michael flynn putting some things on hold when the obamas said, look, we ll go ahead and do it, and that way, the heat won t be on the trump white house in its opening weeks, but flynn putting it on hold. so, i think what we have here is it goes to the nuance of all of this. not all of it very clear cut. two great examples. did michael flynn put things on hold because it served his business interests with the turks? did he put on hold because the trump administration wasn t ready to commit to new policy on isis and wanted a chance to review everything? still a lot of nuance in some of these issues, kate. a lot of nuance, but you really hit on the perfect question. barbara starr, thank you so much for bringing that to us. i appreciate it. neda, let me get your reaction to that breaking news. how significant is this? that s very significant. when it comes to intelligence operations, putting anything on hold and possibly for a foreign power that does not have u.s. interests at heart i
plan that the obama administration had to retake raqqah, the capital of isis, which is one of the key goals in the fight against that organization. flynn pretty much, according to sources we re talking to, put that plan on hold. now, why did he put it on hold? that s going to wind up being a key question. did he put it on hold because he had also had business dealings with the turks, personal business dealings, and the turks didn t want to see the u.s. necessarily move against raqqah? or did he put it on hold because the trump administration was going to do this big review of the isis strategy going forward and they weren t ready to commit to anything? the same issue coming up now with the obama administration on the plan to arm the kurds, which we ve now seen happen under the trump administration. right. those kurdish rebels that are going to help retake raqqah. this was all happening during the transition, a lot of decisions back and forth.
the obama plan, they were actually going to use the kurds as part of the incursion to go into raqqah and fight isis. so, of course, that s not going to be in turkey s best interests. they don t want to see us arming the kurds. so, it wouldn t be unrealistic to see turkey putting pressure on flynn to then ask him to put that plan on hold. and if i m understanding the timeline correctly, trump didn t actually complete that plan, put it into place, until after flynn had been let go. that s right. that s right. let me just say, this is exactly why it is a monumental problem that michael flynn took money from the turks. this is why these rules are in place. yes, because he could be compromised. even if he didn t do it because he got money from them, the appearance is that he possibly could, and that in and of itself is a humongous problem. it certainly is, and i do think it s worth underscoring just how extraordinarily loyal trump has been to flynn over
and kurdish forces. many backed by the u.s. in the fight further south to retake raqqah and other areas to push isis out. so as the skirmishes continue, the u.s. moving in trying to keep peace in the region so the rebels the u.s. wants to fight rack kqqah can continue to do t and not diverted along the fight along the border. it is politically vital. the u.s. wants continued access to the turkish air bases. the turks are upset that the u.s. is in the reason. barbara, thank you for that. instead of getting roasted at the white house correspondents rival event attacking? guess who. let s rate the media s 100 days. they are a disgrace. every time donald trump goes golfing, the headline should
so for anyone looking for a new approach, that s not what the world is hearing. you have the secretary of state and secretary of defense saying after that meeting in about washington that the strategy right now, that the goal for the trump administration is to achieve the denuclearization of the peninsula and ratchet down the tensions by working with partners to strengthen sanctions and look for economic and diplomatic measures here. that is everyone s first choice option. a lot of maneuvers, but still the dynamics remain the same. alex field live for us in seoul. thank you. president trump giving the pentagon the power to set troop levels in the fight against isis in iraq and syria. it allows defense sect james mattis to determine if more u.s. troops are needed to retake raqqah and syria.sect james mattis to determine if more u.s. troops are needed to retake raqqah and syria. pentagon officials say it does not change current troop deployment numbers. let s take a look at what is