Dollars. why are we fighting for our enemy syria by staying and killing aisis for them, russia, iran and other locals? yesterday the president said isis had been defeated in syria. now he s saying why should we stay there and fight isis in syria? something of a contradiction, kaitlan collins, thanks so much. appreciate it. want to turn to cnn s ryan nobles on capitol hill for us. ryan, what does the house do now? reporter: well, jake, they just released in the last hour this new language in the continuing resolution that would allow for that $5 billion in border security that the president asked for. it doesn t say anything specifically about a wall, but this is what the language says exactly. $5 billion, a little more than $5 billion for customs and border protection for the procurement, construction and improvements that the agency needs, so that s not a wall specifically, but you did can see how that agency might end up using that for a wall if they are giving this appropriation
Northeast syria with some level of humanity. there s no telling what the turks will do. we hope that they won t retaliate against those groups, but by pulling the rug out from under and abandoning our kurdish and syrian allies, it also strikes a blow on american credibility in the region. part of our strategy in the future in dealing with these kinds of threats is to empower the indigenous populations, to train them. here we have we have empowered this population. we have given them the capabilities to deal with isis. now we re in the process of stabilizing that population so isis doesn t backflash in our faces and their faces, but at the very moment they need us the most they are pulling out. i want to ask you about something extraordinary, a video released by the white house. yesterday president trump defended his decision, and he did so by invoking american soldiers and troops, service members, who had been killed fighting isis. take a listen. they are all coming back, and
Dancing in the aisles in tehran and isis camps is they just don t believe in dancing. this is a big gift to them, and this is a devastating decision for our allies. reporter: one u.s. defense official telling cnn operational commanders are concerned about the future for syrian fighters backed by the u.s. of whom 1,600 have already been killed. if the u.s. pulls out the kurdish fighters face a potential bloodbath from both isis and a turkish invasion, and the isis threat is likely to skyrocket with thousands of suspected isis operatives now in custody, possibly getting released to fight again. we have to be clear the highest concentration of jihadists anywhere in the world in syria. reporter: general joseph dunford, chairman of the joint chiefs and general otell, head of middle east operations, are now talking to allies in the
Sessions might try to shut it down. i can see where jeff sessions is replaced with a recess appointment and the attorney general doesn t fire mueller but reduces his budget so low that the investigation grinds to a halt. reporter: rosenstein who rarely talks about the mueller probe offers words of assurance that the president sun tainted. bob mueller or rod rosenstein or matt whitaker or bill barr, that investigation is going to be handled appropriately by the department of justice. reporter: now that matthew whitaker has officially decided not to recuse, it s expected he ll be briefed on the mueller probe since he was never updated during the ethics review process. jake, we do know that whitaker was given a heads up just before the president s former personal attorney michael cohen pleaded guilty up in new york a few weeks ago. jessica schneider, thanks so much. trump says we ve defeated isis one minute and next he says other countries will need to fight isis instead of th
Security interest that would be changed by regime change. can you think of downsides, death, cost, et cetera. how would this country become safer by overthrowing assad. i m not sure regime change is still our goal there it was the goal of barack obama and hasn t really been our stated goal during this trump administration. but, defeating isis in iraq and in syria is still our goal. and i think that is in the national interest. tucker: but wasn t defeating isis one of the goals of the assad government? of course, isis was a radical sunni group. assad is allied with the shiites. he was fighting isis as well. why wouldn t we if we believe isis is the main enemy, functionally find ourselves on the side of assad? well, you re correct in this sense. and you are correct in many ways. it s complicated in syria. there is no question about