took the medicaid expansion that are looking to keep money in the bill that the house bill cut out. that s going to be one of the big sticking points. i feel better already about our job. they re important discussions. i think we do better than most, but you re right we should do more. thank you. again, a rare moment of unity. i don t really mean it that way because i m actually blaming you. i ll just do it more after the show. all right. so did russia bill isis leader al-baghdadi? that s their claim, that they may have. we have new perspective if spes for you next. is is the new guy? hello, my name is watson. you know wine, huh? i know that you should check vineyard block 12. block 12? my analysis of satellite imagery shows it would benefit from decreased irrigation. i was wondering about that. easy boy. nice doggy. what do you think? not bad.
where many times these claims have been brought up. but before the united states, before the coalition comes forward with any kind of confirmation, we want to be 100% accurate and correct. so while i have you there is word that 4,000 more troops will be deployed to afghanistan. general mattis has said we re not winning there right now. it put us at about 12,000 troops on the ground. what should the american people know about how it s going where you are? well, i think it is fair to say that isis losses are undeniable and irreversible. in the course of the last two and a half years since the coalition has been supporting our iraqi security force partners and syria, isis has lost more than 40,000 square miles of ter rory. we have been able to libber rate
people back in their homes. so the progress and the trends of what we are doing here in iraq and syria are definitely moving in the right direction. rocca, the de facto capital and their twin capital in mosul, the largest isis stronghold ever are both being liberated right now as we speak. thank you for the update and the analysis of these headlines. we appreciate. thank you for your service. please stay safe. let s bring in john kirby for more on this. john, do you share the kern ker skepticism? i do. i think it s all been covered so well there is not much more i can add. i share skepticism over the fact
elusive for years now. he is believed to be moving location regularly. it is inconceivable that he would still be in, a, rocca and, b, be meeting with a big group like this. there is certainly a lot of questions. if it turns out this is true, of course, it would be a huge propaganda victory for the russians and it would also be a significant blow for isis. though, the group has continued with its attacks throughout the muslim holy month of ramadan. thank you very much. let s get to the ground and those trying to verify whether or not al-baghdadi is dead. joining us now is the jokspokes live in baghdad. we hope you and your men and women are safe there serving your country. what do you make of this news? well, first of all, we cannot confirm these reports. if these reports are true, then
that there was even a strike to begin with. i don t think we ve confirmed that. this zone is not where they tell us what they re hitting and when. it is simply they re in this area. there is no evidence right now there was even a strike. it is important to remember the russians do not have the same precision capabilities we do. even if there was a strike, that it was this precise, i find that very dubious. one of the things that president trump ran on was his strategy or ability to fight isis and that it was going to be quick. do you have a sense of what his administration is doing right now to fight isis? i think we re getting more and more information, but i don t think we have enough. i don t think it s been thoroughly vetted by them and certainly not well articulated to the american people. we talked about this the other day. largely, when the president speaks about this threat, he does so in militaristic terms only. yes, there is a military role. we ve been saying that for a c