tv MSNBC Live MSNBC April 8, 2017 2:00pm-3:01pm PDT
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the kremlin. russia now suggesting the chemical attack that brought world outrage, the one that moved president trump to carry out air strikes after seeing images like thyseese was not rey a chemical attack. sergey lavrov told rex tillerson today the assertions about the syrian armed forces using chemical warfare are not consistent with the reality. nbc white house chief correspondent hallie jackson is in florida for us. so secretary of state tillerson heading to russia this coming week. any response during his phone call today? >> not at this point. it was very frank, tough talk to the secretary of state and it certainly sets the table for what you are talking about which is that very important now increasingly important meeting next week when secretary of state tillerson heads to moscow. we've seen him take on a more visible role before and since that air strike on syria.
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and the relationship. how this plays out now with not just foreign minister lavrov but vladimir putin is going to be essential. it's an interesting development on this saturday and one that the president is likely monitoring from mar-a-lago after an incredibly busy 42, 78 hours of his young administration. >> tell me more about this letter that the white house sent to congress today. >> yeah, this is a separate letter. and this was essentially the president making his case to house speaker paul ryan and the rest of congress essentially based on the war powers resolution about why he decided to take military action in syria. he says i acted in the vital national security and foreign policy interest of the united states pursuant to my constitutional authority to conduct foreign relations in order essentially he says to protect the u.s. this is very similar. it's echos of what we heard him say in that address to the nation thursday night. just hours after he ordered the launch of that air strike in northern syria. what this does is sends -- it is
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something he needs to do. the members of congress have wanted him to do. explain why he took this military action. you heard even some supporters of the strike back on capitol hill say they wish the president had consulted with them first. had come to congress first. now you hear some members of congress saying they want to know what the president's plan in syria going forward will be. the president alludes to that in this letter but i think what members of congress out on recess now, once they get back and even during recess will be calling to see a strategy, to see details of that strategy outlined by president trump. again, this is a place where rex tillerson is going to play a critical role as well as vice president mike pence who has often been a liaison and will be communicating in the foreign policy realm as well. >> have you heard anything about the timing of this? for instance, if this letter was put out because the president was getting backlash saying, look, this wasn't legal. >> right. >> you know, baseod our reporting that does not seem to be the case. it appears this is something the
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president might have sent out regardless. we don't have much guidance on that at this point. this is something we have seen when military action happens. members of congress call for it. the president appears to be looking to assuage some of those concerns particularly to republicans in his own party. people like senator mike lee who talked about wanting this consultation with congress. house speaker paul ryan and hawks in the gop, people like senator marco rubio, john mccain, lindsey graham had no issues with the president doing this. they believe he was in his legal authority to do this. >> interesting now, like you said, they are in recess. not necessarily hearing from them as much as we'd like to. hallie jackson, thank you for joining us. nbc news national security producer courtney in washington for us joining us to follow up on this. any reaction yet from the intel community on russia's doubts that chemical weapons were used? >> despite the fact the u.s. military and u.s. government didn't do any direct independent
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testing of anything from the site so they could have some conclusive, definitive prove that a nerve agent was used, they cited the world health organization yesterday in a briefing. the u.s. military did. and nbc news was first to report earlier this week that the u.s. military had radar imagery showing a syrian aircraft taking off from that base, that airfield outside of homs and taking off and dropping some sort of a munition in the town. and then within five to ten minutes of that dropping, people on the ground started to show signs of some sort of a nerve agent. and then soon after that, of course, another aircraft came in and struck the hospital where those victims were being treated. what the military would point to with the specific evidence they have from the air that that munition that was dropped had some sort of chemical agent is it left a staining around the crater and there was no fragmentation in the nearby buildings or anything that could
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indicate an explosive ordnance that dropped and exploded. >> looks like they're saying, according to us, this was likely a chemical attack. you wrote that top military officials know who is behind assad's chemical attacks, but are they pinpointing russia? >> they definitely are confident the syrian regime was behind the attack. what they don't know is whether russia was directly involved or whether they were complicit by the fact they knew most likely that bashar al assad still had chemical weapons and was potentially going to use them in this specific instance. so one thing that the u.s. military is still looking into, they are assessing whether the attack on the hospital that i mentioned. so after the initial munition was dropped with the chemicals, with some sort of a nerve agent, soon after that, a uav, a drone went over the hospital where the victims were being treated and then soon after tharkts a fixed wing aircraft came in and bombed that hospital. what the military, the u.s. military does not know is that
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uav was russian made and so was the fixed wing aircraft but were they actually russian piloted or were they just bought from the russians by the syrians? and it was the syrians who were involved. the one thing that the u.s. military seems confident on is that by virtue of just the fact the russians were involved in the 2013 effort to get rid of all of assad's chemical weapons, the military seems confident that the russians were complicit in this attack just by virtue of the fact they didn't stop assad from having chemical weapons and there must have been the fact they were commingled at this base where the aircraft took off from that dropped munitions, the russians must have known something was going on and didn't do anything to stop it. >> complicit. and also i want to ask you this last question. we have a couple seconds left. president trump this afternoon tweeted about not hitting run ways at the syrian air base. is there credence to his view there's a reason not to target those strips? >> one practical reason is just when you hit a runway, it's
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pretty easy to fix. you just fill it in with cement and cover it up. it's inexpensive and quick. the tomahawks they were launching, 59 of them, they run from $1.5 million to $2 million a pop. just on a practical matter. it's not an effective use of an advanced ordnance like a t-lam. and beyond that, like i said it was a commingled base. they wanted to make this targeted. they didn't want to do anything that could specifically target the russian military that's commingled on the base. they wanted to hit the assets involved in this chemical attack on april 4th and not do anything that could be seen as striking out at the russians there on the base. >> more of a show of force versus something very targeted that will have ramifications that would ripple out over weeks. having some sort of strategy. courtney, thank you for joining me. i want to bring in nbc news
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senior political editor beth fouhy and owen olman, world news editor at "usa today." lynette, you were shaking your head here at the table when courtney was talking about russia being complicit in all of this. but also sort of the denial coming out of the russia camp. >> this is classic russian propaganda. the kremlin spin game. they're just playing it with a different player and don't have a different strategy to counter trump. this is what we've seen from russia time and time again. sowing doubt. if you watched rt today or any of the red or watched any of the russian media here in the united states, their line was this attack wasn't even that effective and trump has no business doing this and he's helping isis. so this is going to be the other argument that we're going to hear around the world from people who are more aligned with the kremlin. this is old news. we've seen this before. the question is, how is trump's administration going to respond? is it going to respond in a very
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chill obama, i can hear what you're saying but we're going to do our thing way, or is he going to respond like -- >> chill. >> exactly. and that's why we're in the middle of a very interesting thing here. it seems like trump's foreign policy doctrine is three words. i'll show them. and that's scary. >> you bring up the extremist mentality and a conversation and telephone call we had the translation of between rex tillerson and sergey lavrov. they talk about ow sergey lavrov said, look, this -- all this does is strengthen the extremists what you did. >> right. and that gets right to trump's -- under trump's skin because if there's any doctrine we've seen from trump it's get rid of the extremists. get rid of the terrorists and that's got to be america's foreign policy. no regard for any other objectives other than that. for russia it does seem to be getting under the skin of somebody who is not chill, like obama, typically, and it also sets up a very interesting
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meeting we know rex tillerson will be going over there to moscow this week to meet, the first big meeting between these two governments in person since the chemical weapons attack, not to mention since president trump came into office. so now it's on rex tillerson to see how he can smooth the way from clearly a very big disagreement between these two governments and a real confrontation over an incredibly important place in an unresolvable civil war that russia and the united states both had strong interests in now. >> owen, secretary of state tillerson has a tough job ahead of him. >> you could say that. that's an understatement. there's no more complicated war in the world right now than syria with a number of world powers involved. dozens or hundreds of rebel groups. a really bad guy who is in charge. and the russians are right now defending him and trump does not have a syria policy.
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he did an ad hoc symbolic strike the other day that has a lot of support around the world. but until he saw the photos of these people hit by chemical weapons, he really wasn't focusod the syria strategy. so tillerson has a huge problem on his hands when he meets with president putin in moscow. >> owen, withior experience, do you think there's any possibility that russia would do an about-face if a carrot was dangled at this meeting? >> you know, trump did an about-face when he suddenly changed from basically saying maybe assad could stay to saying the guy has to go. i do think that russia could do an about-face. they put out a statement after the chemical attack noting that support for assad was not unconditional. that told me there was a little
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wiggle room for them to get rid of assad, but the question is, what will the u.s. offer as a carrot to get russia to divorce itself from assad and maybe put someone else in there. so that's going to be a very tough negotiation. and right now the u.s. has not really given the russians a reason to abandon assad. >> we spoke to hallie earlier. you heard the interview. she talked about this letter that the president put out to the congress. should we read anything into the timing of all of this? >> i think that everybody says this is a distraction, that's a distraction. trump is doing this. trump is doing that. what we're dealing with here say very inexperienced administration. and this is something that worries me going into the tillerson/putin conversation. this is an inexperienced administration. trump did something by the seat of his pants. he sent this letter to clear it up to congress. now he set an interesting precedent. a precedent where we have an
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inexperienced president who feels he can take action without speaking to congress. and we need to have a debate about that in this country as soon as possible because if this escalates, do you want a donald trump that doesn't go to congress n doesn't ask for their permission and doesn't engage in debate with them? no. that's not what you want at all. >> do you think there's any possibility that donald trump and president trump and his administration is second-guessing themselves after this decision? >> doesn't seem -- that is something that donald trump does not do, second-guess himself. they are getting widespread -- >> i bring that up. you have the letter coming out. you have the russians saying it wasn't a chemical attack. is there a chance? >> to be -- i'm going to disagree a little. this letter seemed more strategic than what you're describing. he is using the opportunity to -- he's supposed to send the letter after an act like this anyway to congress explaining why he did it. this is a chance for him to once again assert this was in the vital national interest of the united states to do what he did. he said that in his address to
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the nation the night of the attack and he's saying it again now. he's throwing it down and not saying it wasn't just me being sad that i saw these upset pictures. this is actually in our strategic national interest to have done this. and that is, you know, he is stepping up, doing the opposite of second-guessing himself. he's acerting that there was a real role to play for the united states here on behalf of the united states citizens, not just to react to the chemical attack. >> the letter was like strangely normal. that was the thing. and the thing about this entire syria attack or bombing, it is not that controversial really. we're talking about something that obama was trying to do. trump did it. >> but controversial in the tactic that he took, right? very controversial in the tactic. according to washington, that is. and controversial in the problems that it could create in the region. >> obama tried to build a coalition and get congress behind him to do this exact thing. now trump do an obama thing in a
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very non-obama way. it raises a little hair on the back of my spine. >> is trump going to be fought the fire and changing his strategy on syria in regards to how he deals with them militarily and deals with syrian refugees? >> well, the syrian refugee problem is a really big one because, keep in mind, he lamented the tragedy of the syrians hit by nerve gas but under his temporary ban if that were kept in force, rather than on hold by the courts, those babies would not be allowed into the united states for treatment. so there is a contradiction there. i would say based on what you were talking about earlier about the strike, this may be the single most successful act that trump has taken in his young presidency in terms of political support. has lots of support around the world.
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lots of support by the american people. when has he done anything that hillary clinton said he should do? so i would not underestimate the success of this. it was a limited, symbolic strike. it has not gotten the u.s. further into this complex war. he has to devise a syrian policy, which he doesn't have yet, but i think what he did politically and strategically actually has a lot of broad support and actually, as your commentators noted, was something that obama might have done. perhaps obama should have done earlier. >> beth, he hurt his pace here. much of his base is upset about this decision to lay down the strike. >> we'll see. >> he was about nationalism. now it seems like he's changing his tune. >> certainly some pulling -- people rally around the president at a time of a national security crisis.
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you'll see members of his base rally. we've seen his alt-right base not be happy with this. a big piece of the coalition that supported him in the media and online. it's a huge part of his backing. but at the same time, we'll probably see a big bump in the polls for donald trump after this. >> we'll have to see, right? beth, linette, owen, thank you all for joining me. more on russia's response to the air strikes in syria and how it will play into rex tillerson's trip to russia next week. (vo) pro plan bright mind
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welcome back. the u.s. air strike in syria further complicates the cloudy relationship between the u.s. and russia. this as secretary state of rex tillerson is set to visit moscow next week. today tillerson spoke on the phone with russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov. inauguration to discussing the air strikes, lavrov emphasized russia's view that attacking a country like syria whose government is fighting against
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terrorism plays into the hands of extremists creating more threats in the region and the world. bill neely joining us from moscow. >> no question this visit by rex tillerson to moscow will be significant, and it will also be a challenge for rex tillerson. even though he's known here and even though he was personally honored in the past as a businessman by vladimir putin. he's due to meet the russian foreign minister sergey lavrov. will president putin signal his displeasure at the united states by refusing to meet rex tillerson. he needs to tread a fine line. he wants to be tough od tell the russians exactly why the u.s. launched those missiles on that air base. but he also wants to accomplish one of the key aims of donald trump's foreign policy which is better relations with russia, and that has to start with this,
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his first visit here. he's already been pretty tough with the russians. so there could be a frosty reception. a couple of days ago, he said russia was either compliceit in syria's chemical weapons program or incompetent because it didn't know that syria had chemical weapons at that base. tough words from him. he will come here from the g7 gathering in italy. and he will want to bring here a united message from the west. interestingly today, the british foreign secretary boris johnson who was due to come here at the beginning of next week has canceled that visit saying that he wants a clear and coordinated message to be sent to the russians. and that message will now be delivered by rex tillerson himself. the russians, well, they have been delivering their own messages again today. the foreign ministry spokeswoman
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has been on russian television talking about rex tillerson's visit and talking about that air strike. and she said the air strike is not part of washington's strategy because washington lacks a strategy in syria. and she said the only thing that's predictable about america's policy at the moment is the unpredictability of its foreign policy. and there will be some in the american foreign policy establishment and beyond who will be agreeing in part with that because that missile strike was a tactic. it was sending a message to the russians but it doesn't represent a strategy. so donald trump still has to convey to the world, never mind the russians, what he wants to do in the long term. what is his political, diplomatic strategy toward president assad, towards ending the war in syria. those are questions he hasn't yet answered. those are questions that the russians will be asking rex tillerson when he comes here
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next week. yasmin? >> bill neely, thank you. joining me now, michael baker, former cia operative. and retired green beret scott mann. we just heard bill talk about foreshadowing what might take place between secretary of state rex tillerson and his sort of russian counterparts. he talks about how tillerson needs to come to the table. he's got a difficult road ahead of him. he's got to explain why it is they leveled these strikes but at the same time try to get them to understand they need to cooperate here. >> it's a little bit rich. it's almost as rich as the iranians lecturing us on international norms and how to behave and to listen to lavrov and his cohorts in the putin regime talk to us about proper behavior. look. there should be no misunderstanding. i spent a long time in operations in the cia. and the idea that somehow the
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russians were naive about what the syrian capabilities were when it comes to chemical weapons is ridiculous. >> you don't buy it? >> of course i don't buy it. this idea that -- and also them talking about us not having a strategy. their only strategy, the russians' only strategy is to maintain their core for their black sea fleet. that's their particular interest. the russians always act in their own best interest. what we have to understand is by doing this, by taking action, and we took action against a chemical weapons attack. the intelligence was solid about the syrian involvement in this. syrian government involvement. if you don't act against a chemical weapons attack, not just syria but around the world, you are essentially normalizing that behavior. so the fact that we would even care what the russians who are the complete enablers of assad at this point. the fact we'd care what the russians think at this stage of the game. we have to factor in their involvement and factor in what that means for down the road,
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but we should be paying almost no attention to lavrov and his cohorts again. >> michael says the intelligence was solid. that was a chemical weapons attack. russians are saying it's not solid. that was not a chemical weapons attack. and this strike was unjustified. >> i think michael is spot on. i spent my life as a combat adviser. and the fact that that base is covered up with russian combat advisers and for them to say, you know, that they were unaware of it or it wasn't a strike is patently ridiculous. there's just absolutely no way that they couldn't have known that. so i agree with michael wholeheartedly on that. >> i want to talk to you about sort of developing security in that region. there's a lot of players that need to be involved in this. russia is one of those players. hence the reason this meeting next week is so important for the secretary of state. along with russia is iran. another huge player. and china who the president just met with. how do you develop an alliance in that way when you're so at odds with countries like russia,
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china and iran? >> and you are absolutely right to point all this out. obviously, and this has been the problem, certainly perplexing the previous administration in the u.s., over how to respond. how to act. because it became more and more complicated over the years with the involvement of the iranians and then of the russians. but the endf day, what we have to remember is that the russians will always, and i keep repeating this over and over again because it's true. the previous administration and the bush administration, they've always played put ip wrong. if all you think about is he's always going to do what's in his best interest, think about what they want there. >> because that's what you think. he's always -- >> that's the way he is. that's the way he's behaved. if all you do is look at case study after case study of what putin's actions have been. if you take him at his word. the collapse of the soviet union. the greatest catastrophe of the 20th century. he said that and meant it. look at syria. his only concern is maintain something military influence in syria, right, to -- and it
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doesn't matter if it looks like assad or something else. so if he believes, if he reacts to this missile strike in his calculation, we're serious about this, we've changed because you can't allow the normalization of chemical weapons use. then he'll come to the table. at the end of the day, he doesn't care whether it's assad or anybody else. he cares about that port. he cares about having some level of influence in syria or maintaining some level of influence in the region. and he'll get to that table and play the game if we're tough enough to maintain that line. >> if there's a big enough carrot, he'll bite? >> yes. >> colonel, what about developing a bigger coalition. president trump does not have necessarily a good repitation on the international stage but he has to build a reputation to support hims in strategy, whatever his strategy is in approaching syria. how is he going to go about doing that? >> i think there is potential for a coalition. certainly jordan, egypt, saudi arabia and the western powers, i
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think, will come on board with this. one of the cautions i have, i do believe, while i think this strike was proportional and needed we need a policy and strategy that's worthy of the courageous men and women that are going to implement it. we need to take a look at iraq and afghanistan and this whole regime change thing. that's f that if that's the road we go down we need to think broader and deeper beyond when the dust clears. that's one thing we've not done well. whatever coalition we put in place, we need to ensure we're prepared to do the long haul on this. because think about a strategy that's going to require post regime change iraq and syria. this is not something we can be casual about at all. and who is in that coal cision really going to matter. >> michael, you want to weigh in. >> scott is absolutely correct on that point. i would also say the two things. two things to keep in mind. when it comes to verifying, to assessing and verifying the weapons cape annuabilitcapabili
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state that is hostile to our interest, it is a very, very heavy lift. it's an extremely difficult task. and it's proven out in syria because just a couple of years ago, we were told that -- >> a level of trust is involved. >> it's also more the operational side of actually verifying what's happening on the ground. we were told the chemical weapons were out of syria. thanks to the russian involvement. i'd ask people to be aware of that fact in also considering the problem we've got with iran. scott referred to iran. the fact we have this iranian nuclear deal that's based, according to secretary kerry in the past on verification. it is the most difficult aspect of this whole program. what we're seeing in syria, i would argue, we've got the same problem with iran and their nuclear deal. >> i feel the two of you have solutions for this problem but don't necessarily want to put it out there directly because you don't want to be held accountable for it. maybe you'll -- >> i am perfectly -- i suspect
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scott and i are both perfectly happy to be accountable. >> any time. >> next time we'll talk about the exact solutions. if you have it, then, hey, what else have we got? >> michael baker and lieutenant colonel scott mann. the unimaginable effects chemical weapons can have. when heartburn hits, fight back fast with tums smoothies. it starts dissolving the instant it touches your tongue. and neutralizes stomach acid at the source.
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welcome back. a lot of news to cover today. new developments on the deadly truck attack in sweden. a device was uncovered in the hijacked vehicle but they're not saying what exactly it is. they've apprehended the driver identifying him as a 39-year-old man from uzbekistan. sweden's chief of police is not ruling out the possibility of multiple suspects in friday's attack. today the crown princess and prince visited the site. keir simmons has more. >> reporter: good day to you. multiple developments today including that news that the police do believe that they have arrested the driver of the vehicle. reports unconfirmed say that the suspect is a 39-year-old from uzbekistan who had previously
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posted jihadist propaganda online. this is a picture now of the scene today. you can see where the truck slammed into that department store. the truck has now been removed. it traveled five blocks along the pedestrian street you c see there killing a maiming people who are going about their ordinary lives on a friday afternoon. ten people, including a child, are still in hospital. four people were killed. yasmin, five blocks in the other direction this way is the stockholm parliament. so comparisons will be made with that attack last month in london. again at near the british parliament and an attack the prime minister here has said is an attack on democracy. the police will be trying to figure out whether this was the intended target, what the motives were and whether this attacker was acting alone or had
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others working with him. >> our thoughts are with the victims of that attack. nbc's keir simmons, thank you. next, we talk to a doctor who has treated victims in syria, and he shares his stories with us. i was a doer. i was active. then the chronic, widespread pain drained my energy. my doctor said moving more helps ease fibromyalgia pain. she also prescribed lyrica. fibromyalgia is thought to be the result of overactive nerves. lyrica is believed to calm these nerves. woman: for some, lyrica can significantly relieve fibromyalgia pain and improve function, so i feel better. lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions or suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worsening depression, or unusual changes in mood or behavior. or swelling, trouble breathing, rash, hives, blisters, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling, or blurry vision. common side effects are dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain and swelling of hands, legs and feet. don't drink alcohol while taking lyrica. don't drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you.
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those who have had a drug or alcohol problem may be more likely to misuse lyrica. with less pain, i can be more active. ask your doctor about lyrica. i can be more active. at planters, we put fresh roawhich has its drawbacks.an, guys, know anything about this missing inventory? wasn't me! the cheeks don't lie, chet... irresistibly planters. imagine if the things you bought every day earned you miles to get to the places you really want to go. with the united mileageplus explorer card, you'll get a free checked bag, 2 united club passes... priority boarding... and 50,000 bonus miles.
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welcome back. i'm yasmin vossoughian. this week's chemical attack in syria was one of the worst in the country's history, and it drew's world's attention. heartbreaking images emerged showing children gasping for air, parents clutching their dead children and aid workers trying to save lives. joining us is nbc news medical correspondent dr. john torres. thanks for joining me. the russians are now contending this was not a chemical attack. from what you can see. >> it's hard to think of anything else. some of the symptoms they're showing are very typical for this type of attack. their pupils are very pinpoint and that only happens a couple of times, and it particularly happens when they get that nerve agent attack. on top of that, no other external injuries. it doesn't appear to be any kind
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of bomb or anything else that might have killed these people. what you're hearing from witnesses are what you hear here. their clothes are contaminated so rescue workers were getting the effects of the nerve agent as well and people were lying all over the place. people run away. they all of a sudden just drop. people were sleeping and don't wake up because of this. this is very typical of that. we might not know exactly what kind it is, but from all the symptoms you're seeing, and the witnesses, what they are telling, it's all very typical for nerve agent exposure. >> what's the reach of nerve agent. how far does it go? >> it depends on the kind of nerve agent. this is droplets in the air. so it takes a lot because it has to get to a wide area. and depending on the wind, how far they drop it from if there's rain going on it can hit a wide area or narrow area. these agents are very, very toxic. one drop can actually kill a man. you can imagine with a child, it can be even worse because their bodies are smaller and they
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react more to these exposures. >> the sad truth of some of the images is people knew how to treat it, how to get it off people's body. we saw water and clothes being torn off. you've been trained. >> in the air force i was trained, partf a medical unit wher'd practice decontaminating people. one of the first things is decontaminate them. if you go in there and touch that you can get exposed and you're down as well. these people know how to do that which means they've had experience like it because they're not trained like i was medically. what does that say about what's going to in their lives. they are living this every day and it happened again. >> compared, if a attack were to happen -- it happened in syria and that same attack were to happen here domestically in the united states, are we better prepared to deal with something like this versus the medical professionals there? >> we are better prepared. the one graent that can save lives is atropene. i guarantee they had it there or they probably didn't have huge
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supplies. here we'd have much, much bigger supplies but if the chemical attack is big enough you'll run out of that no matter where you are. so it's still going to cause a lot of problems. are we better prepared? we are because we have the experience and the expertise and equipment to deal with it, but they have dealt with this on a daily basis and know how to deal with it as well. >> dr. john torres, thank you. we turn to a doctor fighting to save the lives of syrians fleeing their war-torn country. he's originally from syria and works at the cleveland clinic. he's traveling to jordan and turkey and lebanon to treat the victims. doctor, thank you for joining us. very much appreciate it. >> you're welcome. >> this chemical attack is very personal for you. tell me why. >> well, originally, i came from a city called aleppo in syria. this is where i grew up initially before i pursued my high education in united states. so basically this is the people i grew up with and this is motherland i started my life
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with, although i'm rooted here in america right now but i still have a lot of relatives and a lot of people that i conneed with, as well as friends. so it is very personal to me as a person frof syrian descent. >> you lost three family members as well in syria in. >> i did. that's correct. in the beginning of the conflict, our uprise, and they are my first cousins. >> you've treated patients in the bordering areas of syria. you have not gone back to syria yourself because you fear for your own safety and returning to that country. what are some of the injuries that you see most commonly in the people that you are treating that are fleeing syria? >> most recently i just was in lebanon in a medical mission with at least 20 physicians. and we went to various part of lebanon. and the majority of the injuries
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are unfortunately spinal cord injury and those people are completely paralyzed. and i saw a lot of shrapnel wound injury, as well as a lot of abdominal injuries and amputation, blindness. there's a camp in lebanon was literally -- everybody is disabled. and this was very heart wrenching when you go and visit those people there. they are all young people. and they became completely unable to function because of either a spinal -- sniper wound or a bullet or shrapnel wound or something like that. >> where do the patients go from there once they're being treated at these camps? where do they go? >> initially when -- most of the injuries that happen from something called the barrel bombs where they drop them from the air by an aircraft or
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helicopter, and it caused a lot of devastated damage, and some people die and others get injured. and they will be treatod what you call a field hospital there in the area. and after they are stabilized, some of them are evacuated to the neighboring country or some of them stay there. so most of the people that fled from the central portion of syria into lebanon in the northern portion of syria, they go to turkey and jordan. those are three neighboring countries most of the patients flee away after they are more civilized. >> is the notion of a travel ban on syrian refugees, is that going to directly impact some of the patients you've been seeing that have fled syria after being injured in war-like conditions? >> i mean, the people we see in these neighboring countries who are really in a state of displacement, they are all
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women, children, elderly people. most are either killed or disabled. so they are trying to find some mechanism to live somewhere. now there's a safe zone area in syria. i don't think they will leave but right now any area in anywhere in syria could potentially be bombarded by either the syrian or the russian. so they are fleeing for their life. they want to do some safe haven in the world. >> doctor, appreciate it. thank you. the balance of power in the white house. is is in jared kushner's favor. how the reported power struggle in the west wing might play out. g right by our customers. who's with me? we're like a basketball team here at ally. if a basketball team had over 7... i'm in. 7,000 players. our plays are a little unorthodox. but to beat the big boys, you need smarter ways to save people money.
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welcome back. the white house under donald trump has been nothing if not male dominated. yet things are getting pretty catty at the executive mansion. big dog steve bannon is on the outs now that his bannon is on . the chief strategist is said to be at odds with the president's son-in-law. jared kushner, son of the president, husband of ivanka. bannon is said to be call kushner the democrat behind his back and all this has led to action. a fed up and frustrated donald trump turned to his two top aides and said he had had enough of their incessant knife fights. work this out. also joining us is ed martin, president of the foreign fund and chairman. i'll start with you. this just sounds like brothers
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getting at i inside the white house. but it is sort of normal, it seems. the white house usually has some infighting at the beginning of a presidency. >> this is a little more dramatic. certainly president obama's didn't but that was a unique culture that came right from the campaign. >> but clinton did. >> clinton did. and even george w. bush didn't have this chaos. i think it starts for a couple reasons. i don't think he creates a single center of power. he gave steve bannon the chief strategist. there's only one chief strategist. it is the president of the united states. so when you give that over, you have a chief of staff, you bring in family members. it brings chaos. and "the new york times" said donald trump seems the embrace chaos and has a gift for creating it. we'll see if he can solve this now but it is not helping him. he is someone who doesn't know the ins and outs of this job and the chaos will be an impediment.
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>> do you think part of the difficulties here, is that steve bannon being criticized for being a leader of the movement and then jared kushner who some say got his job because, well, he's the son-in-law. >> i think of it a little differently. maybe you're right referring to the clinton administration. i talked to someone in the reagan white house. i kind of push it a different way. if you think of the bannon wing, bannon, miller, sessions, they've succeeded on a lot of policy fronts. if you think of the kushner, the directory secretary, some of these places, they've succeeded. i think joel is right. this president likes the play off each other and likes to show it. he doesn't particularly, i don't think he minds having some of this out there. the question is when it becomes a distraction. but it's been a great week,
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don't you think? i think gorsuch, he got through. a big deal. people didn't expect the senate to be able to do that. the jobs numbers are pretty good. things seem to be humming along. >> i think there's a little overstatement. it was a better week than we've seen. gorsuch getting can you be firmed was significant but i think everybody anticipated and knew that the only question would be, would you go to a nuclear option or not. but this is a presidency less than 100 days old and has tripped over its feet enough so that the president's approval ratings are still hovering around 40% which is historically low. >> they say it might jump after this week. >> they may. i think a lot of people support this on both sides. the action that he took. but i think a bigger test will be whether secretary tillerson can get russia to get assad out of power. every day assad is in power is a day that's a good recruiting day
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for isil in syria. >> and you brought up baker. so we'll talk. >> there are any number of people in this white house who have broad and rather undefined responsibilities that cut across domestic and foreign policy. it is very difficult under those circumstances to have a coordinated, single focused message. that's something that's very important to the success of an administration. >> so i'm wondering, what do you think? are there too many undefined rows in the white house causing these issues? >> with, one thing about the truch campaign. if you talk to them and i was talking to they will. the president-elect did not, the candidate did not want to talk about transition. on whether they had a plan, trump had to race to this. he has talented people. and some of the roles adjusting and some of the things maybe not
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perfect. nobody is saying these he aren't talented people. trump had a great meeting, i think everybody agrees, with the chinese leadership. it was serious. it went forward. suddenly the president is being criticized for not doing what peel want. people know, he will chase people out, he will make people be accountable. the problem in the white house, is nobody gets rid of their son-in-law. with, they do, and that's the marriage and another problem of. >> so kellanne conway saying, he likes the diversity of opinion. he likes people who agree and disagree with him. this is pro forma of the white house. and there are no issues going on.
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i think a challenge is does president trump have peel standing up to him? i think there have been a series of missteps and i think he needs people who have more expertise. we can debate about it but needs of these people have done it except running a campaign. and getting it done in the white house is totally grif what either one of them have done in their lives of. >> final word in. >> i think this president has shown whether the campaign, the communications, he gets good things around him. i'm not talking about the political sides of it. gorsuch was not guaranteed. i think we're seeing -- >> we'll have to see what happens next week. >> all right. thank you. we'll be right back, everybody. it's time to shake things up. with the capital one venture card, you get double miles on
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that wraps it up for us this hour. stay with us for updates and breaking news. all in with chris hayes is next. have a fantastic night, everybody. >> tonight on "all in." >> as you know, i would love to have never been in the middle east. >> the trump transformation. >> tonight i ordered a targeted military strike on the airfield in syria. >> the fallout from last night's middle east military intervention and what the president's sudden change means going forward. >> all i can say about this president, he has the instinct of ronald reagan in many ways. >> plus, new questions about the long-term effects of last night's strike as the humanitarian crisis continues. >> we cannot in one breath speak of protecting syrian babies and in the next close america's
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