world s most wanted terrorist, isis leader, abu bakr al-baghdadi u.s. special operations forces cornering him last night in a compound in northern syria, he apparently detonated a suicide vest as troop closed in here is president trump moments ago at the white house. president trump: capturing or killing baghdadi has been the top national security priority of my administration. u.s. special operations forces executed a dangerous and daring nighttime raid, in northwestern syria and accomplished their mission in grand style. maria: we have reaction from several influential lawmakers including congressman john ratcliffe who sits on the intelligence committee and senator steve danes, general jack keane is standing bias well first of all let s get the latest on the death of al-baghdadi and what we know about how the operation went down, we go to lucas tomlinson he is here at the pentagon.
they are committed. i will kill you if i don t kill you my children will kill you. it s a generational approach, and they are sick individuals but they are committed to their sick ideology and that s why it takes a persistent, dedicated approach like the one the trump adminitration has taken. yesterday was a very good day to make the world safer, but as the president made very clear, this is just something that has to continue and we can t allow it to proliferate in other places we have to continue to chase these folks down, and obviously, hold them to justice as was done yesterday. maria: all right, congressman stay with us. we want to talk a little more about those testimonies that you just referred to in this impeachment inquiry we ll take a short break and then we ll come back with more john ratcliffe the congressman from texas on sunday morning futures. stay with us. drive safely.
republican from georgia, ranking member of the house judiciary committee and congressman good to see you thanks for joining us maria. maria: first your reaction to the news of the morning and that is islamic state leader abu bakr al-baghdadi is dead, the president spoke earlier saying that he died in a tunnel, wimpering and screaming. many islamic state fighters were also killed. none of the u.s. special operations team were hurt. your reaction? well first and foremost it s a great day for our special forces. those folks who dedicate themselves to doing exactly what they were trained to do this morning is root out evil, find it and kill it and i think it s also a great day for the world when you see the wimpering coward of a terrorist al-baghdadi who went to a cave and blew himself up. this is a man who threaten the the world and yet he wanted to go into a cave and wimper and all around the world anybody who looks to isis right now all to look to their leader who wimpered in a corn
of information that could be used for operational purposes there was concern that isis might reconstitute in some form in syria and iraq, obviously that became far more difficult. doesn t mean that there aren t bad people that are going to infiltrate into other organizations, assimilate into a front or other al qaeda components, but there s no question but that the middle east is safer today and americans are safer here in the united states, because isis s capables were decimated to a large extent yesterday. maria: were they planning further attacks, congressman? what do we know in terms of what the plans were and was there a treasure drove of documents that our special operations team was able to get as a result of taking him out, given the fact that they were on the ground and had access to where he was? well the president said they did. we expected that that would be the case. unfortunately, the intelligence committee that i serve on hasn t been spending a whole lot of
time on these issues. we ve been caught up in adam schiff s secret impeachment inquiry, so we haven t had a briefing on these issues, but i am certain that much like what happened with al qaeda that the documents that we recovered the treasure trove of information that has already been related by the president is going to have a profound impact on operations in the middle east of all terrorists and the president has been dedicated to this, as general jack keane just said, doggedly determined to make sure that isis was gone during his administration, and he s going to continue wherever these folks go, however they may re constitute, radical islamic terrorists have been a priority of president trump and this administration and yesterday, just proved that he kept another promise with respect to this. maria: congressman you said you have not had a briefing on these issues in the intel committee.