e reminded how bad al bagdadi was. >> absolutely. >> and what isis was doing. that was a good moment. i wish they had cut off the press conference right about then, that's when he got off it and started rambling around. he didn't think his cia chief who i guarantee you was up to her eyeballs putting this paneling together and making sure the intelligence community had everything they need, gina haspel. >> gina haspel. >> and i agree with lisa, given the detailed information about the compound, that tells me, and he told the world, there was likely somebody on the ground understand what that complex looks like. you can take great pictures over it but what's underneath it, pretty difficult. so you needed a human source likely close to that. so the more he talked about it, that's where i think you saw the grimaces around the table,

worried that that one little piece of braggadocio is the one piece that gets somebody in trouble down the road. >> he also talked about the fact that they knew that al bagdadi kept changing his travel plants, which would also suggest some insider information. >> well, that may not be inside information, once they knew where he was, they can observe travel patterns. that's just good operational security. that to me says exactly why he survived as long as he has. remember, we thought we had got him once before, he was injured, he nursed himself back to health, and then he travels in fits and starts. we knew he was likely at some point in his life, he slept with a vest for years because he knew something was going to happen. this is what somebody does who

wants to make sure they don't end up in a raid by special american forces. >> general clapper, you may have been on his mind to a degree as well, given the fact that president trump at least twice during that press conference slammed what the intelligence community should not be doing as opposed to what they should be doing, that's obviously a reference to the investigation into what exactly the russians were claiming, et cetera. twice he said that, once he said that this is what they should be focused on and then another time he talked about the intelligence community not doing what they should be doing, clearly a reference to the investigation into how the russians were reaching out to his campaign, and campaigned with the fact that he did not thank his cia director gina haspel or his director of national intelligence maguire. >> this is a case where the intelligence i like, it's great, if it's intelligence i don't

like, it's not so great. i think this gets back to the work that we did in the last administration on the russian meddling in the election of 2016, which still is a burr under his saddle. so i think that's the reference there. and i think i have an idea who he's talking about. >> he painted a vivid picture of abu bakr al bagdadi's last moments, as a coward. he said he was crying and whimpering and screaming all the way as he ran down the tunnel. obviously i don't know if that's true, it's a very vivid picture. if it is true that bagdadi grabbed his children with him and then detonated his suicide vest, taking the life of him and his three children, then that only contributes and adds to the picture we know of bagdadi, that

he was a sociopath, a psychopath, a monster. is there a value in a president painting a picture like that about a person, he killed his own children? >> i do think -- and i think mike rogers made this point, that it was useful to provide a reminder of the nature of isis and its leadership. the brutality that was consistent, a hallmark of isis' behavior. it was graphic and all that. i would agree that it would have been better served just to have made the announcement from the teleprompter and quit, and not get off, because i think that actually detracted from the magnitude of the event and detracted from the credit that was given to the folks who contributed to this. >> something else that president trump did that i'm sure everybody at this table applauds, which is he reminded us of the names of some of the

people, the americans and at least one brit, who had been killed brutally by isis, the journalist james foley and stephen sadloff, humanitarian workers, as well as the jordanian pilot who had been burned alive by isis. that's an important reminder for people in addition to, of course, as jeremy diamond mentioned before the speech, the individuals inspired by isis, killed in california, killed in florida, killed in new york. >> i think that's very important. i was really glad to hear him cite the names, mention the names of those brave journalists, aid workers, and americans who lost their life to isis' savagery. he did not mention the name of a journalist who remains in syria unaccounted for, that's austin tice, and we pray every day for his safe return.

that's another important reason why we need to be in a partnership with our kurdish partners and to have a presence there, to be able to generate some intelligence to hopefully bring austin tice home. >> that's one of the points we've been talking about earlier, which is the fact that without the relationship with the kurds, the spf, and without troops there on the ground, there are many people in the pentagon who say this successful mission could not have been carried out. >> oh, absolutely. there's no way we could have done this. remember, those kurdish forces were pushing back on isis. they were leveraged up by our capability with our special forces community and special operators to go with and go forward. all of that, trump should understand how impactful that was. that was a change in the way we were operating in syria. and it did make a significant difference, to push back and

eliminate their land holding. and as the director mentioned earlier, the isis philosophy isn't going away. and in some cases, they'll seek some revenge here. all of that was important. and you could not have done it without those kurdish forces. and all of that information that gets collected across all of syria in that battlefield feeds back to a place that likely contributed to this successful event. and you can't do it without those allies, of which, candidly, we just walked away from. >> the white house has released this photograph, i want to put it up, it's from the situation room, as the decision, i guessing, was made or as they were watching the raid go down, president trump saying he was able to watch a lot of it as it happened, although he wouldn't go into detail about how exactly that happened. you know, it's interesting, general clapper, president trump was very eager to praise and

thank russia for allowing the u.s. to use their airspace. he was less willing to give a lot of credit to the u.s.' kurdish allies, the sdf, even though the general of the sdf said this was a five-month-long operation as far as the kurds were concerned. president trump said this was a two-week operation as far as the u.s. was concerned. that suggests to me that all these details and all this information likely came from the kurds and either a kurdish spy or intelligence they were able to gather on the ground in syria, and it's interesting to me, just because the president seemed very reluctant to credit the kurds while he was at the same time bending over backwards to thank putin for allowing the u.s. to use its airspace. >> well, that is a curious juxtaposition.

but it's certainly not inconsistent with the president's consistent deference to russia and he's constantly looking for opportunities to heap praise on them. so i don't find that surprising. i suspect -- because we don't know exactly the specific technical details of what led to this. typically there's long buildup of gathering, correlating lots of bits and pieces, as chairman rogers indicated, over a period of time. and i'm quite confident that our being on the ground and sharing tactical intelligence, ground level intelligence with the kurds, i'm quite sure, had a lot to do with the success of this mission. the buildup could be the marshaling of the forces and all that, which could take place over a couple of weeks. but i think the ultimate sequence here was much, much longer, with the gathering of intelligence. >> all right. general clapper, lisa monaco, chairman rogers, thanks so much

for being here, we really appreciate it. you're watching a special t two-hour edition of "state of the union." >> last night the united states brought the world's number one terrorist leader to justice. abu bakr al bagdadi is dead. he was the founder and leader of isis, the most ruthless and violent terror organization anywhere in the world. he died like a dog. he died like a coward. the world is now a much safer place. >> the president said that u.s. special forces blitzed al bagdadi's compound in northwest syria overnight, chasing him into a tunnel where the president said al bagdadi did he tell on aided a suicide vest, killing himself along with three of his children he had dragged along with him into that tunnel. cnn senior international

correspondent nick paton walsh is live for us in irbil, iraq. nick, the president gave quite a vivid account of this raid. >> reporter: absolutely. at times the rhetoric was quite sort of crude, in all honesty, the notion of bagdadi dying like a whimpering coward. he talked about how there were some frightened puppies in sum cases who were fighting alongside bagdadi, a vivid picture painted by the president, who seemed at times to be in awe at the military machinery around him. he referred to how it was like watching a movie, at times revealing more than his security officials would have liked. he suggested that the flight time was an hour and ten minutes. a basic assessment of that, with helicopters, means you're probably looking at somewhere in

the medicine tterranean or in i. the detail may have been beyond the comfort edge of what security officials would have liked. he referred to turkish airspace being used. that's the nature of how close they are to the border there. he took pains to thank russia and also how the syrian kurds gave us some information that turned out to be helpful. the president certainly there trying to seem, by use of the first person consistently, part of that operation while at the same time clearly i think in awe of how it unfolded around him. >> nick paton walsh, stay safe, please. the president talked about the future isis operations. joining me live in studio, the top republican on the house armed services committee, congressman max thornberry, thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> you heard the big news, a u.s. operation, a raid in which abu bakr al bagdadi was killed.

what's your reaction? >> that's the most efusive i've heard the president in talking about the military and intelligence officials, they deserve all the credit. it is remarkable what they do. secondly, on that point, it was important not only to get bagdadi but to collect the information there, and hopefully we can follow up very quickly on some of that information which may give us the location of other isis operatives or identify plots that are under way. and i guess the third point i would just say, i was you were just discussing with the panel, we can never do this stuff alone. we have to have allies and friends, whether it's information or whether it's help in flying over an area. we cannot do this sort of thing, we cannot protect the american people all by ourselves. >> right. so i guess with that in mind, there would seem to be consensus from the three counterterrorism experts on our panel,

bipartisan, that the success of this mission kind undermines some of the president's recent actions in northern syria, given that, a, they don't believe that this could have happened without the u.s. already there, even though obviously they flew in, and b, just the idea of the presence of the u.s., and b, the alliance with the kurds so important, the kurds saying this was a five-month operation, and a tremendous amount of intelligence gathered obviously from kurdish forces. do you agree, and does this underline the importance for the u.s. to stay in northern syria? >> yes, and it's apparent that the president has decided we will maintain some presence in eastern syria around the oil fields. that does several things, one, prevent isis or assad from getting the oil revenue, but it also gives us a platform from which to continue to watch and pressure isis. so one of the things that's

happened in the last 17, 18 years is, isis in particular, even more than al qaeda, has spread a network around the world. and we have a handful of special operation folks also around the world who are watching them, keep track, and can take action when necessary. but again, we can only do that with partners, whether it's africa, middle east, southeast asia, we rely on partners to help gather that information and, when necessary, act on it. >> one of the other things we've learned about isis in the last a couple of weeks is, according to jim jeffrey, the special envoy to syria and for the global coalition to defeat isis, there have been a number of isis terrorists that have gotten free since the president's announcement of the withdrawal of united states forces from northern syria. so this is obviously a great achievement in the fight against isis, al bagdadi was the founder, the spiritual leader of isis, but there's also this new threat of 100 plus isis

terrorists out there. senator bob menendez, the ranking democrat on the senate foreign relations committee, says that the release of these isis prisoners is a clear and present danger to the united states. do you agree? >> well, we need to have more information about exactly who they were. so there are top rate, very dangerous isis operatives, and lower rung operatives who are not as dangerous. as you pointed out, it's a big deal to get bagdadi. i think the president deserves a lot of credit cafor authorizing the raid. if it had gone bad, he would have gotten the blame. but that does not mean isis has

been defeated, any more than getting bin laden meant al qaeda was defeated. you still have these networks, you still have the people who will take the place of anybody we remove. and they will continue to work to attack america. one other point. there was a lot of comment about, we wouldn't expect bagdadi to be in idlib because we thought al qaeda was there. what happens in some places is, terrorist organizations that you think are rivals can actually cooperate in certain situations. >> is that what happened here, or you suspect it? >> well, in that area there were signs of al qaeda and isis cooperating in a way we had not seen before. imag i just mention that to highlight the danger, from terrorism. we're not done with this threat, there are dangerous terrorists still in afghanistan plotting against our homeland. >> including isis. >> including and especially isis. we've got to keep the pressure on. this is a big deal.

but we've got to keep the pressure on. >> lastly, what do you make of the president's -- he painted a very vivid picture of al bagdadi dying a very cowardly death, which i don't doubt for a second, isis fighters are very cowardly. he talked about al bagdadi detonating his vest, killing his three children while he did so. i don't doubt it, they're monsters, but is there any concern on your part because now there is a question what isis will do in response to this move, in response perhaps to the president's rhetoric. does that concern you at all in terms of galvanizing or motivating isis terrorists? >> it probably makes me a little inkufscomfortabl uncomfortable

president talking that way. if you can take a little bit of the glamour off al bagdadi and make him less inspirational, there is a value to that for all of these folks who are on their computers or in these networks looking to attack. but you're exactly right, isis will seek to do something to show, we're still here, we're still relevant. so the united states is going to be tested in the days to come, and as you know, one of my big concerns is we've only funded the military for about 25 more days. the dysfunction in washington is translating into doing real damage to our military, who we depend on and are so proud of, for things like this. >> and the men and women at the tip of the spear, they deserve better. >> exactly. >> congressman max thornberry, thank you so much. we'll have more on our breaking news coverage. waiter. the psoriasis. we'll be right back.

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talk to your doctor, and call 844-214-2424. welcome back to "state of the union." i'm jake tapper. the leader of isis is dead after a raid led by u.s. special forces in syria overnight. president trump just hailed the death of abu bakr al bagdadi if remarks at the white house, saying bagdadi died, quote, whimpering and crying and screaming all the way. ahead of the president's remarks, i spoke with the

secretary of defense, mark esper, about the raid. let's start with the president's announcement. what can you tell us about the raid? was this an operation conducted specifically to target bagdadi? >> sure. let me say first of all this is a great day for america, this is a great day for the world. the president made a very decisive action and our troops and interagency partners executed it brilliantly. as you know, we defeated the physical caliphate earlier this year and now the leader is dead. so again, it's great news. i want to commend all those participating in the operations. i will tell you the operation was conducted last night. the president approved a raid onto the target. the aim was to capture abu bakr al bagdadi. and if we couldn't capture him then of course we were going to kill him. and like i said, the raid was successful. we pulled our troops out. we had two minor casualties, two minor injuries to our soldiers but a very successful, flawless raid. >> when you say minor injuries, they will recover? >> they've already been returned

to duty. >> that's great. so the president knew about the raid and approved it? >> he was given the information last week, asked great questions, chose the option that he thought gave us the highest probability of success, confirmation that the head of isis would be there, either capture d or killed, and we executed from there. >> was there a lot of dl deliberation? >> yes, the president had a chance to hear from me, he had a chance to talk to the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. that decision was made late last week, again. >> could this operaton have been done without u.s. troops on the ground in syria already? >> uh, that's speculative. i don't know. i would have to consult with our xharn commanders about that. you know, we have tremendous reach and capability. the service members who executed this attack are the best in the world. and there's nothing beyond our capability. >> can you tell us which branch of the special operations they came from? >> it's a joint force, so it's

multiple components. we worked closely with our interagency partners as well. it's a team effort. they're very good at this, nobody is better. they take the complex and danger and you say make it look simple and safe. >> cnn reports it appears bagdadi detonated a suicide vest during the raid. did that happen? did he take his own life? >> yeah, that's the report we have on the ground from the commander that we tried to call him out and asked him to surrender himself, he refused. he went down into a subterranean area and in the process of trying to get him out, he detonated a suicide vest, we believe, and killed himself. >> so he killed himself. >> yes. >> has a dna test been done to confirm that it is him? >> we have confirmation from visual and a dna confirmation. >> so a dna confirmation has come through? >> yes, that came through early this morning. >> the president has been taking

heat for the operation involving the kurds. did the kurds help in this situation? >> we had some help from outside partners. >> but the main u.s. allies in that region are the kurds. >> that's right. i'm just not going to get into details right now. >> okay. the general of the kurdish oe z forces says they did play a role. >> the sdf has ben good partners for the last few years. they've been instrumental to us helping to defeat and destroy the physical caliphate of isis. we remain in contact with them on the ground and they were helpful in a variety of ways. >> how long did the u.s. know his location? >> i'm not going to get into intelligence matters related to those operational details. >> it's surprising he was in this town. this was not known as a hotbed of isis, it's more friendly to al qaeda, which is an enemy of isis in some ways. were you surprised that he was there? >> again, we as a joint team,

the military with the intelligence folks, we work these issues very closely. we shouldn't be surprised, after what we saw, where bin laden was hiding, that they choose locations, they've learned a lot about how we and others conduct intelligence, so this is a difficult task, it's very complex. i give great credit to the manageme military, our interagency partners, everybody who helped on this, and to the president for making the decisive decision to execute this raid. >> did the u.s. have any information about his location before this week? >> again, i'm not going to comment on those matters. >> there were concerns that he was going to go into turkey to escape. >> there are always concerns with a target like this, that it's fleeting. that's why when the stars align as they did this week, we have to move. >> are there concerns that isis might have spot.

might have some sort of alliance with al qaeda? >> i'm not prepared to make speculations or judgments right now. what's important is that the head, the founder of isis is dead, we got him. it signifies the enduring defeat of isis. >> i'm not trying to take away from the achievement, i'm just trying to find out as much information as possible. should we assume the u.s. deconflicted with russia, in other words told the russians, we're going to be here just so there wasn't any understanding, miscommunication, or kinetic action between the two, between the u.s. and russia? >> i'll say broadly we had communications with the russians. we deconflict all type of things. i'll just leave it at that. >> what does this mean for the troops that have been sent into the region to help protect the troops that are helping to protect the oil fields in syria? >> well, the two are separate but related. related in the sense that both signify, again, our commitment to the enduring defeat of isis. the troops now that are denying isis access to those oil fields

are doing so so we make sure isis doesn't generate the revenue that would allow them to buy weapons to attack our partners in europe or the homeland. that's why we're reinforcing positions in the southern part of northern syria. >> did the withdrawal of u.s. forces from the turkish/syria border accelerate this operation in any way? >> our concern was that turkey's actions, as unwarranted as they were, would cause us, them, others, to lose focus on the defeat isis mission. that's the reason why we went in. and that's the reason why we're still there. and last week i spent in the region talking to many of our allies and i spent time in brussels with our nato allies

and reiterated to them our commitment to the enduring defeat of isis. >> and obviously this is a huge blow to isis, to have their leader, al bagdadi, killed. is there now concern that isis might lash out, that they might try to stage some sort of terrorist attack to show the world, we're still here? >> well, you prepare for everything. but you're right, this is a devastating blow, their leader, their founder, an inspirational leader in many ways. when he formed isis in 2014, it led to establishing the physical caliphate throughout the rebuildinregion, so this is a major blow to them. as a new leader and leaders pop up, we'll go after them as well. >> as you noted, the physical caliphate has largely disappeared as the u.s. and the kurds have beaten it back, but obviously there's still thousands if not tens of thousands of isis terrorists that remain. what is the status of isis right now? >> as we've been saying for some time now, we want to ensure the

enduring defeat. that's why we monitor the situation, make sure as we see groups pop up or coalesce, or establish a training camp, we go in and take them out so they're no longer a threat to the united states, our allies or partners. >> but they're not fully defeated. >> it's a physical caliphate. it's hard to defeat an ideology. we're going to have to stay on top of this and make sure we have the capability to go in and destroy targets as they arise. >> when are all you saying troops going to leave syria as pump has said he wants to do, but obviously a lot of military officials have said they do not want to do, they think it would be a mistake. >> president trump's directive was we leave northern syria, northeastern syria, specifically were the safe zone is being set up by the turks. we're halfway through that process, if you will. it will take weeks, not days. at the same time the president said we would keep a presence in southern syria, and recently we got the direction that we would maintain presence in the area of

deri ezzor to deny isis and other destabilizing actors access to the oil fields. >> i want to follow up on something you've said before which is that president erdogan of turkey had said he was going to go into this area and that's why the u.s. pulled out even though you and others had vehemently opposed him doing that. it just seems odd that a nato ally and a weaker country although turkey obviously he's a very large military, would be able to, for want of a better term, push the u.s. around, i mean, push us out of the region. i would think the u.s. would say, we're staying and i know you don't want to attack u.s. forces. how do you make the argument that this wasn't the u.s. retreating? >> yeah, i think that's an overstatement. we've known since the original partnership since the united states and sdf -- >> that's the kurds. >> that's right, that turkey protested. many of the sdf are terrorists, they knew, are members of the

pkk. they've had two or three incursions over the past three years. as i came into office, this was probably the top foreign policy issue on my plate, constantly working with the kurds to establish a safe zone. due to domestic politics, security concerns, any number of factors, it became career to me and other members of the national security team that the turks were going to do this regardless. i thought it would have been irresponsible, as did the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, to leave our soldiers, numbering less than 50, in between a turkish army of 15,000 plus and their route of attack. >> one last thing, sir, you've talked about the credit that should go to the military operators who conducted this raid, thankfully there are no serious injuries, and obviously it was a successful raid. you've also given credit to president trump for his decisive action on making this. i just want to show you this tweet from 2012. you had nothing to do with this

tweet, for the record. president trump, when he was citizen trump, said stop congratulating obama for killing bin laden, the navy seals killed bin laden. so does president trump deserve congratulations? >> i'm not going to get involved in the political issues. clearly the credit first and foremost goes to the service members who helped execute this. the president made a tough decision and gave the order to go and at the end of the day he bears responsibility for its success or failure, as do i, and the entire chain of command. >> i would agree, and i would agree that was also true in 2012. secretary, thank you, don't be a stranger. >> will do. a big foreign policy victory for president trump. will it quiet his fellow republicans' concerns about his syria policy? that's next. do you have concerns about mild memory loss related to aging? prevagen is the number one pharmacist-recommended memory support brand.

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he died after running into a dead end tunnel, whimpering and crying and screaming all the way. he had dragged three of his young children with him. they were led to certain death. he reached the end of the tunnel, as our dogs chased him down. he ignited his vest, killing himself and the three children. his body was mutilated by the blast. >> president trump, in the last hour, at the white house, confirming in rather vivid terms the death of the world's most wanted terrorist, at least at one point, abu bakr al bagdadi. let's discuss. congresswoman, what's your reaction to the news, what's your reaction to the vivid image painted by president trump?

>> well, my reaction to the news is that i'm glad he's taken off the scene. he obviously was a horrific person and killer. but, you know, i'm glad the kurds were there to help us get the information we needed, and it certainly raises the question what would have happened if we had pulled out way before. >> you agree with that take, the idea that this underlines the need for the u.s. to contine to stand with the kurds and to be on the ground in northern syria? >> and with others. it sounds like the iraqis helped us in important ways on the intelligence. but it's great news. all honor to the people who carried it out and who planned it and ordered it. i would also say this builds on efforts, obviously, over years against isis, since 9/11, against terrorism and through various entities which are morphed into one another, al qaeda and isis. we shouldn't forget everyone who has chosen to serve and fought in this difficult, often

frustrating fight, now over 20 years. >> what might this mean for the president politically? he's an obviously had a lot of criticism coming from republicans on capitol hill about his move in syria. what do you think? >> i think it helps on a couple of levels. number one, it shows that the president can still be a president and still govern and still carry out business, still do important things, that he's not overly distracted, and that the government is working in accomplishing things that are important to the security of our country. believe it or not, i think that is a narrative that is going to be spun, it's being spun now, it will be spun more in the future, that this president is out of control, in chaos, the government's in chaos, everything's in chaos. the fact that we were able to accomplish something this important to the security of our country, this substantive, is probably more important for him than it was for barack obama to

get osama bin laden. having something that shows the accomplishment of this government and his control is more important to him than anything else in the administration's history. >> did the bid laden raid have any effect on president obama's popularity? >> no doubt, as he was running for president, he could say i killed osama bin laden, that was a useful point he could make to reassure people that he was on it, that he was after terrorism, that he was a strong leader on national security. although if you look back at the polling at the time, he was at about 46% when bin laden was killed, he went up to 52%, then went back to 46% just a few months later. this is certainly a different case, but it was short-lived, even in the killing of bin laden. i will add that for donald trump, as was evidenced in some of his remarks today, this is different than bin laden.

bin laden was this bigger-than-life leader of al qaeda. bagdadi was certainly the leader, but they are much more diffuse, as your panel has been talking about. their leadership is around the world, they learned some lessons. they may have an easier time regrouping than al qaeda did. that's something that although it's not political, it may have a different impact on their regrouping and rise. >> the other thing that might be a little different is that everyone in the entire world knew bid laden. we're people knew bagdadi is a different story. >> that's a lesson learned, these terrorist groups all over the world, afghanistan, the middle east, africa, they may be able to regroup easily. >> pluresident trump will be ab to claim credit in the same way that president obama claimed

credit for the bedeath of bin laden. in 2012, president trump said, stop congratulating obama for killing bin laden, the navy seals killed bin laden. factually accurate. but you would agree president trump gets the credit for the successful raid? >> absolutely, as president obama did in 2012. now, i would say, where did isis come from? it began in 2014 because -- we won't debate, but the withdrawal from iraq and the failure to be in syria, but anyway, it's been a very tough fight for the last five years with terrible things happening. i hope president trump thinks about that lesson, things weren't great in 2015, and that means staying on top of it. that means some troops staying

on the ground and an effort by our intelligence assets and military, to not feel like, it's 8,000 miles away, we don't have to worry about this stuff. >> it's important that he's mindful of his language. obama was careful about saying we're not at war with islam with his remarks after the bin laden raid. >> as was george w. bush. president obama quoted george w. bush. >> exactly. and bin laden was given a muslim burial, not because he wasn't a horrific terrorist, he was, but our partners in the middle east are key and vital. he needs to be careful about his language. some of what we saw today is problematic and troubling. it could probably make him a martyr and he needs to be careful with that. >> you disagree. >> i completely disagree. i think the fact that he talked about about him as a coward, that i died like a dog, if you will, and he surrounded himself and killed himself, number one,

and killed himself with his children, i think it points out that, you know, this guy is in fact a coward and this is not a guy you should be rallying around or creating a martyr around. this is important that he -- >> referencing the muslim ban, that wasn't helpful, and he referenced that in his comments. i was also glad he got to our troops. >> you're the second republican at the table to say you wish he had stuck with the teleprompter statement. >> yes. it was very powerful, it was direct, hit every point perfectly. not that the press conference was a disaster, it wasn't, but it just injected things that didn't need to be injected. >> such as, for example, this, which president trump said in his ad libbed remarks after the tell he prompter speech. >> after a year you'll have to check it, before the world trade center came out, the book came out, i said, you have to take osama bin laden out. nobody listened to me. if you go back, look at my book,

i think it was "the america we deserve," i made a prediction, and i -- let's put it this way, if they would have listened to me, a lot of things would have been different. >> now, as a fact checking matter, that's not true. but also, beyond that, why even talk about this? >> how inappropriate is it for the president of the united states to say that at this point? >> how inappropriate is it for him to start by thanking russia? >> he did start by thanking russia. >> i'm okay with that. if i had been -- >> he did thank the troops but russia was first. >> if i had been on this panel eight years ago, there would be just the exact opposite. i would be the one being critical of anybody being kind to russia and everybody else would be -- so we've seen a complete flip. >> that's why it's confusing that you're defending his thanking russia now. it is perplexing. >> it is perplexing. i will say this.

the president has an agenda, like clinton did when she was secretary of state, of making friendly overtures to russia. >> former chief of staff john kelly told "the washington examiner" yesterday that the president's chief of staff should not be a yes man, because if he doesn't, he would be impeached. the president said he never said that, he would have thrown him out of the office. this has been an important week in the impeachment inquiry, with ambassador bill taylor saying he believed there was a quid pro quo, that the trump administration and rudy giuliani were pushing for dirt on the bidens in exchange for military assistance. >> absolutely, it was a very powerful experience to be there

and to hear his testimony. and, you know, to quote one of my colleagues, he didn't use the latin word quid pro quo but he explained it in great detail. >> were you concerned at all by what you heard about bill taylor and other's testimony? >> i think this whole ukraine thing, he wanted information, look, getting information on anyone for any reason is not a crime. i mean, the supreme court has ruled it's not a crime. it's not something of value that is -- that can be quid pro quo'd. the whole premise of this, that there is some action here that is illegal, i think is suspect to begin with. is it bad judgment? absolutely. should he have been pursuing this policy? in my opinion, no. but i don't think there's impeachable offense here. >> oh, my. >> whether they can, quote, prove it or not. >> here's the problem. the bar should not be whether there is a crime. we should make a judgment, and i'll defer to congresswoman bass

and others, whether this should mo move forward. but should the president of the united states seek election interference from a foreign country? >> i don't think that's what he did. >> it shows in the testimony and the notes that that is what he did. >> we have ten seconds. >> the kind of career foreign service professionals and intelligence professionals who president trump routinely trashes are the kinds of people who help make possible these victories as well and broader victories in making the countries safer. >> thanks, one and all. the president wrote off bill taylor as human scum, the latest in a long line of never-trumpers. but those who know bill taylor best tell a far different story about who bill taylor is, his service and sacrifice. that's next. st weight?"

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the deposition this past week from the top u.s. diplomat in ukraine, ambassador bill taylor, was, republican sources tell cnn, impactful and, quote, reverberating among republicans on the hill. taylor detailed conversations with trump administration officials pushing an explicit quid pro quo, in his view. he was told, quote, everything that ukraine wanted from the united states including military aid depending on the president

publicly announcing an investigation into joe and hunter biden. the white house has been relentlessly attacking ambassador taylor. >> what you're seeing now, i believe, is a group of mostly career bureaucrats saying, you know what, i don't like president trump's politics so i'm going to participate in this witch hunt that they're undertaking on the hill. >> there's no evidence for that. the president then called taylor a never-trumper and there's no evidence for that. and he said that all never-trumpers, quote, are human scum. human scum. thousands of miles away, watching this all unfold, was one of taylor's west point classmates with whom he served in vietnam, now retired colonel bob sytes, on the left in this photo in vietnam, in 1971, bill taylor is on the right. for 15 months they jumped from helicopters and hiked through

mountainous terrain, enduring fatigue, hunger, bad weather, dying, killing, and a lot of terrible wounds. they were rifle company commanders of the 506th regiment of the 101st airborne, the same regiment of the band of brothers, their motto, "we stand alone." >> sytes told me that bill taylor is the embodiment of the military academy cadet prayer, "make us to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong and never be content with a half truth when the whole can be won." colonel sytes told me he's been enrag enraged, watching the president and his aides lie about bill

taylor. taylor even reenlisted and his service to his country continued as a diplomat, serving as u.s. ambassador to ukraine under president george w. bush. ambassador ikenberry told me bill served in afghanistan, gaza, difficult spots in the middle east. in iraq, taylor came under fire in both baghdad and fallujah. earlier this year secretary of state mike pompeo asked taylor to come out of retirement to head back to kiev. taylor was wary of taking the position after seeing how poorly the previous ambassador had been treated by the trump administration. but his mentor had told him, quote, if your country asks you to do something, you do it. sitting on colonel sytes' kitchen table is "the new york times." he looked at the cover photo

with tears in his eyes. it shows his battle buddy, taylor, walking into congress, to not be content with a half truth when the whole can be won. taylor is standing alone, sytes told me, the way the kurdish are standing alone. president trump can suggest that taylor is human scum and the folks in the white house can attempt to smear bill taylor but to his friends the president isn't just attacking bill taylor. he's attacking what taylor personifies, duty, honor, and country. his friends told me he was never corrupted or intimidated by those seeking personal gain at our nation's expense. you can ask yourself, of the behavior and values you have seen displayed during this

impeachment inquiry, who makes you proud to be an american and who might make you ashamed? we'll be back with another hour of "state of the union" at noon. "reliable sources" is next. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. i'm brian stelter. this is "reliable sources" and this is a breaking news day here, so much happening here on a sunday. let's get right to it. this photo really summing up the events of the past 24 hours. we see in this photo president trump watching the raid that resulted in the death of isis leader abu bakr al bagdadi. now trump is describing the raid in graphic detail. his press conference went on for quite a while, taking questions from reporters. my panel is here with reaction to the breaking news. plus who is anonymous and what will they reveal? there's new book cin