welcome to "inside politics" i'm john king. thanks for sharing your day. secretary of state tillerson is in moscow, syria tops the agenda and the kremlin already making clear it doesn't appreciate the u.s. tone. >> i hope that what the russian government concludes is that they have aligned themselves with an unreliable partner in bashar al assad. >> plus congress is home for recess and the mood among conservatives who refuse to back the president's obamacare repeal plan suggest more trouble ahead for the gop and for the trump agenda. >> we either change in direction from this speaker or we need a new speaker.

>> and ruby red kansas? for a day anyway. ground zero in american politics, republicans are jittery as voters replace a congressman tapped for the trump cabinet. >> we've been given something historic. we have a republican president, republican heads of every executive agency, and republican majorities in both houses of congress. now, it's real simple. we've got to deliver. today the eyes of the whole country are on kansas. >> with us to share their reporting and their insights, molly ball, manu raju and mary katherine ham. secretary of state rex tillerson is in moscow and you can forget talk about getting on along. syria tops the agenda.

and close ties to bashar al assad means the kremlin shares responsibility for last week's s sarin gas a take. >> it is also clear russia has failed to uphold the agreements that had been entered into under multiple u.n. security council resolutions. it is unclear whether russia failed to take this obligation seriously or russia has been incompetent. but this distinction doesn't much matter to the dead. >> you might remember back in his exxonmobil ceo days president putin once awarded tillerson -- president putin suggesting anti-a sassad forcese preparing new mem cchemical att. >> translator: we say that this resembles very much the

situation of 2003 and in iraq there was a campaign launched in iraq and it finished with the destruction of the country. the growth of the terrorist threat and the emergeens nce ofs on the international arena. >> very different tone than we thought his first trip to moscow would bring. is there any reason to be optimistic that with all this tension the russians are going to reach across the toiable to secretary tillerson and say let's do something to advance the ball toward a political solution in syria? >> that certainly is not the tone that this has taken so far. as you said, it's been surprisingly sort of -- there isn't -- they're not really even tiptoeing around the fact that both sides are feeling pretty aggressive about this. so, you know, there's always a

chance of it, especially with the backgrounds much tillerson and trump and with putin you would think that's possible, but at this point it doesn't look like it. >> you think it's possible, but if you look back in history, every time a new secretary of state, new administration has gone on the first trip to moscow, they've had a meeting with putin. maybe it will happen, but there's no putin meeting on the schedule. but especially because these two men know each other and know each other well. that's putin making a point. >> i don't necessarily think it's in putin's best interest to be friends with the u.s. right now. putin and russia need an enemy. he's strongest when he has the u.s. as an enemy. so yes, they would like sanctions lifted. they would like economic conditions improved. but it's not necessarily in his interest to have trump and him and tillerson looking buddy buddy as far as it's projected to his people. >> it will be interesting to hear what the white house's

message is going to be especially after putin's provocative remarks from this morning. what does spicer say at the 1:30 briefing this afternoon? you've heard a sharp tone from other people in the trump administration, tillerson most recently, but you haven't heard as much from the white house itself, certainly not from president trump about putin, about russia's alliance with the assad regime. to what extent do we start hearing that directly from the president and from the white house i think will be a key question today in going forward. >> i think it's an interesting shift and today they're supposed to release a document about going after russia about disinformation campaigns, about what happened in syria. obviously with tillerson not meeting with putin it's an interesting shift. you often see shifts, but it does not necessarily doctrine o.

they are somewhat dis incentivized to have tillerson -- >> the russians have already put on the record tillerson will meet with sergey lavrov who after that is done will meet with the ministers of syria and iran. the russians have made clear we know who our friends are. we have to have the meeting with the united states and then we'll move to this. the big question is what transaction is toillerson tryin to do? he wants to tell the russians i think you're making the wrong choice, you're lined up with the wrong people, the syrians and the iranians. the problem is that's a case that's been made before. >> i think it's also worth thinking about, russia has really aligned itself with the assad regime, the iranians a. is that a long-term alliance that serves russia's interest?

>> if they're serve to support the assad regime they have made a mistake because they will be siding with assad, r irwith ira against the entire rest of the community in that part of the world. >> that is not to criticize anything secretary tillerson d said there because that is the rational argument felt you want to be with us or you want to be with them, iran, assad, pretty long list of atrocities. when you look at how close secretary tillerson is to secretary kerry. the same list of bad options for the trump presidency that they faced in the obama presidency. >> this has always been an impossible situation and that was why it was so difficult for obama before and this is i think another instance of donald trump the change agent and shaker up of washington running smack dab into reality. running into the complicated situations that leaders face

when, you know, his campaign and his message has been so sort of glib on these things. >> you heard a lot of republican leaders when you asked them about trump's relationship with putin, does that concern you, about his wellingness to work with putin. they've said, including mitch mcconnell said once he starts dealing with russia, it's going to be a lot more difficult. he's going to learn what other leaders learned, what george w. bush meant when he said you can look into putin's soul. this is a realization that there are strategic interests that russia has in syria. they can't just turn on a dime and change their position that they've had for years because they're vital to national security for their own country and directly at odds with the united states. >> i was watching senator lindsey graham who was on with kate baldwin and he was praising the president.

praising him for the tougher tone toward moscow, trying to push him to do other things i'm not sure they're prepared to do. the praise after the campaign, the hawks and the republican party would go nuts when candidate trump said things like this. >> wouldn't it be great if we actually got along with russia? am i wrong in saying that? wouldn't it be great? >> that's over, right? >> well, i think everybody finds out that authoritarians and dictators don't respond well to the wrong side of history argument. that's what he's running into. i do think there is an element of damned if he does and if he doesn't about working too close and then oh, you're not working with russia like you said you would. and then the other way, angry if he's getting too close and angry if he's not. it's problematic for them on the perception front which is something donald trump paid attention to. >> i don't think this is the last time we're going to hear you said this in the campaign and now you're doing this.

i think it's natural in the administration as you were sort of pointing out, when did obama close guantanamo bay. information that you receive through classified briefings changes your perception on the world. i think we'll continue to see that. anyone looking for a clear idea on what the trump doctrine is is going to have to wait as he figures it out himself. >> we have not heard from the president himself. we heard it from his surrogates. we heard a little bit from spicer. the president has not been out there on how he views putin and his relationship with assad. we certainly hear a change in tone from the president, that will be very significant and i don't think we can necessarily rely on what the president is thinking based on what rex tillerson is saying. >> you make an interesting side point is they have put tillerson out front which is a very significant relationship, a very significant historical moment, a very significant political test for the administration. tillerson has had such a rough

role out and gotten so much bad press and for how he was being sidelined. this is very much his audition and his chance to turn around some of the perceptions both within i think the administration and eternal. >> is that a test of whether he can get something from the previous history that a lot of people criticized the, the closeness with the russians, have a tough talk with someone he knows. >> i would add haley to the mix who has done very well in her rollout and how she's performed. very clear and pointed in their language about russia. >> up next, there's no place like, yes, kansas. if you want to test the country's political mood 82 days into the trump administration. oh yeah? ended up saving a ton of money on car insurance. i hear they have a really great mobile app. the interface is remarkably intuitive. that's so important.

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today the eyes of the whole country are on kansas. this election, a special election tomorrow, makes a difference not just for kansas, but for the whole country. >> that was senator ted cruz campaigning in kansas yesterday saying the eyes of the country are on kansas today. kansas? president trump won with 57% of the vote. hillary clinton 36% of the vote. but there's a special election there today despite all this red republicans are nervous. let's take a look at what we're looking at. this house district down here, the fourth congressional district, the incumbent won it with 67% of the now. he's now the cia director. there's a special election to fill this house district. the democrat didn't even get 30%. republicans are also worried maybe some republicans don't want to come out and play and there's a third party libertarian kcandidate. so even though this is about as

red as it gets, republicans sending in staff, sending in money, sending in ted cruz, the chamber of commerce, even the president of the united states getting involved. >> on tuesday republican ron estes needs your vote and needs it badly. ron is a deserconservative lead who's going to work with me to make america great again. we're going to do things really great for our country. our country needs help. ron is going to be helping us big league. but i need republicans like ron estes to help me get the job done. >> that's a defining test there. the president on the row boat call essentially putting his own credibility at stake. his own popularity among republicans. are republicans really worried or is this just extra caution? >> well, when it comes to him being able to get his agenda through congress which we obviously saw with health care, the next will be tax reform. republicans are nervous.

you're more plugged in the hill than i am, but on the moderate side and the freedom caucus still emboldened. if they see a close race in s kansas it's going to be even harder to convince them they -- >> that's an important point. even if it's close. if the republicans were the close one because they usually win that district, there is a tech until term called bed wetting that happens on occasion. >> and that's exactly right. because they should win this seat. i think both sides are expecting the republicans should hold this seat. the question is going to be in the margin, how big of a victory. if this is a two to five-point victory, then that may start to occur. ten-point victory, they start to feel more comfortably which is one reason why you're seeing resources go in there. also a prelude to next week's special election to georgia where democrats have a serious

shot at picking up a shot, tom price's old seat in the atlanta suburbs, something that would, if they do lose that seat, would be a huge psychological blow for the republicans ahead of next year when presumably if there's a wave and if trump becomes less popular, the democrats have a shot at taking back the house. that's going to be -- next week will be even a bigger deal than today. >> we should know that it is basically a requirement for the national political media to read too much into special elections, so we are just doing our job right now. and people who are in kansas will tell you that, you know, there's some special characteristics to this. the republicans are fielding a weak candidate. the democrats have a strong candidate. there's one with governor brown being unpopular which has contributed a lot to republican woes. there also a third party candidate. all that being said that they

would not be throwing the kitchen sink at this race if they weren't worried. i think the georgia race next week will be a much better test because i have a democrat who's much more generic, and there is no way democrats win that seat without a surge of enthusiasm among their base and negative gal vanization by the trump administration. that's the one i'm watching near. >> i think this is mostly insurance and the hope is you could build toward a narrative that would help in georgia and a bunch of democrats in that district would go look, the resistance, look, we're doing it, we'll get out there. as of yet we have not seen that's shown electoral results. this would be a good sign for them if they got it close notice the d -- >> james thompson is the democrat. ron estes is the republican. let's get a little flavor of it.

>> i'm james thompson. i'm running for u.s. congress and i'm going to go to washington, d.c. and fight for your family. beautiful thing about your district is we have all of the family values. we are the heart land and we're the best part of america because we have everything here. to raise a family and to be good americans. >> taking your money, vialing yo -- violating your values. late term abortion. that's james thompson. more extreme than your typical d.c. liberal. >> bold. >> yeah. >> it's so telling that both of those ads are about the democratic candidate. democrat going positive. republican going negative. >> you compare that to the ads that are running in the georgia race we're talking about. democrat is being attacked there not as this arch liberal. more on character issues because that is more of a swing district. actually it was a one-point race during the presidential race that georgia district was versus

this very conservative kansas district. you see the change in strategy there. we'll see how much it works. if you go and you want to be too liberal, you're going to probably encourage some of those liberals to come out and vote. >> the georgia race is the bigger one. four house members joined the trump cabinet. four of these special elections we'll have in the coming weeks. also one in california a democratic congressman became california's attorney general. that's coming up. you're dead right, these things get often overplayed although the scott brown win did affect things. because they couldn't get the obamacare repeal plan through, even though you look at the republican majority in the house and think there's enough votes we learned every single one of them counts. paul ryan wants at least those four red ones to come back red. >> these conservative areas, the president has to be careful there. he was not overwhelmingly popular at first among conservatives. he's won some credibility with

them because of his pick for the supreme court. but things like planned parenthood funding, if that gets taken off the table in the health reform debate, he's going to lose some support from conservatives. he really has to maintain this strong pro life stance they want to see or he risks losing them and other members getting sort of taken out by the right on the other side. >> you have a point? >> i will add real quick in the georgia race, this is a side show, but there was something against him for some dopey internet video he made in college. i say that's good news for all of us who may have dopey internet videos from college. >> as the old guy at the table nobody had a phone with a camera in it when i was in college, thank you, god. the white house, its first 100 days is an action packed success but many initiatives files and the infighting suggests there may be more trouble ahead. ingredients. ove al kind never had to.

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as president trump deals with the fallout from his tomahawk cruise missile strikes last week in syria, he's also sending u.s. naval personnel off

korea to send a message which apparently has just responded with some quite belligerent language. will, i understand from state media a message to president trump. >> that's right. state media here in north korea saying that if the united states provokes them they are prepared to fire back with a nuclear strike. now, we have heard this kind of rhetoric from north korea before, but why it feels more serious and fast moving at this moment is, one tlr, there's uncertainty here about government officials about what the trump administration is. two, they have become far more advanced with a frantic series of missile test and intelligence by both the u.s. and south korea indicating that the north korean leader kim jong-un could push the button on a sixth nuclear test. there are some new images this have been coming out within the last couple hours of the north korean leader presiding in front

of hundreds of delegates. designed to look like a legislative gathering but all of the votes are unanimously in favor of what kim jong-un puts before them. we're still trying to get detailed information about what happened in that gathering. it was only about a 20 minute highly produced video that was released on state tv telling the north koreans what their government will be doing for the next year. it is not political trainspareny in this country and political dissent is not allowed, so if you ask people on the streets, they say they feel festive, looking forward to a big holiday we could and they feel perfectly safe in the hands of their leader who in his early 30s is becoming increasingly sophisticated nuclear arsenal. he also has some pointed at south korea with tens of millions of people.

the north koreans could do a lot of damage if they are put in a corner and they are feeling cornered as we're seeing with these war ships approaching the korean peninsula. >> one of the questions is what would the impact of the syria strikes be on north korea. i assume that talk from the north korea is part of the answer. in your conversations with folks there, is there any indication that seeing president trump take military action in the middle east, is it possible would it make the regime there more con sill year tore or the opposite? >> the opposite. they said there's a big difference between north korea and syria in that if something like were to happen they said north korea would absolutely fire back and they do have a significant amount of weaponry and a large standing army and decades of rhetoric telling the citizens of this country they need to be prepared for war at

any moment. men are ten years in this job so you have a lot of people with military training and military background. it's a much more complicated and dangerous situation here in the peninsula especially considering how many people are sitting with u.s. troops and 50,000 more in japan and many others sailing around the region. >> will ripley live for us. appear the fresh reporting. come back into the room. it's a reminder, the secretary of state is in moscow dealing with the fallout from syria see figure they can somehow find a venue to start some political process about those conversations, that the president of the united states by sniending the naval war ship system foriis forcing the issue with north korea. >> it's complicated. it's risky and it is real. this is a real -- this is the rubber hitting the road in terms of reality. this is something that could actually happen.

all of the critiques of donald trump that we heard from hillary clinton, the erratic temperament, the itchy trigger figurement, the lack offed understanding of foreign policy, if he doesn't handle this or if he handles this in a way that two actually provokes some kind of retaliation or conflict, we're going to have to look back on those words. >> also a reminder that crises find presidents. not necessarily getting their agenda through. that's important as well. but outside events shape the course of history. shape the course of a white house. shape the course of this president. that could be happening here. that was happening also in the aftermath of syria last week. >> and everything we're talking about, domestic policy, haelgts ca health care, tax reform, the economy could be put way back on the burner to deal with north korea. not to belittle syria, but north korea has the potential to make syria look like switzerland.

when you look at the allies and the complications in north korea at this time and the president tweeting out about it today. i'm not sure what he's trying to accomplish through those tweets about north korea, who he's sending a message to or if he's sending a message to anyone at all. >> let's look at those. it's interesting. this is one of the problems on the planet. it is the most unpredictable regime on the planet. can you solve it with twitter diplomacy? i explained to the president of china the trade deal with the u.s. will be far better if they solve the north korea problem. if china decides to help, that will be great f. not we will solve the problem without them. linking it to china trade is interesting making it a transaction if you will to get chinese help. there are some indications after the trump xi summit that the chinese are putting economic pressure on north korea. we'll see if it reaches the scale to change behavior. the but idea that if not we will

solve the problem without them. the president in his own words, he said in the interview with the financial times, he has laid down a credibility marker. >> also that's a conversation that we presumably happen with xi himself and didn't maybe have to happen on twitter, but this is the new world. part of his pitch was strength and unpredictability. there's m there's merit to both of those things and not knowing how you'll react, but it makes a lot of american citizens and a lot of people around the world jittery to watch him wage twitter wars and worry about the real war. you have the issue of his supporters, many of whom were sold on the idea that we weren't going to be intervening or doing a bunch of policing around the world. i think that's going to be a tough sell to some of them. many of them will say trump is showing strength and i like thachlt but there's a vocal minority at least. >> if it becomes something, and you lose cruise missiles in the little east, about you that doesn't sound like america

first. >> exactly. and to your point, there have been already several vocal trump supporters particularly on the sort of the alt-right who are disturbed by the amount of military action already under way saying where are the american interests at stake, where is the trump who said that all these interventions were a terrible idea? serious but very specifically, right? so we don't know. >> we don't know, but one thing we do is he has a more establishment driven national security team that would seem to be convincing the president that what he's doing is the right course of action. everybody sit tight. white house press secretary sean spicer said the administration has already achieved so many great things. so as the first 100 days run out, what is the biggest achievement?

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welcome back attorney general jeff sessions is visiting the u.s. mexico border to promise more aggressive enforcement of u.s. immigration

laws. part of an effort by the white house to cast its first 100 days in office as full of action even though the president cannot claim one major legislative victory. the fallout continues. listen here. tea part republican, one of the conservativists attacked by the white house because he opposed the obamacare replacement plan says he and his allies are not the problem. >> nobody likes to feel like they're in washington and left out of the process. none of you like to feel like you send representatives to washington and are left out of the process. we can fix it but we need either a change in direction from this speaker or we need a new speaker. >> responding at the table because it's not new from justin to be stirring the pot and to be against the leadership and against the establishment. but most of that you go back when obama was president and say this is not good for the republicans. now when you have a republican president who wants to get stuff

done thr done, this family feud on repeal and replace obamacare, they couldn't get that done. when they come back they've only got a few days to keep the government up and running. tax reform, some say they will try to come back to obamacare. some suggest that the problems we saw a week or two ago are coming back. >> absolutely. one thing you will see as they try to move forward is negotiations. they're going to try to keep the government open by cutting a deal with democrats, not with justin and the house freedom caucus. they're going to try to get the bill through the house and senate and get bipartisan sp support. on spending issues, no rider on planned parenthood or construction of the wall, they should be able to get this done tch tch . it sounds like that's very possible. something more possible along party lines, like tax repair,

where they need those of the world, it's going to be difficult to get republican and conservative policy through, not just in the senate which is always difficult, but also the house because a lot of these folks on the house freedom caucus and others just do not believe that speaker ryan is doing -- pushing legislation that the conservatives promised while they campaigned. >> i'm surprised and a bit impressed that we have returned to our previously scheduled republican civil war. i was in the house on the first day of the session when they unanimously reelected paul ryan as speaker and that seemed to be showing that now that they had a republican president, they were going to be much more unified and the freedom caucus was hell no caucus when there was a democrat in progress but now that there was a republican they could come together. that turned out not to be true because these guys believed this it turns out. and they are going to stand on

principle especially on matters of spending. >> you say if they try to work with the democrats and they drop planned parenthood, they drop fgt thin other things, that mood will continue. they didn't get what they want in the obamacare fight. you have interest groups on about every side of the debate. running ads, some targeting house members, these targeting senators. >> people who know health care the best say the republicans health care repeal bill is the worst. the country's top nonpartisan experts say 24 million more americans will be uninsured. 14 million next year alone. tell senator heller vote no on the republican plan to take away your health care. >> again, those being run against three senators who have viewed more on the moderate side who would oppose if something conservative came out of the house. the bigger question from my view, if you're the president of the united states and you're his team and you're 82 days and

you're looking at the 100 days and you failed on obamacare and you're trying to get a few more things done, that climate has to tell you this is tough. >> it also got tougher with going the nuclear option on supreme court nominee. >> a big win but at a price. >> i think there was a chance for the president to work with democrats. i think he could have nighted them. he could have formed an alliance. trump is not conservative -- he has democratic views as well and a lot of democrats in the white house. so there really could have been a chance to work with democrats, but they didn't reach out soon enough and now this toxic environment with the nuclear option, with these ads running in their zikdistrict, i don't s how they come together. >> the president knows this debate is going on. he watches a lot of cable television. listen to him this morning. a meeting with ceos, he knows people are building their 100

day list. here's the president's take. >> at the top of our agenda and the creation of great high paying jobs for american workers who have made a lot of progress. you see what's going on. you see the numbers. we've created over 600,000 jobs already in a short period of time and it's going to really start catching on. >> that's just a little fact check for those of you good at math at home. our count is 315,000 jobs so far during the trump administration. still not a bad number. couple months into office. he's counting some jobs from the last months of the obama administration. to the point the president is wanting you to objection tthinky is doing well, he's trying to say the stuff that matters most i'm doing fine. >> i think we underestimate how much fgorsuch matters. plus some of the economic messaging in working with these ceos and looking for business friendly in these deals, i think

those can sustain him for longer than many people in d.c. think they can sustain him. eventually something has to happen in congress. and it has to look different than it did on health care. i think ryan's office knows that and is attempting to make some changes. but you still have a timetable that is really, really tough for these guys to get something major through. as far as wanting a new speaker, don't nobody want that job. that's the part of this that always cracks me up. ryan himself i contend has always been like the guy in "clerks" i wasn't even supposed to be here. >> rotating a pr. >> stock prices are up on the hope and promise of what the president said he would deliver, on tax reform, on infrastructure, on a border tax. that's why the manufacturing companies are saying. if you can't deliver on that, forget about it. they'll go open the plant in mexico. they're not going to hire more

jobs if they don't think they're getting their corporate tax rate cut. >> and if they don't get tax reform done, they don't get the border wall well and things he said he would do in the first 100 days like drain the swamp agenda. that's going to be a big failure for a lot of people that voted for him. >> as we all know things get easier. >> he has one big thing going for him. it is april of an odd numbered year. they have a lot of time to get their act together, pull a rabbit out of a hat, figure out something else. even if they shut down the government, voters don't remember that in a year and a half. >> the president has a longer tem sle term calendar and he has behind him a pretty healthy economy. staff views and now this. has the breitbart organization told its reporters to back off son-in-law jared kushner?

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yes, and many of you probably heard about this, there is infighting in the trump white house. so much and such a high level the president himself compelled them to get together and work it out. that warfare is causing a lot of buzz in washington and a giant collecti collective yawn -- >> to me it doesn't make any sense. is there fighting between jared and bannon and bannon and priebus and this one and that one? probably. probably. and it's not fighting the way that the media wants to portray it. it's a difference of opinion. that's all that it is. >> michael cohen there, the president of the trump organization attorney. this is how the president does things. he surrounds himself with

people. he likes when they fight it out. he likes a difference of opinion. he likes somewhere elbows and shouting from time to time. the question has been will hat worked in your family business, will it work in government. >> i think, i mean, there is the fighting and then there is the paralysis you can create on issues like tax reform where you have five factions fighting with five different views. and it was, you know, when jared was putting together the administration, recruiting people, intentionally looking for different sides, put them in a room and let them duke it out. now we're at a place where no one knows what the administration's position is. the president doesn't know. presumably at some point he'll make up his mind. but is this the best way to get to that? >> i thought that was a pretty big presumably. because what we assume is that the president is unable to sort of have the buck stop on his desk, put his foot down and say i, you know, have a core of firm

policy believes and therefore we s shall come down on this side. that may have been part of his appeal and someone who could create a team of rivals and choose the most pragmatic course, but it's hard to see he's settled these debates. >> you do them in private and the president makes a decision. and as long as everybody is -- the whole question is, one of the issues has been steve bannon, the populace america first came from breitbart news. jared kushner is a president's son-in-law who was an independent, a democrat as steve bannon likes to say. you have this story breitbart told to back off jared kushner essentially. so this internal -- not only internal fighting inside the white house. then it plays out in the different factions of the conservative nemedia around the president. >> it's fascinating to watch it all play out. a lot of it has to do with it is fact that you have a transactional president who does not have firm policy beliefs. and you have these different

factions fighting to influence the president. the question is who is he actually listening to at the end of the day. jared kushner has his ear in a lot of issues but is he listening to him on key issues? is he listening to him at the expense of someone like steve bannon who has contradictory views. i don't think we know the answer to that. a lot of reason is trump is not clear where he stands on a lot of this. >> and when you hear this talk, especially some of the moderates gets him out of. it you hear conservatives say if he's on the outside, he may stir up trouble. >> yes. with trump and bannon as well, everything is's fight and every fight is public is how this is turning out. the question is, that certainly served him on the campaign trail. a lot of that sort of chaos and keeping people on their toes one would think and it seems in the 100 days or 80 or so days that a disciplined campaign for the things you want to work towards

would help your white house as opposed to this. there's a lot of eyes in team over there and all the eyes are telling a different story to every media source. trump sort of thrives on that but i'm not sure that his agenda will ever thrive on that. >> it reminds me of the interview where he gave and said i am president and you're not. he won this guy. we'll see if he can govern this way. see you back here noon eastern. moments away from a live white house briefing. we'll bring you that when it happens. when we return, wolf in the chair. new roads and bridges. new mass transit. new business friendly environment. new lower taxes. and new university partnerships to grow the businesses of tomorrow today. learn more at esd.ny.gov

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hello, i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington. 8:00 p.m. in moscow. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. breaking news we're following. as we keep an eye on the white house, sean spicer is preparing on brief the press. we'll take you there live once that gets started. spicer will face plenty of questions about syria, but what will certainly dominate the briefing is reaction to what we heard this morning from the russian president vladimir putin. here is president putin's take on the u.s. air strikes in syria. >> this