saying okay, mr. president, let me check that. you can bet military commanders do get the okay before executes strikes. >> quickly on this one, general. what made this okay? >> well, by the wording that the president sent over saying this was in the interest of national security. it was an attack against a country using chemical weapons. there are conferenventions agai that. >> none that allow the united states to police them unilaterally. >> that's true. every country is responsibility for ensuring this never happens again. that is my wording of the constitution that occurred in 1925 after the devastating damage by chemical weapons in world war i. all of that is consideration. by the way, there is u.s. service mechanimbers in syria t could be affected by a chemical attack. >> general, i appreciate it. counselor toobin, value added.

thanks to the international viewers for watching. for you "cnn newsroom" is next. we have big developments. "new day" has it. let's get at it. >> everyone a horrific attack occurs, it gets to the responsibility. >> president's action was very important, but now we better follow it up. >> if you are an adversary of the united states and you don't worry about donald trump, you're crazy. >> the syrian people will decide the fate of bashar al assad. >> the regime change is something we think will happen. >> we need a comprehensive strategy now. we have not heard that articulated. >> north korea is a rogue regime. >> we cannot allow north korea to become a nuclear super power. >> this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> good morning. welcome to "new day." trump administration with a different talk of russian

support for syria's brutal dictator. investigators are trying to determine whether the kremlin was involved in the chemical weapons. the president's top officials sending mixed messages about the top priority. are they now going to get rid of assad or are they going to defeat isis? >> this comes as secretary of state rex tillerson heads tos moscow tomorrow. and the u.s. is sending an aircraft carrier strike force to the korean peninsula among risings tensions there over kim jong un's nuclear ambitions. critical foreign policy challenges on day 81 of the trump presidency. we have joe johns live at the white house. >> reporter: good morning, alisyn. the administration advancing and retreating on the issue of regime change in syria after the bombing strike on friday night that was largely symbolic. it did at least send a message that the president is not afraid

to use force. >> every time one of the horrific attacks occurs, it draws russia closer to some level of responsibility. >> reporter: secretary of state rex tillerson talking tough of russia's role in the syrian chemical weapons on the eve of the first diplomatic trip to moscow. >> p regardless of being complicit or incompetent or out witt witted, they failed. >> reporter: slamming the administration for the agreement to ensure the assad's stockpile was destroyed. >> how can they cover for assad? there are answers that need to come from russia. >> reporter: nikki haley and h.r. mcmaster echoing tillerson's criticism and keeping the door open for imposing additional sanctions on both russia and iran due to the support for assad. >> i don't think anything is off

the table. >> reporter: the administration's top official sending conflicting messages about the future of the syrian dictator. tillerson emphasizing that america's first priority is the fight against isis. not toppling assad. >> through the political process that we believe the syrian people will ultimately be able to decide the fate of bashar al assad. >> reporter: as ambassador haley resists, regime change is a primary concern. >> there is no sort of option where political solution will happen with assad. >> reporter: an extraordinary reversal from last week and discrepancy which is not unnoticed by tillerson's critics. >> i think the strategy is based on assumptions that will not work. there is no such thing as assad, yes, but isis, no. >> reporter: this as the president sends aggressive message to north korea. days after kim jong un tested

another ballistic missile. sending a u.s. aircraft carrier strike group to the korean peninsula. >> it is prudent to do it. north korea engaged in a pattern of provocative behavior. this is a rogue regime that is now a nuclear capable regime. president xi and president trump agreed. it is unacceptable. >> reporter: north korea weighed in on the missile strike in syria. calling it an act of unforgivable aggression. it proves the country's decision to strength the military was the right choice. >> joe johns, i appreciate it. the bombing in syria by the united states is explained as an acceptable message to a rogue regime. now a carrier group is on the way to the korean peninsula. could another message be sent? cnn's barbara starr live at the pentagon with details. >> reporter: good morning, chris. not just a message, but visible

message using the united states military. this was a president who said repeatedly he didn't want to signal military moves. now finding the value of visible. the carrier group off the coast of north korea with missile defense capability. worried that the north koreans may get involved in additional provocation because they have seen the message in syria because this president is willing to use military force. back in syria. visible. the air base that the u.s. struck is now up and running again. the u.s. military says that's okay. they were not out to destroy it. they were out to send a message using chemical weapons is unacceptable. now the united nations ambassador nikki haley out there as we talked about there talking about regime change. the unknown. all of the countries listening to the messages. how will russia or iran or north

korea react to all of this very visible messaging? alisyn. >> barbara, thank you. russia lashing out at the u.s. for launching strikes in syria. the kremlin says it shows president trump's refusal to cooperate with them on syria. what will happen when secretary of state rex tillerson visits russia tomorrow? cnn's paul newton is live in moscow. what is the situation, paula? >> reporter: they are getting ready for the meeting. a point of controversy. there was supposed to be a meeting with secretary of state rex tillerson and vladimir putin. it wasn't on the schedule, but now the kremlin saying it will happen. the kremlin spokesperson saying there was never one officially on the agenda. if something changes, he will let us know. rex tillerson coming into the country. he has gotten an award from the kremlin for friendship to russia. they would get beyond the

pleasantries and cut to the bottom line. the united states wants to know if russia will stick with assad no matter what or can we bring you to the table to ease syria away from assad and start a political propers cease together to continue to fights isis and obviously try to get someone else, perhaps someone pro russian. someone else to lead in syria. many here saying it will be important and watch for this as to whether or not vladimir putin agrees to meet with rex tillerson on wednesday. >> true. that would be a big signal. paula newton. thank you. let's discuss with anthony scaramucci. >> good to be back. >> there are two stories. the policies and political. what do you make of the political intrigue that the president has said to his

son-in-law and top adviser steve bannon. you boys learn to get along. one thing that says for sure that white house is leaking, anthony. how big a deal? >> you sounded like your father when you said that. >> he used sign language. >> with a wooden spoon, probably. >> you think it is going on? >> here is what i think. you get very strong personalities. i know steve and jared well. worked close with them during the campaign. they were tight in the campaign and now tight within the transition. now whatever rubbings are going on are classical to sports teams, political teams, organizations like sky bridge where you have personalities trying to achieve a lot and they may be rubbing into each other. the president is a great leader. one thing you have to do when you run a company or the west wing, you need to give everybody a chance to cool out and put

aside their differences, whatever they may be and focus on the team. for me, i predict they will continue in the roles they have and they will do very well. as it relates to jared personally, i think he is like an alexander hamilton. he is a young man with a tremendous amount of maturity. >> just likes his country. young, scappy and hungry? >> he has the trust of the president. he is very thoughtful. he knows how to bring people in. if you read the book about hamilton. that was hamilton's great book at a young age. jared has that. the reason the president has given him a large portfolio is jared is good at picking people. if you look at the cabinet picks. priebus, bannon, kushner, president trump. i think the cabinet is extraordinary. >> we discussed this a little bit. i'm poking you about it because

jared is his son-in-law. he trusts him. he is family. he is 35 years old. he has never been in politics. he has never done anything that resembles the west wing of the white house. he trusts him and he is family. he has to know this young man doesn't have the portfolio to go against bannon or any of the other political guys. >> you are poking me. also under estimating kushner. when we needed to raise money outside of the traditional core establishment, jared knows how do that. >> i'm sure that is a lot of rich people. >> that's $61 per donation during the campaign setting up the apparatus to allow the candidate at that time to have the rocket fuel to get to the presidency. he is an adaptive guy. he has a lot of maturitmaturity. i think the presidents has said

this on the campaign trail. you have to be careful between the types of experiences you have. he has been critical of some of our military officials and some of our state department officials who have a tremendous amount of experience. because of that experience, they have been boxed in or taken a decision making in the wrong way. what i like about jared and you can disagree with me, that's okay, he has a sense of perspective and judgment on people. to be a great leader, you need the right people in the right places around you to make things work. they've done that. >> we will see how it plays out. here is one thing we just learned. bombing bad guys is good for business when you're in politics. we see a pop in the president's poll numbers. cbs has him at 57% of the american people approve that. assad is a known bad guy. americans drawn to right and might. job approval up 43%.

disapproval still high at 49. you look at the cross tabs. independents moving toward the president. is this a sustainable model for the president? getting popularity through the show of strength? they seem ambivalent what they did in syria. >> i see it a little differently. >> how so? >> i think the american people love the president. they want to see him do very well. i think the liberals are looking forward to the tax cut and restructuring of the code. it is simplification. i think what is happening is he is 81 days into it. people are sore at some of the things going on. that's why you don't have approval rating over 50% right now. had they got the health care bill passed, chris, plus assad situation, i think he would be well over 50%. i would say to all that, he is adaptive guy and creative manager.

the health care will materialize. the tax reform will materialize. you will soon see his full plan in place and approval numbers will shoot up in the mid-50s. >> if he gets things done, his numbers will be good. health care did not go that way. the syria first wave went the right way according to the american people. it is all about what happens next. what do you do now? we sent a message. don't use chemicals on people. there are lots of ways to kill people. assad is really involved in many of them. what's the difference with chlorine or saran or a huge bomb on innocence people and killing them? how do you act? >> the atrocities are horrific. you mentioned dating back to world war i in the last segment. there is something about chemical warfare we decided 100 plus years ago which is off the

table. we had a civil war here. the syrians are seven years into their civil war. i don't think the president wants to engage in the internal struggle of the syrian people. i think what he wants to do is send a message to people around the world that certain things will not be tolerated. i think he did the right thing. we talked about that last week. you talked about the carrier force heading to the korean peninsula. my guess is the president is sending a message there. you and i both know the north koreans have been a threat for the united states for 15 to 20 years. i can remember vice president al gore in 2004 in a private meeting talking about the risk of north korea. we've sort of let it go, chris. president trump is not a person to let things go. and if they get ballistic missile capability that can reach northern california on his

watch, that would be devastating. how about american innocent people harmed by ridiculous homicidal dictator? >> do you think the president is willing to do a pre-emptive strike on north korea? >> i can't answer that. >> you need the ships there before that. >> he is sending a signal of muscularity. what he is doing is probably at the surgical intersection of the right thing. here is the message. if we had to strike first, he's the type of person capable of done that? i believe he is. i believe he had terrific meetings with the president of china. my guess is the diplomatic solution is the best solution. my guess is they will figure out something here to deescalate kwha what's going on in north korea.

>> anthony. thank you. >> he's poking at me. >> it is a poke-fest over there. what's the next move in syria? democratic senator chris coons has some advice for the president and he joins us next. so when it comes to pain relievers, why put up with just part of a day? aleve, live whole not part. tell you what, i'll give it to you for half off.

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president trump in a letter to congress defending his decision in syria. and others are sending mixed messages about the strategy moving forward on syria. >> there's not any sort of option where political solution will happen with assad at the head of the regime. >> we are calling on bashar al assad to cease the use of the weapons. other than that, there is no change to the military posture. >> he will act against president assad if he goes against civilians no matter what weapon he uses? >> the president will make whatever decision he thinks is in the interest of the american people. >> let's discuss with senator chris coons of delaware. good morning, senator. >> good morning, alisyn. >> before we get to what's next, what in your mind did the

missile strikes accomplish? >> i do think it was appropriate for there to be forceful and prompt action against bashar al assad for using chemical weapons once again against his own people. we just passed the sixth anniversary of the brutal war by assad against his own people. more than 400,000 syrians have died and millions turned into refugees. within their country or region or rest of the world. but the next steps will be exceptionally difficult. >> before we get to that -- senator -- hold on. i want you to clarify what you just said. if bashar al assad uses chemical weapons, the u.s. will not stand for it and the u.s. will strike. if bashar al assad uses say barrel bombs on innocent civilians and children -- well okay. if he must. the u.s. will turn a blind eye? >> right, alisyn. i disagree with that statement. it is because of the chemical

weapons convention that mean around president wor around the world condemned chemical weapons against his own people. i don't see the difference. dropping a barrel bomb on the school or hospital or on a refugee camp as he has done is every bit as heinous and using chemical weapons. assad has used every single weapon of war. from scud missiles to cluster bombs to poison gas to starvation as a tool of war to mass torture. he has been horrific things to his own people. i will remind you that the trump administration were saying we have to just accept assad and let his people work it out because our focus needs to be isis. >> yes. >> the situation in syria is complex and dangerous. >> indeed. >> a few simple points, alisyn. >> go. >> first, this is not the time to significantly cut our investment in diplomacy and

development and humanitarian aid. navigating through the complex crises in syria and iraq will be difficult and expensive. if we're not prepared for a diplomatic solution and a development solution, once we retake this cities of mosul and raqqah, then we will repeat some of the mistakes of the past. second, if you are going into a big fight, bring big friends. continuing to close the gaps created with the vital allies in nato and europe by president trump's irresponsible statements as a candidate is urged by the congress. next, president trump needs to come to congress and work with us to get authorization for the use of military force so we're doing our job under the constitution and clarifying what we approved going into in syria. to do so requires a strategy.

we need to hear a strategy. it may get you a great bump in the polls and it may brush back xi jinping or kim jong un. that is not the same thing as having a strategy. we need to work out a strategy and authorize the use of force. >> what would you be willing to authorize? what is the next step that you would like to see in syria? >> first, we have hundreds of americans on the ground engaged in the fight against isis. i've been saying for years as have other members of the foreign relations committee, democrats and republicans, that we need an aumf and a strategy against isis. that's the war we're actively engaged in. we have thousand s engaged on te ground in iraq. they are very exposed. as we take more action, assad

may take more action against our members in the battle field. >> can assad stay with that scenario? >> first, i think assad is a war criminal. we need a path to getting him removed. because we have allowed russia to take significant role in his defense, there is no path to removal of assad without intense negotiations and clarity with russia about intentions. first the trump administration needs to make up its own mind. president trump needs to decide how far is he willing to go to push russia and iran. at some point international pressure will succeed putin that defending assad is not in his long-term best interest. the immediate term in the strike is double down on assad. if we know anything about putin is he is stubborn and aggressive

man. my hope is secretary of state rex tillerson who is meeting with the foreign minister of russia in moscow today is beginning that process of clarifying what our red lines are and what we're willing to do with russia in terms of sanctions on syria or on russia and in terms of building international coalition to ratchet up the pressure on assad. >> before i let you go -- there are many hot spots, but one more real area of tension. that as you know is the u.s. aircraft carrier "uss vinson" heading to the korean peninsula as we speak. what is the plan for north korea? >> i think the major audience president trump had in mind was sitting next to him at mar-a-lago. president xi jinping from china. while it is important for china to take more ownership of the problem of the nuclear program of north korea is going to take

time. saber rattling will not change in the next couple weeks. this is the wrong time to cut our investment in diplomacy. >> senator coons, thank you. >> thank you, alisyn. >> chris. with the president flexires the american military might, is trump cableabpable of dealing w america's threats? next. i joined the army in july of '98. our 18 year old was in an accident. when i call usaa it was that voice asking me, "is your daughter ok?" that's where i felt relief. we're the rivera family, and we will be with usaa for life.

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all right. the trump administration's approach to syria and north korea fueling the debate over the political strategy there. some things are working and some things aren't. we have new poll numbers. let's discuss with cnn political reporter and editor at large chris cillizza and counterterrorism official phil mudd and analyst david gregory. a couple minutes of introductions. now to the intrigue of the white house. kushner versus bannon. the only thing we know for sure

is the white house leaks like a sieve. >> i would say leaks like a sieve, chris. i wrote about this early in the administration, relatively speaking, in the administration. the leaks painted the president in the early going of totally out of touch being handled by advisers, which the president did not like. you have seen less of that likely. he set this up. he created a system with four people with roughly equal job titles and in definite roles. who is in charge of foreign policy? who is in charge of keeping the trains on time? who is in charge of the jobs that exist in the white house? when you say here are the four of you. i'll throw you in the lion's den. you fight it out. this is what you wind up getting. tension is not new to a white house. you have big personalities. i heard anthony scaramucci. he is right about that.

this early, it is odd to see so much in-fighting and talk of firing. i feel there is a story of reince priebus potentially being fired weekly. this is what trump created, i think on purpose. >> david, it has been pointed out that in some ways, this is sort of like the apprentice model. >> right. >> you just put everybody in a boardroom and see who survives. is this because of being green and not having some of those exact people with all of the roles delineated or is this what president trump likes to do? >> i think it is what he likes to do as chris said. it is set up. it is because he is green. any white house, a more experienced politician coming in, has a keeper of the flame and in touch with that part of the president who is the candidate and appealed to voting blocks. david axelrod was that for president obama for example. you have people who are more

pragmatic and outward facing and strategic and feel about dealing with the ways of washington. i think that is more reince priebus in this case. in the trump case, you have his family. he wants to run the administration like his real estate business. these are the daughter and son-in-law who keep him in line in a way. he wants all of the factions competing with each other and asserting himself which he likes to do, clearly that is stating the obvious. >> hey, mudd, we are hearing concerned about what do you do next in syria. what is the difference between killing your people with chemicals and barrel bombs. where do you draw the line? how is that after cbs shows 57% of the people like it when you bomb a bad guy. it boosted the president's numbers. why does he need to have more

strategy than that? i throw a couple bombs. costs me couple hundred million dollars. i got a boost in my poll ratings. all good. >> i agree with you to a certain extent if you look at what happened last week. i'm a supporter. you have somebody who crossed a red line. u.s. is not going to intervene everywhere. not in somalia. we have not gone into the libyan war. we have some military activity, but not extensive presence on the ground. the red line is the use of chemical weapons. what happened afterwards is starting to suggest more chaos that may effect the poll numbers. what do you do? they are talking about taking out assad. how do you do that? put in u.s. military? expand support for the opposition that has proven ground against assad. in the past day, they said that's the russian problem. they will say no. i think the initial strike, and

i'm one of them, the after action is what are you talking about. >> chris, it is interesting to see what happened in four years in public opinion of taking action in syria like this. as chris just pointed out, 57% today like what president trump did in terms of those missile strikes. if you look at the cbs poll, in 2003, 65% of republicans opposed of doing something like that. 28% back then approved of what osteoporos president obama could have done, but now president trump has done. >> what is remarkable to me is the tribalism that exists at every issue. tell me who the president is and i'll tell you how the voters feel about every issue. foreign policy was once immune from this in the weird coalitions as it related to

foreign policy. it wasn't strictly the president is republican and i support it. or i'm a democrat and the president is democrat. i support it. you have seen in the last five or ten years, it is a reflection response. i support president trump. i support it. i will note, alisyn, they asked would you support ground troops. 18%. this is to phil's point. the initial targeted extremely limited strike aimed at response to what everyone can agree was an atrcious attack. the broader support for anything beyond that, you start to rule out those numbers. >> i think we also have to put it in larger context of how war weary america is in afghanistan

and iraq. any real measure can affect real outcomes. what tempered that is the fear that americans have lost credibility. that america has lost credibility, particularly in the middle east as a power that can actually affect change. in this way, you have limited strike. a political statement against something everybody can agree on. chemical weapons use is horrific. there is support for that. it gets more difficult as you go farther down the line and look at some of the kind of compl complicating factors involved with doing more in syria. >> hey, phil mudd? how forward looking do you have to be with the calculus with the ships near the waters of the korean peninsula. we will send them there so they know we're ready. do they have to be careful about all kinds of scenarios that could come about because of putting the ships there?

>> i think this is a much riskier situation than syria because north korea is a potential threat to the united states. syria isn't. i think sending ships is a simple move. now if they get into something, you have to talk to the japanese and south koreans. we just talked to the chinese. you cannot presume the opponent is doing something rational. will he move the north korean leader down south? will you shoot down missiles? does that mean he starts sending more missiles to the pacific ocean? i think the move of ships is a good sign tounlast raleigh. and the man who mailed a manifesto to president trump. what police fear he is planning

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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 history is about to be made. in just a few hours, the u.s. supreme court will return to full strengths. neil gorsuch will take the ceremony taking the seat vacated by the late antonin scalia. justice kennedy will preside at the rose garden ceremony. before that, he will be sworn in at the supreme court ceremony led by chief justice john roberts. impeachment proceedings for governor robert bentley. he has been fighting to stay in

office for more than a year trying to cover up an affair with a top aide. we have polo sandoval with more. >> reporter: they are going into the impeachment hearings after the weekend with a report which expands on the accusations of the governor. robert bentley directed police to track down provocative recordings with himself and his aide, rebekah mason. he instructed aides to end the relationship for him. the conclusion is he hampered with the year-long investigation and that alleged non cooperation which is grounds for impeachment. bentley main patained he did nothing illegal. he is calling for support from fellow republicans. he said he would not step down, but we are hearing reports he

could reconsider. at last check, that has not happened. here is the timeline. here is what we expect for the days ahead. the legislative committee holding hearings this week. they release a report effecnext friday. they will consider remarks on may 9th. it may be another month if he is the first governor to be impeached or if he will reconsider or possibly step down. chris, we will watch these proceedings closely today. >> polo, thank you. i appreciate it. police in wisconsin tightening security at churches statewide as they widen the manhunt for a 32-year-old fugitive. the man on your scream is en is accused of stealing 16 high caliber rifles. the man believed to be the author of a manifesto which he sent to president trump.

a friend says the suspect spoke about carrying out an unexpen unspecified attack. mixed messages on syria from the white house. reaction from the head of the cia and former head of the nsa next. they'll call back. no one knows your ford better than ford and ford service. right now, during the big tire event, get a $140 rebate by mail, on four select tires. ♪

president trump flexes america's military might after last friday's strikes in syria. moving assets off the waters of north korea.

where does the president go from here? joining us now, cnn national security analyst and former director of the cia and nsa, general michael hayden. good to see you again. congratulations on becoming part of the cnn team. >> thank you. >> okay. so you have said these actions were genuine and admiral, those taken in syria. did the president have a lawful right to do so? >> well, chris, i'm a creature of the executive branch, and my answer is yes. i think article 2 of the constitution gives commander in chief that kind of authority, but if he wants a political safe haven for long term activity, he will now make nice with the article 1 guys, the congress, and will bring them into the circle of intelligence and of our planet. >> general, what was the point of what happened last week? what message was it intended to

send to assad? >> well, alison, i think the core point was that assad broke an incredibly important international norm, which was he intentionally used chemical weapons, a vile weapon, serin, against his own people, and i understand there's barrel bombs and the innocent are dying every day in syria, but what pushed this into the red was that we wanted to make the statement that that was unacceptable activity in which really remarkable, that's about as far as away from america first as a philosophy as you can get. that's america doing something unilaterally for what i i call the good of the order rather than a narrowly defined american self-interest. remarkable flip from the man seen in the campaign. >> right. but it shows, i think, at a minimum, there's no clear strategy about what they want to do with syria.

if you want to protect syria, shouldn't matter how he kills them, he is killing them. if he's a bad guy, you want him out, you do that. do you believe there's any coherent strategy that bombing was part of it? >> not quite yet, chris, is my point of view. the president is more comfortable making decisions than plans, more confident in his instincts. president trump lives in the eternal now, and we saw that with a good, genuine decision to strike that airfield. what mcmaster and the other team around mcmaster now have to create is a broader structure within which these individual american actions reside, and we saw the debate, i think, playing out on the sunday morning talk shows. that's exactly what that stran strategy would be.

>> yes, absolutely. we heard from his top officials in his administration who it seemed were having a hard time articulating what the trump doctrine or what the next plan is for syria, and maybe that suggests there is no plan. this was a one-off that sent a message, and by the way, basically a day later assad was flying flights out of that airfield doing more attacks, not chemical, but more deadly attacks on his people, so maybe it was a symbolic gesture that doesn't really have long term repercussio repercussions. >> well, i mean, it does set the table if the president wants to use it. for him to do other things. alison, think of it in two lanes. you got the assad lane over here, but over here, you got the isis line. the administration wanted to be over in this lane. in fact, seven, ten days ago, you had a series of spokespersons for the administration, in essence, trying to park the assad

problem. that's going to stay there while we work on the big problem, and then we had this particular attack. in one sense, the response we had last week might have been simply, put this back in the box because we've to do this at least first. the tragic part of it is, you probably can't finish this to the degree it needs finished while you still have this over here, but job one seems to be fighting isis. >> what a mess. i mean, whether you want to fight isis or go after assad, you need to deal with russia. you've been all over the place on russia. trump has done everything he can, our president, to give them, you know, their next best chance at a new relationship, and now the secretary of state, the ambassador of the u.n. toughening up. what happens when tillerson goes tomorrow to moscow? what do you expect from the meeting? what do we need from the meeting

from the u.s. perspective? >> a wrinkle on your premise. you can do over here on isis without the russians, and that might be why this over here has to come later because of everything you raised, this is terribly complicated because the russians now are in there in strength and they only have one objective, backing up their client, assad, so -- >> the reason i ask because trump, so many times during the campaign said, russia is the key to isis for us. we're going to use them as a partner in syria, even though as you proposed now the facts show russia has little ambition to go after isis. >> that was a plot analysis. tillerson knows that. we have a basket of situations to talk about with the russians. i think after the air raid, tillerson can go in with strength. i complained with the obama administration to be reluctant

to push back on the russians in ukraine, cry mia, and syria. now there's a president who went out and slapped the russian's prime client and the middle east around a little bit, that's probably a good portfolio for richard tillerson to go and sit down calmly now with the russians about this menu of issues we have to discussion with them. >> general, what happens with north korea? >> well, look, if it were easy, it would have been solved one, two, three, four administrations again. i think sending the vincent group there is a useful thing. we have an anniversary coming up, april 15th, his birthday. they get frisky around that date every year. that might be a useful presence there so the north koreans don't do anything particularly provocative, and it also demonstrates to the chinese, their client, they don't claim

it, but their client, if they color out of bounds here, they'll do things. air defense system in south korea, now a carrier battle group near china, do things the chinese don't want. we're not doing it because of the chinese. >> right. >> we're doing it because of them, that might give the chinese more motivation to kind of torque up the pressure. >> what about the show versus go ratio here? you bring the ships off the coast of north korea within range. they saw what ships do within range in syria last week. does that mean you must have a strategy in place if north korea says, you want to be close to us? how about a missile close to you. they test again. then what? >> well, i mean, that's been the issue, hasn't it, because no matter what we do, there is this inexrabble move by the north koreans in the mission of building missiles and weapons to put out.

jim clapper, former director of national intelligence risk, testified more than a year ago these guys would be irrational to give up their program. this is what they count on for regime survival. i think the best we can do is to kind of box it where it is right now. i don't think we can make them give up the program. >> general michael hayden, great to have your expertise. thank you for being here. >> thank you. >> new trip to "new day" as part of the team. went well. >> it went awesome. >> we'll see him a lot. there's a lot of news, let's get after it. ♪ >> we called out russia because we needed to. how can they cover for assad? >> priority is defeat of isis, hopeful to work with russia. >> we don't see a peaceful theory in there. >> the strategy he's outlining is based on assumptions that are not going to work. >> i think assad's telling trump

f you. we don't want a strategy that is war whenever you want. >> all options are explored when it comes to countering the nuclear threat. >> they are working their way towards an intercontinental ballistic missile. >> this is "new day." >> welcome to your "new day" with a lot of news to talk about. the trump administration talking forcefully about russia and its support for syria's brutal dictator, assad, and possible involvement in last week's deadly chemical attack. trump officials send missed signals about their priority in syria, and lawmakers, of course, call on president to come to congress before the next move. >> so whether the white house decides to do something for real about assad and stop him from killing his people whether it's with chemicals or other types of