two decisions, syria and on the g-7, where president trump is getting an unusual backlash, that is actually catching his attention. so here s a sampling of some republicans on these two points. taxpayer funded contract that the president is awarding it to his own property. is that acceptable for a sitting president? i m not happy with it. you don t hold up foreign aid that we had previously appropriated for a political initiative. what we have done in the kurds will stand as a blood stain in the annals of american history. when america leaves, we create a vacuum. so these are republicans for the most part who stayed silent after charlottesville and helsinki and the migrant family separations. but you re seeing on these two issues he appears to be trusting republican patience and it comes at a time when president trump can t afford any defections as the impeachment inquiry moves forward.
syria which happens to have some oil fields. sos not a considered policy. these are spasms. and to stay in syria just to protect an oil field, that might be one of the purposes. but to say that out loud raises very serious questions. bloomberg is writing about it this well. the president has mentioned multiple times the idea that troops would stay there to protect oil fields. where is that coming from? first of all, it s illegal. i know this issue pretty well. we cannot exploit the oil. the oil has to be smuggled because we can t legally sell it. so you want to protect the fields to make sure that isis doesn t get at it. but as we collapse our entire position in northeast syria and lose support of the population, to keep a couple hundred troops in a corner of syria to do what? for what purpose? for what mission? how will they be sustained? how will they be supplied? these are serious questions. and most administrations you would have a national security process. these are questions
just a tragedy. we re going to be talking more about the impeachment factor and all the impeachment proceedings happening on capitol hill later in the show. great to have you on the show. thanks, hallie. there may be a reversal when it comes to the president s plan to remove troops out of syria. you heard the defense secretary talk about it this morning. mark esper is in the middle east. that s why he s not going to be at the cabinet meeting in just a bit. he s talking about a plan that may keep a few hundred troops in the country. our forces will remain in the towns that are located near the oil fields. the purpose of the forces, a purpose of the forces, working with the sdf is to deny access to the oil fields by isis and others who may benefit from revenues that could be earned. nbc s chief foreign correspondent richard engel is live for us. richard, bring us up to speed on the developments over the last 24 hours. where do you see this going from here? reporter: so let me
but too much heat from the do-nothing radical left and their partner the fake news media. we also heard from the president s son basically along the lines of saying no good deed goes unpunish. the official line from the trump organization and the president is they would have saved the country money. less is being said on how doral isn t doing that well and isn t that profitable. we ll see to what extent the white house tries to reconcile all the competing story lines. if the president decides to talk at the meeting today, which he tends to, it s going to be a fun one. you re talking about the cabinet meeting that is set for just about 90 minutes from now. we ve seen these things go down in the past. everybody goes around the table, talks about the president. the president then speaks. one of the things i m watching for, we don t see the defense secretary there because he is traveling overseas and he is making some news on syria this morning. frankly, hans, feels like another walk-bac
constructive conversations with the president and the white house. reportedly he s still talking to him all the time. he does, indeed. his strategy has always been to try and steer and direct and when he decided to do the op ed about syria, i think he was speaking pretty loudly. he is not a shouting kind of a guy. i think back channelling is what he continues to try to do to help the president understand that some of the actions and policies may not exactly be in the best interest of say the country. and i think he s pretty loud and clear on syria. i think there s a lot of fraj dee that has gotten missed. this is a country that is trying to pull out of the sphere of russia. it has a lot of problems. it has corruption and a very weak economy. and right now this poor country is being dragged into a political on the united states and all it is trying to do is get russia out of its east, reinsert itself as an independent country and it s