pause in fighting and any skirmishes that have been taking place. at the moment it s pretty quiet here. just a mile behind me is the turkey/syria border and beyond that is the kurdish city of ras al-ain. yesterday morning we saw heavy clashes unfolding here, despite the cease-fire. this morning is a different story. we ve only really seen small arms fire sporadic, mortar fire. nevertheless, the kurds continue to allege that turkey is violating the cease-fire arrangement that s been brokered by the united states, the sdf putting out a statement saying that the turkish military is stopping the creation of a safe corridor in ras al-ain, which would allow civilians and injured out and humanitarian aid in. so far we ve seen no evidence to corroborate those claims. we haven t heard from turkey on that. nevertheless there are serious
i think the turkish army will continue the assault on the kurds. hopefully it will not be general si cide. but we ve heard the genocide we should have sanctions until we see that there is a real truth to what the turkish say they will do. the president has had quite the victory lap since the cease-fire was brokered between theot the kurds. here s what else he had to say about it. i want to thank and congratulate president erdogan, he s a friend of mine. i m glad we didn t have a problem. because frankly he s a hell of a leader and he s a tough man, he s a strong man. and he did the right thing. i really appreciate it and i will appreciate it in the future. a hell of a leader, tough man, strong man. what do you think of erdogan. he hangs around with tough
a little bit of hard love, i told you that. a little, it was a lot of pain for a couple of days. and sometimes you have to go through some pain before can you get a good solution. but the kurds are very happy about it. president erdogan in turkey is satisfied with it. and we are in a very strong position. kevin and francesca are back with me. let s pick up on where the president left off right there. is anyone in the president s inner circle supportive of this syria policy decision? well republicans certainly supportive of the foreign policy decision as mitch mcconnell coming out to blast the decision, pretty rare within the republican party. they re usually fairly in lock-step with trump. even if they don t necessarily privately agree with everything he does, so that was pretty significant. but you ve also heard almost every other major republican in congress and in the senate come
ignoring his critics. we ve had tremendous success i think over the last couple of days, a little bit unconventional. a little bit of hard love. president trump defended his withdrawal from syria. dismissing fears we have isis totally under guard. rejecting the deadly consequences for u.s. allies targeted by turkey. so you have the kurds who we re dealing with, i m very happy about the way things are going. clearly unhappy republican senate majority leader mitch mcconnell who published a stinging rebuke. without naming the president, he calls his syrian decision a grave strategic mistake. that will embolden our enemies and weaken important ail lineses, but painting his move as a success, the president also offered a head-scratching claim without evidence. we ve taken control of the oil in the middle east. the oil that we re talking