Transcripts For CNNW Early Start With Christine Romans And D

Over the last eight weeks and compare tod compared to whats happened over the last eight years you will see a tremendous difference. If he didnt give the order, who did . Its not clear whether the president knew of this exact military action, is it . Reporter no its not and one of the issues here is that this weapon, had been requested by the commander general nicholson for some time an was authorized to use it by his immediate spear general bo tetell before Trump Administration was even inaugurated so this has been in the works for some time. We had been told President Trump was briefed that this bomb was going to be used but the authorities to use it had been delegated down the chain of command for some months now. So this is a 22,000 pound bomb ne never used in combat, developed in the second iraq war developed in the early 2000s, i think the u. S. Is still waiting to make its assessment exactly as to what happened but this area of afghanistan, its a very volatile remote region, it borders pakistan and kind of a real hot bed for isis k, their affiliate, and theres some 600 isis fighters the military believes largely create from the other terror groups, pakistan, taliban members who formulate thd groed the group and rebranded. A u. S. Soldier lost his life there this last weekend. So you are seeing this deployment of this weapon to sen a message and against these tunnels. Why use the bomb now and what signals does it send to allies and adversaries around the world . Nick peyton live from eiraq, god morning. Reporter its been off the table quite some time is now in play perhaps and comes at a key time with the situation in afghanistan, the worst since the u. S. Invaded 16 years ago. Now the taliban have been gaining a lot of ground taking key towns, they have been moving fast forward in about half the country now either contested or controlled by that insurgeoncy. Isis a whole set of problems, the dissolutionment with the taliban, its behavior, branding seek a newer fresher face that isis provide, isis k, historically the area of pakistan they would like to see in their hands some say isis came across the border from pakistan when it infiltrated being the epicenter where it all began. Isis lost by the afghan army, but regained ground quite substantially in the past months perhaps by the attacks in kabul. Back to you. Thank you, nick. Lets bring in cnn military analyst retired air force colonel cedric lateen. He joins us from washington good morning, sir. Good morning, dave, how are you . Good. A little confused because when you hear the mother of all bombs will be dropped for the first time, you expect more than 36 casualties. Are you surprised by these results . I am a bit surprised. I find them a bit shall we say disproportionality to borrow a term from the military because what you try to do in warfare is try to achieve a degree of proportionality is use the amount of force in order to get the job done. Having said that, i think the big issue is the kind of structure or kind of terrain were dealing with and theres few other weapon systems that could actually be used in that kind of environment and achieve the same affects. Having trouble with the Afghan Military and special ops teams getting in there. You want the intelligence you can gather from an isis Training Camp with a tunnel system like that but if you cant get in there and theres loss of life, this is the only option . Thats one way, of course the other way to avoid loss of life is find all the entrances and mine those or booby trap those, and certainly this is from that standpoint an effective way of doing it and force it is isis fighters into a certain position, they are either going to be eliminated by the blast itself or force todd to abandon facility, so either outcome is a good outcome for the afghan partners. The question people are asking is did the president give that order. Sean spicer punted on that and the president didnt really answer. Are you surprised by his response . Well, i think he could have said it in a bit of a more artful way but the way it is normally set up is for the president to approve the concept of broad operations like this especially if a different kind of weapon is being used he should certainly be informed of that. It sounds like hes given a broad delegation of authority to Central Command and then Central Command has in turn done that to the commander in afghanistan and the fact that they did that shows that the president of course seems to have a a lot of confidence in his troops and thats a good thing, in the  military we always talk about the 6,000 or 8,000 mile screw driver depending how far away you are from the pentagon and if you dont have the screw driver you can handle the tactic operations on your own which is what the military is trained to do. There were strikes in syria, and moving a Carrier Strike group toward north korea, you dont want to conflight the issues happening around the world, but taken together, what does this tell us about the president s policies . Its certainly a warning to adversaries and reassuring to allies that theres going to be massive fire power backing them up and backing up the u. S. , it is still a message to countries like north korea, iraq and syria and any other rival not to mention russia of course and that is i think one of the key aspects to this is like i said may not be directly intended but certainly has that affect and sometimes the affects are more important than intentions. Thank you so much for joining us this morning. Great analysis. Thank you. Well stay on that subject because the president promised not to be the worlds police p man, more on how the moab bombing fits into that next. President trump keeping his promise to bomb the something out of isis or words to that affect. I wont say heck. Bleep. The snot out of isis. Helping us figure out what all this means and the rest of the day in politics, michael joins us, all the best people come on at 5 00 a. M. And this is the best time to be on tv. So lets talk a little bit about the president s Foreign Policy, right . What is the president s important policy . Hes dropped this big bomb in afghanistan, missile strikes in syria, Carrier Strike group is steaming toward the korean peninsula, what do we know . The white house is selective selectively coming out about the information. You had h. R. Mcmasters out very quickly talking with reporters getting it out to the public, this strike in afghanistan, less so, maybe thats reflective of the different natures of this. Weve been at war in afghanistan, still at war for 16 years. This is part of an on going operation. What happened in syria last week, what could potentially happen or being prepared of north career i think are more fl reflective of changes of policy at the white house. The first to use the moab bomb, asked if it was used to send a message to north korea, here is what he said. I dont know if this sends a message, doesnt make any difference if it does or not. North korea is a problem. The problem will be taken care of. Is any of this following Campaign Promises or more about sending individual messages in your opinion . I dont know if it falls on Campaign Promises but from january 20th they have been putting together a strategy of rethinking north korea. They have been bringing in other parts of the National Security different parts of the government and something that has emerged as very important for the Trump Administration so whether or not its intended as a message i think is a part of a larger strategy of changing that message visa vis from the north korea and the United States. You are seeing it with president xi, some effective sanctions happening between north korea and china, i think the president would like to see it as part of the u. S. s pressure on china and north korea. I would put that in the flip flops this week thats been so fascinating to watch. He said on the campaign trail time and time again he was going to label china as a currency manipulator and sat with president xi for ten minutes and said gosh, its a lot harder than i thought it was going to be. And today on the wall street journal Washington Post editorial, talking about this story in the wall street journal that its folks around him advising him and maybe why youre seeing these uturns, what do you think . Possibly. Every president comes into office and learn new things, get new information and a lot of their policy positions change from what they were during the campaign. This president just seems to sort of wear those changes a little bit more on his sleeve than most perhaps and theres an internal debate not just on the Foreign Policy and National Security but economics as well. Theres a debate among folks like gary cone and tough on china folks like peter navarro, but i think that public debate is something were not normally seeing, but seeing it in this administration is a set of ideology going into this white house. Many feel that gary cone is a quote liberal democrat, not my words, the words of several conservatives, are conservatives comfortable with the lessening influence of steve bannon and increasing influence of gary cone . These are a lot of terms hard to define. Steve bannon does represent a sort of wing of rightwing politics within the white house but a lot more traditional conservatives say hes no more representative than that of gary cone and Jared Kushner, registered democrats until coming into this white house, theres not much of a representative for the kind of conservatism that you actually see republicans in the house of representatives so as bannonism waynes and conan is on the rise, there does seem to be a lack of conservativism, something not really talked about in these discussions comes in and does have a representation. Mike pence taking a really immense role on the administration, hes the one going out the president is in mar maralago. While the baseball season just a couple of weeks old but Opening Night at the sun, the Atlanta Braves at the new park sun trust park, this mornings bleacher report. Get yourself a hot dog cory, well see you in a minute. An Arizona High School Football Player making history to become the first to earn a scholarship for a division one. Good for her. Good morning. We have to talk about this amazing accomplishment of beca a long longo, she only started playing football a couple of years ago and when she signed the letter of intent to play for adam state in colorado she was shocked to learn she has done something no other woman has done before. I was so emotional. I was just so grateful that somebody believed in me and that i could actually do it. Im going to go in and compete. Im not one to back down to anybody. Reporter i spoke to becka last night and she had a special message to us to start our weekend. Hey, becka, i kicked butt this week, remember to set your goals high and never let anything hold you back. Speaking of winners, Houston Texans david finished his key mow, he range the celebration bell so hard he knocked it off the wall. He posted it on instagram saying cancer made im strong. There seems to be a bit of arms race in sports stadiums. In the past year we have had two nfl stadiums pop up the vikings and the falcons and well have three more teams with a new stadium, the rams and charges, and im in vegas at sun trust bark where the Atlanta Braves went all to have a great fan experience. You got to get people away from their 60 inch flat screams. As far as technology they have the fastest wifi of any in the u. S. And an app that can find the next burger spot. Its the first game in their brand new beautiful home ooand m ready to rock. Dave, im sure your jealous. I recommend section 511 where waffle house is located. Its breakfast time. Go get some waffles. Thats awesome. Thanks, coy, nice to see you. Thank you. 26 minutes past the hour. Why wouldnt the commander in chief be the one to order the launch of the mother of all bombs . Hear what he has to say. The u. S. Military deploys its biggest nonnuclear weapon for the first time ever. Early starts complete coverage starts right now. Welcome back, im christine romans. Im dave briggs, it is 5 30 eastern time on this good friday. Assessments are coming in after the militarys biggest bomb was used in combat for the first time. Designated the moab, nicknamed the mother of all bombs the Afghan Ministry of defense announcing 36 isis members destroyed, three tunnels, long with weapons and ammunition. And this response when asked if he gave the order. Everybody knows exactly what happened. I authorize my military. We have the greatest military in the world and have done a great job as usual. We have given them total aut authorization, if you compare to whats happened over the last eight years, you will see theres a tremendous difference. If the president did not give the order, who did and why . Cnns ryan brown is live in washington for us. Walk us through the chain of command of deciding when to drop this bomb. Reporter good morning. This bomb, this 20,000 pound bomb it was a capability that was requested by the commander in afghanistan general john nicholson, had requested it some months in advance were told and granted authority to use it by his superior, general joseph so te sotell for some time. This tunnel cave and complex in a very remote part of afghanistan, right there on the border with pakistan kind of emerged with what the military was saying it was right target and looking for the right weapon and the two converged so again we believe President Trump was briefed of this weapons used given its the first time its ever been used but the authority to use it had long been delegated to the demander in the field. The afghans put out this assessment of about 30 isis members killed. We are expecting to hear more about why this was used, but this comes as Trumps Administration is trying to figure out what its afghan policy is going to be. Is expected to visit the country soon, general nicholson has asked for thousands more troops, and president obama drew it down by some nine90 and the security situation has become less stable so interesting to see how this plays into the future visa vis afghanistan. Thank you. Why use the bomb now and what signal does it send to allies and adversaries around the world . Kr cnns nick peyton in iraq, did it yield the mother of all results . Reporter not as far as we know. In terms of assessing a bomb like that would cause. Its going to be obviously very consequencetial. 36 isis militants and three tunnels, frankly and 330,000 militants, so not as effective as they would have liked. We have seemed similar strikes with much less munitions, this clearly was a very hard to reach, very extensive isis camp itself, very hard rugged terrain to get into and residents are saying they dont believe there are many civilians in the your and we dont know at this particular stage and obviously a bomb like that doesnt get to choose who it kills, and feeling the dust and blast of the explosion kilometers away, but its always been to some degree, they have been kicked out of it by the afghan army in the past couple years but emerged with some force, u. S. Drones and airstrikes often targeting that your, but isis moving forward, disillusionment with the taliban and getting new recruits from that but also from afghanistans youth and a reach into the capital behind some pretty substantial attacks in what used to be this im penetrable safe areas of kabul. In a mission like this was considered on the table for tackling them. Nick paton walsh live in iraq. Thank you. Lets bring in cnn military analyst retired air force colonel former joint chiefs of staff, you have been listening to our analysis an reporting out of this moab bomb and some are trying to see how this fits into President Trumps world view and Foreign Policy and theres a lot of question of did he sign off on this and something long in the works, whats your assessment of whether that even matters . Good morning, it does matter in how you want to know how involved the president is in these decisions but theres also a way in which its good for the president to delegate his authorities to the people in the theater as long as they provide the affects that are desired so in this particular case i think a big decision was made a while back that was we need to eliminate this particular area, isis encampment. The only way to do it was to use this bomb, the moab. And in order to use that a lat of planning had to go into that make sure they had the right targets set and avoided civilian characters a casualties, and can have unintended consequences, it will be interesting how the Battle Damage assessments go especially. And the president deserves credit for trusting his military advisors and got getting stuck in the quagmire. 36 isis members kill with the mother of all bombs, is that proportion in the in your view . Certainly not and that would indicate of course theres something either lacking in intelligence or that isis really does have so few fighters, but possibly the only way to get at them was to use this particular weapon. So there are a lot of different aspects to it but i think that when you look at proportion nalty, these are early days, certainly new elements to this, more information coming out and if this ends up having destroyed an i. E. D. Assembly point or i. E. D. Factory or a series of those then it probably was worth it in terms of actually preventing casualties to u. S. Military forces, Afghan Military forces and civilians. Does it show a new engagement in the afghan situation . Under president obama we have been drawing down troops, 16 years of engagement in the region. Does it show a reengagement by the United States . I think it does. And the fact that Lieutenant General h. R. Mcmaster the National Security adviser is going to afghanistan as Trump Administration<\/a> was even inaugurated so this has been in the works for some time. We had been told President Trump<\/a> was briefed that this bomb was going to be used but the authorities to use it had been delegated down the chain of command for some months now. So this is a 22,000 pound bomb ne never used in combat, developed in the second iraq war developed in the early 2000s, i think the u. S. Is still waiting to make its assessment exactly as to what happened but this area of afghanistan, its a very volatile remote region, it borders pakistan and kind of a real hot bed for isis k, their affiliate, and theres some 600 isis fighters the military believes largely create from the other terror groups, pakistan, taliban members who formulate thd groed the group and rebranded. A u. S. Soldier lost his life there this last weekend. So you are seeing this deployment of this weapon to sen a message and against these tunnels. Why use the bomb now and what signals does it send to allies and adversaries around the world . Nick peyton live from eiraq, god morning. Reporter its been off the table quite some time is now in play perhaps and comes at a key time with the situation in afghanistan, the worst since the u. S. Invaded 16 years ago. Now the taliban have been gaining a lot of ground taking key towns, they have been moving fast forward in about half the country now either contested or controlled by that insurgeoncy. Isis a whole set of problems, the dissolutionment with the taliban, its behavior, branding seek a newer fresher face that isis provide, isis k, historically the area of pakistan they would like to see in their hands some say isis came across the border from pakistan when it infiltrated being the epicenter where it all began. Isis lost by the afghan army, but regained ground quite substantially in the past months perhaps by the attacks in kabul. Back to you. Thank you, nick. Lets bring in cnn military analyst retired air force colonel cedric lateen. He joins us from washington good morning, sir. Good morning, dave, how are you . Good. A little confused because when you hear the mother of all bombs will be dropped for the first time, you expect more than 36 casualties. Are you surprised by these results . I am a bit surprised. I find them a bit shall we say disproportionality to borrow a term from the military because what you try to do in warfare is try to achieve a degree of proportionality is use the amount of force in order to get the job done. Having said that, i think the big issue is the kind of structure or kind of terrain were dealing with and theres few other weapon systems that could actually be used in that kind of environment and achieve the same affects. Having trouble with the Afghan Military<\/a> and special ops teams getting in there. You want the intelligence you can gather from an isis Training Camp<\/a> with a tunnel system like that but if you cant get in there and theres loss of life, this is the only option . Thats one way, of course the other way to avoid loss of life is find all the entrances and mine those or booby trap those, and certainly this is from that standpoint an effective way of doing it and force it is isis fighters into a certain position, they are either going to be eliminated by the blast itself or force todd to abandon facility, so either outcome is a good outcome for the afghan partners. The question people are asking is did the president give that order. Sean spicer punted on that and the president didnt really answer. Are you surprised by his response . Well, i think he could have said it in a bit of a more artful way but the way it is normally set up is for the president to approve the concept of broad operations like this especially if a different kind of weapon is being used he should certainly be informed of that. It sounds like hes given a broad delegation of authority to Central Command<\/a> and then Central Command<\/a> has in turn done that to the commander in afghanistan and the fact that they did that shows that the president of course seems to have a a lot of confidence in his troops and thats a good thing, in the  military we always talk about the 6,000 or 8,000 mile screw driver depending how far away you are from the pentagon and if you dont have the screw driver you can handle the tactic operations on your own which is what the military is trained to do. There were strikes in syria, and moving a Carrier Strike<\/a> group toward north korea, you dont want to conflight the issues happening around the world, but taken together, what does this tell us about the president s policies . Its certainly a warning to adversaries and reassuring to allies that theres going to be massive fire power backing them up and backing up the u. S. , it is still a message to countries like north korea, iraq and syria and any other rival not to mention russia of course and that is i think one of the key aspects to this is like i said may not be directly intended but certainly has that affect and sometimes the affects are more important than intentions. Thank you so much for joining us this morning. Great analysis. Thank you. Well stay on that subject because the president promised not to be the worlds police p man, more on how the moab bombing fits into that next. President trump keeping his promise to bomb the something out of isis or words to that affect. I wont say heck. Bleep. The snot out of isis. Helping us figure out what all this means and the rest of the day in politics, michael joins us, all the best people come on at 5 00 a. M. And this is the best time to be on tv. So lets talk a little bit about the president s Foreign Policy<\/a>, right . What is the president s important policy . Hes dropped this big bomb in afghanistan, missile strikes in syria, Carrier Strike<\/a> group is steaming toward the korean peninsula, what do we know . The white house is selective selectively coming out about the information. You had h. R. Mcmasters out very quickly talking with reporters getting it out to the public, this strike in afghanistan, less so, maybe thats reflective of the different natures of this. Weve been at war in afghanistan, still at war for 16 years. This is part of an on going operation. What happened in syria last week, what could potentially happen or being prepared of north career i think are more fl reflective of changes of policy at the white house. The first to use the moab bomb, asked if it was used to send a message to north korea, here is what he said. I dont know if this sends a message, doesnt make any difference if it does or not. North korea is a problem. The problem will be taken care of. Is any of this following Campaign Promises<\/a> or more about sending individual messages in your opinion . I dont know if it falls on Campaign Promises<\/a> but from january 20th they have been putting together a strategy of rethinking north korea. They have been bringing in other parts of the National Security<\/a> different parts of the government and something that has emerged as very important for the Trump Administration<\/a> so whether or not its intended as a message i think is a part of a larger strategy of changing that message visa vis from the north korea and the United States<\/a>. You are seeing it with president xi, some effective sanctions happening between north korea and china, i think the president would like to see it as part of the u. S. s pressure on china and north korea. I would put that in the flip flops this week thats been so fascinating to watch. He said on the campaign trail time and time again he was going to label china as a currency manipulator and sat with president xi for ten minutes and said gosh, its a lot harder than i thought it was going to be. And today on the wall street journal Washington Post<\/a> editorial, talking about this story in the wall street journal that its folks around him advising him and maybe why youre seeing these uturns, what do you think . Possibly. Every president comes into office and learn new things, get new information and a lot of their policy positions change from what they were during the campaign. This president just seems to sort of wear those changes a little bit more on his sleeve than most perhaps and theres an internal debate not just on the Foreign Policy<\/a> and National Security<\/a> but economics as well. Theres a debate among folks like gary cone and tough on china folks like peter navarro, but i think that public debate is something were not normally seeing, but seeing it in this administration is a set of ideology going into this white house. Many feel that gary cone is a quote liberal democrat, not my words, the words of several conservatives, are conservatives comfortable with the lessening influence of steve bannon and increasing influence of gary cone . These are a lot of terms hard to define. Steve bannon does represent a sort of wing of rightwing politics within the white house but a lot more traditional conservatives say hes no more representative than that of gary cone and Jared Kushner<\/a>, registered democrats until coming into this white house, theres not much of a representative for the kind of conservatism that you actually see republicans in the house of representatives so as bannonism waynes and conan is on the rise, there does seem to be a lack of conservativism, something not really talked about in these discussions comes in and does have a representation. Mike pence taking a really immense role on the administration, hes the one going out the president is in mar maralago. While the baseball season just a couple of weeks old but Opening Night<\/a> at the sun, the Atlanta Braves<\/a> at the new park sun trust park, this mornings bleacher report. Get yourself a hot dog cory, well see you in a minute. An Arizona High School<\/a> Football Player<\/a> making history to become the first to earn a scholarship for a division one. Good for her. Good morning. We have to talk about this amazing accomplishment of beca a long longo, she only started playing football a couple of years ago and when she signed the letter of intent to play for adam state in colorado she was shocked to learn she has done something no other woman has done before. I was so emotional. I was just so grateful that somebody believed in me and that i could actually do it. Im going to go in and compete. Im not one to back down to anybody. Reporter i spoke to becka last night and she had a special message to us to start our weekend. Hey, becka, i kicked butt this week, remember to set your goals high and never let anything hold you back. Speaking of winners, Houston Texans<\/a> david finished his key mow, he range the celebration bell so hard he knocked it off the wall. He posted it on instagram saying cancer made im strong. There seems to be a bit of arms race in sports stadiums. In the past year we have had two nfl stadiums pop up the vikings and the falcons and well have three more teams with a new stadium, the rams and charges, and im in vegas at sun trust bark where the Atlanta Braves<\/a> went all to have a great fan experience. You got to get people away from their 60 inch flat screams. As far as technology they have the fastest wifi of any in the u. S. And an app that can find the next burger spot. Its the first game in their brand new beautiful home ooand m ready to rock. Dave, im sure your jealous. I recommend section 511 where waffle house is located. Its breakfast time. Go get some waffles. Thats awesome. Thanks, coy, nice to see you. Thank you. 26 minutes past the hour. Why wouldnt the commander in chief be the one to order the launch of the mother of all bombs . Hear what he has to say. The u. S. Military deploys its biggest nonnuclear weapon for the first time ever. Early starts complete coverage starts right now. Welcome back, im christine romans. Im dave briggs, it is 5 30 eastern time on this good friday. Assessments are coming in after the militarys biggest bomb was used in combat for the first time. Designated the moab, nicknamed the mother of all bombs the Afghan Ministry<\/a> of defense announcing 36 isis members destroyed, three tunnels, long with weapons and ammunition. And this response when asked if he gave the order. Everybody knows exactly what happened. I authorize my military. We have the greatest military in the world and have done a great job as usual. We have given them total aut authorization, if you compare to whats happened over the last eight years, you will see theres a tremendous difference. If the president did not give the order, who did and why . Cnns ryan brown is live in washington for us. Walk us through the chain of command of deciding when to drop this bomb. Reporter good morning. This bomb, this 20,000 pound bomb it was a capability that was requested by the commander in afghanistan general john nicholson, had requested it some months in advance were told and granted authority to use it by his superior, general joseph so te sotell for some time. This tunnel cave and complex in a very remote part of afghanistan, right there on the border with pakistan kind of emerged with what the military was saying it was right target and looking for the right weapon and the two converged so again we believe President Trump<\/a> was briefed of this weapons used given its the first time its ever been used but the authority to use it had long been delegated to the demander in the field. The afghans put out this assessment of about 30 isis members killed. We are expecting to hear more about why this was used, but this comes as Trumps Administration<\/a> is trying to figure out what its afghan policy is going to be. Is expected to visit the country soon, general nicholson has asked for thousands more troops, and president obama drew it down by some nine90 and the security situation has become less stable so interesting to see how this plays into the future visa vis afghanistan. Thank you. Why use the bomb now and what signal does it send to allies and adversaries around the world . Kr cnns nick peyton in iraq, did it yield the mother of all results . Reporter not as far as we know. In terms of assessing a bomb like that would cause. Its going to be obviously very consequencetial. 36 isis militants and three tunnels, frankly and 330,000 militants, so not as effective as they would have liked. We have seemed similar strikes with much less munitions, this clearly was a very hard to reach, very extensive isis camp itself, very hard rugged terrain to get into and residents are saying they dont believe there are many civilians in the your and we dont know at this particular stage and obviously a bomb like that doesnt get to choose who it kills, and feeling the dust and blast of the explosion kilometers away, but its always been to some degree, they have been kicked out of it by the afghan army in the past couple years but emerged with some force, u. S. Drones and airstrikes often targeting that your, but isis moving forward, disillusionment with the taliban and getting new recruits from that but also from afghanistans youth and a reach into the capital behind some pretty substantial attacks in what used to be this im penetrable safe areas of kabul. In a mission like this was considered on the table for tackling them. Nick paton walsh live in iraq. Thank you. Lets bring in cnn military analyst retired air force colonel former joint chiefs of staff, you have been listening to our analysis an reporting out of this moab bomb and some are trying to see how this fits into President Trump<\/a>s world view and Foreign Policy<\/a> and theres a lot of question of did he sign off on this and something long in the works, whats your assessment of whether that even matters . Good morning, it does matter in how you want to know how involved the president is in these decisions but theres also a way in which its good for the president to delegate his authorities to the people in the theater as long as they provide the affects that are desired so in this particular case i think a big decision was made a while back that was we need to eliminate this particular area, isis encampment. The only way to do it was to use this bomb, the moab. And in order to use that a lat of planning had to go into that make sure they had the right targets set and avoided civilian characters a casualties, and can have unintended consequences, it will be interesting how the Battle Damage<\/a> assessments go especially. And the president deserves credit for trusting his military advisors and got getting stuck in the quagmire. 36 isis members kill with the mother of all bombs, is that proportion in the in your view . Certainly not and that would indicate of course theres something either lacking in intelligence or that isis really does have so few fighters, but possibly the only way to get at them was to use this particular weapon. So there are a lot of different aspects to it but i think that when you look at proportion nalty, these are early days, certainly new elements to this, more information coming out and if this ends up having destroyed an i. E. D. Assembly point or i. E. D. Factory or a series of those then it probably was worth it in terms of actually preventing casualties to u. S. Military forces, Afghan Military<\/a> forces and civilians. Does it show a new engagement in the afghan situation . Under president obama we have been drawing down troops, 16 years of engagement in the region. Does it show a reengagement by the United States<\/a> . I think it does. And the fact that Lieutenant General<\/a> h. R. Mcmaster the National Security<\/a> adviser is going to afghanistan as President Trump<\/a>s personal representative to take a look at km exactly whats going on there and help device a strategy that works both militarily and politically is significant. I think President Trump<\/a> my read is that he is im patient to get results and in this case a 16year long war is a really long war and that is something that needs to in essence come to an end and to get out of a quagmire like this but on our terms is something that is certainly a desirable end state. What signal does this send to the North Koreans<\/a> who some expect a sixth nuclear test on saturday . Well, i think it sends this signal and again whether it is intended or not it shows that the United States<\/a> is willing to use massive amounts of force even newer weapon systems to go after regimes or groups that it considers to be dangerous to it or to its soldiers, so this becomes a key element in this and does put people in north korea and other potential rivals on notice that they are at risk, things could lhappen if they go with that sixth nuclear test, in the next few days, if that happens there could very well be something that the United States<\/a> tries to do or may just have try to send a message that this could happen to you and depends on how they want to actually execute this. All right colonel cedric clayton, thank you. Im sure it will be a busy morning for you waiting for that press conference any minute. Signs of a new brain trust with steve bannon under pressure. Is a new moderate voice bringing the president to the center . Finding time to get things done isnt easy. But weve got the Digital Tools<\/a> to help. Now with xfinitys my account, you can figure things out easily, so you wont even have to call us. Change your wifi password to something you can actually remember, instantly. Add that premium channel, and watch the show everyones talking about, tonight. And the bill you need to pay . Do it in seconds. Because we should fit into your life, not the other way around. Go to xfinity. Com myaccount just one day after he reversed course on several big policy plans, President Trump<\/a> keeping his promise to bomb the bleep out of isis. Good morning to you michael. Morning again. Lets take into account the missile strikes on syria, the stark warnings to north korea, now the dropping of the mother of all bombs in afghanistan on the isis fighters, what is the trump policy . Its catch as catch can and trying to figure out how to respond to events. You certainly saw that in syria. The chemical attack by Bashar Al Assad<\/a> prompted the president to act in way that differed from the kind of rhetoric that he had during his campaign. I think it shows in many ways the sort of fluidity and mallability of his Foreign Policy<\/a> as well as the influence of a lot of what detractors might call the deep state but really the sort of Foreign Policy<\/a> establishment whether its from the pentagon the Intelligence Community<\/a> Foreign Policy<\/a> and diplomatic establishment that is sort of teaching donald trump a lot of lessons about the way things work. Its so fascinating to me too to see how the sphere of influence is changing. That always happens, theres this jocking for power and influence, but the wall street journal has a great story about trumps policy reversals are a reflection of the business influence. Hes got all these people around him gary cone for example, Jared Kushner<\/a> his soninlaw and these Business Leaders<\/a> who seem to be pulling him toward the center, do you agree . I dont know how much of a shift it really is. Theres two sides. Theres the economic, pop list side sort of represented by steve bannon but remember donald trump promised to bring this the best people and comes from a sort of appreciation of business, you can see this in his members of his cabinet including steve mnuchin. So this is the sort of other element of donald trump respecting that business acumen, a former Goldman Sacks<\/a> person, and kushner, emerging as the most important advisor to the president. Sam nunnburg says the Trump Campaign<\/a> will always be healed in suspicion whos also a liberal new york democrat. Conservatives may be please add to the military action of the president. Are they nervous though to see the sphere of influence of those perceiv perceived to be democrats . I think so. And this is a political problem for donald trump. He is struggling in the Approval Rating<\/a> polls Something Like<\/a> 3739 . Who is with him . Its his base. They really didnt elect i think a the Goldman Sacks<\/a> wing of the party of the countrys elite so this is something i think donald trump is going to have to deal with. I think he can be a little mercurial, and sort of seeing the bannon wing on the wane here, and he needs to return to the base and give them a few bones to chew on. Its not reflected on all policy, certainly not on immigration. Lets be honest because he was elected by angry working class voters who responded to his pleas that he was going o get rid of the Goldman Sacks<\/a> influence and the big wall street influence and about the little guy again and theres no little guy around donald trump advising donald trump here. I would say gary gone the Economic Council<\/a> director would argue that he does come from that little guy perspective. He grew up in ohio and rose to the ranks and i think theres sort of a message that somebody like gary cone and others around him would make but i think youre right in sort of the perception. The idea that Goldman Sacks<\/a> or whoever is having influence this is what a lot of voters voted against with hillary clinton, this shows you this is a very fluid president who doesnt necessarily have under pinnings on every issue. And focused on Health Care Legislation<\/a> hell need conservatives to get that through the house. Michael warren thanks. Stocks fell thursday after the news of the bomb broke, stocks have been down a couple weeks now, but for the s p 500 and nasdaq are all still higher. Top level talks at this hour from officials from russia, syria and iran, whats on the agenda on the wake of the chemical attack and the United States<\/a> response . Welcome back. Russias foreign minister hosting the counterparts in syria, focussing on the recent chemical attack in syria and the u. S. Missile strike that followed it. After assad flat out denied a chemical attack even took place. Filmed and edited by the assad regime, he is insisting they are fake, and created by child actors to discredit him. Are they correlating on this message that the Chemical Attacks<\/a> were faked . Reporter they seem not to be. Whats interesting the meetings seem to be over, were still in the middle of a press c conference, the foreign minister said we have never used chemike wep chemical weapons on our people. Still calling the u. S. Airstrikes a gross negligence of international law, they do not know the fact os on the ground d that its possible it was the syrian rebels. But the russian counterpart sitting next to him would not repeat what you just heard from assad. Lets go to this live event weve been telling you about. A briefing with john nicholson, the commander in afghanistan. The enemy used these tunnels and mine fields to move around and protection themselves from attacks and u. S. Forces. [ inaudible ] this was the right weapon against the right target. [ inaudible ] i want to assure the people of afghanistan that our forces take every possible precaution to prevent civilian casualties. [ speaking in Foreign Language<\/a> ] we had persistence surveillance of the area before, during and after the operation and now we have afghan an u. S. Forces on the site and see no evidence of civilian casualties nor any reports of civilian casualties. [ speaking in Foreign Language<\/a> ] let me take the moment to emphasize the brutality of our enemy. Daish. [ speaking in Foreign Language<\/a> ] since they arrived in southern nangahar, they have dragged elderly people out of their homes and beheaded them. We lost our satellite feed for a moment. Welcome viewers in the United States<\/a> and around the world. This is new day. We have breaking news. You were just listening to the u. S. Military Top Commander<\/a> there for u. S. Forces about what has happened in afghanistan just outside of kabul. The u. S. Dropped the mother of all bombs. The moab. Lets see what the commander is telling us. We have our satellite back. Isis has murdered male family members, kidnapped wives and daughters and forced them. All right. Were having satellite issues. We are monitoring the press briefing. Lets bring in Barbara Starr<\/a> from the pentagon. Good morning to both of you. One of the interesting things general nichols said at the beginning is no u. S. Casualties on the ground. At first light, u. S. And Afghan Forces<\/a> are at the site to determine what the impact has been. I think we have the satellite feedback now. Killed and wounded hundreds of innocent civilians. 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