you'll also have a busy afternoon. we'll talk later on. >> absolutely. >> thanks for that. breaking news. right now, the u.s. assessing damage after firing dozens of cruise missiles at a syrian airfield, targeting the regime of bashar al assad over suspected chemical attacks. violence in sweden's capital after a truck plows into a department store, causing deaths and injuries. this hour, the senate will hold its final vote to confirm judge neil gorsuch as the next associate justice of the supreme court of the united states. good morning, everyone. i'm ali velshi in a windy washington. as we follow breaking news, the u.s. firing of a barrage of missiles from the sea at a syrian air base in response to the horrific chemical weapons attack that killed roughly 100 civilians, including dozens of children. the pentagon saying 59 tomahawk cruise missiles were launched last night from two u.s. ships in the eastern mediterranean sea, targeting the shayrat

airfield. the missiles aimed at jets, aircraft shelters, radar equipment, ammunition bunkers, sites for storing fuel and air defense systems and a runway. the u.s. warning russia before it launched the missiles, which struck the airfield starting at 8:40 p.m. eastern time last night. president trump announcing the strike just after 11:00 p.m. eastern. >> using a deadly nerve agent, assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children. it was a slow and brutal death for so many. even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack. no child of god should ever suffer such horror. tonight, i ordered a targeted

military strike on the airfield in sya, from where the chemical attack was launched. >> now, this morning, syrian state tv showed what it claims was the aftermath of the u.s. strike. syr syria's state news agency also claiming nine civilians were killed in the attack, including four children. russia claims at least four syrian soldiers were killed in the attack. the initial u.s. assessment of the impact is at tthat the airf was severely damaged. that's one of the several stories we're covering this hour. hans nichols joining us live now. as always, in the initial hours after an attack, the details remain sketchy. what do we know about the nature of the u.s. strike, how it was decided upon, how it was carried out and what officials are saying this morning about whether it actually fulfilled any goals? >> in terms of goals, ali, it

looks like close to two dozen aircraft were hit on the ground. about the planning, what we keep hearing at the pentagon is about the speed with which this operation was approved. the same day it was presented to president trump, he approved it. that was just 72 hours after that chemical attack in syria. they want this attack to be proportional. this counterresponse to be proportional. that's another word we continue to hear here. also on this notion of letting the russians know through the deckoco deconfliction line, we know that russian personnel were on the air base that was targeted. as you mention, around 60 tomahawks were sent. there is an initial report that one of the tomahawks failed. their goal was to have about 59 hit targets. they're confident they did that. again, we're still waiting on the official and fuller picture of what's called a battle damage assessment. ali? >> all right. the big question now, after the

assessment, is what happens next? what's the strategy going forward? we're going to be talking to others about what the political strategy is at the white house on the hill. what's the military strategy? >> on isis, the military strategy will continue, right, and that's a separate campaign. they'll continue to fight against isis. the officials here at the pentagon are saying they will continue to deconflict with the russians. they want the line of communication with the russians to remain open so you don't have mishaps in the sky. remember, the strategy in syria, for the most part, is trying to defeat isis. what we don't know is fully flushing out what secretary tillerson said yesterday. that is that there is going to be a diplomatic effort underway -- underway was his quote -- to have a transition of assad from power. before, it seems the entire administration was signaling it was a political reality that assad would stay. that seems to have shifted.

to what extent these missile attacks are going to cloud the diplomacy, that's a key source of the inquiry today. ali? >> we, of course, are going to get into detail about what you're talking about, hans, the various groups and things they control in syria. thank you for that reporting. let's go to the white house. you see chris jansing standing by right there. not at the white house. at mar-a-lago in florida, where the president is meeting with chinese president xi jinping. chris, this all unfolded in the midst of president trump's summit with the chinese leader, where trade and north korea were supposed to be the focus. how did this all play into it? >> imagine the drama that there was. the president knowing exactly what was going on behind the scenes. this had been in the works for 72 hours. ere had been a series of meetings. one of them considered to be a long, in-deatpth, deep dive, on where the president asked a lot of questions. he knew it was going in this

direction at 4:00 yesterday afternoon. then they're going into dinner with president xi, saying good-byes. right from there, president trump goes into that secure room where there is classified information that is discussed. secretary tillerson is there. the nsc's mcmaster is there. there is a secure video feed that's coming in from nsc, national security team members who are still at the white house. and there is described as a confidence there, at least a cautious confidence, about what was going to happen. i can tell you that this morning, white house officials are feeling very good about the reaction that they have been getting from allies. they're feeling confident about the reaction they're getting from capitol hill. from people, for example, like republicans who have been critical of the president's foreign policy. you saw that joint statement from john mccain and lindsey graham, for example. however, having said all of that -- and i'm picking up on some of what hans said, the

unknowns that are still out there as this meeting with xi is just now getting underway at mar-a-lago -- he says, don't el estrapolate too much from what happened last night to what the president is going to do going forward. we're waiting for the press pool to go into the meeting with president xi. we're waiting to see if the president will have his first statement today on what happened yesterday. >> we're also waiting for senator mcconnell, who is going to speak shortly. he is going to talk about next steps possibly with respect to syria. he may be talking about the vote for neil gorsuch, which is supposed to happen within this hour. we will stay on this story. we'll get back to you, as well, chris jansing, at mar all lago. >> served as an ambassador under presidents george h.w. bush,

clinton, george w. bush and barack obama. he is the dean and professor at the george h.w. bush school of government and professor at texas a&m. also, the spokesperson to the units nations and served as the director for syria and lebanon. and jack jacobs is a military analyst and a medal of honor recipient. between the three of you, we should have a good idea of how we're supposed to think about this. there are political solutions to things. there are diplomatic solutions to things. and there are military solutions to things. having been involved in the obama administration, where diplomatic and political solutions have been tried and tried and tried, you seem to have come of the yield that this needs a military solution. >> absolutely. and i was actually always for that solution. i was at the white house from 2010 to the end of 2012, so that

included the first two years of the syrian crisis. at the beginning, you know, it was a very motivating topic to work on. we had called on assad to step down. we'd emptied the kitchen sink of sanctions. things were looking hopeful in terms of working with the opposition and pursuing a stable transition to democracy. things quickly festered after that, very quickly. in 2012 when the obama administration publicly insisted that we would not pursue military intervention under any circumstance, well, that was a carte blanche for president assad. this is a regime, both bashar al assad and his father, who only ever understand the threat of military force. without that, they will do anything. they will kill all of their people if it means the regime can retain tropical over tcontr

territory. in the 1990s, they were hosting terrorists bothering turkey. the turkish government asked assad to put an end to it. he didn't do anything until the turkish army lined their troops along the border. that's when he changed his mind. so the point of this is to say that bashar al assad is no different from his father. he only understands his language. for that reason, i think the strikes that were low cost to us and very targeted send a very strong message, that we're watching. we're watching closely. if bashar al assad dares do something else, president trump stands ready to make another move. >> it makes sense to talk to colonel jacobs a little more about that. i'll ask you to hang on for a second while i talk to ambassador crocker. ambassador, you have spent time there. do you concur with her evaluation, that we may have come to the end of the road in terms of diplomatic and political solutions involving e assad regime? >> i would say we're really at

the beginning of the road. finally, we have stepped up to a merciness slaughter of innocent civilians. we need to take this forward into a coherent policy. here's the contradiction. our action was widely praised around the world. certainly in the middle east itself, but turkey and saudi arabia. they praised us because we finally took action against the regime. now, if we treat this as a one off and back up and say, been there, done that, let's get on with the fight against isis, they're going to be pretty disappointed. we also run a risk of getting into moral ambiguity if we don't continue military pressure on the regime. what are we going to be saying? if you're killed by poison gas, by god, we'll get you, but if you're just killed by garden

variety barrel bombs, we won't. >> which is what they've been doing. senator mitch mcconnell just made comments on this. let's play it so we can talk about it. >> the strike was well planned. well executed. certainly more than a pinprick. sends a message, not only to assad, that using chemical weapons again is something he cannot do with impunityimpunity think it also reassures our sunni arab allies, that america is back in terms of playing a leadership role and trying to be constructive in a variety of different places around the world, as well as a message to iran and north korea and the russians. that america intends to lead again. i commend the president for this decision. i think it was entirely correct. >> all right. ambassador, let me go back to that. you make an interesting point. we saw the video. there is nobody on earth who couldn't be moved by pictures of

people dying after having been poisoned with chemical gas. but the assad regime started by firing guns into crowds of protesters and then dropping barrel bombs on them. this is a brutal, barbaric regime. how is it that we respond to one thing and then we have a more measured response if he stops using chemical attacks? >> well, that's entirely the point. we're not going to get anywhere good if we think that we can snap back, and certain statements from some in the administration suggests that is exactly what we're going to do. focusing on islamic state again but not on the assad regime, as he continues to murder his people by the tens of thousands. so there's an opportunity here. there's also a challenge, if we think wean go back to business as usual. >> colonel, let me talk a little bit about how we did this. hagar mentioned it was

relatively low cost to us. tomahawk cruise missiles from ships, not even u.s. aircraft. we do know we've got some ground troops in syria at the moment. but if we do what ambassador crocker is talking about and what hagar is talking about, what a lot of americans are talking about, get more involved, what does that look like? >> well, it doesn't necessarily have to include american troops. what is really needed is a multi-national coalition here. one of the operators we need to get on board are the russians. it's really interesting, one of the things secretary tillerson said, just kind of in passing, and it was one sentence, basically said to the russians, you guys are back in the wrong side. this may give us an opportunity behind closed doors to talk to the russians seriously about what they want out of this, what they're likely to get and what needs to be done in order to get it. the russians don't care about

assad. their interest lies in having influence there, in particular. they need those -- they're desperate for the two warm water ports they get. otherwise, their black sea fleet can't get out if there is a problem. they want that area. it remains to be seen what needs to be done to get them on board. at the end of the day, the united states can't do it alone. there isn't the political will to do it. we're not sending large numbers of americans in -- >> let me ask you, counselor -- >> -- into syria. >> i think you're right there. the russians have no particular love for assad. they do have a real love f their military bases in syria and a warm water port, which is on the west side. can't see it that clearly on the map but it is on the west side of syria, where the mediterranean is. there's just no -- i mean, do you see any possible situation in which russia gets to keep that and, yet, cooperate with

the united states in getting rid of the assad regime? >> it is difficult to see how that would happen, but it certainly needs to be an object i have of any kind of negotiations. we can't be the only ones involved. don't forget, it's one thing maybe to get the russians to say, yeah, we can cut a deal. iran is a completely different story all together. they're in it for something else all together different. so this is a very, very complicated, complex business with lots of moving parts on the ground and elsewhere in syria. it's been going on for a long time. it's been building for a long time. it's been going on for a long time. quite frankly, no matter what the united states does, it is going to go on for a long time more. but to rely solely on american military power hasn't worked in the past anywhere else, and it is not going to work here. >> hagar, to the point the colonel makes, iran has interests in here. you were in an administration where you successfully actually applied some leverage to iran. do we have that leverage?

we have to work on iran and russia here. do we have the leverage to get ir to either back off a little t and allow this regime to disappr, or are ty dug in about this? >> they are dug in about this. we certainly didn't have the leverage with iran regarding syria. we had the leverage with iran regarding the nuclear talks because of the sanctions imposed on them and they wanted it lifted. it was separate for them. their sponsorship of terrorism in the region and their destabilizing activity across the region and expansionist goals, that remains. if anything, we actually lost a little leverage in that regard because we didn't want to disrupt those nuclear talks. sorry, the joint comprehensive plan of action. i actually think what happened with the strikes puts us in a much stronger position of negotiating, as ambassador crocker said. i think his point about this being the beginning of dloiplomy

and diplomatic talks, i agree. that is spot on. the strikes put the united states in a position of power to pursue our national security interests in syria. and to pursue the strategy that the administration wants. personally, i think it should be safe zones to address the refugees, to give a place for the internally displaced to go. that helps address the refugee migrant situation across the world. at the same time, maybe we are coming from a position of power where we can twist russia's arm a bit more to make sure they get their interests, as colonel jacobs mentioned, regarding the warm water ports and the influence they have there. make sure their interests are, you know, taken care of through a partition of syria. that's my personal belief. i'm not sure what the administration is planning. >> thank you for a very thorough discussion on this to the three of you. ambassador crocker, counselor jacobs and hagar, we have much more to discuss but thank you for setting the context for us so we can understand it better. we have more breaking news

to discuss. now to stockholm where a large truck drove into a crowd and then crashed into a department store. officials say people were killed. several others injured. sweden's prime minister says everything indicates that this is a terrorist attack. for more, let's go to nbc's lucy, live in london, where she is keeping a close eye on this. what do we know? >> ali, the latest we're hearing is swedish policre saying no arres made yet in connection to the attack, contradicting earlier reports. that means if the driver of the truck is alive, presumably a manhunt is underway. here's what we have confirmed so far. we know that a large delivery truck plowed into a crowd of people on a busy shopping street in central stockholm this friday afternoon. it is a pedestrian street. no cars. would have been crowded and busy this time of day. the truck crashed into a department store. there's been amateur footage showing smoke rising into the air. police say three confirmed deaths so far.

swedish media reporting five. we have seen photos on social media of bodies on the ground. the swedish prime minister saying everything he's seen, as you say, indicates this was, indeed, a terror attack. now, the company that owns this truck, a beer delivery truck, said it was apparently hijacked earlier in the day. there were also unconfirmed reports of shots fired in the street. we saw footage of people running in a panic. not clear what that was related to. the u.s. embassy urging american sit seb citizens to avoid the a. the subway system at the moment is on lockdown. the trains halted. police ordered the evacuation of the central train station in stockholm. not clear why but it is a short distance from the shopping area. this comes two weeks after a car attack here in london at westminster. this is the security services worst nightmare. you can't prevent these attacks, and they are easy to carry out. >> as you mentioned, the beer truck was reported hijacked or

stolen. we're getting confirmation from the police that, in fact, it had been stolen to be used in this attack. lucy, thanks very much. we'll keep in touch on this story as more developing. lucy in london. lawmakers are calling on president trump to get congressional authorization for military action against syria. senate foreign relations committee member murphy joins me next. on capitol hill, the senate is expected to take its final vote confirms supreme court nominee neil gorsuch as an associate justice. vice president mike pen juce ju arrived on capitol hill. we'll give you the latest on the other side of this break. whoever threw it has to go get it. not me! somebody will get it... ♪ (dog barking) anyone can dream. making it a reality is the hard part. from the b-2 to the upcoming b-21, northrop grumman stealth bombers give america an advantage in a turbulent world.

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i want to show you a picture that sean spicer just tweeted out. it came from mar-a-lago. it is donald trump being briefed about the air strikes on syria. you can see in the picture jared kushner is there. rex tillerson is in there. h.r. mcmaster, the national security adviser. you can aays see him because he has a head like mine. and steve bannon is in that room, among many other people, as donald trump was being briefed. right after, apparently, he said good-bye for the evening to president xi and got his briefing. mixed reaction, by the way, to president trump's air strikes in syria coming in from capitol hill. full throated praise from some corners. to questions whether the strikes were legal. leaders on both sides of the aisle in the house and senate

appear to agree with the actions, generally, though nancy pelosi is calling on speaker ryan, for the house to come back into session. the house went into recess yesterday. to debate a new authorization for military force in syria. this was tried before in 2013. the house didn't even discuss or vote on the bill. speaking with our own kasie hunt in the last hour, senator john mccain, who has been calling for action in syria for years, described in very clear terms why he's in favor of the strikes. >> vladimir putin is a thug and a bully. he is complicit with bashar al assad and committing war crimes, slaughter innocent men, women and children with chemical weapons. i hope that the message is the only thing that vladimir putin, the bully and thug, understands. and that is, when you commit war crimes and help people commit war crimes, there is a penalty to pay. >> no mincing words on that one. joining me now, democratic senator chris murphy of

connecticut. a member of the senate foreign retions commtee. senator, thank you for being with me. i'm trying to make sense of what you saidearlier. i believe you said that an ill thought out military action with absolutely no overall strategy for syria risks dragging us further into a civil war. is that meant to be a criticism of last night's attack, or a criticism of not having a syria strategy? >> we're going to get a briefing at 1:00 from the administration on these attacks. but it is certainly a criticism of what seems to be a totally improvisational strategy with regard to the civil war inside syria. it is, frankly, not helpful to launch a small-scale attack against an airfield that may ultimately result in the escalation of military activity inside syria, and then continue a policy of denying exit from syria to the millions of children and parents who want to become refugees in europe or the united states. so i do think that this has to be viewed in the larger context

of a totally incoherent syria policy. we'll get more details at 1:00 on the exact nature of this particular strike. >> right. and i am glad you brought up the refugees and the civilians who are stuck in the middle of this. we'll be spending a good amount of time in the show discussing that. i want to ask you about what nancy pelosi called for. a return of congress to discuss the authorization of the use of military force. something congress wouldn't even touch the last time ound. so there is a lot of talk that goes around about how president obama didn't do anything. but congress did not allow any discuss of military force in syria in 2013. should congress have that discussion now? >> well, that's not exactly true. i'm a member of the foreign relations committee and we voted an authorization of military force out, as requested by president obama. i didn't support it, but we had a vote on it. it was pending before the senate when the deal was cut with the russians to try to move chemical weapons outside of syria.

the fact of the matter is it is hard to pass an authorization of military force in the middle east through congress. the constitution doesn't allow the president to move forward unilaterally because it is difficult to get authorization. there is good reason it is hard to pass the authorizations to use the military in the middle east because it normally goes wrong for the united states and our constituents are reluctant to durant the ex to grant the executive the power. i think the strike was illegal. we should be here this weekend debating an authorization for the use of military force because this might not be the end of the trump administration's military policy in the region. in fact, we know it isn't. he's put 500 additional troops inside syria since he was inaugurated. >> just to underscore your point, afghanistan, iraq, libya. it never works out correctly for the united states when we head down a road of regime change without knowing what steps two,

three, four through twelve are going to be. that can't be a reason not to do anything. >> well, it should certainly be a reason to step back and consider the impact of a strike on days two, three, four and five. right? i know sometimes it makes us feel good to use our enormous military power in the middle east, and sometimes we get short-term victories, right? we may have taken out some aircraft. we toppled the saddam hussein regime in iraq. in the end, because we had no political plan, it was much worse for us and much worse for the people in the region. >> what do we do now? we're six years into this. we're six years into a civil war which has created the largest humanitarian crisis in recent memory. people continue to flood out of there. it is not clear, we can put up the map on the screen but you're familiar wit. the syrian regime controls a small portion of syria. the kurds control a small

portion. people supported by us have a small portion of it. we have not done anything for years. >> it takes a lot to believe the united states of america can ultimately bring a settlement to a civil war inside syria. our focus should be on taking raqqah back from isis, on making sure that it is not a terrorist haven from which attacks can be launched against the united states. and having a real political and humanitarian approach to the crisis. remember, the trump administration has launched the air strikes but it effectively has seed theest to e russians. we have withdrawn from major humanitarian assistance to the people of syria. we can't militarily settle the civil war. our focus should be political, humanitarian and counterterrorism operations. >> thank you for sharing your views with us today. >> thanks, ali. >> senator chris murphy of

connecticut. we are going to take a look -- see the bottom corner of your screen, now the full screen, that is the senate. they've just started the vote. this is the actual vote on the nomination of judge neil gorsuch to the supreme court as an associate justice. caskasie hunt is nearby, i'm su following this. kasie, you there? >> hey, ali, i am here. i apologize. >> no problem. this vote has started. this, of course, is the last step in several that you and i started talking about yesterday. when this vote is concluded, if nothing unexpected happens, neil gorsuch will be appointed to the supreme court. >> we are expecting that that is the next step in this process, ali. there's no indication that the outcome is going to be something other than what we expect, which is this confirmation. we a we were just here for a press conference with mitch mcconnell, the senate majority leader, who obviously made the decision to take this path of action to confirm judge gorsuch with fewer

than 60 senate votes. this played out yesterday, the nuclear option. mcconnell thinks chuck schumer started it. he invented filibustering judges and this is taking the sen senate back to the clarence thomas nomination, a contentious nomination approved with fewer than 60 votes, below the threshold. that's the argument he is making at this point. there had been something of an expectation that mcconnell might be reluctant to do this because he has served in the senate for a long time and values the institution highly. but he flipped the argument around and said, we're going back to an older tradition. of course, we are expecting that by the end of today, judge gorsuch will be able to take a seat on the supreme court bench. ali? >> kasie, we will check back with you shortly. we're going to keep this very close to us. by the way, great with getting that conversation with john mccain earlier. he is never one to mince words.

kasie hunt for us at capitol hill. i'm joined by jeffrey rosin, law professor at george washington university. you and i last talked at an event where we were discussing merrick garland's nomination. it was looking like it was possible. it was likely to happen. now, today, we are going to see neil gorsuch, most likely, appointed as a associate justice to the supreme court. what happens next? >> that does seem like an age ago, doesn't it? >> yeah. >> he'll take a seat on the supreme court and will sworn in at least early next week, and he'll start hearing cases right away. the balance of the court will be much as it was under justice scalia, but he has the potential to transform the court and constitution for decades to come. >> we have two things we need to think about with neil gorsuch. one is that a number of the democrats who chose to oppose him said that he didn't answer their questions on what he thought about certain things.

he gave legal answers to them. you would have studied the answers. were they right or wrong? what's that argument about, he didn't give proper answers to the written questions? >> the democrats feel he dodged questions about anti-trust is and whether he'd uphold roe v. wade. his supporters would respond that previous nominees were similarly evasive. this was the last chance to question him. now the constitution is in his hands. >> he gave interesting answers. to a non-lawyer like me, he referred to where things would stand in terms of whether they were precedent, whether they'd be used to inform decisions of the court. they seemed like legally sound answers. the democrats were looking for opinions. >> i think that's exactly right. they kept saying, tell us about your policy views about whether abortion or euthanasia is a good thing. he said, i'm here to enforce the constitution and separate my personal views. that was the line he kept drawing. the main thing is th said, will you check president trump? he said, yes, if the president

issues executive orders that violate the constitution, i will be independent. he felt strongly about that. in the end, i think it was a fascinating confirmation hearing. viewers should read the transcripts. senator whitehouse gave this powerful vision of the constitution. mike lee and ted cruz gave a contrary vision. gorsuch embraced that vision more. there was a lot of substance in there. basically, we have a jeffersonian justice more likely to check the excesses of the president and congress more than justice scalia. likely to stand up for free speech in the fourth amendment. conservative in ways and more liberal in others. a strong check on the federal government. >> in a normal world, we would have been following every word of the hearing. we have nine breaking news stories all the time. but something happens in the white house since the presidency of george w. bush has been attempts by the white house to take more and more executive power. and just ify it legally. some say neil gorsuch was a part of that.

it happened under bush, a lot under obama and seems to be happening under trump. the white house thinks it gets to make decisions without the other branchs of government. >> that is a crucial trend in presidential power and you're right. it began with theodore roosevelt, who said the president could do whatever the constitution didn't forbid. it expanded under bush and obama. now, under president trump, conservatives, progressives and libertarians say this is going too far. as a judge, he's been ready to check president's regulatory power when he thinks it is not authorized by congress. in that sense, he is inclined to check president trump more than justice scalia would have been. >> we're keeping a close eye on theenate flooon the left side of your screen. we'll bring you the updates as they happen. up next, how the u.s. air strikes are going to have an impact on the syrian people. we'll take a look at whether president assad could retaliate against his own people because of this attack.

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my insurance rates are but dad, you've got... ...allstate. with accident forgiveness they guarantee your rates won't go up just because of an accident. smart kid. indeed. it's good to be in, good hands. live to pictures of the floor of the united states sen nats, where voting is underway. this is the final vote on neil gorsuch as an associate justice of the supreme court. we're keeping an eye on that. once the vote is done, we will tell you the outcome. we think we know what the outcome is going to be, but it is not our job to guess at it. we'll tell you what the actual numbers are and what happens in the end. we'll keep a close eye on that.

back to the other story we're covering. several competing factions and coalitions are controlling different parts of syria, and that creates a complicated situation for u.s. forces. frankly, anybody else trying to get a handle on what's going on there. i want to bring in msnbc's cal perry. nobody breaks this down better than he does. take us through this because it is hard to understand exactly what's going on. help us understand it. >> incredibly complicated situation. we'll start very quickly. look, this is the airfield. this helped control most of this part of e country. there are nine airfields currently under use by both russian and syrian forces. as we get deeper into this, this is a map you showed earlier in the program. this is, right now, how things stand. the dark red areas are regime controlled areas. you have the kurds in the north. this right here, this purple line is american troops. take a look at raqqah. that's your next big battle zone, raqqah. that's on the line here. you can expect u.s. troops to move in that direction. that gives you an idea of what a

mess syria is. when you look at these areas, these are contested areas. that's where john mccain would like to see the safe zones. as we go through this, you take a look at the different groups. these are all the different factions in syria. assad's regime. the rebel coalitions. jihadist groups. kurdish groups. add russia to the list. here's the assad regime. we talked about that. fangs factions in syria. look, they do not agree with each other. that is one of the problems when you look at what the u.s. is going to do. who they're going to side with when this group doesn't agree with this group. it is very difficult to sort of game this out, especially from a military perspective. these are your jihadist groups. this is al qaeda. last thing i wanted to show you, because this is very important, as we talk about the russians and as we talk about why the americans used cruise missiles, look, the russians have a basic no fly zone that extends all the way out to cypress here. the russians are in charge of a no fly zone.

that's why we didn't put american pilots in american planes. that's why we used the cruise missiles from the ships off the mediterranean, ali. >> we'll talk about bashar al assad, what he is like, what he thinks. you're one of the few people that's talked to him. tell me about bashar al assad. >> i interviewed him a number of times. this is from 2008. interviewed him also in2010. spoke to him in early 2011. this was a man that gave interviews that said he wanted to spreeak directly to the israelis. he made news in 2008 saying he wanted to talk directly to the israelis. it was going to be a moment in middle east peace. never happened. in 2011, as you mentioned, and i think this is really, really important that we explain this to the viewers, what happened in 2011 is people took to the streets. they were calling for reforms. they were not calling for assad to be ousted. in a little town here along the border, there was a massacre, a funeral, 15 people were killed. i was there and saw it with my own eyes.

ever since that day, april of 2011, things went out of control. people asked for assad then to be removed. it was that violence, the way the army took to the streets that really brought things to their knees, ali. >> thanks for giving us claret -- clarity. we'll need to talk a lot about this. joining me now is a journalist who has reported in the middle east, on the middle east, for five years. she's the publisher of syria deeply. if you have not seen it, you have to see it. it is a site that provides in-depth coverage of the war. with me here in washington, fred kemp, a journalist who worked at the wall street journal for 25 years. ran its editorial operations in europe and the middle east. now president and ceo of the non-partisan atlantic council. welcome to both of you. thank you for being with us. laura, great to see you but tragic because you tell the other part of this story. the part of the story that's about the civilians, the refugees, the people who we've really forsaken in the last six years of this civil war.

just paint a picture for us as to how bad this is. >> absolutely. the last secretary general, ban ki-moon, called them scenes that haunt the soul. you have children starving. you have hospitals under attack. you have terrible abuses from all sides of this conflict. the past six years of the war in syria is a constantly degrading life situation for the syrians inside their country and those who fled. about half of the syrian population, 10 million people, have left their homes. just about 5 million of them left the country completely to neighboring countries. you have 3 million people in turkey. you have almost a quarter o the lebanese population now is syrian refugees. inside syria, there are 3 million children under the age of 6 who have known nothing but this war. some people in the advocacy community saying they're permanently damaged by toxic stress. some of them have been physically injured. some have seen their parents

killed. really, this sense of irreparable damage to the people of syria. there have been tactics known as starvation or submission, where government forces will basically surround an area and prevent food from getting in until the area surrenders. so you have just war crimes from the government, war crimes from isis and, you know,c cal perry describe all the parties fighting this war. there are over 100 different small armed militias in this conflict. bring them all to agreement to end the suffering of syrian people, there is a reason it's been hard to figure this out. it is complicated. there are millions of people suffering in the meanwhile. >> fred, you were actually in conversation with some of those people, with some of those opposition groups. it is hard to make sense of it. they have different motivations. the sands shift. they change allegiances sometimes for different reasons. tell me what your sense is of the liable opposition to the assad regime. >> i will do that.

first of all, ali, i want to really salute laura for the work she's doing. the atlantic council has been at the forefront of this, as well. we met by coin dencidence with former prime minister this morning. he did one of the bravest things you can do, which is defect from assad early on, and he is the lead negotiator for the opposition. he said three things that are important. the thing is that obama sacrificed the syrian people to his iranian nuclear netiations. they feel that very deeply. in order to get these talks going, they didn't want to act against iran in syria. the second thing he said was that president trump, in one action, has done more to save lives in syria than obama did in seven years. he turned his words into deeds. he changed the rules. then came the warning. which is, if that's all he does, things will become even worse because the opposition is weak on the ground because it hasn't had safe zones. and sassad will almost be compelled to take more

horrendous actions, if that is magimaginabl imaginable, against the opposition to show the u.s. is one and one out. if that is the case, you don't do what the prime minister wanted, which is a diplomatic, military and political follow up, that puts the u.s. back in the geneva talks toward a political solution. everyone sees the political solution as the only way out. but the u.s. has been a non-player. john kerry had no leverage when he came to the talks. now we have leverage. >> laura, ambassador crocker earlier in the show said something along the lines of what fred is saying. the danger is we send in tomahawk missiles because there was a chemical attack, but most syrians have not died at the hands of a chemical attack. they've died from what cal said, the first opening fire on protesters, barrel bombs, starvation, all of these other things. so it is kind of interesting how you square that circle. where is the line at which we decide we're involved versus the generalized suffering that has killed millions and caused

millions to leave syria? >> it is purely a question of political will. we didn't have it before, and we seem to have it now under president trump's administration. there have been other chemical attacks documented by the opcw, the opcw, the u.n. linked watch dog meant to prevent these attacks. in august and september of last year. 2014 and earlier. ever since the last time i was on in 2013, there have been a sequence of more of them, and we're talking about this one now because the u.s. chose this moment to act. so to the syrian mind, there is no reason why this attack was worse than others. they have seen devastation and cruelty attributable to what they're calling flatout war crimes. when you attack hospitals and medical providers, you don't just kill a few, you leave a

community to suffer without medical care. they're glad we're paying attention now, but it has been going on a long time. >> you, not for a single day, have taken your eye off of this global tragedy. thank you for what you have done with syria, deeply. fred, thank you for your input on this, we're going to be talking more about this topic. also, we're keeping an eye on the bottom right part of the screen, the florida of the united states senate where the confirmation of judge neil gorshugo gorsuch is under way. we're going to take a break, the results hopefully when we come back. re using smart traps to capture mosquitoes and sequence their dna to fight disease. there are over 100 million pieces of dna in every sample. with the microsoft cloud, we can analyze the data faster than ever before. if we can detect new viruses

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all right, there we are at the supreme court, sorry, no, that is the floor of the united states senate where they are wrapping up the vote for neil gorsuch as a associate justice at the supreme court. the voting has to completely stop, and the vice president, the president of the senate, the vice president of the united states, announces the result of the vote at which it is official. it is not official until that

point. now what we understand is that enough votes have been cast so that it would go through, but it has not concluded and it will not conclude until vice president pence makes the announcement that the vote tally is finished and judge neil gorsuch will become associate justice supreof the supreme cou. but they will have a swearing in on maybe monday? >> yeah, once she sworn in, he can take his seat and start hearing cases as early as next week. >> is there anything he has to do before that? he gets shown his office. >> he gets a commission signed by the president. there is a chamber in waiting. he hired transitional law clerks to help him out and get ready to roll. he will hear briefs, some will be reargued so he will have a

vote, but some cases we're about to hear like some about religious liberty and so forth may come out differently. >> is there a learning curve? >> there is a learning curve for anyone. senator who wishes to change his or her vo? if not, on this vote, the ayes are 54, the nays are 45, the nomination of neil m.gorsuch of colorado to be a associate judge of the supreme court is confirmed. >> 2017, neil gorsuch named to the united states supreme court. the vote, 54 in favor, 45 against. that means we had a couple

democrats that voted in favor of the appointment. we expected that to happen, any learning curve for him. >> it is a completely new experience. he is as qualified and prepared as you can be, but it is just drinking from a fire hose. the white house right behind us, this will be one of the most important things that president donald trump does in his term of office. this will have significant impacts for decades to come. a huge and transformative moment for the country and it is really remarkable that after the most partisan battle in memory, perhaps history, we now have a new justice. >> what is the first case you're looking at that people will be interested in. >> the trinity lutheran case will be held next week. can you use public money to have funds for religious school and religious liberties are closely contested. justice gorsuch cares a lot about religious liberty.

we'll see if justice gorsuch wants to be more colloperative. >> the united states, it is a tremendous honor for me and all of my representatives to host the president and his representatives. and again, progress has been made, thank you very much. thank you. >> what about the strikes on syria? >> thank you very much. thank you all. thank you. [ speaking in foreign language ]

good day, i'm andrea mitchell in washington. president trump is winning wide spread praise from most members of congress and leaders around the world for u.s. air strikes in syria as you're watching a photo opportunity, this is not live, it is being played back from mar-a-lago. the big exceptions to the praise russia, syria, and iran. the u.n. national security council is meeting at this hour lead by nikki hailey on the syria question, and now we have a new supreme court justice. neil gorsuch is now confirmed. the vote was 54 to 45, announced by vice president pence sitting in the chair of