at lady, these houses! yes, yes and yes. and don't forget about them. uh huh, sure. still yes! xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. now you can get it, too. welcome to the party. ♪ good morning and welcome to "am joy." yesterday was about as momentous a news day as we had in this building and we had many. it started with the day rod rosenstein is, quote, bracing to be fired by donald trump. there were the continued revelations from the block buster book by fired fbi director james comey which drew attacks from trump on twitter and from the white house press secretary. after that, came the reporting from abc news and cnn that fbi agents seized recordings made by donald trump's long-time fixer michael cohen, which included

recordings between cohen and the lawyer who represented two of the women who claimed to have had sexual relationships with trump. we also learned that cohen negotiated a $1.6 million settlement with a former model who said she had an affair with and got pregnant by elliott brody a major trump backer and rnc deputy finance chair. he stepped down from his rnc post friday evening. next came the bomb shell revelation that mueller has evidence confirming a crucial piece of the christopher steele dossier that michael cohen did indeed travel to prague to the summer of 2016 despite insisting he has never set foot in prague. all of this happened before the president announced the bombing of targets in syria. >> purpose of our actions tonight is to establish a strong deterrent against the production, spread and use of chemical weapons. establishing this deterrent is a

vie kal national security interest of the united states. we are prepared to sustain this response until the syrian regime stops its use of prohibited chemical agents. >> so quite a day yesterday. and we're going to get to all that other news shortly. but let's start with the syrian attacks which for many americans raised real questions about the legal authority for the strikes and also about whether a part of the president's motivation was all that other news that just kept oncoming yesterday. these are serious questions that we in the media have an obligation to ask however uncomfortable because they will be asked by our friends and our foes around the world. joining me now is amen moe ha dean and cal perry, former state department senior adviser, malcolm nance and executive director as i mangled everybody's titles. calvin, you first, what was accomplished yesterday according to military commanders?

>> it was according to the president mission accomplished which is not a great historical reference there, right? he boxed himself in with the tweet he sent three days ago. you strike targets going to change the course of the syrian civil war, you're killing iranians or russians. if you don't and do what happened last night, you're giving the assad government a chance to say, we're still in charge. we were able to thwart the americans and giving the russians the ability to say, see, our presence here is a good way of standing off the american government, the american military. >> yeah. and there was a sort of disconnect between what the defense secretary james mattis, aka mad dog mattis wanted and what john bolton the new national security adviser extremely hawkish, mattis according to "wall street journal," the military scheduled potential windows for the strike including one thursdays night. mattis was able to cancel them out of concerns that anything other than a show strike risked broader escalation with the russians in particular. meanwhile, the same "wall street journal" report says that bolton

favored an attack that would cripple some part of assad's government and national infrastructure according to a person familiar with his thinking. bolton didn't want a reprize of 2016 oestreich. >> it seems general mattis has won out in the short term. there's a few ways to look at it. one, this was not a unilateral united states strike. there was the involvement of the french and united kingdom. >> yep. >> that brings to the argument a sense of legitimacy although there's a lot of questions as to whether or not the broader international community wanted to see this. we heard from some arab allies that were not happy with and certainly key members russia and china would not be happy with this. there was the argument that the general mattis, secretary defense mattis excuse me wanted to have a bit of a coalition to make this appear this was not just the united states acting unilaterally in kind of any contra vengs of internangs law. that's one. two, the scope of the strike is extremely limited. very high on production, very

high of what they went after, very little on the substance of that and you get the sense from watching syrian street media. people celebrating in defiance. the syrian president walking into the office, his presidential palace with his suitcase in hand. the tone that is coming out of iran, russia and syria this morning is that the strike yesterday was very limited in nature, very limited in scope, perhaps a deterrent to some capacity but certainly not a destruction of serious chemical weapons capability. at the end of the day, it's not going to change the calculus of the syria's president how this war is being carried out. >> it is not as if syria and its allies, iran and russia, didn't know it was coming. donald trump tweeted a warning a few days ago, a couple days ago, russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at syria. get ready, russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and smart. you shouldn't be partners with a gas-killing animal. all initial caps who kills his people and enjoys it exclamation

point. in addition to that, there is reporting that there was actually a more formal diplomatic warning. so if russia knew it was coming, if syria knew it was going to happen and they were able to move whatever chemical weapons they didn't want to be hit with bombs, then what is the efficacy of such an action? >> that's the big question is that who is donald trump really speaking to in his speech last night, he made a very strong humanitarian argument which is not something that he's ever cared about with foreign policy before. right, it's always america first, america alone. last night he talked about the atrocities against these children and the moral responsibility that countries have to stand up with what's right. you contrast that with just a week earlier when he was talking about how the united states is going to be pulling out all 2000 of its troops that are there to fight isis because the war against isis is over. so we have an erratic president who is clearly trying to appeal to people who watch these photos of syrian children being gassed.

the general public that wants to know that america still has the power to do something. the other hand, you have general mattis who has a sensibility to realize that this could potentially put the middle east into further chaos and the united states right in the middle of it. so he is trying to speak to the iranians, the russians, the arab allies, the western world and thread that needle in a very delicate way. unfortunately that does not a strategy or a plan make. so we do not know what the long-term purpose is in syria. what is mission accomplished mean because clearly the syrian war is on going and just at the pentagon press briefing this morning we talked about how this was a very targeted and limited strike, it was not to topple the regime yet trump's renning was that it was supposed to end all atrocities. this is the big question mark, what is united states's goal in syria and what are we going to do to accomplish it? >> malcolm, it would help if we had a secretary of state could

do the talking. the u.s. has 2,000 soldiers fighting isis in syria. russia has 2,900 soldiers. is there a way to go in and strike syria without -- in such a way that you do not -- because you certainly don't want to kill russian troops or iranian troops and widen the war, so then again i ask what's the point? >> well, that's a good question. you know, this was a very, very limited strike and it shows the influence of general mattis, who you could almost see it's like he didn't really want to do something so he had to hit something. he hit research and scientific facilities around storage facilities even though many of the equipment may have been destroyed. they can reconstitute this and we're sure they have stocks in a clan december tine location.

this attack was much closer to the way bill clinton carried out an attack in the early 1980s in retaliation for the attempt by saddam's intelligence to kill george herbert walker bush in a bomb in kuwait. we only hit their headquarters at night and he was roundly criticized for killing no one. you have to make this attack tough and have to get the people who are in there. this was sanitary. we killed no one. we didn't even damage their defenses. >> i think you're referring to the 1998 bombing of what people calleds a aspirin factory in sudan. >> that's right. >> cal, i wonder and i think this is an uncomfortable conversation to have because there was this atmospherics behind what we saw happen yesterday in which there were a series of negative stories about the president. he is under tremendous pressure, his personal lawyer is in the crosshairs of the fbi of a

federal investigation, and so to make analogy with bill clinton in the midst of the monica lewinsky bombing against al qaeda, so you could make an argument either way, but i wonder how the defense establishment deals with the fact that we are having that other conversation about something that they were -- they had to do. >> look, the facts are this president is totally unhinged on twitter, right? three-day heads up on a military action is giving them way too much time to move the equipment. he's under incredible political pressure in the united states and take the facts on the ground in syria. half a million people dead, 11 million people displaced, 6 million internally, 5 million externally, are these decon flix missiles? it's confusing, right. nothing is going to change on the ground in syria and frankly these 500,000 people who were killed were not killed by chemical weapons they were killed by convention thal weapons and that's likely to continue. >> i cannot miss the fact that donald trump is also the president who slammed the door shut on syrian refugees coming

to this country. you want to help the people who are victims of bashar al assad's heinous government, you might want to let some of them into the country who are asking to come. trump says no. this civil war has been stretching on and on and on since the arab spring when bashar al assad made it very clear he's not going and clearly is not going with the backing of iran and russia. if we're not doing something to end that slaughter, making this point, i wonder in the region, we can put up a map of the region, you have syria sitting right there near iraq and jordan, some of the allies. what message does it send in the region to have just done this? >> you can kind of pick up on the pentagon spokeswoman's statement saying our goal in syria is to defeat isis. if you are turkey, if you are jordan, if you are any of the countries saudi arabia, close ally, who want to see the united states be more robust in trying to bring an end to the civil war and possibly go as far as pushing for regime change in

that country, you would be very disappointed to know that this evening or at least this morning it's been a long night for me, that the president and the spokesperson for the pentagon are saying that is not the objective. our objective is to defeat isis and make sure we're sending this message that the use of chemical weapons is a violation of international law. on one hand -- this is the point you make that is absolutely right, there's so many contradictions coming out of the white house, not just on the issue of accepting syrian refugees, the hypocrisy of saying it's okay to die by conventional weapons by the hundreds of thousands, if you die by chemical weapons that's a threat to our national security. you saw president say in 2013 president obama had to have authorization of congress to carry out a strike. president trump did not even go to congress to seek that authorization. he said president obama's strike on syria would be a disaster. here he is doing the same exact thing. >> there are plenty of tweets of

donald trump saying it was a bad idea to go into syria. he was very much against it just weeks ago he wanted to pull completely out. there isn't a sort of message that makes sense. by the way, we're there fighting isis, so is bashar al assad. it's not like he and isis are on the same side. there's so many conflicting sides here. he's fighting insurgency. how do we communicate all of this? it seems so contradictory without a secretary of state. >> we don't. actually that's a big part of the problem is that there is no diplomatic effort on going. prior in the obama administration, we had a diplomatic effort that was supposed to be going alongside the threat of military intervention. which is generally you have a tactical military strike and your dip mats come in after the pressure has been put on the enemy your dip mats come in to try to figure out what's going to move forward. so, if you're going to have a military strike, you have to think about what else other than asat if asat goes, what ask the.

you have to figure out what a post assad government could look like. >> right. >> those negotiations are not happening right now because we have a president who thinks that negotiation alone is a sign of weakness. he is not using all the tools in the tool box that we have for national security. >> and to that point real quickly, we don't have an ambassador in egypt, saudi arabia and qatar. in addition to the fact that we do not have a state department, secretary of state. so you don't even have the diplomatic food soldiers waking up in capitals of arab cities saying to the governments here is what we need from you and here is what we can offer to you to get on board. there's a diplomatic vacuum. you're asking what happens in terms of the message we're sending, we're not sending any messages. >> malcolm, we have jared. jared's job was to solve all the middle east problems. he is bestties with the de facto ruler of saudi arabia.

he is pitching loan ideas to qatar. where is jared? >> well, to be honest, who cares? because he is not a player in this. what has happened here -- our diplomacy is a giant vacuum, not just in the middle east, but around the world. many ambassadors have not been appointed. virtually no undersecretaries are sitting in their positions. that means general mattis and the defense department are the de facto diplomats in this engagement. they are speaking and doing diplomacy with a hammer. and if that's the case, then we're going to be fighting these wars a very long time. >> hang on. everybody is coming back. i'll let everybody come back so we can go pay for all this and take a commercial break. coming up, one of the stories that donald trump would very much like you to not pay attention to, flashy thing. we'll be right back. -if you told me a year ago where i'd be right now... aah! ...i would have said you were crazy.

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♪ has the president still associated with michael cohen? is he continuing to consider michael cohen someone he holds in confidence? >> i know that the president has worked with him as a personal attorney. beyond that, i don't have anything else to add about their relationship. >> is cohen still the president's personal attorney? >> i'm not sure, jill. i would have to check. >> i want to ask -- >> really, really? that dodge came as the same day that the justice department revealed the president's

personal lawyer and long-time fixer michael cohen is under criminal investigation for his business practices. "the new york times" reports on friday donald trump did the one thing you should never do when your lawyer is under criminal investigation, he called cohen. just to, quote, check in. as attorneys for both men went to court to stop federal prosecutors using materials seized during monday's raid of cohen's offices in his hotel room. joining me now, stormy daniels current attorney and lisa bloom. there's so much i literally was going through all my elements figuring out where to go first. so cnn reports that the fbi has seized recordings between michael cohen and the former attorney for your client. what does that mean to your case and/or the federal case? >> well, it's very disturbing obviously to me and my client that michael cohen would be making recordings between

himself and mr. davidson, my client's former attorney. and so we're going to get to the bottom of whether those recordings actually exist. if they do exist, that may give us grounds to file yet another action against mr. cohen for those recordings, but you know, it's pretty outrageous you have an attorney that is engaged potentially in illegal recording of conversations not only that it's stupid. it's just flat out stupid. i mean, i am constantly amazed with each passing day of the lack of intelligence that has been demonstrated by this man, this attorney, michael cohen. i'm more amazed that this is the guy that the president of the united states would pick as his fixer. >> yeah. mr. davidson, is he california based? >> yes. >> there's also the question of whether recording those calls was illegal? >> it's not a question. those of us who are in california. >> right. >> we have the right not to be recorded. you can't go to another state and do the recording. california law is very clear. so this is like a criminal taking a picture of himself

while he's committing a crime, right? if you are recording somebody in california and you're saving those recordings and the fbi now has them, michael is absolutely right. that is ridiculously stupid. >> let's talk about mr. davidson, keith davidson. he represented stormy daniels, karen mcdougal who claims she had a month's long affair with donald trump and the unnamed woman involved in an alleged affair and abortion that took place with a gentleman named mr. broidy, an rnc fundraising vice chair. he represented all these women. is it your clint's contention that when he was representing her, he was representing her in a sense on behalf of donald trump? >> not yet. we don't have enough information to make that inference. our focus right now is not necessarily on mr. davidson, but our focus is on mr. cohen and mr. trump and their conduct as it relates to my client. their efforts to strong arm her,

cover up the payment to her and intimidate her. that's our focus right now. >> to stay with us just for one moment, this fundraiser elliott broidy, seems that michael cohen also arranged payments for and arranged an nda which seemed to be very similar to the nda that ms. clifford signed, so similar that david denson, the fake name used for donald trump and peggy peterson the fake name used for stormy daniels were also used in that other case. if this was a boilerplate nda farmed out to other women, does that weaken the nda your client signed? >> it may. it's unclear whether it's boilerplate from mr. davidson or boilerplate from mr. cohen. i broke that story on thursday night on twitter when i announced the fact that mr. davidson or mr. cohen, in fact, had negotiated another nda on behalf of this gop donor and they printed the article. there's a lot of similarities

and pattern of practice here, at least as it relates to mr. cohen, and i am confident that we're not talking about two or three or five or seven different women, we're going to get well into the double digits when it's all said and done and i'm confident that the documents that have been obtained by the fbi in connection with these raids are going to show there's a lot of women. >> and that which brings me back to you, lisa, if michael cohen in his capacity as vice finance chair of the republican national committee is arranging multiple payoffs to women and in his capacity as donald trump's we're not sure what because he formerly became his lawyer after trump became president. he worked for trump. if he's arranging multiple payoffs, does the source of the money become a problem for him legally? does if payoff mill, if that's what it is, become a problem for him legally? how much trouble is michael cohen? ? >> yes. as attorneys we have very strict rules about handling money, handling client funds. of course when there's a campaign for president, there's campaign finance rules which have to be complied with and

he's being investigated for that. attorney/client privilege occurs to attorney one on one with a client doesn't apply to michael cohen talking about somebody else's case to some third party. doesn't apply to his phone calls with third parties. that's all completely discoverable and available to the fbi. >> and i want to just really quickly read broidy's statement. mr. cohen reached out to me after being contacted by keith davidson, i had not previously hired mr. cohen, i retained mr. cohen after he informed me about his prior relationship with mr. davidson. seems they have an alliance, relationship is that normal for the adversarial side's attorneys to work together. >> yes and no. these two attorneys appear to become very, very close and i think it's a very suspicious situation. but this broidy situation, let me just say this, michael cohen right now is radioactive.

anybody who had any contact with him on anything that was not 100% above board at this point in time this morning should be very, very nervous because what we learned in court yesterday, joy, was that according to his lawyers, we're talking about documents that may span 30 years that were obtained by the fbi in connection with these raids. >> yeah. >> they describe the documents as thousands if not millions of pages of documents subject to the attorney/client privilege including audio recordings. this is going to get very, very bad for michael cohen. >> trump called him. >> well, not only that, though, but i don't believe that michael cohen can remain the counsel to the president of the united states as of the date of that fbi raid because i think it's a non-waivable conflict. >> and meanwhile, lisa, you now have another story that was broken this week that it's not confirmed, but that there's a former trump tower doorman who is said the following and he

confirmed this story that was originally broke in the new yorker. today i awoke to learn that a confidential agreement that i had with ami, the national enquirer parent company with regard to a story about trump, donald trump was leaked to the press. i can confirm while serving at trump world tower i was instructed not to criticize president trump's former housekeeper due to a prior relationship she had with president trump which produced a child. >> you know what, joy, i'm really angry. i think we have a right to know in the middle of the metoo movement how many women have been silenced by michael cohen and by donald trump. my client, the first woman to speak out about sexual misconduct by donald trump in 2016, she got a phone call from michael cohen in 2016 asking her to lie and deny the whole thing, which she refused to do. >> right. >> all right. how many women for how long? i think we have a right to know. i also want to say god bless stormy daniels and karen mcdougal and of course her fine attorney for speaking out because i'm sure this is very hard for them behind the scenes. i spent the week at the bill cosby trial watching woman after

woman stand up against that high profile guy. it's time for these men to come clean and especially when we're talking about our president and sexual misconduct against women. >> and not only that, but exit question to you, michael, physical intimidation. are you closer to finding out the identity of the person who allegedly in addition to all the rest that stormy daniels gone through, ms. clifford gone through threatened her and her child? wmplt last sunday we created this forensic sketch. we made enormous amount of progress in identifying that individual. and we're hopeful that we'll have an announcement next week sometime. >> can you tell us what's on the tape? >> no, not yet. >> had to try. i had to try. it's my job. >> but i wonder what's on all the other tapes the fbi seized. >> it's an excellent point. >> joy, there's a lot of tapes. there will be a lot of tapes in this case. >> when you say it's normally breaking news. we'll write that down and bring you back. thank you both for being here. >> thank you. up next, russia's reaction

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russian president vladimir putin who is backing syrian leader bashar al assad said the strike on syria will have, quote, destructive influence on

the entire system of international relations and warned that such actions will not be left without consequences. >> hey, joy. good day to you. condemnation from the russian government here in moscow. president putin describing these strikes as an act of aggression. condemnation, too, from iran, russia's ally inside syria. meanwhile the russian ministry of defense holding a news conference today in which russian military officials say that of 103 missiles fired into syria, 71 were shot down by syrian air defenses. those air defenses, of course, supplied by russia. that is a bold claim that we have no way to verify from here in moscow. but perhaps crucially russia also saying it may use this opportunity to upgrade the syrian air defenses that have already been supplied by moscow away from, joy, the rhetoric and

the counterclaim, i think there will be satisfaction inside the kremlin that this has not led to a larger confrontation with the united states and that at the same time russia's advantage inside syria has not been damaged. certainly today there is no sign of president putin heeding the words of president trump and turning away from syria. joy? >> thanks to nbc's keir simmons in moscow. up next, donald trump's practice pardon. don't go away. [whistling] hello. give me an hour in tanning room 3. cheers!

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♪ scooter libby, former chief of staff to vice president dick cheney shows no emotion as a judge sentenced him to 2 1/2 years behind bars, 2 years probation and quarter million dollar fine. for libby's role in the cia leak case. president bush said he felt terrible for his family and in a statement vice president cheney called libby a fine man. libby, his attorneys and special prosecutor patrick fitzgerald had no comment for reporters as they left the courthouse. >> on the same day donald trump accused james comey of being a, quote, leaker and a liar, he pardoned scooter libby, the former chief of staff to dick cheney, convicted of perjury for leaking the identity of covert c.i.a. operative and lying about it to federal investigators in a

grand jury. james comey at the time was a general deputy attorney for recused attorney general john ashcroft. you really cannot make this stuff up. libby's sentence was commuted by president george w. bush who notably refused to pardon him causing what was a permanent rift with cheney. what message was trump trying to send and more importantly to who whom. let's go around the table. i'm going to start by noting, nick, that was trump's fourth presidential pardon, the first being joe arpaio back in august of 2017 and now scooter libby with two people in between. scooter libby's crimes that he was convicted of included four felony counts obstruction of justice, giving false statements to the fbi and two counts of perjury in grand jury testimony. all interesting in light of current events and quickly read the statement from his lawyer we commend president trump for

addressing a gross injustice and granting a pardon. libby was wrongfully convicted in 2007 of a politically motivated prosecution arising from a phony scandal that had no underlying crime as the basis for investigation. that was victoria and her husband who donald trump tried to hire as his lawyer and didn't. what do you make of the claim by the attorney that he was wrongfully convicted? >> there was one witness who did recount, new york times reporter, but there were a whole series of witnesses who testified against him upon which the jury could have easily found beyond a reasonable doubt that he lied and obstruction of justice. what's odd here is the timing and why is he doing it now? and the procedure? this does not appear to have gone through the normal department of justice procedure that most -- all pardons pretty much go through that procedure. >> yep. >> this did not just as it didn't with the arpaio one. you have to ask why did he do it now? i think part of it is that joe

and his wife who you just mentioned have trump's ear and anybody who have trump's ear can get him to do something if you're the last person in the door. that's part of it. the second part is he trying to send a message and be mr. macho, i have the pardon power, so i've got your back. just hang tough. don't cooperate and you're going to be pardoned ultimately. >> funny you should say that and also say new york times reporter. judith miller, the reporter in question for the new york times and you'll recall she was one of the people who made the very vigorous case for invading iraq based on some really poor reporting and her main source has resurfaced. she is on fox news on friday and here is what he said about the pardon. >> i have no insight into what president trump thinks or tweets or why he does it. i can simply say that his

critics will surely say that this is a signal to anyone who is thinking of cooperating with robert mueller don't do it because president trump will pardon you. i hope that's not his intention. i hope his intention is to right a historical wrong, but i don't know what's going on inside that head of his. >> even judith miller -- >> she is very hashtag free libby. it's interesting because she recanted back in 2015. it's been a while. it's exactly what nick says, why is this all happening now? because, yes, trump wants to send a message that if you are loyal, i will save you except he cannot pardon people who are prosecuted by the state. and right now with all these pending investigations in front of a grand jury in new york. >> right. >> as well as possible in virginia against manafort and gates they could be possibly prosecuted by the state of

virginia and perhap other investigations, trump won't be able to save them. >> the new york investigation right now that seized documents from cohen is still federal but there's a possibility that it could become a state investigation. >> yes. >> well, it's hard to say. looks like it's all part of the mueller investigation. >> right. >> there's been reporting saying that southern district is taking on the investigation. i don't believe that for a minute. the fact of the matter is by statute to seize items in the southern district you have to have the judge in the southern district order the search warrant. that's normally what happens in the southern district. i was there for eight and a half years. >> yeah. >> we would never let some other attorney come in and ask for that search warrant. >> yeah. >> so i think what's really going on is part of the larger investigation and the question is out of those crimes they may discover, are they also state crimes. >> exactly. because -- >> i think there are a number of state crimes here that relate to the theft of e-mails from the democratic national committee, the fact that there were

meetings and trump tower acts, the $80 million that manafort laundered, that could be charged under either new york or virginia law. and the penalties in new york state criminal law are just as severe, if not worse. >> before i go to public, you had one other thing? >> what he was saying and the facilities are worse in the state. >> first i want to play the person who was outed, she was a covert c.i.a. agent who was outed by scooter libby. this is her thoughts on the pardon. >> the message being sent is you can commit perjury and i will pardon you if it protects me. and i deem that you are loyal to me. i think the message is very damaging to our democracy and the rule of law. i think he has an audience of three right now, that would be manafort, flynn and kushner and perhaps others. >> and perhaps cohen, who knows everything about donald trump's business and who is facing a lot of problems. paul butler, nbc reporting this

week that there are four things that mueller may be looking into when it comes to potential culpability for donald trump. they are -- intent to fire fbi director james comey and commit obstruction of justice. his role in crafting the public statement about the june 2016 trump tower meeting infamously attended by jared kushner and his son don jr., talk of pardoning witnesses. who might testify against him. and pressuring attorney general sessions not to recuse the russian investigation. does this pardon smell of that? >> got to be, joy. here is what we know. it's purely symbolic because it has no actual affect on scooter libby. he was already had his sentence commuted by governor -- by the governor, so he never did actual by president bush. so he never did a day in jail. unlike many black men who after they get a felony conviction they get all of -- they lose all of their rights including the right to vote. scooter libby actually got his

right to vote restored by the governor. so this is all about a message to michael cohen and to paul manafort from president trump. yo, bro, i got your back. just hang tight. if you get asked to testify in front of a grand jury, do what you got to do because you know what i do is pardon people when they lie to grand juries. i pardon people when they obstruct justice. remember what i did for your boy joe arpaio, i got the same deal coming for you. >> wow. all right. everybody stay with me. nick akerman, seemya and paul in the next hour. more on friday 13th trump declares mission accomplished. more "am joy" after the break. discover card.

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a clear message that the international community will not stand by and tolerate the use of chemical weapons. well, this morning donald trump followed up on last night's address with a tweet declaring mission accomplished because saying that works well for presidents. will the strikes which targeted three buildings in and around damascus change anything on the ground in after all, this is the second time in over a year that trump has ordered air strikes against syria. the first round had the same goal as this one, and yet bashar al assad still attacked his people with chemical weapons. meanwhile, secretary of defense james mattis tamped down expectations for further action. >> right now this is a one-time shot and i believe that it sent a very strong message to dissuade him to deter him from doing this again. >> msnbc national security aimen mohyeldin is back with me and joining me is the co-founder and executive director of news deeply. i want to start with a timeline

of how we got here for those who haven't been following the sad saga in syria. the protest began as part of the air ra spring against bashar al assad. in august of 2012 president obama warns that the use of chemical weapons would cross a, quote, red line. december 23rd of that year the first of several suspected chemical attacks began in syria, in september of 2015 russia puts its military behind assad. 2017 u.s. launches 59 tomahawk cruise missiles under trump and april of 2018 trump warns that missiles will be coming to syria in response to another suspected attack april of 2018 trump announced his position strikes against the regime. what's missing in that timeline of course is that in 2013 president obama went to congress asking for authorization and got none to strike syria. but i want to just ask you, laura, in that whole long sad timeline has anything materially changed on the ground for the syrian people vis-a-vis their government? >> well, things have gotten a lot worse for syrian civilians, i will tell you that.

more than 400,000 people believed to be dead, about half of the country has been forced from their homes so either they are refugees who fled to neighboring countries or further abroad or they are wandering inside syria with no place to call home. so nothing has changed in terms of assad's grip on power, he has actually held very fast to that, another piece of that timeline in 2012 president obama put out a very strong statement that assad must go, and he's still there. so in a sense he's really won this war. human rights groups say he's used extremely brutal tactics, even war crimes in order to defeat anyone who opposes him, ranging from military groups, armed groups on the ground to peaceful protesters to innocent children, hospitals and schools have been targeted and a lot of the victories he has won in the past year he has effectively strangled areas that he doesn't control, kept food from coming in and out, medical care. he has made life miserable for anyone who basically doesn't agree with him. >> that begs the question, it

seems very clean that bashar al assad has won this war, the civil war has been crushed, why is he still bombing his own people with chemical weapons? >> i think there are a few ways to look at that. there are some who saw this particular strong hold of douma in eastern guta as about to certificate runneder so the syrian regime to break the will of the back of the protesters or the rebels, if you want that word in that strong hold used chemical weapons, but also there is the component of it that was september to the international world that he remained defiant, that even in the wake of what the syrians called an aggression against their country, they are still launching and carrying out this war the way they want to. so there is that argument. obviously there is the counterargument which is what the syrian government makes, is they have already won this war, they don't need to use chemical weapons. this he cite to the rebels have used chemical weapons to make this ambiguous battlefield even more complex and creating this paralysis in the international

community as to who is behind what doing what. there's evil on both sides and as a result it's hard to choose sides and everybody is somewhat guilty. you can see that sometimes in the political discourse in countries when people say we don't know who is behind the chemical weapons and as a result, you hear that from the iranians and russians and see that kind of trickle up on the national level and in the politics of people saying, like we shouldn't get involved if we don't know who is behind it. >> or whose side to take. lara andrew tabler was quoted in the "new york times" as saying military interventions have a shelf life and he said for a certain time it prevented assad's regime from using chemical weapons after after a while it dissipated. it feels there is a cyclical nature to this. the international community sends a message to him through strikes, he just goes back to doing the same thing. is there any indication on the ground that there is anything that can change the behavior of this regime or that can get rid of it? >> no, in short.

the syrians we speak to, we were speaking to syrians and capturing their reactions that basically civilians who aren't doing anything wrong except being caught up in the conflict. >> yeah, absolutely. if you want to even get to the bottom of the -- or to the root of the sort of xenophobic crisis that's sweeping across europe go right back to syria and the refugee crisis. >> we broke syria, syria broke europe. >> lara, thank you very much more "a.m. joy" after the break. ? flonase relieves your worst symptoms ? including nasal congestion, which most pills don't. flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances. most pills only block one. flonase.

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the assad regime has a pattern of using chemical weapons to get to some people, against the chemical weapons convention. despite the fact that they had agreed to it and despite the fact that the russians were their guarantors. so what happens next has everything to do with what the assad regime decides to do and it has everything to do with the russian government decides to enable as well. >> good morning and welcome back to "a.m. joy." the world is reacting this morning to air strikes launched by the u.s., france and britain against syria, which were intended to cripple the bashar al assad regime's ability to produce and deploy chemical weapons. at this hour the u.n. security council is set to meet at the request of assad's patron, russia, to discuss the air strikes. late friday russia and the

syrian government's ally iran kwarnd of consequences to the military action with the supreme leader scribing the attack as genocide. as u.s. defense officials point out the strikes were limited in scope. three targets at one time over just one night. but nothing could stop donald trump from taking a victory lap tweeting the unfortunate bush phrase mission accomplished. what exactly our mission was and what was accomplished remains an open question, a question that could be answered potentially by nbc's bill mealy in lebanon 70 miles outside of damascus. bill, on the ground there what do people feel was either accomplished or was the point? >> reporter: well, as you say, we're not very far from damascus. here the church bells are ringing in beirut at the end of a quite extraordinary day. there were protests to answer your question earlier on on the streets of damascus, people obviously in the heartland of president assad not hasn't with this. he was pictured at 9:00 this

morning walking nonchalantly into his office, almost literally taking it in his stride, signaling to the world that these air strikes didn't make him lose sleep, but i think he heard them and i think the message from the pentagon today, joy, was that he did get the message. an extraordinary -- extraordinarily detailed briefing from the pentagon this afternoon about those strikes in which they said that they were precise, overwhelming and effective. they told us what they were, which was to cripple syria's ability to launch chemical weapons in the future and what they were not, this wasn't an attempt, we were told, to depose the syrian regime, but in brief, joy, 105 missiles, 76 directed at one facility, the barsa military facility, i've been there, it's a scientific research missile facility. it does not exist anymore said

general frank mckenzie. two other sites hit in homs, with one 22 missiles, another with seven missiles and the key thing was it was double the number of missiles in last year's strike and of course this was a multi-national operation, british and french war planes and a french war ship also involved. but what was extraordinary was what general mckenzie went through that this was almost in his words a complete success. none of the allied aircraft were successfully engaged. russian air defenses were not employed. he said we're confident that all our missiles reached their target. 40 syrian surface to air missiles were fired, he said, but they were largely ineffective. no missile was shot down. there was no agreement with the russians beforehand and the russians did not engage. i suppose, joy, the interesting thing was what he didn't say, that was toward the end of the briefing. you know, he said the syrian

chemical weapons network is larger than the three places targeted. we took out the heart of it, he said, but he did imply that there were more chemical weapons of one description or another still left in syria, and he didn't spell out what the red line might be in the future. he said we're pre aired to take more action, but, joy, what is that red line? is it sarin gas or has it, you know, gone to the still deadly but more common chlorine gas? so, in other words, if bashar al assad launches another attack, what do we, what does the u.s. do next? do we simply go straightaway and press the button for another wave of air strikes? but he did say we're ready for it, we're ready for anything. this was a very clear message, said the pentagon spokeswoman last night, and we spoke that bashar al assad heard it. joy? >> all right. thank you very much. very comprehensive report, nbc's bill neely.

back with me ayman mohyeldin msnbc anchor, cal perry nbc news global editor, in. iara hawk and malcolm nance. ayman, what did i a hear in that, attacked in two cities, homs and in -- near dak discuss, a facility that seems to have been a research facility. what i didn't hear were attacks on any personal assets related to bashar al assad, the dictator of syria or attacks on the syrian military. >> yeah, this was if you had to look at a spectrum of possible options presented to the president and a lot of analysts would probably say this falls on the end of the spectrum that would be classified as a very limited operation. if you wanted to go to the opposite end of the spectrum, let's say if you wanted to go why john bolton perhaps wanted the president to go it would have strikes on the regime's capability to deliver those weapons which would have been fixed wing aircraft or helicopters or airports, it

could have gone on the command and control structure of the defense establishment, the security establishment, headquarters, barracks, things like that, could have even gone after the presidential palace to disrupt the president of syria's ability to still keep the country and keep the command and control of his military cohesively together. he could have gone after the port as well, but that falls on the very serious end of the spectrum which i don't think this president from the tweets that he had been suggesting, from the politics of what he's facing here domestically, from the international community's willingness to get involved in that kind of conflict, i don't think the president was anywhere near that part of the spectrum. we saw three strikes -- or three targets i should say very limited in scope and the pentagon is probably -- has a little bit more wishful thinking that this is going to work as a deterrent. last year when they went after one strike it did not deter president assad. let's keep in mind although we are involved in a military strike april of 2018 i believe there have been nine other women

cal weapons attacks over the course of the past 12 months that went without any kind of response from the united states militarily. >> we have the august 2013 attack on rebels in a city called ghouta, we have an april 4th, 2017 attack, an april 6th attack. so there have been multiple attacks and we haven't responded to each of them. cal, i'm struck by that imagery by our bill neely of the dictator of syria, the president of syria, bashar al assad, just strolling out and saying this did nothing to me. i don't understand what message was even sent in the region where the idea is you're supposed to scare him straight, right? i wonder if we did that or did we just give him -- make him more defiant? by the way, if we did what ayman was just talking about, you risk a conflict with iran and russia which clearly the united states doesn't want. >> on the one side you either risk a conflict widening, but on the flip side now you have given the syrian president and the syrian government the leeway tomorrow could out today and say we were victorious, we were able to stop this strike and push

forward that propaganda campaign. the contradictions here, right, are incredible. president trump wants us out of syria, yet 150 some odd missiles, right? he wants to help the people of syria, yet only 11 syrians have been let into the united states this year. so we are running like a 15 to 1 missile to refugee ratio. 500,000 syrians killed, half a million people, where have we been the last seven years if we really care about the syrian people. this is the what the arab world saying this morning and they are going to be saying this is a president who is under serious domestic political challenges and is wagging the da you go. >> the reality is, malcolm, i'm old enough to remember when an american president made these sort of heart wrenching case for attacking another bathist dictatorship in the region, like right next door, by saying that, you know, the then dictator of iraq was killing and gassing children, that we had to go in there for humanitarian reasons. that didn't end well, donald

trump was actually -- declared himself for invading iraq and then turned against it, ran on this idea that he wouldn't get us into that sort of land war debacle, but here we find ourselves. is there a rational military explanation or intelligence explanation for doing what we did yesterday, if we've already stated that the goal is not to change the regime? >> malcolm? >> oh, okay. well, no -- i was so stunned by that question that i -- that i couldn't speak. no, there is no rational reason for that because there's no strategy. strategy involves long-term planning so that when you do something you understand the consequences of what was done and then what you have to do is manage those consequences. we are not doing that. what we are doing is flailing about and as much as i like carrying out an air strike against people that really deserve it, that's precisely

what we have here. we went out, we struck the organizational infrastructure of the chemical weapons, but we did nothing to present a threat to the regime itself. excuse me. >> no, no worries. i know you were up all night because we had you essentially captive at msnbc all night. i want to talk about the diplomatic issue here because with iraq what you had was a struggle with the bush administration, with the george w. bush administration to create an international coalition and consensus that we even ought to attack that country. i remember france being on the other side of that issue, hence freedom fries and other attacks on france as an entity and britain always a riding alongside when we a want to attack countries in that region. i wonder if what's missing is a diplomatic effort to isolate bashar al assad the way we isolate north korea. is he rogue regime being treated by the rest of the in that

world. what can the international community do diplomatically about assad? his wife is still shopping in paris last time i checked. >> sure. assad is defiant and has been for the last seven years which is especially horrific knowing that he is actually a doctor by training, yet we decides that he needs to be killing children in his own country. he is backed by some serious powers unlike north korea. so it really requires as donald trump for the first time in this entire war mentioned directly that iran and russia are the ones assad regime, but these moments when he decides he wants to appeal to common sensibility versus any long-term strategy. it took a year for donald trump to implement the sanctions that congress had put on russia for interfering in our election. what is he actually going to do to get to the heart of assad's power and that is the russia -- russian regime. additional sanctions, is he

going to take putin on directly? i mean, unfortunately by not intervening directly after a chemical attack that first time around last year it was fancy fireworks then, it's fancy fireworks now, where he signals like crazy what he's going to do so everybody pulls out, we bomb empty buildings, it's not the true deterrent that you would hope for to give assad. so it ends up being a tit for tat in which he gets to show something to his base or people in the united states who want to feel good about humanitarian intervention without any of the actual practical steps of following up against russia or any of the humanitarian steps of letting in refugees. this is the additional challenge we have then if he's not going to take on russia he is not really making a case to the american public, either, which is what you need to do in a wag the dog scenario. there is no long-term plan for selling the american public on why we should be interfering in syria. again, it just ends up being a

temporary mome tempora temporary momentary distraction which is what all of his tweets are, temporary distractions not policy deliverables. >> when you are so loose with the truth as the u.s. president is on twitter and you are so bombastic you open the door for the russians to say whatever they want because nothing matters and it's all noise. the russians say the rebels set it up, the russians say this ex-spy in the uk who was poisoned, it was the brits, it was a staged event. it creates so much noise and the russian military is more entrenched and they have just said to the world we can stay here and we are a deterrent to the united states. >> before i come back to the table, bashar al assad is backed by two regimes that we are supposedly sanctioning, russia which donald trump keeps reluctantly sanctioning which he finally said something negative about and iran where he wants to tear up an agreement to stop them from building nuclear weapons. i don't understand why it is so

complicated if these are two countries the world seems prone to isolate to isolate them all. >> this is a question of whether also. iran and russia right now in syria, take a look at this, they are creating an axis where they have -- russia has extended iran's influence all the way up to the israeli border, has given them the ability to expand their ground forces, armed forces, combat capability in syria to keep that regime in place to further russia's -- russia's goals. in doing that, none of the sanctions that we're implementing are impacting russia. russia is more than willing to wink and nod at the arms regime we put in place for controlling iranians weapons program, but they are selling things to them and what they're selling first is weapons and in selling those weapons we are now giving ourselves -- we are giving iran and russia everything that they've ever wanted since we did nothing yesterday. >> i wouldn't worry as much

about a conventional response from russia, like a missile tit for tat as much as using their new tool of disinformation and that's where they are going to three to continue to destabilize democracies outside of syria in the west and in the united states. >> really quickly can you put the map back up. okay. ayman, we already essentially handed iran iraq, right? >> yeah. >> we went in and invaded iraq and handed it over to the, you know, more pro shiite government which is friendly with iran. now we have syria which is essentially under the control of iran and russia and then trump has been empowering russia from the minute he became president of the united states. do we even have any significant influence in that region anymore or have we essentially now ceded it to russia and iran? >> i think if you were to look at where the united states has influence its pockets in the region among some gulf arab countries, perhaps more so than anywhere else. you have certainly influence with assault and battery, the

united arab emirates but they don't in hess i will have influence enough to change assault and battery policies on issues like yemen and elsewhere. i'm not sure the united states has the kind of influence it once used to have. what we've seen from the iranians is they've exploited all of the american missteps in the region. you look at the iraq war, that was one, the soo err i can't war is another. look at recently the gcc conflict. you have the united states embroiled in this tension between saudi arabia, united arab emirates and qatar. they have gotten closer to qatar. why? because president trump by some accounts through qatar under the bus early on in this dispute, if you will. so iran has gotten closer to qatar and it is exploiting the vulnerabilities of the united states's missteps. that's a sign that the united states has not had a clear strategy in the region. to be honest that predates president trump but has gotten worse since president trump. >> it's gotten worse since

president donald trump and mr. tough guy just had qatar's amir in the white house as if nothing is wrong, having changed nothing, having changed nothing about his relationship with wooirn, still pals if with iran back in the white house. i would also like to know where jared kushner got that $1.2 million for 666 fifth avenue. i'm going to keep answering that question because i'm curious. ayman mohyeldin, malcolm nance -- malcolm, get some sleep. coming up, the imperial power of the american presidency is ex in. [ doorbell rings ] janice, mom told me you bought a house. okay. [ buttons clicking ] [ camera shutter clicks ] so, now that you have a house, you can use homequote explorer. quiet. i'm blasting my quads. janice, look. i'm in a meeting. -janice, look. -[ chuckles ] -look, look. -i'm looking. it's easy. you just answer some simple questions online, and you get coverage options to choose from. you're ruining my workout.

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the purpose of our actions tonight is to establish a strong deterrent against the production, spread and use of chemical weapons, establishing this deterrent is a vital national security interest of the united states. we are prepared to sustain this response until the syrian regime stops its use of prohibited chemical agents. >> on september 18th, 2001 congress authorized the president of the united states to go to war, the resolution in its entirety reads as follows: the president is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations or persons he determined planned, authorized, committed or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on september 11, 2001,

or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the united states by such nations, organizations or persons. so how exactly does that cover the bombs donald trump dropped on syria last night? joining me now congresswoman barbara lee who in 2001 was the only member of congress to vote against that authorization and john soltz. congresswoman, how does thwhat just read authorize donald trump to drop bombs on syria today? >> that authorization, joy, does not authorize donald trump to use force in syria or anywhere else in the world and that's why, joy, we have got to come back to congress, debate and vote on a new authorization. believe you me we're building bipartisan support for that. i have over 100 members who signed a letter to speaker ryan saying that, look, if we are going to continue with our involvement in syria, congress

has got to stop being missing in action and we have to did our constitutional job, but this is very dangerous. congress is not in the mix. we are really missing in action and we need to get back to the drawing board, repeat that resolution which we tried to do last year, speaker ryan stopped the democratic process where we had bipartisan support to repeal the 2001 and come up with a new one. >> and, speaking of your lame duck speaker, have you heard from him? has he had anything to say at all about the military action that was just taken without authorization by congress? >> a couple days ago i believe i heard him make a statement saying that he thought that this administration had the legal basis to use force. >> sure. >> but minimally. this speaker should adhere to the will of the american people and repeal the 2001 resolution and allow us the opportunity to do our job and debate and come up with a new one. >> do you have enough votes if

you were to put up a repeal, do you think you guys have the votes? do the democrats have the votes? >> i think we have the votes. i think democrats and republicans want to do this and once again, last year in the appropriations committee i had democratic and republican support to repeal the 2001 authorization, to give this administration eight months to come up with a new one while the existing one is in place and then we could debate specific authorizations for specific areas where we send our brave men and women into harm's way to decide the costs and consequences and then vote up or down on a new authorization. >> yeah, and, you know, john, i'm struck by the people who have the most enthusiasm for doing what we did in syria, which again is not changing the regime, there is no pretense here that we have some great love for, you know, humanitarian concern for the very same syrian refugees we refuse to let into the country, but there was great enthusiasm by john bolton with no military experience having

never served and donald trump his five deferments from vietnam, then theus yam for using our military around the world without going back to congress for authorization as the framers intended it. as a veteran yourself, what do you make of that? >> well, i think the john boltons of the world are hard for us when he said he didn't want to die in a rice patty in vietnam and he is a war hog. one of the conversations i had with president obama before he left office was with a group of veterans and he said, you know, there aren't that many veterans left in congress and, yes, there is no draft so we don't make a large percent of the population but he goes i think your voice is important because if i fought everywhere in the world the republicans wanted me to fight we would be in wars in eight different countries. i think that's one of the big reasons we try to get more veterans elected, like some of our veteran members in congress that can hold this president accountable. right now congress is completely

awol in their responsibilities to audit the president and his ability to conduct war. u.s. forces have died in yemen, niger, iraq, owe malia, syria, afghanistan just in donald trump's first year. congress is awol. our best bet is to have a big midterm election so we can get control over neocons who don't understand about war and are currently taking over this administration. >> you mentioned president obama, john, i want to play august 31st, 2013 when president obama spoke out after bashar al assad used chemical weapons for the first time one of the earlier times that we know of against his own people. take a listen to president obama. >> after careful deliberation i have decided that the united states should take military action against serial regime targets. i'm also mindful that i'm the president of the world's oldest constitutional democracy. i have long believed that our power is rooted not just in our

military might, but in our example as a government of the people, by the people and for the people. and that's why i have made a second decision. i will seek authorization for the use of force from the american people's representatives in congress. >> and i will note that when counseled j. trump was one of those who opposed the use of military strikes he wrote the president must get congressional approval before attacking syria. big mistake if he does not. congress, john, did not grant that approval to president obama and thus he didn't strike and now he gets a lot of criticism for letting syria cross the red line, but he was not authorized to do so by congress having gone to them. what do you make of the fact that donald trump now believes he needs to authorization from congress in order to do whatever it is he wants to do in syria? >> i don't think he knows what he wants to do at all. two weeks ago or last week he said we were going to be completely out of syria, which is why some people think bashar al assad used the weapons.

he has no over averaging strategy or vision for what our policy is. syria is complicated because there are other state actors that will fight us for terrain. one of the reasons we opposed president obama striking in 2013 was the shear fact we never felt the russians would apply for the toppling of bashar al assad. i think the larger problem for the president is he doesn't know what he wants to do in syria and now as we've seen mcmaster leave, outside of general mattis, i mean, general mattis -- his statement last night was different than the president's and i think the president wanted limited action and the president doesn't have an action. >> i want to go to nikki haley who is speaking at the united nations about the attack in syria. >> -- not as a symbolic show of force, we acted to deter the future use of chemical weapons by holding the syrian regime responsible for its atrocities against humanity. we can all see that a russian

disinformation campaign is in full force this morning, but russia's desperate attempts at deflection cannot change the facts. a large body of information indicates that the syrian regime used chemical weapons in douma on april 7th. there is clear information demonstrating assad's culpability. the pictures of dead children were not fake news, they were the result of the syrian regime's barbaric inhumanity and they were the result of the regime and russia's failure to live up to their international commitments to remove all chemical weapons from syria. the united states, france and the united kingdom acted after careful evaluation of these facts. the targets we selected were at the heart of the syrian regime's illegal chemical weapons program. the strikes were carefully planned to minimize civilian

casualties. the responses were just tied, legitimate and proportionate. the united states and its allies did everything we could to use the tools of diplomacy to get rid of assad's arsenal of chemical weapons. we did not give diplomacy just one chance, we gave diplomacy chance after chance. six times, that's how many times russia vetoed security council resolutions to address chemical weapons in syria. our efforts go back even further. in 2013 the security council passed a resolution that required the assad regime to destroy its stockpile of chemical weapons. syria committed to abide by the chemical weapons convention, meaning it could no longer have chemical weapons on its soil. president putin said russia would guarantee that syria complied. we hoped that this diplomacy would succeed in putting an end to the horror of chemical attacks in syria, but as we see

from the past year, that did not happen. while russia was busy protecting the regime, assad took notice. the regime knew it could act with impunity and it did. in november russia used its veto to kill the joint investigative mechanism, the main tool we had to figure out who used chemical weapons in syria. just as russia was using its veto, the assad regime used sarin, leading to dozens of injuries and deaths. russia's veto was the green light for the assad regime to use these most barbaric weapons against the syrian people, in complete violation of international law. the united states and our allies were not going to let that stand. chemical weapons are a threat to us all. they are a unique threat, a type of weapon so evil that the international community agreed they must be banned.

we cannot stand by and let russia trash every international norm that we stand for and allow the use of chemical weapons to go unanswered. and just as the syrian regime's use of chemical weapons last weekend was not an isolated incident, our response is part of a new course chartered last year to deter future use of chemical weapons. our syrian strategy has not changed, however, the syrian regime has forced us to take action based on their repeated use of chemical weapons. since the april 2017 chemical attack the united states has imposed hundreds of sanctions on individuals and entities involved in chemical weapons use in syria and north korea. we have designated entities in asia, the middle east and africa that have facilitated chemical weapons proliferation. we have revoked the visas of

russian intelligence officers in response to the chemical attack in salisbury. we will continue to seek out and call out anyone who uses and anyone who aids in the use of chemical weapons. with yesterday's military action, our message was crystal clear, the united states of america will not allow the assad regime to continue to use chemical weapons. last night we obliterated the major research facility that it used to assemble weapons of mass murder. i spoke to the president this morning and he said if the syrian regime uses this poisonous gas again, the united states is locked and loaded. when our president draws a red line, our president enforces the red line. the united states is deeply grateful to the united kingdom and france for its part in the coalition to defend the prohibition of chemical weapons.

we worked in lockstep. we were in complete agreement. last night our great friends and indispensable allies shouldered a burden that benefits all of us. the civilized world owes them its thanks. in the weeks and months to come, the security council should take time to reflect on its role in defending the international rule of law. the security council has failed in its duty to hold those who use chemical weapons to account. that failure is largely due to russian obstruction. we call on russia to take a hard look at the company it keeps and live up to its responsibilities as a permanent member of the council and defend the actual principles the united nations was meant to promote. last night we successfully hit the heart of syria's chemical weapons enterprise and because of these actions we are

confident we have crippled syria chemical weapons program. we are prepared to sustain this pressure. if the syrian regime is foolish enough to test our will. thank you. >> all right. that was u.n. ambassador nikki haley in front of the united nations rebuking syria for its use of chemical weapons against its own people. i want to go back to congresswoman barbara lee. i counted five separate instances of nikki haley making pretty tough statements about russia. somebody that donald trump has up and to this point being very loath to say a crossword about. she started out early in her statement by saying we can all see that a russian disinformation campaign is in full force this morning but russia's desperate attempt at defection cannot change the facts. number number, she claims we gave diplomacy six chances, that's how many times russia vetoed security council to address chemical weapons. president due pin said russia

would guarantee that syria would comply with no using chemical weapons. we see from this past it did not happen, while russia was busy protecting the regime assad took notice, it knew it could act with impunity. she says we cannot stand by and let russia trash every international norm we stand for and allow the use of chemical weapons to go unanswered. she then adds the security council -- she attacks the security council as well and says the security council failed in its duty to hold those who use chemical weapons into account and follows that by saying that failure is largely due to russian obstruction. lastly, with he call on russia to take a hard look at the company it keeps and live up to its responsibilities as a permanent member of the security council. that's a lot of russia bashing, congresswoman, from a woman who is a part of an administration that has been nothing if not solicitous, some might say obsequious towards vladimir putin's russia.

>> first i would hope that the president pushes back on russia as it relates to interference in our domestic affairs especially with our elections. secondly i want to remind everyone that last year the united states conducted what we called precision and surgical strikes because of the issue around assad using chemical weapons against his own people. here we are a year later. we need an international strategy, we need a plan, we need a diplomatic initiative, we need to hold assad accountable, he is a war criminal, and bring him before the international court. until we do that we will be back again next year with the same talking points, with the same reaction because i want to remind you again every action will trigger a reaction and so this is very dangerous. we need to come up with a plan and a strategy and we need to make this administration come to congress to debate the cost and consequences of their military actions not openly in syria, but

throughout the world. >> you know, john, i'm old enough to remember when people on the right and on the left said that donald trump would be less dangerous to the world than hillary clinton because she might start world war iii and that she might want to start a war with russia, including that. you now have any escalation against syria risks hitting russian fighters who are on the ground in syria supporting the regime or iranian fighters who are also -- iran is also the other big backer of the syrian regime. this is pretty he is cla tore rhetoric by nikki haley. it's never clear if she is speaking directly for donald trump because that's never clear for anyone in the administration. what do you make of these five at least pointed references to the putin regime by ambassador haley? >> i don't have a problem with her addressing the russia issue, i think it's about time that this administration stood up to russia. i don't have an issue with that, but as a u.s. taxpayer i was pretty embarrassed by that speech and i was embarrassed for nikki haley. since when does the united

states of america decide we can legislate the tactics people use to kill people. it misses the entire point. the entire point isn't just that chemical weapons were used in syria, the entire point is ins is we invaded iraq in 2003 it unleashed warfare across the region where millions of syrian civilians have died and fighters. the larger question for the united states going forward is how do we prevent killing in syria not just, oh, you can't gas people. how do we prevent the war? at one time do we sit down and say let's bring the leaders of these countries together and have a conference about the future of syria and not how you are going to kill people. >> i cannot escape the irony congresswoman lee that the sort of original -- the sort of origin of much of this unrest, the al qaeda in iraq that didn't exist before, this insurgency, sunni insurgencinsurgence. he that happened because we invaded iraq. isis called themselves the islamic state in iraq and syria,

in iraq and syria, that's the other i in isis and that we haven't addressed that. we haven't corrected that. we seem to be doubling down. and donald trump of all people is the newest knew owe con on the block. are you as discombobulated by that reality as i am? >> joy, there is no military solutions to the world's problems. when you look at the fact that we've been in afghanistan now 17 years, we are still in iraq, now we are in yemen, we've conducted strikes in somalia, we've conducted strikes in libya. the congressional research service has provided me a declassified report showing that we've used the 9/11/2001 authorize to use force 90 times. congress needs to do its job and debate the cost and consequences of these wars because this is a

state of perpetual war and i know that this administration in its -- with john bolton there now, their military first tendencies and policies could lead into more danger and to more violence and to more wars. we need a diplomatic solution to all of the world's problems we need political settlements and we always have the military option on the table but world without war is what we need to try to achieve but we're going in the opposite direction and it's very dangerous and very tragic. >> john, as a representative of those who have to put their bodies on the line to do the fighting, does it worry you that there are now people, particularly principally running the national security council who do believe there is a military solution to the mess in syria? >> i think bolton is a concern not just from what he said about syria but what he has wrote in the "wall street journal" about intervention against north korea. i think that is a concern that more neocons have come in and that trump has gone full neocon in the past couple weeks,

yesterday pardoning a neocon. secretary mattis has a tremendous amount of respect inside the military, he is beloved and his judgment is u.s. interested. i think for everyone out there watching who cares about america over any political party, rest assured that secretary mattis as long as he's there at some level won an internal battle in regards to syrian intervention this would he can. >> there is also this narrative at least if you believe the polling that donald trump enjoys quite robust support among military families. do you sense that there is within the community of veterans, particularly those who had to deal with iraq, fighting in iraq, a sense of disappointment, a sense of alarm that donald trump does seem to be adopting the dick cheney foreign policy? >> that's very concerning for me, it's very concerning as someone who served, i think it's concerning for our country, but overall the military has people that are diverse opinions, people sign up from all 50 states, sign up from all religions and all ethnic groups,

so our military is diverse and people have a very different set of opinions regarding the president, but it is concerning to see him bring these neocons in. >> indeed. >> concerning for senior military leaders certainly. >> i'm sure. thank you congresswoman barbara lee, thank you so much john, thank you for being here today. more "a.m. joy" coming up. you know what they say about the early bird...

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i will do anything to protect mr. trump. they say i'm mr. trump's pitbull. >> i have today by him shoulder to shoulder. >> an issue that relates to mr. trump that is of concern to him, it's of course concern to me and i will use my legal skills within which to protect mr. trump to the best of my ability. >> you guys are down and -- >> says who? says who? >> polls, most of them, all of the them. >> says who? >> most of them, all of them. classic moment. could michael cohen's complete and utter devotion to donald trump wind up being the ultimate trump card in the investigation. according to mcclachy special counsel robert mueller has evidence that trump's personal

lawyer went to prague during the 2016 complain. as mcclachy points out that would confirm part of the dossier compiled by christopher steel that says cohen was in prague to strategize with a powerful kremlin figure about russian meddling in the u.s. election. bottom line, is cohen the key to proving collusion. joining me now seema and paul butler. >> seema, you've been my collusion skeptic. the principle knock on the steel dossier which has formed the basis of republicans idea of the collusion, they say the dossier was the basis of the investigation, ergo the investigation was not legitimate and the dossier was wrong. it said michael cohen who gone to prague to talk to these guys who were involved in the hacking, here is his passport. cohen tweeted out a picture of his par port with the words i have never been to prague in my

life. >> right. >> if, in fact, it turned out that he lied to investigators about that congressional investigators, that he was indeed in prague, that he maybe did meet with these kremlin-backed or kremlin-associated figures, does that get us closer to collusion? >> it could, it depends on what he did and what he knew because look at cohen, okay, he is married to a ukrainian woman, he was involved in a ukrainian ethanol company, there was allegedly he was involved in the controversy with the peace plan between the ukraine and russia. so he has all these ties. >> right. >> so if it was, in fact, that he was there speaking to this guy who was like a foreign affairs chairman, perhaps it's closer to collusion unless -- which has always beencollusion. unless which has always been my theory that all of these people, kushner and trump junior, they work independently because they're all fighting for trump's attention. >> if you're fighting for

trump's attention you have to tell him what you did. let's go to paul butler. the blockbuster article. pushed from the headlines. it says the met with the organization. the location was selected to provide an alternative explanation in case the rendezvous was exposed according to sources. and further, those mentioned and other attendees disclosed how deniable cash payments were to be made to hackers in europe who worked for the campaign. cash payments rings an alarm in my head because cohen seems to be the guy that pays the people that in trump's way. if it's proved that they were raising cash payments to obscure the hacking into hillary clinton and the dnc, do we have a case for collusion? >> you bet we do, joy.

i've never been to prague. but edge says it's beautiful. so why would michael cohen lie about going there unless he has something to hide. so bit by bit, we're seeing the allegation of the dossier substantiated. now we know that the allegation is there's a hacking of e-mail. that's a felony. we know that the russians were helping. if that's true, that's an illegal campaign contribution. cohen is trump's consigliere. the fix-it man. >> see, paul just said it, if trump knew. >> how would he not knew? >> we still need -- >> let's talk one other thing. >> okay. >> first of all on the question that cohen was very brash. sort of too much in an aha, i've never been there. investigators have traced it

that he entered in prague in germany as the ex-spy reported in january '15. and he wouldn't have needed a passport. >> right. >> you can actually just go from germany. lying about something that easy to check is one thing. the second thing is cohen wasn't really trump's lawyer at the time. according to mcclatchy cohen spent almost a decade in trump's real estate company as paul said his fixer. and one of the strongest and fiercestest on tv interviews. >> but we have discussed this before. if he acted in any capacity as giving legal advice, then that could be a legal representation. so, he could be his lawyer. >> and he'd be doing it on his own. >> unless he's using that advice to obstruct their crime. so, look, yesterday, trump took time off from claiming this military excursion in syria.

so call michael cohen. that would be against the advice of any lawyer. because when one subject of a criminal investigation calls another subject, it looks like they're trying to get their story together. >> yeah. >> you don't know that, paul. come on. >> absolutely. >> and you always tell clients not to call each other. of course it doesn't mean they listen, does it? >> you're a former prosecutor -- both ever you are former prosecutors. michael cohen appears to be in a lot of trouble. i think we can agree on that. michael cohen seems to be arranging payments for silence of women. in the case, et cetera, et cetera. if he's in trouble, seema, how much trouble if you're the prosecutor would you exert. >> oh, my god, i'd be like going to his house every night i'd be on top of him every time.

>> is he the most dangerous person to donald trump? >> 100% because he knows where the bodies are buried. >> and then a crony of roger stone. and stone goes back to the 1980s. but michael cohen knows everything. he did all the transactions, building, michael cohen is in that. and trying to keep crimea and sanctions go away. michael cohen is involved in everything. is he the most dangerous to trudonald trumj. trumtrump? >> everything that michael cohen nose about donald trump will ultimately be revealed to special counsel mueller. shutout to his strategic genus for branching off this part of the investigation to the new york prosecutor. because now it's kind of like trump is being double-teamed. trump brought this on himself. opened his big mouth and said he

didn't know about the payments to stormy daniels. that invited the separate investigation. >> this is fascinating. seema, paul. thank you. going to break. you picked up kraft mozzarella with a touch of philadelphia for lasanyeah! kraft. family greatly.

that is our show for today, "am joy" will be back tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. eastern. ali velshi picks up the coverage. ali, i'm hoping you can help us unravel -- it feels like we

tried to do a thing but we haven't done a thing. >> right. there are a whole lot of people in syria this morning. the administration is saying we appreciate something is going on. we're not sure this is going to solve the problems good afternoon, everyone, i'm ali velshi for alex witt at msnbc headquarters in new york. 9:00 out west. new information from the united nations security council moments ago, and earlier from the pentagon from the u.s.-led strikes. >> the syrian people have suffered for too long. this is about values. and we did this because it's intolerable for any civilized nation to tolerate the use of chemical weapons. >> all right. this hour, we're going to have a look at how syria and russia might respond. and the wider implication of these strikes are they actually going to make things better for

the suffering millions in syria and the millions outside of syria who want to go home. plus, a tweet from the president coming under fire because of two words that haunted a previous president. >> all right. first to the breaking news from the united nations. the security council is meeting in an emergency session now, at the request of russia. on the agenda is last night's u.s.-led missile strikes on syria. a three-couny