Breached by, i understand, five Syrian Regime vehicles. What happened . Hi, brooke. Let me walk you through it. You know, a very rare air strike in this area. Why is it so important . Because these malicious groups were proregime but shia militias backed by iran. They were moving in on an area in southeastern syria where the u. S. Special forces have operated very frequently trying to train syrian opposition. So you have these iranianbacked militias coming down the road, tanks, bulldozers, frontend loader vehicles and they dont get the hint that they are not supposed to be moving against this base where theres opposition and very likely u. S. And other Coalition Special forces. There was sort of a show of force. Aircraft fly over, trying to push them back, they dont get the message, they keep coming. So u. S. Aircraft then rolled in and dropped a couple of bombs, destroying a tank, destroying a couple of the vehicles. A message back to these shia militias definitely to back off and stay away from where u. S. Forces are operating. Theres a very clear understanding of these socalled deconfliction zones. The regime knows about them. The russians know about them. When the show of force came in the air, the militias should have gotten a clue. Brooke . So colonel, barbara say this is extra ordinary narrowly rare. Do you even know how many times they have hit proassad forces . Yeah. Yeah. This is the second time weve done it intentionally. There was a mistaken attack on forces early on but this is the second time weve struck them b intentionally. Were not there really to engage the syrians. Were there to engage isis. But we have to protect our own forces, plus the forces that we are training in that area. This is a very crucial area of syria. This is where the borders of jordan, iraq and syria meet. Its a crossroads. And prior to a few months ago it was the main way that the iraqi shia militias were moving back and forth between the two countries. The Free Syrian Army has blocked that off. Were seeing a challenge and were seeing the u. S. Rise to that challenge. Brooke, i hate to say it, but were getting more and more involved in the fighting in syria, not against isis but the civil war. Carl francona, Barbara Starr, thank you. More breaking news on capitol hill where right now Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein is about to face all 100 members of the senate to reveal what exactly he knows about the decision that led to the firing of fbi director james comey. Its not enough for someone whos been on the job for just 23 days. He will also have to explain why he just hired a special counsel to lead an independent investigation into russias interference in the election and possible collusion by the trump campaign. That special counsel is none other than Robert Mueller, fbi director, and his appointment spearheads the investigation, spearheading the investigation is getting much bipartisan support. But if you check the president s twitter page today, he apparently doesnt have the support of the president. The white house first put out a statement seemingly urging a quote unquote thorough investigation. But this morning the president lashed out on twitter. Let me read it for you. This is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in american history. Lets start on capitol hill with Phil Mattingly who is hearing from both republicans and democrats. You know, many of them criticized rosenstein for writing that letter initially, apparently at the request of the president , to fire jim comey. How confident are they that behind closed doors they will start to get some answers . I think theres some sense of confidence because its not a show for cameras or they dont believe he wont be able to say he cant talk about specific things because hes in an open setting. Senators believe they will get a candid assessment of things. If they dont, they will deem that severely problematic. So will the pressure that was heading into this meeting was taken off by Deputy Attorney rosensteins decision to appoint that special counsel last night. Im told by democratic aides that Democratic Senators had been meeting, talking, scheming in a way to use their questions in a unified manner to really press him on this each specifically. Obviously he took the wind out of those sails last night and weve heard bipartisan support for the decision for what they did in that appointment. That doesnt mean the questions have gone away, as you noted. The threepage memo he wrote was given by many Trump Officials as the rationale for jim comey. The president came out and undercut that as the reason for doing so but there are a lot of questions about that memo. Nancy pelosi, the House Democratic leader, called that memo bizarre. They have been more scathing in how they feel about that memo. Theres still a lot of questions, not just about the investigation but about the specifics of how jim comey was fired, what the white house involvement was throughout this entire process. Its worth noting, this isnt just democrats that have these questions. Republicans are very concerned about it as well. I will note one other thing. Obviously Deputy Attorney general rosenstein will be briefing in a classified setting. Now, anybody who has worked with Robert Mueller in the past says he wouldnt take any interference from any white house or Trump Administration if it was brought his way. The fact that it would be under the auspice of the Justice Department, ive heard some democrats raise those concerns as well. Im told they will be seeking commitments that that autonomy will be important and that from our perspective is what will senators be allowed to say in this setting . Democrats want to talk about what they hear, how much they will be able to say, well have to wait and see on that one, brooke. We will see if they make any news coming out. Phil mattingly, thank you. So far, rosensteins decision to appoint Robert Mueller as a special prosecutor has been widely praised from both sides of the aisle. So again, calling this a single greatest witch hunt in american history. Dana bash, cnns chief correspondent. We were talking about the crickets from the white house that senior staff was probably happy to see. Perhaps hes lawyered up and then, boom, these two tweets. Whether or not he complies will be dictated by the process and by the law. I mean, frankly, hes going to get to a point, if it gets to that point where he is needed for documents for testimony, for anything, hes not going to have a choice. Hes not happy about it, though. Exactly. But doing what he did this morning, sending that tweet, calling it a witch hunt, i mean, if there is a playbook not just for politics but basic the basic way you respond and you react when you are part of a legal investigation, that would be like in flashing neon lights the number one thing in the do not do list. Right. Right. And he did it. To antagonize the special prosecutor, to suggest that its not legitimate. Didnt say that, but thats basically what a witch hunt means. Thats the definition of the term. So, look, i think its very clear that this is a president who does not and weve seen this time and time again and this is in many ways how hes gotten into some of these messes, he doesnt like to be challenged. He doesnt like to be questioned and the fact that this is kind of the ultimate when it comes to a presidency in being questioned and challenged and investigated in as much as theres a special prosecutor, even he couldnt, i would say, hold his tongue or hold his thumbs. Clearly he couldnt this morning. What about the Vice President . We know that news came out today that in fact the Trump Transition Team knew that flynn was under federal investigation for making money as a lobbyist working for turkey and we know that the Vice President was the head of the Trump Transition Team and he said in march and hes saying now that hes Still Standing by his statement that he had no idea that he was under investigation. Where right. Where is he on this . I believe we have the sound bite from what he said in march. Correct me if im wrong. Yes, we do. Okay. Lets play it. Former National Security adviser Michael Flynn has filed with the department of justice as a Foreign Agent for making more than 500,000 as a lobbyist, essentially, for turkey. Your reaction to that . Let me say, hearing that story today was the first ive heard of it. And i fully support the decision that President Trump made asking for general flynns resignation. You were disappointed by the story . The first i heard of it and i think it is an affirmation of the president s decision to ask general flynn to resign. He says he had no idea. Right. An aide to Vice President pence told me today that he stands by those comments that you just heard, that he first heard the news in that interview about general flynn and his ties to turkey. So that begs the question so hes basically claiming ignorance. Right. If he were a normal Vice President , okay, he didnt know about it. But he was head of the transition. And the report by the New York Times is that general flynn they knew. Informed the transition. Now, the report says that he informed the counsel who is now the white House Counsel but the counsel to the transition, don mcgahn. So the open question now is, if that happened, did don mcgahn just sit on it . And, if so, why . Why would he do that . Because the whole idea, the whole reason why these kinds of ties are inappropriate and are foreboden, because any decision that the president makes, in this case its turkey, is viewed rightly or wrongly, fair or unfair, through the prism of the fact that the National Security adviser was getting 500,000 file that under the bright lights not to do as well. From this country. Also, if you take a step back and look more broadly at it, so the Vice President has now gotten caught in so many different webs of donald trump and they have been the white house making it unfortunate and uncomfortable. It doesnt seem as though in this particular case, if we take them at his word that he really did not know, that he was at fault. If he were running the transition, maybe he should have known. We dont know who is to blame for that. This comes on the hooems eels o week when the Vice President took it upon himself to do something he rarely does, which is speak to cameras on capitol hill in order to help defend the president and say that the reason that comey was fired is because Rod Rosenstein recommended it and then he was and others, were undercut by the president himself. Thats not what happened. It was my decision. So this is now a pattern of putting the Vice President in a very uncomfortable position. Is your head spinning . It hasnt stopped. Has yours . No. Thank you, dana bash. Coming up on the other side of the break, were watching and waiting there on capitol hill for the Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein to testify in front of the entire senate. Stand by for that. 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Bring your challenges. So we sent that sample i doff to ancestry. I was from ethnically. My ancestry dna results are that i am 26 nigerian. I am just trying to learn as much as i can about my culture. I put the gele on my head and i looked into the mirror and i was trying not to cry. Because its a hat, but its like the most important hat ive ever owned. Discover the story only your dna can tell. Order your kit now at ancestrydna. Com. Rod rosenstein is there in the building in the capitol building. Keep in mind, this is the man who ultimately wrote the letter last week, despite what the president later said as far as suggesting the firing of james comey and is nhas now appointed Robert Mueller to be the independent special counsel. Keep in mind, thats happening in a couple of minutes. These questions coming from members of the senate. Let me bring informer u. S. Attorney Michael Moore and peter, former special prosecutor who has worked for a previous special counsel. Gentlemen, great timing to have both of you with me. If i may, peter, do you think he will cooperate with mr. Mueller . Well, not happily. You know, i have my doubts about that, actually. I know dana was saying earlier that he has no choice. But this isnt someone who operates the way most people do. So testimony, i dont know, thats far down the road anyway. So who could predict . I certainly wouldnt. Michael, same question to you. Bob mueller is fiercely independent. He was director of the fbi when i was the u. S. Attorney and hes known for protecting that independence and thats the beauty of having a trained prosecutor who knows how to look at the investigation and see the thing as a whole as opposed to separate pieces and i think hell figure out a way to get the information that he needs whether through other sources such as maintained emails. They may try to claim privilege but bob knows how to get the job done. You know, michael, we were talking i was working the morning show. A lot of people are bringing up whitewater, how it started as an investigation into an Arkansas Land purchase and evolved into the Monica Lewinsky scandal, how it sort of mushroomed. Might that be one of the reasons that the president is tweeting the way he is . Absolutely. I think at this point bob could ask for tax returns, emails, business information, different financials. But the investigation has a chance to go another way and that is this whole thing with mike pence claiming he didnt know anything about mike flynn and clearly today weve got a story out saying that the transition was told about mike flynns investigation. We have the Vice President , soon to be Vice President at the time who was in charge of the transition and either we got to believe that mike pence was just totally in the dark or were left to believe that he will now say anything to support this administrations position. You may see the investigation starting to move over there. Mike flynn can appeal for some help and now hes got a nonpolitical appointee and process to go through. So all of this could mushroom. Just explain what the experience was like and why you call bob mueller annen spired choice. Because hes a political and his reaction has shown hes got bipartisan support. So i think hes an ideal choice. As far as the experience itself, you know, i was a prosecutor at the time working in the Public Integrity section of the department of justice. My life didnt change. I was a prosecutor and i was still a prosecutor. The only thing that changed for me is i had one case and i worked on that exclusively. So for the people working on the team, i dont think its much different than as a typical prosecutor. Bob mueller is protected and insulated and there wont be any pressure on him that hell feel to come out one way or the other in the investigation. Let me ask you, because were staring at live pictures of capitol hill, people are aware there are multiple investigations and now you have this special counsel. Why do you need all of them. Whats the difference . Are you talking about why you need a special counsel . Addition to senate intel, house intel, oversight. Right. Right. So its very important and im glad you asked that question, the special counsel is, in my view, a necessary but not sufficient way to go. Special counsel has got one mission and thats to investigate criminal conduct and if they find sufficient evidence that they think could p