Force Inside Syria News Today

What is discussed behind closed doors there. we also have word that the president will be sitting down with his secretary of defense, james mattis, to discuss, that will be tonight, to discuss a potential response, a potential military response to the situation in syria. gabe gutierrez, our own gabe gutierrez standing by outside mar-a-lago in florida. do we know anything more about the discussion between the president and matt is and looming? >> reporter: hi, steve, good afternoon. a highly anti...

In direct combat. i think we try and avoid that. however, there are always unknown actions that come out of using military power. so if you just politically signaling youre signaling youre angry about something, what happens to the revolutionary guards in iran go after u.s. forces in syria or in iraq? what happens if they put hezbollah up to the israelis? so again, we ought to sit down and say what are we trying to achieve? what are our objectives? and if it is just political signaling, we dont ...

The scope of his power, anything lightning th like that? this would be in terms of the goal of the operation, this would specifically -- this would be a success if there are n more chemical attacks even if he stayses s in power is that fair to say? >> i think from a military and international legal perspective, yes, the answer to the question is, yes. in other words, we would conduct the strike, do the proportional response, warn the offending party and then stop, reassess the situation. however...

Theres going to be an option discussion about regime change. what i think is a lot more likely is going to be a proportionate response directed against the lmts of syrian power that conducted the strike. that means the air force, potentially chemical production facility if we can target that. i think this will be more in the nature of a demonstration, a proportional response with a concurrent warning, obviously to syria, but also to russia. saying that your client, assad, is deeply in violation ...

Welcome? >> well, first of all, i think what were seeing very much so as the others have said, very much a work in progress. i mean, donald trumps positis as you pointed out back in 2013 about whatever president obama was doing in syria where we ought to stay the hell out of there, let them kind of resolve. just two days ago, remember, sean spicer told us at the white house it was a position of this administration that bashar al assad should stay in power. then comes the chemical attack. i was i...

Militarily, economically, of assad, of his regime, in syria, and now you have the secretary of state of the united states saying that russia may want to rethink that relationship. nbc news chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell joins me now from washington. andrea, on that point there, rex tillerson calling out russia for its ties to assad, of course, the backdrop of this administration for the first few months have been questions about the relationship between this trump administra...

There is no doubt in our minds and the information we have supports that syria, the syrian regime, the leadership of president bashar al assad, are responsible for this attack. and i think further, it is very important that the russian government consider carefully their continued support for the assad regime. >> that was secretary of state rex tillerson just a few hours ago, one of several signals being sent by the administration that a military response, a potential military response, could be...

Syria and assad has changed very much. >> that was president trump about 24 hoursgo saying his attitude toward syria, toward bashar al assad had changed aa result of that chemical attack over the weekend. now indications the administration may be moving toward a military response in syria. the president set to meet with his defense secretary tonight who will apparently be presenting him with a menu of options for a military response. joining me now, general barry mccaffrey, msnbc military analys...

Extensive presentation than it is, but there is definitely a lot of concern here. i think that theres certain caution that is here and a divide over exactly what the president needs to do in terms of authorizing, and of course, thats going to defend, steve, on what the decision is and what sort of action that they decide to take. >> all right. chris jansing on capitol hill. chris, thanks for that. lets bring in jonathan swan, national political reporter for axeos. bill press, host of "the bill p...

Internationally, including in europe. at the end of the day, what is really important if we want to make sure that things quiet down inside syria, is to fine some way other than the use of the military use of power or maybe in conjunction with it. find some other way to solve that, what is effectively a political problem. >> all right. thank you both very much for joining us. and we have been talking about the 800 pound gorilla about this all hour. russia, a signal being sent. a clear message be...