0 we ran out of time for the "ridicu-list" tonight. that does it for us. thanks for watching. erin burnett starts now. "outfront" next, gearing up for a military strike against syria. as the white house is ratcheting up pressure, the stock market takes a dive. also a massive outbreak of measles in america. while some people are blaming some christian teachings. and a montana teacher is convicted of raping a 14-year-old student. why did the teacher only get 30 days in jail? let's go "outfront." >> >> i'm jessica yellin in for erin burnett. "outfront" tonight, breaking news, stocks dive as the drumbeat to war with syria gets louder. wall street suffered its worst day since june as the obama administration clearly laid the groundwork for a possible military strike on syria. >> there's no doubt who is responsible for this heinous use of chemical weapons in syria. the syrian regime. the president believes and i believe that those who use chemical weapons against defenseless men, women and children should and must be held accountable. >> market analyst todd schoenberger is "outfront" with us tonight. thank you for being here. how much of this market drop had to do with what you heard from the vice president and the president and the administration about oil in the region? >> quite a bit because it's a grave concern for everybody at wall street. it was top of mind when we heard about it from biden but now when we're hearing about the war drums that are beating today and we can only anticipate that president obama will be making a decision, probably by tomorrow and even by thursday, clearly there's a lot of uncertainty tonight on wall street. >> looking ahead how high do you think oil can get? >> it can go quite higher, 2008 was the high at $148 a barrel. we saw a big rally in oil today, however, once the missiles start flying there's not a single trader on wall street doesn't think it's going to happen, once that happens, we'll probably see oil clip $120. the question remains what will be the ancillary impact. now we hear from russia and china and clearly iran has a vested interest in all of this. if we hear anything from those countries that can actually cause oil to spike higher. >> anybody who thinks the strike on syria doesn't have an impact at home, just look at wall street and you see it really does. >> that's right. >> thank you very much for being here. fred pleitgen joins us on the phone from damascus, the only western reporter in syria. last night we saw you on camera. we know that you've been broadcasting from damascus live today as well, but tonight you're on the phone. what happened? >> well, it's basically issues with the syrian internet company that's not working at this point in time. the syrian regime you have to know is quite paranoid about us bringing broadcast equipment into this country. they don't let us do that and because they don't let us do that the only way we can go live from here is over the country's internet and right now that isn't working very well. the internet isn't working, they hope it will be back tomorrow. for now it's just the phone for us unfortunately. >> we're happy to get you any way we can. it's a tenuous situation we know. the obama administration again today said they are sure the assad regime used chemical weapons on their own people. it sure sounds like a strike could be on the horizon. what is the reaction there on the ground? what are you seeing and hearing. >> well, you know, the reaction's really quite interesting because it's changed quite a bit over the past couple of days. when you talk to syrian officials only two days ago, they were much more confident than they are now. i talked to the country's information minister today and he was a lot more muted than government officials were before. he still said if the americans want to attack us, then we will defend ourselves, but it certainly didn't sound the way it would have a couple of days ago. one things they keep saying is want to give the weapons inspectors more time to do their job here, they were in damascus but they weren't able to go to any sites they wanted to visit because of security concerns of their own. so, the syrians seem to know if there is any sort of strike by the west there really isn't very much they would be able to do about it and so right now it seems to me as though they are buying time to see whether or not they might -- that way prevent the west from actually conducting any strikes after this chemical attack. it seems as though they realize what's going on and they realize how serious the situation is and that they've possibly gone too far. >> thank you for your fantastic reporting, please stay safe. the only western reporter in damascus. democratic senator richard blumenthal sits on the armed services committee. senator, thanks for being with us. let's start with a basic question, how far should a u.s.-backed attack go? >> a united states attack apparently is necessary really to send a message to assad and others in the region who may be tempted also to use these weapons of mass destruction, this abhorrent attack should prompt an international coalition which should determine the extent of the response and if there is a military use of tomahawk cruise missiles, it ought to be targeted to military assets, high-value military units or equipment, and it should be very limited duration and scope. proportionate to what assad has done here. and also very precise in the way it's directed. i'm concerned about the potential unintended consequences, but i am more concerned about the repercussions of failing to respond to this violation of morality and international law. >> senator, given that we already know that there are al qaeda elements in the rebel forces in syria and given that the white house is not looking to topple syrian president bashar al assad with the military strike, are you concerned that if assad were to fall, that al qaeda extremists would take control essentially as they did when saddam hussein fell in iraq? >> there's no question there should be a concern about those elements. and we should avoid and i want to just really stress this point, any troops on the ground, whatever our fears about al qaeda, we should avoid any involvement on the ground and, again, these surgical strikes, the military action to address the violations of international law that have occurred here and the abhorrent use of chemical weapons should be very limited in scope and avoid no commitment to more involvement. and also seek to avoid the consequences in wider conflict that could result from a broader use of military force. >> tricky situation. senator blumenthal of the armed services committee, thank you. and still to come, wildfires blaze out of control threatening yosemite national park. 3,600 firefighters on the scene. we'll bring you there live. plus, a major measles outbreak in america. why is it being linked to a texas megachurch? then a historic building that played a huge role in richard nixon's downfall is about to be destroyed. we'll tell you which one and why. and before the scenes photos of the night dzhokhar tsarnaev was arrested, we'll show you them later in the show. like carpools... polly wants to know if we can pick her up. yeah, we can make room. yeah. 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