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NEW DAY SATURDAY

Judge Hands Dems Victory By Ruling Impeachment Inquiry Is Legal; WAPO: Trump's Strategy Shifts As Efforts To Stymie Inquiry Fail; Ambassador Philip Reeker Set To Testify Today In Impeachment Probe; Millions Facing Critical Fire Threat In California; Trump Allies Hint To CNN That Syria Strategy Will Change; Astros Bounce Back To Take World Series Game 3; The Louvre Opens da Vinci Anniversary Exhibit. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired October 26, 2019 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[08:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Federal judge ruling the impeachment investigation into President Donald Trump is legal.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Five more witnesses coming up, another witness on Saturday.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think they want an impeachment, because it's the only way they're going to win. They've got nothing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't want to put a time limit on it, but I think we're close. We need to dot the I's and cross the T's.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please stay home unless you're being evacuated.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody evacuate the fire is coming up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay off the highways so that emergency vehicles can get around.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This World Series - these are two really, really talented teams really, good teams, really driven teams. Takes four wins. No one's got it yet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. Welcome to Saturday. I'm Christi Paul.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Martin Savidge in for Victor Blackwell.

Lawmakers are gathering on Capitol Hill today for a rare Saturday deposition. Ambassador Philip Reeker is set to appear before three House committees today at 11:00 a.m. He is the top State Department official who oversees U.S. policy in Europe and Eurasia. PAUL: If he testifies, Reeker would be the latest career diplomat who's confide with a House subpoena to appear, specifically going against the express wishes of the White House.

SAVIDGE: Meantime, 2 million customers in California may have no power this weekend. PG&E says the drastic move may be necessary to prevent quote "a catastrophic wildfire." The decision should be made by 8:00 a.m. local time.

PAUL: And the Houston Astros keeping the World Series alive. And they tonight could tie it up in game four. They'll take on the Nationals Washington, of course, in DC. Houston beat the Nationals four to one in game three last night.

So a federal judge has ruled that the impeachment inquiry being held right now in Congress is legitimate and this is seen as a major victory for the Democrats by a lot of people, significantly undercutting the Republican argument that the process is invalid.

SAVIDGE: That same judge also ordered the Justice Department to give Congress grand jury information that had been redacted from the Mueller Report. She ruled that the information is in the public interest and should be released.

Let's go now to Kristen Holmes, she's at the White House. And Kristen despite celebrating Ivanka and Jared's wedding anniversary last night at Camp David, it looks like he went to bed angry and talking about the President woke up angry, at least if you look at his Twitter feed.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. That's absolutely right. Now, keep this in mind, he doesn't mention anything about this ruling because it does, as you said, directly undermine his argument that this is unfair, that this investigation is a sham. Instead he lashes out.

He's already tweeting this morning. He's saying that the investigation is corrupt and fake. He is slamming Democrats. And this just goes to show you that despite what legal ruling there is, he is going to continue to maintain this air of victimization, to continue to say that this is unfair to him and as he appeals to his base, telling them that everyone is against him, everyone is against them

And I've got to tell you. I was in Pittsburgh earlier this week with President Trump, and I saw some of his ardent supporters believing that narrative - that the entire thing was a complete sham. But when it comes to that middle of the road, that's where you - know this moderate Republicans, those independents, that is where this legal ruling really comes into play, showing people that in fact it is not a sham.

But, again, this is not going to stop President Trump as we've already seen this morning from playing the role of the victim. In fact, yesterday he took it a step further. He was at an event essentially promoting, touting his criminal justice reform. And he seemed to conflate himself and the impeachment inquiry with a legal injustice that so many have suffered from in the past. Take a listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: In America you're innocent until proven guilty and we don't have investigations in search of that crime. It's a terrible thing. It hurts people very badly and it divides the country. Innocent people - those surrounding innocent people were being destroyed and humiliated. We have so many people that have been hurt, destroyed and humiliated in ways that we've never seen before in the history of our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: So right there you have two separate ideas kind of merging together as one. The one thing is very clear, he is going to maintain his innocence. He is going to continue to say that this is a sham.

PAUL: So is there a sense at all, Kristen, what is happening behind closed doors at the White House and how they will proceed with their PR battle against the impeachment and probe?

[08:05:00]

HOLMES: Well, Christi, yes. And it is not just the White House. I want to be clear here. There are Republicans on Capitol Hill who have been begging the White House to come up with some sort of communication strategy.

We know that President Trump did not want a traditional war room. Why? Because he considers himself a one man rapid response team. I mean, look at his tweets from last night. We can pull them up for you. This was one after the other talking about how my lawyer should sue Democrats. The entire impeachment scam was based on my perfect Ukrainian call. The Democrats must end this scam now, calling it a witch-hunt.

He thinks that he is the right messenger for this. But some people outside, allies included, really think that they need to expand here. They need to have a separate department like President Clinton had during his impeachment inquiry that deals with communication. And they are looking outside of the White House at different advisers, are trying to put together a team, and trying to put together a line of messaging that is cohesive on all fronts.

PAUL: All right. Kristen Holmes, thank you so much. We appreciate it. I want to bring in former federal prosecutor Elie Honig and Margaret Talev, the Politics and Whitehouse Editor for Axios. We appreciate you both being here.

Elie, I do want to start with you, because as Kristen was saying, every chance the President says this is a scam, a judge - this federal judge seems to just legitimize the process. Help us understand the significance of this ruling and will it really result in Congress seeing this material?

ELIE HONIG, FORMER FEDERAL & STATE PROSECUTOR: So this was an important ruling Christi. But we need to understand this is only step one in a multi-step process. The main takeaways from the judge's ruling yesterday are, one, Congress has very broad authority - not unlimited authority but very broad authority to get information that it needs from the executive branch.

That, of course, will be relevant to the ongoing Ukraine investigation. And, yes, that - two, that this will be very important to the Ukraine impeachment process, because the judge confirmed no the House does not need to take a separate full vote in order to have a legitimate impeachment inquiry.

That said this will be appealed, this decision was at the federal district court which is the first of three levels. It will almost certainly go up to the Court of Appeals and then potentially up to the U.S. Supreme Court, an important victory. But only round one.

SAVIDGE: Margaret I know there are people out there who are groaning and saying, "Oh no, not the Mueller report again." But, we should point out, these documents have not been seen before. Correct?

MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: That's right, Martin. And they involved grand jury related information that Congress - the Democrats may have the ability if it's useful or pertinent to either pull it into their case now or to use it to figure out additional people that they want to talk to. So that ruling is important for that reason.

And I also just want to say, we're not talking about like a one paragraph from a judge somewhere. This is like a 75 page ruling. And so you'll begin to see in there the threads of the questions that are going to be continued all the way up the chain, perhaps to the Supreme Court.

But it could have profound implications on the information that Congress has to build its case for impeachment and the way that the White House is then forced to proceed when they're dealing with these questions about can people come testify, like some of the challenges we're seeing in the coming week.

SAVIDGE: And, Margaret, the judge did seem to rule against the White House, of course, but - especially their strategy which is to obstruct, in other words, not to cooperate in any way. The judge actually said this is the reason that she was going to release the documents.

TALEV: That's right. The judge actually said it kind of flips it - it makes it all the more important that there be disclosure. And so I think the White House's strategy up until now has been sort of to try to make the case. There isn't really an impeachment, because they haven't really taken a vote.

And you see this play out in the way that they have told potential witnesses or potential people being asked to come in for depositions - don't do it, don't go in. We'll see what impact, if any, this judge's ruling has in the immediate week ahead.

But, certainly, there are weeks more worth of people, including John Bolton, who Congress wants to have come in, the White House does not. And these are these rulings - these initial rulings about whether the impeachment inquiry is valid and what Congress has a right to ask for are going to be really pertinent.

PAUL: So Elie let me ask you to give us a timeline here, because we know the Democrats want to get this done as expeditiously as possible. Right? And in fact they have Thanksgiving Day on their calendar that they want to finish things up. The President, most likely, wants to delay all of this and take it over the 2020 line, so it doesn't interfere with the election.

In terms of Congress actually getting their hands on these documents and seeing what is in there, can you give some sort of estimated timeline as to when you think that would happen with the legal process.

HONIG: Yes. Yes it's a complicated issue, Christi for the reason you say there's a push and pull here. Democrats need to hurry up. I think Republicans want to drag this out.

[08:10:00]

The problem is courts take time inherently. The decision that we saw yesterday came out of a case that was filed back in August or July. So we're talking two or three months just to get through round one.

And then the Court of Appeals is going to take another couple months. And then if the Supreme Court decides not to take the case, which it does in the vast majority, it does not take cases. That will even take a few weeks. And if the Supreme Court does take it, we're talking about another couple of months.

So Democrats need to be strategic here. And the difficult question is do we go to court to fight for these important witnesses and grand jury materials and documents. On the other hand, are we willing - how much are we willing to sort of slow down this investigation in order to get that done?

SAVIDGE: Margaret, I wanted to ask you on the PR front. Does it appear that the White House is losing and are they concerned?

TALEV: Well, they are concerned even though the public faces that there is no war room effort, but there is effectively a war room effort that's standing up behind the scenes. There is the daily meeting. Axios wrote about this in detail this week.

There's daily meeting that involves basically everyone except the White House counsel's office, which in part reflects the tensions between the Chief of Staff's office, White House Counsel's office. But also reflects the fact that that what they're meeting about is strategic communications not per say the legal strategy.

You can see it in this vote yesterday that Lindsey Graham led the pack on in the Senate. The President's efforts to sort of get Republicans on the record almost - and as some critics saw a loyalty vote to, say you're there criticizing the House or you're against the President.

So there is an effort to circle the wagons to keep Republicans on the President's side in the Senate. But with each set of testimony come new revelations. And when you build them, up it's become - it's a problem for the White House certainly messaging wise, but also potentially substantively.

SAVIDGE: Yes. We've heard that - I heard that from some of the Trump supporters this week. All right. Margaret Talev and Elie Honig, thank you very much for joining us this morning.

PAUL: Thank you.

HONIG: Thanks guys.

PAUL: So how federal prosecutors in New York had to blow open a safe during their investigation into illegal foreign campaign donations? Well, now the brother of a Giuliani associate has been subpoenaed and now we'll tell you more.

A fire emergency in California. New evacuations underway and power outages possible for more than 2 million people. We're going to bring you the very latest.

And we saw something in our nation's capital last night that hasn't happened in 86 years. But it was not the result National fans were hoping for. Andy?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes. Martin, the fans here getting to host their very first World Series game since 1933. They were ready to celebrate up to 0, but the Astros ruining all the fun. I'll show you how Game 3 unfolded. Coming up.

[08:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: In just a few hours another key witness is expected to testify in the ongoing impeachment probe.

PAUL: Yes. Philip Reeker, a top State Department official is set to appear before the three House committees and CNN's Suzanne Malveaux is at Capitol Hill with the very latest. So Suzanne first of all good to see you this morning. Help us understand what is expected with today's testimony.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's going to happen in just a few hours behind closed doors. And of course what he is going to be talking about - he is one of the top diplomats to Secretary Pompeo, so he's going to talk a lot about the U.S. connections to Ukrainian officials.

He's involved in a lot of those discussions and those connections. So we are told that he is a creative problem solver. That, yes, he did work very closely with Pompeo, but that he's not necessarily in the inner circle. So don't necessarily expect bombshells from his testimony, but perhaps corroborating a lot of what we've heard before. The kinds of conversations with the phone call, the text messages, those type of things. But Democrats are curious about two areas first they've learned through State Department documents that they have in their position that his subordinate George Kent made him aware that the former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch was the target of a smear campaign.

That he did not believe that these kinds of allegations were actually true and that Reeker in fact agreed. So what did he do about it? How did he tried to shield her from it? Who did he think was responsible behind the scenes?

The other thing they want to know is that they have also learned that he had told his subordinate, "Hey don't push your concerns when it comes to the President's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani." Why was that? Who was he getting pressure from? Those are the kinds of things that they want to know.

But make no mistake the Democrats feel quite emboldened by their investigation, especially after yesterday that federal judge ruling that this is a completely legitimate and legal exercise.

SAVIDGE: Suzanne, I want to ask you real quick. There's news about another key witness apparently asking a court to rule on whether he should testify. What's that all about?

MALVEAUX: So that's Charles Kupperman. He is scheduled to testify on Monday. It'll be very interesting to see whether or not he does. He's the deputy national security adviser, worked very close with the National Security Adviser, John Bolton.

So that House Democrats, they have subpoenaed him, say you must come before our committees. The White House has ordered him not to do so. So he was gone before a federal judge. He's filed a lawsuit to ask the judge what should he do. Is he compelled to do this? And so what the judge rules will be very important, because it will really signal not only to him but also potentially to John Bolton whether or not they will cooperate with this impeachment inquiry.

SAVIDGE: Yes. All right. But we will be watching for that really very, very closely. Suzanne Malveaux, thank you very much.

PAUL: Thank you.

MALVEAUX: Thanks.

SAVIDGE: Sources say that federal investigators had to use explosives to open up a safe during their search for documents all of this surrounding the investigation into associates of Rudy Giuliani.

PAUL: And now federal prosecutors in New York have issued a subpoena for Steven Fruman, the brother of a Giuliani associate who has pled not guilty to campaign finance charges. Here's CNN's Evan Perez.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Federal prosecutors in New York subpoenaed the brother of one of Rudy Giuliani's associates who are facing campaign finance charges.

[08:20:00]

The subpoena to Steven Fruman is one indication of the escalating investigation since the arrest two weeks ago of his brother, Igor Fruman, and another associate, Lev Parnas.

Investigators have doled out multiple subpoenas and conducted several property searches. In one case they blew the door off of a safe to get contents. Now, federal prosecutors told a judge this week that they are sifting through data of more than 50 bank accounts. In addition, they have put together a separate team of prosecutors as they take a look at indications obtained from search warrants and subpoenas.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

Now this is so they can examine sensitive materials that could be the subject of attorney-client privilege because of ties to Giuliani, who's also President Trump's personal attorney.

It's not clear why prosecutors are interested in Steven Fruman or what specifically agents sought from the safe. Prosecutors are also investigating Giuliani's Ukrainian business dealings as part of the broader investigation - Evan Perez, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: Thank you, Evan. Well it's been a tough couple of weeks for Rudy Giuliani because now NBC is reporting that he accidentally called one of their correspondents without realizing it and left voicemails in which he talked about large sums of money with another person tomorrow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S ATTORNEY: Tomorrow, I got to get you to get on Bahrain. You got to call--

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold on--

GIULIANI: You got to call Robert again tomorrow. Is Robert around?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rob, he's in Turkey.

GIULIANI: The problem is we need some money. We need a few hundred thousand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: So Giuliani told CNN those calls had nothing to do with Ukraine. They were about other overseas projects he was involved with. All he says. Perfectly legal.

SAVIDGE: CNN's Fareed Zakaria investigates impeachment and its role in our democracy. Tune in for the special report that will be "On The Brink: When A President Faces Impeachment." It's tonight at 9:00 Eastern. It's only on CNN.

PAUL: Listen, the race to get out of these wildfires that are raging in California is really seen here. There's doorbells camera. Showing the moment a mother and child are running away screaming trying to get away.

[08:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: This morning new evacuation orders are in effect for parts of Sonoma County, that's in Northern California. Officials there are worried about extremely dry conditions and strong winds that could be the ingredients for a dangerous firefight this weekend.

The out of control Kincaid fire has already burned more than twenty 23,000 acres. Health officials are worried about the poor air quality from all that smoke and there are also concerns about fires burning dangerously close to power lines.

PAUL: PG&E says equipment on one of their transmission towers malfunctioned. Now state officials say the fire started seven minutes later. PG&E CEO says it's too soon to tell what caused the fire or where it started. But today the California utility company says it may cut off power preemptively to more than 2 million customers across Northern California as they issue a dire warning about the dangers that are still ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDY VESEY, PACIFIC GAS AND ELECTRIC COMPANY: I have been in this business for more than 40 years and I have worked all over the world and I have never seen overall conditions like the one we are seeing and forecasting for this weekend.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Now, in Southern California, the Tick fire has burned more than 4,000 acres and firefighters in Los Angeles County are really keeping an eye this morning on hotspots that could spark up.

SAVIDGE: But some residents are being allowed to go back home. Reporter Crystal Cruz from our affiliate KCAL spoke to some of them about escaping the flames.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAT SCHMIDT, EVACUEE: I want to shower so bad. I want to sleep. I want to be with my animals.

CRYSTAL CRUZ, KCAL (voice over): Kat Schmidt is returning to her Canyon Country home after evacuating Thursday night because of the raging tick fire. Her dad is helping her unpack.

SCHMIDT: My dad, he is a retired L.A. County firefighter and he stayed behind and he fought the fire and he saved my sister's house. CRUZ (voice over): Here's a photo of Kat helping her sister evacuate from her nearby home. You can see the flames behind her on the hillside.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody evacuate the flame is coming up.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

CRUZ (voice over): A ring doorbell video from another neighbor shows the chaos as a mom and her kids frantically pack their car to get away from the wall of flames coming at them.

Another family told us they evacuated, but the ring doorbell camera helped them see what was going on at their house from afar.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just looking at it constantly to see that everything's still standing and there's no fire.

CRUZ (voice over): Others chose not to evacuate and took a chance.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We stayed to keep this hillside right behind us from going up. So we had a two inch water line off the fire hydrant and we kept it kept down.

CRUZ (voice over): The tick fire started on tick Canyon Road Thursday afternoon. The fire destroyed homes in the area and a water drop broke out a window. David Chambers' home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A huge blast. So - but, again, it saved the house.

CRUZ (voice over): Many people are walking back carrying and pushing their things, because not all of the roads have reopened.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything's looking a lot better. So hopefully they know. I believe they lifted the evacuation notice. Then hopefully they'll open the roads pretty soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: And our thanks to Crystal Cruz for that report. That ring video, though, is always so amazing.

PAUL: It's incredible what it has become to help us really understand what people are going through. And, yes, again we're going to be watching that and giving you the very latest. But we do want to go to CNN meteorologist Ivan Cabrera who is also taking a close look at this. Because when we say it today people are thinking OK this is what we have to deal with today. But in all reality you're saying we've got today, tomorrow and Monday.

IVAN CABRERA, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, absolutely right. Good morning Christi and Martin. In fact, I think actually tomorrow will be worse as far as the wind speeds are concerned we're talking about 70-80 mile an hour winds over the next few days.

The inferno, right, we keep calling it that. I mean you heard that official there they've been working these fires for 40 years and said never seen anything like it. Each year they just keep getting worse and worse as we talk about the climate crisis here and the droughts that are prolonged.

And then these conditions that are typical for California - the winds are. But when you have dry vegetation, you have certainly what we need to fuel the fires.

[08:30:00]

All right. So let's break this down as far as the days and how bad this will be. So for today, Saturday, we have a fire warning across Northern California, in fact, parts of Nevada as well. And then Sunday, as a frontal boundary moves South, which is what's essentially impacting the region with very strong northerly winds then Sunday fire weather watch for Southern California.

And as I mentioned, we're talking about wind speeds anywhere from 50 to 80 mile an hour winds. So you're looking at fire hurricanes out there. I mean you just look at some of those pictures. And the wind at times - the flames are licking the floor. They can't even get high enough because of the winds. But that's what we have going for Saturday heading into Sunday.

Humidity less than 50 percent. We have those dry fuels and again wind gusts in excess of 60 miles an hour. You ask any firefighter what condition they would prefer to have it improve, it's the wind, because with the wind at 60 to 70 miles an hour it's impossible to contain a fire.

5 percent right now. We're likely going to be at 5 percent tomorrow. And then for Sunday this is the area that we're looking at as far as a worst fire weather conditions. It does not get worse than what we're experiencing right now in California as far as the fires.

So let's talk about the winds that are pretty typical here. I mean this is nothing unusual and this isn't part of the climate crisis. It's the dry fuels and the prolonged droughts that we have. But what happens this time of year we get these frontal boundaries that moved through El Diablo - the Diablo winds; literally the devil winds. You imagine why they named them that way - dry and windy conditions.

As those winds come down the mountain side, they rushed down. What happens when you compress winds? They warm up, they speed up. And by the time they get to the valley we're looking at conditions that started with temperatures in the 50s and 60s. By the time they get winds - get down to the valley, they're not only at 70-80 miles an hour, but they're also with temperatures in the 90s and 100s at times.

So these conditions will prevail guys heading into the next 48 hours. It does get better by Monday and especially into Tuesday.

PAUL: Just hang in there this weekend.

SAVIDGE: Yes, it's almost hurricane force winds. Ivan Cabrera thanks very much. CABRERA: Yes, they are.

PAUL: We know in the last two weeks President Trump has changed the dynamic in Northern Syria and Turkey. So after the break we're going to get an assessment from an expert. Bing West, the Former Assistant Secretary Of Defense.

[08:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Well the President's allies are telling CNN an updated Syria strategy is expected sometime this weekend. But we're already seeing some changes. Almost two weeks after President Trump decided to pull all U.S. troops out of Northern Syria that mandate has been eased. Defense Secretary Mark Esper saying, the U.S. will remain in eastern Syria to fight ISIS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK ESPER, DEFENSE SECRETARY: We are reinforcing that position. It will include some mechanized forces. Again, I'm not going to get into details but the mission in Syria remains what their mission in Syria began with. It's always been about defeating the ISIS coalition. So that is the core mission. That mission remains unchanged.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: This is happening as we hear more reports of that ceasefire being broken. The commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces tells CNN the Turkish drones hit a town in northern Syria on Friday in what was described as one of the fiercest attacks to date with numerous casualties.

We want to bring in now Bing West. He is a Marine combat veteran and he served as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for the International Affairs under President Reagan. He is also the author of 10 books and most recently he co-authored a book with the Marine General James Mattis, "Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead."

Mattis served as the Secretary of Defense under President Trump, leaving his post just in December. Good morning to you sir.

BING WEST, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE UNDER PRESIDENT REAGAN: Good morning, Martin.

SAVIDGE: Can I ask you first about General Mattis? Because I just bring that up. It's in the news. He has been recently somewhat critical of the President. I'm wondering you expect that General Mattis will break his silence at some point and talk about serving in this administration?

Well I don't think that General Mattis, Martin, has been silent. His resignation letter is crystal clear that you have to stand by your allies, especially those who fight with ISIS. And when that didn't appear to be what President Trump wanted to do, he resigned. So I think if you read his letter it was as clear as could be.

And of course, you've been on the battlefields with him. I mean, we were all on the battlefield together and going up to Baghdad. So you know that he's a man of his word and that's what we tried to do in the book. It's just put out there what we thought were good leadership lessons and that's why he left. That's why he left the administration.

PAUL: OK. We want to ask you about what is happening in Syria, specifically first about Secretary Esper's comments regarding the troop situation there. He said there will be mechanized forces, tanks and heavy weapons. Do you think sending troops there with tanks is that the right thing to do?

WEST: Well I'm not going to second guess the Secretary of Defense, but I must say this is like you're on a roller coaster, you go this way and then you go that way. The basic thing is I think to a certain extent the President changed his mind again.

When Secretary Mattis was there he said we're pulling out. Secretary Mattis said, I'm out of here. So then he says we're pulling out. You get some more criticism. And now all of a sudden, well, we're not quite out yet. So I don't know what the composition is Christi, but it certainly appears to me that the President has changed his mind and we're going to stay in certain areas of Northern Syria.

SAVIDGE: So it's not just that he changed his mind, he's changed the makeup of the force. I mean, when you start introducing mechanized units here that's a different kind of fight you're anticipating.

WEST: Not necessarily Martin and the Secretary of Defense was very elliptical about that. I certainly hope it includes artillery and mortars. But the exact composition, I don't think we're really know, but it will be a lethal package that's out there.

SAVIDGE: And it appears that they're there in an area where there's oil production. They're trying to prevent it from falling back in the hands of ISIS or trying to prevent Syria from getting access to its own oilfields, which is it?

[08:40:00]

WEST: How about both? But, I mean, it seems to me to a certain extent that perhaps some people shrewdly around President Trump got to him and touched the button with him - money, and so he reacted. But to me it isn't the oilfields. It's that we're keeping some troops there. But we can expect ISIS to rise again. That's the big problem with what his decision to get out of there.

PAUL: That was my question. What is the potency of ISIS at this point? We know that they have been broken up to some degree. But based on your own knowledge how threatening is ISIS still and what is their potential to reorganize to be a real force? Christi.

WEST: ISIS is a plague. And once you think you're on top of the plague stamping it out you don't you don't let it flare up again. And I think there's a distinct danger that ISIS is going to come back again, because their morale goes up. And once their morale goes up, they begin to attract more people to their crazy cause. So I think this is deadly serious and I think it was a serious mistake to break faith with the Kurds.

SAVIDGE: You know I wanted to follow up with you on that because of your distinctive service to this country and your knowledge of how those on the battlefield fight for the person next to them. And the way that we seem to have stepped away from the Kurds here, how impactful is that on fellow veterans?

WEST: Seriously impact. I mean, they - the veterans - most veterans are pro Trump. But this really kind of begins the chair at that fabric. When you go on a battlefield, as you know Martin, because you were there with us. You stand with those people who stood with you and once you break, faith getting people to trust us again - holy smokes, I mean I think that there's a long tail to this, "Oh I'm just going to get out."

PAUL: So how detrimental do you think these shifting messages are, not to Syria necessarily - well, yes, to Syria and to other foreign governments, but to the troops themselves, to the people who serve this country?

WEST: Well Christi, the troops will always hold the line as General Mattis says. It's not so much to me the troops themselves. It's who's going to fight with us if we walk away from them. And how many of our enemies will look at this and think, well, United States, they're not so tough. When the tough gets going need they're no longer there.

And the irony is, it wasn't it wasn't - these Kurds took 11,000 dead and over the last year or two we had 12 killed, and that's a tragedy. But it's nowhere near a huge fight. So the rationale for doing this I think is fairly flimsy compared to the long term costs of having done it.

PAUL: Bing West, co-author of "Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead" with General James Mattis and Former Assistant Secretary of Defense himself. Bing we appreciate your service. We appreciate your input. We are always grateful. Thank you so much.

SAVIDGE: Great to see you again Bing really after so much time.

WEST: OK.

SAVIDGE: Well, D.C. was buzzing last night as Washington fans watched their beloved Nationals at the World Series, but did not lead them happy. Andy Scholes is live from D.C. We'll explain why he is happy?

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[08:45:00]

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SAVIDGE: Well it was a historic night in the nation's capital, the World Series back in town for the first time in a really, really long time.

PAUL: Didn't go as planned for Nationals fans, but I just saw Andy doing this - kind of revenue hands together, like let's talk about this right now.

SCHOLES: Christi, Martin, no one around here knows that I'm an Astros fan--

PAUL: Pretty sure they do.

SCHOLES: --we just got it under wraps. I guess this city is so excited about having the World Series here for the first time in 86 years and last night was the first time the Nationals and their fans got to host a World Series game.

I tell you what you walk around here all you see is people wearing Nationals gear, Go Nats! signs everywhere.

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SCHOLES: And this stadium last night was just ready to explode with excitement. Only problem was the Nationals didn't give them anything to really get excited about.

Every time they had a chance to do something big, they just ended up coming up short. The team going over 10 with runners in scoring position. They left 12 runners on base. The crowd, though, they did get real hyped up and had a little party scene going for a while in the bottom of the six with Gerardo Parra pinch hit when he came up to the plate with his walk up song "Baby Shark". It's kind of like the team's anthem these days.

But, again, that inning, the Nationals could knock in any run and the Astros would go on to win Game 3, 4 to 1 to one to get back in this series.

DAVE MARTINEZ, WASHINGTON NATIONALS MANAGER: The fans were awesome. I mean, it was electric. The boys in the dugout - they were fired up. They were. Our - really our message to the fans, bring it again tomorrow. I mean it was great and I loved it.

AJ HINCH, HOUSTON ASTROS MANAGER: We're not afraid of playing in any venue. This is a great atmosphere. The fans here were incredible. And just alive like you would expect in the World Series and our players thrive on that too.

SCHOLES: All right. So Nationals fans hoping to see their first World Series win at home tonight. First pitch for Game 4 just after 8:00 Eastern and it's once again a very expensive ticket, standing room only for tonight going for more than $900.

And with the Astros win that does guarantee a Game 5 Sunday night.

[08:50:00]

And President Trump plans on attending. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said he spoke with President Trump. And in order to not disrupt the fans getting in and out of the stadium, President Trump says he will arrive after the first pitch and he's going to leave before the game is over.

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SCHOLES: But guys a big win for the Astros in this World Series, no team had ever come back from an 0-3 deficit. Now it's 2-1. And it's a series again. It's going to be exciting.

SAVIDGE: It is exciting and it's good to hear for both teams. Thanks very much Andy.

PAUL: Good luck. So art lovers, guess what, you have just another reason to fly to Paris. Louvre just opened a new exhibit honoring the great Leonardo da Vinci. These are masterpieces that you have a once in a lifetime chance to see.

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SAVIDGE: Need some suggestions for our holiday plans? You may want to head to Paris and pay a special visit to the Louvre.

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SAVIDGE: The museum just opened an exhibition showcasing more than 160 works of art and drawings by the great Leonardo da Vinci.

PAUL: This display is 10 years in the making. It's in honor of the 500th Anniversary of the Italian artist's death. All of the items are on loan from museums all around Europe and the U.S., but there you can get them in one passport (ph).

[08:55:00]

SAVIDGE: It's actually 500 years in the making in the prime (ph)--

PAUL: That's true. He is right. He is more accurate.

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PAUL: Thank you so much for starting your morning with us. Hey we're back here at 10:00 a.m. Eastern for "CNN NEWSROOM," talking with Republican Representative Ted Yoho about the impeachment inquiry.

SAVIDGE: "SMERCONISH" is next right after a quick break.

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