Disturbing and graphic, but they drive home the relentless suffering women and children continued to endure now seven years into their civil war. Activists say Syrian Military helicopters dropped barrel bombs filled with toxic gas, suffocating some and sending others in convulsions. You can see the chaos at hospitals overwhelmed with injured people. At least 48 people are dead and hundreds more have symptoms of exposure. Doctors desperately try to wash the skin and the hair of young children. Their cries only quieted by gasps for air. Cnn cannot independently verify these videos which were taken by antigovernment activists and doctors, but we have Live Team Coverage for you tonight stretching from syria to the white house as well as a panel of experts standing birks and i want to bring in cnns Senior International correspondent fred pleitgen, the only western reporter in damascus. Fred, syrian officials are saying the rebels carried out this attack. Is anyone in the rest of the world buying in a explanation . Reporter well, certainly we havent heard anybody thats buying that explanation as of so far, ana, but it certainly seems to be quite a chaotic situation and very difficult to find out what exactly happened there late last night. Weve been able to piece together so far is that apparently all of this happened at around 20 minutes past 8 00 p. M. Last night local syrian time, and several opposition groups have been saying that the helicopters all of a sudden showed up over the area of duma which is towards the east of damascus, the last rebel enslave out there. They apparently dropped canisters and all of a sudden people became very ill and had respiratory problems and many people died as well. The numbers are still very difficult to put together. There currently seems to be over 40 people who were killed. Again, the situation there still somewhat in flux and so very difficult to say how many people actually succumbed to this. Youre absolutely right. The Syrian Government says it was not behind these attacks and had hinted it might have been the rebels themselves. However, what they were also saying is they didnt need any sort of chemical weapons in their offensive that they had going on at that point in time. They were making big headway against the last holdout that the rebels had supported by power from the air as well, and so they are saying they didnt need to use any gas to make that headway. But you have these accusations that are flying back and forth, but one of the things that we have seen time and again, and weve reported on it very well, ana, in the end its the syrian civilians really suffering the most, that we can see that by the horrible images that weve had to showers, unfortunately, throughout the past two days, ana. Fred, what can you tell us about whats happening in duma today to help those people and to move forward in this situation . Reporter well, you know, one of the remarkable things that has actually happened over the past 24 hours or so is essentially the Assad Government has won that district back, duma. Whats going on right now as we speak is that there are buses that are existing the place with rebel fighters in them and their families as well that are being taken to other parts of syria. At the same time there are also some prisoners that were held by the rebel progovernment people being bussed to the rebelheld areas of damascus. Essentially whats going on is this area has been won back by the forces loyal to president Bashar Al Assad with a lot of help from the russians. Ana. Fred pleitgen reporting live from nas cuss tonight. Lets go to the white house hand cnns Abby Phillips is there. The president is blaming animal assad and Vladimir Putin for his attack as well as his predecessor barack obama and hes promising, quote, there will be a big price to pay. Any indication what that price will be . Reporter thats right, ana. The president once again appears to be horrified by reports of a chemical weapons attack in syria, but its very unclear this time, perhaps more so than even the last time, exactly what hell do about it. A year ago almost to it the day President Trump authorized tomahawk missiles to strike at airfields operated by the assad forces, in retaliation for a similar attack, but this time around President Trump is coming into this event having said that he wants to pull the United States out. But on twitter he had really harsh words for assad, for Vladimir Putin, for iran and also for president obama who he pinpointed as the person responsible for putting him and the United States in this position. Heres what he said about president obama specifically. He said if president obama had crossed his stated red line in the sand, the syrian disaster would have ended long ago. Animal assad would have been history. Now, of course, President Trump promising that there will be a big price to pay. He appears to be drawing his own line in the sand. His national his Homeland Security adviser tom bossert are saying all options are on the table. Thank you. Some republicans on capitol hill say the president s choice is clear. Fire back or look weak. Well, its a defining moment in his presidency because he has challenged assad in the past not to use chemical weapons. We had a one and done missile attack, so assadsed a it again. They see our resolve breaking. They see our determination to stay in syria waning, and this is no accident that they used chemical weapons. If he doesnt follow through and live up to that tweet hes going to look weak in the eyes of russia and iran so this is a defining moment, mr. President , you need to follow through with that tweet and show resolve that obama never did to get this right. Joining us now, cnn Global Affairs correspondent elise labatt and National Correspondent tim nestle and fellow at the council of the war on foreign relations. The president s tweets this morning and even this afternoon seem to be battling his America First instincts to withdraw u. S. Forces from syria. Well, i dont know if well even see a wholesale change of his policy towards syria, anark. Hes made pretty clear that the immediate threat is isis. Wants that job done, and i dont think that precludes him from answering and responding to this particular attack and will do things that will hamper president assad from doing Something Like this in the future, using chemical weapons, and i think its also interesting, if you remember from last year he did when he launched that strike he said it was to send rash message. I think he could do Something Like that again. I dont think that will change his idea that the u. S. Is not there to stay through the civil war and be a buffer against iran. The National Security council is set to meet tomorrow with new National Security adviser john bolton leading the deliberations. I know youve been talking to your sources close to bolton. What can we expect . This is what we call a principal small group meeting. Its just the president s really top National Security advisers led by john bolton, but it will include the acting secretary of state John Sullivan because mike pompeo hasnt been confirmed yet as secretary of state, but hell be there as the director of the cia, and it will also include james mattis, probably the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff general dunford, and they will be talking about the options to present to the president of what he can do. If you listen to President Trump this morning, this will be some type of response. What is that going to be . Whether its going to be a qualitative response that will change the equation on the ground, i dont really know, but i think talking to diplomats and hearing from President Trump himself and the state department who is Holding Russia kind of squarely responsible, i think youre definitely going to see some type of response and the u. N. Security council is also meeting tomorrow to discuss, so i think this is going to be a Real International effort. Tim, as we were listening to abby philip reading the president s tweets from this morning i saw you shaking your head. What stood out . All president s blame their predecessors for inherited conflicts, but a certain point in your presidency it becomes the president s conflict. 1969 nixon gives the silent majority speech. Vietnam becomes his war. Barack obama, november 2009, decides for the surge in afghanistan, it becomes his war. In april of last year, President Trump sent a missile strike, launched a missile strike against syrian targets, and at that point the syrian conflict became his problem. Clearly the russians didnt hear the message and assad didnt hear the message. Now the United Nations investigated that chemical attack last year and said that it was done by the Syrian Government, so we know that assad is a war criminal. So the question is now are we just going to launch missiles again, which, of course, assad and the russians will ignore, or is the United States prepared to deal with the fact that theres a war criminal running syria . I dont know if President Trump has the understanding of Foreign Policy to deal with this kind of problem. He is pointing fingers at russia though. He is tweeting russian president putins name condemning him directly. That is a change. Thats a change, but whats the followthrough . I mean, its really important that we stand up to russia, but heres the challenge. Look at what weve been saying about russia for a year. We send the missiles in to say to russia, dont do this with assad, dont let him do this and then our president talks about putin as if hes a good hes a good man, as if we shouldnt be worried about him. Only lately has the u. S. Government been able to put pressure on russia. The fact of the matter is all the authoritarians around the world arent believing us because they look at our president and they see that basically our president is not standing up for human rights abroad. Hes not asking for authoritarians to allow for democracy. All the signals hes sending about democracy are contrary to what you would expect of the United States of america, so no wonder assad and no wonder putin ignore us, and they will do it again if all we do is launch a missile strike. Gail, i want you to listen to the president last year after assad launched a chemical weapons attack. A chemical attack that was so horrific in syria against innocent people, including women, small children and even beautiful little babies, their deaths was an affront to humanity. These heinous actions by the assad regime cannot be tolerated. Senator john mccain today says trumps more recent talk of withdrawing emboldened assad and the president must now attack again. Do you think the president is in a box here . Did he draw his own red line . I dont think that the president is in a new box. I think the support in the same box that the Obama Administration faced. You know, this really is a moment of truth, a moment of crisis that is seven years in the make, and this was all entirely predictable because when you have this access of impunity in the assad regime with its russian and iranian backers which truly fears there is no norm it cannot trample, no standard it cannot break, you get absolute horrorses as the one were now witnessing. So you saw president obama try to navigate what this meant in a 2012 and 2013 and then youve seen now the Trump Administration really try to face the same set of questions. But theres no question, you know, the International Community has largely been neutered by the syrian conflict. It is a horror that has extinguished really the power of adjectives to describe how awful it truly, is and i think, you know, you see the International Community with all the teeth of an inflatable guard dog at this point and an assad regime that knows it. And russia clearly still backing that assad regime, issuing this stern warning to the United States. I quote, using farfetched and fabricated pretext for a military intervention in syria where russian servicemen are deployed at the request of the legitimate government is absolutely unacceptable and can lead to the most serious consequences. Gayle, what would be the consequences, do you think, of a u. S. Strike in syria this time, especially if russia troops were caught up in the damage . Listen, its so fascinating because for years since the isis fight started, deconfliction has been the norm between the United States and russia. They have gone out of their way on the military side to truly avoid any direct engagement, and now you see the situation where it is nearly unavoidable, right. You have the president really calling out the russian regime the russian president by name saying that they back the assad regime to the nth degree and show no signs of backing down and will be held responsible for it. The question we now see is will deconfliction give way to direct engagement between these two powers . Elise, you mentioned this emergency u. N. Security Council Meeting that was called. Should we expect a different outcome this time around . I dont think so, ana. I mean, look, the russians are a permanent member of the u. N. Security council with a veto, and not only have they not accepted resolutions criticizing the assad regime all along, they are certainly not going to take something that criticized themselves. You might see some kind of watered down statement, a president ial statement coming out. I think that there is more really of a way for, you know, countries to speak out tomorrow. Youll have u. N. Ambassador, u. S. Ambassador to the u. N. Nikki haley in the chair who hasnt pulled her punches on the assad regime or russia, so i think that that will be a very kind of tough moment on behalf of the administration, but, you know, in addition to the u. N. Security council, you also have the u. S. Working with its allies, talking to the brits today, talking to the french. I think if you see some action, i dont know if youll see something by the u. S. Alone. Could you see something from some other countries because, you know, the pictures are just horrible, and i dont think the world is going to stand by this time. Elyse, tim, gayle, thank you all for the thoughtful discussion. Coming cup, a former National Security adviser weighs in on trumps threat as well as trumps criticism of former president Barack Obamas strategy, and if you would like to learn more about how you can help the Syrian People survive the ongoing conflict in their country, you can log on to cnn. Com impact any time. Well be right back. Were almost there. Shes coming stall. My video calls lagging. Mom . Surprise surprise hold up. Hold up. We got a laggy video call here. You need verizon, the best network for streaming. Here. Trade ya. Okay, people, thats a reset. You want us to surprise her again . Yeah, but like in a fun way. Like this. All my favorite friends are here. Theres tony and diane. 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