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tv   CNN Newsroom With Brooke Baldwin  CNN  April 9, 2018 11:00am-12:00pm PDT

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dreaming! definitely dreaming. then again, dreaming is how i got this far. now more businesses in more places can afford to dream gig. comcast, building america's largest gig-speed network. at ally, we offer low-cost trades and high-yield savings. but if that's not enough, we offer innovative investing tools to prepare you for the future. looks like you hooked it. and if that's not enough, we'll help your kid prepare for the future. don't hook it kid. and if that's still not enough, we'll help your kid's kid prepare for the future. looks like he hooked it. we'll do anything... takes after his grandad. seriously anything, to help you invest for the future. ally. do it right. hi there. i'm brooke baldwin. thank you for being with me on this monday. moments ago president trump
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spoke for the first time on camera about that chemical attack in syria that russia is calling a hoax. the president, however, called it heinous and atrocious. you'll hear much more from him in just a minute here. first, the graphic images we are about to show you defy the russian claim this whole thing was fake. a warning, though, these images out of duma, syria, are graphic. children should leave the room now. cnn has not been able to independently verify the content you're about to see but here you go. [ speaking in foreign language ] >> in response to this, look at this, children, families, the president says that a, quot
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quote/unquote, decision will happen in the next 24-48 hours and nothing is off the table. he also says if vladimir putin is responsible russia will pay a price. here now is the president. >> we are very concerned when a thing like that can happen. this is about humanity. we're talking about humanity. and it can't be allowed to happen. so we'll be looking at that barbaric act and studying what's going on. we're trying to get people in there. as you know, it's been surrounded so it's very hard to get people in. not only has it been hit, it's been surrounded. and if they're innocent, why aren't they allowing people to go in and prove? as you know, they're claiming they didn't make the attack. so if it's russia, if it's syria, if it's iran, if it's all
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of them together, we'll figure it out. if he does it's going to be very tough. very tough. everybody's going to pay a price. he will. everybody will. >> moments from now that white house press briefing is set to begin. we could get details on what the next steps may look like. in the meantime we have this story covered only like cnn can with several correspondents across the country including in syria. let's begin at the white house with our correspondent pamela brown. pam, as we wait to hear news on potential next steps. we note today is day number one on the job for john pole ton, the new national security adviser. tell us more about the president's comments, though, in that big cabinet meeting. >> reporter: it's been a very busy morning at the white house. as you pointed out it's john bolton's first day on the job, the new national security adviser, facing a big test on his first day. this morning he held a national security meeting on syria with staff.
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following that the president did speak, as you heard there, during his cabinet meeting calling the attack in syria atrocious, horrible, and call out vladimir putin, the president of russia, by name for the first time. he did it on twitter, brooke, saying that russia backs animal assad. again, he reiterated russia could be behind this attack, this apparent chemical weapons attack in syria and, if so, that he and russia will pay a big price. some strong words there coming from the president on the matter. you also heard him say there that there will be a major decision on a u.s. response to the attack in syria within the next 48 hours. nothing is off the table including possible military action. now the attack in syria coming days after the president said he wanted to pull troops out of syria. that, of course, we saw a strongly worded statement from senator mccain that the president only emboldened assad
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to act. a lot of stories will focus on syria and what the administration is going to do in response. >> we will look for you in the briefing. pamela brown, thank you so much at the white house. to the response now from syria, the regime of bashar al assad denies that it is responsible. we mentioned we have a correspondent in syria, and here he is, our senior international correspondent fred pleitgen. fred, to you. >> reporter: the syrian government will no doubt be concerned about possible u.s. action looming very quickly. the syrians have said from the get-go they had nothing to do with any sort of chemical use on the ground. of course those images we've been seeing, the horrible images, and we have to keep reminding our viewers they are very disturbing. at the same time very important. they do show children having problems breathing. the opposition is saying it was
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a syrian government helicopter that dropped some sort of canister which contained a toxic gas, and that, in effect, that killed dozens of people on the ground. again, the syrians are saying they do not use chemicals, and the russians are saying this is all a hoax as well. the interesting about this, brooke, the russians are in control of that district. the rebels there have given up, they're being bussed out. the russians say they're on the ground. there's nothing to stop the russians from allowing international investigators into that area if that is something they're willing to do. certainly it will be interesting if that's what's going to happen especially after those strong comments from president trump, brooke. >> all right, fred, thank you, in damascus. this whole syrian crisis involves israel. russia and syria are blaming israel for hitting an air base called t-4 in central syria. the strike happened after the reported attack in duma and the defense ministry claims israeli
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warplanes flew over lebanese airspace. how are they responding to that accusation? >> reporter: it's no surprise as per usual israeli policy, the foreign affairs and the army have declared to comment on the accusations that it was israel that carried out the strike. a former commander said, look, there are only two countries that have the reason and the capable to carry out the strike, the u.s. and israel. for the u.s. it would be very quick planning if this were a response to the use of chemical weapons and difficult to cover the distance the u.s. would have to cover. therefore, he concluded, it's israel that carried out the strike. it cannot go without a response but the real target may have been iran. the base that was hit, t-4, has an iranian presence. iran confirming that when their news agency said four iranians were killed in the strike. remember, this is also where an iranian drone was launched a couple months ago before it penetrated israeli airspace. israel has repeatedly reiterated
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it will work to prevent iran from establishing a military presence in syria, and so it looks like this strike was an effort to carry out that policy, to threaten iran, to detear iran even if, brooke, that use of chemical weapons was a pretext or the cover for the strike happening now. >> oren liebermann thank you in jerusalem. if nothing is off the table for the u.s. response for the attack, what does president trump need to consider before making a decision whether to respond and what that response should be? let's go to our pentagon correspondent barbara starr. putting that question to you, what should the president know? what will he be considering? >> reporter: he will be looking at a check list of items. the military always plans ahead, so they are already working on options to give him should he make the decision to strike. now one of the things they need to really lock down is that it was a nerve agent and what kind of nerve agent. that's a key piece of
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intelligence so that they can really have the upper hand if they decide to proceed with the air strikes. they're also going to talk to the allies as you look at the check list. britain, france very much taking a public hard line that action needs to be taken. so if they talk to the allies and they develop some sort of international military response, it could take a day or so to put all of that into place to get all the assets together to be able to begin to launch those strikes. one of the key questions is what would the target list look like? if you want to go after the helicopters that launched the bombs that carried the chemical weapons, you're not really going to change assad's behavior, not going to change the russians'. that looks at a couple of targets. the big question is, will they have a much broader campaign? what would it look like? and how many different countries might be actually involved in carrying it out? brooke? >> barbara, thank you. we are all standing by waiting
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for the white house press briefing to begin. of course the dominant conversation, the dominant questions will all be about syria including, of course, john bolton day one on the job. what will he tell the president to do given his hawkish conservative background. we'll take the briefing live. also, president trump admitting american farmers could feel the impact of the escalating feud with china. the president saying he will, quote/unquote, make it up to them. we're asking how and will trump's promise give farmers any reassurance. you're watching cnn on a monday afternoon. you wouldn't accept an incomplete job from any one else. why accept it from your allergy pills? flonase relieves your worst symptoms including nasal congestion, which most pills don't. flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances.
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we're back with breaking news. i'm brooke baldwin. the pictures, these images out of syria in this chemical attack are, in a word, horrific. aid work remembers describing what they are seeing in the city of duma as apocalyptic. victims, children, women, families not killed by bombs, not killed by gunfire, but by poisonous gas. the assad regime denies responsibility but president trump says there is not much doubt assad and syria is behind the attack, nothing is off the table and how the u.s. may respond. let me bring in a fellow at the washington institute where he focuses on syria and u.s. policy and is the author of "in the lion's den." so, andrew, nice to have you back. let me say, we heard the u.s. said he will make a decision in the next 48 hours. here is what may be different from that attack and the responsibility from a year ago because now that the president is telegraphing that something
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is coming and if syria knows that, what could assad do differently this time? how could he prepare? >> that's a good question. i think there are a couple of things here. one, if you telegraph there's going to be military action against syria, then you're hoping for diplomacy or behind-the-scenes didplomacydip. assad's main supporters to try and rein him in and get concessions from him. that's one possibility. the other responsibility is assad could use that lead time to adjust his military forces, but u.s. military capabilities are far superior to that of what's left of assad's army. telegraphing a little bit doesn't hurt the u.s. position that much and puts assad on notice. >> what about what assad could be thinking as far as we saw the statement from senator mccain, right, president trump last week signalled to the world the u.s. would prematurely withdraw from syria.
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emboldened by american inaction, assad has reportedly launched another chemical attack. it goes on. how do you think, andrew, how does assad see these recent comments? do you think at all green lit this attack? >> yeah, it's a good question. it seems to me in president trump's mind the issue of staying in eastern syria and fighting with the kurdish-backed forces there and the chemical weapons red line are two different issues. whether president assad understands that or not is a good question. it's all part of his calculus to hold on to power, and assad is in quite a precarious military situation. he's very strong and heavy with russian and iranian support. but on his own he's very fragile and susceptible to u.s. strikes. we'll have to see what the president decides in the coming days and what the outcome will be. >> why are syria's chemical weapons even still in use? >> that's a very good question.
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syria joined the chemical weapons convention in 2013 as a result of the deal between the united states and russia during the obama administration when president obama walked back from the red line. syria was not supposed to be using any chemical weapons and was also noswas not supposed to hold sarin. if that was used in this attack that's a substance they're not supposed to have at all and the russians are supposed to guarantee that. if it's chlorine, it's an industrial chemical. it's hard to ban that substance given its multiple uses. >> okay, sarin could be the key. andrew tabler, thank you for that. your expertise on syria. coming up as we wait for the press briefing to begin, new developments today involving stormy daniels now hiring a sketch artist hoping to expose the man who tried to threaten her into silence seven years ago. will it work? is it a bit of a reach? we'll discuss.
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you can run but you can't hide. that is the latest we are hearing from stormy daniels' attorney raising the stakes with this new salvo aimed at the president of the united states. he says he plans to release a sketch of the man that threatened stormy daniels about her alleged affair with trump. >> a composite sketch has been produced. we will be releasing that tomorrow along with a significant reward.
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we are close to identifying this individual. >> with me now forensic artist who knows the artist tasked with doing this stormy sketch. diana, good to see you. off the top here, how feasible is it to ask someone to sit down, accurately recall a face from an incident from seven years ago versus do you think this is a stretch? >> no, it's not a stlech stretch at all. anything traumatic from seven years ago would stay in your head like, for instance, princess diana, when princess diana died, if i asked you where you were, you would know. going back seven years, she would be able to go through the fbi catalog, go through different features, different triggers, the weather, what she was wearing. anything traumatic stays in the brain and you can within an inch
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of you go back in that time and get all the images out. >> i was in the cereal aisle in a grocery store in williamsburg, virginia, in '97 when diana died, so you got me there. this artist is louis gibson working with stormy daniels. talk us how she'll sit with her and try to trigger her moment to that moment in the parking lot from seven years ago. >> yeah, i can't talk for lois. i can tell you how i would do it. >> sure, sure, sure. >> i would sit with the victim and we would be in a relaxed atmosphere and i would have my catalogs out, and i would make sure she was relaxed and we were comfortable. she would explain certain things to me. i would ask her about the weather, what she was wearing, just bring her back to that time because it's traumatic and it was a threat. it's in her head.
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we have to get back in there and then she would explain, you know, the face, the features, if the person was angry, the race -- just go through a bunch of stuff and slowly get the drawing down on paper and then i would let her see it when i was probably 70%, 80% done and i could see the expression on her face how close i would be to the suspect. >> okay. so she may get there and it may be exactly who she believes it was, or you remember the story about the sketch and the unabomber case. people may not realize this. although the sketch was effective, it's now emerged the witness may have actually been staring at the sketch artist so long that she described him. the sketch is more of the sketch artist than ted kaczynski. >> lois gibson is very good,
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very experienced. i don't think that happens much, but i have a lot of faith lois would have done a really good job on the sketch. >> okay, diana trepkov, thank you so much. >> thank you, brooke. up next, a fire at trump tower in new york city leaves one person dead, six firefighters injured. so how did the president respond? made it about himself and talked about how trump tower was a well-built building. what about a pattern of the president injecting himself into incidents, making them about him? we'll look at that coming up.
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right now housing officials in new york are calling for new sprinkler laws after this deadly fire over the week over at trump tower. one person died. several firefight wrers injured when this fire broke out in an apartment on the 50th floor. we're learning from sources there was no working smoke alarm
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in the apartment where this fire happened. the building was finished in 1983 several years before sprinkler systems were mandatory. editor at large chris cillizza is with me. as we talk about the president's response, he did thank the fire men and women for responding to this, he also found a way to insert himself or the prowess of the building credentials. what did he say? >> brooke, that's right. this is the rule not the exception when it comes to donald trump. most recently the one you mentioned, as you noted, brooke, someone died and six firefight wrers injur ers were injured. well-built building. they did a great job, thank you. again, there's a lot of donald trump in that and not a lot of condolences. let's go to a lighter hearted example, again, from over the weekend. this is patrick reed. he won the masters sunday. here's donald trump with the
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presidential congratulations. sort of normal stuff. congratulations, patrick reed, great and courageous masters win. when patrick had his amazing win at doral, who owns the doral? patrick reed won four times in between, the trump course, and his win at the masters. he saw fit to mention that. i want to take you from a light-harded to a much less lighthearted serious one. the pulse nightclub shooting, june 2016, more than four dozen people killed. here is donald trump. look at the timing here. this is right after it happened. june 2016, appreciate the congrats for being right on radical terrorism. we must be smart. what is that tweet?
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high, i was right. whether it's lighthearted or serious, more tweets about lots of different events including the hurricanes that hit puerto rico and texas. we've expected someone who puts the group before himself. he has changed what presidential means in lots of ways. none more so than that. >> didn't you write about lacking of an empathy gene in this man? >> that was the concern. i remember a republican consultant told me this 2016 before he won, he'll never win because he can't go to a disaster site and express real empathy. people didn't think he was terribly empathetic, that he cared about problems of people like them. he still won. >> chris cillizsa, thank you.
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next, john bolton's first day on the job as national security adviser, what will he tell the president to do about the suspected chemical attack in syria? we could learn much more from this white house briefing moments away. touch is how we communicate with those we love,
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or abnormal bleeding. before starting, tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures and any kidney or liver problems. learn all you can to help protect yourself from a stroke. talk to your doctor about xarelto®. if during the course of the negotiation they want to hit the farmers because they think that hits me, i wouldn't say that's nice but, i tell you, our farmers are great patriots. they understand that they're doing this for the country. and we'll make it up to them. in the end they'll be stronger than they are now. >> that was the president also today defending his tariff
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threat against china. larry kudlow speaking today. >> you repeatedly and the president has repeatedly said we're not in a trade war. what does a trade war look like? >> i don't know. >> you don't know what a trade war looks like? >> this is not the '30s. there are no tariffs enacted yet. none. zero. >> what would a trade war look like? >> it's just an imagine err thing. >> it's an imaginary thing? >> i don't get it. >> a trade war has happened in history. what will that look like? >> i have no idea because we're not engaged in one. >> we shake our heads and smile but, dana bash, are they making this up on the fly? what's up? >> yeah, i don't even think i have to answer that because it's pretty clear listening and watching larry kudlow. we have been talking since last week about the idea president trump, this is his m.o., to go
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big, to give a lot of bluster about all the things that he wants to do in a negotiation, and then the hope is once the actual negotiation takes place, the person at the other side of the table or country, in this case, on the other side of the table, gives a lot. it doesn't seem like a lot compared to what donald trump has been talking about at the beginning. that's all well and good in a private real estate negotiation or business negotiation. when you are moving markets, it's a whole different thing. brooke, i can say you and i are with somebody this weekend who works for a major company saying already they are talking about potential layoffs in anticipation of a potential trade war. so it doesn't even have to actually happen as larry kudlow was saying for companies to be worried about instability, to be worried about uncertainty, and make moves ahead of time. >> i'm still on where trump is saying i'll make it up to these farmers. they will be stronger in the end. i was talking to a pork farmer
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who said i already feel like a casualty. how is that going to sit with these good folks? >> that's the thing. if you are a soybean farmer and china wants to levy tariffs against soybeans, you're planning your crop, your business as dana said. these are small business owners and they are just like big business. they want a plan, stability, to know what the prices are going to look like in terms of what they can expect, the exporting of the crops to china. it's a real problem. it is interesting for kudlow to essentially say there is no trade war yet. if you've seen the markets they seem to be rebounding today but they were certainly jittery last week. a lot of people lost a lot of money because of the plummet and the uncertainty in the stock markets and we have a president, of course, who wants to brag about the stock market and to say how is your 401(k) doing? well, listen, people's 401(k)s
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aren't doing as well as they were in january because of this talk around trade tariffs, around amazon as well certainly hurt as well and we'll see what the stock market does today in terms of rebounding. it's not a game. it's easy to do this sort of bluster if you're one-on-one but it's very different when you have -- >> a few more people affected. >> these are his constituents, people who voted for donald trump. and it's interesting. farmers are one constituency and people who work in manufacturing and plants is a different constituency. in some ways they're kind of at odds. you could argue a lot of this stuff may benefit folks who want to work in these plants and maybe some jobs will come back because of the steel tariffs. with the other tariffs you have farmers really worried. >> okay. let's turn the page on syria. we're watching and waiting for the white house press briefing
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to begin. we've heard the president today saying, give me 24-48 hours and we'll make a decision soon on potential retaliatory measures. we were talking during the commercial break about the attack a year ago. it was this month one year ago when the president ordered that tomahawk missile strike of the syrian airfield which at the time he got mega, mega praise. does he have to go bigger this time? i mean, how do you see him responding? >> two things. looking back at that week, that was if not one of his best days, his best week in office. what he likes to call his poll numbers, his ratings, they went up which has not happened a lot. he has not forgotten that. just from a political point of view. number two, if we're talking about steer yeah and strikes, we're not talking about repoobe mueller, stormy daniels, cabinet chaos. the other thing to keep in mind
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donald trump -- what's the phrase, truthful hyperbole he's known for. i'm sure that secretary mattis is going to lay out options. there is one in there that is probably similar to the strike of last year and will make trump feel he's done something and said something, but he can also sell it as we did it. it was big. he went again. so i think there are middle of the road options. >> i want to continue this conversation so stand by, ladies. we're waiting for this white house press briefing to begin. we are getting in some -- speaking of, stormy daniels news. this is involving the hush agreement and why she signed it. and tax day your business can save. on your side. work for you. and tax day your business can save. on your side. work for you.
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responsibility for these acts since they would not be possible without their support. russia has betrayed its guarantees. the president and his national security team are con cutting with allies and partners to determine the appropriate response. as president trump clearly stated there will be a price to pay. we call on all members of the international community to share any information related to this attack, and to hole the perpetrators and their sponsors accountable. we call upon the syrian regime in russia to open the area to international medical assistance and international monitoring. with that, i will take your questions. john? >> the president was pretty definitive today in saying this was an attack with banned chemical weapons, yet there hasn't been any concrete proof of that. russia insists there is no evidence of chemical weapons. what makes the president so sure that he is willing to make such
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a statement? >> he has been briefed by his national security team is being kept up to date regularly on the intelligence around that. i can't get any further beyond that. >> do we have any proof at this point? >> i can't give anything beyond the comments already made but we're very confident in those comments. >> just a couple weeks ago the president was talking about wanting to leave syria very quickly. now you're saying there's a price that has to be paid. does the president believe there are some things so atrocious, the phrase he used this morning, that the united states is, in fact, the world's policeman and demands response and the presence of the response in the region? >> look, the president wants to bring our troops home after we complete the mission to eradicate isis in syria. at the same time he wants to make sure assad is deterred from chemical weapons attacks on innocent civilians signaling we want to remove our troops in no way degrades our ability to hold parties responsible.
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mike? >> has the president been briefed that his comments about wanting to leave syria could have played a part and emboldened assad in these attacks? >> the only individuals that played a part don't reside in this country. and i think we've made very clear who we think is responsible for these attacks and to try to conflate that and make this on any part and blame on this president is absolutely ridiculous. >> criticized others for signaling a military plan, seems to be what he was doing here. does he regret those comments that he made? >> the president has been clear he wants to make sure we have the defeat of isis. we've been clear in our actions as you have seen after previous chemical attacks what this president has done, and i think we've been very up front on that. >> first the news out of syria this morning about an apparent strike overnight. does the united states believe
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israel was behind the strikes? was the united states given a heads-up? >> i can only speak on behalf of this government. for questions on that i would refer you outside. at this time the united states is not conducting air strikes in syria but i can't go beyond that at this point in time. >> did the white house get a heads-up from any foreign government about any strikes in syria? >> again, i can't go any further than commenting on behalf of our government and i can tell you that currently at this time the united states is not conducting air strikes in syria. >> back on the deterrence, you said the president wants to make sure that the assad regime can't conduct attacks like this in the future. last year when the president launched those cruise missiles he said there was a deterrent. what has changed between months ago when the assad regime wasn't using chemical weapons and this strike now? the timing coming so soon after the president made that
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determination out of syria. you can see the timing. why in the president's estimation did his deterrence -- his attempted deterrence on the assad regime now failing? >> once again, the president has made clear with the defeat of isis he wanted to be able to bring our troops home but at the same time he wants to make sure that assad is deterred from chemical weapons attacks on innocent civilians. we think you can't have separation. jonathan? >> sarah, didn't the president by saying he wants to get out of syria essentially give a green light to assad to do this as john mccain suggested, that the united states was leaving, was pulling up and leaving it to -- >> we're still there and i think it is outrageous to say that the president of the united states green lit something as atrocious as the action that is have taken place over the last several days. the president, once again, made very clear how he feels about
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those types of actions. when this took place roughly a year ago and we're going to continue looking at all of our options on the table. >> that emboldened assad, this was sending a message to assad. >> i think the message we sent to assad was very clear both in the president's words over the weekend and in our actions that we've taken in the past. roberta? >> has the president's attitude about vladimir putin changed because of what's happened? >> the president has always been tough on russia. as he said last week, as i echoed again when asked about it, this administration and this president have been tougher on russia than previous administrations. i think you can see that both through the actions that we've taken and in the comments over the last several days. >> he singled out vladimir putin in the tweet yesterday. does he feel he can still find some common ground and work with
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him? >> the president still feels that if we can have a good relationship with russia at some point that's a good thing for the world, but at the same time this president is going to be tough on russia until we see some changes in their behavior just as we've done every day over the last year and as we've outlined multiple times before both from the president and as i've done from this podium on many occasions. john? >> thank you, sarah. two questions on the foreign policy front. given the situation in syria and your statement today, could the president be in the process of forming an alliance with president macron in france and prime minister may in britain not unlike that envisioned by the previous administration with france and britain when the first reports of chemical weapons came out? >> certainly we have a great relationship with both countries and are continuing conversations
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with both the uk as well as france and i hope to work with all of our allies and partners in a response. sorry, second question? >> an admirer of the president who has said many kind things about him, won a landslide re-election, will the president call him, and are there any plans to extend an invitation for a state visit or a working visit to the prime minister? >> i'm not aware of a scheduled call at this time. if there is one we'll keep you posted and will have a readout to follow. john decker? >> thanks a lot, sarah. today is the first day on the job for john bolton as the national security adviser. if you could bring him out here to answer questions one time. >> i'll tag him. >> back in 2013 on fox and friends, i think if i were a member of congress i would vote against an authorization to use
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force in syria. he continued, i don't think it is in america's interests. i don't think we should, in effect, take sides in a syrian conflict. is that a point of view that ambassador bolton is bringing as national security adviser? >> the point of view that matters most here at the white house, as you well know, is the president's. as ambassador bolton himself has said, he's certainly here to serve as an adviser but ultimately the decisions being made are the president's and the comments he's made previously are personal, and he's here to carry out the president's agenda. josh? >> -- often flew first class, had a rental on capitol hill. can you explain what the president meant when he said rent was about market rate, travel expenses okay, security spending somewhat more but it was okay. why did he say that? >> he was referencing a report
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done by the epa which we are continuing to review. it cites the rental was at market value. >> according to the epa? >> according to the government of ethics. >> travel spending is okay. is the president being with cabinet secretaries taking first-class travel and tripling the size of their security detail? >> again, we are reviewing the specifics of each of those components. i know there was a much larger number of security issues surrounding the epa administrator than in the past, but for specific questions beyond that i'd refer you back to the epa. >> were those security issues included in police reports? there's been a reporting that across the country no one found death threats or police reports that jeopardized his life or safety. what are you talking about? >> i can't comment about police reports, but i do know there
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have been a number of questions raised and, again, we're continuing to review that. until that's complete i'd refer you back to the epa. >> sarah, two questions on syria. with all that's happened with russia with the sanctions last week and now the strong words associating russia with the syrian attack, is there an expectation or a feeling that relations -- diplomatic relations with russia, with this administration, are eroding? >> we've been very tough on russia for quite some time. i think the only people that didn't understand that or see that were members of the press who continually question that. now i guess people are concerned we're being tough on russia. i guess i'm confused on which way you want to have it. the president would like to have a good relationship but that will be determined by the actions that russia takes and we're going to continue pushing forward. >> the second question, the items on the table beyond
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strikes, is there thought or regime change with assad and, also, where does diplomacy play on this even with the strikes and all you're say something on the table? >> i'm not going to get ahead of any potential options the president may or may not take. i can tell you we're reviewing a wide range and a number of different options. >> thanks, sarah. at the cabinet meeting the president was talking about the potential impact of chinese tariffs on american farmers and he said the farmers were patriots for being willing to take a hit. he said we'll make it up to them. what did he mean? >> the president has worked with his team to determine how best to respond to china's attack on american farmers. he's asked the department of agriculture to protect our farmers and we'll present a plan on the specifics of that shortly. >> would he consider extra crop insurance subsidies that are often put in the farm bill for market fluctuations? >> i'm not