NBC’s Keir Simmons: The Sound of Trump’s Tweets Is Nothing Compared to Turkish Artillery

NBC’s Keir Simmons delivered a live report from the Turkish invasion of Northern Syria on Morning Joe on Tuesday. While Simmons was explaining the situation, a Turkish shell landed in the distance and the smoke was visible on camera.

Mika Brzezinski asked Simmons about reports of a ceasefire in the region.

“Mika, there is no ceasefire on the ground here,” Simmons said. “What you can see behind me is Syria and we have now been here for a number of hours watching Turkish tanks move out of cover fire and then pull back again.”

Simmons stepped out of shot to show a town where Turkey and the Kurds have been fighting and where Turkish artillery had landed.

“And this, remember, happening just after President Trump has picked up the phone to President Erdogan, just after Vice President Pence has called for a ceasefire and said that he will come to the region, just after Washington has announced sanctions on Turkey. It is make nothing difference, as far as we can tell this morning, in Syria.”

“This is a bitter battle taking place inside a key town inside Syria. And the Kurds now saying that they believe 275,000 civilians have been displaced by this fighting. So, you know, whatever the President does, and there you can hear that artillery fire and you may see in a moment it land had the in fact, you can just see the smoke rising above the town.”

“Whatever the President does, the sound of his Tweets are nothing in comparison …”  As if to illustrate Simmons’ point, a Turkish shell hit the town in the background of the shot mid-sentence.

“There it is,” Simmons said. “And you can see the smoke. Smoke in that town just rising above it as those Turkish shells land there. I was just trying to say that whatever the President does, you know, the power of his tweets are nothing compared with the sound of this Turkish artillery landing on Syrian towns this morning, just here on the border with Syria.”

Watch the video above, via MSNBC.