Successfully hit each target, crippling syrias chemical weapons capabilities. Cnn is covering every angle of the situation in syria. We begin with President Trump, who has been praising the joint military operation. In fact, saying Mission Accomplished. Earlier we heard from a u. S. State Department Spokeswoman who explained what the president meant. I think the president means Mission Accomplished in terms of we took out and significantly degraded three chemical weapons sites in syria. That is significant. We hope that that will bring syria to the table. Help russia bring syria to the table. We are letting them know that this kind of behavior will not be italy tolerated. Lets take a look back at the number of people who have been killed, innocent civilians, in the past numerous years since this all started, 500,000. I want to bring in elise labbot, cnns Global Affairs corespondent. What was said . Very similar to what the u. S. Ambassador, criticizing russia aggression. Saying this is an illegal affront to syrian sovereignty. The message from the Syrian Government theyre going to continue fighting terrorists. They dont make a distinction between terrorist groups. Theyre denying that they were responsible for a chemical attack. So, i mean, think its you know, listen, the u. S. Said it was going to respond. It made clear that its not going to try to get involved in the civil war. Not looking for regime change. But i think you heard from nikki haley very clearly that if the syrians plan on using chemical weapons again look, we havent really heard the evidence that the u. S. And its allies have, but by all accounts the syrians this was a chemical attack. They were used from helicopters in the air. The syrians are the ones with those delivery mechanisms. So there is a general consensus it was syria. The problem is, what do we do now, fred . Of course, Nikki Haley Says these strikes are a deterrent. U. S. State Department Spokesperson i spoke with earlier said that this would help open the door for diplomacy. Is there really any hope that the u. S. , syria, russia would come to the table and have a conversation about this . I think there is a general consensus from the u. S. And its allies there needs to be running the geneva process for years. Its not going anywhere. I think there needs to be a more concerted effort and a political solution. Just last week President Trump was saying he wanted to get out of syria. We just heard from senator lindsey graham, a real critic of the president s syria policy. I was to read a little bit of a statement. He said, quote, i fear that when the dust settles the strike will be seen as a weak military response and assad will have paid a price, a small price for using chemical weapons yet again. Its not the sustained gamechanging strategy that will lead to assad, russia or iran reevaluating their strategy in syria. And, fred, i think there is just going to be a lot of pressure on President Trump now to stay the course in syria. And, you know, there is still a job to be done against isis, but in terms of protecting civilians let me ask you to hold your thought. Lets go to lima, aperu, thats where the Vice President mike pence is right now. Lets listen in. Let me say because of the strong leadership of President Trump and the strong support of our allies in france and the United Kingdom, last night the United States of america conducted a successful military strike on critical chemical weapons infrastructure in syria. That has significantly degraded and crippled the ability of syria to conduct chemical weapons attacks and a Chemical Weapons Program against innocent civilians. This was the morally right act to take. As i spoke to the president this morning, we couldnt be more proud of our American Forces and our allies who conducted this attack with such professionalism and brought about an extraordinary success. The president s also made it clear that the United States of america is prepared to sustain this effort. To reestablish the deterrent framework that exists, in order that the Syrian Regime and its patrons know that there will be a price to pay if chemical weapons are used again against innocent men, women and children. Ive been heartened by the support thats been expressed here at the summit of the americas and from leaders around the world. Many World Leaders here at this summit in lima have expressed support to me privately. Many have publicly. For the joint action last night. And expressed appreciation for President Trumps strong leadership and the efforts of our armed forces. So we stand against, as the civilized world has for more than a century, we stand against the use of chemical weapons. Against innocent civilians. And america, with the strong support of the United Kingdom and france, took action last night to bring our instruments of power to bear. To see to it that the Syrian Regime understands and its tray reas patrons understand there will be a price to pay if there is any additional use of chemical weapons against innocents. That being said, in addition to that topic, weve had productive bilateral discussions with a number of countries. Ive met this morning with the president of peru. I also spoke with the president of colombia and with the Prime Minister of canada and the president of mexico. We had in each case substantive and meaningful dialogue about our relationships with each country. The focus of this overall summit is on the tyranny and humanitarian catastrophe that is venezuela. We appreciate the strong leadership of the new president of peru and their country in formulating this summit around that principle. First organized around dealing with corruption, which is an issue ill speak about before the planery session today and an issue of great importance and significance. Nevertheless, well also, the United States, indicated that well be supporting a declaration today that will help many signatories here at the summit of the americas. Condemning the repression, the collapse of democracy and the humanitarian crisis in venezuela. Ive just completed a meeting with president santos of colombia and he expressed appreciation for the additional all right. Vice president mike pence there in peru. Lima, peru, for the summit of the americas. Right off the top using a lot of language, harsh words and declarations as it pertains to syria. Strong leadership from trump and the u. S. Allies. Successful military strike on chemical weapons. Degrade and crippled. Elise labbot with me now. You were listening to him, too. He talked about the extraordinary success, really underscoring, perhaps, the message incoming from the president of the United States, Mission Accomplished. But the Vice President also said, you know, this is an indicator that were prepared to sustain this effort. There will be a price to pay for chemical weapons are used again. He repeated that message to syria. That, he said, this has been a crippling mission, that it has degraded even the chemical weapons capability in syria. Well, i mean, look, degraded and crippled are two different things. Did it degrade it . It had to because it struck three chemical weapons sites and thats three less than they have right now. It also went against the research facilities. So in that sense, yeah, it did do a dent in the Chemical Weapons Program, but its not completely crippled. Its not completely decimated. I guess if the syrians wanted to let me stop you right there. Hes taking some questions. Lets listen in. Allies iran and russia. Did you take that into any consideration when you were planning targets . Did you specifically target any of their assets . Well, i can assure you that any time our commander in chief puts our armed forces in harms way we consider every potential response by the enemy. Every eventuality was explored over the past week and we continue to monitor the environment in the region very, very carefully. The United States is ready to respond. To defend our forces. And to be clear, the United States is also ready to take additional action in a sustained way to ensure that syria understands their will be a price to pay if they ever use chemical weapons again, but we we carefully examined the possibility of a response by syria or by its allies, russia and iran, in this calculation, and the president made the decision to target chemical weapons facilities, having counted all the cost and the potential of those decisions. So, mr. Vice president mr. Vice president , in the year between the u. S. first strikes on syria and these latest strikes, syria carried out a number of suspected chemical weapons attacks. Why do you think that the action that the u. S. Took last night will change the regimes calculus in any way . The action last night at President Trumps direction with the strong support of our allies in france and britain was focused exclusively on the Chemical Weapons Program and we believe that it has significantly eroded and crippled the ability of the regime to produce chemicals that theyve been using against innocent civilians. The attack a year ago was against a military base that had deployed that type of ordinance. This attack, the president made the judgement, was to be focused on the actual chemical weapons regime itself. And our hope is that syria and their patrons get the message, but syria should know, their supporters in russia and iran should know, that the United States and our allies and the civilized world are prepared to continue this effort until we are assured that chemical weapons will never be used again against innocent civilians in syria. You said their capabilities were crippled, but they do still have the ability to carry out further chemical weapons, correct . We believe that we significantly degraded their program. We believe that we significantly degraded their ability to produce chemical weapons. But this was also about reestablishing what we call a deterrent framework. Of working with our allies, as President Trump reached out to the United Kingdom and france. Almost daily telephone calls, negotiations between our various National Security teams, to arrive at the targets, to arrive at the strategy a. When the president made a decision to go it was all in an effort to do everything in our power, not just to destroy aspects of the Chemical Weapons Program, but also to send a message to syria and to their patrons in russia and iran that there is a price to pay if they ever use chemical weapons again. Julie . Mr. President , when you talk about a deterrent framework, other than additional military strikes, what does that look like . The United States tried in 2013 to cut a deal whereby assad was going to get rid of his chemical weapons and russia was going to guarantee that. Clearly that has not happened. Secondly, the president tweeted this morning, Mission Accomplished with regard to this. Do you think that was wise for him to use that phrase given the history of it . Well, first, let me be clear, the president s decision here was to use military force in concert with our allies to make syria pay a price for using chemical weapons against innocent men, women and children. And lets just think about that for just a second. The images of seared the conscience of the world and troubled every american, and this president worked with our allies to come to the place where we use the instrument of American Power that is military force to degrade their ability but also to send a very clear message that there will be a price to pay if syria ever uses chemical weapons again in the future. That price will involve the use of military force. That being said, we, as the president also said last night, while we dont we dont look for an openended commitment of military troops on our mission to destroy isis in syria, we are reaching out and have been in recent days to our allies in the gulf states to invite a greater participation, a greater level of support so that American Forces, Syrian Democratic forces, our coalition in the region that has been so successful on our primary mission in syria, which is to defeat and destroy isis, will be in a position to facilitate a political solution. Ultimately thats the hope, is that we that we have we have managed to store a deterrent framework so that the brutal assad regime understands the chemical weapons are no longer available to them to use without paying a very high price. But our ultimate objective is to destroy isis in syria but be a part of the what will be a widening effort across the world to achieve a political settlement in the long term. Janna . What chemicals do you believe were used in that attack . And why did the United States not wait for the inspectors to finish their work in syria and to make a very clear determination of what was used before taking this action . Well, let me say all along the way, its a process. When youre dealing with a brutal and a tyrannical regime like syria, the ability to obtain evidence is complicated. But we went into this effort absolutely confident that the Syrian Regime had conducted this attack, despite what some of their apologists around the world are saying, and high confidence that at minimum the chemical weapon of chlorine was used in this attack. I will tell you that that investigation is ongoing and we may well ultimately determine that sarin was, in fact, used in this attack, as it had been in the past. But the president made this decision with high confidence of our intelligence community, supported by our allies, that syria had conducted the attack and dropped these chemical weapon bombs and ordinance on innocent civilians and that at minimum it was the chemical weapon chlorine. Ken . Mr. Vice president , if i can follow up to julies question, did you think the president s tweet about Mission Accomplished was appropriate given the nature of this conflict . And separately, he had a very important two very important meetings with the leaders of mexico and canada. What are your hopes for a deal on nafta within the next month . Do you think thats a possibility . And separately, did you ask president pena nieto to help fund the border wall . Did the border wall come up in your discussions . Well, let me thank you for the other question. Let me say, last night the objective of the mission the commander in chief gave our military forces and our allies was completely accomplished. With swift professionalism. I was heartened this morning to at least hear initial reports from the pentagon that despite having have fired between ourselves and our allies over 100 cruise missiles that there were at this point no reported civilian casualties. We hope that continues to be the case. But that was the report this morning. But as i said before, the president and i couldnt be more proud, and i think the president s expressions this morning were a strong affirmation that the mission that he gave our military to go in and destroy key elements of the chemical weapons infrastructure in syria was completely and professionally and swiftly accomplished. The meetings with mexico and canada were very productive. I will tell you, we with regard to mexico, the topic of funding of the wall did not come up. I think president pena nieto understands that he and President Trump have a difference of opinion on that. But we spoke at great length about areas where we are making great progress. We spoke about changes that mexico is deliberating over their own immigration policies that will impact migration. I spoke of president pena nietos efforts to intercept a caravan of over a 1,000 that were traversing mexico and attempting to come across the u. S. Border. And we talked a great deal about nafta. I will tell you in my conversations with Prime Minister trudeau and president pena nieto, ill leave this summit very hopeful that we are very close to a renegotiated nafta that will that will be a better deal for the American People and will have the kind of fairness to it that will permit us to go forward in a productive mutually beneficial relationship with the people of mexico and the people of canada. Its not done yet. There are still issues that need to be resolved but we believe there is a real possibility that we could arrive at an agreement within the next several weeks for a renegotiated nafta that will be a better deal for the American People. All right. Weve got to go. One more. Jen . Mr. Vice president , russia today condemned the u. S. Actions and has generally speaking it seems the u. S. Russia relationship has gotten a bit frostier over this issue. Whats your message to russia now . Our message so russia is that youre on the wrong side of history. Its time for russia to get the message that President Trump delivered last night, that youre known by the company you keep. It was 2014 when then secretary of state john kerry negotiated an agreement that he would represent and that administration would represent eliminated 100 of the chemical weapons in syria. And russia agreed to b