your reaction to the offensive that we ve seen play out over the last few hours against these kurdish forces that have been allied with the united states in its fight against isis for a number of years now. thank you for having me. my reaction is that this is a tragedy. as you mentioned, i did have the opportunity to travel to the region, both to turkey and the syrian/jordanian border with a bipartisan delegation from armed services, foreign affairs and intel committee. we landed on the ground to this news of this president s decision to withdraw. it was literally jaw dropping. bipartisanly we couldn t understand having met with so many people in the region, that that was the decision our president decided to move forward with. did you get an opportunity to get a chance to speak with any of the local officials there on the ground? what was their assessment of and reaction to president trump s decision? well, we were not there during the time that that decision was made. we were t
matt bradley for us on the ground in iraq. courtney kube for us in washington keeping a close eye on what is playing out in syria right now. again, live pictures there. they are seven hours ahead of us here on the east coast, just after 6:20 there in this particular part of syria. we will continue to, of course, monitor this situation very closely. in a few moments i ll talk with congresswoman chrissy houlihan, one of a group of lawmakers who just got back from the syrian border. we ll talk about what she saw on the ground. also, as we turn back to politics, elizabeth warren might be cutting into joe biden s lead, but perhaps not where it may matter most ultimately. the major challenge that the senator from massachusetts is facing in winning a key group of democrats, black voters. nice. but, uh.
hours before. but it definitely struck us as we landed on the ground on american soil as being almost the exact bipolar opposite of what we heard from meeting with senior officials as well as officials from the jordanian forces and afghanistan forces as well. i was there a number of years ago in jordan with the u.n. ambassador, congresswoman. for folks who are watching and listening on sirius satellite radio, can you explain in the simplest of terms our national interest in this particular part of the world, in this region? sure. i think one of my responsibilities as a member of congress is to educate. we should be very concerned even though it s a very far away place. syria and in particular the kurds have been fighting for us on behalf of us for a very long time and side by side with us, to make sure we are able to tamp down isis among other very dangerous people. if we don t care about syria in
the top tier? it will be interesting. i think one of the things that could happen is some of the black support that bernie sanders has right now which is younger black people, because joe biden is voters over 45, black people excuse me, bernie sanders is younger voters, millennials. i think some of that millennial support may gravitate to a warren or another candidate like kamala harris. i think only time will tell. zerlina maxwell, thank you so much. a big thanks to you as well, thomas kaplan. now that the offensive has started there in syria, what, if anything, can congress do to help the u.s. ally kurdish forces? we ll talk about that with a lawmaker who just returned from the middle east.
administration, complied with those requests. nbc s vaughn hillyard in highway. we ll keep an eye on your reparting. that does it for this hour of msnbc live. craig melvin picks up our coverage now from new york. hallie jackson, good to see you, my friend. coming up on msnbc headquarters in new york city, declaring war in the impeachment inquiry. a new front emerges in the fight for documents and testimony as the white house accuses democrats of trying to reverse the 2016 election and violating the constitution. nancy pelosi firing back, warning of more legal jeopardy for this president. also, turkey acts. just three days after president trump s ap bankrupt decision to pull u.s. troops, turkish forces have started their military operation in northeast syria, reinforcing fears of what will happen to one of our key allies. and too big shifts in the 2020 democratic race. bernie sanders changing up his campaign after his heart attack