On the ground, those defending cobanny. There are funerals for the fallen every day. Theyre burying the defenders here on the turkish side of the border. Its too dangerous to hold any funerals now. But as soon as its free, theyre going to dig them up and send them home. A look at the front lines in the height of the isis onslaught. Turkish leaders considers those cu kurds an enemy. Were going to be covering that throughout the morning. Many people across the world see it as a terrible move. Very allies that remained steadfast with us and played such a big role in pushing isis back and supporting the United States now being betrayed by donald trump, now being betrayed by his administration. David ignatius said, and davids been over in syria and knows so much about the battle against isis. President trump is about to make pay major consequential mistake. Hes informing that Syrian Kurdish allies that u. S. Is withdrawing from positions on the border abandoning security mechanism to allow an invasion by turkish forces. Of course this is after the United States had them move some of their heavy equipment off the border in an act of good will. Well, they were just being set up for this slaughter. Thats what you get for being an ally with donald trump and playing a major role in crushing the caliphate, which, of course, the kurds did. And its just monday, october 7th. With us we have msnbc contributor mike barnicle. White house reporter for the Associated Presson that lemire. Political brighter and name analyst nicholas consorry. And eddy jr. Over the weekend we learned that a second whistleblower has come forward with information about President Trumps july 25th phone call with the president of the ukraine. An attorney representing the original whistleblower says that their legal team is now representing the second whistleblower who has firsthand new jersey knowledge of the events that supports the first whistleblower. This Inspector General spoke with Michael Atkinson but legal sources tell nbc that he is not filing a separate formal complaint. Right now, only three republican senators have spoken out against the president s call for china in addition to ukraine to investigate joe biden. Senator Susan Collins and ben sasse both released statements to their Hometown Newspapers. Colonel lips said the president made a, quote, big mistake and called it, quote, completely inappropriate. Sasse said they dont look to commies for the truth. But no reaction got under the president s skin has much as senator mitt romney who tweeted when the only american citizen President Trump singles out for chinas investigation is his political opponent in the midst of the democratic nomination process, it strains contract jewelly thety to suggest that it is anything other than politically motivated. By all appearances, the president s brazen and unprecedented appeal to china and to ukraine to investigate joe biden is wrong and appalling. Compare that to what weve been hearing from the president s defenders, starting with republican senator marco rubio. Do you think its okay for President Trump to ask china to launch an investigation of joe biden and hunter biden . I dont know if thats a real interest or him just need eling the press knowing you were going to get outraged by it. He plays it like a violin and everybody falls flight if the thats not a real request. George, you really think he was serious about thinking that chinas going to investigate the biden family . Why cant you answer yes or no that you think its appropriate . Because i dont think thats what he did. Well, i doubt if the china comment was serious, to tell you the truth. You dont take the president at his word. No. The president loves to go out on the white house driveway. I havent talked to him about this. I dont know what the president was thinking but i know he loves to bait the press. But, it apparently wasnt only a flip comment on the white house lawn. Trump held a phone call with chinas president back in june and cnn reports that on that call President Trump raised bidens political prospects as well as those of senator Elizabeth Warren. Cnn reports that the record of that call was stored on the same top secret server that has his call with the president of ukraine. Jonathan lemire, sad and pathetic or only ways to describe very dangerous. Dangerous also, marco rubio and the others and their reaction to this call claiming it was a joke. I guesser lickman and holloman had it wrong all along, they should have just said nixon was joke about watergate as somehow that would waste await fact of what we saw with ukraine and that people were making behind the scenes to make that quid pro quo work. We actually saw that another phone call was made, not just on the white house lawn to the chinese to talk about the 2020 election. And, you know, its so interesting roy blunt suggesting that he wouldnt Say Something publicly about getting help from the chinese, that actually i saw that was a threat as much as anything. Not only to china but to other countries. It was, as you said, his russia, if you are listening comment, of the 2020 election cycle. This is whats so disturbing. Roy blunt knows, marco rubio knows, jim jordan, i dont know if he knows, it hes paying attention or not. But at least those two senators know that when donald trump spoke in that press conference and said russia, if youre listening, please get the 30,000 emails, they were that night they began going after those 30,000 emails. So pleading ignorance or suggesting it as a joke is laugh able and wi laughable and will come back to haunt them in their campaigns. The Russian Hackers moved that night in 2016 and we saw it friday night when he talked about china that can could be determined as an open invitation. At that same press conference on friday he was asked if he ever talked to any foreign leader to investigate someone who was not a political rival and he couldnt answer. He said ill have to get back to you on that. I think thats a clear indication of what hes been talk about. We know the president likes to talk politics with foreign leaders largely to relive his 2016 election. We know that foreign leaders have been asked to sit through his reelection night as wisconsin and other states go to him and one can imagine them from time to time rolling their eyes. But he could be talking about 2020 Going Forward and maybe thats the way his prospects, maybe that is to have for help. What you saw over the weekend are republicans just simply refusing to break with him, with a few exceptions, of course, that you just mentioned. But theyre seeing his Approval Rating in his party, 80 , 85 dpinding on which poll you look pat there are senators who know that even if the president werent to be if he were to be impeached but not removed, but a senator cast about to remove are going to be replaced with a trump friendly candidate the next day. I think it was clear that he was laying down markers for mitt romney. He was using that as an example. Theres complications between romney and him for a long time and i think he was sending a signal to other republicans. If you come after me, if you criticize me, im coming after you time and time again. Mitt romney is inoculated. He can withstand these trump attacks, but other senators may not be so lucky. Hes saying if you come at me like romney did, im coming at you and even harder. Romney did much better in utah than donald trump by just a long shot. Well then theres senator ron johnson who we expect thought he was helping the president when he told the wall street journal that the u. S. Ambassador to the European Union, gordon sondland, told him in august about an arrangement involving military aid to ukraine that, at the time, the president was withholding. According to journal, johnson says sondland told him that ukraine under its newly elected president would appoint a strong prosecutor general and move to, quote, get to the bottom of what happened in 2016. And if President Trump has that confidence, then hell release the military spending. Johnson said, quote, at that suggestion i winced. My reaction was, oh, god, i dont want to see helps to two things combined. Johnson says he asked the president about it in a phone call the very next day and claims the president denied such an arrangement. Of course, ron johnson may have said that, but we know for a fact susan del percio, that if you actually look at all of the emails and all the texts exchanges that were released between volker and the rest of the crew, time and again they kept going back to the deliverables. They kept going back to zelensky having to tie this his meeting with the president and support for the United States with an investigation into the bidens, with an investigation into 2016, into that company. And at one point they put it in a proposed statement which zelenskys advisers took out, and then they came back and said, no, no, youve got to put it back in there. They were insistent, it was obvious. Every republican in the senate and the house knows that and yet theyre running around lying. Ron johnson, he committed, of course, whats called a gaff in washington, d. C. , when somebody accidently tells the truth. And he did and he got caught telling the truth. He did. And its surprising to see this come from ron johnson, only because hes not up for election until 2022. So hes not worried about an immediate primary. Im not sure what his concerns are or what he wants from the president or what the president s holding over him. But his interview yesterday on meet the press was despicable. Im willing to bet when they booked him he was still wincing at the comment. But when he got there and he tried to deflect and go to ridiculous claims, chuck todd held him accountable. Thank goodness. Thats one of the good parts that were seeing during this whole spectacle of the Trump Administration is that journalists are doing a fantastic job trying to hold people accountable and johnson looked pathetic out there yesterday. Its painful, but lets take a look. Here is chuck todd asking the senator about it on meet the press yesterday. Why did you wince and what did you mean by those two things combined . Let me first, before i start answer willing all the detailed questions, let me talk about why im presympathetic with what President Trumps gone through. Youve got john brennan on, you ought to ask director brennan what did appreciate strzok mean when he texted consider, can we no, chuck, let me finish. Senator. What does this have to do. Leaking like mad, scorned and. What did this have to do with ukraine . It has everything to do with ukraine. I have my third letter into the Inspector General. He tells this committee. Senator. Asking to just confirm are you investigating those leaks that peter strzok talked about in the senator, i have no idea why no, thats a setup . Why a fox. Its relevant to this point. Why the fox news propaganda stuff is popping up on here. I have no idea why were going here. Its an underlike why President Trump is upset and his reporters are upset at the news media. This snolt about the media. Senator johnson. Senator johnson, please, we can please answer the question that i asked you instead of trying to make donald trump feel better here that youre not criticizing him. Im not. Im just im just trying to ask you a simple question of what biased what made you wince . Im asking a simple question about you clearly were upset that somehow there was an implication that military aid was being frozen. Yes. Because the president wanted an investigation. Why did you wince . Because i didnt want those connected. And i wanted i was supporting the aid, as is senator murphy as is everybody that went to that initial inauguration. But heres the salient point of why i came forward. When i asked the president about that, he complete will he denied it. He adamantly, angrily denied. At the said id never do that. So that is the piece of the puzzle im here to report today. Uhhuh. Of course the president always tells the truth, mike barnicle. Wow. What is sniveling like performance on meet the press. Its a senator, United States senator representing the good people of wisconsin bringing up conspiracy theories from years past, trying to somehow say that explains Donald Trump Holding up 400 million worth of military aid to protect a democratic ally from further invasion from Vladimir Putin. A man that donald trump has, of course, capitulated to time and time again in every meeting that they had. And its just all of these displays, you can look at marco rubios display. He said a few good things during this investigation. But ron johnson, i saw jody ernst and i thought, my god, you entered Public Service for this . To cower in front your own people and to lie in front of your own people and just not tell them the truth . Its astounding and it gets worse by the day. And, of course, we know this will end badly for donald trump and everybody else that apologizes for him. But it is so painful to watch right now. Joe, a few moments ago you made the observation as we opened the show with the clip of marco rubio and roy blunt speaking and you made the observation that they know. They go out and say these things, but they know. Behind the scenes they know. Well, joe, they all know. And they have all chosen, theyve had a choice, to protect the country or protect their status in office. Theyve chose their own reelection hopes and dreams over the United States of america. Last night the president of the United States betrayed an ally in the field, the kurds in turkey. Thats just the latest thing hes done. You mentioned mitt romney. Nearly 70 years ago there was one individual, Margaret Chase smith who spoke out against joe mccarthy during the height of the red scare in the early 1950s. History still remembers her, remembers the name, remembers the deed. History is a constant stenographer. Ron johnson who appears very limited intellectually, the other senators who say the president was joking when he said china should investigate joe biden, these things are going live forever in the is history. We are living through a particularly turbulent, depressing and dangerous period in American History unlike weve ever encountered before. And these people are going to be held accountable by history at some point starting now. And what i dont understand, ed eddy, Jonathan Lemire had a great piece talking about how a lot of the things that helped donald trump get elected in 2016 are some of the same character traits that are now moving him towards impeachment and perhaps will have him removed from office. Eddy, what i dont understand is, what these senators are looking at. They think theyre making the safe play. Theyre actually making the shortsided stupid political play. Look at the impeachment numbers, theyre racing forward in a way in which they never raised forward. A poll tend of the week showed 44 of americans wanted donald trump removed from office. Thats a plurality. Every poll it seems to be either split down the middle or aplurality aplurality a plurality. You look at jody ernst embarrassing herself at a town hall meeting playing dumb when they knew exactly what was happening. She, someone who has served her country, she could not tell the truth to her own voters. And so you sit there thinking, okay, well, shes just covering herself politically its sad and pennsylvania threatic a pathetic and we hope our children dont look at her as an example because thats so depressing to watch. But then you look at iowa polls that show Donald Trumps upside down by over hes double digits upside down in iowa. Even these plays where theyre being cowardly, where theyre running away from the truth, those are not calculated, smart, political plays. Those are plays that will come back and haunt them and yet they just dont seem to have the good common sense to understand that in this moment. You would think, joe, that they would be acting in selfinterest. It seems as if they are, but it also reveals a quality of mind and character that theyre so easily duped into following donald trump down this down this disaster pathway. But it seems to me, as ive been thinking about this, and listened to mike this morning, theres this interesting kind of interplay here. There are the nakts facts that w are on the table and then theres the bad faith of the republican actors and then theres the effectiveness of the bad feigning, right . One hand we can say as we listen to jim jordan and blunt and marco rubio and ernst, we can say that they know what they know, that the facts are what they are. But then theyre engaging in bad faith. But they engage in bad faith because they know it will work. Then you ask yourself the question let me cut you off there, though. It is not working. Donald trumps numbers continue to go down. Among republicans, joe . Those supporting does it matter . It doesnt matter among republicans. What matters is, the majority of americans. You are starting to see in some polls as many as one in five republicans starting to support the impeachment inquiry. Youre seeing independents moving towards supporting inquiry. And i guess thats a message im sending again because donald trump shocked the world in 2016. People think that he has magic pixie dust and that its chaos that this idiocy, that this confederacy of dunces that he keeps around him to defend him, they think thats going to save this man. No. He is beyond saving politically. It is over. Its just a matter of time, eddie. And thats what im trying to say this morning is, eddie, its not helping. You know, i can see that, joe. I find that convincing. But the thing that im trying to wrap my mind around, though, is that when you look at the folks who are watching fox news, when you think about what i heard what im hearing across the country. I was just in texas and i was with some really exciting folks who were trying to flip the