lindsey graham: can i add something, as c.i.a. director, he's been dealing with it. >> dana: of course. >> sen. lindsey graham: no doubt in my mind, believes diplomacy -- >> dana: he said that. he said it is important the state department be -- the moral be improved that the ranks be filled, they make sure they have everything they need so military action is not as -- not needed. the president this morning tweeting an update to this situation, and he said, never said when an attack on syria would take place, could be very soon or not so soon at all, in any event, the united states under my administration has done a great job of ridding of isis, where is my thank you, america. another message, pompeo received, what is congressional responsibility here? does the congress need to weigh in or do you think, based on your experience and of course your legal experience, the president has authority to take action he says is coming? >> sen. lindsey graham: i've been a military lawyer for thirty-three years, the war powers act was passed by

>> jen, is lindsey graham being fair about it? there are certain topics where she will support the president on, other topics where she will not. many folks on the right saying maybe not a good choice because you're telegraphing also your next move, which the president said i'm not going to telegraph. >> he's accomplished things in regards to syria. mike pompeo being promoted out of the cia and into the position of being nominated for secretary of state is because mike pompeo was responsible for some of the key intelligence that led to us finding out that the syrian governor was gassing their own people with chemical weapons that, led to a very pinpointed missile strikes by the u.s. and our allies and saved, frankly, numerous lives. you can have lindsey graham out one sunday criticizing the president and the next supporting him is big news. that would be like john mccain supporting one weekend and not the next. the president has done a decent job and surrounded himself with folks who have also done a decent job, mike pompeo being

let's start where we ended with lindsey graham and that is scott pruitt. abc reporting on this and that house for $50 as well as other things which we all know is pretty hard to find. how is he still hanging on to his job? >> that's the big question. look, i mean publicly the president says he still has his back. privately we know the president is growing frustrated by all of this seemingly never ending controversy. this constant drip, drip, drip and there is this rift within the white house. we know his chief of staff john kelly wants him gone. so do a growing number of lawmakers including republicans. i mean we just have never seen a cabinet secretary in recent memory face so many ethical questions on so many different fronts from that sweetheart real estate deal to an inflated security detail. his seemingly penchant for luxury travel. all these questions, but the bottom line, the president likes him. he's long been one of the president's favorites because he's doing the tough work that the president wants. he's rolling back all of these regulations fulf

are telling us it's immoral to defend our own borders, this is the left and right saying this, lindsey graham and a lot of democrats are telling us you're not allowed to defend your own borders, but you must send your sons to defend the borders of syria. why is the same people who are against stopping illegal immigration for it abroad? >> it's a dangerous mix because listen, i'm a free-market libertarian, but i'm a free market libertarian for a set of common rules will live by. i look at this ecuadorian painter, he was the most illegal immigration i ever met because he was being put out of business by illegal immigrants were coming into maryland in that market and undercutting his costs. he says why do i bother following the rules? i could have done it legally and gotten the same thing. >> tucker: the cost to people like that is really high because this whole mess of unwillingness to restrain immigration in any way discredits immigrants, many of whom are great people and really do add to the country. how do you think they feel about this? people who stood in line to get here because they real

we have together a bipartisan bill. , s lindsey graham and others harris lindsey graham lindsey graham and others have , joined us. mark warner, richard burr, to work on this issue of election security. there are two parts of it. the first part has to do with funding, helping states because states run elections. the federal government does not. helping some states that are behind and we have several states that have technology that can't be audited. literally after their election is over there is no way to verify that with a risk-based audit. we want to help some of those states get their equipment up to speak to they can audit their elections. we also need to streamline the communication between the states and the government. if there is a threat coming of the state we need to have people , with clearance to get it in place. what has already been done? to get your question, the finances for helping the states has already been passed. that passed in the omnibus over $300 million to help the states get their technology, deal with cyber issues, increase hardware if they need to do that t

chris wallace has an exclusive interview with senator lindsey graham. i was so excited about that i just spilled my coffee. so give us his thoughts on the present picked to win the va in my admiral jackson should be confirmed and a few other things as well. i'll clean up my coffee. elizabeth: the country's troops only open to its charging on friday. rejecting international calls for the investigation. palestinian protesters were killed in violent crashes of israeli soldiers along the border. israeli military officials say those belong to hamas or other billiton groups. protesters expected to gather daily until mid-may. >> hundreds of millions of christians around the world celebrating easter this sunday. in jerusalem, worshipers gathered for a tradition dating back to the fourth century. this is the place of scripture said contained the site where jesus was crucified at the empty tomb in neighboring area. celebrating at a church and the former green line. neighbors and do math test. emphasizing and calling for unity and solidarity and at the vatican in

i have enormous amount of respect for lindsey graham. very experienced attorney.agree with him more than to say that. it's outrageous. it's beyond stupid. what is amazing is that this is the guy that the president put at his right hand. this is the man that the president basically trusted his secrets to. it is astounding. >> earlier today on the show senator king independent of maine on the senate intelligence committee said that tcohen seem to be cropping up whether with the russia investigation. do you know of anything that might link the two? >> i'm not at liberty to get into a lot of details but suffice it to say on friday while we were all in court trying to deal with this tro and the judge was asking questions of his counsel and the counsel did not have answers to the simple questions the judge wasn't happy about it, michael cohen was video taped and photographed sitting with a number of men. we believe that a number of those actually had ties, russian ties as crazy as that sounds. this story gets more strange and more strange by the day. you couldn't make t

senator lindsey graham, general jack keane, other people said this would be one of the worst ideas possible. reminiscent of president obama pulling all the troops out of iraq that candidate trump was so critical of. did president change policies without talking to the secretary of defense? >> look, the president wants to make sure our military is being used to the best places possible. he wants to make sure we're protecting the people in this country. he wants other countries to step up and take a bigger role. that is why he was so strong on pushing people to give more on the nato process and making sure that the united states was not carrying the water for everybody. we want to be involved. we want to help but at same time we want other people to step up to put a little skin in the game. that is what the president talking about. brian: was that message to the allies, like the uk, the middle east allies, saying we need some of you guys to step in there? the message was to our allies, not really to our troops that were leaving? >> again the president wants to make sure if we're putting ameri

lindsey graham says this, i fear when the dust settles this strike will be seen as weak. the administration does have a strategy to withdraw from syria as quickly as possible simply saying not our problem was a losing strategy when president obama adopted it and a losing strategy still today. >> with the president saying mission accomplished unclear if he knew the actual history of the phrase. he was against the iraq war. we remember that phrase from may of 2003 when president bush stood on the aircraft carrier and the huge banner saying mission accomplished. that was one of the biggest not good moments. >> very polite of you. >> trying to think of a moment there. >> i think president trump is probably not aware of the history. what is the mission? by saying a couple of weeks ago he wants to pull out all week long when so many things were happening inside the white house you can see how reluctant president trump was to do something. in 24 to 48 hours he waited and waited. he was not exactly accepting what some advisers were offering here. i think this was a one off unclea

i think lindsey graham is right, that the response will need to be more than just telegraphed cruisees on an empty airfield this time and i think it is legitimate to start thinking about aircraft used for delivery and helicopters and assets that the regime holds dear. but i would worry about pivoting from this. this was one of the concerns that president obama had, that you start down a slope and next thing you know you are going after the regime and you have revived the hopes of the opposition that it can violently overthrow the regime and russia and iran respond in kind. and if you do not want to lose even more credibility by backing down... if we do a strike like that and set up aims that go beyind deterring chemical weapons use, and the russians and the iranians then respond by counter escalating, you better not back down then or you will look worse than if you had not done it in the first place. that is what i mean about discipline and focus and i don't know that this president has this quality. it is about the president and his advisers of course and now we know thatjohn bolton

thom tillis votes with the resident 96% of the time, and it's not just thom tillis and lindsey graham. you often, you have to recall the chairman of the judiciary committee is chuck grassley. iowa, a longtime trump supporter, he said he plans to bring this to a vote this week. in his committee, no matter what my donald trump has to say. no matter what the senate majority leader has to say. he thinks it's necessary. what thom tillis said, speaking to other trump supporters and evidence of a crack finally in the uniform, stonewall republicans have given trump and made the republican party into the party of trump. thom tillis headed hillary clinton was in the white house and there was talk about firing a special prosecutor, trump supporters would say it was hypocrisy. >> laura: it's a fantasy. this is what the liberals have been begging for for donald trump to fire bob mueller. this has been a story line the left has been pushing for months and months on month-end monocot i want you to jump in because thom tillis who said courage is when you know you're going to do something that's going

and kunz and lindsey graham. the special counsel per this effort would only be calcify some of the information, some of the investigation work happening in a place that it doesn't just disappear. >> peter, thank you for joining us on this. good to see you in real life. and ken, thank you for your reporting. >>> we have a live report from beirut as the region prepares for possible u.s. strikes on syria. this as russia promises to shoot down any u.s. missiles that are fired there. first, just a reminder about syria. american troops are on the ground there right now. there are approximately 2,000 americans serving there providing support to local militias that are battling the remnants of isis. since the war began, there are now 5.4 million syrian refugees. 6.1 million syrians are internality displaced. in the country but not in their homes. 13.1 million syrians are in need of humanitarian aid. nearly half a million syrians are dead. you're watching velshi and ruhle live on msnbc. >>> welcome back to vel shi and ruh

he never wants to look weak and i think lindsey graham is also slightly edging trump into a corner, too. >> given his propensity to be challenged in that regard, you don't want him to show how much of a man he is, you know? more president than we may need in the moment. it needs to be a sober, thought through process. and i think that's where mattis and others will play an important role. >> trump's approach has always been actions speak louder than words. that was his criticism of president obama. that was why last year, almost a year to the day ago, why he chose to launch though 59 tomahawk missiles before tweeting about it, we should mention. and why in june of last year when the u.s. got so much as a whiff of intelligence that syria might be planning another chemical attack, the white house put out a preemptive statement saying there would be a heavy price to pay. this is almost as if the u.s. has fallen asleep at the switch. you had the president just a few days ago saying he wanted to pull out. you have senator mccain saying that statement emboldened assad to actually do what it d

senator lindsey graham joins me next. also tonight, leadership visits the white house as the possibility of war in syria escalates. an exclusive interview with the deputy prime minister next. >> we speak today and we see the suffering of the syrian people and me and the president see eye to eye that this matter has to stop immediately. do ndo not misjudgenity quiet tranquility. with the power of 335 turbo-charged horses lincoln mkx, more horsepower than the lexus rx350 and a quiet interior from which to admire them. the lincoln spring sales event is here. for a limited time get zero percent apr on the lincoln mkx. hurry in today to your lincoln dealer. get your groove on with one a day 50+. ♪ get ready for the wild life ♪ complete multivitamins with key nutrients that address 6 concerns of aging, including heart health, supported by b-vitamins. your one a day is showing. hey, what are you guys doing here? we're voya. we stay with you to and through retirement. so you'll still be here to help me make smart choices? well, w

is not always one to back trump. >> right. >> in fairness, though, what lindsey graham may benew south korean president was very big on having a meeting. he's been talking about dialogue even when president trump wasn't talking about dialogue. how should we be interpreting this maverick behavior by donald trump that some say resulted in the idea that donald trump and kim jong-un may meet? >> well, i think what senator graham is saying there is that a lot of people, including the leaders of china, south korea, and japan believe that the united states president, you know, our president was willing to use force to prevent north korea from making the final steps that it needed to take in order to achieve its objective, which is of course a nuclear weapon that can attack the u.s. mainland successfully. you know, they cannot do that yet as far as we know, but they're close. so, yes, his fire and fury -- you know, all of his speech-ifying and his saber rattling scared everybody. for that i think he does deserve credit. a nobel prize will be a long time coming but as wendy said, first

we also have lindsey graham.e have on the far right when nikki haley became the ambassador, governor henry mcmaster he became our governor. we will talk to him as well. and just take you on a tour of the campus to the stadium, to the sorority house and the journalism school. brian: ainsley, i noticed you haven't given your book away. are you making all these kids pay for it? ainsley: thank you so much. thank you for mentioning that yeah. i wrote a book it's called "the light within me" i will be in spartanburg tonight at 5:30 signing it. if you want to come to boiling springs baptist church. saturday i will be in my hometown saturday at the barnes & noble rich land fashion mall at 2:00. please come see me and don't leave me hanging by myself. abby: go buy her book. ainsley, we will see you shortly. brian: i can't see anybody showing up in south carolina. steve: the native daughter. we start this hour with an historic fox news alert. donald trump has tweeted just three minutes ago the korean war to end. the united

i'm not impressed with him as a lawyer to be honest with you. >> lindsey graham not just an attorney, military do you agree with his assessment of mr. cohen and the notion that it's idiotic for him to record conversation sns. >> well, jake, it's what i've been saying as well the last 72 hours as soon as the story broke. i have an ee normsz amount of respect for lindsey graham, very intelligent man, experienced attorney. i couldn't agree with him more than to say that. i mean it's outrageous. it's beyond stupid. and what's amazing is that this is the guy the president put at his right hand. this is the man the president basically trusted his secrets to. it's astunneding. >> earlier today on the show senator angus king, independent of maine on the senate intelligence committee said that cohen seems to be cropping up were with stormy daniels hush money payment or with the russia investigation. do you know of anything that might link the two or anything that michael cohen might have done involving russia. >> well i'm not at liberty to get into a lot of the details, jake. but suffice it to

this is a major moment, a pivotal moment as lindsey graham said. how is this going to change the landscape of things considering this is his first day? >> he replaces another relative hawk on syria, h.r. mcmaster and president trump in addition to speaking yesterday with the president of france and the prime minister of iraq is meeting this evening with military leaders so there will certainly be several voices weighing into his decision making. one thing that is unclear is whether that's going to be much difference of opinion. the united states generally blames assad when chemical weapons are disbursed but there is -- after the 2013 chemical weapons incident, the u.n. wasn't able to conclude who actually did it. it's unclear if there's going to be voices of restraint in this decision making process. >> i feel like every week we we again the week with who's next? last week it was possibly scott pruitt. >> two names. scott pruitt and john kelly going on for a couple weeks now. >> this week the focus is on john kelly so i'm curious to get your though

let's go back to senator lindsey graham.ichael cohen is trump's personal attorney, long-time friend, long-time fixer, his office raided yesterday. you heard that and you thought what? >> you know, i was a bit perplexed, so i really don't know what they're looking at or what they're going for. if it were about russian collusion in terms of the campai campaign, i doubt mueller would have given this to the district attorney in the southern district of new york. so that tells me it's probably not related to mueller's core mission. as for the southern district of new york, the attorney was rudy giuliani's law partner, so i don't think he's on a witch hunt. so most likely mueller found something that he thought somebody else should look at, and he picked the guy in new york. >> you said in the past that if trump would fire robert mueller, it would be the beginning of the end of his presidency. after his comments last night, what he said to cameras, he was asked directly and he didn't say no. and his witch hunt tweet today, do you

disunity and you sighted senator thom tillis of north carolina and lindsey graham, who are trying to protect bob muller from any type of firing or adverse action by the executive branch by the presidente specifically. but s tom holiday tillis never d president trump. he's terrible on the issue of immigration and on the trade issue. why are we surprised that thom tillis and lindsey graham, who are not poppulous conservatives are doing this mueller dill. >> it should be. thom tillis votes with the president 96% of the time. it is not just thom tillis and lindsey graham, you have to recall that thehe chairman of te judiciary committee is josh grassley. iowa, a long-time trump supporter. he says he plans to bring this to a vote this week in his committee, no matter what donald trump has to say. no matter what the senate majority leader has to say. he thinks this isness. what tillis said speaking to other trump supporters and evidencing a crack finally in the uniform stone wall that republicans have given trump, and made the republican party into the party of trump. tillis saidth if hilla

lindsey graham urging himm not to let bashar al-assad cross another red line and emerge unscathed. >> you need to follow through, show resolve obama never did to get this right. >> reporter: donald trump set all options are on the table and he expects to make a decision in the next two days. the us ambassador to the un, nikki haley was at an emergency meeting imploring them to make a news. >> history will record this as the security council either discharged its duty i or demonstrated its complete failure to protect the people of syria. either way the u united states will respond. >> reporter: tonight the president echoed those remarks while flanked by military leaders. >> it will be met and it will be met forcefully and when i will not say because i don't like talking about the timing could but we are developing the greatest force we ever had. >> reporter: the military responses imminence. what and when we don't know but it is worth pointing out with the national security adviser john bolton's first dayfi on t job and what of first day at was, he is at the center of all of this. >> e

there because we have lindsey graham saying just that.y a little bit of that. >> we don't care if you kill people, we only care how you kill them which say long way from where ronald reagan was. reagan believed in shaping history not just washing your hands of it. >> you're making the point that you feel like we've heard similar from lindsey graham in the past, that we're stuck in a status quo. >> we're in the status quo, but to my find that shows that the president may have found the sweet spot for what these strikes needed to do, that he found that goldie locks, not too hot, not too cold spot for these strikes. he seems to have general approval from the central right and left that this was more or less the right call, even though we ought to avoid mission accomplished. >> we talked about how prime minister theresa may and emmanuel macron in this joint air strike, she's out now speaking with her parliament. for the first time lawmakers back into town since that strike running into some of the same issues as you look live at british parli

lindsey graham warned about this. obviously been in the ether a long time. >> i think it would obviously be just, like, a massive explosion in the political world. the question is what would anybody really do about it? the people who are in control right now, at least, are the republicans. even though they say this is something that, you know, that would upset them, i don't know what they would really do about it. so i'm not sure -- i've never been one of these people who's thought, oh, he's not going to do that, it seems like something he would do to me. >> mike, what do you think the reaction would be? >> yeah, my advice would be not to do it, don't fire anybody. let this play out and exonerate you. that's what my political advice to the president would be. he should watch cnn. always, of course. the last four hours there's been a lot of analysts that were almost giddy at the idea, maybe he'll finally fire him and the joy with which a lot of people think that this would harm him to fire mueller is evident in people.

let me start with you, david, with what lindsey graham said this morning. he was down in south carolina talk about this. he was talking about the president, his involvement on the talks and whether the president should be taking credit for it. listen. >> it wouldn't have happened without trump, it may not happen. but it's the biggest change since the end of the hostility. the fact that the north korean and south korean presidents met and they vowed to end the war, what happened? donald trump convinced north korea and china' was serious about change. we're not there yet but if this happens president trump deserves a noble peace prize. >> big talk, david, from lindsey graham. >> i don't think it's quite ready to dust off the place on the shelf for the noble prize just yet. a long way away from this and there are a lot of reasons to believe that it's in kim jong-un's interests to say we'll talk about denuclearization but that he won't actually ever get there or that it will be a long, long process. >> so you think this will be what we've seen in the past, talk

i want to share what lindsey graham said on fox today. >> so the regime has to pay a big price. what would be a big price to lose your air force? this should be the last time a barrel bomb is dropped on innocent civilians by the assad air force. we have the capability to destroy his air force, to ground his air fleet and we should use that capability. >> what do you think? >> first of all, i want to know how much the syrian military was emboldened by president trump pulling out of syria. what i am seeing right now so far are positive steps. i think we're going to end up with a coalition -- >> positive steps by whom? >> by both the president and france. i don't normally praise the president but they had a very productive call. emmanuel macron has been on this like a hawk. i think the united states is going to give the u.n. security council a chance where we know it will fail because of russia holding the veto and we will then move forward as a coalition of nations which will make it stronger and we need to have a strong strike take out the syrian air force. perhaps hit some of th

lindsey graham in south carolina, usually a trump ally who wants the united states to have a more fullsome ,nvironment -- involvement replacing him with a different kind of leader who does not gas his people. the question is how much money has to be spent to do that? how many lives are going to be lost? what price will the united states pay? weary,n voters are war after that war and the fact we have an endless war in afghanistan. the president campaigned on ending the military commitment, which is why he wants to show his toughness but he doesn't want to get involved in a quagmire. host: nikki haley was on this week, and was asked about the commitment in syria. here is that interview. >> they are int indications assad used chemical weapons, and there had been no response. agreed just an horrific. are you saying going forward any use of chemical weapons by assad an immediate u.s. response? >> you said it. this was agreed just. it was barbaric. disgusting. ofre had been a wave constant use of chemical weapons. wouldknew that russia cover for him and he got reckless. he used in a way that

congress toers of go visit and see that work, people like lindsey graham are very active in getting his colleagues to go out and learn and see. that is partly why many elements of foreign aid, particularly -- has continued to have the strong response. that did not stop an executive budget proposal from including potential cuts. in that case, the congress did not consider seriously cutting that money because they did not have a commitment to it great >> are you concerned about the america first rhetoric? it is anathema to what your whole mission is these days. mr. gates: i don't agree with the american first rhetoric. i think the alliances we have built over time and the help we are provided countries, starting with the marshall plan, our role in supporting the united nations, the bilateral things we do, we have made the world a more stable place. i think that is good from a pure humanitarian point of view. , think that foreign aid because the budget is so small, we pick things that are so effective that even if it benefits americans, americans do not want have pandemics and send soldier

. >> that's not too different with what senator lindsey graham had to say about this, the idea of trump pulling u.s. troops out of syria. listen to senator graham. >> a complete, utter disaster to leave before the fight is done. have we learned nothing of what happens when you leave too soon. we pulled troops out of iraq. >> dul this time. >> exactly. the exact same thing that happened in. everyone has been saying this. if we pull out now prematurely like we did in iraq, all we do is give. the ice will regenerate itself and they'll take on more territory. it's not hard to understand. i don't see why we're even confusing the paurts with these statements. . and many people think russia still has its tentacles in deep. >> after the collapse of the soviet union, we had to effectively chase them out of the region. now we see putin reasserting himself in the area. syria was the first step. he's also looking to libya. he wants to be a player in the region. i have to tell you, he's playing his cards exactly right, starting with syria. but i do have to say, i would imagine the russians are wonde

lindsey graham said he was speaking with the president.ht be something in the spring where the president revisits a deal on daca for 25 billion and lock to count to build that wall in a massive comprehensive way. ainsley: he wants that 25 billion. he only got 1.6. steve: we will have the great govern governor of texas greg abbott in the next hour. right now it's time for news. jillian: good monday morning to you guys. get to headlines we are following. we now know the names of the two soldiers killed at fort campbell. james cass donna and warrant officer ryan connolly losing their lives friday night. their deaths mark the third deadly crash for the military in one week. seven service members killed in all. it is john bolton's first day on the job as the president's new national security advisor. and as bolton begins the national security council spokesman is leaving. the white house did not give a reason for michael anton's departure. the president called him over the weekend to thank him for his work. stormy daniels renewing efforts to ge

eric: let's listen to lindsey graham for a second.has a litany of reasons why he wants a special counsel. >> i want a special counsel with the same determination and resources to look at the abuses of the fisa process, were the clinton e-mail investigation a sham, conflicts of interest in the justice department. i want a special counsel to be appointed with the same resources and determination to look at that issue as mueller is looking at the trump campaign and i don't see that yet. eric: you can understand why he would want a special counsel. but at the same time, as you point out, huber has been a u.s. attorney in utah for quite some time, a veteran of the juice is tijusticedepartment. he's got investigators and prosecutors available to him that a special counsel would have so there really isn't that much of a difference. >> there's not that much of a difference. there may be more resources available to a special counsel but that doesn't mean that michael horowitz, the inspector general and john huber in utah are not going to be ab

regulation you know there was interesting verbal exchange between zuckerberg and republican senator lindsey graham let's take a listen if i buy forward and it doesn't work well and i don't like it i can buy. it on the set with facebook was the equivalent product then i can go sign up for. well there's a second category there was going to talk about hers and some categories i'm talking about is there real competition you face coast guard companies face a lot of competition that they make a defective car it gets out in the world people stop buying their car they have another one is in an alternative to facebook in the private sector yes senator the average american uses eight different apps ok communicate with their friends and stand touch with people ok ranging from tech which he hopes to email to your service you provide what we do provide a number of different there's a clipper saying this which you do it overlaps with a port you don't think you have a monopoly. it certainly doesn't feel like that to me ok. well there you have zuckerberg trying to play down the power of his social media some peop

lindsey graham says withdrawing troops would be a dangerous mistake that would undo gains made against terrorist groups. >> when it comes to syria, do not read the obama playbook. this is the obama playbook. one foot in, one foot out. the single worst decision the president could make. i have seen this movie before when obama did this in iraq and gave assad a pass. we have isis on the ropes. don't remove american soldiers. >> the president's remark came hours after the pentagon said the opposite. two members of the u.s.-led coalition had two killed in a battle the same day. >>> breaking overnight. british investigators say they believe the poisoning of former russian double agent sergei skripal likely had the approval of the kremlin. cnn's matthew chance is live for us in moscow. matthew, do they have evidence of this at this point? >> reporter: not that i have seen and certainly this latest information comes to cnn from unnamed sources in the united states who are familiar with the british investigation. the british have not gone so far at this point to lay the blame at the feet of vl

listen to how the house armed services committee chairman and senator lindsey graham, a man you know well, listen to how they responded. >> i think the notion that we would leave syria is -- was a mistake, because we haven't finished destroying isis, and because people like iran and russia see a vacuum created when the u.s. leaves into which they will run. >> they see our resolve breaking, they see our determination to stay in syria waning, and it's no reaction that they use chemical weapons. >> i didn't hear roger say that syrians are talked into this attack. i think both of them make a valid point. i think we ought to stay until we get the results we need. >> let's talk a little about senator john mccain, while he is the president. the president of the united states' pledge to drop out of syria has only emboldened bashar al-assad to he says the president should make bashar al-assad, quote, pay a price for his brutality. do you agree with senator mckay? >> i certainly agree with that. john kelly. i would describe the second p t part, certainly, of mccain's statement. we need to make

what's happened to lindsey graham? did they lobotomized the guy? [inaudible] >> what's that? [inaudible] >> okay. but separately from that, it's possible that sounds outlandish that the republicans have not stood up so the check and balance is not coming in. this is unlike anything else. they use one off kind think that this is like on steroids. one of those things in four years sf 20 of them in a week. >> we do need to move to the signings. do you have any final? >> i'm happy come if i didn't get all of your question, you can ask them before you head out. i can stay. i'm happy to stay and chat and on yours for answering questions and finding the book. thank you all for your support. >> big round of applause for amy siskind and "the list." thank you. [applause] >> she will be signing your book right here. just give us a moment to set up and thank you so much. have a great evening. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> booktv is on twitter and facebook, and we want to hear from you.

we heard from lindsey graham saying this is a defining moment for the president. admiral, do you agree? >> i do. and it's critical the president not respond in a spasm, a need-jerk tweet-like moment. we need to understand what has happened, but it seems very clear that it's an attack using chemical weapons. we need to consult with our allies. france is already talking about taking dramatic action, and we need to get the united nations security council engaged in this, but yasmin, this is a defining moment. i hope the president stops, considering what he's going to do, talks to his team and then acts. >> what do you believe the price should be, admirable, from what you have seen so far? >> let's go on the assumption that our intelligence verifies this was conducted by the assad regime. in that case, the beginning step all to be increasing sanctions on russia and iran who are supporting assad. we ought to look carefully at strikes against the syrian air force, as well as facilities. we ought to be tuning up our special forces to gather intelligence and direct those

you have people like senator lindsey graham, who say the president needs to show resolve on this issue. graham and others point out this latest atrocity shows that air strikes in isolation do not work. david? >> what are you going to be watching for in the coming days. >> i just got a statement from the white house press secretary, a readout of a call between the president and it official from iraq. calling the alarmen remarks, so couching the language. >> i know the president is meeting tomorrow with senior military -- remember, john bolton start tomorrow. tomorrow is his first days, replacing h.r. mcmaster. we know john bolton is the most hawkish of all the neo-conser neo-conservative hawks. i can tell you that he has spent the last few days here visiting the west wing. he, i would say walks past all of the tv cameras. there are other ways for a man of john bolton's stature to enter unnoticed. perhaps he was offering early counsel about this and other issues. he told me he would not be willing to speak to my members of the press until he starts tomorrow. so when i see him tomorrow, t

>> i agree with lindsey graham. the assad regime.ility in syria so long as the assad regime is there. the problem is that we have to keep the islamic radicals down as well. if the assad regime goes and we haven't defeated al qaeda and isis makes a comeback it will become a radical islamist state. this requires -- the problem with what obama did in iraq is we need to have once the combat is over you need to have a long-term military presence on the ground to help the good guys take over and help the good guys stabilize. if you pull out isis will make a comeback, al qaeda will be strengthened. assad regime and iran will be strengthed. we need to stay there and protect israel so iran doesn't use syria as base to attack israel and have a long-term strategy to help sunnis who hate isis and al qaeda develop sunni partners that can drive these people out and replace the assad regime. >> sandra: as the world watches to see what happens next there, including north korea, kim jong-un has told the u.s. per a u.s. official, that north korea is p

lindsey graham was on the program yesterday talking about the immigration proposals that they think theycan get another crack at in any discussion on immigration overhaul whether protecting the daca kids and young adults and kids or other enforcement the wall will come up and there are questions whether the president will be e able to reprogram the departmt of defense money to go toward construction of the mall along the mexican wall and there's possible he could take money from the infrastructure building program and who knows how he would feel about that but we do know that what we likely have sometime in the next coming weeks are national guardsmen will be deploying down to something that president obama did an president busted and ther the border but they can provide logistical support and the wall probably will not be breaking ground anytime soon but this thing that the president wants and it will be part of the session. >> host: to come back to the national guard on the border. tom was on abc's this week yesterday talking about the national guard on the border in here is what he ha

here's senator lindsey graham on "fox news sunday." >> i think the problem is that russia is running wild. the president has a hard time pushing back at putin directly. >> white house press secretary, sarah sanders saying in a statement as the president confirmed on march 20th, hours after his last call with president putin, the two had discussed a bilateral meeting at a number of venues including white house. we have nothing further to add at this time. geraldo, what are your thoughts? >> putin is a thug, a cream, a sore on the body of the world. >> what do you really think? >> it's hope it's true that the president has had the courage to invite putin despite all the push back, all the mueller stuff, the fact that he can't have russian dress on his salad now because of the collusion. the president told me months ago, wouldn't the world be a better place if the united states and the russian had open honest discussions and relations? i agree with the president. i hope this is true. i hope they have a meeting. it can't hurt. >> lisa, can they have open honest conversations? if you list

and russia with a leading member of the senate armed services committee, senator lindsey graham .nces the 20/20 census will include a question on citizenship. a decision that will directly affect states with large numbers of illegal immigrants. we will talk with two top officials from california

so i tend to agree with lindsey graham and this idea that let's pass it, even if the president doesn'teast it's a speech point to say that we stand for every special prosecutor that comes after robert mueller. >> but kennedy, robert mueller already has broad authority. wouldn't this embolden him even more? >> no, i agree there needs to be constraints of who is in power and which aspect of it you are checking. i think this is more about future special counsels and i think that we have to be very careful exhorting congress and the attorney general to appoint one every time there's some malfeasance or wrongdoing. >> in part because we have a situation there now where there needs to be a closer look what is going on in some of these agencies. for instance, the department of justice. so we don't want to pull it so far out of the scope that we're not forcing them to do their jobs better as well and to weed out bias. i would say this about special counsels. we've seen one in the past that people didn't like, ken starr. this seems to be where they go. that do this like gymnastics move like can

you have that segment there with senator lindsey graham just now. he had also just recently mentioned about this same topic lindsey graham who said that really we're not concerned about fighting against russia right now. the russians have been operating with impunity and have been covering assad. they are just as culpable as assad is. they should be held accountable and they are also accused of war crimes. >> eric: the president tweeted out and named vladimir putin by name. do you expect there could be air strikes later on tonight or this week similar to what we saw last year with the chemical attack at that point? when the president sent 59 tomahawk missiles into that syrian air base? >> i would be surprised if i didn't see any strikes. the president needs to take swift and decisive action right now. president trump, i'm speaking to you directly. do not take the same mistake that president obama had made. the action that you had taken to take out the air base, that was important. that was strong. that was a very strong message. what we need to do r

it's not like lindsey graham will change rand paul's mind. if he gets a bad recommendation out of the committee but goes to the floor you will see a lot of pressure placed on democrats, too, particularly folks like mike warner. they worked together as pompeo has been cia director. a lot of red state democrats will be leaned on to put what republicans say the country over politics especially with pompeo out essentially doing the job already. i suspect we will hear that language about pompeo's qualifications and casting this as apolitical vote. the cia nominee will be another difficult fight in a couple of weeks. >> hold that thought. i will have you stand by. i want to bring in former adviser to rubio and director of domestic policy studies. let me start with pompeo. number one, is rand paul going to come around on this? or no way no how? >> i think he will eventually come around. the wildcard here is that rand paul. i think there is such tremendous pressure on him. what i was going to say is that rand paul is also unpredictable. recall that h

nice to have you on. >> good to be with you, brooke. >> lindsey graham aside, congressman, what is up with the republican reluctance to get behind trump for 2020? isn't it automatic to endorse the party sitting president for reelection? >> it should be but this is 2016 all over again. you have down ballot republicans unsure whether to embrace donald trump. it is a net negative to be aligned with donald trump. among the base of course that solidifies your base but among soft republicans, independents and democrats, it is a net negative to embrace donald trump. secondly, this far out, members are wrestling with whether or not this might be a president unindictment or at least some f form of form of deferred indictment. there's a group of republicans that continue to softly organize a primary challenge to donald trump. we don't know who that might be. a lot of these members of congress and senators may be facing a choice about a primary to donald trump. >> how likely do you think that really might be? >> i think it's going to happen without question. no question at all. the question is w

and russia with a leading member of the senate armed services committee, senator lindsey graham . then the commerce department announces the 20/20 census will include a question on citizenship. a decision that will directly affect states with large numbers of illegal immigrants. we will talk with two top officials from california which has sued the trump administration over the policy. democratic congressman brad sherman and republican, shawn nelson of the orange county board of supervisors. plus, north korea's leader takes a surprise trip to china. as the world look for the summit between kim jong-un and president trump. >> it's no good, we are walking. if it's good, we will embrace it. >>chris: we will ask our panel what are the chances kim jong-un will give up his nuclear weapons. all right now on "fox news sunday". hello again, happy easter. happy passover from fox news in washington. it's been a turbulent week for president trump's foreign policy. russia tested a powerful new missile and responded to the u.s. expelling 60 of their diplomats by kicking out 60 of hours.kim jong