Going on. But tonight i actually showed up with something planned to say. Oh, okay. And you ruined it. Because i just listened again. Rachel. Bless our hearts and other parts. All right. But [ laughter ] i didnt know i could get you to say that again. Im regretting it immediately. Okay. Im going to try to say the thing i planned to say. Okay. And what i planned to say is wouldnt it be nice if it was just completely totally absolutely impossible to suspect that Vladimir Putin orchestrated what happened in syria this week so that his friend in the white house could have a big night with missiles and all of the praise he has picked up over the last 24 hours . Wouldnt it be so nice if you couldnt even in your Wildest Dreams imagine a scenario like that . Wouldnt it be great if we could go back to wag the dog being a sitcom plot, you know. Exactly. And i dont know what it is. Is it a 2 chance . Is it a 50 chance . I dont know. But i dont think its a zero percent chance. And it used to be wi
then still dropped a bomb and they shot it down. you bring up an important point and that is that the russians and americans are in contact about where they re operating over the syrian sky. so, there is a degree of coordination. this isn t a random matter. but there s an open question right now on whether or not that deconfliction line is operational. what the general said earlier today, they want to restore it. but we don t know right now and we have gotten some conflicting views here at the pentagon on whether or not that deconflicting line is open as you and i speak. got it. appreciate you clarifying that. hans nichols at the pentagon. heading to georgia for the most expensive house race in the first major referendum on president trump. the stakes are high in an election decided by a few thousand votes. some nincompoop stole all my wool sweaters, smart tv and gaming system. luckily, the geico insurance agency
in this? and could that then mean hands off, russia, in syria? sure. trump does not want the escalate this into a problem between the united states and russia. but i think the bottom line here is we have to look at the broader question of all of this, which is what is trump s actual policy in syria. and in my column in today s paper, what i wrote about is it s very hard to send a message if you don t have a message to send. and donald trump s policy to syria has been oppositeville. basically, four years ago when there was the first chemical weapons attack he sent out this tweet storm to president obama in which he said don t strike. don t strike assad. don t do this. there is going to be a disaster. there is no percentage in it for the united states. don t do it. now he does the opposite. it seems the trump doctrine is do the opposite of what obama would do. in fact, fewer people were killed in this chemical weapons attack than the last one four years ago. so i think the question is
without actually threatening to do anything. even turning off that line, that deconflicting line, it doesn t amount to aggression. it s only aggression if you decide to shoot things down. let s not forget, there is another player in here. assad is not alone with russia. it s got iran. iran is assad s ally, and iran really wants to win that war and doesn t want other people involved in it either. so one of the things that putin is thinking about, hey, i had this big deal with iran and turkey. what is going on here? i got to be in charge of that. so when putin lashes out and all his people lash out, tune that out and look at it. what exactly is he doing that he wasn t doing yesterday? and there is not that much. yeah. tom nichols, to that point, what is vladimir putin s next move in this situation? well, he has to decide just how much trouble assad is worth. in a sense he is backed into a corner. he can t leave him he can t leave assad out in the cold now that the americans have st
in syria, you could be absolutely sure that president assad and president putin did not do that in order to help the image of the president of the united states. that, that is the world that donald trump has given us. that is the range of possibility donald trump has given us. you will hear the counter to the possible scenario that i have just outlined. but what you won t hear is proof that that scenario that i have just outlined is impossible. because with the presidency of donald trump has shown is that with donald trump anything is possible. you have heard in the last 25 hours pundits on television reaching for the momentous, as they always do, reaching for the line that for better or worse