200-year history. steven reed was elected to be the mayor of montgomery. he talked about the power of unity. >> and at the end of the day, we know i wat's not just about the election, it's not just about me. it's about the people who believe in our ideas and i know it's about what we will do going forward. >> reed will be sworn in on november 12th. that wraps up this hour of "msnbc live." i'll see you tomorrow morning on "today." "andrea mitchell reports" starts right now. >> you this, craig melvin. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," under attack. turkish air strikes under way against syrian kurds as american troops who had been fighting side by side with the kurds to battle isis are ordered to stand back and just let it happen. >> reporter: there could be massive death tolls, refugees, even a campaign of ethnic

cleansing. defiant, the president's lawyers say the white house will not participate in the impeachment inquiry as the congress says it will not be deterred. >> the president is obstructing congress from getting the facts that we need. it is an abuse of power for him to act in this way. and breaking point. a new nbc news poll shows more than half the country is against president trump and do not believe he has been honest and trustworthy on the ukraine issue at the center of the impeachment debate. >> bottom line, there is public appetite to hear the case. a lot of people want more evidence before making up their mind. not an illogical way for the public to respond. and our breaking news. good day, i'm andrea mitchell in washington with this breaking news this hour. turkish forces and the assad regime's military have launched a military assault against the syrian kurds. the men and women who shed blood for the united states for five

long years in defeating isis. it comes after president trump signaled a green light to pu turkey's president in a conversation with the president. nbc's matt bradley is in irbil, iraq, close to the syrian border. nbc's courtney kube covers national security and the pentagon. matt bradley, to you first, what are you hearing from the syrian kurds this hour and from your sources there in turkey? >> reporter: the latest that we're hearing from the syrian kurds is that the first casualties, two people killed, two injured. this according to the syrian democratic forces which is made up mostly of kurdish fighters from that region in northeastern syria that turkey is now launching an incursion into. the other thing we're hearing is the beginning of what everybody here feared which is the

rumblings of a humanitarian crisis and a refugee spillover. so we're starting to see people fleeing from that region that turkey is now pushing into. and as you know, andrea, refugees, internally displaced people, that's been the story of syria for the past several years. so to see that happening once again with a fresh humanitarian catastrophe, that's not good for syrians, it's not good for kurds, but it's not good for anyone else in the middle east, the entire region, because countries neighboring to syria and europe have had to host these people and it's upended politics really throughout the world. we'll start to see the knock-on effects of this incursion by turkey. that is all to ignore the fact that we're about to see an impending humanitarian catastrophe. the turks will be moving their allies elsewhere in syria to put a local face on this. they did that before several years ago in afrin where they took what were called the free syrian army, that's

turkish-backed syrian insurgents mostly from the northwest of the country, they're being bused in. they're the tip of the spear here. the pretext the turks are using is that they want to free up some of the space that was occupied by the kurds who actually have lived there for generations and return it to syrian arabs. that's something they did in afrin, it was a massive displacement, and a lot of humanitarian groups said it looked like ethnic cleansing, andrea. >> and matt bradley, courtney kube at the pentagon, first of all, the pentagon has to be in a state of turmoil because of all of this, we've seen military forces saying how surprising this was, that this decision was made on sunday, on a phone call with erdogan.

what is the u.s. hearing about isis? because the pentagon's last inspector general report at the end of june was that isis is resurgent, not territorially, but isis fighters were certainly in al hol, the camp being guarded by the syrian kurds. >> reporter: that's right, andrea. you'll frequently here president trump talk about isis being defeated. but when you hear the u.s. military talk about it, they'll always add in that it's the isis caliphate. the reason for that is there are still thousands of isis fighters throughout syria and into iraq. there are still weekly, not quite daily anymore but weakly operations against isis in both countries. so in syria, those are led by the syrian democratic forces. the people who are now under siege, under assault by the turkish military in this incursi incursion. the syrian democratic forces are 60,000 strong, they're majority kurdish, 60 to 70% are syrian

kurds, the rest are syrian arabs. i spoke to a commander of those forces on monday. he said, we're disappointed the u.s. has decided to leave the border region, knowing the turks are going to come in. he said that u.s. military officials he had spoken with were also disappointed in the decision but were carrying out their orders. he said the sdf will not back down, they will fight the turks to hold onto an area that they see as their own territorial area. there are sdf families who live in that region. there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 million people in the area that erdogan wants to take back along that border region. so the concern for isis is of course that the sdf are also the ones who are guarding somewhere in the neighborhood of 12,000 isis fighters. about 2,000 foreign fighters and about 10,000 syrian and iraqi citizens who went to isis and

fought for them. what will happen now? the general said that that will become their second priority as soon as turkey invades, that sdf fighters will move towards the border to reinforce their brothers and sisters, to take up arms against turkey. the big concern amongst u.s. military officials i've spoken with is those detention centers, their doors will essentially just open up and thousands of isis fighters could spill into the syrian countryside, andrea. >> and that's exactly what the president had said, he said we're sick of guarding these people and let them go back to europe, which is refusing to take them. of course it's been the sdf that's been guarding them, not u.s. forces. matt bradley, courtney kube at the pentagon, thank you both so much. in a rare rebuke, a rare rebuke from the u.s. military, a retired general, general joseph votel, is slamming president trump's decision to pull troops from syria. take a look at this. >> for me the overall sentiment

is one of disappointment that we're ceding a hard-won strategic advantage. >> joining us now is retired army colonel jack jacobs, a medal of honor recipient and an msnbc military analyst, and tom donnellon, a former national security adviser to president obama. welcome, both. tom donellon, erdogan has been pressing to take over what they call a buffer area. it's always been contemplated it would be jointly with the u.s. now it is turkey on its own, going against its mortal enemy, the syrian kurds whom we view as

democratic defenders or allies on the ground, they view as terrorists because erdogan feels threatened by them. what are we doing about abandoning our allies? what is the signal from the diplomats that i've been speaking to, this was a shock to the brits, the germans, the french, people with troops on the ground, the jordanians. the israelis are not happy because this empowers iran. erdogan talked to putin today, who is his closest ally in all this. so russia and iran are the winners here, and assad. >> absolutely a boost to russia, iran, aside, and isis, which from a security perspective may be the most important impact here. you heard from general votel, the former head of centcom, the former head of special forces, talk about abandonment here. this was a no-process decision, that i can determine. certainly done without

consultation with our allies, no consultation with the kurds, the sdf partners, who have been our partners, side by side, absolutely essential in the defeat of isis, in taking away the so-called caliphate. they were at raqqah, the syrian capital of isis, and took it back. they've been our absolute critical partners. they are the only force i know of that can stabilize this region. and what we've done now is given a green light to the turks to come in and fight directly against our allies here. you're going to see civilian casualties, you'll see humanitarian issues develop, you'll see ethnic elements come into this, andrea, for sure. you'll have the rise of isis, as the kurds go to fight the turks, they'll leave places where they've been pushing back on isis strongholds. they may not be able to handle the prison, as your colleague said at the pentagon.

and there's an internally displaced camp at al hol with 70,000 families, women, children, of isis fighters, without supervision. there's no protocol in place to transfer. you could have a real resurgence of isis. this is a terrible set of decisions. and made without apparent consideration of the consequences. >> jack jacobs, colonel jack, when i was looking at some video recently from al hol, thousands and thousands, the isis women there who are as fervent as the men if not more so, raising the flag with their children, raising the black and white isis flag. that is a recruiting area for isis among all the other refugees encamped there. these are people who are going to be let loose because the sdf

is no longer, as tom points out, and matt bradley pointed out, and courtney, their priority is not going to be to defend and protect that camp and keep those people contained. their priority is going to be to fight the turks. >> yeah, and that's only one of the rotten consequences of all this. the old gag says, there's good news and bad news, well, give me the bad news first. the gag is there's almost no good news. the bad news will be for united states and american interests. kurds will fight along the border or withdraw. in neither case is the outcome any good. the kurds are liable if not likely to align themselves with assad now, and russia. the united states will have lost a vital way of ensuring that isis remains on its heels. all of our allies in the region are now convinced that we are not going to stand by our allies.

and not just in this region but in other regions as well. the kurds may say that they can come up to the border and they'll phyfight toe-to-toe wit the turks. but we're not going to fight the turks air to air. we're not going to drop bombs on turkish formations that are attacking our allies, the kurds. every possible thing that can happen here, every single one, is bad. and that's not even mentioning the humanitarian crisis here and the release of all or most of isis' fighters who have been pent up there. i can say one more thing that is of interest here, and that is, what is erdogan interested in doing? well, two things. i think they were mentioned before but it's worth repeating. first is to destroy the kurds who have been fighting for three decades for a homeland, and the second thing is to find a place

for all of the syrian refugees who are currently in turkey, to get them out of turkey and stick them in syria. those are his two objectives and he's probably going to achieve them. >> and at the same time, tom, imagine this, the president has invited erdogan to come to washington for this much-sought-after meeting he's wanted since may of 2017 when his bodyguards were indicted by the metropolitan police for, in broad daylight, beating the heck out of anti-erdogan protesters. >> you have to ask yourself, what is the process? >> process? >> you would hope that there's some process somewhere when considering these things. it doesn't appear to be the case. president erdogan tweeted this morning that the purpose of this incursion was, as you said, which is to rid this area of the kurds who are our allies here. it's a real stain on the

reputation of the united states today. and we will be less safe as a result of this. this is really a significant, a significant event. again, done in a chaotic way without any real concern or consideration of the consequences for our national security and the security of our partners. >> and tom donellon, the next topics we'll be discussing, the impeachment, ukrainian fallout, this is all of a piece, the way foreign policy and the state department are being run. thank you so much. coming up, fight club. the president's lawyers digging in against nancy pelosi and the impeachment inquiry. and ramping up attacks against the whistle-blower. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." re watching "andrea mil reports. let's hide in the attic. no. in the basement. why can't we just get in the running car? are you crazy? let's hide behind the chainsaws.

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and in the political wars in washington, president trump is launching a frontal attack against the whistle-blower and the entire impeachment inquiry, with the white house announcing last night it will cut off all cooperation, no cooperation at all with house democrats, no witnesses, no documents, no testimony, period. in a letter to house speaker pelosi, the white house slammed the inquiry as not constitutionally legitimate.

in a string the tweets today, the president is demanding that the anonymous whistle-blower be exposed and questioned and is putting new pressure on the intelligence community's inspector general whose own investigation validated the whistle-blower's complaint. joining me now is nbc white house correspondent kristen welk welker, jeff mason, michael carpenter, and jacqueline a allemagne. kristen welker, the president overheated last night, with the white house now saying no cooperation at all, even though they were talking at least about permitting some people to testify. but they cut it all off. >> the white house making it very clear, andrea, that they have no plans to cooperate with the house inquiry. their argument is this is illegitimate and unconstitutional because there

hasn't effectively been an official vote to open an inquiry. if you look at the constitution, it says the house of representatives has sole responsibility for the power of impeachment. the white house, though, is making the case, look, look at what has happened in the past, the past three impeachment processes have started with a vote to essentially not only open up an impeachment inquiry but to lay out the terms of that inquiry. so that is the white house's stance. the house speaker saying effectively that she has the authority to move forward with an impeachment inquiry and saying that the president will be held accountable. those are her words. this is a standoff that continues to intensify, andrea. the question is what will it mean for the timing of this entire approve? the speaker had said she wanted this to be done by the end of

the year. we have put the question to administration officials, what if the house speaker calls your bluff, effectively, and holds a vote? the answer to that is, they won't engage in hypothetical questions, andrea. >> indeed. jeff mason, what about the hiring of trey gowdy who led the house oversight investigation into hillary clinton in the benghazi which led to the email revelations. trey gowdy was a tough chairman, he's now been brought in use outside counsel. what does he bring to the table? >> sure. number one, it's a sign, along with yesterday's letter, that the white house is taking it even more seriously than it appeared to be taking it a couple of weeks ago. i remember sitting in a white house official's office asking about strategy, and being told that they didn't have one and didn't need one right now, it was just another crisis like the many crises that this white house has faced during president

trump's 2 1/2 year tenure. so laying out the strategy of not cooperating at all suggests they're now crystallizing their strategy behind that and bolstering it with their legal team. >> and michael carpenter, the whistle-blower is working under protections that are built into the system. so when the president attacks the whistle-blower, claims the whistle-blower is political, claims the whistle-blower is illegitimate, that inspector general validated those claims. now there's a second whistle-blower. there are also contemporaneous notes that the whistle-blower took from his or her original source. all actually matching what the white house itself released in those rough notes or transcript. >> precisely. i mean, this appears to be an effort by the president to intimidate the whistle-blower and others who might be willing to come forward and shed light on these calls or other

meteorologists held between trump administration officials and ukrainians to pressure them or dig up or concoct dirt on vice president biden. >> having worked on the national security council, what is the process when a call like this takes place? a number of people are listening in real time, taking notes, presumably not cia detailees because they're not supposed to interfere with anything that's domestic. how does that work? >> so the white house situation room really handles the note taking and the monitoring of the call. there's probably a couple of senior officials potentially in the room with the president or listening in remotely. but they will scribble down notes, but the actually transcript will be compiled typically by the situation room. >> and jacqueline, what about future witnesses? it seems pretty clear from the fact that gordon sondland was not permitted to testify that none of the other state department official are going to be. >> that's exactly right, and that's a problem, that the white house has moved to halt all

cooperation with the impeachment inquiry, the limitations of these subpoenas. congress acted swiftly yesterday in formally subpoenaing gordon sondland to come back from brussels and appear. but it appears unlikely the white house is going to allow him to testify. that being said, the white house is making a pretty risky bet here on a gop-controlled senate and the court of public opinion that his odds of being impeached aren't going to happen because of those two things. but there are other means of obtaining information here, as congress is going to continue to do. they still have, you know, kurt volker's text messages. as nancy pelosi said, the white house's eight-page letter, which carries, you know, questionable legal muster according to republicans and democrats we spoke with yesterday, you know, these are potentially are providing the basis for articles of impeachment based on obstruction. and it's only a matter of time

before, in the court of public opinion, people begin to wonder what is this white house hiding, why are they not allowing these officials who were directly involved with this call and these negotiations between the ukraine and the u.s. to appear before the public and answer these pressing questions. >> jeff, it is a bet. nancy pelosi has said there is enough in what the president has said himself and the rough notes, the rough transcript, whatever it is, there's enough to go on just there. but they need or want to have witnesses. and they wouldn't be subpoenaing these witnesses if they didn't want them. they don't have the luxury of going true an extensive court battle, as they learned when the mueller report was released. time is running out of them. >> that's right, democrats want to get this done quickly because they don't want it to bleed too far into the presidential chain ne campaign next year. they will certainly be hampered by the fact that the white house isn't cooperating.

that will be a challenge for them in terms of how to respond to that. also in the court of public opinion, the white house clearly in that document yesterday laying out both a constitutional argument but also a political statement and saying in some ways, look, the president is not being treated fairly here, if you're going to impeach him, if you're going to go through this process then he needs to have due process, he needs to have the right to have counsel present and be involved in the interviews that you want. that might bolster his case among people who are wavering in his base or others who are traditional supporters of president trump while also potentially forcing the hand of the democrats to either have a discussion about that vote or move on without these witnesses that they dearly want to question. >> kristen welker, from what you've learned, what about white house yielding at all on masha yovanovitch, the former ukraine

ambassador, on her testimony which is scheduled for friday? it appears to me she would come under the same framework. she's still a foreign service officer, unless she quits the state department. >> there's open question whether she's going to testify. it's hard to see that the white house would block gordon sondland from testifying and not block friday's testimony, although that hasn't officially happened. but yesterday certainly seems like a pretty good guide for what we can expect moving forward, andrea. >> michael, you were the russia guy at the pentagon, you know masha yovanovitch. >> i've known her for 12 years, she's a solid professional. she served as ambassador both in the george w. bush administration and in the obama administration. i knew her in her ambassadorial posts. she's a professional, she's

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senator lindsey graham is continuing to staunchly defend president trump on impeachment and warned that the senate will never convict president trump for what he said on the call to ukraine's new leader, a stark contrast from the way graham prosecuted bill clinton for his impeachment trial 20 years ago. >> this body determines that your conduct as a public official is clearly out of bounds in your role because impeachment is not about punishment. impeachment is about cleansing the office. >> they're about to destroy the nation for no good reason. i've read the transcript. i do not see anything wrong there. and i want nancy pelosi to know that republican senators are not going to impeach this president based on this transcript.

>> well, then and now. joining me now is charlie sykes, msnbc political analyst and editor at large at "the bulwark," susan page, and jonathan capehart, columnist for "the washington post." charlie, what do you make of lindsey graham, the transformation? >> well, that was then and this is now. with lindsey graham, all ethics apparently are situational. one position when it's bill clinton, a totally different position when it's donald trump. of course he's also capable of accusing the president of shamelessly lying about the kurds, while statement carrying water for him in the united states senate. it's a complicated place in lindsey's head these days. >> one of your quotes from your blog or from twitter is, you said that on lindsey graham in a political article, excuse me,

the humiliation of lindsey graham, graham has transformed himself from one of trump's feesest critics to one of his most reflective defenders. susan, a thing of wonder? >> it's been remarkable since the death of senator mccain how senator graham's reputation has changed, because as an ally of senator mccain he was seen as a maverick, someone who stood up against republican interests sometimes. and that reputation i think has been thoroughly transformed now because of his willingness to defend president trump. the pesky thing are these tv cameras that record what you say and play them back years later. i know that's very annoying for many politicians. that's true not just for lindsey graham but others. but lindsey graham is in a particularly vulnerable place, i think, at this moment. >> what about the rest of the senate? we've seen mitt romney stand up, a few others, ben sasse, susan

collins kind of dipped her toe in the water but not really, in terms of the offense, as they view it, but not that it is an impeachable offense, no one's saying that amongst senate republicans. >> look, i like 1999 lindsey graham, what he was saying in today's world is the right thing to do. the presidency does need to be cleansed. but mitt romney, senator romney can't be the only one to give a fill-throated condemnation of what's happening. i would expect more from senator collins, given all the great work she did in terms of overturning don't ask don't tell. where is that courageous susan collins? where are the courageous members of the republican party who i grew up watching, standing firm for the constitution and the honor and dignity of the oval office? they are gone. lindsey graham was one of those people. and as charlie calls him shape shifting, i don't even know if

shape shifting is the right word. i don't know who that person is anymore. i don't know who or what the republican party is anymore. >> and charlie, on foreign policy, lindsey graham of course is standing up for the syrian kurds, saying that he has as many as 85 votes in the senate to sanction turkey once the senate comes back next week. but we've heard similar rhetoric from him after the killing of khashoggi against mohammed bin salman and that has all shifted as well. >> and this is the hard of the faustian bargain that lindsey graham made, that he would kiss up to the president so that he could have the president's ear, so that he could be influential, so that he could keep the president from making dangerously wrong decisions. and here we are right now, basically it's all faustian and it's no bargain, because lindsey graham has abased himself to the president but when push came to shove and our allies, the kurds, were being betrayed, he wasn't

in the room, he didn't get a call, a text message. so he's out there sort of flailing. unfortunately for lindsey graham, i think heal double down on the bargain and continue to carry water for the president who, according to lindsey graham, is lying and damaged our place in the world. >> susan, you've been spending a lot of time on the hill. does nancy pelosi really thing she can get this done in the fairly limited time frame if she doesn't get these witnesses? >> you know, i think that nancy pelosi has said that they already have enough evidence to impeach the president on the phone call with the ukrainian president. and their decision to site the unwillingness to comply with subpoenas as an article of impeachment means that yes, i don't know if they will move with that speed but it is possible they could move at that speed especially if they keep

the focus as narrow as that has been so far, focused on the ukraine, not on all the things that some democrats want to impeach the democrats for. >> the white house is trying to brand this as illegitimate, unconstitutional, and attacking the process which most lawyers will tell thought process is whatever she wants it to be. >> right. and when you're attacking the process, you're already losing. i keep coming back to this question. if the call was so perfect as the president has been saying for days on end, why not be cooperative? why not let the eu ambassador, our ambassador to the eu, testify? why not let people testify and say what a great job and how perfect this call was? i mean, it's a rhetorical question, because we know the answer, it was not a perfect call, the transcript, or i should say the notes of the call on july 25th were not perfect, which is why where we are right now. >> and i would suggest one other answer. it's whatever rudy giuliani was

doing with his cohorts in and around ukraine and around the energy sector in ukraine that had a lot more to do than just investigating the bidens. there's a whole lot more to be told of this story and it's being investigated as we speak. jonathan capehart, susan page, charlie sykes, thanks very much. coming up, showdown. the white house promising to ignore congressional democrats' subpoenas. what are the next steps going forward? we'll have our lawyers' answers. .

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any advice for president trump going through this? >> my advice to him would be to tell the truth, i think for a change, and also to cut back on his twitter feeds. >> president trump is not hurrying to take jimmy carter's advice. instead he's moving full steam ahead with a strategy of spreading misinformation on twitter and stonewalling congressional democrats. msnbc justice and security analyst matt miller was former chief spokesman for attorney general eric holder. you're not a lawyer. >> married to one, in fact. >> the procedure for impeachment is not defined specifically in the constitution other than house and a trial in the senate.

in fact in the past, according to jill wine-banks last night, there was no full house floor vote before period of time rodino convened the judiciary committee hearings on the impeachment of richard nixon. >> right. the bottom line is the house gets to define its own procedures. it's not a call that the president or anyone in the executive branch gets to make. when you boil down the arguments the president's lawyer is making in this letter they come down to one thing, and that is that the president is above the law. remember what the house and the justice department have been saying for months. number one, the president can't be indicted because the constitution leaves the policing of presidential misconduct to congress. they've said since then the president can't even be investigated. and now they've said the president not only can't be

heldibili accountable, but he can't even be impeached. they're saying the president's conduct cannot be police incod y way, shape, or form. >> in fact the whistle-blower protection affords the whistle-blower safety so that the state department or other agency officials cannot be present, their lawyers are not supposed to be present when state department witnesses are testifying in this kind of procedure rather than the demand from the white house that they have the opportunity to question these witnesses. >> yeah, the white house has -- you know, the white house has in their letter pretended, if we were in a, say, criminal process, the criminal trial stage. in fact if this was a criminal analog, this would be indictment stage, where everything happens in secret. the identity of the whistle-blower is protected so the white house can't retaliate

against him and you don't want witnesses to get their story straight. kurt volker's transcript has not been released so if other witnesses like gordon sondland testify, he won't know what kurt volker said. that's important to conduct the investigation with integrity. >> it's more like a grand jury procedure. >> exactly. >> matt miller, the nonlawyer, thank you very much. speaking of nonlawyers, the number of days is 53, and it's not good news for president trump. the results of our new poll next right here on "andrea mitchell reports" only on smps. msnbc. msnbc sizing you up... calculating your every move. you think this is love? this is a billion years of tiger dna just ready to pounce. and if you have the wrong home insurance coverage, you could be coughing up the cash for this. so get allstate and be better protected from mayhem, like me-ow.

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and we have new polling out today from nbc news and the wall street journal showing negative polls for president trump. the number to watch is 53%. that's the number of people disapprove president trump's performance. that sage percentage does not believe trump is honest. >> mark is joining me. what context of all of the impeachment and perhaps some of the erratic behavior. china, are you listenin listening -- impalistening -- i am paraphrasing.

how did this compare to 20 years ago when clinton was holding himself very well and richard nixon and before that not so well. >> a lot of ways from the moment the president was inaugurated and his american carnage and inaugural speech. americans have made up their minds of his presidency and fitness for office. one of the things we are looking at approval rating does not change from month to month. it is always in the same place. what's significant about the impeachment is where we are starting off right now. a president with a 43% job approval rating at the moment of his impeachment inquiry is much different than bill clinton when he was at 68%. that impeachment was not successful that's why there was a backlash. richard nixon, 1974 at the time of his impeach. inquiry, he was at 25%. he was soon to be headed out the

door. right now donald trump is in kind of the middle ground. this is not bill clinton at 68% or nixon at 25%. we are just at the beginning stage and ways to go. >> donald trump has a lot more republican allies in the senate certainly than richard nixon. and except for mit romney and a little bit of ben sass, fewer along the edges and really no one coming to their ranks on impeachment. they're all rallying on the president. >> that's right, in a way to be able to get to the 67 united states senators to oust the president, you are exactly right diagnosing it. i am interested how independence are breaking in our polls. on whether trump is being honest

and his disapproval rating. the impeached and remove the president. independence are not all there just yet. to me that's one thing to kind of look forward to. where did independence break particularly as the public gets more and more information of what's going on. >> where the president does have solid support. total support is in the house. republican ranks. we saw them rallying the white house talking point. >> you would sure like to see the volker's testimony released before we could continue the depositions and transcribed interviews. >> a malicious captain kangaroo.

i guess maybe he's too young to know captain kangaroo. >> procedures and orders and process and all of this. when you look at the substance whether it is the whistleblower's complaint or the transcript of the july 25th call or text messages that we end up getting last thursday or friday, that's a strain for republicans. >> thank you. mark murray, we got another debate. another nbc debate in georgia. >> looking forward to it. >> we are. it is take your children to workday here at our nbc newsroom. a moment that made all of us stop and smile today. stay with us today here on "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. reports" on msnbc.

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and before we go, we just had to share what happened to our unflappable correspondent who did not miss a beat this morning. while she received some surprise while reporting breaking news out of syria. >> their concern is they want to have kurdish -- excuse me, my kids are here. >> her four-year-old twin is the

youngest and msnbc correspond t correspondent. courtney discover as mother's work is never done. that's does it for "andrea mitchell reports" and i am cracking up in here already. >> i love it when that happens. i feel like i am on live tv everyday. >> this happens with stephanie everyday. andrea have yourself a great afternoon. >> thank you. it is wednesday, october 9th coming up on "velshi & ruhle." air strikes are underway in syria. turkey is attacking u.s. allies. we'll talk to a former navy secretary. >> our other big story, a white house official who listened in on a trump ukraine call was allegedly shaken by the exchange, the official calls it crazy and frightening. the president'