national security role on the international stage dealing with america s military allies and america s military adversaries. barbara starr, cnn, the pentagon. thank you. the decision to pull the forces out of syria is leading to another resignation. brett mcgurk. he has decided to step down. the president s decision has been turned into a formal directive. the executive order for syria has been signed by james mattis. cnn has learned that days before the president decided to withdrawal, he made a phone call to turkish phone call to recep tayyip erdogan. we have more from istanbul. what do we know? reporter: before that decision by trump was announced, we know there was a phone call between trump and his turkish counterpart recep tayyip
he will have to deal with nato, america s military allies, keep a close eye on america s military adversaries, and be the one who has to carry out whatever mr. trump may order next regarding american troops. and issues like north korea, for example. it will be up to shanahan. he may find himself in a much more touchy situation with the president than he has so far. especially when you lay it out like that, barbara, this next defense secretary is going to have huge questions and jobs, tasks, advice he or she will need to give the president in the coming year. it s a really critical time. thank you, barbara. reporter: sure. joining me to discuss this is democratic congressman from california, john garamendi. merry christmas, kate. thank you, you as well. you sit on the armed services committee, this is an issue near and dear to your heart. the president pushing mattis
no foreign policy experience. he will have to work with nato, with mern america s military allies and with america s military adversaries, or at least keep a pretty sharp eye on them. fred? barbara starr, thank you so much. joining me right now, retired rear admiral john kirby, state department spokesman, political columnist for the washington post, dana milbank and urban radio networks april ryan. good to see all of you and happy holidays. admiral kirby this latest tweet does that now make for a much smooth smoother transition now between mattis and shanahan? i don t know that it makes it more smooth. putting shanahan in charge will ensure continuity. and i think that makes perfect sense. i think we should take comfort in the fact that he has been at the pentagon for a while and largely the job of secretary of defense is running the program attic side of the military, the budget issues and he has a good