Weeks ago. Who was his birthday. Two 1 2 weeks ago. Yesterdays birthday was Vladimir Putin. And he may have given him the biggest Birthday Gift by withdrawing u. S. Troops from zbloo syria. That was about as big a birthday president Vladimir Putin could have had. Obviously donald trump not only helped the russians, he accepted syrians, isis, iranians. He just happened to hurt our one ally. And the comdem nations wendemna pretty strong. With the exception of rand paul and mike lee, i think most republicans came out, including Lindsey Graham whos been on board for just about everything. The president jumped head long into this based on one phone call from the president of turkey without any of the implications whatsoever and most troubling without consulting anyone at all just making this decision unilaterally. All right. Were going to talk about this much more with former aide to the george w. Bush administration elise jordan. The author of the book the a world in disarray richard haass. And National Security expert columnist of usa today and author of the book the death of expertise tom nichols. President trump spent yesterday defending his decision for withdraw troops from syria even as key republicans and allies urge him against leaving americas kurdish allies open to an assault from turkey. Multiple current and former u. S. Officials tell nbc news that the announcement blindsided not just americas kurdish partners in the fight against isis, but also senior officials at the pentagon, the state department, and the white house as well as lawmakers on capitol hill. And also, u. S. Allies in europe and the middle east. This is pretty fullthroated all around the world. The one person that the president did consult with before making that decision, turkish president erdogan. Why are you siding with a military leader and not our kurdish allies . Well, im not siding with anybody. Weve been in syria for many years. Syria was suppose tiebd shortterm hit, just a very shortterm hit. We were supposed to be in and out. I dont want anything bad to happen to our people and i told that to president erdogan. I said dont hurt any of our people get hurt, big trouble. Those remarks followed the president s tweet threatening to, quote, totally destroy and obliterate turkeys economy. Thats quite a threat. Yeah. If turkey, quote, does anything that i in my great and unmatched wisdom there are is the president talking, consider to be off limits. But many im sorry my great and unmatched wisdom . He has the great and unmatched wisdom of chief igham on the simpsons. Im just worried that the people that stand up for him many republicans dont see great and you matched wisdom in this syria decision, they see more crusty the clown or chief wigham. And actually, they are voicing their complaints. Yes. Lets roll the tape. Well i cant read the script if you dont roll the script. Thats the problem. There you go. They were voicing their opposition, mika. Theyre yelling at me read the script but i got it. Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell put out a statement saying in part a precipitous withdrawal of u. S. Forces from syria would only benefit russia, iran, and the assad regime and it would increase the risk that isis and other terrorist groups regroup. Thats Mitch Mcconnell. Lindsey graham, one of the president s strongest defenders slammed the move in a series of tweets yesterday. This is Lindsey Graham. He warned that the decision ensures an isis comeback. It forces kurds to align assad and iran. It destroys turkeys relationship with congress and said abandoning the kurds would be a stain on americas honor. Isis is not defeated, my friend. The biggest lie being told by the administration that isis is defeated. The caliphate destroyed. But there are thousands of does this have and know the caliphate would not have been destroyed without the occurred. This impulsive decision by the president has undone all the gains weve made, thrown the region into further chaos. Iran is licking their chops and if im an isis fighter ive got a second lease on live in t. This, to me, is nerve unnerving to its core. Go ahead, mika, go through this list. It appears are the president works for someone else. Rubio said reports of a u. S. Retreat are true. The Trump Administration has made a grave mistake. Former governor mike huckaby called it a huge miss stake to abandon kurds. Trumps performer sun Ambassador Nikki Haley said leaving the kurds to die is a big mistake. And senator ben sasse said this bad decision will likely result in the slaughter of allies. So literally Everybody Knows that people will die but yet the president continues. We also want to show you the reaction from longtime televangelist pat robinson. The president that allowed khashoggi to be cut in pieces without any repercussion whats is over is now allowing the christians and kurds to be massacred by the turks. And i believe, and i want to say this with great solemnity, the president of the United States is in danger of losing the mandate of heaven if he permits this to happen. Richard haass, of course the condemnation is almost universal. I want to follow up on something Lindsey Graham said. He said if im an isis fighter i have a second lease on life. Well, lindsey, though he often when defending the president just makes things up, in this case he has a pentagon study, an ig report to actually back him up the t up. The pentagon said there was a danger because of United States neglect, there was a danger of isis reforming. Once again causing the sort of chaos that they caused not only across the middle east, but in america and across the world. And this move yesterday could not donald trump could not have done more of a favor for is isis, iran, russia, turkey, all of these people who consider themselves to be our adversaries that he did. Is there any explanation that you can come up with . Well, the only explanation is the one the president keeps giving, that he was, quote unquote, elected to bring american troops home from the middle east and hes doing that. The consequences be damned. Theres zero chance the kurds, if theyre fighting for their lives against turkey, are going to have the capacity to continue to guard the thousands of isis fighters. So that and isis would be able to reconstitute itself. But this is part of a much larger piece. The desire to get the United States forces out of the afghanistan. Again, consequences be damned, given what the taliban could do. And so the consequences of this are not simply good for iran, good far russia and syria. It sends the message worldwide, it reinforces the message that the United States is no longer reliable. We are no longer predictable. We can no longer be counted on. So if youre an ally of the United States, this sentds the message essentially you are on your own. No matter what the Alliance Commitments or treaty commit mens, you are increasingly on your own no matter what sort of documents or papers or previous commitments have been there. This president essentially started from a blank slate and does not honor his inheritance. Lets bring in ayman go ahead, joe. I was just going to say, willie, its even worse than that. If you have fought along with the United States, if you have been the one true ally of the United States through over the past ten years of some pretty rough sledding, it was always the kurds and iraq, he would could depend on the kurds and syria that stayed with us, that were the fiercest fighters that always helped us move forward and get through these crises, they were our steadfast ally. The message, richard is right, is sent across the globe. Ive got to ask you quickly before you bring in ayman, we have a new poll out, a Washington Post poll came out and its curious that the president would make this decision. Im sure he was trying to just change the subject or maybe as we know with his phone calls from foreign leaders maybe he got something out of it because it certainly is not in americas best interest or our allies best interests. Its in isis best interests. But you saw those republicans attacking the president. I wonder why would he do this when the support for impeachment just grows by the day. Theres a Washington Post poll out this morning, willie, get this. Well get the numbers up in a minute. 58 of americans support the impeachment proceedings against donald trump. 58. Only 38 now oppose it. By a 20point spread, 58 to 38 according to this latest Washington Post poll, 58 of americans want this man to go through an impeachment inquiry. And thats after what the american. Public watched all week yesterday. We saw all week last week the president reeling in the question of impeachment. You saw rob portman of ohio, a republican senator showing cracks in his support yesterday talking to a local newspaper in ohio saying the president s conduct was inappropriate and unacceptable. Clearly this is on the president s mind. And we have to sprink until ther sprifrpg wi sprinkle in there, the president has two hotels in istanbul, turkey. His business hangs over everything he does. One more number for you then bring in aman. Whats that number . 49 of americans, 49 support impeachment and removal from office. Almost well, statistically, within the margin of error, half of americans support Donald Trumps removal from office. And i think part of it is you could read through the Mueller Report and so many republicans on the hill didnt read through it or a lot of americans didnt read through it. Theres a lot there to digest. But if you read it its obvious this president is not acting in americas best interest. But here you touch on something very important. He calls ukraine and this is a country recently invaded by russia. Hes holding up 391 million in defense money. Why . For his campaigns benefit. So he extorts the leader of a democratic ally. Americans can understand that. Misusing the office for his political gain. He makes a call to china, somebody that he has said is our enemy, but he calls china and hes talking and what does he do . He not only says it on tv, he says it in a phone call a couple months back reportedly and he says help my campaign out. I need you to investigate the guy whos ahead of me by nine points in the poll. Americans can understand that. In a few minutes were going to show this guys connections with turkey, his Financial Connections with turkey. Americans understand that. Why is it that hes nice to countries where gives him the most money . Russia . Why is it that he bends over backwards to help the saudis out when what did he say in the campaign in they like my toys. Theyve given me 150 million. Why is it that the philippines, everybody else is turning on the philippines because they have a savage leader there who doesnt respect any human rights, or norms . Why . This has got hotel prohibit there property there. And the same thing with turkey. Why is it every time he gets on the phone call with erdogan he gets off and he makes decisions that americans understand are not in our best interest. Whether youre on fox news, fox and friends, or whether youre on the 700 club Pat Robertson, or are whether youre a guy that goes golfing with donald trump and youve completely forsaken everything that you believed in with john mccain with constitutional norms, Lindsey Graham, all of these people understand none of this is in americas best interest. It all has to do with what we always say . The bottom line. It always comes back to the bottom line for donald trump. And now i think thats why 49 of americans want him removed from office. 50 what is it 58 of americans support this impeachment inquiry. Remember, this is the very, general mattis left the administration over this question of syria and getting out of syria. We dont have general mattis next to the president because of that. Why does the president give erdogan a pass time and again . It was just a couple years ago, ayman, when the security guards on american soil in washington beat up Peaceful Protesters as erdogan watched. Charges were dropped. Time and again this president gives a pass to erdogan. But lets talk about whats happening on the ground, this surprise not just to the sdf, but to allies around the world, to the pentagon, to the state department, the surprise decision. Imagine youre the commander in the field leading the sdf. You get a call at 3 00 a. M. Yesterday morning to stand down and american troops are leaving your side, a complete surprise to that commander. And the first thing youre probably thinking of is all your troops and people youve had on the front lines are now exposed in someway, shape or form. Theyre going to be exposed from the turkish side that they could start shelling certain positions inside syria, they could advance. Theres all kinds of calculations the turks have to go through before they take on that risk. But the green light has been giventor them to beg given for them to begin some kind of remote air strikes that weve seen in the past. But it ends the quiet norm that had been existing. The Syrian Government and russian backers have made clear that they wouldnt tolerate any invasion or military operation by turkey in syrian sovereign territory. Theyre going to try to win over the kurds and offer them some concession to bring them back into the fold to keep the integrity of that country in place. You can see yourself opening another front between turkey and syria. You talked about the fact that president erdogan has snubbed President Trump on many times, including most recently when the American Military told turkey do not buy those russian surface to air missiles. That was a very big decision. What did turkey do . They totally snubbed the americans saying we will buy these despite the fact that america and nato said no. What does President Trump do . A couple weeks after that decision he turns around and grants turkey something theyve been pushing for for years, a green light to attack kurds inside syria. Lets talk about the relationship between president s trump and erdogan. The white house announced President Trumps pull out shortly after his phone call with president erdogan. It marks the second time in less than a year that President Trump announced a major troop withdrawal from syria immediately following a phone call with erdogan. Those are just two instances in a trend in which erdogan has had his way with President Trump. In may of 2017,s a mentioned just minutes after a immediate meeting with trump in the oval office, he was seen on camera ordering his security detail to assault a group of Peaceful Protesters on embassy row in washington. American protesters. Trump still has not comment hand to incident and charges against the turkish saassail quadrants were dropped later. They took positions against the protest of the white house. The Trump Administration ejected turkey from the f35 Fighter Jet Program in response, however, President Trump has declined to implement sanctions which were threatened and would be warp warranted for buying russianmade defense systems. Sunday, nbc news learned that the call initially was instigated to quell erdogans growing rage over not getting a sitdown with President Trump last month at the United Nations general assembly. So the reporting nbc news has is that basically donald trump was trying to get erdogan off the phone because he was mad that he didnt get to have the one on one with him here in new york a couple of weeks ago and said, okay, go into syria. The art of the deal. So what exactly is america, is our National Interest get prg this rash decision that donald trump makes . Because apparently he wants to get an authoritarian that he lets do whatever he wants otherwise even on u. S. Soil go ahead. This process, id like to compare and contrast a little bit with the afghan peace negotiations. You have actually whatever you think the deal that was being worked out, you had a yearlong process. And it was a serious process. And two warring factions were going to move to the next stage and go to oslo. You had dump insert himself into the process, boom, it blows up. There was one similarity between the two that is really uncomfortable. In both cases, we totally undermine our friend. We ignore the democratically elected government. Which had been our ally and now weve ignored the kurds. What does this is a if youre an american ally . We will just turn on you. It Means Nothing and instead we will placate our foes. The consequences of this are big and theyre lasting and theyre global. As bad as they are for the middle east, they are even worse for the entire world. Lets bring in one of the authors of that nbc news report ive been mentioning, carol lee. Walk us through this decisionmaking process. The president said, quote, i consulted with everybody. That was i had blanket response when asked who helped him make this decision, i consulted with everybody. Thats not borne out in your reporting. Tell us why president erdogan was so upset and the president , according to your report, trump tried to snooth over by sayimoo saying ill get our people out of the way so you can go into turkey . The backdrop between the phone call was the u. N. General Assembly Meeting that didn