Refusing to give up his seat. The airline ceo said he, quote, emphatically stands behind his employees, as united stock takes a hit. Good morning. Im ali velshi in washington on another extremely busy morning. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson arriving in moscow just over an hour ago for what are expected to be tense talks with russian officials. The question is will he meet with president putin . In any case, the u. S. Air strikes in syria and russias meddling in the 2016 u. S. Election are all expected to be on the agenda. Before heading to moscow from the g7 Foreign Ministers meeting in italy, secretary tillerson had some tough talk for russia about syrias chemical weapons. Stockpiles and continued use demonstrate that russia has failed in its responsibility to deliver on this 2013 commitment. It i unclear ether russia failed to take this obligation seriously or russia has been incompetent. But this distinction doesnt much matter to the dead. We cant let this happen again. We also heard a couple hours ago from president putin who met this morning with italys visiting president. Putin telling him, quote, we are going through not the easiest of times right now. Also this morning, President Trump responding to a new verbal threat from north korea, tweeting, north korea is looking for trouble. If china decides to help, that would be great. If not, we will solve the problem without them. U. S. A. We have all this covered with our nbc correspondents and a great panel weve got. We begin with nbc news chief global correspondent bill neely, joining us live from moscow. Kristen welker standing by at the white house. Bill, lets start with you. Secretary of state tillerson is there now. We heard from president putin a short time ago. What are the headlines coming out of this . Yes, good morning, ali. Secretary of state tillerson has just arrived here in central moscow, bringing, as you say, some tough words for the russians. But president putin has had some tough words this morning. He said that the situation in syria today reminds him of iraq in 2003. And the u. S. Claims that iraq had weapons of mass destruction. He is appealing to the u. N. To investigate that chemical weapons attack in syria last week. Most startlingly of all, he said that russia has information that another chemical attack is being planned southf damascus that would be used to discredit president assad. Now, he didnt say who was planning the attack or what his sources were, but thats the kind of atmosphere Rex Tillerson is driving into. Also, the Russian Foreign ministry this morning saying that relations between the russians and the u. S. Are at their lowest point since the cold war. Well, mr. Tillerson comes here from that g7 summit in italy with a united message. He will tell the Russian Foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, that russia should drop their support for president assad. That assad is toxic and he is not good for russia. Lets hear a little bit more of what Rex Tillerson had to say before he left to come to moscow. Take a listen. Russia has really aligned itself with the assad regime, the iranians and hezbollah. Is that a longterm alliance that serves russias interest, or would yaurussia prefer to realign with the United States, with other western countries and middle east countries who are seeking to resolve the Syrian Crisis . And thats, i think, the way he will put it to the russians. I dont think hes going to bang the table and hand out any ultimatum or any strong demands of russia. But, you know, russia, i think, is not likely to respond. Russia has just doubled down on its support for president assad, promising more military help to strengthen assads air defenses. And, of course, ass is, at the moment, winng the war with russias help. So i think secretary tillersons pleas to russia, certainly in the short term, may fall on deaf ears. Ali . Thats the complicating factor. In america, a lot of people think were at war with isis, not with syria, and with russias help, assad is, you know, winning that war. Bill, well stay close to you today as the meetings develop. Lets go to the white house. Kristen welker is standing by. First of all, we dont know if rex till eerson is going to get meeting with president putin. What is the white house hoping to get out of this trip in. I think the message from secretary tillerson is going to be to draw a hard line. You heard bill neely talking about that. Yesterday, we heard sean spicer sort of talk a little bit about the broader message that the white house hopes to convey, which is that russia can either stand with syria and north korea and be increasingly isolated, or it can join the United States and not only fighting isis but fighting assad. Look, the u. S. Has essentially blamed russia for the chemical weapons attack, saying that it failed to follow through with its commitments to get rid of syrias chemical weapons. One analyst put it this way, ali, that the administration wants to more broadly make the point that this is not the Obama Administration. That they are going to take a tougher stance when it comes to russia. Now, the big question on the table, will the u. S. Put the threat of more sanctions against russia on the table when secretary tillerson meets with his counterpart . That remains unanswered. We pressed sean spicer on that very point. He didnt have an answer for that. But that could be critical to how these discussions move forward, ali. But bottom line is, they want to draw a very hard line in the propping up the assad regime. All right. And this issue about the barrel bombs and what sean spicer said about that, it really creates a great deal of confusion. Somebody told sean spicer, or maybe President Trump, that, boy, these guys drop barrel bombs on their people, it is really going to be a problem. Theyve been doing it for years, dropping barrel bombs on their people. Theyve been doing it for years, ali. This all goes back to the bel f briefing yesterday. Sean spicer essentially said if the president sees the use of chemical weapons or the syrians dropping barrel bombs on his people, he is prepared to act. E. A lot of us thought he was drawing a new line in the sand. The syrians have been dropping barrel bombs for years. 13,000 last year alone. We went back to the white house and asked for clarification. Spicer said he wasnt trying to indicate a change in policy, but that the bottom line is that the president isnt going to tolerate more provocations by syria. Sean spicer has his Daily Briefing at 1 30 today, and well press him on that point again. This creates a broader issue for the white house, which is that we are getting mixed messaging coming out of this administration. We saw this on display over the weekend when secretary tillerson said that it is up to the Syrian People to get rid of assad. A very different message than the one the u. N. Ambassador nikki haley was sending. She said assad has to walk now. Some are concerned that ultimately confused not only the allies but the likes of syria and russia, as well. Whats your sense of that . Is that strategic, that tillerson and nikki haley have different views on what should be done, or do they need a meeting, perhaps with the president , to sort out what u. S. Policy is toward syria . I think there are differing opinions within this administration. Not everyone is on the same page. And theyre not on the same page in terms of their messaging. As you point out, what might need to happen is a broader meeting and broader sense of what is the one unified message were going to be putting out, even though we might have differing opinions about how specifically it should all be carried out. Again, you hear over and over again this administration saying that we want to see a political resolution and transfer of power in syria. But even that has a lot of question marks, ali. How specifically will that transfer of power happen . Of course, the Obama Administration spent years trying to achieve the very same goal. So i think that what you will likely see in the coming days and weeks is an effort to try to get on the same page because there are certainly more calls for that, ali. Kristen, a lot of work for you and your colleagues at the white house this afternoon. Indeed. In the press briefing. Thanks very much for clarifying this and for the work you did last night to clarify what sean spicer was talking about. Thanks, ali. Joining me now is don of nebraska, a member of the House Armed Services committee and a retired air force brigadier general. We appreciate the members of congress who have the military experience. There is no easy answer about what should or shouldnt be done. President trump hasnt spoken publicly about syria since the air strike on thursday. Whats your opinion on the action that the United States took on thursday night . Well, i thought it was important that we do a onetime strike like we did to make a statement. Gassing your own people like assad did was wrong. I think it was also important to show the world that we have a different president. We dont have the red lines that are shifting. We have a president that will take action. But i think it is important that this be a onetime action. Really, the more we hit assad, the more we help out isis. There are no really good sides on this. We need to be cautious how we press forward. I support the onetime action. I think if we want to do continuing actions, we need to go to congress with a Clear Strategy and get authorization for force. The no really good sides is an interesting comment. You may be right, there are no really good options in syria. There are no really good options in egypt. We dont have a democratic government in egypt, despite the pomp and circumstance the egyptian president got at the white house a few days ago. There are no good options in iraq. In the end, there are thousands of refugees coming out of syria. There are terrorists building homes for their operations there. And there are barrel bombs and chemical weapons being used. So what do we do . I do think we have to target isis because isis is dedicated to striking us. We just have to know that assad is also a barbaric leader. Theres not a really Clear Strategy, other than we know isis is attacking us. I think we owe it to target isis in syria so they dont have a safe area to operate from. I would also say that we do have an obligation to the refugees. I think that we should provide safe havens near the borders, near jordan and turkey, provide shelter and food. My goal would be to have a protected area for the refugees, but an area close enough to home. Once the civil war is done, they can go back to their homes and rebuild syria. There is a moral question here, right . On some side, i hear you, that isis is targeting us and the Assad Government absolutely isnt. Isis isnt targeting america just because theyve got syria. Al qaeda co al qaeda continues to be a massive threat in the United States and doesnt control any territory whatsoever. So at some point, theres a humanitarian issue here. Right. That reminds us of rwanda and kosovo, that reminds us of nazi geany, that bad things are happening and we know theyre happening. What role do you believe the United States should have in dealing with that . Well, i think whats important to do, a onetime show of force against assad for gassing his own people. We need to deter that behavior. I think the statement was important because it sent a signal to russia, china and north korea that we have a different president and we dont have the red lines that are shifting around. However, we just have to know that regime change in syria, as much as we dislike assad and he needs to go, but we saw what happened in libya and weve seen what happened in iraq. It would be unsure what would happen after the regime change. We could have an isis controlled country, too. We have to be very cautious. Ive seen firsthand the unattended consequences of using force. I think we have to be very careful. I dont really see a Clear Strategy. Theres not an easy strategy here. I hear ya. I hear you, and i hear you on unintended consequences. But this has been going on a long time and a lot of people are dead and homeless and stateless. Hopefully we can figure something out. Yes. Thank you for joining us. 500,000 people killed. Its hard. We have to figure this out. Congressman from nebraska, a member of the House Armed Services committee and himself a retired air force brigadier general. More on rising tensions with north korea. President trump tweeting this morning, north korea is looking for trouble. If china decides to help, that would be great. If not, we will solve the problem without them. Adding u. S. A. At the end. Pyongyang issued a new threat overnight, vowing to defend itself against what it causes u. S. Reckless acts of aggression. Their words. As a navy air Carrier Strike group heads toward the korean peninsu peninsula. Joining me live on the set is a former special assistant for president obama on National Security affairs and former senior director of European Affairs for the National Security council. Now a professor of International Affairs at georgetown university. Also with us is julian smith, who served as deputy National Security adviser for Vice President joe biden. Before that, served as principal director for nato policy at the pentagon. Now, shes the director of strategy and state Craft Program at the center for new American Security here in washington. You two know a thing or two about this. Let me just start before we get to north korea with what representative bacon talked about, were hearing this a lot. We dont really know what the strategy is. We dont know what the right thing to do is. There are a series of bad options. We get rid after assad, we end up with a vacuum. But we have been struggling with this for six years. At some point, what do we do about this . Well, i think this trip for tillerson is a little premature be because they dont seem to know what the syria strategy is and dont know what their russia strategy is. Weve heard so many different accounts coming from various members of this administration. First and foremost, you have to get your own game together before you go out in the world and meet with folks like putin. I think tillerson actually will get a meeting with putin at the end of the day. But i think putin will take advantage of that and recognizes that tillerson is coming without an administration thats signaling a concerted strategy. That the administration is a bit lost at sea right now. Yes, they went forward with the strikes a couple of days ago, but theyre not sure what comes next. Charles, this business about nikki haley and tillerson being on different pages when it comes to russia, i mean, the reason im bringing this up is you cant talk about syria without talking about russia or vice versa. Theyre both signaling about u. S. Foreign policy . Behind us in that house, there is not a single mind on russia, on syria. Some want assad to go tonight. Others believe that regime change will open a pandoras box. In some ways, tillersons job has been made easier by whats happened over the last week. Because had there not been this air strike and the overt fallout with moscow, tillerson may have been seen as the guy who has to go be nice to putin. Right. Now, he has a tough message. When he comes home with nothing, people will say, well, he met expectations. The one thing id add though is u. S. Leverage today is greater than it was before this air strike. We now have more skin in the game. I dont think that means that we can get cashier assad, but maybe we can get him to pressure assad. People thought donald trump said, we were not really getti involved. The fight is with isis, not assad. The representative said this influences the discussions with china and north korea, or even the back and forth with north korea. Does the idea we had air strikes in syria send a message to north korea that were not joking. No doubt what they wanted to do with the strikes is not only send a signal to assad but really the world, that there is a new sheriff in town. Theyre going to take a tougher line. This isnt a president thats going to be reluctant to use military force. So they want to seize on that momentum right now, to see if they can pressure the North Koreans, pressure the chinese and change the dynamic in the region. The problem is, if you dont know what your game is, i think you start to play with fire. I think the message to china this morning was a dangerous one. It sounds tough, its threatening, but the fact of the matter is, we actually do need the chinese if were going to solve anything in north korea. Thats what i thought was interesting. Charles, the message if you dont do it, well do it without you, backs you into a corner, to perhaps have to do something with north korea without china. There is probably no more effective way to deal with north korea than get china to do most of the heavy lifting, am i right . 100 . There is a parallel between syria and north korea. There isnt really an attractive military option. The North Koreans have introduce of pieces of artillery that they could rain in on seoul if we attack them. So the game here really has to be to get beijing to think were serious about coercive diplomacy, using what we did in syria as a back drop, and convince xi he has to put leverage on peapyongyang. So far, theyve nodded and said yes, but they vunt tuhavent tue skru screws. Behind us, there is an important meeting going on. President trump is meeting with about 20 chief executives, including the heads of general motors, ibm, walmart. Lets go and listen in to what we just got from the meeting. This is an Incredible Group of worldclass business leaders. That