didn t know. that made me feel a lot better where we re headed in syria. the president is thinking long and hard about syria, how to withdraw our forces but at the same time achieve our national security interest, which are to make sure that isis is destroyed. they never come back. that our allies, the kurds are protected. and that iran doesn t become the big winner by our leaving. joining us now from the white house, hans nicole. good morning. thank you for joining us. let s talk about that meeting yesterday between the president and lindsey graham. obviously a really big shift for lindsey graham with regard to syria. i think a lot of people asking okay you seem reassured about what s taking place with regard to syria because the president told you so. but how, in fact, is he reassuring you? reporter: it s one thing for lindsey graham to be assured. another for the kurds u.s. the partner forces in syria.
casual approach to things like the president calls his friends and allies as he chooses to seek advice. that will probably happen more under mulvaney than under kel hi. what i think is interesting about kelly s departure, he said his time as chief of staff is best judged by what the president did not do while kelly was serving at his side, things like pulling u.s. troops from south korea or the u.s. withdrawing from nato completely. i thought that was a fairly damaging comment. joining us now immigration and security reporter for the los angeles times molly o toole. molly had a two-hour interview with john kelly just this past friday. molly, good to have you with us. thanks for joining us. let me begin, first of all, with what was your biggest take away from your conversation with the outgoing chief of staff? i think the big question of
likely shanahan will be in place when nato has summits in february in brussels. what s shanahan going to do? how will he convince allies they are, indeed, the u.s. is committed to the nato alliance. jim mattis wanted to stay in place for. obviously leaving early. as the year comes to a close we want to reflect on those who served, including those who lost their lives on the front lines, serving every single day. how does 2018 compare in terms of u.s. troops lost in combat? reporter: slightly more than 2017, so in total there were 23 americans who died in combat from somalia, afghanistan, iraq and syria. 13 in afghanistan which is slightly up from last year. nowhere near the numbers we saw in 2010, 2011 at the height of the obama surge. the deadliest single event ended up being that helicopter crash in iraq, the helicopter went
kellyanne conway. i like the line but it doesn t get us anywhere. three doughnuts in a one hour show. two. might be a new record. while we have you, john, because it s not just about doughnuts here, let s talk about this government shutdown, the third we ve seen this year under the trump administration. what s your take, first of all on the stalemate and how long this thing could actually last because come january 3rd which is the earlest time this could re-open the government, at that point it would be the fourth longest government shutdown in history. reporter: my guess is that this thing is done by the 15th of january. you know the first week, maybe give or take a couple of days of the new congress. i think the democrats are going to pass the bill that was passed out of the senate at the end of last year, continuing funding for the government, with some
doesn t necessarily you can feasibly win at this point considering the other names out there like bernie sanders, the bidens. why not throw your money behind somebody who can win. reporter: when you make yourself rich in business, you get yourself elected to congress, you develop a pretty good opinion of your skills and yourself. and so i think he believes that he s got something to offer. he wants to make a set of arguments. he s got the money to pay for it. he doesn t need anybody else s money. he wants to give it a try. he must be realistic about the prospects which are not great, but there are a lot of people who run for president who don t win who then later end up serving in government, cabinet member or whatever. so i think for what john delaney told me this will be a good experience win or lose as long as i advance the principles i believe in which is