An aid, investigations, quid pro quo demanded by President Trump. Ambassador taylor testified and gave the most sweeping and devastating testimony about President Trumps efforts to shake down the ukrainian government. Mr. Trump calls the charge a hoax. I had a perfect conversation with the president of ukraine. And goes after ambassador taylor. Hes a never trumper and his lawyer is a never trumper. While his lawyers are quiet on the evidence and make false claims of being shot out of hearings. Maybe they do that in the soviet union, thats not acceptable to the United States of america. Ill talk to the chair, akeem jeffreys of new york. Joining me for insight and analysis are, nbc news chief Foreign Correspondent andrea mitchell. Foreign home secretary james johnston, amy walter, National Editor of the cook report and lonnie chang. Welcome to sunday. Its meet the press. From nbc news in washington, the longestrunning show in television history, this is a special edition of meet the press with chuck todd. Good sunday morning. We have breaking news, commandos carried out a raid overnight in Northern Syria, along the border with turkey. President trump just said isis leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi is among the dead. The president made the announcement, himself, this morning. Last night the United States brought the worlds number one terrorist leader to justice. Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi is dead. He was the founder and leader of isis. The most ruthless and violent Terror Organization anywhere in the world. Nbc news analyst evan coleman said this would be a crippling effect for isis and there are few recognized candidates to replace him. Joining me now from syria is Richard Engel, our chief correspondent. Richard, there is a symbolic element to this, death of al baghdadi and possibly an operational one. Walk us through both and what you continue to learn. Reporter so a lot of detail in the president s remarks just a short while ago. A shocking amount of detail, really. You normally dont get that level of specific information about these highly secretive raids carried out by special elite forces. But President Trump laid it out. He seemed to want the world to know how this happened, that he was watching, that American Special operators flew in, it took them an hourandahalf, eight helicopters landed, that they blew a hole through the wall of a compound and that they killed apparently a number of body guard and that Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi was crying and screaming, he was hiding in a tunnel. He was flushed out with a dog. Tremendous specificity. I think to a degree, thats going to help his case. Hes going to try to humiliate isis, to just say you were defeated, you didnt just lose your caliphate, your leader died crying and whimpering as he was underground chased by a dog. I think the president had a strong message against isis that is going to be hard for isis to counter. Because they did, in fact, lose their state and now they have lost their leader. The other part, however, when he talked about middle east policy and how the United States is changing its interests and its going to protect the oil sent a very different message, however, a very powerful message that is not going to be lost around the world. It was the kurds in syria who have been fighting against isis for the last five years. They got one brief mention. Then President Trump said that hes still with turkey. He spent more time thanking turkey and syria than he did with the kurds who have been fighting with the u. S. Against isis for the last five areas who right now are under attack. He once again said those kurds should leave their homes, they should go live around some oil fields, where they have never, ever lived in their existence. And President Trump said, well, its no big deal, they can just move a few miles. It is not a few miles. The safe zone that President Trump talked about today is the displacement of the kurdish people. So, yes, he was very strong. He wanted to humiliate isis and rub their nose in this military defeat, but his message on overall syria policy and overall middle east policy i think is still going to be very controversial and very disruptive and a lot of people will say the u. S. Betrayed the allies that led to this moment. All right, Richard Engel in Northern Syria for us. Richard, thanks very much. Joining me now is the new National Security adviser for the president. You heard President Trump talk about him. Robert obrien, ambassador brian, welcome to meet the press. Thank you, its quite a day. Quite a day to have your first appearance here on meet the press. So let me start with the president s decision to share so many details of al baghdadis death, following up on something Richard Engel said, it seemed that it was important to the president that the world know how he died. Explain. I think today is a great day for the occupation of america and a gait day freat day for th. This was the number one wanted person in the world. Hes a brutal terrorist. The president went into detail. We can talk more about that its also important the United States has a long reach and the men and women executed the mission flawlessly, took him down and his colleagues that are still alive should be worried. Lets talk about a few things of the details the president gave us a lot of details. He talked about how al baghdadi aheard to have died. Can you explain how we can confirm, where, do we have dna of him already . Where would we have gotten it . How can we confirm this . We have dna, visual on him. The dna has been exploited, its been confirmed a couple hours ago. We had an eyewitness account. Did you see him . We have a picture of you in the situation room, the president said it played out like movie. Did you guys see al baghdadi . Im not getting into letting folks know what we saw or didnt see in the situation room. Those technical capabilities are something im not going to talk about today. I can tell you today u. S. Forces had eyes on baghdadi. We confirmed his death and took dfa and confirmed the dfa from previous samples we had. Is his body still in custody . His body will be dissupposed of properly. To the extent the president said he died blowing up pulling at his, thing tole on his vest. Do you imagine we will follow the same protocol with osaddam saddam . I would expect that would be the case. The president thanked russia first, the kurds last. Should we read into that . No, i dont think you should read into that. I think what the president talked about it was a Dangerous Mission for our troops and the president made a courageous decision not to send them to foreign Enemy Territory at night long range helicopter raid. It was a courageous decision on the president. But it was incredible bravery and skill of our men and women in the armed forces and the Intelligence Commission to commit this flawlessly, but they had to fly over areas where significant antiaircraft capability. The syrians, the turks, others. So i think we appreciate the fact that our helicopters an our plane e planes werent molested. The kurds played an Important Role and we are grateful for the kurd and the sdf and our allies there. General mazloum said this was a fivemonth campaign to track him of sort . Was that a fair discrimination in some cases we are tracking him daytoday . I think its a fair description. You can imagine theyre Quiet Professionals that work for other agencies of u. S. Government and heavily involved. The president was aware of this effort. And we thought we had a beat on him thursday friday for sure. The president made a difficult decision to put men in harms way. He did that and it worked. And so it was a good day for the United States, a good day for our armed forces and for the president. The way the president said turkey was informed, seemed to be that it sound like you really minimized what turkey was to know about this operation. Is it fair to say more so than perhaps any of the entities involved in that area . Look, secretary pompeo, general millie, secretary esper were involved in alerting their colleagues in these other countries that there was a mission taking place. Turkey, the president seemed to be concerned that turkey could fire on our folks. I wasnt concerned. Turkey is a fellow member of nato. Look, we were flying over other countries we wanted make sure our men were safe. General millie and secretary esper did a great job of reaching out and maid making sure we had an egress and ingress and our troops were protected. The president made comments this morning, does he believe we own the oil fields or that we control them . What is his understanding of our role in these oil fields . Look, i think the point the president made is isis controlled these oil fields and isis was deriveing great income from the oil fields. We took together with the kurds took control of the oil fields. We will stand over them for a period of time to make sure they dont fall back into isis hand. They have been providing income for the kurd, hospitals, schools, sdf, we are there, we took control from isis. The folks that had them before the syrians could not protect them from isis. So we will be there for a period of time to maintain control of those and make sure that there is not a resurgence of isis and make sure the kurds have some revenues from the oil fields. 100 of the oil fields long to the kurds . Look, im not going to get into any sort of. The kurds have been using the oil revenue. I understand up until now. But Going Forward, that going to continue to be the case . Well have to work that out. As the president said, there will be deals made. They should not fall back in the hands of isis. We want to make sure the kurd versus some source of oil revenue. Look, and, obviously, we dont have laws governing there, the way we would govern here with land. How is it that we are determining who owns that oil . Who is going to determine who owns that oil . Well, isis had the oil, we took it back from isis, so who owns this ultimately . Thats something the president said well have to work out. What id like to focus on is not the oil fields, we had a great day. The president brought this up. So where do we get the right to determine who controls these oil fields . The kurd itses are there. We have forces working with the kurd itself and were if control of those oil fields now. Well have to see what happens. The president said thats something were looking into. Were staying in control to make sure isis doesnt get them. I want to focus on what happened. This leader al baghdadi was the most vishts mcious man. I had a chance to peek with diane foley this morning. We finally brought justice to a man that beheaded the three americans, two journalists and a humanitarian and Caleb Mueller working as a humanitarian, a great young girl, one of the things general millie did is named the operation gem joint chiefs of staff named the operation that took down after Kayla Mueller after what she had suffered. And that was something that the people should know, but justice was brought to those americans who were so brutally killed as were others as the president pointed out. Richard engel, when these reports came out, he noted this was an area controlled by al qaeda, an option of al qaeda. You know this area really well. You i dont these offshoots really well, who was actually at war at times with al baghdadi. Now here they are perhaps was giving him shelter. The indication was perhaps he got turned in, if you will. That this may have been an inside hit by al qaeda and isis. Is there something to this . I think thats total speculation. Thats not something im aware of. So, maybe, you know. Other sources. Let me put it another way. What terrorist organizations are you most concerned about now . Now with al baghdadi gone, no obvious replacement and obviously, they care a lot about personalities in a little bit of that who is the biggest threat now that remains in that area . Look, there are a number of threats in the area. Number 1, eastern is the largest state sponsored terrorism. We are not talking iran this morning, there are huge states supporting hamas, hezbollah, the houthis in yemen. Theyre in syria, we got to be concerned about iran every day in that region. We had supposedly 100 isis fighters that escaped those prisons during the turkish safe zone period there. What do we know about that folks . I think thats twitter intel as well. Ive seen that as well, i think the sdf is dog good job at keeping the isis fighters . Lock, there were several thousand under sdf and turkish controls. We made it clear to the kurd itself and others in the region, we need to keep those folks under lock and key. So you know i think its and will continue to do that. Look, were looking for isis wherever it might reemerge. This was a huge win for the president. The president came into office. He was given a plate of Foreign Policy challenges that were probably more difficult for any president coming into office than any president since truman who took opposite since the second world war, hes defeated with respect to isis, he defeated the physical caliphate, which is the size of great britain. We have taken out the leader. I can tell you, it was grit news, 7 15 local time. The commander of the mission called and said 100 confidence jackpot. When we heard that. Jackpot meant . Al baghdadi. 100 jackpot over. That was great news for us. It was great news for the American People and great news for everyone in the world and the region. One of your jobs is to sometimes you take in a whole bunch of policy ideas and policy debates, in some way as a National Security adviser, youre the moderator when it comes to the debates between pentagons, states, sometimes the president. There is going to be a debate amongts some that says, mr. President , our presence here is what allowed us to get this. The president may view this as this is, hey, see, we can do both. Smaller foot print and do this should we assume that type of president sees this . I think its a process question. He asked, its the president s agenda were going to implement. I didnt come to this job as National Security adviser with my own agenda, others may have in the past. My best job is to get the best from the ic, the Treasury Department and give those options to the president. The president has a chance to look at those option and make the best decisions for the American People. If he asks my advice, ill give it to him. At the end of the day, hes the commanderinchief and he will make the decision like over the last couple days and last fight, it was a tough decision to put men and women at risk. He made those tough decisions. We will implement them. Are you comfortable to say no to him . Look, its not my job to say no to him . You believe its not your job. I wasnt elected president. Its my job to make sure he gets the very best options and advice from his cabinet secretaries and other advisers. Its my job to give him my best advice, my unvarnished opinion of what may happen. Are you willing to disagree with him privately and say, mr. President , i dont, this is the advice i would give . I dont think you should take that had vice . The president is going to get my very best advice. He may decide he wants to go with that had vice. He may decide not to go with that had vice. My advice might be different than secretary esper or secretary millie might say. He will ultimately get the best information and ultimately make his decision. Russia, are they an ally of the United States in this fight and isis, are they an adversary in the United States in this situation with ukraine . How would you describe it . Let me make it very clear. Russia is not an ally of the United States, the president doesnt believe that, i dont think so. The first country he thanked today. There are times when our interest overlaps with the interests of russia. Last night it overlapsed. We didnt want russian air missiles executed to our men and women in this raid. And they dont like isis as the president pointed out. Last night our interests overhappened with russia. When our interests overlap with russia, there is no reason we shouldnt work with them. Have been not an ally of the United States. Russia presents a great danger to the United States and something we deep an eye on every single day. When it comes to the situation in ukraine and what Russian Forces are doing right now, threatening and killing ukrainians, how much of a concern is that to you . Its a big concern. I wrote about this long before i was in government. I went to the ukraine to monitor the elections back if 2014. When i went from in 2014, ukrainians were looking at me and saying we cant get bullet proof vest, kevlar, we cant defend ourselves. You are sending us blankets and mres. The United States was once the arsenal of democracy, you are giving us nothing. And since this president took office, we have given lethal aid to the ukrainians, anticrane weapons and we supported them robustly. If you talk to the ukrainians facing off against either russian supported militias or irregulars or dissidents, armed dissidents in eastern ukraine, theyre much happier w