that defeat is enduring. trump says defeated and mcgurk says not defeated, no one is that naive. who is right here? how do we see isis in terms of how strong they are right now? well, look. it s clear they have been weakened over time starting with the obama administration right through today. the united states has made a lot of progress. it s also clear they haven t gone away and many officials are saying this is not over, the risk remains, the battle continues. president trump seems to be the outlier here and his own officials have been saying otherwise. that is part of what is going on with the reaction to the pull-out. part of this is about substance, opposition to the pullout and part of it process. when there is no clarity of what needs to happen next, impromptu fashion and leaving allies and
until the president and senate democrats have reached an agreement. white house officials say the president is not budging from his demand for $5 billion for a border wall. president trump, if you want to open the government, you must abandon the wall. plain and simple. the other big story of the day is lawmakers battle it out over a border wall battle. the next session is thursday. not the shutdown fight has so many people in washington worried. the president is trig.ing what he calls concern as he puts the idea of firing the fed chair and unprecedented number of cabinet vacancies. ryan nobles is joining us live
a new article in the new york times paints a picture of president trump as well as just being lonely. the author interviewed 30 current and former staff members and many of whom say the president is as confident in himself as ever and trusts almost no one around him. this piece, a war waged every day waged increasingly alone is the name of it. cnn s chief media correspondent brian stelter joins us now. brian, this is a really dark portrait of the president being erratic at several intersections. dark is an excellent word for it. we are hearing more accounts of the president being isolated and the latest one from peter baker of the new york times is appeal worrisome. no matter what you think of politics or the president, some
with basically trying to stave off defeating the kurds and the kurds were absolutely integral and critical in defeating isis. they lost upwards of 10,000 troops in fighting isis. the fact that president trump doesn t know who mcgurk is not a good sign but he is the commander in chief and i don t have him to know who everybody is in the federal government. we are talking about isis here. mcgurk stood in front of reporters not long ago, public statements any way, before trump s tweet saying that isis was defeated. that is what trump says. he promised that america was in the fight for the long haul. let s take a listen to that. nobody is saying that they are going to disappear. nobody is that naive. so we want to stay on the ground to make sure that stability can be maintained. i think it s fair to say americans will remain on the ground after the physical defeat of the caliphate until we know
another high ranking official in the trump administration has quit over the president s sudden decision to pull u.s. troops out of syria. two officials called it reckless and could not defend or execute it. cnn global affairs correspondent elise lavin explains. brett mcguirk has resigned. he told mike pompeo he would be leaving his post on december 31st. he was expected to leave in february to take up a post at stanford university, but his decision to leave early came on the wheels of president trump s sudden announcement he would be withdrawing all troops from