military action against the assad regime. let's go to barbara starr. the president's being briefed at mar-a-la mar-a-lago. what's the latest on this. >> reporter: all of this moving forward tonight with briefings, updates, options being looked at. late this afternoon here at the pentagon the joint chiefs were called in and they were briefed on the options. these are some of the classic signals that one would see before military action is taken. these things tend to have a pattern of activity. any president will get one last briefing from his commanders about what they want to do and what they hope to achieve. it's been our understanding here at cnn through most of the day that there are basically two options on the table for the president. a limited option if you will. strike perhaps the airfields that the syrians use to launch

planes to drop those bombs filled with nerve agents on civilians, women and children being killed, those horrific pictures we saw, that would be the limited option. that would send a signal to assad and to the world that trump is serious and willing to use military force. there will be a more extensive option. the military always gives a president options to choose from. that would be to take out of the chemical capability, the delivery systems, the airfields, the helicopters, the barrel bombs, but tonight if you look at the map there are two u.s. navy war ships in the mediterranean. they are equipped with cruise missiles. these are the kind of missiles that could be launched. they involve no risk to u.s. military personnel. they're unmanned. they fly at low altitudes. they can be adjusted and guided to invade syrian defenses.

no matter which option is chosen there are russians on the ground. the u.s. wants to avoid hitting them. >> appreciate that. i want to go to jim acosta outside mar-a-lago where these meetings are taking place. you heard barbara's reporting. syria front and center despite the attention on the china's visit. president trump speak briefly on a air force one this afternoon. what did he say there. >> reporter: we've seen a dramatic change in rhetoric coming from the president and his administration in the last 12 hours. keep in mind it was last week when the secretary of state rex tillerson and nikki haley talking about what they thought would be the trump administration policy that the u.s. would have to live with assad in power and that changed after that chemicals weapons attack that happened on monday.

you heard the president earlier today on air force one saying should happen. here's what he had to say. >> do you think that assad -- >> i think what happened in syria is a disgrace to humanity and he's there and i guess he's running things so something should happen. >> reporter: in terms of what's happening on the ground here in florida, we know the president was planning to meet with his national security team. he was briefed by james mattis, but he has the secretary of state rex tillerson here who earlier today made some dramatic statements also indicating that the u.s. now believes assad should go and the russians should rethink their policy when it comes to propping up the assad regime and being involved militarily in syria. this doesn't necessarily indicate anything, but the

chinese delegation is here in mar-a-lago meeting with president trump, but the chinese delegation in the last several minutes has left mar-a-lago. when you look at the tea leaves and try to piece together what may be happening tonight that is obviously something that would happen from a diplomatic standpoint to allow the president to make a critical decision. you were talking in the last hour president trump time and again warned not just on twitter, but at campaign rallies that the u.s. should be very careful when it comes to getting into syria. when president obama was in office, he was saying the u.s. should stay out of syria, but just before the election last november president trump was saying on the campaign trail that hillary clinton was threatening world war iii by considering military action in syria with the russians there and so now the president finds himself in a similar situation in that he is considering the possibility of a very dangerous

risky move in syria that could have consequences that nobody has imagined. >> we'll check in with you throughout this area as potentially fast moving developments. i want to bring in our military panel. >> so the deputy russian ambassador when asked about potential russian action in syria says you have to think of negative consequences referring to prior action in iraq and libya. i'm wondering what you make of that and how does one calculate the presence of russian forces on the ground and the potential for killing accidentally killing, if you're bombing an airfield or targeting an installation and there's russian military personnel advising how

do you calculate that in because that brings it to another level if you kill russian military forces. >> i never thought i would agree with the russian officials speaking about our options as a military, but i do agree with them on this. i think you have to think through all the consequences, positive and negative of any kind of military strike. we are very good at targeting. as barbara described if they do something like this and if it is from destroyers at sea, those missiles are precise and can have a positive effect on the target they're hitting, but there is the day after. they'll do assessment and try to figure out whether they got the target or targets that they hit and then the next day you've got to look at what the reaction is going to be by the syrians and russians even by the iranians. i think you have to think about the reaction of the opposition groups now because you are now entering a phase here no matter how precise the strike is you're entering a phase where you are actually targeting the assad

regime. it does change the calculus of u.s. military operations inside syria which has been designed against isis. there's a lot to consider here. there's a lot to take in. your question about the russian is valid. what's different major difference between now and 2013 is the presence of a large number of russian military forces throughout syria. they used to be around tartus and now very very clearly showed they're all over the country. you have to factor that in and the presence of republic national guard troops as well. that's clearly going to be a risk they have to take in. i would suspect that the planners that are doing this are thinking that through very very carefully. we're very good about looking at collateral damage and trying to figure out what the best most precise way is to strike if we're going to do that. >> colonel, every action has a reaction and you can't always predict what that reaction is

going to be. it's easy to think you send some missiles and you send a message, but there are players on the ground who will react in different ways. >> absolutely. and before you even launch that strike, before you commit the forces into action, i think it's important that we determine exactly what we're trying to do. are we trying to send a message or are we trying to defeat a capability? are we trying to turn our attention toward the syrian regime. the admiral makes a good point. up until now we have stayed away from going after the assad regime. it's been going after isis or al qaeda affiliates. this would be a shift in policy and we have to make sure are we going to commit our forces to a long term engagement with the syrians or is this going to be a one-day slap on the wrist to send a message. that has toen answered before we get to the what happens the day

after. >> you think about back to -- was can colin powell you break it you buy it. replacing bashar assad what comes in his wake and given the fractures in the country it is a complex chess board. >> we have not said anything i don't think and it shouldn't be part of the planning. it might be. i don't know. that we're talking about a regime -- a head of the regime strike. i would doubt that would be part of the target list to go after assad in his palace, but here's the thing. i was as a brand new general i was in the pentagon on 9/11 and soon after we went into crisis action planning and i was the head war planner on the joint staff. i got involved in quite a few of these things. what we're seeing is a very quick turn under two days of a plan to attack a sovereign

nation that has other sovereign nations providing advice and assistance. both russia and iran. there are citizens and soldiers of those two countries spread throughout the city. the military is very precise in terms of targeting and precision targeting when you're starting to fire missiles, but let's put the shoe on the other foot. let's assume that maybe this is russia attacking the kurdish forces in northern syria and we have advisers with them and an american soldier gets hit by a russian attack, imagine how we would react to thaand let's put on the other foot how is russia going to react if we hit an air base that has russian soldiers and airplanes how are they going to react after mr. putin saying to mr. trump about show us the

evidence that this was syria that dropped these chemical weapons. this is a quick turn on crisis action planning. i never doubt the pentagon when they put some stuff out, but this is quick. >> also, to that point in terms of crisis action planning, in the past we've seen attempts to build coalitions and attempts to have it not be unilateral action i guess out of the belief there is strength in that, particularly if it becomes a longer term action or for whatever the reactions to it are it's better if there's more players involved conducting the strike. >> we've said that before on this show. the only thing worse than having allies is not having allies. and mr. trump over the last couple of days has somewhat insulted some of the allies that we have that have joined us before in middle east activity. now, one of the things we're seeing all day today, there have

been quite a few nations that have signed up saying this is a horrific act and it's a crime against humanity and it's a war crime. there are several nations with support, but that doesn't mean those folks have signed up for a ken etic strike. there's a horrifying thought about this chemical strike that's killed 87 people to include young babies, but there have been over 400,000 skilled in syria over the last seven years and it's kind of surprising to me that there is such a visceral reaction to this one attack after this has been going on for seven years. >> admiral k, we've seen cases where leaders have fired missiles to send a message, they don't have much of an impact on the ground. no pun intended. they don't have much of a long

term impact on changing the situation. it's more of a warning or kind of an attempt to do something as opposed to look like you're sitting around doing nothing. it's unclear whether if there is a strike tonight whether that would be it. it would be a one off thing and they move or if this is a sustained action. >> i think that's a difficult thing to rely on. again, we would be in striking a regime target or targets. we would be now entering into the civil war in a way we haven't done before. that changes the calculus not only for us and what we're trying to do in isis and syria, but it's going to change the calculus for players on the ground in syria, not to mention including the opposition group. the opposition groups who now may have certain expectations about u.s. military involvement that they haven't before. they've been very frustrated in the past that we haven't been more coming in on their side through more lethal arms to

them. now we're going to be striking a regime target. that sends a different message to the opposition groups. are we going to be able to back that up and do more. if precision strikes are tempting and they can be very tactically effective. can they be strategically effective and what is your strategy going forward. you're going to have to adjust one way or the other. if the strike is conducted, it will change the calculus of what's going on in syria. the civil war as well as our strategy there. >> colonel, i think back to jordan launching air strikes against isis in the wake of what many in jordan considered their 9/11 which was multiple bombings at several hotels killing people at a wedding party and horrif horrifically one of the pilots went down and was captured by isis and burned to death in a

propaganda video by isis. that is something that military planners have to take into consideration. if this is more than missiles and it involves aircraft on repeated there's the potential given there are large swaths of the country in control of isis or under their sway that you have a plane going down and a u.s. personnel falling into the hands of a terror group. >> yeah, i think that's a valid consideration. as we've been talking i suspect that the primary weapon system is going to be a cruise missile of some type either the tomahawk or the cruise missile. we have a lot of aircraft that can fire these from a long distance. it achieves a limited objective and of course i go back to what are we actually trying to do? if we're trying to send a message as we did with gaddafi where you try and change his behavior with this shock treatment and a say we're not going to tolerate this, the problem is once you start down

that road, you don't get to determine where that road ends because if the behavior doesn't change, do you keep going down that road? >> also, if my memory serves me -- >> it ends up being a war. >> on that missile strike against gaddafi it ended up hitting a tent and tilgkilling member of his family, but he stayed in power after that. >> those were manned aircraft. >> could you give us a sense of where damascus is and where the gas attack was and the key installations that might be on the -- in the bull's-eye. >> if you look at the areas under isis's control which is a different aspect of this complex battlefield, they're in red and isis support is in the lighter

grayish tones. there are a couple of areas that the u.s. could choose to strike depending on the kind of message it's trying to send. the airfield, this is where it is believed that the strike originated from, the one that was carrying that deadly chemical with it. that strike, of course, taking place up here in jableh province. this is where a lot of strikes originated from. it is critical for the regime and a lot of support aircraft are there as well. if we move to the coast we have tartus where the russians have the vast majority of their a aircraft and their naval base, that is probably not a target, but to the north you have the international airport and a number of potential anti-aircraft weapons systems under the regime's control, but

there are challenges in taking on these kinds of strikes. if we go down here to mezze, it is believed to have a number of air defense systems capabilities, but a strike against mezze airfield would result in a lot of civilian casualties and that is not something the u.s. can afford at this stage. it is an area that the israelis have struck in the past when they have wanted to send a message. >> is it a fair assumption to believe there would be russian personnel at most of those major airfields? >> i would make that a safe assumption. >> i'm sorry. i've got to interrupt you. i have to go to barbara starr. what are you learning request. >> reporter: good evening. we have able to report that air strikes have been launched against assad. we are being told by a senior

official at in hour that approximately 50 tomahawk missiles launched earlier this evening. they are striking we are told airfields. this is the limited option. the airfields where bashar assad's launched those war planes that struck and killed those people in northern syria in that attack. these cruise missiles have a particular military advantage. they can fly to evade syrian air defenses. you don't put a pilot at risk. they're not manned. this was one of the two options presented to the president. there was a more extensive target list, but this is thought in military circles that we're talking to be the option that essentially sends a message to assad that donald trump and the

u.s. are now willing to u.s. force. will it be enough right away to get him to change his behavior? we don't know. >> let me -- for those just joining, you're saying the bottom line you're saying 50 tomahawk cruise missiles have been fired? >> reporter: yes. we are getting early word from officials. i will tell you there is a briefing going on at this hour. we expect more information shortly, but a u.s. official telling cnn that 50 tomahawk cruise missiles from two war ships in the mediterranean have been launched against these targets in syria. there are no american pilots at risk. they don't have to fly over the airspace of any other country. it's really the most expeditious if you will -- >> do we know what time the cruise missiles were launched. >> reporter: i am going to tell you sometime ago.

these have a range of a thousand miles plus. they fly relatively fast, but not as fast as you might think that some other missiles do. they would have launched them sometime ago. i cannot tell you exactly when. one of the reasons is -- >> is it safe to assume they have already struck their targets. >> reporter: i don't know that all 50 have, but they are telling us they launched 50 and you raise a good point we need to find out if they all actually struck the targets they aimed at. sometimes these missiles go astray. >> i'm going to check back with you. joining us from the capital is marco rubio. he's a member of the senate foreign relations committee and he's been critical of the approach to syria in the past. what is your reaction tonight to the news of this struck that president trump has launched. >> my first reaction is to

congratulate our men and women in uniform. i don't believe this is a message. i believe this is actually a tactical action that furthers an objective. my guess is and i think you'll see confirmation, the airfield which is where these attacks were launched from a couple of days ago is going to be the target and that is the airfield from which the chemical attacks were launched. it's a critical point in a part of the country where they are battles rebels in the southern part of syria. as i said, i think this is an important decisive step that was taken. it is not a message. it is a degrading of the capability of the syrian regime to carry out further chemical attacks against innocent civilians. this will degrade their capability to launch those attacks from the air and i think it was important step and hopefully it's part of a comprehensive strategy. >> when you talk about a comprehensive strategy would you like to see more urgent air

strikes. this is degrading it is not eliminating as far as we know air capabilities in syria which as you know bashar assad has used to degrade barrel bombs and all manner of atrocities over the last months. >> first of all fr, in is a significant step. i am telling you this is the area from which those chemical attacks were launched. it's the place you were going to see future attacks come from particularly targeting innocent civilians and in area they felt they were losing territory. there's a message to this, but it is more than just messaging. this achieved a strategic objective and it's a significant degrading of their capabilities in the air. they don't have 100 airfields they can launch operations from. we'll learn more details and i imagine the president will

address the nation soon, but i would say to everybody this is not just some symbolic measure. it is a strategic objective and when they appear to have dedicated the necessary resources to achieve a specific strategic objective. that's the way you conduct these things. >> the deputy russian envoy to the u.n. warned the u.s. of what he called negative consequences in military action referring to prior action in iraq and libya. how do you respond to that and what concerns you have about the potential for russian personnel on the ground, military personnel on the ground. >> i imagine they were not the ones targeted, but again if the russians are there on the ground assisting assad in the commission of these crimes, they should answer for that. they certainly have put themselves into harm's way. the second point i would make with regard to this is the absurdity of the russian position. with a straight face they're arguing that these chemical weapons are because of the rebels, which is absurd. the third point is russia should

be embarrassed and ashamed. they are saying there were no nerve agent or chemical weapons left. we know that assad has been using chlorine bombs and now a nerve agent. so the russians have been covering for assad and if it were not for the russians, assad would not still be in power and if it were not for the russians assad would not have the capability and much less the gall to conduct the sort of attack we saw a couple of days ago. >> is it still u.s. policy that bashar assad must go because as you know last week secretary of state rex tillerson said it's up to the syrian people to decide what happens to assad. >> again, i would leave it to the white house to tell you what their policy. i am convinced and i know the president was deeply impacted by the images and news he got from

there. no matter how you may feel about the president and i know there are people out there that don't support the president, but if you watched yesterday as he was standing next to the king, that was real. that was not politician up there talking. that was a real person who had seen and heard and been briefed on this horrifying attack a and it clearly effected him. tonight's actions show that the days of being able to act with impunity are over when it comes to bashar el assad and there is a president to ensure he does not have the capability or his capability is diminished and he's held accountable. >> i appreciate your time thank you. >> thank you. >> i want to go to jeff zeleny outside of mar-a-lago where the president is. what are you hearing tonight? >> reporter: i am told that president trump will be addressing the nation about these strikes on syria. he met with his national

security advisors shortly after arriving here on the ground in florida and it was about 2:00 p.m. or so this afternoon when the president was flying from washington on air force one to florida where we were asking him, i was one of the reporters on the plane, asking him about bashar el assad. when he says something has to happen, the look in his eye, he paused before answering that question. of course we do not believe he had made that decision at that point, but once he reached the ground here in florida, he depumet with some of his advisors, secretary of state was here and general mattis. this was happening at the same time he was having a dinner with the president of china here, but we do expect the president to explain his position here and i think senator rubio said a moment ago that the president was moved by those pictures and that was his message to us earlier today on air force one that he said heinous act that

something had to be done here. this without question is the biggest and most significant military action of his young presidency here and we are expecting him to explain it to the nation at some point coming up this evening. >> it really is a remarkable turn of events for president trump who as a before he was in politics often commented on president obama saying do not have military action in syria saying if there was military action, he would have to go to congress to get approval for any sort of action, but not to strike at syria and even as we said with senator rubio as early as last week rex tillerson was saying essentially it's up to the syrian people seeming to indicate that the u.s., the trump administration was fine with assad remaining in power and taking a hands off approach. that has changed tonight. >> you're right.

we have so many comments by mr. trump before he ran for office and you're right about that tweet in 2013. he said the president must get congressional approval before going into syria here. all of those discussions will come in the coming hours and coming days here. i think this is a president who is inclined to act desiesively on this and of course he is consuming all this information now differently and more than ever before. when he was saying those other things as a private citizen, he was largely just basing his -- >> i got to -- i got to interrupt. hang on. stay there. i want to bring back in barbara starr. >> reporter: what we are now learning is somewhere between 50 and 60, more than 50 tomahawk missil missiles were launched between 8:00 and 9:00 east coast time.

it was well in the darkness of syria. they launched at a single air base in western syria. the assessment was that that was the base that the syrians used to launch the aircraft, their aircraft, that carried those deadly bombs that resulted in those people being killed by a suspected nerve agent. it was a focused strike with a very specific goal of essentially retaliation for that strike. something very narrowly militarily focused. we know more than 50 tomahawk launching from this air base. we don't know if there were russian forces there or other forces there. the tomahawk can be very precisely programmed. if they want to hit the airfield, a runway, they can program it to hit that point. it's guided to its target by gps. it can be very very precise, but

we should know in the coming hours. some assessment of the damage they caused and what the impact they think may be to the syrian regime if any at this point. >> again, the headline right now 50 to 60 tomahawk fired between 8:00 and 9:00 p.m. east coast time in the united states. all targeting that one air base? >> reporter: at the moment that is what defense officials here are telling us, they were targeting this single air base called shayrat. a regime air base in western syria they believe was directly tied to the nerve agent attack and the aircraft the syrian aircraft that flew from that base. now, what we don't know is if in the coming hours we will see additional u.s. military action against additional targets. nobody is saying that, but you can never really close the door

to that possibility because when they present option to see a president, the military always presents a range of options. here's the list of things you can do based on what objectives you want to accomplish. we don't know if this is just the starting point or if this is going to be it and will it change assad's behavior. having one air base bombed and what signal will it send about a trump presidency. >> reactions from russia and iran who have been propping up the assad regime. >> we're learning more from the pentagon tonight. >> we are indeed and much of that information that barbara was reporting was likely con void after the dinner. the defense secretary james mattis gave a full briefing to the president about these air

strikes. they were discussing that. they are discussing that at this hour. the president we are told will be making a statement to the nation at some point coming up soon this evening explaining these actions here. as we were mentioning earlier, he had been on record of course saying he believed that congress should approve of this. he was critical of this, but this is a different moment and the president has said he will be flexible about things. this is a donald trump who is now getting his information off of security reports and based on briefings, not simply reading things in the newspaper. here he may have to square that at some point going forward, but he did make this order tonight and we'll be hearing from him i'm told later and then his advisors will certainly be explaining this in the hours to

co come. >> from your understanding 50 to 65 tomahawk missiles targeting one base that can do significant damage. in a case like this, how much intelligence would the u.s. actually have about what kind of aircraft are still on the grouped, what kind of weapon systems are on the ground in terms of how effective this would be in to use senator rubio's term degrading the air capabilities, the future air capabilities of bashar el assad. >> reporter: this is a small air base. i've been to this base in my tour in syria. this is not a big installation. it's got two runways. it has two squadron areas

there's an administrative and maintenance area. it's not that large. 50 tomahawk will send a message and do damage. will it damage aircraft? i don't know. it depend on the ability of the tomahawk to penetrate. >> i assume it would depend on whether or not the syrian air force had moved the jets because if they were going to -- if this he we they were concerned about an attack they might assume the air base where they had launched the gas attack they might have moved aircraft and i assume the u.s. would know that. >> they would know at a certain point in time, but there's always that last image or your last intelligence information and the actual time you launched your strike. you can see the other bases there on the map. they could have moved them to those bases, but there are enough hardened aircraft shelters on the base to protect

the aircraft. the syrians have been at war for decades. i'm not sure how much damage 50 tomahawks will do but anything not in a hardened aircraft shelter will be damaged. it's a good base to pick. the fact that it got hit will be visible to the civilian population of syria. >> do you think that was part of the calculus? >> dumayr is out in the desert. it's away from prying eyes. shayrat is close to the main highway. you can see it as you drive by. so explosions going off there will be seen in homes and you can bet that is going to be

relayed quickly. >> if you can circle the base for our viewers at home to get a sense of exactly where the base that was targeted according to barbara starr. >> sure, it's right here, the shayrat airfield. it's from here to give you an idea the chemical strike took place up in this province. if the trump administration decides it wants to take greater action to further degrade the syrian regime's capabilities, those are down here. then you have another installations, the headquarters for the republican guard for example, they are on the outskirts of damascus. you have the mezze airfield. targets like this would be tricky because it's in the capital itself, but again the

target for those tomahawks that were launched right here, shayrat airfield, this is specifically where the syrian regime launched those aircraft that carried the bombs that had that chemical substance on them that caused those horrific deaths. >> i want to go back to barbara starr. do you have more information. >> reporter: some additional details. we talked about the fact 50 to 60 tomahawk cruise missiles. we know that the impact time, those cruise missiles hit that airfield at 8:45 tonight east coast time in the united states and they were specifically programmed to target key things at that airfield and that includes the runways, some of the aircraft at the airfield and the fuel points. essentially where the airplanes get their gas from.

what you had was a decision to go after the airplanes themselves, but also their ability to fuel up and take off yet again. they put them out of commission, they believe, at this point. what's so crucial is this is just one spot. so we asked u.s. official will there be more air strikes, are we done now, is the president done, and then this official said yes until another decision is made. so perhaps not done just yet. we frankly don't know the answer to that. we don't know what else is on the table for mr. trump to decide on. >> barbara we'll continue to check in with you. the president is going to be making an address to the nation. we will of course carry that to you live. those are the -- that's what the graphic is there of tomahawk missile. barbara starr reporting 50 to 60

tomahawks were fired in this attack. impacting around 8:45 eastern time. jim acosta is getting new information on what moved the president to change his mind. he joins us now. what have you learned? >> reporter: as we know the president has long been opposed to military action in syria. we've gone through that time and again, but i was told by a senior administration official who was with the president in the aftermath of that chemical weapons attack in syria and this official told me that the president was effected, was moved by these images of dead children among the civilian casualties and that was the reason why he felt compelled to act. obviously when you are a candidate or even just somebody out there on the national stage making comments about foreign policy you can say anything you want but when you're the commander in chief things change. when you see images of dead children that is something that can change your calculus and i'm told is that that is indeed what

happened with this president. you mentioned a few moments ago that the president is getting ready to talk to reporters at mar-a-lago. we can point out that at the president hold area as we call it just outside of the mar-a-lago resort i can tell you inside that briefing room reporters are staged there is another area being set up for what appears to be a separate briefing that occasionally happens where senior administration officials will come in and brief reporters after a president speaks on a national crisis or some sort of big foreign policy development that's come up. it appears that you're going to hear from other administration officials talking tonight about what occurred over there in syria. >> i want to point out the images we were showing you were from the attack on monday by

syrian forces that was launched from the base that was struck tonight by 50 to 60 tomahawks. those photographs were from the attack monday. the horrific attack using chemicals. jim, you said it's likely to be both the president and other officials briefing the nation? >> we're going to get some kind of briefing. the president will come out and make a brief statement about what has occurred in syria tonight. he's not going to present all the details that these other senior administration officials can provide. the president is not only

traveling with his press secretary sean spicer and security officials that talk to reporters from time to time. those officials, if the scenario holds, and it looks like it's going to hold, would come in and give us additional details about what the president was doing when he received these briefings from national security officials earlier this evening, when he made that decision to go and launch these air strikes, did he consult with other foreign leaders and did he consult with members of congress. did he brief the speaker, paul ryan, did he talk to the gang of eight on capitol hill. the leadership members on capitol hill. my assumption is that, yes, the administration is going to explain all those things have occurred and these things are kept tightly under wraps, but my expectation is that we're going to get those details later on this evening after the president speaks. >> all right. obviously bring any public remarks said from mar-a-lago tonight or anywhere else to you

through cnn either in this hour or when it happens live. i want to bring back retired general and retired admiral kirby. and also david axlerod. admiral, in terms of what you have heard so far about what we know of this strike, 50 to 60 tomahawks targeting this one air base, what stands out to you and what questions would you like to have answered. >> what i'm most curious about is the battle damage assessment and how much damage they think they do, whether they hit what they were aiming at and what the effect is. i would like to know if there were any civilian casualties and russian casualties as a result of this strike. this is a classic sea based

cruise missile launch operation everything that you've heard is typical. that's the way these things are planned and executed. it is not dissimilar from the kinds of plans we had teed up in 2013 when president obama was considering similar strikes against syrian targets. it is interesting this hit one airfield and multiple targets at the airfield. i'm a little interested to know why no storage facilities or any specific chemical weapon storage facilities might not have been hit. maybe they didn't know where they are or maybe they're deep underground, but when talk about degrading his capability to conduct those attacks, when you

hit that target you will degrade that field, but you're not going to limit his ability for these attacks in the future. >> the colonel talked about the hangars that these aircraft are in at this base. how strong are they? does a repeated strike by repeated tomahawks degrade that. >> it could. it could. he's right about those hardened hangar facilities. that would explain to some degree why so many tomahawk missiles because you can pound away at them over a period of time with multiple missiles and have a more dramatic effect. the initial wave weakens the target and you can keep hitting it to try to penetrate it more deeply. >> you talked about your experience in these strikes, what do you make of this one. >> this launch at 8:45 my time is about 3:45 in the morning

syria time. 50 targets is a pretty hefty strike on one air base and as you said and as mike mentioned you're probably going to get on the base with each target being hit two, three times. i've lived in an air base in iraq that had been hit prior to us moving in there and each one of the shelters had one or two holes on the roof of it. they come in and damaged the plane underneath. a smart commander would have moved those planes, but this was a fast action. it occurred within two days. when you launch 50, 59 missiles at one base, it's going to get people's attention very quickly. it will have the effect of a limited retaliatory strike. the course of action one which is probably the lightest course of action was conducted. it seems like a lot and it's a lot of ammunition going down at

1,000 pounds apiece of ammunition, but it will send a message. you ask what we're concerned about, mike just said the bda, bomb damage assessment, what it hit, were there any civilian casualties. what's going to happen tomorrow? what happens next? what kind of reaction is this going to get from the world, not just our friends but from our foes and how are they going to -- especially the russians and iranians and not only how they're going to react in the press and what the politicians are going to say, but what other actions might take place around the world. we have a lot of forces deployed to europe that are countering russian action. what's going to happen there. will there be other areas where the russians that might take action. >> i want to bring in jim acosta who is learning more information. >> reporter: right. we are waiting that tape of

president trump speaking to reporters. that should be coming in a few moments. this is not happening live over at mar-a-lago, we're getting a read out of those comments and you'll get the tape, but this is what the president said to reporters a few moments ago. he said assad choked out the helpless and slow and brutal death for so many even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this attack. no child of god should ever -- and then the quote ends, but we're going to get a fuller quote. no child of god should ever have to deal with this something like this or something along those lines. there could be no dispute is another quote that syria used banned chemical weapons and ignored the urging of the u.n. security council. the region crisis continues to deepen and the region continues to destabilize threatening the u.s. and its allies. this is what the president said verbatim, but he also talked about how he ordered this air

strike from the area where the weapons were launched. it appears that the president is indicating in these comments that he ordered this attack on the site where these weapons were laufrnched by the syrian government against those civilians on monday. the president making brief comments, but as i was saying earlier this is the president really kind of setting the stage getting the broad highlights in terms of what happened tonight. we expect to hear from other senior administration officials. this is not a situation where the cameras go into the white house and everything is able to come out live into all of our viewers out there so that is why you're seeing the president make these comments to reporters at mar-a-lago. that video is now in route to some kind of feeding operation

where you'll see these comments shortly, but the president making reference to beautiful babies cruelly murdered in a barbaric attack by the syrian government. as i was saying earlier you do get the sense from these comments tonight he was deeply effected by these images that the whole world was shocked by earlier this week. >> these comments have been given by the president of the united states as jim said to a pool of reporters. as soon as we get the tape of that, it's not broadcast live, it's not going to be a live address to the american people, we will obviously play that for you the second we get it. david, as you were watching this with your experience in the obama administration, we talked about a red line which would consider military action, what do you make of tonight? >> well, obviously this sends -- if the intent was to send a

message to syria, there's also a message to the rest of the world attached which is that president trump is willing to order this action. there will be a host of secondary questions as to under what authorization he did it and what was the impact of it, what are the secondary impacts on us. certainly there's the impression of swift action here and i think that's part of what he wanted to communicate, but what's so interesting about the statement that jim acosta described is he reacted so differently in 2013 to an attack that was just as heinous, except much larger, and his advice was don't go in. it's interesting to see the transformation of someone who is now the president of the united states and having to make these decisions from a different perspective because this is a vastly different approach than

the one that he once and not so long ago recommended in response to syria. >> even during the campaign he said let russia deal with syria, let russia deal with isis, let assad fight isis. he seemed content to not have the u.s. be involved. as you said he tweeted that repeatedly. this is a huge change for this president in the last 24, 48 hours or more. jeff zeleny is standing outside mar-a-lago. what are you hearing. >> reporter: i'm being told by u.s. official that the trump administration and the president himself informed what i'm told is a broad list of nations and garnered their support for this.

one nation on that list was russian. that was a question. we asked. have you spoken with mr. putin about this. he said i have not yet but i may in the future. i am told that the united states did not give a heads up to russia. of course, so many russian forces on the ground in syria there. but i am being told by a u.s. official that the administration did get the support and implicit agreement, if you will, from what we're being told is a broad list of nations. we will find out more specifics on that shortly. they are setting up here near mar-a-lago for a briefing of some sort perhaps with the new national security advisor general mcmaster and we will be seeing the president's words here shortly. this is not just the president's decision alone tonight. they did inform other countries. >> in a moment i'm going back to the colonel who has been at the base that was hit because i want

to get more details about what the base is like given that somebody was there. in terms of what the president has around him at this point, you talked about the national security advisor general mcmaster and general mattis is there as well. do you know who else? >> reporter: he is surrounded by most of his security team. other members of the cabinet as well from the treasury secretary and onward. he is in mar-a-lago to have his first face-to-face meeting with the chinese president. this has ramifications for that visit. we also saw earlier this evening the vice president going back into the white house so we got a sense there he may be getting some information here on that, but the president is surrounded by most of his top advisors. reince priebus, steve bannon,

they are here in florida as is jared kushner the son-in-law and top advisor. ivanka trump, the daughter and senior advisor. most of the president's staff is actually here in florida. he calls it the southern white house and tonight it certainly is a white house that's quite busy. >> i want to go back to our military panel. how does that play out. >> normally something like that is done obviously you're doing this in a hurry so it's usually done over the phone and you pick those countries that are most invested in this that have a stake. i would suspect some of our gulf allies were consulted and key partners in europe. i'm not surprised there wasn't deliberate outreach to the russian government at least in moscow to give them any kind of a heads up about this because you don't know what they were

going to do with that kind of information, but you do want to try to clear the decks as best you can before you do something this major that is going to have ramifications starting very very soon. i'm surprised we haven't seen a reaction from moscow yet. that's the thing i'm looking for the most right now. i think they will be early out of the gates. >> any moment we expect a tape from the president who spoke to the reporters. that has not been broadcast. 50 to 60 tomahawk cruise missiles from two vessels in the eastern mediterranean sea fired at a particular base believed to be the air base where the attack was actually launched from. the colonel has been to that base in years past when he was the air force attache in the region. if you could talk about what the

air base is like. you said it's a small base. >> it's a small base. i'd call it a bare bones base. there's a maintenance area, a fueling area. >> about how many aircraft? >> well, they're small. usually 12 to 15. they would have enough hardened aircraft shelters to house the squadron. the base sits out in a farming area. there's not much around it. i don't think we're risking a lot of collateral damage here. if all the missiles hit on the base i don't think we're going to be dealing with a large number of civilian casualties. i think this was a good target

to hit and i like the visibility of it because it was easily seen by a lot of the population. >> easily seen from people in damascus where the bulk of the population is. >> not damascus. i'm sure that was all over the telephone networks and social media and of course we're going to see a lot of government reaction and i suspect although there may not have been a lot of civilian casualties, we may see a lot of civilian casualties in the morning engineered. >> we're going to bring the president's statement in about two minutes. we are getting the tape cued up. in terms of russian personnel, that's the other question we don't know. were there russian personnel at that base and if so how many and if so what happened to them?

>> i would say my estimate and i have no real knowledge, but i would say probably a low likelihood of russian personnel there. this was not their front line fighter base. this base houses the old airframe. it's well built and rugged. it's old. it doesn't drop precision guided ammunitions. anything can fall off a wing. i would >> we're going to be bringing the president's remarks in a moment. the first major military strike of the trump administration has taken place. missiles striking a single syrian air base. that's the preliminary information. the one suspected -- the base is the one suspected of launching this