Different tone about the country he previously called an enemy. President xi wants to do the right thing. What a change from candidate trump who repeatedly used china as a punching bag. We cant continue to allow china to rape our country. Thats what theyre doing. Right now were not getting along with russia at all. We may be at an alltime low in terms of relationship were russia. That was not what candidate trump thought was meant to be. Were going to have a great relationship with putin and russia. Joining us for reaction, dr. Sebastian gorka, dpep ty assistant to President Trump. We saw, yes we see donald trump evolving on the issues. But isnt that what he promised, to make deals, the art of the deal, to make America Great again . Eric, there is no one better, i really recommend people read his book. It is the art of the deal. What we have seen is eight years of deviciveness, of obama dividing the nation against itself and dividing us against our allies and friends. In 84 days, President Trump has relaced divisiveness with decisiveness. When whether its to do with the border, whether its tee do with mfing, whether its to do with nato or our enemies and isis or in this case the chemical weapons attack last week, we have changed the geopolitical reality, in the world, just a matter of weeks. How did they do that . Is todays big 21,000 pound bomb dropped on afghanistan, has that affected the geopolitical balance or at least the way the rest of the world sees donald trump . Absolutely. It means that people now understand just how much the president means what he says. When he says unequivocally, in front of the joint session of congress, at cpac, i am going to obliterate isis, literally, when he says im going to wipe the Islamic State off the face of the earth, its not empty rhetoric. If you read the memoirs of secretary gates, of secretary pa net arc its stunning. Obamas own prims, secretaries, talk about nsc meetings that last for three to four hours with nobody taking a decision. That was the last eight years. That was the reality of the red line. Along comes President Trump, thats gone. We have a threat, we promised to deal with it, and were dealing with it right now. Dr. , talk about the moab, this big bomb that they dropped today, was that on isis . I understand it was on isis, was it directed towards isis or directed towards north korea or directed towards, how about this one, iran . Lets look at last week. The Cruise Missile attack on the air base in syria, wasnt just about sending a message about weapons of mass destruction in syria. It was a message about weapons of mass destruction anywhere. Its also a message about nations that sponsor mass murdering regimes. Eric, youre absolutely right, this president understands that diplomacy without force behind it, is nothing, its words, pieces of paper. State craft and leadership are when you use these things together. But, sorry to cut you off, but assad has said this is all fabrication, the videos are made up by the u. S. Government to find a member reason to bomb assad. Trump says were not going into syria. If assad uses chemicals again will he bomb syria . We dont give out our playbook away. Are you a friend of mine, eric, but we dont do it. Thats the last eight years. We dont telegraph in advance to the threats what were going to do. Thats how you looked, thats astrategic. Do you think assad is going to use tell cal weapons again . I think assad is crazy and i also think kim jong un is crazy. Will donald trump do preemptive strike . Not preemptive, but a strike from the uss vinson in North Carolina and at waters off north korea . We arent going to give the playbook away. But assad regime is a client state of other nations other nations keep it alive and prop it up. Those sponsoring nations are sitting down, i guarantee that, and going through a very simple calculus in their minds. Asking themselves, wheres my red line for how long im going support somebody like this, that uses chemical weapons on innocent women and children. Thats geopolitics. Thats state craft. The president has set that message. Not just about syria, its about those nations that have kept syria alive. You mention these nations. When President Trump decided to launch the 59 tomahawks he did it while president xi was having dinner with him. Hold on, well get to the dessert in a second. I have to drop 59 missiles into syria. Did president xi direct his Nato Security Council to vote no contest or no vote as far as sanctioning syria, because of that meeting, with donald trump, at maralago . You have to ask the communist party of china. What do you think . [ chuckling ] i think those things are not unrelated to each other. Look at the decision with regards to coal purchases. China isnt an irrational actor. The chinese government, is not illogical. They are, perhaps, one of the most strategic nations out there. As a result, they know costbenefit analyses and know what National Interest means. They understand, sometimes supporting somebody to the extent at which they undermine my interests, is not a good idea. Has china become a better friend of the United States than, say, putin and russia . I think china understands you cant undermine and subvert america the way you could in the last eight years. There may be things we can cooperate on, and there may be lines that we draw in terms of how far we can cooperate. But thats fine. You know, we dont have to be our best buddies. But the question is it seems, doctor, that the Trump Administration has gotten a little bit tougher with russia because of our relationship being a little bit stronger with and isnt that interesting. What happened to all of the stories about russia, yeah . This is when you realize just how fake the fake news is. Its about american interests. I can assure you one thing, President Trump is a patriot and a practicing matist at the same time. Thats why you see the decisiveness youre seeing today. Well leaf it right there, thank you. Lets turn to nancy sotterberg, Deputy National security advisor for president clinton. Thank you for joining us. Your thoughts, anything jump out at you, especially the relationship between putin and trump, and xi from china and trump . First, thanks for having me, nice to see you. Sebastian is right the president is a patriot, trying to do the right thing. But this pivot on all of these things, i would disagree, is the world, jeet owe political world moving to donald trump. Its donald trump moving toward reality and away from some of the Campaign Rhetoric that got him elected but is not related to fact and is frankly not realistic. I think its good thing that hes pivoting, its a good thing hes recognizing some of his statements were wrong. Youre saying so donald trump pivoting to reality, comes on the heels of 59 tomahawks into syria, and a 21,000 pound bomb into afghanistan. Well, and changing his position on nato, china, getting away from china, you know dierks molish obamacare healthcare thing. Some would say thats the problem with president obama, that he didnt do things like this. So are you agreeing with President Trump on the actions hes taken over the last couple of weeks . Yes, the action he took on syria was exactly right. It was a measured response to a second chemical weapons attack. And i think that hes broadly been supported for that. And im applaud that effort. But its a bigger question than one bomb. Yes, i think that was the right thing. Does that mean he has a strategy for syria . What does it mean russia, is he still thinking that russia is run by some one who can be our friend . What does it mean in terms of trying to lead in the middle east and have an american plan . You have to have a plan in youre going to use military force. I agree with sebastian, diplomacy doesnt work if you dont back it up with military force. You need the two. They call the uss vinson the aircraft carrier, 100,000 tons of diplomacy headed toward north could rea iran, no one is talking about iran, iran has to see these ma sooufers and say were not dealing with obama any more. The iran deal is working. The Nuclear Weapons program is halted. That seems to be working. The Trump Administration has agreed to keep it going. The tougher problem, what are you going on do with north korea . Its a difficult thorny problem that president s from the first president bush have tried to deal with. Its crazy regime thats figured out that its Nuclear Program is it only currency in the world and its a difficult problem. The president is right to try and get china to be the linchpin there to moffett forward. But you to move it forward. You need diplomacy and backed up by force. President s have figured that out. I think the president needs some strategies that go along with this. He has to listen to his advisors and come up with how are we going to do this. How do you do that, you are an ambassador, in north korea you have three generations, the founder of north korea was king jong uns grandfather. What would it take to change page joins us now. Why did you go to moscow. I was invited to give the graduation speech at new economic school. And ive spoken at universities in moscow for many, many years. Most of the times ive spoken on many occasions. When you were there, were you representing the Trump Administration . I made that clear in every statement it did overlap with your tenure with the trump campaign. Yes, but this was, you know, you talk about state narrative, that was really something that was completely you go over there, you make some speeches, as a professor, you end up meeting some of these russian people, operatives, yes . Kisliak i said hello to briefly in cleveland. That was nothing. Everything over in russia was incidental . Less than incidental. Okay. What about this banker, the russian banker, that you knew in new york . I didnt rulely know him. I didnt actually know him. There was a case against a few operatives here. And i happen to know one of the diplomats that was fwased here. Based here. I deal with diplomats at the u. N. All the time, et cetera. Lets expand on. That the Russian Diplomats in what capacity . In this example, one of my Business Partners from asia, was speaking at ashian owe site on park avenue, i said hello to him, and restruck up a dialogue, and met him once for coffee, offered him some ideas. That was about it. What time frame is this . This was 2013. 2013, okay. Lets fast forward to when the Trump Administration became relevant. Was there any meetings with any of the russians . Listen, theres always, for example, like with the ambassador kislyak, i may have said hello to a few people, but certainly never any negotiations. No discussions of lifting sanctions, easing sanctions . Never, never. None of that discussion. No. Tell us, why do you think you were unmasked . Why were you surveilled and why were you unmasked . Well, its interesting. This big Washington Post report this week. I mean, it goes back to just creating a false narrative. And i was laughing when Nancy Soderberg said to you, well, the president needs to get in touch with reality. Well, the reality which the last administration created was just such a complete disaster that they needed to kind of find some new possibilities. Susan rice, who do you think went to the fisa court to get permission to sur veil you . I have learned with the false accusations that have come out against me, that im not going to speculate. Again, im very encouraged by all of this new information thats coming out about some of these unethical practices, and potentially illegal practices. Like . Such as false evidence, director comey on his march 20 testimony, said politicians lie all the time not in so many words, but peep km lie to the media and theres no law against that. However, when you introduce false evidence in a court of law, including the fesa court, that is illegal. Lets see what happens. You think there was false evidence about you introduced to weapon, both in the executive branch and legislative branch of government. This was information that is a political weapon. Carter page, thank you. Next on the run down the dictator denying he used chemical weapons. The facts about the butcher of damascus when we return. Eric a stunning denial from syrian dictator bashar alassad. Last week we were sickened by the appalling images of children in syria gasping in air after the chemical attack. Assad says he couldnt have gassed his own people, syria has no chemical weapons. Definitely, 100 . We dont have arsenal, were not going to use it. And there are many indications, if you dont have proof, no one has information or evidence. But you have indications. Eric joining us for reaction in washington, david tafore, former state department official. And defense of democracy. Bazaar alassad says he doesnt have chemical weapons, all of the images that we saw, donald trump said inspired his tomahawk missile attack, is all false. This is ho assad operates. Hes in denial. Hes a liar. Hes a war criminal. He has had many opportunities to leave syria. And he probably never will let go and hell end up in a ditch like Saddam Hussein or qaddafi. Missile strikes are important. They send a signal that the dwls is no longer to going to look the other way when he engages in mass atrocities against civilians. This will not be an easy effort, one missile set of missile strikes isnt going to change the dynamic completely. It sends a message, it puts military options back on the table which is what was missing from the negotiation. We now need to get back to the negotiation table, with the military option, as a leverage to get syria and assad corey, where have you been all these years . I remember having arguments when barack obama was president , taking that side of the story. No, ive always in 2013, i thought barack obama should have done missile strikes against assad. Eric might have saved us a lot of time, money, and iully agree. Eric and deaths. Cliff, did donald trump do the right thing sending the tomahawk missiles into syria . Absolutely. He began, i would say, began to reestablish strategic denernts the world. Very important, not just assad, iran, the North Koreans understand that america has power but it has the determination and the will to use it in its best interests at various times. Also, President Trump was enforcing International Law a lot of time its hard to say what International Law is. This is not one of those cases of the use of chemical weapons by assad violates the convention which assad subscribed to. Eric but, let me play devils advocate. So is bombing schools and hospitals with conventional weapons as well. I mean, im just playing devils advocate, people who say if you use in a red line why not use all of the red lines that are preestablished . One reason is because this red line, the use of certain weapons that have been banned and syria agreed would be banned, agreed they wouldnt use, claim they had given up. This is such a clear red line, if you dont even force it you are saying its just the law of the jungle. Which is what weve seen in syria and a lot of middle east over recent years. No laws whatsoever or no rules. Either the u. S. Even forces some rules or there are no rules. Theres no International Community to do it, the u. S. Does it or no one does it. Eric where the heck, you bring up a good point. David, where the heck is the u. N. In all of this . Well, i wrote an article about in this week. You can justify this missile attack based on the u. N. Dom trin, responsibility to protect. The u. N. Was missing on this. The u. N. Had not been able to pass a resolution through the Security Council authorizing the use of force. The reason is because russia has blocked every single Security Council resolution related to syria. Thats why unfortunately the u. S. Had to act on its own. Which is controversial under International Law but in my view it is justified. No one else would take action, and we as a country, and all countries, have a responsibility to protect innocent civilians when mass atrocities have been happening as they have been for the last sixplus years resulting 500,000 deaths. Eric david, two strikes in two weeks, who is the recipient of the message, the strongest recipient of that message, david . Assad number one, russia number two. Eric what do you say, cliff . I would say north korea and iran most importantly. Although its a message to all adversaries, all of our enemies and allies as well were back in the game, the world is not what its been for the past eight years. You left out, both of you, russia and china. I mean russia and china, two. Eric the two biggest threats . Okay, you said assad. Eric one quick final thought. What is the u. S. Relationship with russia Going Forward . It will be a complex one. Look, putin has very big ambitions. Putin sees you either as a panther or a poodle. He sees you as slide slave or a master. Its possible that now that he sees, hopefully sees that trump is not going to roll over for him, he will be more willing to have realistic discussions. He wants to have a war port in syria, no question about it. Can he keep it, i dont know. But his support for iran, whose rallying cry is death to america, support for assad, part of the iranian empire. He needs to change on that. I think that trump is going to be touch with him. Eric david, as cliff points out, putin has he turned from poodle to panther regarding donald trump. We dont know what putin is going to do. I can assure he didnt like the missile strikes and probably worried about what the u. S. Is going on do in syria. Hes strong in syria, military forces on the ground, significant impact, and pushing back the moderate rebels that we support. We dont know what his next chess move is going to be. Its essential that we get him to stand down and get assad to