r all right. we continue the follow the story coming out of syria. that is going to do it for me. i'm richard lui with and we go over to my colleague and his hour 22, i believe, david? >> yes, thank you, richard. i'm david gura at the msnbc headquarters in new york. the world is reacting to the strike on syria in response if to a a kchemical attack. and the president is taking to twitter and the president using a fraught and familiar phrase. and we begin with the strikes in se syria, and the united states and

france and united kingdom just days after the president called for a with draul from syria. president trump is taking to the twitter using the phrase mission accomplished and two words that you may remember emblazoned on a banner in 2003 when george w. bush was president. a short time ago, the president spoke to the leaders of france and u.k. about the attack. and now we are joined by hans and shirley. what did we learn from david mck mckenzie who spoke to the reporters about the detail of how successful this attack was in the early morning hours? >> it was a tactical success and for two reason, none of the cruise missiles they sent, and it was a total of 105 intercepted. when the syrian air forces were

a activated it is after they had detonated. the syrians sent 40 ballistic missiles up into the the air, naund of them hit according to the pentagon or british or french cruise missiles. they said it is a success, because of three targets. think of it in chemical prod production and storage were all knocked out. no reports yet of civilian casualties and the u.s. and the al allies took great pains they would not kill any foreigners which is code for russian, and i suppose iranians as well. they ak kccomplished the goal h tactically without escalating this strategically, but i do believe it is a question of where it is going next in termses of the strategy, because they are giving themselves room here at the pentagon if there is another use of the chemical weapons whether it is chlorine or sarin, and we can get into that debate later, but they will be responding according to the president, the vice president and the secretary of defense and the joint chief of staff they have established a new deterrent regime that this regime using chemical weapons is not going to be tolerated.

>> and david, when we look at what might happen next, the president wrote perfectly executed strike last night. thank you to france and the united kingdom for their wisdom and the power of their fine military. could not have had a better result. and then nikki haley saying that the president was locked and loaded if there is anymore retaliation. and the red line the reporter asked if it is clois chlorine o sarin, and where is that red line now? >> they are being ambiguous of where the red bar is or the line is. it is very difficult to get president trump or secretary mattis to use the word red line. they did not entirely destroyed

the capability but they did not want to risk that much collateral damage so they went for the more discrete and limit ed operation, and limited expectation,ed and they met them. >> richard lui was joking they have been here for 22 hours, but hans nichols is my colleague at the pentagon and he has been up for 22 hours. and now, joining us is the security analyst from tufts, and we are joined by admiral, and what are you seeing with the hea heaviness of the strike? >> well, heavy is a relative strike. and last year we had 29 tomahawk, and this time twice the as many missiles coming in, and three times the number of targets from one to three.

we had three times the number of allies involved from one to three, and so i would say that it is in fact a relatively heavy strike to what happened last year, but believe me, this is nothing compared to what the united states could do, and this is going to get us to the deterrent question that you were asking hans a moment ago. i think that the next step if we have to go back to do this again, and i certainly hope that we don't would be a multi day campaign, and multi axis and we would go after transportation mean, and going after command and control, and we'd go after the delivery which is the syrian air force. bashar al assad knows that we can do that. i hope that will deter him from further use of the chemical weapons, david. >> do you have a good sense of the objective here? to diminish the chemical weapons capability of the country or to send a message now 24 hours out, do you have a sense of what the white house and the allies were hoping to accomplish? >> i think so. our objective was to degrade the

chemical weapons capability. i truly doubt that we have been able to knock it out entirely, and a second point would be to send a very strong signal that there is more where that came from. and then thirdly, we also wanted to send if you will a signal to the russians that we are not looking for regime change, and we are not looking for a fight with russia, and we are going to do this carefully, and that is why the very graduated escalation of the next level of the strike, david. >> was this coalition big enough with the allied commander, and you had the secretary-general speaking to reporters today indicating that the nato members were in favor of the strike, but looking at the coalition, it is three countries altogether. is that big enough? what is the message by the u.s. working in concert with the united kingdom and with france? >> it would be better to have nato fully involved in this, and again, david, back to the excellent point about what is next.

i think that if we have to go in again, we are going to be going for approval by nato and have as many additional countries be a part of the coalition. when i was supreme allied commander in nato, we conducted campaigns, and we had canadian, and belgians, and italiants and spanish, and virtually all of the members of nato participating which is going to put more emphasis and gravitas, and the reason of france and u.k. is because they are the most capable militaries in the alliance after the united states. so it is logical to go to them as a first-order response. we have the other allies in waiting if necessary, and again, let's hope that we don't have to get to that point militarily. >> and last question, how surpri surprised that the missiles were not met from more from syria, and we have heard that the air space over damascus was secure and last night it wasn't, and what does that say about our weapons capability? >> the missiles are in fact very, very difficult to knock down, and they fly low and hug

the terrain are and get below the radar signature, and remember that these are unmanned missiles and they don't have a pilot in them, and so you can have them moving faster and lower and take a risk with with the flight pattern and that is going to make it harder for the anti-war system to knock them down. where it is more dangerous is if you have to have manned aircraft in flying at higher altitudes and more vulnerable to the systems. and that is the next step, and if we have to go to that we will knock down the tomahawk system, and then bring in the manned aircraft, and again, we hope that it does not get to that. >> that is admiral james staph t -- stavrides. the u.n. ambassador nikki haley did clash with her counterpart before the u.n.

vote. >> i spoke to the president this morning, and he said that if the syrian regime uses this poison gas again, the united states is locked and loaded. when our president draws a red line, our president enforces the red line. >> this is how you want the international affairs to be conducted now? this is hooliganism, and you are not interested in their suffering, but your aggressive actions contribute to worsening the humanitarian situation. >> and professor sherman is a political adviser, and what are you hearing from the ambassador? >> ambassador haley has been a strong voice on the humanitarian disaster taking place in syria. >> i spoke to the president this morning -- >> and i think that we have heard from her clearly about the chemical attack in syria. so i think that she has been a strong voice.

but what i think is interesting here, david, is that for first time really, the president has tried to use the alliance to get a job done. i would hope that he does it more and more. he came out and said that he really was going to be america first and in some ways go it alone, and it is most important that we don't go it alone, and the middle east is to use a strong diplomatic term, a mess. we don't have the overall strategy of how to proceed in the west, and in syria and the entire region. people are concerned about syria's behavior, but no strategy to press back against it, and russia's place in the middle east and we have not learned how the use it for our own purptss, and we have not gotten to the famous plan of the peace for the palestinians and the israelis, so there has to be a broader sense of what we are doing here, because syria is a risk to israel as well.

good step with the strike, and limited. and i am sure that iranians are sigh of relief it was not stronger. but ambassador haley said if he takes action again enabled by russia and iran, they will have to take action as admiral stavrides laid out. >> how concerned are you for the notion of form, and prime minister theresa may laid it out, and we heard it from james mattis that we are possible to become innured to chemical witness. >> yes, we had the former poisoned by the russians and his

daughter as well, a and so i think that theresa may has a particular are concern. i think that we with should. i was with secretary kerry when we negotiated the agreement to get all of the declared chemical weapons out of syria, and we got out 13 tons of chemical material, and that is what should be negotiated to russia. russia should be held to the commitment put on paper and endorse ed endorsed by the security council to ensure there were not chemical weapons in syria, and think they we ought -- i think that we ought to be having a tough conversation about that adds well. >> and this is political settlement which is in your wheelhouse, and people would like to see syria come back to the tablea and two-part question, are we closer to that by virtue of what happened last night, and what will it take or catalyze a move for syria to get back to the negotiating table? >> sadly, i don't believe that last night is going to get us as

close as we can be and this is a process that has been led by stephan at the united nation, and i have been a r part of the negotiations when they were led when i was involved. they are difficult. the only way to do it is for us to have taken stronger military action, but that of course increases the risk that there would be a wider war, and that russia and iran directly would get involved, and we would find ourselves in not a skirmish, but a true, true war which i don't believe that the american people want us to proceed with. and so we have to show tough resolve and theret not a military solution in syria, and somehow, some way we have to put it together, and people have said that we should not get involved in the middle of civil wars, and i agree, but we do have to decide that when we believe that the concept of

responsibility to protect which has been endorsed by the united states, but we not have u.s. law in this regard, and in other words, when the leader of a country doesn't take care of his or her own citizens, and when they are dropping the beryl bombs and when they are using other wep pops, and what is the international community to protect those citizecitizens. we have had genocide in the pas past, and we have felt enormous guilt, and we don't want to see it again, but yet 12 million syrians displaced and a half a million who have died. >> the health of american di ploem si and what we have learned about it in the last week, and the health. we have not got an acting diplomacy, because he is in peru, and so it is reallyt president macron of france who is leading the diplomatic push here talking to vladimir putin

and other world leaders and what does that say to you about the health of u.s. diplomacy? >> well, up fortunately secretary tillerson work hard to deconstruct the state department. mr. pompeo who is going through confirmation and not clear whether he will be confirmed with but nonetheless are, he assured the senate foreigns relations that he would rebuild the state department, and he believed that diplomacy had a to be the first resort, and the military action the last resort. and i hope that if he is confirmed that is indeed what he does. we are not there on the playing field. you asked about gating to a political solution, and you can't be there if you don't have a secretary of state and no state department and you don't have ambassadors in key countries, including in turkey, andnd in so many places around the world critical to what is going on in syria, and iran and north korea.

and one last point, david, on diplomacy. president trump has to make a decision about the joint conference of plan of action which is the iran nuclear deal by may 12th. most of us believe he is going to leave the deal, and that is going to mean that iran going to be back on its way to getting a nuclear weapon. the very hard, hard-liners in iran will have won out. the united states' security is even more at risk in the middle east and throughout the world. >> i hope that we can talk more about that in the coming weeks. thank you, ambassador wendy sherman. >> thank you. and wasting no time, russia is calling the act last night an act of aggression, and the country's threat, and why president vladimir putin continues to believe that the syrian regime is worth defending.

afi sure had a lot on my mind. my 30-year marriage... ...my 3-month old business... plus...what if this happened again? i was given warfarin in the hospital, but wondered, was this the best treatment for me? so i made a point to talk to my doctor. he told me about eliquis. eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots and reduces the risk of them happening again. not only does eliquis treat dvt and pe blood clots. eliquis also had significantly less major bleeding than the standard treatment. eliquis had both... ...and that turned around my thinking.

don't stop eliquis unless your doctor tells you to. eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. don't take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. if you had a spinal injection while on eliquis call your doctor right away if you have tingling, numbness, or muscle weakness. while taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily... and it may take longer than usual for bleeding to stop. seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots. plus had less major bleeding. both made eliquis right for me. ask your doctor if switching to eliquis is right for you.

welcome back. i'm david gura. 8 of the 15 members of the united nations security council voted against the resolution to condemn the strikes on syria. only china and russia voted for it who wrotet the draft at the u.n. today. we go to moscow where kelly k b cobiella has the lat est reaction. >> well, david, a separate message for the domestic audience and the international audience. still plenty of rhetoric is flying here in russia today ever since those missiles landed. at one point, one russian

official comparing trump to hitler in talking about the early morning attack by the nazis on the soviet union in 1941. i mean, some pretty heated rhetoric and verbal salvos coming out of the russians bush no more talk about war with the west on confrontation with the west, and there is of course, the u.n. resolution which is meant to condemn the missile strike, and voted down with only bolivia and china who voted with the russian, and really, the russians are take stistick toin same story that the gas attack was a fake. they can see it as win. none of the assets were affected by this strike. they can continue their mission which is propping up assad. david? >> thank you, kelly cobiella in moscow. and secretary mattis says

this he expects a full dismisinformation campaign. >> we expect a full dismisinformation campaign from those of the assad regime. >> and then dana white reiterated the concern. >> the russian disinformation campaign has begun and 200,000 percent increase in the russian troll s trolls in tlas 24 hours. >> for a better sense of what that looks like, let's bring in our national and security rep t reporter, ken. and help us to understand what this campaign of disillusion is looking like, ken? >> well, look, david, the u.s. is not in a good position to counter this, and it is a a big problem, because it is donning on the policymakers in the u.s.

that has been in an information war with rush sharks and war that the u.s. is losing. the 2016 election interference is part of it and continued on social media with bots and trolls and elsewhere, and for the longest time, donald trump, a and the alt-right were part of the beneficiaries of it, and so they have done little about it. and remember that story of the money spent to broaden the campaign against it, but not a mo penny has been spent. and now, today, they are saying that the chemical attack that prompted the attack is staged by britain and most of the u.s. and the allied missiles were shot down. they are telling lies, and the u.s. is not in a good position to counter, because first of all, it illegal for the u.s. to spew propaganda to end up with the news consumers and the u.s. has to tell the truth, but we

are not doing that with well to fight the bots on social media and the trolls. >> and to drill it down, dana white at the press conference said that as a virtue of that, and result of that, you will be hearing more to us, and reaching out to members of the press, but it does not sound like the technological outreach that you are talking about, and is the government working in that space as well, and outlining a plan to capture this in cyber space. >> it is a small group doing this work, and it is a cold war era group, and remember the radio freedom in europe, and they were broadcasting behind the iron curtain and they are calling out the russian propaganda, and they are journalists independent of the government, but they are small and outgunned and outfunded by r.t., the russian english-based web that is spewing out so much

more than the government-funded american effort. >> okay. we will be spending some of the program to see what is going to happen next, and the policy towards syria, and i am wondering if you can help us to understand what happen ed ed in space of the last week, and the white house, and there was talk of the u.s. extra kating itself from the conflict completely in syria, and the president saying that he wanted to get the troops out of syria as quickly as possible. how much as has happened last night or a week ago of the chemical attack and what this president wants to do and the white house wants to do and indeed what is it capable of doing. >> well, david, it may not have changed it much, because donald trump went with the limited option to essentially respond to the chemical attack and confine the military strikes to that area, and not play any role in going after assad or doing a decapitation strike or takeing

tout syrian force, because donald trump's inschticks are to get out of syria, and a lot of people agree with him that the u.s. has little leverage back to oppose him. many of the assad supporters are tied to the success that the u.s. can support. and now that there are iranians on the ground, there is little that the u.s. can do to influence the decision, and it does not seem that the strike is doing the change trump's regard. >> thank you so much. and now, remember this sign behind george w. bush in 2003 and his former secretary the has some advise for president trump who used the the same phrase today. ♪

♪ ♪ this is what getting your car serviced at lincoln looks like. complementary pickup and delivery servicing now comes with every new lincoln. i won. giving you, the luxury of time. that's the lincoln way. hello. give me an hour in tanning room 3. cheers! that's confident. but it's not kayak confident. kayak searches hundreds of travel sites to help me plan the best trip. so i'm more than confident. forgot me goggles. kayak. search one and done. hello. let's go for a ride on a peloton. let's go grab a couple thousand friends and chase each other up a hill. let's go make a personal best, then beat it with your personal better than best. let's go bring the world's best instructors right to you. better yet, let's go bring the entire new york studio - live. let's go

anytime, anywhere, with anyone who's willing. and let's go do it all right here. ready to go? peloton. average lasagna? not in this house. 'cause that's no average family. that's your family. which is why you didn't grab just any cheese. you picked up kraft mozzarella with a touch of philadelphia for lasanyeah! kraft. family greatly. pepsoriasis does that. it was tough getting out there on stage. i wanted to be clear. i wanted it to last. so i kept on fighting. i found something that worked. and keeps on working. now? they see me. see me. see if cosentyx could make a difference for you- cosentyx is proven to help people with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis... ...find clear skin that can last. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. before starting cosentyx, you should be checked for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infections and lowered ability

to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms. or if you have received a vaccine or plan to. if you have inflammatory bowel disease, tell your doctor if symptoms develop or worsen. serious allergic reactions may occur. never give up. see me. see me. clear skin can last. don't hold back... ...ask your dermatologist if cosentyx can help you find clear skin that lasts. we only have 30 seconds to describe the newest specialty flavor in the signature crafted recipes collection by mcdonald's:

garlic white cheddar. it's layered with a slice of smooth, perfectly melty, white cheddar cheese. a crunchy medley of tasty, crispy garlic chips... a dramatic drizzle of smooth, delicious and flavorful, delectably creamy garlic aioli... all coming together with a mouthwateringly juicy tomato slice and crisp iceberg lettuce atop crispy buttermilk chicken on a soft, warm artisan roll. (breath) luckily, you can take all the time you need to savor every bite. the signature crafted recipes collection, by mcdonald's. welcome back. i'm david gura. "mission accomplished" are the words that president donald trump put in a tweet describing the attack on syria last night. we have come to associate that phrase with george w. bush 15 years ago when he declared the same thing in iraq. and ari fleisher is weighing i

saying that choice of words may not be the best. i want to go to barry mccalf are ri, and general mccaffery, how do you thak these, as targeted and nearly tailored, and so how do you gauge the effectiveness of what we saw in the early morning hours of syria. >> well, it was competently carried out, and fortunately two nato allies to us, and it was a major blow to the assad regime in terms of seeing the invulnerability of using the chemicals. they have used them as many as 85 time since the war began. and so i think that as a signal, it is probably pretty effective and it changed nothing on the ground. assad is about to achieve total victory because he is backed up by the iranian guards, and the russian guards, and the militias, and the country

devastated. there were no regional partners or arab ale lies or sunni muslims or jordan, and so it is difficult to know how we could do anything, and certainly not with military power to put syria back together again. >> do you think that the u.s. missed an opportunity to degrade the capabilities of president assad. they did not go after helicopters or the members of the military, and so is that a mistake to tailor them as they did? >> well, it is easier to have a viewpoint not in government. if you are sitting around the national security table, and against the wall, and you are held accountable for the outcomes, so it is a military operation that didn't have much impact, and in fact, it clearly

regime's stockpiles of sarin or chlorine bombs. and so, there were a legitimate concern that if we went after the s-400 russian batteries, we would end up in at shooting war with the russians, which i might add would go badly for them. you don't want to take on the u.s. air force and naval air in combat in the middle east. russia is a sort of the second or the third tier military power expect they have a lot of nuclear weapons and oil. but there is no stomach to take on the russia over syria, are where to be honest we have no significant national security interests except for humanitarian.

>> i want to ask you about what was reported this week that president trump was a advocating for a larger strike, and the secretary mattis walked him back from that and there were contentious meetings of the personnel including the secretary of defense, and new secretary bolton and the president of the united states. and what is your sense of the strategy of secretary mattis is, and he spoke after this took place, and what do you believe he would like to see in syria going forward? >> well, i have been listening to the bemoaning of the fact that we don't have a strategy, because it is difficult to have that assad is going to win, do we assist with the rek reconstruction of money to give mo money no the assad regime, and how do we help turkey who s is go ing to be taking over the kurds fearing a autonomous kurdish leadership. and so the key to understanding

them is that they don't want to fight. they are only too aware of the unsern certainty, and the outco using military power. so they could have fought. i mean w we could take out the syrian air force, and 280-some-odd aircraft, and go after the command and control, and kill a pile of syrian colonels and generals. but the question is does that change the outcome of the civil war? probably not. does it engage us in a significant conflict with iran in particular? possibly, so this is risk avo avoidance and that is probably the better part of risk judgment. >> and the general asked if chlorine is new red line for the defense department for this administration, and i wonder what your sense is of this as well. you had the strike in the early morning hours in syria, and lot

of questions from the reporters today of what might prompt the u.s. to do strikes in the future, and do the returns diminish the more this happens? what is your sense of where the bar is and where the are red line is for further strikes? >> david, one of the questions i tell people that i have seen people killed in a whole variety of manners and none of them are appealing. so that there is a distinction between chlorine gas, and the original poison gas used in world war i was chlorine, and incredible impact, and immediate on the lung, eyes, and dreadful chemical weapon and not very effective, and dreadful and unprotected of civilians and the agent sarin they are using a semi persistent nerve agent and easy to manufacture and the well known science of it, so my guess is that if the syrians are using chemicals again that this administration will and probably should take enhanced military action. i don't know why the guy was

using chemicals anyway. he is winning, and it is almost as if it were a direct affront to the international community, and final thought, we are not just talking about the syrians, but we are talk about the iranians and the north koreans, and all have substantial stocks of these weapons. they have been widely used in the middle east in the iran/iraq war, and the egyptians against yemen decades ago and so we don't want israel to be the next target of syrian chemical weapon. >> all right. the national security and terrorism analyst general barry mccaffery, and appreciate it. >> good to be with you, david. and james comey's highly anticipated tell-all, and the deepening legal controversy that the trump administration face, and the import of a pardon that president trump granted to someone who was convicted in a special counsel investigation.

experience a blend of refined craftsmanship... ...and raw power, engineered to take the crown. presenting the all-new lexus ls 500 and ls 500h. experience amazing, at your lexus dealer. hey, i'm curious about your social security alerts. oh! just sign up online and we'll alert you if we find your social security number on any one of thousands of risky sites. that sounds super helpful. how much is it? well, if you have a discover card, it's free. no way! yes way! we just think it's important for you to be in the know. all right! hey... ewww! everything ok? being in the know is very good.

yeah, it is. ooo don't shake! don't shake! ahhh! know if your social security number is found on risky sites. free from discover. each unique piece comes to life in the same way...ands.

a messy, sloppy, splattery way. but now she's found a way to keep her receipts tidy, even when nothing else is. brand vo: snap and sort your expenses with quickbooks and find, on average, $4,340 in tax savings. smarter business tools for the world's hardest workers. quickbooks. backing you.

honestly, i never thought that the words would come out of my mouth, but i don't know whether the current president of the united states was with prostitutes in moscow in 2013, and it is possible, but i don't know. >> and we will return to syria here in a moment, but a lot else in the news and let me try for the segue and i hope that you will forgive me. syria not the only thing that the white house is at a tablging. the white house is not happy with the former e efbi director

james comey. president trump tweeting in part, james comey is a proven leaker and liar. virtually everyone in washington thought that he should be fired and it was my great honor to fire him. >> and then it is followed with this. >> comey is going to be forever known as a partisan hack who broke his sacred trust with the united states and the dedicated agents of the fbi and the people that he vowed to serve. one of the president's greatest achievements will go down as firing director james comey. >> and now, joining me is fred litman and jill wine banc who is a former assistant with watergate prosecutor the. and jill, the book is not out

yet, and it is tuesday and you have soon the excerpts and i have seen the reporting on it, and when the existence of the contemporary memos came to light, it was a big deal for how this is put together. and what have we learned about james comey and vis-a-vis president trump in these past few days? >> we have not added much evidence el rant to any trial from the book or any of the recent interviews. his testimony originally gave us the pertinent information. there are some lines in the book going to be attacked by the president, and that don't reflect that well on him attacking the president's personal appearance, and it does not seem to add to the evidence that going to be relevant at the trial. the contemporaneous mem roos ar the important and as are the tapes discovered in cohen's office, and so i think that we should focus on the evidence. >> and let me ask you about the tapes, attorney litman.

the attorney for stormy daniels was on with my colleague joy-ann re reid, and this is what he had to say about the tapes. >> it is outrageous that you have an attorney engaged in illegal recording of conversation, and not only that, but it is stupid. flat out stupid. >> flat out stupid there in the estimation of stormy daniel's attorney, and what do you make of the existence of the tapes as they have been reported to go back many, many decade, and what could we learn from the tapes if they should in fact exist? >> well, first, they are dynamite, and as jill said f the we are focusing on the evidence nothing like a tape to really vividly paint the picture of conspiratorial conduct and i don't know if it is silly, but what is reflected in him keeping of the tapes is a kind of paranoia that are criminals often have to keep a sort of the record of what other people r were doing with them.

bit must have sent a shock of horror down trump's spine, because for years, there doesn't seem to have been some dirty work for his part through cohen, and tapes by the way, and two cell phone s th cell phones that were seized and a laptop and a safety security box at a bank. so sort of all of the hiding places for the nastiest secrets we have to imagine that the feds are now combing through. it is a really terrifying prospect both for cohen and the president. >> and jill, i want to ask you about something that happened this week, and i have gotten my hands on the copy of james comey's book and i have begun to get through it, and something that he writes about is his friendship with patrick fitzgerald who was a u.s. attorney, and the special ko counsel for looking into the valerie flame affair, and now a partner at skaps and arps, and he is talk about him and back in

the news as we have had a pardon to scooter libby who was adviser to vice president cheney, and valerie plame was unmask and we will hear from her about the presidential pardonning of skoooft scooter libby. >> and it is that you can commit perjury and i will pardon you if i deem that you are loyal to me. the message is damaging to the democracy and the rule of law. >> and jilt, the damaging, and the timing is curious. and what do you make of the message i messaging of that pardon from president trump this week? >> well, i had a twitter debate with nik kristoff on this, and i absolutely agree with valerie plame, this is a message loud and clear that the president will pardon any witnesses that refuse to cooperate with the special prosecutor, a it is the message he sent when he pardoned joe arpaio, the sheriff in arizona and a clear message for his having pardoned scooter

libby. and it is a mistake and threat to dem kra i s and i want to add something about the tape, because the tapes were the critical evidence in the watergate case. the discovery of them was the end of the white house. and people talk without realizing that they are being taped which includes even cohen would forget that he is taping and they say things, and we are talking about comey's contemporaneous memo, and nothing as dramatic as the recording of the conversation, and remember that comey said of his meeting with the president, lor dirks i hope that there are tape tapes, and it turns out that there are some tapes, but not with the president, and although he may be a participant in some of the tapes, but it is a very important piece of ed. it cou -- piece of evidence, and it could turn the case around and also that cohen were in prague is changing the dynamic of the investigation. >> it is a funny thing they started out as a public radio

reporter who said to roll everything, and it is so amazing how people can forget that a microphone is on. jill wine banks and harry litman, thank you as well. and the u.s.-led strike escalates the standoff between president trump, and russian president vladimir putin and what is at stake as the two leaderers battle it out on the world stage. wait, is mom here yet? where's mom? she's in this car. what the heck? whoa. yo, whose car is this? this is the all-new chevy traverse. this is beautiful. it has apple carplay compatibility. do those apps look familiar? ohhhhh. do you want to hit this button? there's a hidden compartment. uhh, whoa. mom, when i'm older can you buy me this car? i wanna buy me this car. this is a story about mail and packages. and it's also a story about people. people who rely on us every day to deliver their dreams

they're handing us more than mail they're handing us their business and while we make more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget... that your business is our business the united states postal service. priority: you ♪

-oh! -very nice. now i'm turning into my dad. i text in full sentences. i refer to every child as chief. this hat was free. what am i supposed to do, not wear it? next thing you know, i'm telling strangers defense wins championships. -well, it does. -right? why is the door open? are we trying to air condition the whole neighborhood? at least i bundled home and auto on an internet website, progressive.com. progressive can't save you from becoming your parents, but we can save you money when you bundle home and auto. i mean, why would i replace this? it's not broken. when it comes to travel, i sweat why wothe details.e this? late checkout... ...down-alternative pillows... ...and of course, price.

tripadvisor helps you book a... ...hotel without breaking a sweat. because we now instantly... ...search over 200 booking sites ...to find you the lowest price... ...on the hotel you want. don't sweat your booking. tripadvisor. the latest reviews. the lowest prices. >> vo: they want more out of life in every way. so they're starting this year's garden with miracle-gro potting mix and plant food. together, they produce three times the harvest to enjoy... and of course, to share. this soil is fresh from the forest and patiently aged to guarantee more of what matters... every time. three times the harvest. one powerful guarantee. miracle-gro. welcome back. i'm david gura. the war of words continues

between the presidents the united states and russia. in his remarks last night, president trump called out president putin by name. and russia promised consequences for what putin called an act of aggression. in the trump you putin universe, she writes both men are asse asserting their right to do what they want to. she is a senior writer for "the new yorker" and the author of the future is history. >> you write it signified his acceptance as america's equal part under on the international stage. he was able to frame the conflict in syria. syria is not witnessing a battle for democracy but an armed conflict between government and opposition in a multiple

religious country. what changed since then in these last five years when it comes to how he is perceived in the u.s. and how he sees the syrian conflict. >> it is amazing it's only been five years. this was putin being accepted as a statesman, really accomplishing what he set out to accomplish 14 years earlier when he became president which was to become a player on the international stage and to show there were things that just couldn't be done without russia. and then when he swooped in to save the day, when president obama couldn't get congressional approval to intervene in syria, it was his moment of glory. and then of course he got to write this op ed in the "new york times" which was framed as addressing the american people directly and was all about using american language and language of international law. and to think how innocent americans were five years ago. we were not yet familiar with the language. then sochi happened, ukraine

happened, sanctions happened. russia bisque ebecame a pariah. september of 15. two years later putin came to the united nations addressed the general assembly and tried the recapture that role. he proposed to president obama that russia and the united states could form an anti-isis coalition implying that all since would be forgiven. ukraine, georgia would be forgiven. they would start anew and diffy up the world again. obama snubbed him. a week later, russia started bombing syria and that's how we got to where we are. that's why it's important to understand that russia views this war not even as a proxy war but as a war with the united states. >> how does he view the international institutions. russia spoke at the united nations at the emergency meeting he requested be convened.

how does he view that institution? >> very much the i with a he uses the language, to perform the opposite of what it's designed to perform. in this case of syria, consistently, to veto every possibility of the united nations actually doing something about syria. you know, russia has a permanent on the security council, or is a permanent member and as such has a veto on the security council who it has consistently exercised over syria. >> i want to ask you how all of this is playing in russia. the strikes that took place last night. the u.s.'s interest in and involvement in the syrian conflict. we can go back farther than a week ago, but since this chemical weapons attack how is it being used part of the discourse in russia today? >> there are interesting combinations which may not be so obvious to an american. one is the chemical attack in syria and the poisoning of the

former russian spy in the uk are in the russian minds sort of two of apiece. it's the russians or the syrians being blamed for chemical attacks that the russians claim didn't happen, were provocations. they are blaming the poisoning in the uk on mysterious other agents, probably the uk. and then the poisons -- or the chemical attack in syria, also on ngos affiliated with the united kingdom who staged this chemical attack in order to provoke an international intervention. right? so it's -- the word provocation looms very large. it's obviously all directed at russia. russia is being framed as -- >> villanized, yeah. >> being framed for these horrible crimes.that's one interesting combination. the other is the way that the sanctions imposed last wee by the united states and the strikes on syria also become two of a piece. they are both directed against russia.

here we see president trump calling out president putin by name on monday in his tweets about syria. and we saw the sanctions last week which crashed the russian markets, the sanctions were imposed on friday. the on monday the russian market opened and immediately tanked. and so russia sees that as an attack. russia sees it as the big war. >> thank you very much. appreciate the time as always. of the new yorker. mg up in our next hour, locked and order, the united nations hold an emergency meeting to every the strike today in syria. stay with us.

i've been making blades here at gillette for 20 years. i bet i'm the first blade maker you've ever met. there's a lot of innovation that goes into making our thinnest longest lasting blades on the market. precision machinery and high-quality materials from around the world. nobody else even comes close. it's about delivering a more comfortable shave every time. invented in boston, made and sold around the world. now starting at $7.99. gillette. the best a man can get.