Extraordinary news day. Im dave briggs. Im alison kosik. It is the first day of winter. 5 00 a. M. In the east. It is pouring rain. 60 degrees in new york. The world is upside down. Only fitting new york is too. A new secretary of defense. James mattis considered by many the guardrail of this administration will leave at the end of february. He tendered his resignation a day after the president revealed the plan to withdrawal u. S. Troops from syria. His departure shaking washington and creating uncertainty at the pentagon and at military bases around the world. Mattis resignation is a rebuke to the president s Foreign Policy views. Mattis using his letter to promote the importance of u. S. Alliance and unambiguous approach to russia and china. No doubt, the last straw for mattis was the planned withdrawal from syria. Two officials quoted him as being livid. For more, here is Barbara Starr at the pentagon. Reporter alison and dave, an Administration Official tells cnn that secretary mattis decided early thursday morning at 7 30 that he needed to go to the white house one more time and meet with President Trump and try to convince him not to withdrawal u. S. Troops from syria. Mattis was very concerned about the fate of the kurdish fighters that the u. S. Has backed. As a military man, it is a terrible thing to leave your friends on the battle field that you promised to stay and support. That became a big problem for mattis to leave the kurds behind and withdrawal u. S. Troops. He met with President Trump at 3 00. Expressed his views. The president did not change his mind. Mattis had a Resignation Letter ready to go telling the president in that letter that he deserved someone who was more aligned with his views. That essentially means james mattis quit under protest. He talked in that letter about the need to support alliances and about the need to support u. S. Interests around the world at the time when President Trump is taking a much more isolationist view and believes the u. S. Does not have a frontline role anymore in fighting terror groups like isis. Alison, dave. Barbara starr, thank you. Secretary mattis decision stunned capitol hill. One conservative republican who supports President Trump is wondering whether the wheels may be coming off. After reading the Resignation Letter, marco rubio tweeted it is clear we are headed toward a number of grave policy errors. He calls on people who support President Trump to persuade him to choose a different direction. Democrats are shaken. Senator mark warner tweeting this. This is scary. National defense is too important to be subjected to the president s erratic whims. Also weighing in is william cohen. The former defense secretary for bill clinton. Our credibility has been called into question. The president can say i made a campaign promise. You can make a campaign promise, but some are made to be broken. The president has taken a wrecking ball to every pillar of stability and security we have erected over the past 60 or 70 years. He systematically is demolishing them. The former u. S. Commander of forces in afghanistan said the kind of leadership that causes the patriot like james mattis to leave should give pause to every american. The news came moments after the u. S. Military were ordered to withdrawal half of the forces in afghanistan. It could take months to pull out the 7,000 troops. This prompting a dire warning for the second straight day from the president s top senate allies. Senator Lindsey Graham calls the american troop withdrawals a high risk strategy. He says if we continue on our present course, we are setting in motion the loss of all our gains and paving the way toward a second 9 11. Our Senior Correspondent ivan watson is live for us. Ivan, good morning. Do you agree with the senators tweet . Reporter i have to say this is americas longest running foreign war. I was there when the Bombing Campaign first began in 2001 against the taliban. The war is not going well, alison. The chairman of the joint chiefs called it a stalemate. Look at the statistics. You have these special investigator general who is like an accountant for the war in afghanistan. Saying the government controls 55 of the territory and 65 of the population. The Afghan Security forces are 11 below their target strength right now and some 12 of the territory is under the direct control or influence of the insurge insurgents. The taliban and isis which emerges in the last couple years as well. The chairman of the joint chiefs, however, recommended as recently as december 6th against drawing down u. S. Forces in afghanistan and President Trumps pick to take over Central Command testified in front of the Senate Committee on december 4th. He said a precipitous u. S. Withdrawal would leave Afghan Forces incapable of defending the country. Ill show you a tweet from the chief adviser to the afghan president who is sounding a patriotic ton saying quote if the few thousand foreign troops that advise and train leave, it will not effect our security. Our security is in the hands of the afghans and the final goal is the afghan stewaecurity forc will stand on their own and defend. They have. Afghan soldiers and police have been killed, close to 29,000, in this war since 2015. This is a bloody conflict that is not getting any better. Alison and dave. Ivan watson, thank you for your reporting. Cold harsh reality on the first day of winter. A Government Shutdown is likely over christmas. Here is the countdown clock. 18 hours and 52 minutes. They were coming together on a shortterm plan through early february until President Trump derailed the deal. He says if there are not billions for his border wall, hes not on board. I made my position very clear. Any measure that funds the government must include border security. Has to. Not for political purposes, but for our country. For the safety. House and Senate Republicans assured everyone the president would sign a stopgap funding measure. Then mr. Trump received his morning briefing from where else . Ann coulter and fox news. So many people are saying it is not a Government Shutdown. It is a partial shutdown. So much remains open in the shutdown. If you allow the democrats to play the talking point over and over, you will never get funding for the republican wall. It is a failure. Where are we now . The house passed a spending bill for 5 billion for the border wall, but here is the problem. The house bill is dead on arrival in the senate. Three reasons. Opposition to the border wall, money and frustration over how the president is handling negotiations and awol. 40 members have missed votes from both parties. Mitch mcconnell is still scheduling a vote today for the house bill. If the senate votes it down, the two chambers can try to negotiate a compromise. If that fails . Shutdown. President trump is scheduled to travel to maralago today for a twoweek break. The white house says he will not travel if there is a shutdown. If there is a partial shutdown, the department of Homeland Security and Justice Department and state department would be effected. More than 420,000 essential employees would work, but pay withheld until the shutdown is over. Another 380,000 would be placed on leave without pay. That includes most of the staff at nasa and the National Park service right before the holidays. There are real concerns about what a shutdown might do to the already rattled financial markets. More rattled. The last thing wall street needs is a partial shutdown. Fear has gripped the markets. Dow dropped 464 points or 2 on thursday. The average closed below 23,000 for the First Time Since 2017. Nasdaq lost 1. 6 . Avoiding closing in the first bear market since the great recession. A bear market is when the index falls 20 from the recent high. The s p tumbled 1. 6 . Clearly investors are still rattled by the decision to raise Interest Rates for the fourth time this year despite evidence of slowing economic growth. Worries of a supply glut. Crude plunging to 45 a barrel. This is the First Time Since august of 2017 that oil has closed below 46 a barrel. Investors are moving way from risky stocks. Tesla losing 5 . Jc penney losing 6 . If you are invested in the market, your returns are in the red. Wiping al out all of the gains the year. If you are keeping score at home, they were up 45 this time during president obamas presidency. Not a scorecard he wants to see. Ahead, a Top Senate Democrat says william barr has disqualified himself for being attorney general. Barr calling the investigation fatally misconceived. Im ray and i quit smoking with chantix. Smoking. It dictates your day. 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Jared® acting attorney general Matt Whitaker rejecting advice from Justice Department officials to recuse himself over the Mueller Investigation. Whitaker suggested on cnn last year it could be curtailed by quote choking off funding. There was no legal conflict, but based on the past Public Comments of whitloaker, it was close call and he should recuse himself. Whitakers own advisers engaged in the ethics review did their own assessment. They recommend he not recuse himself. That will certainly raise questions from democrats on capitol hill. The assistant attorney general steve boyd defending whitakers decision. He noted he has not made Public Comments for 16 months and quote has a lot of respect for mueller. Mark warner, the top democrat on the Senate Committee, calling on trump to pull William Barrs nomination. He called muellers object instruction of justice obje obstruction of justice investigation fatally misconstrued. He seems to be someone to undermine the Mueller Investigation. The most tacky way he has used the memo as a way to solicit the position is at the very least unseemly. Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein admits it had no impact on the Mueller Investigation. This memo unsolicited if he did not have the knowledge . These are the questions the democrats will ask before the confirmation. What is held as a bipartisan victory. The criminal Justice Reform bill. It is a big win for President Trump who is expected to sign the criminal Justice Reform bill today at 11 00 a. M. The First Step Act will allow thousands of federal inmates Early Release. It eases mandatory minimum sentences and gives judges more leeway in sentences. Ahead, another setback for a star. Josh gordon of the new England Patriots suspended indefinitely by the nfl. Andy scholes has the latest in the Bleacher Report next. Likeh where nothing stands between you and your best friends. 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Wide receiver josh gordon says he is leaving the new England Patriots to take care of his Mental Health. He is suspended for violating the nfl policy. Andy scholes has more. No question. Josh gordon is elite receiver in football. He says he needs time away to get right. He said i take my Mental Health seriously at this point to ensure i remain able to perform at the highest level. I feel i could have a better grasp on things mentally. I will be stepping away from the field to focus on my Mental Health. Gordon caught 40 passes for more than 700 yards this season from tom brady. He missed time from Training Camp to take care of his Mental Health. He was suspended from 2014 to 2017 for slightiviolating the se abuse policy. It was an emotional night in texas. Newton head coach told his players in august he would not live to see the end of the season. Johnson had a double Lung Transplant in 2015. Doctors told him he had eight months to live this year. He led his school to a state championship. I have been given a great gift. People dont understand that. The gift is i have been able to see how my life could affect people before i die. And these guys, i mean, they touched my life and its been a mutual thing. Im able to teach them a lesson. You dont get to see that most times. I told them last night. They talked about wanting to win for me. This is their time. Ive had my time. I dont know what else to say. Amazing. Coach johnson given eight months to live. This is month nine. His team goes out to win that state title. Special. What an incredible story. Thank you, andy. Alison. Dave, thanks. Not just another day. The defense secretary resigns, the acting ag wont recuse himself from the probe he dissed. The stock markets tumble. The troops leaving afghanistan and the government is on track to shutdown before christmas. All that and more, believe it or not, next. Thingyou want . The paying. 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Take care of the hands that take care of you. Thats me in back in 1987, when i gave isotoner gloves to all my teammates. Now i have a different set of teammates. My family. And they all want isotoner gloves for christmas because they keep getting better. Theres smartouch. For selfies whenever, wherever. Then theres four way stretch for flexibility. They even have smartdri. See . Stays dry. So get isotoner gloves for the whole family. Take care of the hands that take care of you. The president has taken a wrecking ball to every pillar of stability and security weve erected over the past 60 or 70 years. Frustration boiling over after jim mattis resigns as defense secretary. The breaking point . The president s decision to pull troops from syria. The government is on track to shutdown at midnight. The president vowing to follow through on the demand for a border wall. The acting attorney general defying ethics officials and will not recuse from the mueller probe. A lot going on. Im alison kosik. Im dave briggs. 5 30 eastern time. We have the countdown clock up. What a day it is. Josh rogin on the mattis depar tur. Departure. We start with the guardrail of the administration. He will leave at the end of february. He tendered his resignation the day after the president revealed his plans to withdrawal troops from syria. His departure shaking washington and creating uncertainty at the pentagon and at military bases around the world. Mattis resignation is a rebuke to the president s Foreign Policy views. Mattis using his letter to promote the importance of u. S. Alliance and unambiguous approach to russia and china. The last straw was the planned withdrawal from syria. For more, here is Barbara Starr at the pentagon. Reporter alison and dave, an Administration Official tells cnn that secretary mattis decided early thursday morning at 7 30 that he needed to go to the white house one more time and meet with President Trump and try to convince him not to withdrawal u. S. Troops from syria. Mattis was very concerned about the fate of the kurdish fighters that the u. S. Has backed. As a military man, it would be a terrible thing to leave your friends on the battle field that you promised to stay and support. That became a big problem for mattis to leave the kurds behind and withdrawal u. S. Troops. He met with President Trump at 3 00. Expressed his views. The president did not change his mind. Mattis had a Resignation Letter ready to go telling the president in that letter that he deserved someone who was more aligned with his views. That essentially means james mattis quit under protest. He talked in that letter about the need to support alliances and about the need to support u. S. Interests around the world at the time when President Trump is taking a much more isolationist view and believes the u. S. Does not have a frontline role anymore in fighting terror groups like isis. Alison, dave. Great reporting from Barbara Starr. Lets discuss with josh rogin. Good morning to you. On a stunning day. Nancy pelosi said to read the letter from james mattis. It is stunning. We have a scroll of important reactions to the resignation of james mattis. We want to start, josh, with reaction from william cohen. Former secretary of defense under president clinton. Listen. Our reputation has been called into question. The president can say i made a campaign promise. You can make a campaign promise, but some of them are made to be broken. The president has taken a wrecking ball to every pillar of stability and security weve erected over the past 60 or 70 years. He systematically is demolishing them. Josh, good morning. This is a rebuke of President Trumps overall world view which is to shift america away from the role of leader and promoter of the International World order since we led since world war ii. There is something political going on here. The relationship with secretary mattis and the white house has been fraying for months. Jim mattis was looking for a way out. This probably was the straw that broke the camels back. It also gave him an opportunity to get out on his own terms. A lot of times when you work for President Trump, he will humiliate you or you humiliate him. This gave secretary mattis the chance to get out on his own terms and his voice and telling the president and world what he thinks. The politics of the mattis and syria situation and the human impact. You wrote a moving oped in the Washington Post. Syrian civilian refugees living under the protection of the u. S. Military are suddenly fearing for their lives. Are we for getting the human impact and focusing on the politics . That is right, alison. The american credibility and the National World order is abstract. That is hard to measure. Even jim mattis defense of the kurds is a situational issue. What about all of the syrian civilians . Many who will suffer greatly because they were living under the protection of the coalition and will be to longer and no plan to provide for them. They have no information. I focused on this one refugee camp because they are actually living under the protection of u. S. Military forces. I know people in the camp. They did not believe me. They said thats impossible. You cannot tell me u. S. Forces will leave us here. We will get slaughtered. I had to be the one to say make preparations. The forces are leaving. They will get slaughtered. We can talk about the 50,000foot view of the syria policy, but real people will be killed and that blood will be on our hands. Josh, there is the threat to our national security. I never hope Lindsey Graham is wrong than this tweet. The loss of all of our gains and paving the way toward a second 9 11. When you put if perspective syria and afghanistan. How serious a threat is this to our own security . I think he is raising a real concern. Again, he has a different theory of the case. President trump believes in we bring our troops home and stop spending money abroad and cede the middle east to russia and iran, that will make us safer. That is 100 wrong. Lindsey graham thinks that is 100 wrong. James mattis thinks that is 100 wrongs. We will srong. I want to get your take on the issue of not going back into public service. That is final. How significant is that . He was considered as the favorite. Who might replace mattis given all that has happened . I was the one who originally reported that jack was in contention. He was in contention now we see the policy going the way it is. Im not surprised jack has taken himself out of contention. He is for american involvement in the middle east. Here is the rumor intelligence as i got it from early this morning. We have deputy secretary of defense patrick shanahan. Richard spencer. David mccormick. Then a couple of dark horses that are being thrown about. Jim talent. A former senator. Dan coats. They are looking for someone who has been vetted. Someone they can plug and play. Thats all speculation and preliminary. It can all change tomorrow. The search has just begun. Finding someone okay with the syria withdrawal is not okay. Josh, great to have you here. Thanks. A cold, harsh reality on the first day of winter. A partial Government Shutdown is likely over christmas. It looked like democrats and republicans were coming together on a shortterm plan to fund the government through early february until the president derailed the deal. He says if there are not billions for his border wall, hes not on board. I made my position very clear. Any measure that funds the government must include border security. Has to. Not for political purposes, but for our country. For the safety. Joining us live to get more perspective is washington congressional reporter rachel bade. Im excited to get to you. I want to know how the president got this. We saw him in the white house reality tv moment moving forward a shutdown. Then signing a resolution and then suddenly he flipped. Walk us through what happened. Total whiplash. Im exhausted from yesterday. Basically, the president has said from the beginning or since last spring that he is not going to sign another major spending bill until he gets the wall money. Gop leadership hate shutdowns. They are bad for the United States and worry about political blow back. Mitch mcconnell and paul ryan talked him off the edge. We are getting close to the holidays. People are tired. The president was thinking if he wanted to go through the fight right now. He basically green lighted mcconnell to move forward on the bill without the wall money. Conservatives freaked. The president was hearing he was caving on his border wall. This would be the last time he could actually secure money for the Central Campaign promise. What happened yesterday morning was mark meadows, just considered potentially as a chief of staff for the president , close to the president who called the president. He said this is the time to fight. We have to do this now. The base will freak if you dont do this. Trump had been hearing criticism the night before and morning of. He said you are right. He reextratracted to his gut instinct. We have a situation where the president told the house to add 5 billion for the wall. The Senate Passed something. Half of the senators are out of town right now. Now we have the standoff with the house and the senate over the border wall. It dramatically increases the chances of a shutdown. Ann coulter called the president gutless. Rush limbaugh was not happy. Fox friends ripping the president. It looks like the go fund me effort raised 11 million and might raise more than the president of the United States toward his border wall. Do we have votes in the senate for the 5 billion . Is the shutdown going to happen in 18 hours and 18 minutes . No. In the senate, they need Nine Senate Democrats to pass whatever funding bill they get through. There was a meeting in the oval office where the president told lawmakers he wanted this. Nobody in the senate was present. The white house legislative counsel stood up and said we have to think realistically here about what could get through the senate. She advocated for a smaller number. 5 billion perhaps could not get through, but maybe 2 billion or 3 billion could. Democrats are embolden and took back the house. And Chuck Schumer is getting a lot of heat from the far left right now. Saying you better stay in your position and you better not compromise on this or were going to lash out at you and it will be ugly. Traditionally what you would have is the president give the other party some concession to get them on board with Something Like more wall money. The problem is President Trump hasnt offered democrats anything that is palatable to give them. How is this going to work when recess is under way for christmas havevacation . Optics are terrible. Government employees who are deemed essential like tsa agents who cant not show up to work. For people who live paycheck to paycheck, this could be a problem. Politically, republicans wanted the president to wait until after the midterms. He wanted to do it before the midter midterms. Republicans said dont do that. We have a problem already and that will make it worse. If the president is going to do a shutdown, a lot of people think he will, now is the time to do it. As much as it ruins my holiday and it feels like we were going to be here one way or another. It makes sense to do it now. I hate to laugh. If we dont, we will cry. 2019 will bring us divided government. Best of luck to Mick Mulvaney establishing order. Merry christmas to you, rachael. This is a major story. Bipartisan accomplishment. Congress passes major criminal Justice Reform. Usually. ] cause this is already bigger [ ] this is already bigger than love dare to be devoted. Jared® fear of a possible partial Government Shutdown rattling a volatile stock market this week. Futures up slightly or down slightly this morning. Triple digit drop on the dow when the opening bell rings. Yesterday the dow dropped 464 points. Average closing below 23,000 for the First Time Since 2017. And nasdaq avoided closing in the first bear market since the great recession. A 20 drop. S p tumbling 1. 6 . Investors rattled by the decision to raise Interest Rates for the fourth time this year. Worries about a supply glut knocking oil into a bear market. Crude plunging 4. 8 on thursday to over 45 a barrel. This is the First Time Since august of 2017 that oil has ended below 46 a barrel. Investors are moving away from risky stocks. Tesla losing 5 . Twitter plunging 11 . Matt whitaker rejecting advice from Justice Department officials to recuse him several from the Mueller Investigation himself from the Mueller Investigation. Whitaker publicly criticized the probe suggesting on cnn last year it could be curtailed by choking off funding. Officials concluded there was no legal conflict, but based on whitakers past comments, it was a close call and he should recuse himself. A tight group of whitakers advisers engaged in the ethics review did an assessment and recommend he did not recuse himself. The issue will raise questions from democrats on capitol hill. Assistant attorney general steven boyd is defending the decision. He notes the acting ag has not made Public Comments for 16 months about the investigation and has a lot of respect for mueller. In a bipartisan victory, the house passed criminal Justice Reform legislation. A huge win for President Trump who is expected to sign the measure today. It will allow thousands of federal inmates up for Early Release and give judges more leeway in sentencing. The bill signing happening at 11 00 a. M. In the oval office. Big win. We will be right back. Or not. No rhymes. Skivvies. Gadgets or skivvies . Boxed set . Perfect nobody knows Young Readers like we do. Barnes noble of heritage and style. All one of a kind. If dry, damaged hair is part of your blend, we have a blend for you. Whole blends honey treasures. Parabenfree. Blended with purpose. With lush honey, renowned for replenishment, and royal jelly and propolis, known to nourish and repair. As a whole blend, it brings wholesome nourishment to your oneofakind hair, to help heal damage to the ends. Blended makes us whole. Blended makes us better. Whole blends. By garnier, naturally. Whole blends. Opportunity is everywhere. 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One of britains biggest airport an s reopened this morn with delays. Drone sightings shutdown Gatwick Airport during the busiest travel weekends of the year. More than 100,000 passengers were stranded. Many planes diverted to manchester, heathrow and as far as paris or amsterdam. The Defense Ministry deploying special equipment to help police track down the operatoperator. A drug last in los angeles. 20 millionron narcotics and cash. Four people were arrested. Even though marijuana is legal in california, everything sold has to be regulated and approved. 68 Million People under flood watches in the northeast. Meteorologist derek van dam has the forecast. Good morning, alison and dave. Mother nature has terrible timing this year. We have the busiest travel day of the year taking place today. A major east coast storm will cause travel headaches from new england to the southeast. You can see on the map here all the rain and storms associated with the system. Basically from the ohio river valley and midatlantic and new england coastline. Be aware. There could be travel delays at airports. We have over 70 million americans under flood watches or warnings, including new york, boston and philly. Thats because we have the potential to see 2 localized 4 inches of rainfall in the next 24 hours. Just outside of new york city with the shading of yellow and orange. In terms of temperatures, a roller coaster. One more mild day for the Nations Capital and big apple. Look at the temperatures slide for the weekend. Of course, the big day, monday into tuesday, highs will start to cool below average for new york city. Back to you. Thank you, derek. We are 18 hours and 2 minutes away from the Government Shutdown. While you were sleeping, Stephen Colbert had fun with the pending partial shutdown. Everybody in washington is headed home for the holidays when donald trump decides to drop a steaming yule log into the nog. All for the wall. Republicans were not amused. Take maine senator and portlands number one realtor five years in a row. Susan collins. A reporter described collins reaction to the news. Collins almost dropped her handbag as she gestured by the word that trump would not sign the continuing resolution unless border wall money was added. Asking did he just say that . Are you ruining my life . Sounds like Susan Collins is going to have a long meeting with her brother tom. The news did not faze outgoing senator and moms new eharmony boyfriend bob corker. A reporter asked what is the path forward for the continuing resolution. Corker answered, i dont know. You have fun. Im getting ready to drive to chattanoo chattanooga. This is how bob corker will depart as will paul ryan. This is their last moment in congress. Corker laughed out loud when told about it. 18 hours to go. Thanks for joining us. Im alison kosik. Thanks for being here. Im for secretary mattis never known to quit anything, this was the breaking point. The deizaticision to design nightmare. I made my decision clear. Any measure must include border security. It will not get him his wall. This is new day with Alisyn Camerota and john berman. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is new day. Its friday, december 21st, 6 00 here in new york. America is less safe this morning. Thats the sentiment i heard overnight from republican lawmakers, and thats the reaction to the resignation of mattis who quit in protest. Add to that a looming shut down, and the Washington Post notes that this december 21st will be the darkest day of the year. The headlines in the papers from the new york times, upheaval in washington from the Washington Post, a tailspin under siege. On the surface general mattis quit because of the decision to with draw half of the forces from afghanistan, and he thinks the president is