isis in the middle east is quitting. president trump says his quitting is no big deal. is it? it s a very big deal because not only was he the envoy to the coalition fighting isis and importantly was a close ally of general and defense secretary mattis. and with mattis going and new fallings right after it, it s a one-two punch for showing the world that president trump is losing some of the best talent that he has in the government that he had in the government and it s very destabilizing for people to think what can this president do he s done not so well with good support, what will he do without this support. we re at very critical juncture in this presidency and what s come of it so far, natalie. all right. we ll wait and see what happens next with this story and, of course, the government shutdown. peter matthews, always really appreciate your insights. thank you. take care, natalie. still ahead this hour, we ll continue to follow the
finished briefing partners that the u.s. would stay in syria when he learned president trump had reversed course. his resignation on friday came just one day after u.s. defense secretary james mattis quit over the same thing. and this tweet from the u.s. president claiming not to know his own envoy. he belittled mcgurk as a obama holdover and quote grand stander who is going to leave the administration soon any way. joining me now is political analyst peter matthews a frequent guest of our program. peter, thanks for being with us. good to be with you, natalie. all right. it s the holidays. happy holidays to you. i don t know how much happy holidays is going around washington because this is the first time in 40 years the government will have been closed three times in one year. and now congress says, well, we ll take it up after christmas. what do you think of the impasse and who is to blame for it?
midterm shows that people who wants to fix the immigration flob a better way won the landslide victory. i don t know why trump didn t see that and seeing that the wrong approach is what he s doing right now. if he does not get his wall, then what for his re-election chances? well, i ll tell you what, i don t think as it s going right now he ll get re-elected to begin with. if he doesn t get his wall, he ll probably lose some his hard core support. he won t gain anyone else s support because of all the other things he s done that s jeopardized the country and the policies of the country and the feel of who we really are as a people. he won t win either way in my view. if he changes his ways, it might help a little bit. i m not sure it will be enough to get over the top in 2020. let s discuss the top story, the secretary of defense quitting in part over mr. trump s decision to pull troops out of syria and not brett mcgurk, a special envoy fighting
be willing to entertain has caused headaches for some lawmakers who really have no idea what kind of deal the president might support beyond that hard line stance for $5 billion. vice president mike pence is leading negotiations for the white house side, but earlier this week pence told lawmakers that the president might be inclined to sign that temporary spending deal, something that turned out not to be true. but heading into christmas, both sides appear very entrenched. washington appears poised to enter what could be a lengthy shutdown. the president canceling his plans to travel to west palm beach, florida, over the holiday amid the legislative log jam. sarah westwood, cnn, the white house. and that s not the only thing the president is facing. a second senior u.s. official has quit over president trump s decision to pull u.s. troops out of syria. the person, brett mcgurk worked as a u.s. special envoy to the international coalition fighting isis. he was in iraq and had just
well, they almost had a compromise worked out just a few days ago and then president trump said he wanted money for the wall and not backing down because what happened was someone on fox news said he was backing down, he shouldn t do that. he says, no, i m not going for the deal and the deal was off. the whole thing ended up falling apart. i would blame him the most for it actually in the end. yeah. do you think the president is surprised that the hardliners will hold him to this wall? he did promise it. he did say mexico would pay for it. that s not going to happen. then he seems willing to compromise but then those who really believe in him say, wait a minute, you re not doing us right. he s always concerned about those really hard core right wingers who he may lose, few percent among them could cost him the election next time he thinks. at this point he s not going to be able to win because 30%