the congress is going to join him in imposing tough sanctions this week leland: but why do this in the beginning? the president had this call with erdogan, our reporting is in that even his staff had no idea he was going to say, yeah, i m going to pull u.s. troops back, green lighting the invasion by erdogan. there s some reporting that the turks were even a little taken aback by how easily the president rolled on this. that s kind of concerning, isn t it? it is concerning in that what we re seeing in the aftermath of that if as general keane, as general mattis, the best military minds of our time have said this will inevitably lead to isis taking back over the region. that s what s concerning. what the president has to do here is now it s not too late for the president to notify erdogan. by the way, one of the biggest thugs on the world stage today, that we will retaliation. we won t leland: do you have any confidence that the president is going to do that? at this point
for almost 19 years now, and frankly it s ridiculous. with that being said, it s a dangerous place, and we always have to keep an eye on it. if you could one of the alternatives is going on right now. we re talking about a plan, i don t know whether or not the plan is going to be acceptable to me. maybe it s not going to be acceptable to them, but we are talking, we have good talks going, and we ll see what happens. this is more than other presidents have done. we are bringing some of our troops back, we have to have a presence, yes. could you clarify your position on background checks. after dayton and el paso, you seemed to be on board we have strong background checks. we do have i m not doing
politics, perhaps? well, ate little bit of both. president trump campaigned in 2015 and 2016 on withdrawing u.s. troops from some of these foreign entanglements and at the top of the list is the nerve ending war in afghanistan. this has been a priority of his and as he looks towards re-election now three years into office he s trying to make good on that promise. he wants to pull these troops back, but as you know it s a much more complicated picture than that. the meeting here in bedminster, new jersey yesterday was with the president, vice president pence, secretary of state, secretary of defense, they got a briefing from the u.s. envoy who has been doing these negotiations with the taliban and the initial plan under consideration as you just mentioned is to withdraw about 5,000 of the 14,000 u.s. troops who are currently in afghanistan in exchange the taliban would renounce al qaeda, the terrorist group but there s some republican opposition to this plan and it s not clear if a
chief has to read the briefing book, has to consult with foreign policy experts and ambassadors and generals and allies, and do it in a way that is smart. do it in a way that understands that right now in afghanistan, for example, right when i was there before the announcement went out, there was a whole process of reconciliation happening, where one of the bargaining chips was exactly that point. and so we need to have leadership in our country who makes the right decisions, which includes bringing our troops back, but do it in a way that is smart and strategic and not on a whim and not by a tweet. thanks, senator. [ applause ] the next question comes from joshua hughes. he s a drake university law student. joshua. thank you, senator harris. my question for you tonight is simple. in a society where nearly one in
conflicts gripping the middle east. the civil war in syria. militants on the march in iraq. warring militias in libya. our chief national security correspondent jim sciutto is joining us now with more on what s going on. it looks like this whole region, jim, seems to be on fire. well, wolf, it is. it is extremely dangerous. these are all areas where the u.s. is involved. and, in fact, has made firm policy stands. syria, not intervening there, withdrawing u.s. troops from iraq, sending troops back, participating in regime change in libya and attempting but being failing to engineer a peace agreement in the middle east between israel and the palestinians. now, today, each of those areas, for a variety of reasons, facing severe turmoil. in gaza, hopes for an immediate cease-fire today up in smoke even before it started. there are great risks and what happening there and the potential of the greater escalation of violence.