wasn't my expertise at the time but i have a very good instinct at the time and they went in and i said that's a tremendous mistake and there were no weapon s of mass destruction. it turned out i was right. i was right for other reasons but it turned out on top of everything else they had no weapons of mass destruction, because that would be a reason to go in but i heard iraq actually discriminates against america in oil leases. in other words, some oil companies from other countries after all we've done have an advantage in iraq for the oil. i said keep the oil. give them what they need. keep the oil. why should we, we go in, we lose thousands of lives, spend trillions of dollars, and our

companies don't even have an advantage in getting the oil leases, so i just tell you that story. that's what i heard. reporter: the counterterrorism director out in the hallway was there a role? president trump: yes, everybody played a role. joe was great. gina was great. they were all good. reporter: just a follow-up, in the syria pullout, does that generate the intelligence to lead the operation? president trump: no. we were looking at this. look as i said, steve, i've been looking at this, i'm here almost three years. i've been looking at this for three years. they would come in, sir, we have somebody under -- i said i don't want somebody. i want al-baghdadi. that's the one i want and they say well we have somebody else and i say that's great, fine. take him out, but i want al-baghdadi. that's who i want. i don't want other people. then i also wanted hamsa bin

laden because he's a young man, around 30, who looks just like his father, tall, very handsome, and he was talking bad things, just like his father. you know, if you read my book there's a book just before the world trade center came down. and i don't get any credit for this, but that's okay, i never do. but here we are. i wrote a book, a really very successful book, and in that book about a year before the world trade center was blown up, i said there is somebody named osama bin laden. you better kill him or take him out. something to that effect. he's big trouble. now, i wasn't in government. i was building buildings and doing what i did but i always found it fascinating, but i saw this man, tall, handsome, very charasmatic, making horrible statements about wanting to

destroy our country and i'm writing a book. i think that i wrote 12 books, all did very well, and i'm writing a book, world world world trade center had not come down and maybe it was about a year before the world trade center came down and i'm saying to people, take out osama bin laden that nobody ever heard of. i mean, al-baghdadi everybody hears because he's built this monster for a long time, but nobody ever heard of osama bin laden until really the world trade center, but about a year, you'll have to check it, year, year and a half before the world trade center came down the book came out i was talking about osama bin laden and i said you have to kill him and take him out. nobody listened to me, and to this day, ii get people coming up to me that said you know what one of the most amazing things i've ever seen about you is that you predicted that osama bin laden had to be killed, before he knocked down the world trade

center. it's true. now most of the press doesn't want to write that but it is true. if you go back and look at my book, i think it was "america we deserve" i made a prediction and let's put it this way. if they would have listened to me, a lot of things would have been different. reporter: let's talk about some of the difficult decisions you had along the way here in this operation. anything that weighed on you? president trump: well just death i'm sending a large number of brilliant fighters. tease are the greatest fighters in the world. i'd rather let the generals tell you but a large number. we had eight helicopters and many other ships and planes. it was a large group and again, this is a large group heading over very very strong fire power areas, where there was decision one, will they make it?

and though made it but they took fire, but they made it. they didn't say we don't believe again it was nation fire, we believe it was individual group fire or gang fire as they call it so they made it so that was a big relief. then they blasted their way in you've heard, so quickly it was incredible because this building was quite powerful and strong and all hell broke loose it's incredible we had nobody even hurt and that's why the dog was so great and we actually had a robot to go into the tunnel but we didn't get it because we were tracking him very closely, because we were afraid he had a suicide vest on and if you get close to him and he blows it up, you're going to die. he had a very powerful suicide vest. reporter: did you make the decision in the moment while the troops were on the ground?

president trump: we were getting full reports on literally, a minute-by-minute basis. sir, we just broke in. sir, the wall is down. sir, we've captured. sir, two people are coming out right now, hands up, fighter s and then the eleven children, numerous people were dead within the building that they killed. then, it turned out that they gave us a report. sir there's only one person in the building. we are sure he's in the tunnel trying to escape but it's a dead end tunnel, and it was brutal but it was over and as i said, when he blew himself up, the tunnel collapsed on top of him, on top of everything and his children. i mean, so he led his three children to death, so you know? reporter: the tunnel is when the robot followed him in? president trump: the robot was set to but we didn't hook it up

because they were moving too fast. we were moving fast. we weren't 100% sure about the tunnel being dead-ended. it's possible that there could have been an escape hatch somewhere along that we didn't know about, so we moved very very quickly. i mean, these people they were chasing. they were chasing but again, because the suicide vest you can't get too close. again, one of the reasons with the wives is if they havasu it side vest, you have to be very very careful. these vests are brutal. they are brutal and they go for a long distance. yes, please? reporter: have you spoken or will you speak to the families like the foley family? president trump: i'm calling families now. it will be a pleasure to do that , the foley family i know, we'll be calling kayla's family, what he did to her was incredible it's a well-known story and i won't say that. he kept her in captivity for a long period of time.

he kept her in his personal captivity. she was a beautiful woman, beautiful young woman. helped people. she was there to help people and he saw her and he thought she was beautiful and he brought her into captivity for a long period of time and then he killed her. he was an animal. he was a gutless animal. thank you all very much. i appreciate it. reporter: thank you. president trump: very great day for our country. ed: okay you heard the president of the united states describing in vivd detail the takeown of the terror leader al-baghdadi to recap a top secret mission resulting in a major victory for the united states beings for president trump and the u.s. military. do not miss that he also talked about how we gained intelligence on the ground there. it could be very helpful in the days ahead. he had a very sober tone but also, almost seemed to be trying to humiliate the terrorists.

the different tone than we've heard from previous presidents revealing that he watched this play out, the president live in realtime through a video feed in the white house situation room. he talked about u.s. forces being on the ground for two hours, and that al-baghdadi was chased down by dogs in a cave before detonating a suicide vest and the president said and you see the picture there in the situation room, the vice president pence, secretary esper , various generals and joint chiefs, the president said that al-baghdadi died wimpering, crying and screaming all the way jedediah: a quote directly from the president. these savage monsters will notice cape their fate. i found his statement to be it wasn't vague, it was very detail and very direct, and describing al-baghdadi he describes him as screaming, crying, wimpering, sick, depraved, vicious, violent coward, obviously a big contrast here between donald trump and president obama who was criticized heavily. many times for his approach to

discussing issues of terrorism, a very very strong statement that should unify the country both left and right on this issue. pete: yeah, he started off by saying last night was a great night for the u.s. and the world jedediah: that's right. pete: he took the time to remind the world as you said of the savagery of isis, the chopping off of heads, the raping of women and the burning in cages and he described watching it like he was watching a movie from the situation room we just got that photo but the description, running into a dead end tunnel, as you said wimpering, screaming, crying 11 children saved but ultimately baghdadi dead because of courage ed: the president said he's not changing his policy of pulling out stroops and seems to suggest he was vindicated and bottom line is there is a relentless pursuit of terrorist. our reach the president said is very long. thanks for joining us all morning we want to pass the bat on to our colleague maria bartiromo for "sunday morning futures" thank you for joining us. maria: the fox news alert the united states has killed the

world's most wanted terrorist, isis leader, abu bakr al-baghdadi u.s. special operations forces cornering him last night in a compound in northern syria, he apparently detonated a suicide vest as troop closed in here is president trump moments ago at the white house. president trump: capturing or killing baghdadi has been the top national security priority of my administration. u.s. special operations forces executed a dangerous and daring nighttime raid, in northwestern syria and accomplished their mission in grand style. maria: we have reaction from several influential lawmakers including congressman john ratcliffe who sits on the intelligence committee and senator steve danes, general jack keane is standing bias well first of all let's get the latest on the death of al-baghdadi and what we know about how the operation went down, we go to lucas tomlinson he is here at the pentagon.

lucas? >> maria the president said they had been watching baghdadi the past two and three weeks and there were two and three prior attempts to kill him but the mission were scrubbed we're not sure why. the president called the mission a daring nighttime raid used by u.s. special operations forces involving the army's delta force , and the ranger reggiement part of the military's elite joint special operations command here is how the president described how the mission ended for baghdadi. president trump: he died after running into a dead end tunnel wimpering and crying and screaming all the way. the compound had been cleared by this time with people either surrendering or being shot and killed. eleven young children were moved out of the house and are un injured. the only ones remaining were baghdadi in the tunnel and 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. >> the president said the u.s. special operations forces accomplished their mission in " grand style." the president said he watched the mission unfold in realtime live from the situation room last night with his new chairman of joint chief of staff general mark milley, along with his defense secretary mark esper, and national security advisor robert o'brien. he said the entire mission of the u.s. forces were on the ground for about two hours. maria what's a very touching moment when the president mentioned the americans, some of the americans killed at the hands of baghdadi and isis, he mentioned them by name. james foley, kayla mueller, who is an american kill an aid worker who went to syria to help people and was captured by isis

and later rumored to become a slave to abu bakr al-baghdadi, and a former army ranger, and also that jordan pilot remember the horrific images of that pilot being burned alive in a cage, that was all part of isis propaganda, the slick propaganda as the state department called it at the time and five years ago isis controlled an area the size of ohio, today that caliphate has been destroyed and its leader killed maria? maria: thank you so much, lucas an extraordinary story of victory for this administration. joining me right now on the telephone is jack keane, a fox news strategic analyst and general good to have your insights, your reaction to al-baghdadi being taken down? >> well let's credit the president for his determination and the pursuit of baghdadi all of these years and also persistence of our intelligence agency that stayed on top of this despite the frustration of not having found him for so many years and also, obviously the

cooperation of our allie partner s, the syrian kurds, gave us valuable information at the time when they are probably under the most significant crisis they've ever been exposed to and lastly, obviously, the daring courage of our special operation forces and the extraordinary confidence that they have to be able to conduct the raid like this and to go in there and literally rescue children at the same time, acquire this coward in the tunnel and bring him to certain death and have no casualties whatsoever is absolutely brilliant. maria: extraordinary work from our special ops team, a huge salute to them. what kind of treasure trove do you think they were able to find as a result of taking him out? are there documents, information that may have been left behind that our special ops were able to obtain? >> well i think the fact that they were on the ground for two-

plus hours indicates that they were gathering some information to be sure. we were very successful in the raid on the osama bin laden a number of years ago to get incredibly valuable information and i suspect they maybe as fortunate this time, but listen, what baghdadi achieved from leaving iraq in 2012 maria with six to 700 iraqi fighters and 18 months later having grown largely on its internet, recruited a force of some 30,000 plus that invaded iraq and seized territory in iraq and in syria to establish that caliphate and watched the barber rism on the internet that we all witnessed to and brought the level of terrorism to a level the world has never seen, he attacked or aspired attacks in nine nato nations to include the united states and he spread the 30 or 40 affiliates worldwide, so bringing this target down as well as this

caliphate in syria is absolutely a big operation and something that needed to be done while it does not destroy the organization, it destroys this iconic spirituel and operational leader that meant so much to him , so this is very well done, mission accomplished. maria: so a word on that. in terms of what's left of isis right now as a result of their leader being taken out, you were concerned in the last couple of weeks about the pullout of syria you were concerned about the oil fields and perhaps isis getting access to that oil, and then being able to generate revenue to keep them in business. your feelings today? >> well my feelings today is i also credit the president for taking a closer look at the situation and making certain we are leaving forces in syria that will maintain control with those oil fields with the syrian

democratic forces. it's the local syrian fighters who have ic tariff en it to isis they are 60,000 strong, ehave assisted them in that fight and provided air power for them, and that's going to continue, and we'll continue to counter isis to make certain that they don't reemerge. they're trying. there's still thousands of fighters in iraq and syria, and that's why this is important, the partnership of our allies with the syrian democratic forces is absolutely critical and you can see the intelligence they may have provided here that was so volatile and also having some americans, brits and french with us and an operation that is supported by nato, though it's not a nato operation to keep our foot on isis will continue. maria: so what do you think the state of isis is today then, general? >> well, the isis belongs to the caliphate and therefore it lost its headquarters and it lost its ability to really recruit the way it was doing before, it lost the oil fields which was the source of revenue

in syria, and how they were able to propagate and actually conduct operations based on that revenue and spread their message worldwide. all of that has been lost, but nonetheless, isis does persist, still as a terrorist network and it has affiliates around the world. some of those affiliates already existed, maria but because it became an iconic organization they changed the name to gather a closer affiliation for recruitment and money raised in purpose with isis. that organization is out there, to be sure isis has a network that still exists in iraq and syria, and we've got to stay on top of it. these organizations are not going away until the ideology goes away. that's why we've said right from the beginning it's a generation war. maria: general where is the money coming from that they are raising and do you think the money raised is still significant, but who is it coming from? >> well first of all, they steal money, then they tax people that are in the area

wherever they are, and that takes place in iraq and syria, and that's an immediate source of funding, but they also get money in the intelligence services, they get money from individuals in various countries who leave in radical islam, they are wealthy individuals and that is one of the great things, the speech when president trump wants to agree on in july of 2017. maria: yeah. >> when he told them if you're going to stamp out isis you've got to stop having people in your country funding isis and funding other islamic extremist organizations. so that's another major source of money that these radical islamist organizations have. maria: all right general great to get your insight thanks very much. >> good talking to you maria. maria: we are going to continue to follow this briefing development out of syria this morning we've got reaction coming up from congressman john ratcliffe and also senator lindsey graham whose at the white house right now with the president. we will be back after a short

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now you can take control of your home wifi and get a notification the instant someone new joins your network... only with xfinity xfi. download the xfi app today. maria: welcome back. breaking news this morning a major blow to isis, president trump announcing that their leader was killed during a special operations force raid in syria. let's bring in republican congressman from texas john ratcliffe a member of the house judiciary intelligence and homeland security committees, he's also a former federal prosecutor. congressman it's always a pleasure to see you thanks very much for joining me. good morning, maria. maria: your reaction to al-baghdadi being taken out? >> much like when al qaeda's leader osama bin laden was killed i think the death of al-baghdadi the head of isis is something that all american, republicans, democrats really people all around the world should be grateful for. someone who was dedicated to the

ex termination of entire race is based on the religious belief is gone from the planet and that's a really good thing. maria: so it certainly is a good thing for the safety i guess of america. you're on the homeland security committee. tell us about the homeland right now, and whether or not we have seen isis return to being in business. i mean obviously now with its leader gone, that takes us into a different realm with isis but how would you characterize isis today? >> well i do see parallels with al qaeda. al qaeda was never the same after bin laden was gone and we would hope that isis would track that type of demise. president trump and the trump adminitration had already largely decimated and destroyed isis. the body of the snake, but yesterday, they cut off the head of the snake in killing baghdadi and as you heard the president say uncovered a treasure trove

of information that could be used for operational purposes there was concern that isis might reconstitute in some form in syria and iraq, obviously that became far more difficult. doesn't mean that there aren't bad people that are going to infiltrate into other organizations, assimilate into a front or other al qaeda components, but there's no question but that the middle east is safer today and americans are safer here in the united states, because isis's capables were decimated to a large extent yesterday. maria: were they planning further attacks, congressman? what do we know in terms of what the plans were and was there a treasure drove of documents that our special operations team was able to get as a result of taking him out, given the fact that they were on the ground and had access to where he was? >> well the president said they did. we expected that that would be the case. unfortunately, the intelligence committee that i serve on hasn't been spending a whole lot of

time on these issues. we've been caught up in adam schiff's secret impeachment inquiry, so we haven't had a briefing on these issues, but i am certain that much like what happened with al qaeda that the documents that we recovered the treasure trove of information that has already been related by the president is going to have a profound impact on operations in the middle east of all terrorists and the president has been dedicated to this, as general jack keane just said, doggedly determined to make sure that isis was gone during his administration, and he's going to continue wherever these folks go, however they may re constitute, radical islamic terrorists have been a priority of president trump and this administration and yesterday, just proved that he kept another promise with respect to this. maria: congressman you said you have not had a briefing on these issues in the intel committee.

when was the last time the intel committee had a briefing with regard to the threat of terrorism? >> its been well over a month. i don't know the exact time. all i can remember is one ambassador after another that i've never heard of before. that's where we've been spending our time unfortunately and hopefully we can get past that and get on to obviously things like this, the world is moving around regardless of this impeachment inquiry that i've been spending far too much time on. these are the things that we should be focusing on. i'm grateful that president trump hasn't been distracted by all of this and that our forces who deserve so much credit have continued to keep their eye on the target to keep the american people safe, and we're going to continue to do that despite the distractions that the democrats, the shenanigans they are engaged into try and win an election instead of keeping america safe. maria: so just to be clear with the democrats in the majority, adam schiff is the chairman of your committee, the intel

committee, and it's nancy pelosi the speaker of the house who will decide who you interview, what hearings you do and plan on what kind of briefings you get is that right? >> that's right, and i can't remember the last briefing we had on syria, but i'm going to get one tomorrow at the intel committee and so they are paying lip service to it at this point in time. maria: the president a moment ago said that al-baghdadi walked into this tunnel where there was no out and he brought children with him, then detonated all of them, including the children. does this tell you anything about who he is, who he was in terms of his own leadership of isis? >> absolutely. you have to understand the mentality of radical islamic terrorists, and you know, they are dedicated to the ex termination of people who do not believe in their ideology, and

they are committed. i will kill you if i don't kill you my children will kill you. it's a generational approach, and they are sick individuals but they are committed to their sick ideology and that's why it takes a persistent, dedicated approach like the one the trump adminitration has taken. yesterday was a very good day to make the world safer, but as the president made very clear, this is just something that has to continue and we can't allow it to proliferate in other places we have to continue to chase these folks down, and obviously, hold them to justice as was done yesterday. maria: all right, congressman stay with us. we want to talk a little more about those testimonies that you just referred to in this impeachment inquiry we'll take a short break and then we'll come back with more john ratcliffe the congressman from texas on "sunday morning futures." stay with us. drive safely.

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don't take entresto with an ace inhibitor or aliskiren or if you've had angioedema with an ace or arb. the most serious side effects are angioedema, low blood pressure, kidney problems, or high blood potassium. ask your doctor about entresto, for heart failure. where to next? entrust your heart to entresto. maria: we're back with republican congressman from texas john ratcliffe and we have been reporting the breaking news of the morning that islamic state leader abu bakr al-baghdadi is dead our special operations forces cornered him, and then he blew himself up. you said a moment ago you have not had a briefing on syria in a long time, in the intel committee that you of course are a member and you have been focused on these impeachment inquiry testimonies and on friday, you had one as well.

we want to show you what some of your colleagues said after that testimony. here was kevin mccarthy and devon nunes on fox news last week. >> we had john ratcliffe destroy taylor's whole argument. >> congressman ratcliffe tell us what happened. >> we can't really talk about it but what we're fighting is just his question in 90 seconds refuted everything of what adam schiff puts out there. there's no quid pro quo. maria: congressman we know that you're limited in terms of what you can say about these testimonies but what can you tell us about that quid pro quo argument? >> well, what the democrats wanted to believe is that ambassador taylor's testimony would support what the whistleblower said when in fact his testimony established the opposite. he established as a matter of law and as a matter of fact, that a quid pro quo involving military aid could not have occurred on july 25 in the call between trump and z elinski,

because neither any ukraine yankees was aware there was a hold on military aid on july 25 so as much as the democrats who quickly tried to spin-out of that and say well when we said quid pro quo on july 25, we really meant some time in august , and they were supported by the new york times and the washington post printing articles saying well the ukraine s found out about it in the middle of august, it doesn't matter. it still raises a real question now about the whistleblower's credibility and motivations, because the whistleblower came into meet with chairman schiff before that. i want to understand why this whistleblower apparently has the ability to see into the future, came into complain to chairman s chiff about a quid pro quo that had not yet occurred, so again, the whistleblower's testimony has become more essential. the most important witness we should be hearing from is that person because it'll tell us whether or not this was organic, or whether it was orchestrated.

maria: congressman we know that the islamic leader abu bakr al-baghdadi has blown himself up as he was cornered by special operations troops overnight, and he is now dead, the leader of isis is dead, and obviously the administration is seeing this as a major victory for the country and yet you on the intel committee had not, have not had a briefing on syria in a long time. we have upcoming lindsey graham about to speak at the white house, we want to get to that right now and get your reaction. stay with us, sir. watch this. >> it does matter i think to the world not just the united states and was trying to put in words what does it matter how to explain it. i think last night, the best of america confronted the worst of mankind, and the good guys won. the good guys and the good gals won. the dog, trying to find out the name of the dog, pray for the dog. it was severely injured but it

just reminds me of the team concept of the military. i've been talking to the president for months about the war on terror and every time i would bring up the topic, he would tell me without any hesitation, i'm going to get that blank guy. i can't use the word on television, but the president has been determined for a very long time to bring baghdadi to justice and i want to complement him and his team for bringing about a result that i think is a game changer in the war on terror. the war is by no means over. the caliphate is dead and the leader of the caliphate is dead and that's a big deal. when bin laden was killed that was a big deal and i complimented president obama. that was a hard call he made to go into pakistan and kill bin laden. what the president did last night was a hard call. these things are not predetermined to go well and it

just tells you how good our people are and what the president said today was very reassuring to me that when it comes to isis and other terrorist groups, we're coming after you. wherever you go, as long as it takes, to protect our country, and our way of life. i'll just end on this. isis as a depraved organization that's ever existed in the history of the world. they are religious nazis. they cannot be accommodated. they cannot be negotiated with and they have to be destroyed and marginalized and here is the good news for all of us. very few people over there buy into what these crazy people are selling and it will always be in our interest, i believe, to partner with people over there who are on the frontlines to make sure that isis types never

come here and they replace this ideology with something more sustainable, to the american people its been a long, difficult war and i understand what the president wants to do. he wants to reduce our footprint and lower our cost, and he's right to want to do that, but i'm very encouraged by what i see in syria. maybe a new strategy that focuses on building up the lives of people in the region, having a small footprint of americans led by local populations and securing the oil is a really smart idea quite frankly. that's how isis survived for so long but you can take syrian oil out of the hands of isis, iran, and other enemies and put it into the hands of the kurds and people who fought and died along our side and that is a really transformational event and the iraq/syrian theatre and what i see developing in syria is very

promising. reporter: senator graham, you said that the war is by no means over. do you think that the president understands that and also do you think that the u.s. could have pulled off this operation without the true presence that the u.s. has had in syria for some time now and are you concerned still about the withdrawal of most of those troops from syria? >> well when it comes to what's happening in syria, i like what i see. we've had the president's position and my position is really not that far off. we really don't need a bunch of americans in the safe zone. the international community should do that, but some american forces deployed with the sdf to make sure that the oil does not ever fall back into the hands of isis and iran is not the biggest winner makes a lot of sense. when it comes to terrorism, the president changed the rules of engagement. you think the caliphate destroyed itself? he made a conscience decision

when he went to iraq to change the game when it came to destroy ing isis. he's had a determination to destroy the caliphate unlike anybody i've ever met. now the question is how to keep it down. i think we've got a plan now to keep it down, that meets his national security objectives of reducing our footprint and having others. reporter: i want to lay it out separately the president in his remarks mentioned turkey's cooperation when it came to this operation and i'm wondering if that changes your view on sanctions and i also want to ask when the president called you we understand he did not call other members, was that a mistake? >> i don't know, he's calling family members right now. i was in town, so i was right down the street. reporter: did he call family members? >> he's calling some family members now.

reporter: the foleys? >> i guess what i would say today is what i see happening in syria makes sense to me, that the president destroyed the caliphate. he's asking others to do more and he's right, when it comes to turkey. i think the invasion has been disrupted but at the end of the day, if we can continue to partner with the kurds, secure the oil revenues for their sake, not iran's sake not for isis sake, help pay the cost of the operations makes imminent sense to me, and i think the president is right to say that the conflict between syrian kurds and turkey needs to be resolved, the safe zone needs to be occupied by forces other than the united states, i agree with that. reporter: it's no secret that the president wanted to pull out of syria last year. without our true presence there, would an operation like this have been possible? >> you could probably have done this from iraq to be honest with you. i don't know exactly the details of the operation, but i think the president is focusing on the

resources that made isis so strong for so long. the caliphate was funded basically by many sources of revenue but one of the chief sources of revenue was syrian oil, so if you take that off the table, the terrorists in the region are in a world of hurt and iran containment makes sense iran would love to get this oil. the russians have shown some desire to go down here and i can't say this now but i was in the situation room and i'll talk to you later on, the president made some pretty firm statements to people in the region that you come into this area at your own peril. reporter: senator you very recently said you thought the president's decisions to withdraw could be the biggest mistake of his presidency. today you're affirming it as a positive one. >> what i'm saying today is that the killing that the baghdadi is a game changer in the war on terror. doesn't mean the war is over. the president's determination

over time has paid off. we don't give him enough credit for destroying the caliphate. he did this in months, not years , because he changed the rules of engagement, so what i want to talk about today is those brave men and women who plan the operation, who went in on the ground and killed this bastard. reporter: senator, first, is it appropriate for the president only to inform republicans of this operation apart from -- >> i don't know, that's not my concern today. my concern today is that we did a good thing. reporter: and then second on the oil. by what legal right in international law does the united states take the oil of the sovreign nation of syria? >> well what you don't understand is that these oil fields are in areas where the sd f operates. that's what the chief source of revenue from a long time for isis. it is now in the hands of syrian democratic forces which are arab

and kurds, mostly kurds, with the partnership with the united states, so no, this doesn't violate any law in my view. what it does is it just good common sense foreign policy. i want to congratulate the president for making sure that oil revenues never fall into the hands of the bad guys and the way you secured this, this is a win-win. the sdf will get more money if we can modernize the oil fields. we're not going over there to enrich america. we're over there to help our allies, deny our enemy resources that will allow them to get stronger over time, and finally, and this is okay, to lower the cost to us. the president mentioned something i had a bill that would make our aid to iraq alone , that could be forgiven but also paid back over time. here is the one thing that's been missing in the mid-east. skin in the game. if we made our aid to iraq alone they would have probably acted differently than if it's just a

grand. now the sdf, who have been good partners, have a chance with our help to increase revenue for the benefit of their people. they'll have more incentive to fight harder. everything changes when the people you're fighting with have skin in the game, and i want to compliment the president for coming up with a model in syria that we probably should have done in iraq. this is a game changer with the killing of baghdadi. this is a moment where we should all be proud of our american military and our intelligence community. this is a moment where president trump's worst critic should say well done before president. reporter: senator graham? maria: senator lindsey graham there live right after meeting with the president on the news of the morning, and as we have been telling you, islamic state leader, abu bakr al-baghdadi is dead. he was the ideological leader of isis really responsible for the group's terror, reign throughout iraq and syria.

i'm talking this morning with congressman john ratcliffe who sits on the homeland security as well as intel committees and of course, congressman, you have been on the intel committee but focused on something altogether different as the white house has been pursuing al-baghdadi, you have been knee deep in the impeachment inquiry. that's where we left off before senator lindsey graham was speaking. you want to finish your thought there and then i want to ask you to connect the dots here because we are waiting on the ig report which we're fully expecting phase a abuse and of course last week we learned that now john durham's investigation has turned criminal. >> right well i think that we've been spending far too much time on this impeachment inquiry , but if we're going to do it let's talk to the most important witnesses. every american deserves to know when adam schiff's staff met with this whistleblower that started a process to try and remove the president from office , and i think every american sees that adam schiff, the person who promised that donald trump was going to see

significant jail time because he had substantial evidence of collusion with russia and that he was engaged in treasonist activity as a russian agent which ultimately proved not to be true shouldn't be the person running this impeachment inquiry and it shouldn't be running through the intelligence committee and behind closed door s meetings that we can't talk about openly, so hopefully that'll end, and what the people just saw there, i agree with what lindsey graham just said about the president really changing the rules of engagement he's doing that across-the-board with respect to fighting terrorism, with respect to approaching trade deals, with respect to how we grow the economy, all of those things. give this president credit. while he's attacked shamelessly, repeatedly, by his critics he keeps providing solutions and doing good things for the american people and i think they see that. maria: and do you expect in the ig report that we will see criminal referrals from the

inspector general and what will that mean for john durham's investigation which is now an out and out criminal investigation? >> well, i don't believe in coincidence and the end of the inspector general's investigation and his impending report coming at the same time as the start of john durham announcing that this is now a criminal probe is not a coincidence. the inspector general, you have to remember, has the ability to investigate folks at the department of justice and the fbi. he doesn't have the ability to indict. he can only make criminal referrals. he's done that before with respect to the director of the fbi and the deputy director of the fbi and as i have been telling you for the better part of two years here, we have seen things that we believe are the basis of should be a criminal referral as it relates to the fisa process that the inspector general's report that's coming out in the next week or two will

address. john durham announcing this is now a criminal matter is a significant development. it means that there is a reasonable indication or suspicion that crimes have occurred. doesn't mean he's going to charge anyone but it does mean that he's going to panel a grand jury to compel testimony, subpoenas, and people, documents and people to come and address the origins of this russia investigation where a president was accused of treason, falsely accused of treason by a party that paid for a fake phony dossier and the democrats are now unhappy that john durham is looking at whether or not there was a proper predicate for it. i don't leave there was. maria: we should also point out that one of the people who accused the president of treason quite publicly was john brennan, the former cia director and john brennan's fingerprints seems to be all over the origins of the russia probe. >> the importance there again

of john durham having the ability with a grand jury to bring in folks outside of the department of justice, outside of the fbi which michael horowitz couldn't do and can't address in his report, john durham will have the ability to bring in intelligence officials like john brennan, like james clapper and explain why this, how this russia/trump collusion treason investigation got started, where the proper predicate was for it and again, there are real questions about that and i have great confidence in attorney general bill barr and john durham to get answers to that and many of us think it's long overdue there's accountability for much what has not been explained about a claim against president trump that was clearly false and the special counsel said as much. maria: congressman good to have you on the program thanks so much. you bet maria. maria: congressman john ratcliffe joining us now we're getting reaction from congressman doug collins the

republican from georgia, ranking member of the house judiciary committee and congressman good to see you thanks for joining us >> maria. maria: first your reaction to the news of the morning and that is islamic state leader abu bakr al-baghdadi is dead, the president spoke earlier saying that he died in a tunnel, wimpering and screaming. many islamic state fighters were also killed. none of the u.s. special operations team were hurt. your reaction? >> well first and foremost it's a great day for our special forces. those folks who dedicate themselves to doing exactly what they were trained to do this morning is root out evil, find it and kill it and i think it's also a great day for the world when you see the wimpering coward of a terrorist al-baghdadi who went to a cave and blew himself up. this is a man who threaten the the world and yet he wanted to go into a cave and wimper and all around the world anybody who looks to isis right now all to look to their leader who wimpered in a corner and blew himself up so here is a better story maria. this is a story you were just

talking about with congressman ratcliffe and that is that he can't get information from his own intel committee about syria. it goes to show you this president whose been attacked and harassed by an impeachment probe for the last 10 months while all of this is going on, the house is shutdown, my committee judiciary can't work, intelligence committee can't work, speaker pelosi is completely helpless in trying to lead the house, this president took not only that and been working with that but kept his eye on the ball. kept his eye on the ball of killing the isis leader and terrorist. he shows that you can do two things at one-time. obviously our house can't do that. speaker pelosi and the democrats are incapable of doing that. the president has shown how true leadership looks. maria: it's interesting that you mention that because we have not heard any reaction from any of the democrats leadership this morning. i was looking earlier on twitter , and on social media for any statements. we have not heard any statements that in fact the news of the day is that the leader of isis, the worst terrorist organization we know has been killed by our special operations, so by any

stretch of either side of the aisle, one would think that this is a major victory for the united states, and the world frankly. >> you would hope. speaker pelosi and adam schiff and chuck schumer they're just focused on one thing that's the election next november. when we look at what is happening here, and again this should be something celebrated by all parties. no democrat republican, especially americans and isis separated themselves. their leader al-baghdadi separated themselves out and didn't want to participate in the world as we know it. they didn't want to be a part. they wanted to kill everything and be a part, disrespecting themselves from everything that is civilized world knows, everyone should be praising that and to see the silence from them , maybe they are upset that maybe their impeachment headlines are knocked off the front page for a morning. maybe they are just worried they don't know what to say but i would encourage the speaker this is a good day for americans and the administration and it's a good day for everyone on this earth. maria: in terms of the john durham investigation now, a criminal investigation, this enables them to call and panel a

grand jury and subpoena witnesses. who would you expect to be the people that the grand jury would hear from in terms of this criminal investigation? >> well it's interesting to see exactly and i agree that i don't thinks a coincidence with the horowitz report coming to the end. i think there's also the significance of the investigation expanding into the intelligence community which the horowitz could not touch and i think you'll see the intelligence community people calling in and different levels including up to the top, brennan others should be worried about this i believe because they have had their fingerprints all over this as you see what's been going on over time but as you move forward you'll see some of the corrupt that we talked about before of comey and mccabe, there's all kinds of ways that durham can get at this and it's good to see it actually turning into this and instead of actually trying to rush to the decision that the doj under bill barr has said let's look at this when he first got there he said i want to know what actually happened here and i don't want, he's been forceful about it. maria: congressman thank you so

much good to see you this morning we appreciate it. congressman doug collins much more coming up, two developing stories we're following on "sunday morning futures" on the death of the isis leader as well as democrats impeachment's push. we'll be right back. around... i'm worried about my parents' retirement. oh, don't worry. voya helps them to and through retirement... ...dealing with today's expenses... ...like college... ...while helping plan, invest and protect for the future. so they'll be okay... without me? um... and when we knock out this wall imagine the closet space? yes! oh hey, son. yeah, i think they'll be fine. voya. helping you to and through retirement.

maria: welcome back, fox news alert, breaking news we are covering all morning, the leader of isis is dead this morning, we have learned that islamic state leader abu bakr al-baghdadi is dead, president trump spoke about this earlier that baghdadi died in a tunnel whimpering and screaming as special forces cornered him. many islamic state fighters were also killed along with baghdadi the president did not immediately notify congress as a fear of leaks, he killed himself and every one of