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welcome back. at the half hour, we want to bring you up to date on our breaking thus. some syrians are dancing in the streets following last night's u.s., british and france missile strikes on parts of that country. the apparent acts of defiance sum up the reaction to the sites. they targeted chemical facilities in response to to last week's chemical attacks on civilians. new this morning, nato expressing support for the mission. joining us now, admiral james safritas and jeremy bash.

i guess the big word this morning is deterrence. how effective will these strikes be at deterring the president of syria? >> well, it was good that it was done with allies. that's a critically important signal, david. it's also good that it was directed at the chemical weapons facilities because, after all, the message had to be that assad cannot use these weapons. but in some ways, it was basically like the united states taking a big, red, magic marker and drawing a thicker red line and saying don't cross it. i'm not sure it will actually degrade the ability of the assad regime to degrade these weapons. so i think these are fairley limited and narrow in scope. >> yeah. and given that, those are the words that we were hearing, degrade, deter. so admiral, we were in the same scenario almost a year ago at this time and last night the pentagon said we struck harder. is that the case in your view? >> oh, it absolutely is. think on of it as goldie locks and the three bears.

we got in the little bed last time. 60 missile strike, came only from the united states. came only from ships at sea. the really big bed would be a massive bombing campaign that would go on for days, would have dozens of targets, would be extremely heavy in its spread of targets. this was kind of the bed in the middle. it was a logical escalation to go up one. so we doubled the number of attack points, we doubled the locations from one to two. this was definitely an escalation and it does send a strong signal. it doesn't significantly degrade the chemical weapon capability, but the real message here is stop what you're doing or the there is more where that came from. >> admiral, forgive me for

having a bit of whiplash here, but i listened to the rhetoric from what the president said last night, compared it to just over a week ago about his aspirations to get u.s. forces out of syria as soon as possible. it begs the question, what is this administration's policy when it comes to syria? >> i think that is still under construction can, so to speak, especially with a brand new national security adviser who by all accounts wants to go heavy, wants to grab for military options. and very shortly, i suspect a brand new secretary on of state in mike pompeo. so that one is still under construction. i'd say there are three big things we want to do in syria. we want to get rid of isis, at least physically on the ground. secondly, we want to stop this use of chemical weapons. that's a crime against humanity. we ought to have voice against that. thirdly, we need to partner with israel, the sunni states, jordan, egypt against the encroachment of iran into the

region. david, the whiplash may be made worse from earlier this week. you were addressing the u.s. role and presence in syria. but jeremy, when we talk about syria, as well, and the president's take on it and the timeline of earlier in the week with those tweets and that self-imposed deadline. now we hear six, seven days later and how we're seeinging that approach, you know, what can we expect when it comes to that and the message that sends out and how that's being taken on the world stage? >> well, we have a defense strategy that secretary mattis has put out. it says basically we should be strategically predictable. operationally, we should be unpredictable. this week i think in some ways we were the opposite. we were operationally very predictable. the president basically broadcast to the world several days ago that we were going to be shooting missiles at syria over this chemical weapons attack. strategically, i think we are zigzagging a bit. i think jim summarized properly the objectives in syria. but since the beginning of the

trump administration, the trump administration has said they're okay with assad in power. they're not going to work at all to push him aside or to get him to relinquish power. last night's operation did not change that strategic approach. >> jeremy, i want on to ask you about the trouble theresa may will face on monday. you could aknoll guise it to what we're going to see in congress in the coming week, as well. the president authorized these strikes without seekinging the the approval of congress. how problematic is that going to be on this side of the atlantic, with do you think? >> lawmakers won and deserve a say in this matter, particularly if this were an expanded military operation. members of congress should be prepared to to express support, either through a vote or through their statements. i think for a one-time military operation, it wasn't necessary to get congressional operation, per se. but going forward, if the president wants to continue to do this, he's going to have to have the backing of the united states congress. >> you have that goldie locks

three bears right in the middle analogy here, but when you said given this and if assad acts again. and we see those acts of aggression with chemical weapons one more time. there may be more on to come, i believe your words were. what will we see that in the form of when it comes to militarily and diplomatically? >> militarily, you'll see one on or two aircraft carriers come into the mediterranean. each of them have 80 attack capable aircraft. you will see long range bombers positioned. you'll see us build a bigger coalition diplomatically. we'll probably go to nato for additional firepower. you will see a great deal of strategic messaging and ultimately i would say if we see another use of chemical weapons, you're looking at a multi day campaign that really takes apart the ability to deliver chemical weapons. and the key thing to take out would be the 250 aircraft in the syrian inventory.

very dangerous next step because they are so intertwined with the russians. >> and that's where it's tough. we'll see if our allies will be with us when it comes to that move. >> we're going to get this full briefing from the pentagon on the strikes a little later this morning, i believe around 9:00 eastern time. what are you going to be listening for as you listen to the pentagon briefers describe the efficacy used last night? >> i'm interested in the platforms that they were fired upon. i'm interested to know what, if any, effect in this there were from syrian air defenses, probably very little, maybe none at all. i'm interested in any international reaction, what they've heard from the russians, what they've heard from others in the region. there's a a lot of detail here to be filled out. but right now, this appears to be a one-day limited operation. and no further operations will be conducted unless assad responds. >> that's jeremy bash, with admiral, thank you, to both for your time. >> what's the response from

russia when it comes to them, the attempt to shoot down the missiles with its own defenses? are those strictly sticking to syrian air defenses? well, it was syrian air defenses, the russians have confirmed that. i think interestingly through the morning, you've seen the russians tone down the rhetoric a little bit. immediately after the strikes, the russian embassy for the u.s. put out a statement saying our worst apprehensions have come true. we are being threatened. we warned such actions were not be left without consequences. now we have a statement from president putin condemning these strikes and saying they're an act of aggression, but not saying things like we vow to retaliate. i think within the kremlin, there will be a sense on of satisfaction, honestly, that the u.s. and the west has acted in a way that was fairley predictable, that these were limited strikes, that there has

not been an escalation confrontation with the u.s. that russia doesn't want. but at the same time, russia's advantage within syria has not been lost. >> kieer simmons for us, thank you. still to come, richard engle joins us about the strikes and more reaction from the middle east. this is the ocean. just listen. (vo) there's so much we want to show her. we needed a car that would last long enough to see it all. (avo) subaru outback. ninety eight percent are still on the road after 10 years. come on mom, let's go!

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this morning, missile strikes in syria. u.s., france and british forces striking a response on the syrian people. we know some are worries syria may be turned into a scene for arm wrestling. what is the reaction in turkey now to these strikes? >> the reaction in turkey has been to welcome the strikes, but to welcome them quietly. and i think that's the reaction we're seeing in a lot of countries in this region where they are happy that something was done, that a message was sent to russia and to syrian president bashar al assad. that, however, not too much happened in order to make a seven-year civil war boil over even further. i think now that a little bit of time has passed, it's clear that this was quite a limited strike and that there was a agrees deal

of -- if not direct coordination and the u.s. says there was no direct coordination with russia, but significant amount of mutual understanding. we saw fairley aggressive rhetoric coming out of russia in the immediate aftermath. now vladimir putin appearing to tone down that rhetoric somewhat. so the u.s. carried out this strike in coordination with the uk and france. three targets, all of them military targets. but when you look at what wasn't targeted, assad himself, the syrian air force, the syrian army, russian forces, the russians didn't respond. it seems like a lot of effort was taken and that those efforts were fairley successful to keep this contained. and i think that's why you're seeing people in the region happy that something happens, but even happier that it didn't spill on out of control. >> richard, i want to get your sense on of what this means for u.s. policy towards syria a few weeks back. you were in northern syria.

you reported this piece on the disconnect between u.s. commanders on the ground and washington and the administration when it comes to syrian policy. catch us up to speed here. how do you process what happened when you look at this administration's tack when it comes to syrian policy? >> well, a lot of commanders that i've spoken to and we'll ask what exactly is syria policy. there seems to be a heavy focus on a few limited objectives, but not an overall national strategy. on the one hand, you have the 2000 american troops that we were with who were focused on fighting isis. they will the tell you that is their mission and they want to execute that. but, obviously, it doesn't occur in a vacuum. fighting isis means you have to have local partner s on the ground. those local partners are under attack from turkey. they are being squeezed by russian mercenaries. so the u.s. wants to focus on one particular agenda in syria, which is fighting isis and not have that expand into other

areas of the conflict. but, of course, it does expand into other areas of the conflict. and then you have this second limited objective, which is to deter bashar al assad and his russian and iranian backers from using chemical weapons again, but how do you -- that also doesn't work in a vacuum. how do you do that without taking into account the russian advisers who are with there, the russian missile defenses on the ground, the iranian advisers that are there. so the commanders i've spoken to will say there isn't really a broad national strategy, just an attempt, perhaps an unrealistic attempt to focus u.s. policy specifically on these limited objectives, fighting isis, preventing chemical weapons, but you can't divorce those from the context of a seven-year civil war that is -- that involves its neighbors, it involves countries beyond serious borders. >> especially reconciling that,

and the president expressing a desire to remove troops from syria. up next, the fallout from the michael cohen rage and all the news out of the comey book this week. phil rutger, next. no matter how much you clean, does your house still smell stuffy? that's because your home is filled with soft surfaces that trap odors and release them back into the room. so, try febreze fabric refresher. febreze finds odors trapped in fabrics

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back now with breaking news. the u.s., uk and france saying they launched missile strikes. nato and the eu expressed support for the mission. putin has condemned it as an act of aggression. joining us to discuss the political implication is white house bureau chief for the "washington post" and msnbc political analyst. we watched as the president made his way to the diplomatic room last night. what led to it? what happened between last saturday and the announcement last night? >> well, there was a long deliberative effort of inside the administration with the president and his military brass to try to figure out how to retaliate against syria. there was never a question, i don't think, that president trump wanted to launch a strike.

it was more of a matter of what happened and getting everything lined up with allies to do it together. there was a tweet warning effectively to russia that these missiles would be coming, but it is a real turnabout from a couple of weeks ago when the president was talking about withdrawing u.s. forces spiral from syria. he is aware of the presence in the middle east and has wanted to dial that back. >> that was six is days ago. we are talking about a week here, fellowship. given the headlines we have covered in that time frame, we are talking about the james comey book. we're talking about cohen now under criminal investigation. and all waiting for syria to happen. each one can stand alone in keeping both of us here busy into the night. we have all of this culminated together. give us the context from saturday, sunday, monday to where we are today a week later. and those headlines have been

juggling about in this white house. >> yeah. it has been an extraordinary he week of news for this presidency and this white house. as trump has been weighing the strike in syria, he's been really distracted by the convergence of these various crises, with the raid on his lawyer michael cohen in new york, a political crisis. he's dealing with the legal crisis as the russia investigation by robert mueller mounts. his main lawyer on the russia case, john dowd, resigned left the team a couple of weeks ago, and the president has not replaced him. the president has been agitated, angry, fuming. especially about that comey book, the excerpteds of which came out on thursday. >> phil, i want to ask about one particular part. he is talking about that infamous dossier and one detail in particular. let's take a listen.

>> we started talking about investigating that. i said, sir is, that's up to you. but you want to be careful about that because it might create a narrative that we are investigating you personally. second, it is very difficult to prove something didn't happen. i don't know about prostitutes being on each other. >> i saw the tweet with the capitals and exclamation points. how much is this book bothering, preoccupying the president? >> a lot. especially the personal nature of what comey writes about in the interview with george stephanopoulos. it was the first briefing he had with president trump at trump tower. he told them about the dossier of donald trump engaging. those are unconfirmed. they are part of the steele

dossier. it knotted the president. and again, again and again in his conversations with comey he would bring it up and try to deny it. >> white house bureau chief. phil, thank you very much. >> we thank you so much for being with us. at the top of the hour, hugh hewitt and reaction from the pentagon to the military strikes on syria. jimmy's gotten used to his whole room smelling like sweaty odors.

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