have been the most effective fighting part thers that we have, because if that decision was delayed because of mike flynn was on the payroll of turkey, that is a very significant consequence. one of our primary concerns in addition to one of the horrible losses of life there is that the people of syria are plotting against us. anything that delays our taking raqqa, defeating isis. when i read the op-ed that mr. flynn wrote, saying we should turn him over without any evidence, it set off alarm bells with me and it should have that e that there was something that could have. what is accounted for was $600,000 in turk iish money.
position is in terms of the strike. we witnessed last week, this was a measured response directly responding to the use of chemical weapons, nothing more. sean spicer clarifying that barrel bombs is not what he intended to say and there was no change in the post dure. we heard from james mattis saying the priority isn t changed, defeating isis. specifically his comments, the comparison he made in effect between bashar al assad and hitler. first was the statement and to put it best a muddied effort at a clarification. we reached out to sean spicer immediately after his comments in the briefing room and did give us a statement, there were a series of clarifications where he said he wasn t trying to lessen the horrendous nature of the holocaust and said however i was tryg to draw a contrast of the tactic of using airplanes to drop chemical weapons on innocent people, even that hasn t satisfied a lot of critics right now.
president was very clear in his message to the american people that this strike was related solely to the most recent, horrific use of chemical weapons against women, children, and as the president said, even small babies. and so the upshot here seems to be that both remain a priority. that s part of the argument, national security advisor h.r. mcmaster made today on fox news sunday, the idea of defeating isis and also reaching a political solution to the syrian crisis. the u.s. does not envision syrian president bashar al assad remaining at the top of the government with that political solution. fred? all right, athena jones, thank you so much in palm beach, florida. straight ahead, the president s stance has always been america first. but do his actions in syria say something else? we ll discuss. plus, happening now in the streets of dallas, a huge crowd marching for immigration reform. we ll take you there right after this. what if there was a paint.
timid and that you guys were too open and always announcing what you are going to do. he used on the campaign trail to make fun of the administration to say we are going to invade mosul in three weeks. we re going to inel slide mosul in two weeks. dolls he have a point. he has a point. first of all, i was not in the obama administration. i worked for his campaign and previous to that i worked for the state department actually under president bush. i was based in baghdad. president trump has a point the u.s. department was slow to respond to isis and have a military campaign against isis in iraq and in syria. but it s going pretty well now. i was in iraq last in december, two months ago. and the campaign is going quite effectively. in fact, we have pushed isis out of the eastern part of mosul. they are in the western part of mosul. they will be out of iraq soon. the real struggle right now will be to come up with a plan to pacify iraq after isis is pushed out and to find a way to push
force. chris: you are getting it awfully broad here. let me bring david in to wrap this up.e excuse me, ric. is that what s needed to end this war? i believe that is what is needed. it s good that general dunford is reviewing the plan to take on isis. part of that should be adjusting the troop levels, increasing them in iraq. should consider having a permanent presence in iraq and kurdistan region of iraq andnd increase troop levels in syria. we also have to do a better job of arming the local forces and gives them types of things they need to take on isis. if those things happen, we will beat isis. chris: gentlemen, thank you, president trump says obamacare doesn t work but what should it be replaced with? we will talk to one of its architects when the factor comes right back. d it be replaced with? we will talk to one of its