Starts right now. Good evening, im katy tur in for chuck todd in new york. Days after strikes on the syrian air field, americas role in the region remains unclear. U. N. Ambassador nikki haley said regime change should be on the way. Here she is with our own chuck todd on sundays meet the press. In no way do we so peace in the area with russian covering up for assad and no way do we see peace in the area with assad as the head of the seeyrian government. Uprooting assad didnt sneak up with tillersons statements. While sis sis is in focus, assads fate is not defined. The strategy in syria, our priority is first the defeat of isis, then we hope to turn our attention to achieving ceasefire agreements between the regime and opposition forces. We are hopeful that w can work with russia and use their influence to achieve areas of stabilization throughout syria and it is through that political process that we believe the Syrian People will be able to decide the fate of Bashar Al Assad. H. R. Mcmaster said other countries need to step up against the syrian government. Were not saying we are the ones that are going to affect that change. What were saying is our countries have to ask themselves some hard questions. Russia should ask themselves, what are we doing here . Why are we supporting this murderous regime . The Syrian Air Base targeted in thursdays missile attack is already up and running again. What comes next for the u. S. Is enknown . The strategy seems to be showing robust power even if the white house is not exercising it. Then there is the threat of north korea as kim jongun tests his own missiles, the u. S. Was deployed warships to the Korean Peninsula and secretary tillerson is more critical of the nation, calling the handling of chemical weapons incompetent ahead of the first visit to moscow tomorrow. Today tillerson is in italy for the g7 while visiting a world war ii memorial, he issued a stark warning. Rededicated ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world. But what does the followup on these tough words look like . Senar chs murphy of connecticut serves on the Foreign Relations committee. Today sean spicer was asked about the air base that is now being used again by the syrians, the air base that donald trump bombed. The president calls them a proportional a proportional response. Sean spicer says its only being used as a pr stunt by the assad regime. What is your take . Well, the reality is that air strike on thursday night didnt change the balance of power inside syria. It doesnt make life any safer for syrians who are getting tortured and terrorized and barrel bombed and its really unclear now what the u. S. Policy is Going Forward. Youve got tillerson and haley saying Different Things on different days as to whether were just going to punish assad for chemical weapons attacks or were going to extend military protection to other attacks on civilians. I think people are frankly more confused not less confused what the policy is in the middle east. We better get it straight pretty soon. Thats why a lot of us think there should be a debate in congress about what our policy and what our military is allowed to do inside syria. Quwhat do you believe should come next in syria . Ultimately i think you cannot be conducting military action in syria if youre locking children inside. We have to have a policy to allow refugees to come to the United States and get anybody out of syria who wants to get out. Im worried about the buildup of troops in a around raqqa. They should only be used to support arab forces and perhaps Kurdish Forces in retaking raqqa. Im worried well have thois of troops there for the long run. I know restraint is not a popular policy. We have a lot of hubrus and should be limited in our objectives. The United States will have to leave. The debate is whether or not to leave Basha Al Assad in power. Trying to nail down exactly what the white houses plan is for the syrian president. Take a listen. Can you defeat isis with assad still in power . Yes, sure, its not like theres a single track that says you have to do if we can get both at the same time or one happens after another, thats fine as well. I think we obviously the number one threat amerithey fac isis in that region. I dont know that you can defeat isis but you can certainly gobble up enough of their terrorist that they pose a less of a immediate threat to attacking the United States. We have to differentiate between preferences and policy. Its okay to stay americas preference is for Bashar Al Assad to be out of power. Its a different thing to say our policy is to achieve no political or military settlement unless theres an immediate commitment that he leaves. Our focus should be on stopping the blood shed inside syria. And if that means assad has to stay as a transitional figure, that may have to be on the table. Isis can be downgraded to the point where they are no longer a significant credible daily threat to the United States separating assad from the question of how long aassad get to stay in power. Secretary tillerson is going to russia for mtings at the can kremlin. He has taken a tougher posture saying they bear responsibility for assad dropping chemical weapons on his own people. What do i believe the secretary of state needs to accomplish while in moscow . I have low expectations for this meeting but im heartened to see this dramatic black and white change on rhetoric on russia. My hope is that tillerson comes out of it using the same words going in. Kplisty for what happened inside syria but the Trump Administration has to understand the hands off approach they have taken up until the last two days may have allowed russia to think that it could get away with not exercising a veto power over this chemical weapons attack. I hope the aadministration comes to congress and works with us on a russia sanctions bill that will give us more leverage when were deciding the fate of syria and ukraine and work with them on a host of other problems in the region. Theres a lot going on. On the one hand you have syria and russia and other youve got north korea and china. Donald trump launched the missiles on syria while the chinese president was at maralago. Was that unilateral show of force meant to send a message to china that we will deal with north korea alone if we have to . Im sure thats what trump hopes the strike conveyed but again, lets be honest about what we did here, we took out a veryimit d stre intended to only hit a handful of small military assets. Im not necessarily sure that ty measure necessary does that Say Something abou were willing to take every measure necessary to unwind their nuclear program. Is that saying the chinese though, whether or not they should be working with us or forcing them to work with us in some way . I dont think it is going to be the air field in syria thats going to convince the chinese to come to the table. Here i dont think that trump is necessarily wrong, that we need to put all of our cards on the table with the chinese right now to force them to work with us on north korea. That may involve some deal on other issues like taiwan or economics trade to get something done on north korea, but that will be how this works out, putting all of our cards on the table, not trying to scare them into working with us just because were willing to take one small limited action inside syria against an air base. Senator, final question. I was just talking to one of your colleagues a moment ago and he told me that democrats will restore the 60vote threshold when theyre back in power for Supreme Court nominees. Has that been a discussion behind the scenes among democrats, that this is something that needs to be reinstated in order for the senate to work in the bipartisan way it was intended to work . Well, senator markee and i will have conversation about that. I dont know ive been privy to that conversation happening behind closed doors. In fact, we frankly telegraphed the oms at times to republicans, if they want to break the comity that existed over Supreme Court nominations they may live to regret that day because there will be a democrat in power in the white house perhaps when the next vacancy, a swing vacancy comes up. I dont actually think republicans should bet the farm on democrats reversing course if and when we take control of the senate. Do you believe they should though . In the spirit of working together, in the spirit of bipartisan cooperation in the senate, especially Something Like the Supreme Court, should the democrats restore the 60vote threshold . We have to have a broader conversation about how the senate works. The fact is en we had a 60vote majority for president ial appointees and District Court judges, republicans abused that privilege. Half of the filibusters of District Court judges happened during obamas time in office. Over the course of history, half of them. Mitch mcconnell during president obamas time in office, so we have to step back and say to the extent the minority has the ability to filibuster anything, theyve got to use that much more responsibly than they have in the past. That should apply to democrats as well as it applies to republicans. Senator murphy, appreciate your time, sir. Thank you. Michael crowley, the Senior Foreign Affairs correspondent for politico joins me now. Lets start with a little reporting that your colleague did about a closed door meeting with the communication team. He says in his reporting that mike dubke told assembled aids the foreign lacks coherent Foreign Policy, there is no trump doctrine. This happened all before those syrian airfield strikes, so what is the biggest hurdle here for the Trump Administration . Reporter well, i think it is to figure out what they think and to try to coordinate a president who campaigned on a set of values and prinls president ials that is not shared by a lot of his top most influential Foreign Policy advisers with their world view and figure out if theres a way to get everybody on board. Trump has shown us in his own words that he is very flexible. It may be now that he is coming around to people who are on his National Security team like secretary of defense mattis, his National Security adviser, h. R. Mcmaster and increasingly were hearing from nikki haley, a more kind of conventional establishment world view where that is not that different maybe from what you would have seen from a jeb bush or a marco rubio. But, you know, Donald Trumps rhetoric in the campaign was in a very different place, and i think theyre trying to figure out what is our vision, how do we reconcile it with what we said before and is this what President Trump really wants. Partially because trump himself is not really an ideologue but somebody who campaigned on America First, but campaigned also on this idea he would know best and he would make the decisions that are best, which is part of the reasons his supporters had this blind faith in him. So are the aides left to try to figure out what he believes or is there a point where hes going to communicate exactly what he wants, the, the president of the United States wants Going Forward . You know, it really does look situational. I mean i think that what he wants Going Forward is to look strong and is to look like he is and it is sort of win the moment i guess. I mean as you say, he is not ideological guy. Unlike a lot of president s, i dont think he is interesting in the duelling theories of Foreign Policy, the realists, internationalists and the neocons. I think he is looking for strength and the idea that, you know, hes not going to be pushed around and he is delivering for the countryn some sense. So i dont think that hes going to come out and articulate some grand vision. I really think that the people around him to some degree are coming up with the vision thats pretty mainstream, but then they have to adapt it to whatever trump thinks is happening in the moment because it is clear that this is the guy it is almost like somebody, like the movie mo moment ow momento you cant remember what happened the day before, it is like he has amnesia and theres a fresh start for him. He will have this establishmentoriented team bringing him with a set of options but trump comes to it with a fresh pair of eyes, not interested in the prologue and theory around it but what will work in the moment. I hope youre not suggesting he gets his old tweets tattooed on his body to check them out. Wont go that far. Talking about syria and the missile strike, the air base donald trump hit on thursday, the Syrian Regime has already flown a couple of planes out of it. The white house is calling that a pr stunt, saying the air base is not operational, they had to wheel the planes in that were prefueled and let them take off. Lindsey graham had a slightly different view of it. Here is what he said to our chuck todd on meet the press. Here is what i think assad is telling trump by flying from this base. I think he is making a serious mistake, because if youre an adversary of the United States and you dont worry about what trump may do on any given day, then youre crazy. Pretty provocative from lindsey graham. It is. And my reaction is who is provoking trump more. Is assad provoking trump by doing this or is lindsey graham, who long wanted deeper u. S. Intervention in syria, who was really critical of barack obama and now is pressuring trump to go deeper, do more to try to push assad out of power, is he using this as an opportunity to try to go after trumps pride, to try to say, hey, you cant let this guy push you around . I mean in other words graham maybe is sort of the instigator here because graham doesnt want to see these strikes that we saw the other night just on this one airfield to be the end of the story. He thinks there should be a much deeper american involvement in syria, that there should be a coordinated campaign to try to push assad out and hold him accountable for what hes done there. Despite what trump did on thursday night, theres really there doesnt seem to be any appetite in this administration for at this point pressing further down that line. So i see definitely the ultimate cull pa ability here is assad but i see graham as a little bit of a provocateur making sure this gets trumps pride involved. Final question in a couple of se sentences, can you sum up what Rex Tillerson would like to get out of russia tomorrow . Think he would like to get the russians to say theyre going to pull bac support of assad, we realize the use of nerve gas is something we cant stand now, and we understand the United States have some lines you have drawn and youve come in and are willing to enforce them. Lets go back and restart a Peace Process that includes you, the americans, and in good faith we will try harder than we have before to find a solution that gets assad out of the picture. Weve heard you, washington. Im skeptical that will be the case. The russians when they dig in, they dig in deep. I dont think that that air strike was really enough to change their calculus at this point. It is hard to set parameters when you dont know exactly what the president of the United States is going to say on any given any day. Michael crowley of politico, thank you very much. Absolutely, katey. Thank you. Coming up, the trump team tries to smooth over west wing drama. We will have the latest from the white house just ahead. Stay tuned. Theyll call back. No one knows your ford better than ford and ford service. Right now, during the big tire event, get a 140 rebate by mail, on four select tires. And youre about in to hit send all on some embarrassing gas. Hey, you bought gasx® unlike antacids, gasx ® relieves pressure and bloating fast. Huh, crisis averted. We continue to follow developments out of san bernardino, california. Suspected Domestic Abuse a suspected domestic dispute turned to blood shed inside an Elementary School earlier today. Investigators say the shooting happened iide one o t classrooms. Right now female teacher and the alleged shooter died in an apparent muder suicide. Two students were also shot and are in the hospital, listed in critical condition. Right now police are not releasing the age or names of those children. Police will be holding a briefing in the next hour or so with more information, well of course bring you any new developments in the story as they happen. Well be right back. My business was built with passion. But i keep it growing by making every dollar count. Thats why i have the spark cash card from capital one. With it, i earn unlimited 2 cash back on all of my purchasing. And that unlimited 2 cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business. Which adds fuel to my bottom line. Whats in your wallet . Welcome back to mtp daily. A new week offers a new opportunity for the president to try and move on from the inner white house drama encircling top aides. We saw an attempt to smooth things over this weekend as Reince Priebus held a meeting on friday afternoon between two figures representing the war between two factions inside trumps or bit. Steve bannon and Jared Kushner. This is about more than personality tensions between top aides. There are deep philosophical and policy differences at issues f