Into the history of any other modern presidency as one of its worst days or start of the end. But lets start tonight with the resignation of the secretary of defense jai james matt is. Dated today, december 20th, 2018 on Defense Department letterhead. Daer mr. President i have been privileged to work as the secretary of defense to serve alongside of the men and women in our department as defense of our citizen and our ideals. One core belief ive always held is our strength as a nation is linked to the strength of our unique and comprehensive system of alliances and partnerships. While the u. S. Remains the indispensable nation in the free world, we cannot protect our interests or serve that role effectively without maintaining strong alliances and showing respect to those allies. We must use all tools of American Power to provide for the common defense. Including providing effective leadership to our alliance. Natos 29 democracies demonstrated that strength in their commitment to fighting alongside us following the 9 11 attack on america. The defeat Isis Coalition of 74 nations is further proof. Similarly i believe we must be resolute and unambiguous in our approach to those countries who Strategic Interests are increasingly in tension with ours. It is clear that china and russia for example want to shape a world consistent with their authoritarian model, gaining Veto Authority over other nations economic and diplomatic and security decisions to promote their own interest at the expense of their neighbors, america and our allies. My views on treating allies with respect and also being clear eyed about malign actors are strongly held and formed by over four decades of immersion in these issues because you have the right of secretary of defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, i believe it is right for me to step down from my position. The end date for my tenure is february 28th, 2019. And it is signed without salutation, james m. Mattis. This letter of resignation today was not released by the white house. It was released by the pentagon. I cant imagine the white house would have ever released this if the pentagon didnt do it. Just because there is no lack of clarity here. This was a resignation in protest against the president and his behavior. At least thats how this reads to me. There is no hint that secretary mattis was fired or that his resignation because he wanted to spend more time writing symphonies or something. Hes resigned over these two clear issues, treating allies with respect and as he puts it, being cleareyed about malign actors. Beyond this blunt letter, though, i think another way you could tell this wasnt the president firing the defense secretary, is because this happened today in person. Mantoman. The defense secretary jim mattis apparently went to the white house, met with the president in person today, and he handed him this resignation. Now in contrast, when President Trump fired people in his administration, i think without exception he has always had someone else do it for him. He does not do that in person. So this is the first resignation in protest in the trump cabinet. And that makes it that makes it a first butn on another level this is just another one of those moments. I wont put up the big wall behind me again listing all of the high level departures from this administration, honestly, who has the time. But if we just talk about the cabinet, we had the Health Secretary resign and epa head resign in scandal, we just had the interior secretary resign in scandal. And in terms of resigning in scandal, we wont put him up there yet, but if you want to say tick tock over the next to resign, i think the safest bets are on labor secretary alex acosta in arranging a sweetheart no prosecution deal for an unaccused serial child rapist. So alex acosta still at Labor Department but keep your markers on him. And commerce secretary wilbur ross has a whole bunch of legal issues hanging off his bumper like a bunch of tin cans after a cheap wedding. But for now, acosta and wilbur ross are still there. But still inside of the first half term of this president. We have already had three members of the cabinet resign in scandal. We have had the secretary of state fired by the president. And the v. A. Secretary fired by the president. And the attorney general fired by the president. We have had one member of the cabinet, the u. N. Secretary nikki haley apparently resign without real explanation, but there remains so opassity around her departure and now this first. A cabinet secretary resigning in protest of the president s behavior and beliefs in being overt about that being the reason for his departure. And again, that is just the cabinet. Keep in mind that in the midst of the ever erupting chaos right now in this town, the president has just fired his second white house chief of staff and about to bring on the third and a brandnew white House Counsel started last week, im sure he hasnt been busy at all with the last week how it has been. The dow jones dropped another 500 points bringing the stock market to a 14month low and on the precipice of a bear market and tomorrow it is more likely than not that the federal government will shut down indefinitely. Even though the Republican Party continues to have unified control over the white house and the house and the senate. Despite republicans controlling all of the levers of power in washington right now, they apparently are not on track to pass a bill that will keep the government open which the president will also see fit to sign. So the bill the president will sign wont pass the senate and the bills that will pass the senate, the president wont sign. So one of the things were going to be trying to figure ott tonight is the absence factor. Tomorrow the government will just shut down right in time for christmas. Which will result in the sudden furloughing of tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of workers and the grinders to a halt of big parts of what the federal government does. They will try to pass something to avert that but senators are fleeing this town like shoplifte shoplifters running from from a loud checkout. Well see if there is enough of them around to cast the votes that will keep the government open provided that they can agree on something that they would like to vote on. So like i said, a lot going on. We need help tonight figuring out what is going on with a lot of the different stories that are evolving. What is going on with the shutdown, which frankly is now imminent. What just happened with the defense secretary resigning in protest given the stated reasons for his resignation, given what appears to be the immediate precipitating event which appears to be President Trumps abrupt unilateral twitter announcement that all u. S. Troops will immediately leave syria. One of the things we need expert help on tonight with regard to that story is whether secretary mattis resigning and resigning in this way might be expected to cause a greater standoff of some kind between the president and the u. S. Military. So were going to get help on that from an excellent pentagonbased reporter who is right here. Were going to speak with her in just a moment and also talking with a president ial historian who has been looking today at what kind of precedent there is in our history for this kind of thing and what that might tell us about the prospects for some sort of more dramatic split between the defense and the president. Does that end up pulling a little bit at the constitutional seams between our military and our civilian government. And i dont mean to just jump right on it too abruptly, but one of the things that is now in the foreground and not at all in the background of all of this news is the president of russia. Vladimir putin today praising President Trump for his announcement that he would pull u. S. Troops out of syria immediately. Vladimir putin of course thinks that shear sha syria should be russias out post and bud out and leave them to it. Today at his annual press conference, once a year whether he needs it or not, he praised President Trump for pulling u. S. Troops out of syria. As soon as he was asked about the decision to pull troops out of syria, the way he responds was by praising that decision but immediately pivoting. He said we think it is good news. Were happy that hes pulling out of syria. Well believe it when we see it, though. The United States has been in afghanistan for 17 years and they always say theyre withdrawing there. That was his pivot today. Within hours the wall street journal was first to report that President Trump ordered about half the u. S. Troops in afghanistan, about 7,000 troops home right now. Within weeks. Another sudden announcement today on top of the sudden announcement yesterday about the unilateral and complete withdraw from syria. So were going to have a leading member of the Foreign Relations committee here to talk about that in just a moment. But this all does come in the immediate aftermath of the Trump Administration also announcing the relaxing of sanctions on a key Russian Oligarch linked closely with the kremlin. The oligarchs company, the second largest aluminum in the world, has been sanctioned by the u. S. Government because of the russias behavior toward ukraine, and that second largest Aluminum Company in the world will no longer be sanctioned and that will be release and a boon to the russia economy, a huge russian economy but the way the sanctions deal was lifted, the oligarch himself, the same putin linked oligarch to had which Paul Manafort offered private briefings during the president ial campaign, he will be allowed to divest from his Aluminum Companies so the companies can shed these u. S. Sanctions but the way hes going to divest from his Aluminum Companies is by shifting his shares to a russian state owned bank that is controlled by the kremlin and that is a bank called vtb. And that is the bank that was reportedly the financing agent for trump tower moscow about which the president s personal lawyer just pled guilty for lying to congress and the same real estate deal that prosecutors say extended well into the president ial Election Campaign while the president lied about it and kept secret that he was pursuing that deal. It is a deal that prosecutors now say could have netted the president s Company Hundreds of millions of dollars from russian sources. So these things are these things are just happening at the same time. The same day the president announced that, surprise, the u. S. Is pulling out of syria and leaving it to russia after all, his administration drops sanctions on the Russian Oligarch associated with the Campaign Chairman in a deal made possible bip the kremlin controlled bank to provide the secret real estate deal in russia that he was working with during the campaign that could have been worth hundreds ever millions of dollars and then afterward the president of russia said that is good and you should get out of afghanistan too and now the president has done that too and the defense secretary has resigned in protest and while the governments likely going to shut down tomorrow. But on top of that, if you think the pressure on the president over the russia issue may be driving any of this, driving the president s behavior and decisions as president , maybe driving the stress in the white house about the investigation into the russia matter and what it may turn up and what kind of pressure it may put on the president and his family, today, on top of all it, or maybe intrinsic to all of it, today was the day they just made their move in the Justice Department. Now you may have followed the twists and turns of this over the course of the day today. But rather than go through the ways this story changed over the course of the day and how the Justice Department put out an initial exculpatory story and had to retract it and later put out the real story after anone nuss officials corrected the record about what happened and after a weird day in terms of the Justice Department letting out this information, where we have ended up is serious. And just to sum it up, what im going to do is read you the lead just posted by the excellent reporter Charlie Savage at the new york times. I think he actually nuts this up pretty perfectly after a twisty day on this story. Quote, Matthew Whitaker who was installed last month as acting attorney general by President Trump has cleared himself to supervise the special counsel investigation, rejecting the recommendation of career Justice Department ethics specialists that he recuse himself. The development came soon after the disclosure that the president s nominee for attorney general william barr had written a memo this spring in which he strongly criticized one of the main lines of inquiry by the special Counsel Robert Mueller whether mr. Trump had committed obstruction of justice. Disclosure of the memo raised questions about whether barr would order Robert Mueller to shut down that component of the inquiry if the Senate Confirms barr as attorney general. Together the developments underscored the potential threats to mr. Muellers ability to complete his work without interference at a time when his inquiry appears to be drawing closer to the white house and to the president s most trusted associates. Charlie savage quotes senator mark warner of virginia, the top democrat on the Intelligence Committee who said today, quote, it is becoming pretty clear that the president is basing his choices for leadership at the Justice Department on candidates criticism of the Mueller Investigation. We can all see what is happening here. So buckle up. It has been a day at the rate things are going, it may be a night as well. Well be joined by the incoming chairman of the Judiciary Committee in the house to try to make some sense and put in context some of the major new developments. But on the issue of the russia investigation, after a rip roaring couple of weeks, a very dramatic courtroom development driven by the special counsel, the mask did sort of get ripped off today in terms of how the president intends to try to get at the special counsels investigation from inside of the Justice Department. Simultaneously the russian government has just gotten a huge series of very, very expensive gifts from the president in very quick succession. Including one it was so expensive it cost him the resignation of his defense secretary tonight. So lets start there with zpert help. Joining u. S. Now is courtney coop. Thank you for being here. Thanks for having me. What is going on with your day . Pretty normal. Holiday and shopping. Is there any question about why secretary mattis resigned tonight. Defense Officials Say it he was not pushed out and there are decisions counter to secretary mattiss advice throughout the course of his time at the pentagon there have been a lot of decisions but the ones most recently have been the most egregious for mattis and those were choosing general millie, mark millie to be the next chairman against matt is advice. Is that such an important issue to him because he is strongly against millie or felt like it was disrespectful or inappropriate to reject his choice of somebody else. I think it is a combination of both. The president has the authority to nominate and they take the secretary of defense advice and in this case mattis wanted someone else other than general millie and then came out the surprise syria announcement which was over the course of the last week or so, this was a discussion. President trump has wanted to take troops out of syria for some time. He didnt hide that in the spring when he wanted to and secretary mattis and others could change his mind on that. They started talking about it again. What was particularly surprising was how it came out and the fact that President Trump has decided to take all troops out in such a quick and rapid succession. And then that of course comes 24 hours later we hear the white house has asked the pentagon for plans for withdrawal from afghanistan. Within weeks. 7,000 troops. Within weeks. It is not clear. Nothing is decided. But the fact that they are asking for this series of plans and it sure seems like the president has decided he wants to go down in the number of troops there. When i was in afghanistan in october, i got a real sense that there is a limited time that they have to keep this 14,000 to 15,000 that are there now. The next course of action would be a counterterror force, going aft after al qaeda and taliban and less of a focus on the Training Mission and as we heard from secretary mattis tonight, the Training Mission is the nato mission. That is the Partner Mission that secretary mattis keeps going to the nato allies and saying this is why we need to stay in this mission. We need more money and fund the training. So if the u. S. Is going to pull out of that as well so when i was when i was reacting like everybody to this news from secretary mattis, immediately read the Resignation Letter and saw the way he articula