here on the east coast it is now saturday just after 12 midnight. our live coverage continues after a day of covering the fits and starts and turns of another day. in the trump administration and politics, our time and attention have been focussed instead this evening starting at 9:00 eastern time with the president's remarks on a u.s., french and british combined military strike. so far all of that we know of the stand off variety, that

means fired from some place other than directly above the target in a place like syria but nonetheless, a kind of triple strike by three different nations on three different locations in syria. the stated goal. the mission tonight was to degrade syria's ability to deploy chemical weapons again. as we said the president in effect made the announcement. 9:00 there were early indications something could be afoot and we've heard in the last two hours from briefers in the pentagon. they were the chairman of the joint chiefs and the secretary of defense. our n bks c national security reporter is still on duty with what is known about tonight's strike. tell the story from the top as we know it.

>> you rrer absolutely right that the strikes were from u.s. stand off weapons. there were manned aircraft from u.s. navy ships in the mediterranean. and you mentioned this is an attack on the syrian are regime chemical infrastructure. so there were three targets. one was a chemical weapons storage facility. one was a research and production development facility. so syrian military and a commanding control facility struck. so what that means is syrian military as well. we don't know a whole lot about how many weapons were fired or anything but secretary mattis gave us a little hint when he said there were twice as many weapons expended as the april 2017 attack. that included tomahawk missiles fired. we can assume they're somewhere

in the neighborhood of 120 or so fired. we also don't know what the french and british military threat was. and there were two atashas. what we also know is that president trump talked about this being a sustained campaign but secretary mattis and general -- said this is wave of air strikes and is now concluded. secretary mattis said when asked what does president trump mean when he says sustained he said well, if assad uses chemical weapons again, the u.s. will respauntd again. president trump also spoke about economic and diplomatic a which we have not seen and that may be part of the sustained campaign. that will hopefully unfold in

the it coming days. >> by the way priorer to the briefing, we did hear from the brits that they used tornado aircraft and fire missiles of their own presumably from ships they had moved in from the area. courtney talked about the -- let's call it difference in language between the president's are emarks and defense secretary mattis. especially this notion that tonight was part of a more sustained campaign. so we want to show you at least a portion of president trump's remarks tonight to a national audience at one minute 30 seconds after the 9:00 p.m. hour eastern time when he appeared to announce the military operation. >> the purpose of our actions tonight is to create a strong

detrnt against the use and spread of chemical weapons. establishing this deterrent is a vital asset of the united states. the combined british and french response to these atrocities will integrate all instruments of our national power. military, economic and diplomatic. we eare prepared to sustain this response until the syrian regime stops its use of prohibited chemical agents. >> and just a portion of the president's remarks. coving for the white house tonight, kristen welker. she has been there all through the shift. this is vaguely interesting background color. especially since military operations beyond what the

president has said on twitterer should not be foreshadowed because of who's listening and their risk to american lives. but there was certainly an effort at the white house to say tonight nothing to see here. there's going to be no more news because in situations like this that's what they are have to say. >> that's right. indicating it was a matter of military officials carrying out these attacks. typically when the president is going to make a big announcement, there's some activity here at the white house. that wasn't the case. a number of officials indicated they were going home, office s dark and then that announcement underscoring the significance can of this announcement. i said why now and why the

response that we saw? we saw mattis say twice the number of weapons as comcan paired to the attack last year from the united states against syria in the wake of the chemical weapons attack. he said look, the president thought syria crossed a red line last year. they clearly did not get the message. so it was significant for this president to launch an attack that sent a message to try to dissuade assad from doing this again. that's another reason why it was important to get support of allies. the uk and the french i should say. it's also important to note there's been a robust debate about how forceful this strike would be. president trump was pushing for a very aggressive are esponse. and mattis was concerned it could embroil the u.s. in a

broader engagement with iran, with russia. the president had strong words tonight for russia. some oof the strongest words weevl are heard him make towards russia. so that was significant can as well. russia said they would shoot u.s. missiles out of the air. the president was very clear he would be undeterred in that. and the sustained attack. of course defense secretary mattis really countering that saying that this was a one-time shot. i think they're going to assess the situation. but what will cross the thresh hold of another attack. thalts are at's still under dis. >> i've e ebeen saying all even

long. as most of our viewers coming to the story are probably saying to themselves this was not a normal day. this was a day where we saw the president oof the united states yelling on social media in all capital lettersers, we saw him engage in personal aic tas. he went after mccabe, comey. it was personal. the language was rough. the not tightened around this president when looked at through the lens of the southern district of new york investigation that is now at a place where his personal attorney and long-time friend, michael cohen is in what appears to be big time legal trouble. so there's are that back drop at this place you cover for a living. >> there's no doubt this is yet another remarkable day and week here at the trump administration.

and today you almost couldn't keep up with the head elines, honestly. you picked through a number of them. the fact that there was this raid of this personal attorney who we saw of course today sitting outside the very offices raided earlier this week. this remarkable scene unfolding. and we learned it's a criminal investigation based on court documents. that was a real tipping point for him. he saw that as crossing a red line. but his special counsel had gone beyond the scope of what his mandate was. of course that prompted a lot of discussion about not only firing mueller but firing rod rosenstein as well. and of course the explosive book by former fbi director who president trump fired. that prompting the tweets that

you mentioned in all caps. comey hitting the president personally but also calling into question his fitness for office. and then of course that report that came out today about former fbi director, andrew mccabe. a range of different headlineses. it certainly does divert away. but the counter to that the white house would say is look, this is an action that the president took in concert with two u.s. allies as well. still all of that back drop continues to be something gets a lot of focus not only from the press core but from the rest of the country as we watch it unfold. >> it can can be said that everything we see come from this white house, comes from white house facing, on a daily basis, an existential're both saying d

versions of the same thing. kristen welker on the north lawn of the white house our thanks. our chief foreign correspondent is live in istanbul, turkey where the sun has risen. important neighbors for the military operation and i understand you have a bit more clarity on what transpired to your arrest earlier today. >> well, what we've been trying to figure out and you've been talking about some of it is the parent discrepancy when he said this is a sustained campaign that the u.s. will continue to act against the assad regime until it stops using chemical weapons. when announced on the night of a strike, when announced at a

national address as air strikes are underway, that sounds like a commitment for more military strikes and then something of a head snap when a short time later defensesic secretary mat said this is one and done but it depends on the actions of assad. just a short time ago i spoke to a senior u.s. military official who was briefed on this and he told me the strikes are in fact over, that this was intended to be ea limited focus campaign, that there could be more military actions if there are atrocities that take place with chemical weapons in syria. but the president was trying to stress this is a military campaign, a diplomatic campaign a campaign that we use economic levers as well to pressure the assad regime. that perhaps that is the

campaign he's talking about when he talks about a sustained commitment, not just an open ended military commitment. but if it took that amount of clarification for reporters to understand and other viewsers who listen on the speech to understand exactly what just happened, i'm sure a lot of america's adversaries are going to be asking the very same question. was this some sort of open ended commitment. you're going to respond every time there are allegations of chemical weapons. or was it, as officials explain it to me now, a one-off campaign with implied threat and continueses economic and diplomatic pressure. very strong coffee is being poured in istanbul where morning is underway on saturday. morning is but an infant here.

we're all of 14 minutes into saturday morning on the east coast. let's go to andrea mitchell who has covered this state department for a good long tile. i want to pose a question to you that richard just included in his last answerer. which is what just happened? >> a limited strike that the president said was a sustain campaign. it was one and done according to secretary mattis and general doneferred. the acting secretary of state has been in his hotel room, did not atentd any of the eevents he was scheduled to at the summit of the americas. pence went back to his hotel room. but at the end making secure calls and calling members of congress and foreign ministers but not able to connect to any

of them according to the state department. so we have a new national security advisoadvisor. a new secretary not necessarily in tune. no secretary of state. a conformation hearing. others saying tonight's strike was reckless because there was no authorization for military force. there is opposition at least from some leading democratss. because this goes beyond, they say the authorized action against isis, against terrorer that was authorized in 2002. i'm really struck also by a

tweet from the president, i'm r going to say which shocked the white house staff and the pentagon because it was the first clear threat to take mill -- military action. he's been bum bastic on twitterer lately. but this was an actual threat. "russia vows to shoot down any and all targets pointed at syria get ready because they're coming nice and -- you shouldn't be friends with a gas killing animal that enjoys it." that's a threat that the missiles are about to fly and they weren't. >> the element of surprise. >> exactly. previously criticized the past administration for taking the military action. a year ago very targeted, very

minorer cruise missiles. clearly did not deter numerous chemical attacks. chemical weapons attack that were not responded to. and now we see this response and the fact that he said on twitter 6:57 wednesday morning was quite a surprise. and this is the disconnect in messaging in what you saw and in specifics between the pentagon briefing and what the president said in a teleprompter speech. it was clearly cleared by john bolton in the nfc. and literally no advice from the state department. >> i heard a senior military veteran react to the president's

tweet, specifically to one word, the fact that we were going to fire new missiles. the used recycled missiles don't fit in the launch tubes very well. andrea mitchell, our thanks for staying up with us. our editer has been added. more videos coming in from social media on the ground as this was happening in real time tonight. >> and what did the u.s. president just do? this is actually syrian-state controlled tv. described as one-degree off from state run tv. you can see morning traffic there. if you are waking up in damascus this morning, you'd have been awake for two hours.

"triple aggression by the united kingdom, france and the u.s. has quote failed. there is no truth to the news that multiple areas were struck." that one right there quote the attack was thwarted by our forces, by our air defense and adding. that one of the american missiles flew off target they say. and this is obvious propaganda. flew off target and wounded three civilians. this is one of the dangers from the strike. it's such a fine line between hitting those targets that are going to crippal the command and control of the syrian army because there could be russians there on the other side if you're playing this game of three-day hide and seek where you put out the tweet, you 31 risk of not hitting anyone and

allowing the syrian president assad saying his forces are powerful enough. this triple headed monster oof the united kingdom. the other poos of video i want to play for you is a rally. undoubtedly sponsored by the syrian -- that's the mountain in the back there. this was done in the past hour. that's that same round about we saw earlier. what you're seeing playing out on the ground in damascus is this boisterous celebration. and again because the inf infrastructure wasn't targeted and it wasn't because civilians have been living there. people have power, television. and if you're there in central damascus, even though you heard the terrifying and loud

explosions, nothing changed this morning. >> obviously these people came out eitherer by threat or based on the promise of a complimentary syrian flag. who's left pro assad? who are those people? what population are they drawn from? >> these are people who have survived the seven-year war in damascus. the joke in syria are these events are sponsored by the ministry of spontaneous events. i saw this seven years ago this month where you would have syrian army literally shooting into crowds of funeral procession and the next day the celebrations on behalf of the syrian president all while he had gone underground. what you're seeing here again is this window thats are open where president assad with the backing

of the russianss can can can spend the day now using syrian-state concan trolled tv to control a victory. any video coming in from the ground from social media that appears to show something going wrong, something not going the way the pentagon told us it did. >> and when they go to this four-way split, you can can see the army or police are blocking off the areas. and yowl are arer see on the left is aleppo. it's pretty much in lock down. soethe journalists that are there are not able to get to it. you can be sure there's going to be strict control over these pictures. there'ser a play book for this propaganda. a shot of a u.s. rocket probably in multiple feess with something

on the side saying u.s. navy and they'll barner this as we shot this missile out of the sky. it will likely keep camare rus away unless of course it's an empty warehouse in which case we'll see the video very quickly. >> we neglect to say when we introduce you you are a veteran of all the region of the conflicts that have been fought including to but not limited to an ectent as baghdad security chief. soethank you for your time and effort. another rare commercial break, at least on this night of programming. we'll do that. well, like most of you, i just bought a house.

-oh! -very nice. now i'm turning into my dad. i text in full sentences. i refer to every child as chief. this hat was free. what am i supposed to do, not wear it? next thing you know, i'm telling strangers defense wins championships. -well, it does. -right? why is the door open? are we trying to air condition the whole neighborhood? at least i bundled home and auto on an internet website, progressive.com. progressive can't save you from becoming your parents,

but we can save you money when you bundle home and auto. i mean, why would i replace this? it's not broken.

we used a little over double the number of weapons woo did last year. it was done on targets we selected to hurt the chemical weapons program. we can find it to the chemical weapons-type targets. we were very precise and

proportionate. but at the same time, it was a heavy strike. >> so to our military analysts watching, that was in the 10:00 p.m. eastern time hour. retired four-star general mattis. because that stated and he did it several times. that stated the mission, the objective of tonight was to degrade syria's ability to fire off chemical weapons again in this gruesome, ongoing conflict. it is also emerging at the same time that nearly doubling and the easiest thing in the world for any of a us to say is that this is a limited strike. there were americanss sons and daughters and fathers and mothersers in the air tonight and supporting this mission at risk to their lives. this was a limited strike in ways that are kind of emerging

to a lot of our experts. former chief of staff and house intel. and an msnbc national security analyst. so jeremy, what is the light in which you are viewing the size and scope of tonight's strike? what it was and wasn't. >> it was great that we worked with our allies. great that it was proportionate. but i'm struck by how narrow ethe target set was. it was three targets, a one-time shot to use mattis's ling oe. we could use this to not waste a crisis and really degrade his ability to wage war on his own people. and again you saw doneferred,

the chairman, mattis show strategic restraint and i'm wondering at this hour what is motivating that and i'm wondering if they -- the president who's been distracted this week. he's shown he's impulsive. he's been irattic in his rhetoric. he has taken a long time to kind of set this up and yet at the end the actual operational activity was very limited and at the end of the day i think they questioned being prepared to do the hard work of really taking on the assad regime. >> that is the wider question because if you want to go after command and control as no one needs to remind you, then you're

going to kill some russians and then your are are going to bang up some russian equipment and you're going to be presiding over a much more complicated you break it, you buy it kind of strategy. >> i thought what we were going to see was something different. a clear message that we're going to degrade assad's military capability. get out of the way. and we'd be hitting assad's command and military head quarters, his machine, trying to be careful not to engage unnecessarily the russians but use the opportunity to take assad down a notch and compelhim to the negotiating table and that's rr not what we got tonight.

>> suppose you favor a syria intervention but were told u.s. aircraft were inoperable or unseaworthy. wouldn't you say post pone until we're ready e? he says the planes and ships are fine but the political leadership of the u.s. is broken. no new wars under this president. and jeremy that's exactly that back drop you're talking about. >> it's not that jim mattis or dunford are -- they understand the strong military action. but i have to believe they're concerned. that our body of politics couldn't sustain a serious military confrontation of assad and they recommended and got a very narrow and limited military engagement. >> you're normally on this broadcast and we're fortunate to

have you to talk about whatever developments oof the day this brings me into a corner i can turn by talking about mr. comey. trump tower, january 17. prior to the president elect becoming president. this is where our president structure brief the new guy on the world he has inherited. in the comey book, comey talks about ahostruck he is after they lay on them the extent of the russian influence no one is remotely curious. in fact they choose to talk about the military spinx how they can control this from outside the room.

weal are rr talk about it on the other side. >> first question was to confirm that it had no impact on the election. then the conversation to my surprise moved into a pr conversation about how the trump team would position this and what they could say. they actually started talking about drafting a press release and no one to my recollection asked what's coming next from the russians? how might we stop it? what's the future look like? what can we say about what they did and how it effects the election? >> i've only known you during the inception oof this broadcast and it's only been on the air because of the administration we're covering. which means the entire time i've known you we've been under attack from russia. it's not a pearl harborer type

attack. it's electronic, slow moving. and what comey's trying to say is where was the outreach? where were the questions? >> and intelligence community professionals prepare for months, sometimes years for presidential transitions. because the premise is a new team is coming and they need hear about all the threats facing our country. and so our intelligence community leadership prepares these briefings for an income c -- incoming president. and instead what they got back is we're not sure this is a real issue. and if you had changed the outcome of the election, which by the way is not an intelligence question but have a spin and pr cycle and that is not only ebazar and out of place

to do, it's border line offensive because it's basically saying whatever you're telling us we're going to take on not as stewards of the national security but stewards of our own plolitical fath and that's -- a odds with our professionals. >> how much trouble is michael cohen in and are the people around trump correct when they say they see the case circling in on cohen? the fact he's are under criminal investigation as being more of a threat to president trump and his presidency than what bob mueller has in his brief case. >> it's hard to measurer relative threats but as we've been also saying for men a, many months, almost a year, michael cohen was instrumental in

helping the trump administration just weeks before the iowa caucuses. michael cohen was in moscow etrying to negotiate the construction of trump tower. so this isn't some distant past business enterprise. this is going on during the red hot, molten flaming core where michael cohen was doing business deals for donald trump. and it's own laly natural a lot of questions are going to come can down on him and what he knows about the trump organization to russia. >> and as i have to let you go but one more. what happens to your life? we talk about these terms every day. under criminal investigation. you' you'regist a person walking

around the country and you're rr under federal investigation. what does it do? >> it freezes your business relationships, your social interactions. it causes you to lose a heller are of a lot of sleep and money. it frees your personal relationships and i don't wish it on anybody. soewe know michael cohen at this hour is going through trauma. but the facts are are catching up to him and when the fbi is looking at you it's not frivolous, meaningless, a witch hunt. it means you have a lot to answerer for. >> jeremy bash who is more than capable of handling all of our questions from national defense to cruise missiles to what rurts like to be under criminal investigation. thank you so much for staying up with us tonight.

another commercial break for us. yeah you can get a mortgage that avoids pmi, but there's no way to avoid mip on... . hey! this'll help. rocket mortgage by quicken loans makes the complex simple. so, origination fees... this takes care of it, thank you. understand the details and get approved in as few as 8 minutes. by america's largest mortgage lender. bounce back, right right right, i get it now. ♪ i woke up in beast mode, with my girl that's... ♪ searching for answers may feel overwhelming. so start your search with our teams of specialists at cancer treatment centers of america. the evolution of cancer care is here. learn more at cancercenter.com/experts they have businesses to run they have passions to pursue how do they avoid trips to the post office? stamps.com mail letters ship packages all the amazing services of the post office right on your computer

get a 4 week trial plus $100 in extras including postage and a digital scale go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again

back here with you. weir are arer live in new york and we've been live since the u.s., french, british military strike on three related targets in syria. we eare right now going to be eable to speak for the first

time with someone live on the ground in damasks who has witnessed what has happened there tonight. danny macky's been in communication with our own kyle perry and danny has been able to join us via skype. i know there will be ea substantial satellite delay so i'll ask you what indications, what did you first see and feel? how did you know the attack was underway? i was awoken by a series of large bangs that shook my entire neighborhood. and from there i knew it was a u.s.-led attack. because they were different than the usual sounds of war you hear in damascus. after the initial 10 or 11

rakets, they were trying to fire at these missiles. and 200 which are stationed quite near to the location i'm in. after that there was a period where you are had more consecutive strikes. so what we know so far is three main military targets have been targeted. the first is an area called -- a research facility lab where you had chemical weapons being researched there. frrsh the vekd was the miltitary airport and the third one was a

reesearch lab in the west of damasks. and that also is a very large complex of -- the rockets landed in an area close to me. as we're take stock of what's happened, these initial three military targets have been clearly -- the suspected facility being tarsted are related to chemical research bp it also participated in syrian air defenses and deterring snof rockets being fired there. syrian air defenses continue to fall from the sky.

it's consistent with missiles being fired in the sky. bit the attacks have taken place. it's clear they've been limited to an unprecedented attack. the u.s. has targeted strikes in and around central damascus. >> is it possible to hit any of these locations that the u.s., france and the uk targeted tonight without collateral damage. without killing citizens who live in the area or the military guard on watch, on duty at the time when he's landed. >> i can can give you a quick analysis of how it went down. it would have been heard. we can't confirm that at the moment.

the second strike is quite a large base and quite cordened off. but from what i'ver been reporting and hearing is that the air base in particular has seen sophisticated technology as far as war planes and some missiles to other securer locations or russian bases. now in the third base, which is a huge section on its own in western damascus. it's not really near any civilian areas. it's the first location they targeted if you can remember. very sensitive and significant military importance. according to what i've been hearing, because of the

proximity of the sights, an area in western damascus was sharp because it shook the entire neighborhood. so that's what we ecan can clear laknow. strictly limited military sites. they haven't been in an area where civilian area. there's been several reports of attack but none of it has really been confirmed. it will take time understand exactly how things are planned out. but what i can can tell you is these attacks have conspikulously taken by surprise. we've been here three months. we were expecting a deesclashz. we weren't expecting an attack

to happen today. especially after the different messages being sent out by russia and trump. and he hasn't specified exactly when. they're taking diplomacy on board. but to our amazement the attack happened today and possibly around syria were targeted by plans and missiles. i can confirm i heard war plans in the skies as well as missiles being fired. so that adds to the fact it was an attack using planes and missiles. how this pans out in terms of a possible are esponse to syria, russia and iran i expect it will

take into account timing. if we've got u.s. troops stationed within syria. there's arer lot to concan sidder in this area and if there is a response how it will be and for now we're just taking stock of the numerous u.s. attacks within damascus. three strikes targeted strikes of consecutive rocket attacks. within damascus for the third time and monitoring the situation. >> it's been very valuable to us to hear the eeare porting. i'm about to ask an experienced warrior about some of the findings you just are reported. we hate like heller are what happened to your count 're gladk

you for reporting not own laeto us but to our audience after the military strike. with us from, as we heard, to o close for comfort tonight. and let's go to our general standing by in seattle. first, you and i have been under cruise missiles when they fly oirvhead. they seem very tough to take down. is it plausible they were cruise missiles we're hearing were perhaps intercepted? >> it very well could have happened, particularly if the russian s 400 air defense batteries -- they could potentially knock down the tomahawks. you can see a tomahawk if its are arer daylight and it could be engaged with radar guided

guns from the ground. basically, really eto echo ejeremy bash's statement. this was an extremely limited strike to send a strong military signal to the syrian armed forces don't use chemical weapons. largely it avoided targeting in any specific way the armed forces on the ground. but when you look at these three target three targets, there's literally hundreds of metric tons of artillery and missiles and mortars fired at wup another. the amount of chemicals are echoired to protect civilians down in basements is tiny. so i don't eremotely think we ehave degraded their chem

canical weapons stock piled. there could boo e100 barrel bombs in populated areas right now. and finally, if you want to hurt the assad regime, you don't kill privates, you kill gen aerals. so eit doesn't sound as if there was a strike intended to take out their command and control facilities when they were manned. the coming days we're rr about to find out what the reaction to the russians, the syrians will be. wevent seen the end of it but this is a very moderate calculated strike fortunately by three nato nations. >> president trump talk tough but his strike on syria was are

restrained and that's exactly the point you're making. there's another point our journalist made and that was he heard war planes above. i was under the imepression they were not required to spend spend any time. >> we'll probably spend more time tomorrow. after bond damage assessment, it appears manned aircraft was used. they may have given the brits and french separate geographic targeted areas. it does not appear they were deployed. they cannot take on stealth aircraft. they darn sure can take on the

british and french aircraft. it appears the are russians sat it out and won't feel feel compelled to respond. we'll not only target -- we'll target the carriers. you don't want to take on u.s. naval air power s 35. it appears to me they tried to conduct a strike of symbolic and military value that wouldn't get us on the up escalation. >> general, thank you. it's been a great pleasurer for us to be able to have someone like you to ask all of our military questions to tonight. we appreciate your candid answers indeed. this carrier battle group the

u.s. has assembled off shore to care can a eout some oof what we've seen tonight is formidable. and our hope, along with everybody watching, we presume is that all the americans involved and all the brits and french military get back home and have landed and gone back to station and are safe and alive tonight after this military action we have seen take place in syria. after a seemingly endless day of activity from the trump administration on the political front, coverage of all of it will continue at the top of the hour after this break.

experience a blend of refined craftsmanship... ...and raw power, engineered to take the crown. presenting the all-new lexus ls 500 and ls 500h.

experience amazing, at your lexus dealer. good evening. from msnbc headquarters. continuing coverage of the military strikes against syria's chemical weapons program tonight by the united states, along with