Going on. But tonight i actually showed up with something planned to say. Oh, okay. And you ruined it. Because i just listened again. Rachel. Bless our hearts and other parts. All right. But [ laughter ] i didnt know i could get you to say that again. Im regretting it immediately. Okay. Im going to try to say the thing i planned to say. Okay. And what i planned to say is wouldnt it be nice if it was just completely totally absolutely impossible to suspect that Vladimir Putin orchestrated what happened in syria this week so that his friend in the white house could have a big night with missiles and all of the praise he has picked up over the last 24 hours . Wouldnt it be so nice if you couldnt even in your Wildest Dreams imagine a scenario like that . Wouldnt it be great if we could go back to wag the dog being a sitcom plot, you know. Exactly. And i dont know what it is. Is it a 2 chance . Is it a 50 chance . I dont know. But i dont think its a zero percent chance. And it used to be with every other president prior to donald trump. And the question of how we will ever find out whether or not thats ever true is intertwined with the ongoing intelligence operation of this president s campaign in terms of whether or not he colluded with russia. Maybe eventually well get an answer to that from jim comey. We will wait. Thanks, rachel. Well, when bill clinton fired missiles during his presidency, republicans questioned that they questioned whether that was to distract attention from the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and that was a legitimate question. You couldnt possibly get through covering that story without having that question come up. Because the president was deeply involved in the scandal. And the missiles changed the subject as the missiles always do. Missiles always change the subject. And so tonight we have some questions about the motivations of everyone involved. In what has happened inside syria. The United States took a very measured step last night. We are prepared to do more. She is clearly telegraphing a deeper involvement in syria, which again, several days ago was not a key priority for the Trump Administration. The strikes on syria . Thank you very much. Im Dentist Trustful of how quickly he switched. I dont know what his motivations were. It is frankly not helpful to launch a small scale attack and
to continue a policy of denying exit from syria to the millions of children and parents. I think the president owes it to the American People to come to congress and present a plan. This is not one of the vital u. S. National security interests. North korea. Iranian nukes. I believe lots of very potentially bad problems will be going away. I think frankly, if there is a danger right now, it would be that the u. S. Is expressing too much confidence. There is a reason its been hard to figure this out. It is very complicated. And there are millions of people suffering in the meanwhile. Its perfect. Just perfect. I wish it wasnt. If Vladimir Putin, if, if, if Vladimir Putin masterminded the last week in syria, he has gotten everything he could have asked for. Vladimir putin was essentially the man in charge of making sure that syria got rid of all of its Chemical Weapons under a deal with the obama administration. So it makes perfect sense to question whether president Bashar Al Assad would have checked with his most important patron, Vladimir Putin, before using Chemical Weapons that Vladimir Putin was supposed to have helped get rid of. It would be terribly embarrassing to Vladimir Putin if president assad had exposed Vladimir Putin as having completely failed to get rid of those Chemical Weapons. You wouldnt want to be Bashar Al Assad in a conversation with Vladimir Putin after that. Unless you had a conversation with him before that. Unless Vladimir Putin said i have an idea. Go ahead. Do a small Chemical Attack. Nothing nothing like the big ones youve done in the past. Just big enough to attract Media Attention so that my friend in the white house will see it on tv. And then donald trump can fire
some missiles at syria that will do no real damage, and then the American News media will change the subject from russian influence in the Trump Campaign and the trump transition and the Trump White House. Its perfect. It doesnt just change the subject. For most of the news media, it changes the conventional wisdom about the dynamic between Vladimir Putin and donald trump. President trump has finally dared to do something that Vladimir Putin doesnt like. It changes everything. As long as you never, never question whether Vladimir Putin wanted all of this to happen this week. And when you question that and you look at what has a happened, its always worth remembering that if Vladimir Putin really does have ways known or unknown to donald trump to influence donald trump, then every day that is a good day for president
trump is a good day for President Putin. Now not one word that ive just said could possibly have been said about any president prior to donald trump. In syria, you could be absolutely sure that president assad and President Putin did not do that in order to help the image of the president of the United States. That, that is the world that donald trump has given us. That is the range of possibility donald trump has given us. You will hear the counter to the possible scenario that i have just outlined. But what you wont hear is proof that that scenario that i have just outlined is impossible. Because with the presidency of donald trump has shown is that
with donald trump anything is possible. You have heard in the last 25 hours pundits on television reaching for the momentous, as they always do, reaching for the line that for better or worse will get your attention. And so you have heard the profound pronouncement that Last Night Donald Trump became president of the United States. You should all be used to that by now. That whenever donald trump does something routine, something that most president s would have done, pundits will rush to the microphone to marvel at how president ial the president has become. And they will all, within a matter of days be embarrassed by the least president ial person ever to occupy the white house. We went through this cycle before when the president gave an address to congress and read every word in his teleprompter. After which he was instantly declared to have just become
president of the United States. And four days after they he tweeted terrible. Just found out that obama had my wires tapped in trump tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is mccarthyism. And so now we now await that next round of embarrassment for pundits. And we look back on the days when we could be absolutely certain. And i mean 100 certain that Vladimir Putin did not conspire to kill people as a way of helping the image of the president of the United States. Joining us now, david corn, the Washington Bureau chief for mother jones and msnbc political analyst rick wilson, republican strategist and contributor to the daily beast. Also with us indira lakshmanan. Indira, i raise this and i raise
it without assigning a statistical probability to it. I dont know what it is. I just know that its not zero, and it should be zero. It has been zero with every previous president. But when you look at the way the events have unfolded this week, donald trump could not have asked for a better end of the week for his presidency as he sees it. Well, lawrence, this is of course the problem with credibility. That when any white house or any politician has a problem with telling the truth, or is caught in repeated lies, then of course the public is going to have trouble believing them. And thats why the scenario that you spun while i dont abide by it necessarily, or dont put credence in it, nobody can say that it is untrue. We have no way of disproving it. And the fact that anyone would think it at all possible is because we have reason to doubt because so many crazy things have happened. What i will say is that he did these air strikes having alerted the russians to it. You know, they call it deconflicting. Its certainly known that the russians who are backing assad would have alerted the syrians to this and allowed the syrians to get out of place before these airstrikes happened. So while you can on the one hand say yes, President Trump did send a strong message. At the same time its a message where the consequences for the russians and the syrians were reduced. Thats for sure. Yeah, and david corn, they used weapons that wont harm the runways of that airfield. They know exactly how much theyre limiting the damage to the airfield. You could go on and on about it. But if Vladimir Putin wants the Trump Presidency to succeed so that he can manipulate the Trump Presidency, Vladimir Putin is going to have to find ways to help him out. Well, yes. And perhaps there is talk about working on the sanctions if the russians dont overreact. But the word im thinking about
tonight, lawrence, begins with f. Thats feckless. Because you know if obama had done anything like this, a minimum impact launch with telling the russian, and its a good thing you tell the russians first so it doesnt escalate. Yep. And the next day, as was reported today, the syrians are back using the same air base to launch strikes against civilian targets and rebels, that the republicans on the right would be calling obama feckless. Their favorite word for him. This didnt really matter, didnt really do anything, didnt really signal much. So i do think while a lot of pundits as you noted went overboard last night and called him president ial, there is a lot to settle about this one episode. And i dont think, you know, a few days from now, a week or two from now, it may not look as glorious and thus as smart inspired by putin as it might look last night and this morning. Lets listen to what nikki
haley said today at the united nations. It could be that russia is knowingly allowing Chemical Weapons to remain in syria. It could be that russia has been incompetent in its efforts to remove the Chemical Weapons. Or it could be that the assad regime is playing the russians for fools. The world is waiting for russia to reconsider its misplaced alliance with bashar assad. The United States will no longer wait for assad to use Chemical Weapons without any consequences. Those days are over. And rick wilson, it could also be that Vladimir Putin was complicit and aware of this Chemical Weapons attack. Look, Vladimir Putin is a former intelligence officer, a classic sort of russian czechist. And this is a guy who stacks bodies like cord wood in his own country to suit his political ends. I put zero past Vladimir Putinin this sort of thing. And the fact of the matter is there are the emotional reaction by donald trump to this week to set off a one and done attack that was supposed to be a signal. I think people are way overinterpreting the consequences of this in the short and longterm. I dont think this means anything to putin. I think he is laughing all the way to the bank on this. He doesnt care that trump got a little credit for it. He likes that, i think. And it doesnt do anything to change the actual behavior of the assad regime. And it doesnt dismiss the russian clients status of syria to russia. I dont think it moved the ball at all. It let president bang bang whoosh whoosh get to turn the key and watch the pretty rockets go. But i dont think it did anything beyond that. And indira, if there is no real russian response beyond Vladimir Putins mandatory
statement today saying it was an act of aggression, might not donald trump in the Trump White House be grateful that there was no larger response from russia in this . And could that then mean hands off, russia, in syria . Sure. Trump does not want the escalate this into a problem between the United States and russia. But i think the bottom line here is we have to look at the broader question of all of this, which is what is trumps actual policy in syria. And in my column in todays paper, what i wrote about is its very hard to send a message if you dont have a message to send. And Donald Trumps policy to syria has been oppositeville. Basically, four years ago when there was the first Chemical Weapons attack he sent out this tweet storm to President Obama in which he said dont strike. Dont strike assad. Dont do this. There is going to be a disaster. There is no percentage in it for the United States. Dont do it. Now he does the opposite. It seems the trump doctrine is do the opposite of what obama would do. In fact, fewer people were killed in this Chemical Weapons attack than the last one four years ago. So i think the question is just a few days ago, his people, nikki haley and Rex Tillerson were saying assad can stay in power. And now theyre saying assad has to leave. So what is their actual policy beyond 59 air strikes . Whats the next move . Its got to be sanctions. Its got to be diplomacy. At the end of the day wars dont end with a bunch of airstrikes. Wars end with diplomacy. So they have to have a plan b. And i dont think they have thought this through. A few days ago they were going to let assad stay in power. Now theyre suddenly doing airstrikes. They need to think through what is the next plan theyre going to do. Ill say very quickly, on my flight from washington to boston tonight, both senator markey and senator Elizabeth Warren were on the same flight. I spoke to both of them and asked them what do ow think . What next . And both of them were very clear that they think the president has to come to congress if he is going to do anything beyond this in terms of an authorization for
more military force. So the president says he is ready to do more. I think he is going to find a congress that is resistant to letting him do more without coming and first asking for permission. Im reserving my Seton Friday Night Washington to boston flight next friday night. Thats the place to be. It was good one. And david corn, the possibility here that no one in the administration has a hint of a policy. Rex tillerson if you look what he is saying days ago had no hint of a policy. Suddenly now he is supposed to be saying to the russians this is what we need in syria. This is someone who hadnt given it a thought prior to tuesday. Well, this is war by impulse. Donald trump had a policy, so to speak, for a couple years now, dont do anything. Then he changed his mind on the basis of a graphic, gruesome attack. But one that wasnt much different from what weve seen in the past. As indira just pointed out,
there is no strategy beyond the attack. Rex tillerson is due to see putin soon. What is he going to say . What is the policy here . What is the policy about any other region . What is the policy in terms of iraq and iran . We just dont have any because ultimately, its not about policy for donald trump. Its about himself. Go ahead, rick. You know, david is right. This is policy by impulse. And what you saw last night was an action, not a policy. Yeah. This was a moment where john mccain and marco rubio and Lindsey Graham and Everybody Else who has been out there for ages saying weve got to have a cohesive, coherent policy against the assad regime, to not only to defeat isis, for one moment donald trump did something in that lane. He is impulsive. He has the Attention Span of a gnat on meth. This is a guy with zero ability to focus. By tomorrow we could be back to crazy tweet town. And i dont think he has ever thought it through. I think there are competing strains. Mcmaster, mattis, and to my understanding now, a little bit even Rex Tillerson, one of the more nuanced thing. Bannon wants to keep assad in power so he can wage his war against the brown people. And this is an administration that is riven by all these different strains and different competing schools of thought. And i think trump literally, i think davids exactly right. He saw some terrible pictures and said turn the key, launch the missiles. I dont think this is considered in any way. Rick wilson gets the last word in this segment. Rick wilson and indira lakshmanan. What do