The subject which well get to shortly. He also took credit falsely for troops getting their first pay raise in ten years. In truth theyve been receiving annual raises for the last three decades. Oddly, such routine lying isnt whats knocking washington off kilter. It is not part of the recent chaos. The shutdown is. So is the president s decision on pull troops summarily from syria. As is his move over the weekend to give his defense secretary james mattis an early shove out the door after mattis resignation general grated lines for him, bad lines for the president. Also part of the socalled mass railing against Federal Reserve only to watch the markets tank as a result. And those stocks racked up huge gains, uncertainty remains after secretary mnuchin made a series of baffling phone calls to bankers over the weekend saying the government was ready to handle a financial crisis which as far as anyone knew was a western until he brought it up. And mr. Trump spent the weekend settling personal scores. He told a little girl there is no santa claus, asking her and were quoting, are you stale believer at santa . Because it is marginal. Wherever you stand on jolly old elves, it is a christmas fact the president will soon be operating without a jolly old attorney general, chief of staff, defense secretary, u. N. Ambassador or special ensfloi charge of the fight against isis. Thats the back drop to the president s trip. And well get to all that in a minute. Barbara starr joins us from the pentagon with details. This requires weeks of preparation. That kind of security doesnt happen overnight. The secret service and the military know how to do this. They did it for president george w. Bush, president obama when there was much heavier combat going on in iraq. It does take weeks of planning. You cannot assume it was because of some political agenda that just emerged this week. The secret Service Works the military. They work on locking down air space when air force one is on the ground and when it is leaving. They work on surveillance, intelligence and reconnaissance that they may need to keep an eye on potential adversaries in the region. Intercepts are going full blast. Theyre scooping up everything they can. It is a very different scenario for mr. Trump who talked about landing in the dark and expressing some anxiety about all of it but it is the kind of thing u. S. Military troop dozen in war zones every single day. It was interesting that he would refer to that with the soldiers on the front lines. He addressed the troops on isis threat but he also brought up domestic political issues which he has done, at times, the Government Shutdown, the border wall he wants with mexico. Thats a difficult situation to put commanders in. Tell us about how those issues were raised in. Theres a couple things in the videos that has emerged. We see the president signing red baseball caps that appear to say make America Great again. We see him taking a photo with someone who identifies himself as a chaplain for a s. E. A. L. Team. Those red baseball caps, he is engaging in political activity when he does that. They brought the caps to be signed and you have to ask, where the sergeants and commanders were, they should know that u. S. Troops do not get involved in politics and it is very dicey business for them to be doing this, jim. The trip occurred as the president pushed his defense secretary out. He resigned in protest over several of the president s decisions but after several good headlines, the president brought up the depart you prior to not gentleman 1st. Mattis is the enormously respected general. Well, let me say first, sarah sanders, has just tweeted pout there was discussion with commanders on the ground. Theyve come up with a plan and it is terrific and theyll be learning about it soon. What the president. On the ground, they want to use iraq as a launching point now for attacking isis in syria. Very difficult to do. Those targets without Ground Troops will be difficult to find and mattis knows all this. The pentagon trying to portray business as usual. The president says shanahan may be there a while. Thanks very much as always. The president ial turmoil at home. All the rest joining us for that. Also, the former obama senior adviser, the retired general who commanded troops during combat in iraq. So let me begin with you. You were in iraq for both president bushs and president obamas visits. Tell us the importance, the symb symbolism, why this matters to troops on the ground. The one ill relate to most is the president bushs visit to baghdad in 2003. He was there when i was there and he was visiting our unit. It was a surprise to everyone except just a few of us when he step in the front of a thousand or so soldiers and they were jazzed. Hugely energetic and loved to see the commander in chief. They were really excited someone in the chain of command had come to visit them and served turkey and shot selfies with the troops and hobnobbed with the soldiers. It is a morale builder to be there with the people serving in distant lands. So thats factual and thats good. When president s come, and ive seen both president s visit war zones, you should not get political. It is about supporting the troops, about showing the loved ones back home that youre there suffering hardships with them. And in president obamas case, i think he spent three or four days touring the province and he was on the ground about 36 hours. He met not only with the soldiers but also with the u. S. Diplomats and with the iraqi counter parts. So it was not just a morale visit. It was meant to discuss issues at hand. And wasnt to politicize. We had someone who laid to to do some politicalization and basically stiff the other side. I wont tell you which side was which. I hit rally said, please dont can that in front of our soldiers. Tell just that matters. It has been a pat westetern wit president where he brought up the wall. Why for deployed forces in war zones for the commanderinchief, why does that matter . Youre wanting to show that you care about the mission and you understand what youre asking them to do and what the future holds for them of the also, he really missed it here, it is not just to talk with our troops but of our allies. They didnt meet with any iraqi officials. They have a new government, a new Prime Minister. A Prime Minister who doesnt follow the predecessor. It is about understanding the troops and you are whatting other them to do but also what our partners are doing. The president made a trim to iraq. In the days and weeks leading up, there was a lot of criticism that he had not done that. No question, credit where credit is due. He even brings up politics and even his own concerns about safety. Mentioning how the windows in air force one had to be blacked out as they were landing. He didnt say nervous but he said that he had concerns about the safety. Is that the kind of thing president s should do to soldiers, men and women on the ground who are facing very real threats every day . Clearly not. It has been two years and it is good that he went to see the troops. Important that he went to do it. He was criticized for it obviously. We should give him credit where credit is due. No. He should not have said that or many of the other things. I was lucky enough to join the president. President obama a trip to iraq and afghanistan and there were two purposes to each trip. The first and foremost was to meet with the troops, to boost the morale and to bring a message of appreciation from the American People. The second was to confer with our allies and partners and that was a very important part of it. That clearly was not on the agenda here. And it gives you a sense this was a box checking exercise in many ways for the president. It was clearly planned before everything that happen. Yesterday was an orgy of selfpity is that rage on twitter. It changed the subject and put him in a much better position. It is a valuable thing. But peculiar in many other ways. The president made a substantive decision last week to pull u. S. Troops out of syria which set the troops on the ground spinning a bit. We heard that it asked, what happens next. He is now saying that the u. S. Is in effect going to use those troops in iraq to Police Across the border. In syria. Does that work . Because that fight in syria against isis has been described to me by folks in the administration as if not the most successful, one of the most important Counter Terrorism operations. Can you do that from afar without u. S. Forces on the ground . Ill take you back about two years. Remember in early 2016 when we were having problems with isis in syria and part of the reason we were having that difficulty was because we didnt have eyes on the target, we didnt have intelligence from human beings. We had overhead platforms and a lot of jets doing their thing but you couldnt call in the fire on the right targets. We put troops on the ground. We have established a couple Forward Operating bases inside iraq on the boundary. Unless youre there in the fight, you cant get to the enemy. Especially when youre talking about an enemy that is largely defeated but still has a little fight left in them. Where you have to dig them out of the ravines and out of the river banks. I think it is taking a huge step backward to take our forces out of syria. War is politics by other means but this is not good politics or good warfare. Beyond the mixing politics with the visit to the troops, the president flat out lied to the troops today. It is like water off a ducks back. He said he gave the military a raise for the first time in more than ten years. And that he gave them a raise greater than 10 . Neither of those is true. The military has received a pay increase every year except 1983 which was apparent lay technical glitch. The by the way, the most recent year, it was with y2. 8 . The president lied to the forces abroad and they would know it because it is in their paycheck. What is the consequence of that . Well, it one more thing creates confusion and problems with morale. I was struck when i was there and certainly you were too. How splendid these young people are. How committed they are. How difficult the work is. And they conduct themselves according to rules and norms. They expect their leaders to do the same. So it is one more thing that makes you want to shake your head and wonder whats going through his. Listen, gentlemen, thank you all for sharing your experience and i hope you get some break for the holidays. 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Heres what he said when he was asked how long he thought the Government Shutdown would last. We need a wall. When you say how long will it take . When do we need Border Security . When will the democrats say dont forget. The democrats all agreed that you need a wall until i wanted it. Once i wanted it, they didnt agree. The president retweeted a claim that he had tweeted out before the leaving iraq, im in the oval office and just gave out a 115mile long contract for another long section of the wall in texas. We are already building many miles. Democrats must end shutdown and finish funding. It is unclear what he is referring to. President s do not award contracts. Departments and agencies do but only by congress, this is by the constitution, aappropriate rates the money. And he was talking about money has been earmarked then what he announced with great fanfare was nothing new. It is only half tru. Renovating in fact, no. At the white house tonight with a closer look at the wall and the shutdown over it. Weve been speaking a lot these last few days. The question being, is the white house showing signs of giving ground and are democrats, where do those negotiations in anywhere, where do they stand . That we have no more clarity today than several days ago. The rhetoric has stayed same but not any specifics about what he would accept in terms of a dollar figure. Even when he was asked repeatedly by reporters on the ground and iraq about what number would he accept . Would he accept 2 billion or less than the 5 billion that he originally wanted, the president dodged the question. Instead he put this almost solely on nancy pelosi who is likely to be the next speaker of the house on the democratic side. He claims she cant give in this negotiation because she needs votes for her speaker ship. At the same time, the president needs a win for his base and he is talking repeatedly about the wall and changing the way he talks about it. Talking about a fence some days, steel slats some days, a new wall, a renovated wall, but not talking with any specifics about what it would take for him to reopen the government. And lets be honest. The democrats offered more money many months ago and the president turned that down so theres a lot of water you said the bridge. He says were probably up to over 200 miles of the wall. No one knows the facts that the president is claiming. Nobody in the administration, nobody has been leaping to explain him. These numbers, the 115, 115 billion that he says is being given out, that as you know is not a real thing. The president doesnt just sign a check and hand out money at the border. The president is taking what is already, what already exists, perhaps fencing on the border, and calling it his wall. Hes been doing that and similar things for quite some time now. The question how much wall has been built is that not much has been built. There has been no money for that wall. The fencing that has already exist for many years, but the president has been eager. Thank you. Joining me, the former republican congressman, let me begin with you. The president says he is a deal maker. Were in the midst of a battle here. Ultimately a political question, right . And both sides calculating here. Who in your view has the politics right . I think the president does ultimately. And i say that for a couple reasons. He ran on this and he was emfat oik this point. It was perhaps the foundational issue of his 2016 campaign. He was unambiguous and the people voted for him knowing that his elemental issue was the wall. So i think he has the mandate from the people to go forward. And i think the democrats have shown themselves to be duplicitous. They were for the wall before they were against the wall. And the president is right. The only reason theyre digging in their heels, theyre against border barricades which they were for before. It is really too bad and they in my view responsible for this unfortunate standoff right now. I imagine you have a slightly different point of view. Respond. It is absurd. He didnt run on this explicitly. Finish the sentence. Were going to build a wall and mexico will pay for it. The fact the president of the United States lied to the American People, to the world and many others believed mexico would pay for this wall is one reason he is in this hole. The other reason he is in the hole is because yes, democrats in favor of Border Security. We offered the president of the United States 25 billion for this as wall, to make sure that 800,000 Daca Recipients would get citizenship. A lot of people want to us sit back and say were going to do this without getting anything in return and thats that the case. This wall is not going to fix our immigration problem in the United States. And i think most people are looking at the president of the United States and saying, i thought mexico was going to pay for this in the first place. When security at the border has been debated before, is the president making the