and that was all the talk i m told on the floor of the senate when members of congress came back. and, again, the whole reason for this blow-up is because the president got his head handed to him with a major and very important vote yesterday. in the house of representatives where the majority of his fellow republicans rebuked him on his decision in syria and what it has done to the u.s. allies there in the fight against isis, the kurds, as we ve been talking about. that is at the core of all of this behavior. jeffrey, can i tie this together a little bit with the impeachment inquiry? because the president lost on the floor of the house yesterday, 2-1, on the syria vote. and it also seems he s losing a little bit in the process here on impeachment. the white house is trying to stonewall. they re trying to utilize the strategy with the mueller investigation and the congressional inquiries. but the wall is crumbling
and, you know, there s a couple political di naj ynamics at wor. i think there s a cynical perhaps perception on the part of republicans that the american public doesn t care that much about foreign policy, that it s essentially a far away conflict. and that makes it easier for them to speak out in the way that they would like. there s a sense they might actually influence the president on foreign policy moves because they ve done it before. remember, he threatened to pull out of syria before they walked him back. obviously, it s too late for that to happen now. so i do think they think they can influence him on foreign policy. and number three, it underscores the extent to which republicans never actually endorse donald trump s america first version of foreign policy. they are just not with him. many people inside his own administration do not support this policy. and so i think you re seeing republicans actually say what they think for a change. while we have you, i do want to ask
first, the most tragic. we learned democratic congressman elijah cummings passed away overnight. a passionate leader, a gifted orator, a champion of transparency. cummings was respected, even loved by members on both sides of the aisle. his office says he passed away early this morning of complications from longstanding health challenges. cummings had been in and out of the hospital. he did play a key role in the impeachment inquiry of trump. he was first elected in 1996. congressman elijah cummings of maryland, just 68 years old. and we ll talk more about that. but this. just moments ago, vice president pence arrived in ankara, turkey. he is there along with secretary of state mike pompeo to try to broker a cease-fire to the fighting that began in syria when president trump withdrew u.s. troops. any moment now, we can see the vice president meeting with
dated the exact same day that turkey s leader ordered the invasion of syria. in other words, utterly disregarding the president of the united states. it s just such a devastating blow to america s standing and authority in the world. and it s got to be humiliating for these republicans who are out there today. you have the secretary of state and the vice president in ankara, the turkish capital. is this the policy that they want to represent? they can t even articulate what it is. but people are treating this as an outlier. i think it s important to note as well, that this is very consistent with how donald trump has operated on the world stage and represented the united states of america since day one of his presidency. remember how he talks all the time about the beautiful letters that he exchanges with kim jong-un. we can only imagine the contents, but i would suspect they re quite similar in tone and content to this letter that we ve just seen. what i find amazing, i m sure
tensions are escalating in the middle east following the strike on the saudi arabian oil facilities. the u.s., saudi arabia and other allies are blaming tehran for that attack and warning for president trump during his address to the general assembly last week, calling on world leaders to act against iran s, quote, blood lust. joining us right now is the former prime minister of qatar, hamad bin al sani. thanks for joining us. do you believe iran is responsible for the attacks on the saudi oil field? i don t have the facts of this, but i think all the tension in the region is related to each other. from yemen to lebanon, to syria, to iraq, to the tech between the u.s. and iran, i think the tension between the u.s. and iran, i think all of this is related, and there is acts from both sides. maria: if you were to find out definitively that iran was