>> remarkable. the good news is that the two dogs are doing fine after those 22 days. the german shepherds survived by drinking water in the hole where they were stuck. thanks for joining us. here's shep. >> shepard: it's noon on the west coast, 3:00 in washington. 10:00 p.m. damascus where the fight between assad and his people is one of many wars underway. america, russia, israel, turkey, iran, we're all fighting for our own interests. and we are in the war against russia. we'll explain the complex battlefield and the potential consequences of any pentagon strike. plus, reports of another pay-out to protect president trump. $30,000 for a story that never went public. details now of a doorman's big payday ahead. so let's get to it.

the president tweeted put the russians and the syrians and the iranians on notice that missiles are coming to syria. the white house has backed off and the president said he didn't divulge when but it seems clear to anyone paying attention that the idea at least is to respond to a reported chemical attack on civilians inside syria. will it happen? we don't know. that's the idea. they made that clear presumably by the syrian government. that's where we are. but where did this begin? where is it all going? real talk now on syria. are you with me? because syria is on us. in the early part of the decade, syria was in a civil war. the rebels were losing and badly. assad had an army and tanks by way of example and the rebels had very little. the american position, assad

should go. for lots of reasons. he was murdering his people certainly. but the russians had influence there and we didn't want that. the iranians were getting in the mix and we didn't want that. and our allies in saudi arabia and qatar and jordan and beyond didn't want any of it. in late 2012 and early 2013, we entered the syrian civil war through our cia on the side of the syrian opposition. those moderate syrian rebels that president obama used to talk about, it was operation timber sycamore. and it was a huge secret. the idea was to arm and support those moderate syrian rebels so that they would overthrow the government and we could get an american friendly regime in place. so what happened? well, we formed an alliance of allies. the saudis provided the money largely, billions and tens of billions of dollars to buy thousands of tons of weapons.

assault rifles, mortars, rpgs and night vision goggles. everything the rebels needed. the u.s. trained them, thousands and thousands of them largely in jordan. our cia did that. we send them out to fight assad's troops. they could not have survived without us. they killed as many as 100,000 troops and looked for a time that they were going to overthrow assad just like the united states wanted. again, president obama had signed off on this in secret without congress, obviously. at first he was against it, the story went. worried the weapons might go to the terrorists. as the story goes, king abdullah dull -- of jordan convinced him. so it was the syrian rebels against the syrian government until the russians joined in with the iranians.

that i sent guns and equipment and support and fought alongside the syrians. so there we are. the proxy war was now us and our allies against the syrians, the russians and the iranians. the stakes were suddenly much higher. last july president trump tried to get out of it all diverting resources to fighting isis in syria. by then, our side had flooded the middle east with weapons that in one way or another isis and the front had bought or stolen on the open market. we were fighting the terrorists with weapons provided by our side against the syrians. it's a mess in syria. last year president trump sent 59 tomahawk missiles on an air field where there was a chemical attack. nothing changed in the course of the war. by the way, since then there's been like 20 of these chemical attacks according to observers in the region. since russia has built up their presence a lot with anti-aircraft defenses and jets

and tanks. they're entrenched. as we threaten to go back into the proxy war with an air strike of some kind, possibly bigger than the one a year ago, the russians are threaten to shoot down our missiles and retaliate. russia, syria and iran versus saudi arabia, other arab states and the united states. and we're considering another move. the united states' official position, there should be regime change in syria. who backs up the syrian regime? the russians. so what is the next move? well, the time is now. we await a decision. the world is watching. the chief white house correspondent john roberts is live with more. john? >> good afternoon to you. senior administration officials told me not long ago the white house is "confident" chemical weapons were in fact used in that saturday attack in douma in the eastern part of damascus.

that would appear to make a missile strike more likely. when i asked president trump in the cabinet room earlier today whether a missile strike or at least military action against syria was inevitable, he seemed to indicate a final decision has not been made. >> we're having a meeting on it today. i'll be leaving here. i was there. i'll be going back as soon as this meeting is over. we're looking very seriously, very closely at the whole situation. we'll see what happens, folks. we'll see what happens. it's too bad that the world puts us in a position like that. but you know, as i said this morning, we've done a great job with isis. we decimated isis. now we have to make some further decisions. so they'll be made soon. >> with the u.n. chemical weapons team on their way to syria to investigate, the president would appear to face a

choice does he strike tonight before the team gets there or does he wait until after the u.n. team has finished its work. sending many a missile streak when a team is there could be problematic. with the previous big chemical attack last april, there was little question if they were used. the president didn't wait long to respond. two days elapsed between the attack and the president ordering the strike. a lot of criticism being levelled at the president. people complaining he shouldn't be issues threat of military strikes, ones that could be real as opposed to the theoretical ones that he's issued in the past. he shouldn't be doing that on twitter. other people saying the president doesn't appear to have a comprehensive strategy for syria. just responding to chemical weapons attacks with missile

strikes. see what leon panetta said this morning. >> we want to use that to get to an objective. that was the mistake last year. we hit them. there was no follow up. the result is we have the same situation now. if we hit them militarily now without any kind of strategy, what will happen is in a few months he'll do it again. >> i was told about 90 minutes ago after i put the question to the president that he has not yet made a final decision. it's likely, shep, after this meeting that he's in with the current secretary of defense james mattis, that he will have more clarity on that issue. we're not likely to hear what will happen until either just before or after the operation has commenced. >> shepard: thanks, john roberts. only if it were assad. it's not.

it's the russians, remember? the russians have the force there. the russians have the jets there. the russians have the anti-aircraft there. the russians have the defense there's. it's the russians and the iranians and the syrians against the united states and saudi arabia and the 50 or so groups of moderate syrian rebels that we trained in jordan and sent over to fight in this proxy war for us. now the next salvo. what is the goal? the goal might be to stop them from doing anymore chemical attacks. let's bring in tara maller now, former cia military analyst and policy adviser for the counter extremism project. thank you. if we go in there and do something larger than last year, do we risk russia accelerating this and getting into something that we can't foresee at the moment? >> we do. which is why there's careful

deliberations to lay out the range of options. i was here with you say april 7. it was a limited reresponse against a specific target that was up and running after. >> shepard: gave us something to tweet about. >> sent a signal that we wouldn't access use but didn't have a deterrent effect. we've had a series of other attacks since then. so the administration needs to think carefully about the range of targets, the types of strikes. will it be multilateral. what is the overarching plan here. military strikes as a deterrent action against chemical weapons use very important. but they're not a panacea and the range for the problems on the ground in syria. >> shepard: we're certainly fighting isis. it's not as if anybody is fibbing around that. but it's a separate group from the cia that has entered on the side of the syrian rebels what

is russian's game here? when they see we're going to fight back and we're going to retaliate and if you do something we're shooting it out of the sky, are we to believe them? >> you want to take people at their word in terms of they're trying to act to prevent us from taking action. we don't want to do anything that risks dramatically escalating the conflict, which is why the target selection is important. are we going to hit areas that we thought were part of the chemical weapons attack, are we going after air bases that are unrelated to the chemical attack? are we going after key individuals? you can ratchet it up in the scope of strikes, whether or not we send tomahawks in there, used manned aircraft to puts coalitions forces at risk. these are all problems that military planners have to think about. i heard president trump, just the remarks he talked about. they're complex decisions.

it's correct. it's important to way the options. he dismissed the role of the united states. he said it's unfortunate that we have to be the one to make the decisions. that's our role as a super power, to lead a coalition and make the tough decisions. it comes with the territory. that's how we deal with humanitarian crises. so it's important to realize the united states role in this and we are pivotal in it. it seems france will step in. >> shepard: they have been in there. they have more intelligence than the united states has. they'll be essential. let me say this. when we did this in april, the 59 tomahawks, they were launched from a place that was impervious to the syrian military. wouldn't be the case now with the russian military. it's not as if there wouldn't be some vulnerability there. >> absolutely. one of the things that needs to be looked at carefully here to

make sure we don't have an inadvertent escalation if we hit russian forces, if russian missile defense comes into play here. these things can escalate really quickly. not just because of a mistake or an accident but because of misperception as well. >> shepard: so we have context because it's important, back in 2011 or so, the syrian rebels were going to lose. they couldn't fight that military without the help that they got from those tens of thousands of weapons and all the rest that we sent and the training. we got into this war and saved those rebels and since then more than 500,000 people have died, this war has continued because we gave one side the ammunition and the training they needed to continue that war and now we're at another pivotal moment. that was on us. and this is on us. isn't it? >> you're correct. but what should not be lost in this is we also had significant successes in terms of arming

groups on the ground to help us defeat isis. in terms of defeating isis, i mean getting back territory and killing fighters. i don't mean in terms of diminishing the idealogical reach of the organization or the ability for them to launch missions overseas. but with regard to isis, it hasn't -- this is criticism of the obama administration and the trump administration. it hasn't dealt with the underlying symptoms of the problem, which is the broader conflict in syria at large dealing with our position on the assad regime, what is our long-term strategy and will we have some negotiated outcome here and get parties to the table. >> shepard: we'll see. tara maller, great to talk to you. >> thanks for having me. >> shepard: more on how the united states could launch a strike. we'll hear from jim mattis on his concerns about taking military action. that's coming up from the fox news deck on this thursday

afternoon.

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>> shepard: jim mattis says that his biggest concern with any potential u.s. strike along with allies apparently on syria is killing civilians while also keeping any conflict from getting out of hand. >> there's a tactical concern, ma'am, that innocent people, we don't add to any civilian deaths and do everything humanly possible to avoid that. we're trying to stop the murder

of innocent people. on a strategic level, it's how do we keep this from escalating out of control. if you get my drift on that. >> shepard: so general mattis, we reported at this hour is giving president trump a list of options on syria according to the white house. jennifer griffin is at the pentagon. jennifer? >> shepard: all eyes on the national security meeting that was supposed to begin at 2:30 right now. the decision rests with the commander-in-chief. mattis arrives following four hours of prescheduled testimony on the hill. no decisions have been taken regarding military strikes. mike pompeo said the president has the authorities he needs to strike. >> does the president have the authority to launch strikes against the government of syria?

>> yes, i believe he does. >> the opcw, the u.n. weapons inspectors, they just announced that they hope to have their inspectors on the ground working in syria on saturday. that could interfere with the timing of a strike. mattis had a caution of warning. >> we're not going to engage in the civil war itself. some things are inexcusable beyond the pale and in the worst interest of not just the chemical weapons convention but of civilization itself. so the recognition of that means at times you're going to see contrary impulses. >> mixed signals coming from top u.s. officials to give the president a range of possible options, shep. >> shepard: tell us about the movement, the military movement in the region. >> fox news has learned there's

u.s. warships in the red sea. the u.s.s. donald cook is off the coast of syria with about 75 tomahawks on board and more than a dozen surface to air missiles. it's joined by one british submarine armed with cruise missiles. the british government signed off on the u.s. and french efforts. the french have deployed a frigate with missiles on board. the british prime minister has ordered the submarines in position to help. the u.s.s. teary truman deported virginia and should be in the eastern mediterranean within a week. >> i'm so pleased and proud of the harry s. truman striker group team, 6,500 of the finest americans you could ever sail with or serve with. we're trained, we're ready. any mission, any time, anywhere, we're ready to go.

>> the question critics ask is what good if any would a tomahawk missile strike alone do. a year ago it had no thought of assad's thinking. >> shepard: thanks, jennifer. president trump tweeting that he agrees with the strategy of cooperating with the special counsel running the russia investigation. but some lawmakers from the president's own party says congress should pass a bill to protect robert mueller just in case all of the people who advise the president on television and otherwise can fire him get their say. one republican is out with a new warning today. plus word that a doorman at a trump sky scraper cashed in with another hush money deal to protect the now president. we'll talk to one of the reporters that broke the story of the doorman, the $30,000 and the story that was caught and killed. coming up.

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now you can get it, too. welcome to the party. >> shepard: 24 minutes passed the hour. the president says if he wanted to fire the special counsel robert mueller, he would have done it a long time ago. meaning he believes he can fire the special counsel. even so, how democrats are pushing a bill to protect mueller after a bipartisan group of senators rolled out their own legislation yesterday. i should say yesterday president trump called robert mueller's russia probe fake and corrupt. it's not fake. claims that mueller and his boss, the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein were conflicted. today the president tweeted i have greed with the disciplined approach that we have engaged in with robert mueller unlike the clintons. i have full confidence in ty cobb and been fully advised throughout each phase of the process.

which says a lot really. catherine herridge has the news from washington. there were questions about whether he would make a turn on legal counsel. this suggested no. >> and we learned from the justice department officials that the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein that overseas the probe and has the fire to fire the special counsel was at the white house for preplanned meetings about an hour. rosenstein had fbi officials. after threatened legal action, the department and the fbi have taken an unusual step to expedite and district the process. fox news understands from our justice department contacts that rosenstein met with don mcgann. the contacts emphasizes that rosenstein was not fired. as you mentioned, senators are introducing bipartisan legislation that would limit the president's ability to fire special counsel, that would

expedited judicial review and reinstatement if termination wasn't for cause and only a senior justice department official could fire the special counsel. >> leaders of both political parties would be a terrible mistake for if president to terminate rod rosenstein or robert mueller. >> i don't think the president would fire him. he understands what would happen. as far as mr. rosenstein goes, for him to be fired, it's within the purview of the president. he would have to have a good reason and i don't see the reason. >> the senate judiciary committee chaired by chuck grassley has a date on april 26 on the a vote on the legislation, shep. >> shepard: catherine herridge live in washington. thanks. now the doorman at trump tower. the company that owns the national inquirer reportedly paid a former door man $30,000 for a story about the president that they never ran. that is according to the

reporting of the associated press which broke the news. it report it happened in 2015. president trump's personal lawyer, michael cohen, tells the associated press that he talked to the tabloid about the door man's story. michael cohen said he had no idea of the payment. agents were looking for records related to payments to another woman whose claim they had affairs with trump. fox news has confirmed that investigators were also looking for information on the president's access hollywood recording. let's bring in jeff horowitz from the associated press. one of the reporters that broke the story. good to see you. >> good to see you too. >> shepard: as i understand it, there was a rumor, i guess, at least, that this door man was talking about that the president had a love child. is that right? >> right. so a former doorman for one of the trump buildings called up

the national inquirer on the tip line and said i have a juicy story for you. said the president -- the future president had an affair with one of his employees and ended up with a child. the national inquirer did the reporting on this, put the guys through paces, paid him $30,000 under a contract and this is the key things, under a contract that said if he violated it, he owed them a million dollars. so this was a gag order in some respects or a gag agreement that this guy signed in exchange for the money. that was enough to keep that rumor quiet through the 2016 election. >> the woman involved said none of that is true. it's fake. right? >> yes. look, the question of whether or not the underlying rumor is accurate, we can't get into it at this point. the important thing is whether the trump campaign via various people including michael cohen

may have had a relationship with the national inquirer that involved the national inquirer taki taking salacious stories and deep sixing them. >> shepard: and now it's possible after this raid on the fixer's properties, it's possible that we may learn a lot of things, including voracity of this potentially. >> anything is possible, shep. certainly seems like -- this falls in the category of things that the government is looking for here, which is to say whether these things were related -- if the payments were related to the campaign, campaign contributions undeclared and whether there might have been something untoward. >> shepard: the company, american media, the parent company of the national inquirer, we brought it, checked it out, wasn't worthy. we didn't run it. which would be fine except there's so many things over

time -- there's covers i can show you from the clintons that well, you know, it's just -- other all congruous. >> yes. two points there. the first is that we have i believe six former employees of the national inquirer that were able to tell us very directly that they were aware of this being attach and kill. national inquirer would pay for the story of killing it. they were not that subtle about it internally. the second thing is that we know enough about the national inquirer's business practices to know that they don't pay for story tips unless they publish them. that's the standard process. if they're going to pay you, they'll pay you only after the tip you gave them goes to print. this one they paid to own the rights to it in perpetuity. so it's clear from what they did that it doesn't match their standard procedures for a tip that doesn't pan out, for example. >> shepard: the door man and the hush money. jeff horowitz, maybe we'll find out for sure a lot of things

from the fixer's home and office and hotel room. we'll see. thank you. president trump's pick to lead the state department fielding hours of questions from lawmakers and some of them were doozies. a look at that in just a moment. here's the story of green mountain coffee roasters sumatra reserve. let's go to sumatra. the coffee here is amazing.

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saving you up to 30%! you'll be bathing in savings! tripadvisor. check the latest reviews and lowest prices. >> shepard: president trump's pick to be the next secretary of state mike pompeo answered questioned today for six hours. if lawmakers confirm him, he will replace rex tillerson whom president trump fired last month. lawmakers asked pompeo about a lot of things. syria, iran, north korea and of course russia. they also asked him if he agreed with president trump's tweet that tensions between washington and moscow are because of the investigation into russian's election meddling. he said he does not agree. >> the historic conflict between the united states and the soviet union and now russia is caused

by russian bad behavior. >> shepard: largely it was interesting for the insurance this he wouldn't answer. he defended the steps that the trump administration has taken to push back against russia. he said more does need to be done because vladimir putin has it in his words received the message sufficiently. has he threatens to shoot down our missiles and retaliate. rich edson is live with more. >> much of the challenge of pompeo had to do with what democrats said is an assembling of a war cabinet. john bolton is part of this. pompeo says as a former army officer, that's not the case. >> there's few people like soldiers that appreciate diplomats and good diplomatic work. you train, you prepare, you want very much to be prepared if america calls upon you but

you're counting on the fact that there's diplomats resolving the challenges. >> the top democrat on this committee, bob be mendez of new jersey said that didn't satisfy him. senator bob corker is the chairman of this committee. he says he believes mike pompeo will get bipartisan support in the end. shep? >> shepard: he steered away from any russia investigation questions, especially anyones that might be sensitive to the president. he did admit that he was interviewed by robert mueller. >> he did. he got several questions about this. first about the mueller investigation, what the president has tweeted about it, the disparaging of the president by that investigation. he did offer a reveal. that he was interviewed. >> what was the subject of the conversation. >> senator, i'm not going to speak to that. i'm not going to speak about any of the three investigations that i have been a participant in

today. >> a justification for that, he also said, is the investigation of the senate, the house intelligence committee and the special counsel investigation into russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. as cia director he's been involved in that and he can't comment. shep? >> shepard: thanks, rich. live on the hill. let's get to a.b. stoddard from real clear politics. i was waiting to hear what would ha happened with rand paul and his questioning of pompeo. he's been very pointed about his criticisms. >> right. rand paul is still an outlier in terms of the republican conference. he's a libertarian, focussed on surveillance as an issue. he's made his views very clear. he's going to stick to his word that he's not going to support a vote in committee, nor on the floor. if they run this to the

committee and they have problems, it will go through the floor and confirm mike pompeo. i do think shep as much as he had some inconsistencies and concerns by democrats about a host of issues from the mueller investigation and his conversations with the president about maybe the firing of james comey or other issues related to the russia investigation and the foreign policy crises that he's going to be dealing with as secretary of state, issues on which they don't trust his positions or stated positions, i still think a democrat is going to cross over to fill in for the rand paul vote and that mike pompeo will be confirmed. >> shepard: i took away he thought that the war in iraq was a good aisle. what make him so controversial for democrats? >> they believe in the past he's

made anti-muslim stations. they consider him a war hawk in some way. he's working hard as rich edson described to overcome that characterization and say that he puts diplomacy first and he will rehab this sort of eviscerated state department. he's talked with former secretaries of state to prepare for these hearings and to present a genuine earnest in the job. i think he's -- in the eyes of some democrats, he can be described as controversial but there's a bipartisan consensus that he's knowledgeable, is a russia hawk, has a relationship with president trump to talk him off the ledge. >> shepard: i wonder if that's not the main thing. people around the world will know -- these guys are tight.

pompeo and trump have been side by side almost every day of this administration. at least people around the world will know, if pompeo says it's coming from the president, you might not have known that with tillerson. >> and people are looking at the way trump chooses people. when he gets rid of someone, they think, you know what? we might have some problems with mike pompeo but lord only know whose he will choose next. that's actually a real possibility that mike pompeo might not be a perfect fit for secretary of state, but is just so qualified and so competent it's not the concerned of nomination you turn away from because he's probably better than what could come next. >> shepard: a.b., happy thursday. nice to see you. >> thank you. >> shepard: there's great news today. have you heard it? take a look at it. dow! what are you doing? great news from the corner of wall and broad. we'll have it for you coming up. . and i'm terry ware. and this is our sears hometown store. we always wanted to raise our family in a small tight-knit hometown community.

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>> shepard: president trump says the united states has made progress on big negotiations with china over tariffs. a spokesman said the negotiations are impossible. the president made the comment in the rose garden after talking about the tax plan. he says he thinks the negotiations will work out in america's favor. >> china is negotiating with us very hard, very long and we made a lot of progress for opening it up. >> the commercial department said the china's attempts at

negotiation are not sincere. blake burman has more. blake? >> you can say this was a bit of a warning from the chinese overnight. it came from a spokesperson from the commerce ministry that said that president xi jinping's speech should not be viewed as a concession to washington. during that speech, the chinese leader said that china wants to open up its economy generally speaking and that it would lower tariffs on certain products like vehicles. now that spokesperson for the commerce minute try say if the united states takes any action to escalate the situation, china will not hesitate to fight back. here at the white house, the president has hailed the speech from president xi as a step forward and he continued to tout it today. >> let's see if we're going to do it in a friendly way. i think we will.

i think it will end up the tariffs off and the barriers down. >> earlier today at the white house, president trump met with republican lawmakers from states that have a levy agricultural economy to try to ease their concerns about this ongoing spat on trade between the u.s. and china, shepard. >> shepard: the president said he's considering more trade talks. >> this came out of left field. republican lawmakers said that the president has top his top trade rep and larry kudlow, his economic adviser to try to reenter negotiations the tpp, the trans pacific trade partnership. he said larry, go do it. the big question remains is just

how realistic is it. >> shepard: good question. blake ben bernanke -- berman on the north lawn. the dow had been up as many as 400. deidra bolton. getting back to the tpp, is it too late? >> it may be. we snubbed the party invitation. then we heard the party is fun. >> shepard: that was supposed to be our hedge against china against china and it was working. >> yeah. if the chinese retailate about our agricultural producing state, his state will be hurt a lot. what ended up happening, the other countries in the trade agreement and have come together including australia, vietnam, singapore. they have done their own thing and have been -- gotten closer to china by default. we stepped out of the picture.

now we're thinking maybe we should get back in. we'll see. stocks like it. >> shepard: is it too late? >> it may be. >> shepard: deidra bolton. final thoughts, top of the hour headlines. waiting for a decision on syria. (vo) lately, i've been selective about what i eat. this new beneful select 10, has 10 amazing ingredients! (avo) with real beef, plus accents of sunflower oil and apples, suddenly your dog's a health nut. (vo) the old me woulda been all over that. (avo) new beneful select 10. 10 ingredients. 1 thoughtful recipe when you combine ancestry's with its historical records... you could learn you're from ireland

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him when he leaves congress next year. peter doocy is live with that. peter? >> speaker ryan told reporters today it was his understanding steve scalise wants the majority leader kevin mccarthy to replace

him as speaker. but that's not what scalise said. >> i've never run against kevin and never would run against him. he and i are good friends. >> so if mccarthy doesn't think he can get 218 votes for speaker, then scalise suggested he may want the job. this morning mccarthy danced around questions about rising even higher in the republican party ranks. >> what means most to me, in the next congress there's an opportunity for a republican to be speaker and not nancy pelosi. we have the highest number of retirements we've had and the history against us when it comes to the party in power that wins seats here. but we've accomplished a lot. >> ryan is really swatting away republican critics in his own conference who want him to leave before his term is up because he says he raises tens of millions to help them maintain the majority, win their seats and to keep the majority, it's best to have all players on the field.

and nancy pelosi who is posed to be speaker, she said ryan's retirement not really a factor in their chances. >> the plot form is the management of it and in which our candidates will step and we're very proud of all of our candidates as they go forward. we're not watching their game. we're watching our game. >> one part of their game may be easier now that ryan is on his way out, his district may be easier for a democrat to win in wisconsin. shep? >> shepard: if there's a chance that he could be leaving sooner than all that, isn't there? >> there are whispers by republicans that are worried that big donors may not want to write a check this is asking for somebody even though he's on his way out. ryan insists that the money and the effort does not go to any person. it goes to the agenda, which obviously is going to continue once he's gone. >> shepard: we'll know soon

enough. thanks, peter on capitol hill. we're waiting for the -- we believe the war cabinet meeting is still convened in the white house. president trump getting options on syria and whether or not the united states with allies might take action. we'll have live coverage throughout the afternoon and evening. "your world" with neil cavuto picks up next. should news break out, we'll break in because breaking news changes everything on fox news channel. i'll see you at some point. take care.

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decisions. they'll be made soon. >> neil: fairly soon. the war drums are building. james mattis at the white house as we speak. he says all options are on the table. you've heard that before. and the president's pick for secretary