonight in the New York Times. Quote, President Trumps acquiescence to turkeys move to send troops deep inside the syrian territory has in only one weeks time turned into a bloody carnage, forced the abandonment of a successful fiveyearlong american project to keep the peace on that volatile border, and given an unanticipated victory to four american adversaries, russia, iran, the Syrian Government they support, and isis. Rarely has a president ial decision resulted so immediately in what his own Party Leaders have described as disastrous consequences for American Allies and interests. He says, quote, the drama is nowhere near over. Out of necessity, the kurds swished sides on sunday, turning their backs on america. At the pentagon, officials struggled with the right response. If turkish force, again, nato allies, again open fire on any of the thousand or so americans who are now preparing to retreat from their positions inside syria. Those u. S. Troops are trapped for now since turkey has cut off the roads, removing them may require an airlift. And in case thats not unnerving enough, here is something i completely forgot to panic about. Quote, over the weekend, u. S. State and energy Department Officials were quietly reviewing plans for evacuating roughly 50 Tactical Nuclear weapons that the u. S. Has long stored under american control at Incirlik Air Base in turkey. Oh, right. Now that our supposed nato ally turkey is shooting artillery rounds at american forces, maybe we need to rethink the safety of us keeping 50 of our Tactical Nuclear weapons sitting inside an air base in their country. Right . If were going have to send in an airlift to rescue u. S. Troops out of a situation that the president precipitously created while u. S. Troops were in danger, then maybe we should worry about the u. S. Troops that are guarding our live Nuclear Weapons inside turkey. Dont worry, though. Rick perry and mike pompeo are tasked with figuring out plan to get all those Nuclear Weapons safely taken care of. I should mention that mike pompeo and rick perry are both facing subpoenas from the impeachment inquiry right now. And, you know, maybe you wanted troops, u. S. Troops to not be in syria in the first place. Maybe you wanted them brought home now or some time before now, but nobody has ever advocated for what President Trump has done, this reckless and bizarre sudden announcement that turned a previously basically peaceful at least stable part of syria controlled by our allies into what is now the site of civilian massacres and journalists being shot at and Everything Else. Now that whole swath of syria will likely end up being controlled by assad and russia in some sort of deal that they will likely work out between themselves and turkey. The president s decision leading to this reckless and again bizarre risk to american troops there, without support, with their supply lines cut off, with no clear way to retreat, without any clear indication of what theyre supposed to be doing, without any clear indication that the president knew they were there and that they would be at risk if we suddenly greenlit the second Largest Military in nato coming in and taking over that territory from our allies. I mean, u. S. Troops stuck there at the site of our abandonment of our allies that the soldiers spent five years working with and supporting and promising to stand by. Its what the times described tonight as, quote, a fast unraveling situation. Meanwhile, a 30plus year veteran of the foreign service, william j. Burns has come forward the say that what the president is doing now in total should be seen as more of a danger to Americans International influence than anything in the past 70 years. Calling President Trump, quote, for dictator, the gift that keeps on giving. Were going to speak with bill burns here live tonight. Also Richard Engel live from Northern Syria. Well also be watching for the continuing development of lots of these stories that are still rolling tonight. Stay with us. Well be right back. Be right ba, we present limu emu doug with this key to the city. [ applause ] its an honor to tell you that Liberty Mutual customizes your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need. And now we need to get back to work. [ applause and band playing ] only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. A peaceful night sleep without only imagine. Frequent heartburn waking him up. Now that dream is a reality. Nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts for allday, allnight protection. Can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn . At outback, steak oh no, its gone. Ck. Phew, its back with lobster mac cheese. Its gone again. 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Foreign service officer, i have never seen an attack on diplomacy as damaging to both the state department as an institution and our international influence as the one now under way. Quote, the contemptible mistreatment of Marie Yovanovitch, the u. S. Ambassador to ukraine who was dismissed for getting in the way of the president s scheme to solicit interference in election series the latest example of the president s dangerous brand of diplomatic malpractice. His is a diplomacy of narcissism, bent on advancing private interests at the expense of our national interests. Quote, for dictators, trump is the gift that keeps on giving, a nonstop advertisement for western selfdealing. So much for enlightened selfinterest. So much for the power of our example. So much for our credibility. To clean up the institutional wreckage in the state department will take many years. The damage to our influence and reputation may prove to be even longer lasting and harder to repair. Thats from ambassador William Burns, former deputy secretary of state, former u. S. Ambassador to russia. Hes got more than 30 years of experience in the u. S. Foreign service. Joining us now is ambassador burns. He is currently the president of the Carnegie Endowment for international peace. He is also author of the back channel a memoir of american diplomacy and the case for its renewal. Thank you for being here. Rachel, its great to be here. This is not very diplomatic. You were speaking in very blunt terms. No. And i didnt write those words lightly either. Weve seen a lot of highs and lows and im deeply worried today. Not just about the hollowing out of my old institution, but about the fact that the United States is digging a deep hole for itself in a very competitive and complicated international landscape. Secretary of state mike pompeo appears to be quite enmeshed in this scandal that has led to these impeachment proceedings against this president. I am sort of it sort of struck me. I wasnt reading it at the time. I didnt even think i was thinking about the impeachment scandal when it finally occurred to me that mike pompeo was on the line listening, when the president said to president zelensky of ukraine, that ambassador, that woman, she was bad news. Shes going to go through some things. Mike pompeo did not allow it to be known for a couple of weeks that he had been on that call. He professed ignorance about what had happened there. And then when we found out he had been on that call, we know thats one of the things he sat through. How what does that do to a secretary of state for everybody who serves in the foreign service, everybody who serves in the state department to know that he abided that . It does a lot of damage, for a few reasons. First, you expect the leadership of the state department to stand up for its people. Yeah. In the face of unfair and unfounded accusations. And second, you have another obligation to the constitution. You know, when you have the president of the United States clearly trying to use Public Office and the leverage of the United States not to promote the national interests, but to promote private political interest, thats also a big problem. Weve learned just tonight that a Senior Adviser to secretary of state pompeo, Michael Mckinley, who is a career diplomat, very well respected, has served ambassador posts all over the world, on thursday, he resigned. And according to the washington post, he resigned in protest about the way that secretary of state pompeo has behaved towards state Department Employees through this process. We have now learned he is going to testify as part of these proceedings. First of all, do you think there is any technical reason that they could block him from testifying if they tried to . I think they could try, but i think mike mckinley, like Masha Yovanovitch is a terrific professional, an honest, honorable person. I suspect he is going to do just what ambassador yovanovitch did. As ambassador yovanovitch testifies as we as fiona hill testified today, i wonder if you see that testimony as something theyre required to do and they dont have a choice and its just part of the job. Or do you think it does take bravery . Are they taking risks . It does reflect a lack of decency that is sorely lacking in the political appointees in this administration that youve been talking about. Were also seeing Foreign Policy blow up right now under the Trump Administration. Not only in terms of the way its being misused, but whatever is happening with Northern Syria, whatever happened between President Trump and president erdogan with this sudden decision, this uturn. Obviously, its an ongoing and very dangerous situation there. But i wonder with the state department having a crisis of credibility, the type of hollowing out they described. Right. Facing a political crisis around this impeachment and the implication of the secretary of state in that while also facing these very real disasters. Right. Caused by u. S. Misuse of our Foreign Policy power, i mean, who is going to do the cleanup . Who is going to be the steady hand . Oh, its a mess. And its chaos right now. And youre going to see other adversaries and rivals i think tempted to test us. Because one crisis oftentimes multiplies as well. And there are no shortage of places around the world today where you could see that as well. Were going to speak with Richard Engel live from Northern Syria in just a moment. Before we speak with him, i wonder if you have any insight, thought you can share on why the president did what he did in that phone call with the president of turkey. We dont know his motivation. I certainly i cant imagine this is what he intended to happen, including u. S. Troops being in grave danger. Do you have any way for to help us think about why he did this . I think he is impulsive. He is dismissive of expertise and he doesnt Pay Attention to consequences, whether intended or unintended. The middle east is the land of unintended consequences. And so not to handle this carefully and think through what is a very complicated choice to make i think is a huge embarrassment, and its going to cost us in a lot of ways. It already. Do you agree that the ultimate beneficiary of this chaos right now is russia, syria, iran . And isis, right. Thats quite a foursome. Ambassador William Burns is former deputy secretary of state, former u. S. Ambassador to russia, longtime u. S. Foreign service veteran. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. Well be right back. Stay with us. Ll be right back stay with us my insurance rates are probably gonna double. But dad, youve got allstate. With accident forgiveness they guarantee your rates wont go up just because of an accident. Smart kid. Indeed. Are you in good hands . Its what gives audible themembers an edge. Listening; it opens our minds, changes our perspective, connects us, and pushes us further. The most inspiring minds, the most compelling stories audible. I am honored and impressed and more than a little worried to tell you that Richard Engel, nbc news chief Foreign Correspondent is live in Northern Syria tonight where he joins us from on the ground. Richard, my friend, i am happy to be talking to you. Im a little bit sorry that youre there. But thank you for doing what youre doing to cover this story. Get us up to date in terms of what you know as of tonight. Well, its good to be with you. And what were seeing right now, it may sound very, very complicated with all of these different factions. Were talking about the kurds and the syrians and the russians and the turks, but what is actually happening, if you break it down is fairly simple. What happened a few days ago, it seems like a long time ago was President Trump in this phone call gave turkey a green light to invade Northern Syria. They say they didnt do it. President trump is going on and on, says he didnt do it. The white house issued a statement after their phone call saying that u. S. Troops would be pulling back, and that the turks would be moving in. So that is the green light. The turks moved in. But as you said earlier, this is a major nato country. Turkey has an enormous army, but it is not using its army entirely. It is also using these arab militias, and the arab militias are critical to this story, because part of these arab militias, these shock troops that have been coming in, attacking the kurds here in Northern Syria, they include isis and al qaeda members, according to multiple u. S. Officials. And it was these shock troops, as theyve been moving through this area, killing civilians, that is what caused the kurds to panic. That is what caused the kurds to change sides. So in this panic, as these atrocities were taking place, they reached over and they made a deal with the assad government, which is backed up by russia and said come in and help us. And as they were making this deal, the u. S. Is leaving. So the kurds saw shock troops coming in. Militias, backed up by extremists. They see the americans are leaving, and they made a deal. They reached out to assad and said come and help us. And right now, tonight, were seeing this land grab with the assad forces trying to take as much territory and the turks trying to take as much territory so that they can come up with some sort of deal, but each have something in their hands to negotiate with. So thats where we are. The americans are stuck between these two colliding forces, trying to figure out how they carry out what they call their deliberate exit. They dont want the get into a fight. They want to get themselves safely out of the country in a slow and dignified way. But they want to do it and not leave their allies behind totally stranded. So now their allies have made the deal with assad. So everyone here is saying President Trump started this. The turks moved in with this brutal force that i think really shocked a lot of people, and now there is potentially some effort from the Trump Administration to fix this. Just in the last few hours we hear that Vice President pence is going to come here on a diplomatic mission, and he is going to save the day and work out some sort of agreement between now the kurds and the Syrian Government and turkey. So thats what happened. And thats how its unfolding, and we are seeing the map that the lines in the sand, the map of the middle east redrawn as we speak. And richard, so in terms of those two onmarching forces in which both the kurds and u. S. Forces are in trouble, do you anticipate that actually the Turkish Military and the arab militias that are fighting with them and the syrian army with the Russian Forces that are backing them up, that they will actually come into military conflict in terms of trying to figure out where the border is between syria and turkey . Or do you feel like between the syrian and russian side and the turkish side, theyll actually negotiate something that prevents a war between those two very well armed sides . Its very hard to know. On one level, they shouldnt come in to contact with each other because both are aligned with russia. Russia, as the u. S. Is pulling out physically from this area is the new power broker. So in theory, they shouldnt come into conflict because they have both this russian interest, but their longterm interests are very different. Syria wants to regain control of all of its territory. Syria lost control of this region because of the civil war and then because the kurds were helping the americans and the kurds managed to carve out an autonomous zone where i am right now. Syrias longterm goal is to regain control of all of its territory. Kurdish areas included. And now the kurds have said fine, well do that. Well go along with the program. Just dont let these turkish militias carry out ethnic cleansing and genocide against us. Turkey, however, has a different agenda. You have president erdogan, who effectively wants to become the great leader of turkey. He wants his name to be more remembered than kamal ataturk. He wants to be the person who conquered a new province for his country and regained ottoman glory and correct the wrongs that he sees were imposed on his country after world war i. So turkeys objective is to carve all a little piece and to put about one to three million Syrian Refugees in the pocket that it captures. And therefore erdogan would be able to go home and say that hes a hero. Hes a national leader, and he got rid of the refugee problem. And thats the way turkey is selling this. Theyre selling this around the world as theyre doing a service to the world, not using a terroristaligned militia to carry out atrocities against the kurds. They say they are doing a service to the world by allowing Syrian Refugees to go back to their own homeland. So will their Mutual Alliance with russia keep them from fighting right now in the shortterm . Perhaps. But longterm they both have very different interests. Richard engel, nbc news chief Foreign Correspondent live for us at o dark 30 in Northern Syria. Richard, stay safe. Thanks for being with us. I really appreciate it. All right. Weve got more to get to tonight. Stay with us. Us and private clouds, and hybrid clouds things can get a bit cloudy for you. But now, theres the Dell Technologies cloud, powered by vmware. A single hub for a consistent operating experience across all your clouds. That should clear things up. Those darn seatbelts got me all crumpled up. Thats ok hey, guys hi mrs. Patterson. Wrinkles send the wrong message. Sorry. Help prevent them before they start with new downy wrinkleguard. Goldi knows to never compromise. Too shabby too much too perfect i can rent this . For that price . Absolutely. What is this, some kind of fairy tale . Its just right book your just right rental at thrifty. Com. Oh baby bear vo the big dogs. The old dogs. The deaf, blind, the different. Subaru presents the underdogs. These shelter dogs still love unconditionally. Theyre just hoping to find their human, who does too. To help, subaru is establishing National Make a dogs day to ask you to please consider adopting an underdog, or do something extraspecial for your dog. Through the at t network, edgetoedge intelligence gives you the power to see every corner of your growing business. From managing inventory. To detecting and preventing threats. To scaling up your production. Giving you a nice big edge over your competition. Thats the power of edgetoedge intelligence. The former top adviser on russia and ukraine to President Trump, fiona hill, answered questions on capitol hill today for more than ten hours. Ms. Hill did not release a public statement, but she reportedly had high praise for former u. S. Ambassador to ukraine who was fired by the president earlier this year, reportedly, because she was in the way of his plan to leverage ukraine into helping with his reelection effort against the democrats. A cnn source said tonight that fiona hill in todays testimony, quote, made her opinions known about ambassador Marie Yovanovitchs removal. Now in vance of her testimony as she was heading into that testimony today on capitol hill, the New York Times had reported that hill would confirm that the administration leveraged a white house invitation for ukraines president in exchange for a commitment by ukraine to investigate corruption, which was seen as code for investigating democrats. In other words, the New York Times reported in advance of her testimony that hill would confirm that the Trump White House made it a quid pro quo that they could not get a white house invitation for zelensky unless he went along with the scheme for election help. Congressman jamie raskin of maryland came out of fiona hills testimony tonight and said that fiona hill and ambassador Marie Yovanovitch will be remembered as the heroes of this story in u. S. History. Well, tomorrow, a new deposition is scheduled for a man named george kent. He is a current high level state Department Official with responsibility for ukraine policy. Documents turned over to congress by the state Department Inspector general last week included emails from george kent where he pushed back against Rudy Giuliani and the president s conspiracy theories in realtime. You can see george kent doing that in emails like this one, a rundown for other state Department Officials of the, quote, daily update of the fake news driven smear out of ukraine. The fake news driven smear is what giuliani and trump were trying to leverage ukraine to do in exchange for a white house visit and potentially military aid. There is also this email in which george kent aid. There is also this email that yavonovitch had given prosecutors a do not prosecute list. He calls that idea complete, quote, poppycock. It seems lik he was one of those inside the state department barring anybody from ukraine. If he shows up, he will be offering testimony that is expected to be deeply unhelpful to the president and to, increasing increasingly, members of his cabinet as this unfolds. Stay with us. Net as this unfold. Stay with us as a doctor, i agree with cdc guidance. I recommend topical pain relievers first. Like salonpas patch large. Its powerful, fdaapproved to relieve moderate pain, yet nonaddictive and gentle on the body. Salonpas. Its good medicine. Hisamitsu. Walkabout wednesdays are back get a sirloin or chicken on the barbie, fries, and a draft beer or cocacola all for just 10. 99. Hurry in wednesdays are for outback. Outback steakhouse. Aussie rules. Hour 36 in the stakeout. For outback. As soon as the homeowners arrive, well inform them that Liberty Mutual customizes home insurance, so theyll only pay for what they need. Your turn to keep watch, limu. Wake me up if you see anything. [ snoring ] [ loud squawking and siren blaring ] only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. [phone ringing] how are we doing . Fabulous. I wonder how the firms doing without its fearless leader. You sure you want to leave that all behind . Yeah. Stay restless, with the icon that does the same. The new rx crafted by lexus. Lease the 2020 rx 350 all wheel drive for 439 month for 36 months. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. Here, hello starts with hi mple. How can i help . A data plan for everyone. Everyone . Everyone. Lets send to everyone [ camera clicking ] wifi up there . Ahhh. Sure, why not . Howd he get out . a camera might figure it out. That was easy glad i could help. At xfinity, were here to make life simple. Easy. Awesome. So come ask, shop, discover at your xfinity store today. Aaddiction. How juuline hooked kids and ignited an Public Health crisis. Other news outlets report juul took 12. 8 billion from big tobacco. Markets ecigarettes with kid friendly flavors and uses nicotine to addict them. 5 million kids use ecigarettes. Juul is following big tobaccos playbook. And now, juul is pushing prop c to overturn ecigarette protections. Vote no on juul. No on big tobacco. No on prop c. Last week this started appearing on facebook. It said, breaking news, Mark Zuckerberg endorsed donald trump for reelection. Its not true. Facebook is trying to do something about their ad policy. As it stands, politicians are allowed to run totally false ads, anything they want, as long as the check doesnt bounce when facebook goes to cash them. Last week former Vice President biden asked that facebook remove a trump ad based on this nonsense. It was totally false. But facebook refused to take it down. They told biden if a letter that under their new political ad policy, false is fine with them. It doesnt matter. That letter, interestingly, was signed by katie harbaugh, global director at facebook. Prior to that, she was chief digit digital foreman. Im sure she has everybodys interest in mind when it comes to the 2020 election. No reason to worry about that. The dark and increasingly pafrt san truth at the heart of facebooks political rhythms is that facebook favors engagement. Positive or negative, they favor engagement, which means the most provocative, most offensive material will circulate widely on the site. Now theyre telling politicians that not only will they get awarded for posting provocative, false content, they also have nothing to worry about when it comes to pushing overtly false claims. President trump is going wall to wall with ads over why impeachment is horrible, and he never asked ukraine to do anything, and if he did, it was good, not illegal. The president and the rnc have already launched a 10 Million Ad Campaign telling those points. There is nothing to match on the democratic side. They are completely spent on this issue. There are the first signs that democrats may be trying to change that a little bit. Progressive groups like indivisible and move on. They are focused on five swing states, arizona, michigan, north carolina, pennsylvania and wisconsin. They are using ads like this one. The president admits that on a phone call with the president of ukraine, he requested that the president of ukraine investigate his 2020 political rival joe biden. Is that a crime . It is a crime for the president to solicit aid for his campaign from a foreign government. So that to which the president has admitted is in and of ift a crim itself a crime. Some of the democratic ads starting to air on facebook on the impeachment issue. The Trump Campaign is launching 10 million worth of ads. The Democratic Campaign so far is about this big. You can see why they might see facebook as contested territory to even try this, but they have started trying. Ill be right back. E right back steven could only imaginem 24hr to trenjoying a spicy taco. Burn, now, his world explodes with flavor. Nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts for allday allnight protection. Can you imagine 24hours without heartburn . But allstate actually helps you drive safely. With drivewise. It lets you know when you go too fast. And brake too hard. With feedback to help you drive safer. Giving you the power to actually lower your cost. Unfortunately, it cant do anything about that. Now that you know the truth. Are you in good hands . Applebees new pasta and grill combos. Choose from up to 12 combinations starting at 9. 99. We are just about done for tonight but i have to make a correction before we go. This is interesting. At the top of the show i cited the wall street journal reported that lev parnas and igor freeman has been released. The wall street journal said they had both been released on 1 million bond. I am now being told that is not correct. Despite the fact they have had the conditions for their bail set, they are not out. The wall street journal reported they have been