formal, they want it to feel more flexible. that's partly why it's happening down here, craig, and why president xi is not landing in washington and he's coming to mar-a-lago for this sort of icebreaker type of talk. it's only 24 hours. he'll fly back tomorrow night. as we talked about earlier in the show, the guidance, the expectation for people in and out of the administration say don't expect a big handshake in the end, some type of deal for north korea or bilateral trade agreements. this is all about making sure these two leaders get off to a good start face to face personally and set the table for lower level negotiations on the nitty-gritty down the road. >> president xi jinpingndex tillerson on the tarmac greeting. i have spilled into the 2: hour. my time here is done. katy tur is here to pick up coverage. >> we'll continue talking to hallie jackson as we watch xi jinping meet are rex tillerson, our secretary of state right

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as someone that did disturb him, if you will. he started reporting when he was first briefed about that. he was very disturbed by what he was hearing. so i do expect that we will see more fallout from that. mr. obama drew his line in the

sand. he urged him not to go in and take out assad. another chemical weapon would drop on damascus which killed hundreds of children. this was the same sort of thing back in 2013 before donald trump was running for president, before he was technically a politician of some sort. he had no response other than to say let's see syrian people deal with assad as they will. don't go in. we have our own problems at home. so what exactly does it mean, and i know you, again, don't have a crystal ball, but from your reporting, what exactly does it mean that donald trump has suddenly changed his feelings? what does it mean when he says that he was very disturbed? does that mean that he has drawn a red line and that assad has crossed his red line? you said many, many lines were crossed. does that include a red line, and does that mean that the united states needs to act on behalf of the syrian people who e being attacked, reportedly,

by their own regime? >> reporter: listen, that's the million-dollar question, right? when you talk to members of the administration about it, they say things like it's important to have power over the syrian people. how do you have power of the syrian people? when the president gets up, as you point out, and says they have crossed many lines. the question then becomes, what is next? there is still not a clearance from the administration about that, katy. you point out rightly that in 2013 not just one time, but many times, repeatedly, the president said -- before he was elected, to former president obama, stay out of syria. the message was coming across very strongly. i tell you, the president has done something we see again and again on the campaign trail. he has shifted his position, he has shifted his position on syria, acknowledging the attacks saying that plus other incidents that have happened over the last several weeks, several months of his administration, has changed

his mind. he also is trying to keep, he says, some elements of surprise about what will happen. we hear this in the fight. he doesn't want to talk about military action because he wants to keep people in suspense. he doesn't want to tip his hand, if you will. that's similar to what we're hearing now when it comes to syria and what he might do there. >> hallie jackson, stay with us. we want to bring in hans nichols. it's your reporting i just cited. clarify for our audience what exactly we know as of now. >> reporter: the certainty of which the pentagon believes it knows this was a six-wing aircraft dropping bombs on syria as part of the chemical attack. it looks like chemical weapons dropped from a point. the certainty that they know that gives an indication potentially of what the response could be. it could be a response, if it is proportional, and that's a word you hear a lot in the pentagon, having a response for proportional offense, the

initial assault. that means you could see response focus around sitter yann air defenses and their aircraft ability to do this in the future. we know the pentagon is planning. they're figuring out options, they're ready to present those options at a moment's notice. we also know secretary mattis will be by donald trump's side pretty much all weekend. if there is an order to be given, trust me, he will turn to the secretary of defense and give that order. there are still some things we don't know. we don't know quite a bit on this, mainly what their actual response is going to be, what the u.s. response is going to be. we know the options. they can do cruise missiles, they can do drone, they can do chemical attacks themselves. ground troops in syria, at least 500 the u.s. acknowledges. but katy, they're fighting isis. just to give you a sense of how complicated this battlefield is, defense officials are telling nbc news that the target of those chemical weapons, the regime dropped on their own

people, it was al nustra front hospital, closely affiliated with al qaeda. you could sense the argument the regime would make if they ever admitted to this saying, we're simply fighting terrorists just like the united states. >> what would their response be to images of children, though, children who are choking on what is reported to be sarin gas. children who have to be washed down with hoses and their clothes taken off their bodies as they're tryg desperately to breathe. what would their response be to that? >> katy, i probably shouldn't play the role of the spokesman for the syrian government. in general what you hear from the pentagon sat least on the u.s. side, they make every effort not to have civilian casualties. you hear from the pentagon on the isis side of the campaign, the moral responsibility lies with isis even though they take every pain possible to prevent civilian casualties. but let's acknowledge, it was just two weeks ago when the u.s. likely, and they said there is a fair chance that they were

responsible or had a part in collapsing a building where a lot of civilians, including children, also died. katy? >> a reminder to our audience that secretary of state rex tillerson will be watching on the tarmac there on palm beach is expected to talk to reporters and address the situation in syria. he might even take questions, so we are keeping an eye on that. more on this topic. let's go to michael. he's a former ambassador to the russian nation and msnbc contributor. michael, when you talk about the assad regime, you can't not talk about russia. tell me how complicated this gets now for the trump administration if they are to respond in some way in syria to that alleged chemical attack. >> katy, let's go back first to 2013 when there was this other horrific, even bigger attack. that's when president obama threatened force and that's when he traveled to the g-20 summit in st. petersburg, i was there

with him, and cut a deal with president putin, agreeing that they would cooperate with others to withdraw all chemical weapons from syria. now what do we know? we know that they didn't do that deal completely. we know that assad object physici obfiscated and didn't fulfill his agreement. the russians knew this. they're close to assad. as the president considers his options, he has to think of how he'll deal with russia in this standoff, and as you know, rex tillerson is scheduled to go see president putin next week. >> when you said the syrian people are going to have to deal with assad, it will be up to them to decide whether bashar assad stays as the president of syria or whether he goes, that's a break with longstanding u.s. policy which was assad does need to go. can you say that this attack was

in any way a response or a test to secretary tillerson? >> reporter: well, the first thing i would say is i totally agree with the secretary. if the syrian people could decide their fate, that would be ntasc, but they can't under a dictatorship under president assad. that's the first thing. second, i don't necessarily see a causal link, but there is no question that the trump administration had been signalling that they were prepared to deal with assad. they were prepared to live with him being in power, and obviously president trump radically changed that policy in the statements that he made yesterday without spelling out what he's going to do, but that was a radical departure from everything he's been saying up to that point. >> michael, thank you for that note on russia. also a reminder that donald trump is meeting the president of china, xi jinping, and on theirym agenda, two things. one trade, and the other is north korea which has tested yet

another missile yesterday, a missile that landed in the ocean. this is the, i believe, fourth missile test that the north korean regime has tested. talking with me more about this is eli is eli russell. eli, give me more context as to what sort of test this will be for this administration and what donald trump needs to do with the president of china in this meeting in order to cool these tensions. >> clearly, when the obama administration was ending, one of the things president obama said to president-elect trump was north korea would be likely be the most urgent national security threat. it appears that's exactly what is happening. north korea's economic lifeline is china. there are two very strong security resolutions put in place last year to call on china and other countries in the world to crack down on --

>> u.n. security resolution, does that actually get anything done? >> it absolutely does, but the problem in this case is member states themselves are responsible for enforcing those resolutions, so in this case it's up to china to infer that banks and things in china are not doing business with north korea that continue to occur and it continues to strengthen jim jong-un. so what president trump is going to say, is, look, i want to have a cooperative relationship with you, but north korea is going to be a test of our relationship. my guess is that's exactly what secretary tillerson said recently in beijing. we can do this the nice way or the hard way. you can force a resolution, or we'll have to take our own steps and go our own way, which i interpret as the united states imposing u.s. sanctions on the chinese bank. >> would that get us in a trade war with china? >> it depends on how the u.s. does it, and that's my concern

with the administration so far. they don't have their teams in place in the pentagon. they've had a policy review, but they have not had a china policy review, they have not developed a comprehensive strategy on asia, so they're heading in with an attempt to gain leverage on the chinese without gaining leadership in the region. in fact, they may go the other direction by pulling out of the partnership, not engage, the countries in southeast asia, not doing the kind of things you need to do to gain leverage with china. >> eli russell, i appreciate your comments. devin nunes stepping aside from the russia obe. now that representative nunes has stepped aside, do you think a fair investigation of russia's meddling in the election can be conducted by the house? that question has been open for

an hour. they're pretty evenly split. 45% of you say yes, 55% of you say no. we will be right back. all of my purchasing. and that unlimited 2% cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business... which adds fuel to my bottom line. what's in your wallet?

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hill now for that other breaking news story. senate republicans have deployed the so-called nuclear option which will clear the way for president trump's supreme court nominee neil gorsuch to be confirmed. chris is back with us on capitol

hill. chris, talk to us about what we just saw. this is changing the senate rules permanently, right? >> reporter: the reason they call it the nuclear option, katy, is because they've blown up decades of editions. it hasn't been done in five decades. never before with a supreme court nominee have we seen the nuclear option invoked. it means the way the senate votes is changing. this is a seismic shift in the way it happened. the senator of oregon spoke for a lot of democrats when he tweeted this: the dark deed is done. mitch mcconnell has just put a knife into the heart of the senate. he and chuck schumer spoke. here's what they had to say. >> the opposition to this particular nominee is more about the man that nominated him.

this will be the first and last partisan filibuster of the supreme court nomination. >> when history weighs what happened, the responsibility for changing the rules will fall on the republicans. >> reporter: so where are we now? there is a 30-hour waiting period that could be until 6:50 tomorrow before the actual vote takes place. there are some things that could happen to move it up, but for sure tomorrow 6:50. that would be unclear when he would actually take the oath of office. there are no pending cases in the next couple days, so it's not like there is an urgency there. the real question for a lot of people who oppose this, katy, is whether or not this is a slippery slope. is the next thing a legislative filibuster? well, i think even before that, changing these rules does have a more immediate impact, potentially. you have two justices, anthony

kennedy, who is 80, ginsberg who is 84. so as opposed to 60 votes would be in place if one of those justices stepped down over the course of the next couple years. >> it's going to make 2018 all the more interesting. do the democrats take control of either the house or the senate? it's obviously much more easy to do that. >> reporter: it is interesting to note there were only three democrats who are up for reelection in 2018, seven who voted no, and as you know, there was a lot of pressure on them to vote no. >> joe mansion -- >> reporter: mansion, wildcamp and bennett. bennett in the nominee is one

person who said he doesn't know how he'll vote so he's one to watch. >> let's talk aut touse intelligence chairman who has stepped aside for the russia investigation. kasie hunt has been pounding the pavement down there in the capitol, as usual, and she caught up with the ranking member, adam schiff, a moment ago to get his reaction. let's take a listen. >> reporter: is there credibility to your investigation? >> i think it really helps us move forward. i think it was the right decision. i'm sure it was a difficult one for the chairman, but it gifves us a fresh start. the work has always continued, but now i think the cloud that's settled over the committee's work has been lifted. we're moving forward on witnesses and we're continuing to review documents. i think it will do a lot to restore credibility to our investigation. >> chris, get us up to speed. why did devin nunes step aside,

and did this come from pressure higher up? did this come from paul ryan? with steve bannon getting kicked off the nsc, is that why it happened? there are a lot of rumors swirling around. is there anything concrete? >> concretely, the pressure was tense not just from the democrats, but there were a number of republicans saying whether or not they thought devin nunes did in going to the white house and holding that press conference was a conflict of interest, this had just become so much of a distraction that there was no credibility left for the house. and we saw it, right, when we saw the members, the two ranking members of the senate intelligence committee essentially coming outweigh show -- out with a show of unity saying, y, we have an investigation here as opposed to the house where they don't have a serious investigation. now, the white house at least

systemically categorically denying they had any pressure. they said this is not our focus, and when i asked were they concerned this had become a distraction with so many other things domestically and internationally, obviously now the china meeting going on in north korea and syria, had there been pressure, they have denied it. but there is no doubt when you talk to people inside the white how else that there is this growing sense -- i just came from there, i spent the morning there -- that there really is a chaotic atmosphere that the president is seeing is affecting -- and you know how closely he follows the poll numbers -- is affecting the poll numbers -- >> and the news. >> absolutely -- and the constant talk about this. i think there is a link in that what we saw with steve bannon and now i think what we're seeing with devin nunes speaks to the concerns we've heard from top people in the white house that they needed to sort of ramp down the chaos and get the focus back to where they want it to

be. >> chris jansing doing double and triple duty for us in washington today. appreciate it. i'm joined now by congresswoman terry toole. congresswoman, thanks for joining us. how did you hear about devin nunes stepping aside? >> we got a press release in the office. i'm very glad he stepped aside. i'm hoping it will cause a reset when it comes to the house intelligence committee and our ability to do our work. we've never stopped trying to do our work. i've been on this committee for four years, and i can tell you of all my committees, this has always been the most non-partisan. i'd like to think that by him stepping aside we can restore credibility to the house intelligence committee and do our work. >> congresswoman, let's talk about the man replacing him, mike conaway of texas. he endorsed donald trump last

may, which was after the primary, so donald trump is the presumptive nominee. he's also the most pro congressional district in the country. i want to read this to you. he compared the russian hacking of the election to mexicans wanting hillary clinton. they wanted soap opera stars, singers and entertainers who had immense influence in those communities in las vegas to get out the vote and so forth. those are foreign actors, foreign people, influencing the vote in nevada. you don't hear the democrats screaming and saying one word about that. so congresswoman, with that statement, and with his opinion that democrats using mexican actors is the same as the foreign government hacking into our election, are you confident that congressman conaway is the best person to lead this

investigation on the republican side? >> listen, i've been on the committee, like i said, for the last four years and i served with congressman conaway, and i really think the american people deserve to have a very serious house intelligence committee, and i think that -- i take as a signal the recusal of the chairman and rhethe replacement representative conaway as republicans saying they, too, want to get on with this investigation. i'll take it at face value for now. i know that we on the democratic side have never stopped working and we do know that the russians did hack into our systems and did try to influence our democracy and it's unacceptable. it will happen again. that's what director comey and admiral rogers both said. it is incumbent on us as the house intelligence committee to do our oversight responsibilities. and i hope and believe that all the committee members, all of the committee members, take that responsibility to heart. >> chairman nunes is also facing

anne ethics investigation into whether or not he declassified information or spoke about classified information when he was not supposed to when he was on the white house grounds talking about what he had seen at the white house and what he was briefing the president on. on that note, i know adam schiff, congressman schiff, has been able to see what devin nunes saw. is there any indication, at least right now, that the white house will end up relenting and showing the rest of the committee that same information? >> well, you know, i can't really speak to classified information, what i've seen and what i haven't seen. i can tell you, though, that we were told that we will have access to the information that both chairman nunes and ranking member schiff has already seen. and so i think it's really important for the credibility of this investigation that we do get total access, and so far, while it's been slow, we have gotten access from all of the agencies for the information that we requested. >> do you have any idea who is on this witness list and when we will start tseeearings

happen again, public hearings, happen again in this house investigation? >> well, i can't really talk to what names are on the list, but i think you will agree that there have been lots of connections here between the russians and donald trump's administration and folks in his campaign. and so everything from manafort to stone to flynn, i think there is a lot that needs to be investigated and a lot of folks we would like to question. >> what about christopher steele, the british spy? >> i can't speak to any classified information about our witness list. >> congresswoman, i hope you can help me with one other thing? what is that noisy constantly hear behind you guys when you're standing in that position? is that a door closing, is there a truck backing up back there? fill me in. >> yeah. it's a door closing, it's a lot of action going on. we're in statuary hall, so there

are a lot of tours going on, doors opening and closing. we in the house intelligence committee really want to get back to the business of the american people and making sure that we investigate fully western interference in our democracy to ensure it doesn't happen again. >> congresswoman, good luck with that and good luck with those alarms. nice job talking through them. i'm always impressed with people able to talk through that very loud and very jarring noise. terry toole, congresswoman in the house intelligence committee. thank you for your time. >> thank you. adam schiff reacts to devin nunes' decision to step aside for the russian investigation. don't miss the rachel maddow show tent at 9:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc. we're still waiting to hear

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breaking news. senator john mccain told reporters president trump told him he's consulting with secretary jim mattis and h.r. mcmaster on a possible military response in syria. let's go to our pentagon correspondent, hans nichols, right now. hans, what do you know? >> reporter: apparently secretary mattis will brief donald trump tonight in florida about possible military strikes, military action in syria. but this isn't the first start of the discussion. there have been ongoing conversations. there is a national security meeting late here last night at the white house, and secretary mattis and h.r. mcmaster, he's the nsc director here at the white house, have been in almost constant contact on whittleing down options, trying to figure out what sort of target they may strike. let me explain to you, katy, in terms of a continuum. at the far end, they would talk

about grounding all of syria's air force. that is taking out a lot of migs on the ground in syria. then you may take out some of the suspended chemical weapon sites. at the other end, and the softer end, would just be going after the assets that u.s. officials think were responsible for this chemicals weapons attack that killed dozens, including children, in syria. on all of this it doesn't look like a decision has been made, and of all the options you have, katy, you also have some risks. number one, it isn't clear what legal authority this would happen under, and there are more than 500 u.s. forces inside syria. there is a danger, a concern, there could be retaliation by regime forces against u.s. forces fighting isis in syria. it's a complicated battlefield. one other potential risk, if you do the strike with manned aircraft, there is always a

danger that sia offenses could shoot that down and you could have a hostage situation. just to recap, 1 the uls uwe kn and the pentagon talking options and that secretary mattis has spent time to make his case on what options, if any, president trump should take. katy? >> it's still early on in this administration. this sounds like a pretty significant test for the president right now, whether or not he does deploy one of those options. i'm sure there is, what about the concern of potentially taking out regime assad forces and leaving the same sort of vacuum that enabled terrorist groups like isis to flourish in parts of syria and iraq? >> reporter: one of the things about the comprehensive plan to defeat isis, and we still don't know what all is in that plan, this was delivered by the pentagon to the white house over a month ago. it is a whole of government approach. inside the pentagon you hear a lot of conversations about what

happened after you clear isis out of the euphrates valley. there is clearly a great deal of diplomacy going on behind the scenes on what happens next. that's not to say, katy, they're easy answers. that's one of the reasons they puzzle so much about this, because it's very difficult to see how you put syria back together again. you have four or five factors. you have a lot of russians there, you have the kurds who are maybe getting a little too cloe close for turkey's comfort. then you have the regime, assad himself, not to mention coalition forces. it's a complicated situation and no one sees any easy way out of this. katy? >> the administration is learning firsthand that things are a lot more complicated when you get in the oval office than they were maybe on the campaign trail. things are not so cut and dry, so black and white, they're a whole lot more complicated. speaking of john mccain, that had he and secretary mattis are

figuring out some sort of action. he will be with our own chuck todd on "meet the press" saturday afternoon. we are waiting for secretary of state rex tillerson to say something about syria. not clea what exactly he will say, but he also could potentially be taking questions from reporters. that empty chair sitting in that shot right there, that is where we believe secretary of state rex tillerson will be sitting in a matter of moments. we will bring that to you live. let's head now to west palm beach in florida where nbc's gabe gutierrez is monitoring protests to this summit at mar-a-lago. gabe, talk to me about what we're seeing. i heard you're wet. unfortunately, gabe gutierrez cannot hear us. we have a delay issue sometimes

when we use a thing called a live view. you never know when he is going to be able to hear the words that are coming out of my mouth. we will try to get that all fixed, and when we do, kewe'll come back and bring you gabe. we're also going to take a small break on the other side. we're going to talk about what rex tillerson said about how we're going to respond, what offers are on the table, and will he take reporters' questions? we haven't seen him do that very much. stay tuned. it's coming up right after this break. gah! ah, ah ah. ♪ ♪ i'm goin' up the country, baby don't you wanna go? ♪ ♪ i'm goin' up the country, baby don't you wanna go? ♪ geico motorcycle, great rates for great rides. (i wanted him to eat healthy., so i feed jake purina cat chow naturals indoor, a nutritious formula with no artificial flavors. made specifically for indoor cats.

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before we went to brea i told you we were awaiting secretarof state rex tillerson to take the pium right there or take the mike right there in that seat to talk to reporters about syria. he's going to be addressing the ongoing issues there. unclear exactly what he will say. we're also being told he might even take some questions. we have a two-minute warning for that, maybe even less, so let's go now to elise jordan to talk about what we might expect to hear from him. we haven't heard a lot from this secretary of state. we have heard a lot of reports that the state department has been sidelined, that he's not really the one in charge of foreign policy. if he comes out and does speak to reporters and does take questions, what does he need to do to reestablish himself on the

world stage? >> well, tillerson is going to be pressed on this question of whether assad should stay in syria, which a couple days ago, we were abandoning regime change as an option in syria. so now nikki haley has been going publicly against that and has been emerging as more of a voice of administration and policy. rex tillerson does need to come in, have some semblance of policy on a white house that seems to be shooting from the hip. >> they're shooting from the hip. is there any clear indication, though, that they might take a more forceful approach to syria after this chemical attack? yesterday we heard the president speak in a different way than we've heard inhe pt about assad, about what was going on in syria. he said it crossed a number of lines for him, that it was very disturbing and distressing to see those images of children suffering from what we believe to be right now sarin gas was

dropped on them. in the past, though, president trump, before he was the president, before he was running for office, urged president obama not to go into syria and not to take out assad even in the aftermath of another chemical attack back in 2013 in damascus that killed 400 children. so has he changed now that he's gotten into the oval office? does he now feel the pressure of the international position that he holds? you know what, i was going to ask you that, but now we have rex tillerson sitting down in that leather seat. he will address reporters. his microphone is waiting for him and we'll find out what he has to say. let's take a listen. >> good afternoon, all. well, first i want to thank president trump for hosting these very important discussions and facilitating opportunities for members of his cabinet to join him here in florida, mara

la lago, to spend time with his counterparts. it is an honor to receive the china delegation in thelogue i began last month in beiji with president xi and other leaders in china. in the past four years, the united states and china have developed deep ties, and this administration is committed to ensuring these ties endure for the next 40 years. we do desire to establish policies that maintain a constructive, cooperative and result-oriented trajectory. our list of priorities is an economic relationship that is fair on both sides. today we will go over the views of the chinese leadership, and we'll have discussions in the future on topics of mutual importance. as president trump has said, the chief goal of our trade policies is the prosperity of the american worker. to that end, we will pursue

economic engagement with china that prioritizes the economic well-being of the american people. we're also looking to make progress with china on areas of foreign policy. those that exercise influence over north korea's actions to dismantle their nuclear weapons and missile programs. whether it is using their authority on the u.n. security council or new leaders of power, china can be part of a new strategy to end north korea's reckless behavior and ensure security, stability and economic prosperity in northeast asia. yet even as we share a desire to work together and the united states does recognize the challenges china can present to american interests, we renew our strong commitments to our allies in asia and around the world who have been valuable partners in preserving shared values and security interests. similarly, the united states will protect our citizens and

our institutions against cyber attacks. on other areas of disagreement such as human rights and religious freedom, the united states will be firm in representing our core democratic values and advocating for the right of all people to live in freedom. the trump administration remains dedicated to working with china toward mutual goals of respect, security and prosperity. as we do so, we will not shy away from frank discussions which are necessary to narrow our differences. i hope president xi and the china chinese delegation enjoy their visit to the united states and we look forward to our visit with them. obviously, the events that have occurred in syria with the kept weapons attack here in the past day have just, i think, horrified all of us.

and brought to the front pages and to our television screens as well the tragedy that is part of the syrian conflict. there is no doubt in our minds and the information we have supports that syria, the syrian regime on on bashar al assad are responsible for this attack. and i think further, it is very important that the russian government consider carefully their continued support for the assad regime. >> sir, does assad have to go? >> assad's role in the future is uncerta uncertain. with the acts he has taken, it would seem there is no role for him to govern the syrian people. >> so what steps is the uted stes prepared to take? to remove him from power? >> t process by which assad would leave is something that requires an international community effort.

both to first defeat isis on within syria, to stabilize the syrian country, to avoid civil war, and then to work collectively with our partners around the world through a political process that would lead to assad leaving. >> will you and president trump, to international coalition to remove assad? >> no steps are underway. >> has trump already been talking about that with other leaders? >> is the united states considering new military strikes that there have been reports of today? >> we are considering an appropriate response for this kept weapons attack which violates all previous u.n. resolutions, long held agreements between parties, including the syrian regime, the russian government and all other members of the security council. it is a serious matter. it requires a serious response.

thank you. >> appreciate your time. thank you. >> secretary of state talking to reporters in west palm beach, florida. he is there with the president. ahead of the president's meeting with xi jinping, the president of china. he gave a brief statement about that meeting that will be ongoing this evening and thi afternoon. he was also asked about ria. he said two very interesting things. there's no dbt the syrian regime is responsible, according to u.s. officials, for the attack. he also said, and this is extremely notable. it is important for the russian government to consider carefully their support for the syrian regime. standing by, nbc chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell. what stood out to you? >> first, we just got off a back ground call with state department officials saying when

he goes to moscow next week, he will bring this up if russia is still denying assad's role. and did he speak with the official, lavrov, yesterday. and they have given message personally to the foreign minister that they cannot continue to deny assad regime was responsible for this kept attack, saying there has to be a response to the kept attack which he described as horrifying. he did not deny that military action is already in play and said that assad cannot continue to lead the syrian people and the attempt to change that already in play. so this has been a political process that has failed for years and years. we've had six years in failures in negotiations. the military situation has changed remarkably in the last year and a half because russia is now very importantly on the ground and in the air so now any military action would be infinitely more complicated now

than in 2013 when president obama decided not to take action after an even more massive kept attack. also on the china front where you know very well, this is a very traditional and consistent with past administrations, approach to this china summit in what was laid out. what you said from secretary tillerson and secretary mattis last week and other trips is a very consistent internationalist approach. support for nato, for instance, criticism of russia. we have yet to hear that from president trump. the other thing i quickly mentioned is they said they would bring up human rights in these conversations. it was not at all clear that was brought up when he was in beijing laying the foundation last week. >> all of this so striking. just a few days ago we watched rex tillerson respond to a syria question before this happened

saying how bashar al assad was the responsibility of the syrian people. whether or not he stays or he goes. are we watching the secretary of state learn on the job? >> either the secretary of state is learning on the job or he is being very cautious about not getting out front of a president who sengs tweeting and giving news briefing that's are not consistent with military policy. it is clear they've had meetings that general mcmaster is laying out a very different policy that is consistent with what secretary mattis has been saying and now what tillerson is saying and could mark the departure of steve bannon from foreign policy conversations. it was thursday in ankara, turkey, when secretary tillerson did say the future of assad is

up to the syrian people. they are finding themselves exactly where president obama was. yet they seem to be much more muscular and forward leaning on the possibility of military action. >> and a note for our viewers. we are taking a look at air force one right now. the plane steps being attached to the plane where president trump will be departing in a moment or so to go to mar-a-lago, what the white house likes the affectionately refer to as the winter white house. where he'll be having his first summit with the chinese president. talking about syria and russia, where does it leave the president now for his u.n. ambassador, nikki haley to speak so strongly and now to hear his secretary of state rex tillerson stay russian government needs to consider carefully their support. are those reactions coming at the behest of the white house? or is this something coming at

the behest of those would different departments, and are now influencing the president? >> we don't know. but we know this is what the national security team is saying with more consistency. you've heard it from tillerson. tillerson is going on tuesday to moscow and we've been told he will raise not tonight syrian issue and saying clearly that moscow must reconsider its denial that assad was involved, but that he will raise, and i asked the question, will he raise this with president putin. he will raise the question of putin's interference with the election, with the officials in moscow. there is probably, there you see secretary president trump -- excuse me, president trump with his wife melania.

>> the president has been in total again the investigation. we know how that has evolved, special when i the tweet ask changing the subject. what secre tillerson said is squint the intelligence conclusions from the prior administration. the briefers say he will bring this up in russia. if he is meeting with putin, he will bring this up with putin. the u.s./russia relationship will depend on their response to these core issues where they're inconsistent with international law. >> andrea mitch old what is and will continue to be an utterly fascinating day on the international stage. donald trump facing annul of global issues. not the leaf of what is napping syria but also meeting the chinese president for the first time. top on the agenda, north korea. that wraps things up for me. kate snow picks things up on a