the strike on syria. hello, everyone. >> i ordered the united states armed forces to launch precision strikes on targets associated with the chemical weapons capabilities of syrian dib tact bashar al-assad. >> president trump giving the order and is joined by the

united kingdom and france. fight are jets targeting a number of labs where the wednesdweapons were believed to be housed. meanwhile, the u.n. security council in emergency session just hours ago at the request of russia who the president called out personally as aiding the assad regime in carrying out these attacks. and now vice president pence and canadian prime minister trudeau saying it's time now to take action. >> here is nikki haley. >> we've talked about douma, we talked about russia and iran. we spent a week talking about the unique horror of chemical

weapons. the time for talk ended last night. >> the u.s. in coordination with france and britain, they targeted three sites in syria early saturday morning. it's in response, as was said, to the suspected chemical weapons attack this month in the rebel-held damascus suburb of douma. russia condemned the action. the council voted to reject the russian resolution following ambassador haley's impassioned remarks. >> we can all see a russian disinformation campaign is in full force this morning, but russia's desperate attempts at deflection cannot change the facts. the pictures of dead children were not fake news. they were the result of the syrian regime's barbaric inhumanity and the result of the regime's and russia's failure to live up to their international commitments to remove all

chemical weapons from syria. >> we have nbc team coverage on this today. hans nichols, the latest from the pentagon, jeff bennett at the white house. we'll go straight to the white house first to get the reflection of what we were hearing from ambassador haley. this was an unsuccessful move by russia, they called the meeting. how is the white house responding to today's events so far? >> to give you a sense of the overall white house response, we just heard in the last hour from vice president mike pence. he's attending the summit on the americas, the trip that president trump was supposed to attend but cancelled last week when it became clear there would be some sort of military action in syria, the white house didn't want the president overseas while that unfolded in syria. so the president stayed here and what you heard mike pence echo is some of what we've been hearing from senior administration officials, that the missile strike in syria was meant to serve as a strong deterrent for assad to never

again use chemical weapons against his own people. can you see sort of the contours of a rhetorical pressure taking place here. you have the comments from mike pence, the comments from nikki haley, the fact that the u.s. is locked and loaded and will act given as needed and you also hard defense secretary jim mattis say the limited strike that occurred last night is essentially it but could be another one if assad again uses these weapons. let's take a look at a bit more of what vice president mike pence had to say. >> the president made it clear that we are prepared to sustain this effort, if necessary. we remain hopeful that with the u.k. and france and the united states acting in concert and with the strong support of canada and other nations that i've heard from at this very conference and we're hearing from around the world that we will see syria end theand theirs

in russia and iran once and for all abandon the use of chemical weapons against innocent civilians. >> so we saw the vice president there, but we're only hearing from president trump on twitter today and he's declaring mission accomplished. of corse thaturse that's inviti kind of comparisons to former president george w. bush's early and premature optimism about the end of the iraq war. the president tweeted last night "a perfectly executed strike last night. thank you to france and and the united kingdom for their wisdom and the power of their fine military. could not have had a better

result. mission accomplished. so proud of our great military, which will soon be after the spending of billions of fully approved dollars the finest that our country has ever had. there won't be anything or anyone even close. >> hans, you've been getting the details that the press corps is known for. what were the actual numbers of missiles launched? we're getting different reports from russia and syria in terms of what was intercepted and shot down. what are we hearing and what is next? >> from the pentagon side, there were 105 cruise missiles delivered through a variety of platform, sea, air and submarine. so underneath the water, as well as different allies. you had the french and british also deliver them. they say they're trying to reestablish norms, reestablish the deterrence regime and that is if bashar al-assad using chemical weapons, there will be an international response. here's a couple of interesting

points that have germ nated throughout the day. number one, it's striking to me how they're talking about degrading bashar al-assad's c e capabilities. and the second aspect of this they are holding out the prospects for additional strikes if assad acts again. here's one question we just don't have a lot of certainty to and what is what constitutes a chemical attack. vice president mike pence was uncertain, they weren't entirely sure that sarin gas was used. and then the white house and the administration and the pentagon say they have evidence. the question is do they have proof that the kind of gasses they alleged were used were indeed used. richard? >> let's shift it over to bill neeley, who is over there in

lebanon for us. what are you seeing in the region in terms of the response so far, bill? and there was the response out of the u.n. security council to add to that. >> reporter: yeah, in a way, richard, the response was predictable but fairly muted. i think many people, many governments expected the air strikes to be much worse. remember the russian ambassador to the u.n. just 48 hours ago saying he couldn't rule out the possibility of a war between russia and the u.s. well, that obviously has been avoided. look, clear divisions with iran calling this a war crime, russia saying it's an act of aggression, protests in syria. and on the other hand the coalition allies, the u.s., the u.k. and france congratulating one another. president macron telephoning president trump and british prime minister theresa may saying didn't we coordinate this brilliantly. some of those words that were being used by the u.s., well,

they summed it up in three words, the astrikes weir strike precise, effective, the u.k. said it was successful, legal, proportionate. the divisions were clear on the floor yet again at the u.n. security council during an emergency meeting. nikki haley as ever speaking for the u.s. she began by saying the time for talk ended last night, but she said a lot more than that. let's take a listen. >> i spoke to the president this morning, and he said if the syrian regime uses this poisonous gas again, the united states is locked and loaded. when our president draws a red line, our president enforces the red line. >> reporter: so 105 missiles fired, 76 of them at one target, a chemical weapons research

facility. but, you know, it's not yet clear that all the chemical stocks, as hans was outlining, have been destroyed and not yet clear that this morning's, this early morning's strike has proved to be a deterrent. and one other thing to note is what wasn't hit. syria's air force wasn't touched. you know, 250 warplanes still there, 80 helicopters. those aircraft have caused the majority of the hundreds of thousands of deaths in the syrian war so far. they are still in tact. so, you know, tomorrow morning they can go back up to the skies and resume their bombing campaign. so it just reinforces the old adage that air strikes do not equal a strategy. richard? >> thanks for that, bill. let's go back to jeff. jeff, the words that have been used from the white house as well as the pentagon and as was brought up by hans as well as

bill, how long, how much? is it the one-off that we've heard from the pentagon? is it sustained as we've heard from the wording coming from the president in hans brought up the word degrading. is that the long-term objective? what does that mean? red line coming from nikki haley. put that all into context for us. >> on the face of it, it would appear to be a contradiction. i'm told when the president speaks of a sustained effort, he's speaking not just of a military effort but also diplomatic outreach, political outreach, a comprehensive approach to find some resolution to the crisis in syria. we heard from senior administration officials today, they again pin the blame on russia, blaming russia for enabling the assad regime and they say they've been countered at every turn as they tried to arrive at some diplomatic solution to this. when you hear people at the

pentagon speak of a limited strike, that was different from what the president was speaking about yesterday, even if it want clear. >> hans, what do you say? >> it's up to assad. if assad acts again with chemical weapons, withere will a response from this pentagon and this administration. the line we hear here, sustained, legitimate and proportional. >> bill, your thoughts on this very concept of one-off being sustained and the perception from the middle east? >> reporter: well, as hans was saying, all the allies are singing from the same hymn sheet. the french foreign minister said exactly the same thing today, that if he uses chemical weapons again, then we will take -- we reserve the right to take military action again. the one thing that isn't quite clear is what is the red line?

what kind of poison gas? is it any kind of poison gas? is it just sarin? is it chlorine? we're not clear on that but i think locked and loaded from nikki haley tells us all we need to know. >> i'm joined by the best in the business. thank you all three. so now that the strikes have been carried out, the question that is being asked, what is next. coming up, the president's strategy for syria. we're going to dig into that, including the mission to try to defeat isis. right now... aah! ...i would have said you were crazy. but so began the year of me. i discovered the true meaning of paperless discounts... and the indescribable rush of saving drivers an average of $620. why does fear feel so good? i fell in love three times -- once with a woman, once with a country, and finally... with myself. -so, do you have anything to declare or not? -isn't that what i'm doing?

-so, do you have anything to declare or not? what's going on? oh hey! ♪ that's it? yeah. that's it? everybody two seconds! "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program, every day mcdonald's helps more people go to college. it's part of our commitment to being america's best first job. so let's promote our spring travel deal on choicehotels.com like this. earn one free night when you stay just twice this spring. allergies. or, badda book. badda boom. book now at choicehotels.com

thanks for staying with us. the u.s. and its allies say their -- five years later here in 2018, the unanimously adopted agreement that included russia has not achieved its stated goal to, and i'll quote from it right now, to prohibit syria from using, developing, producing, otherwise acquiring, stockpiling or retaining chemical weapons or transferring them to other states or nonstate actors. to talk about this let's bring in major general robert scales,

former u.s. commandant of the u.s. war college. when we look at that resolution, should it be edited? is it not the right place where the strategy should be derived from when dealing with syria? >> that's a good question. you know, you can have memoranda and policies and you can have the reality of conditions on the ground, the phrase we use is ground truth. and the truth here is after this latest diabolical, evil strike, the syrians really no longer have to use chemical weapons anymore. what's missing from the narrative all today is the fact why did the syrians do this? why did they violate international norms? why did they bring on the response of the world community? they did it for a tactical

purpose to eject the resistance from damascus, it's now game, set, match, assad is in charge and owns the syrian heartland. as far as assad is concerned, he doesn't need to use nuclear weapons anymore. and we move now into i think an entirely different era of this horrible civil war where chemical weapons simply will no longer be a factor. >> the use of chemical weapons and the response. i do want to get your reflection of what came out of the u.n. security council hours ago. that vote 3 for, 8 against. again, what russia was asking for was to condemn the attacks that were made by the united states, france as well the u.k. as a violation of international law and the u.n. charter. where does this tell you in terms of the coalition of the willing and the very reaction to

syria where we're at today on that? >> well, have to laugh a little bit about the chutzpah involved in all of this. russia has its fingers on the deaths of half a million syrians, 8 million refugees, and they talk about this very narrow surgical, virtually bloodless strike as being a violation of international norms. i mean, how russian is that? and, you know, the vote i think speaks for itself. and i'll also say this, one thing we have to guard against is the narrative. we feel very good about the skill that went into this strike on chemical facilities. what we're not too sure about is the narrative. the russians are beginning to turn the narrative around as they always do. we need to be as good at the narrative as we are at the strikes.

>> and russia and syria and bolivia said yes. you saw the number of missiles who were successfully, all 105 despite other numbers coming from syria as well as russia. how did we do? what is one thing that you saw that this trilateral prosecution did well? what's one thing that you liked? >> here's the thing, richard. the american military loves this stuff. they're very good at the mathematically perfect, tactically elegant means of delivering distance fire power from outside the range of the enemy's defenses. and from that perspective, this enormous aluminum engine they put in the air, you have to sort of nod your head at the incredible skill involved. there are tankers, there are isr platforms, we're brought in the allies, we're using drones. it's elegant.

>> so you did like it? >> yeah. but that's not the question. the question is do large doses of fire power fix a strategic problem and that really is where i think we come up short. >> if you can here, major general, what should we do next militarily? >> i think we're pretty much done militarily. there's only one footprint we have left in syria, in eastern syria around the euphrates river, 2,000 americans buttressed by kurds who basically control syria's access to their own oil fields. i think being able to hold on to a military footprint in the area is necessary as we begin to see the civil war wind down and we move from a military-only application into diplomacy and other ways to end this conflict. we must end this conflict. >> major general robert scales, thank you, sir, for taking time with us today. >> thank you, richard. >> the kremlin warned there

would be consequences, calling strikes an act of aggression. russia's defines in the syrian crisis. we dig into that next. the smoother the skin, the more comfortable you are in it. and now there's a new way to smooth. introducing new venus platinum.

a premium metal handle boosts control... to reveal up to 100% smooth skin. venus

russia is pushing back today.

it criticizes the united states and allies for issuing strikes on syria, which happened in the last 24 hours. with russian president vladimir putin insisting the april 7 chemical attack was staged. that chemical attack came just one day after the u.s. sanctioned russia for supplying weapons to syria on april 6th. here in the united states the strikes took place against a very busy backdrop as well of scandals facing president trump during a very, very busy week. let's go to ken dilanian, intelligence and national security for us here at nbc, john flannery, former special prosecutor to the senate judiciary committee, and david corn, author of "the inside story of putin." as you know, russia's role in what is happening in syria and then russia's role here in the united states and what the president has been facing. it's a lot to put together, but

many have said was the things that are happening here at home part of why we did things abroad? >> richard, i don't think there's any evidence of that, but what i've been focusing on with this issue is the information war. we're in an information war with russia right now, the united states is, and we appear to be losing it pretty badly. russia is pushing back against this strike in syria and alleging that the chemical attack was staged by britain and they're doing it on social media in english in a way that the united states really is ill equipped to respond to. the pentagon said today they've tracked a 2,000% increase in activity by russian bots and trolls on social media and the united states doesn't have a response. we have a small part of trying against russian propaganda and russia is blasting out this information about this strike and we have basically the public

statements of our officials, ru richard. >> during a disinformation campaign here, this administration definitely hitting out against russia in more aggressive ways than we've seen in the first year of this presidency. that along the lines of now an attack and rusch cosia coming b and saying this is words of aggression. is this the right time for this move, this strike given the rhetoric that is so heated? >> well, i wish the strike could have happened in a vacuum, so to speak, without the cloud of the russian intervention and the russian attack and donald trump's pathetic response and even his inability to acknowledge it. condition really picks up the territory here where there's an overlap.

the russian attacks on the election. it wasn't just meddling, it was an attack, part of awi widespre disinformation campaign, it is now being used in response to the syrian attack and we have mid-term elections coming up, too. it seems not just when it comes to respond to russian bots about syria, from the very beginning of this administration, donald trump has not recognized what the russians did in 2016 and he hasn't come up with a plan to really thwart or confront russia on some of these issues. we can talk about whether this attack is enough to deal with the syrian issue. on the information warfare front and confronting putin's assault on america, trump is still far behind. >> going back to looking at what's happening on russia and the united states, which the first two of you have now discussed, to you, john. we're talking about syria, it's

the headline and an important story we need to be digging down into, but leading up until last night, until that 9:00 announcement by the president, we had a busy week. for those looking for a summary, as we look through, can you take your pick in terms of the number of items that we would go through for this week. what do you think all in summary here stood out the most? was it the end, that headline, that mcclatchy had come out and sad that -- reporting that the special counsel had some evidence that cohen was in prague, though cohen now in the last 24 hours denies that claim. is that the big headline if you're to take a look at the entire week? >> i think the big headline is the treasure of information between mr. trump and his fix-it counsel that involves perhaps tapes, all sorts of e-mails and information and money transfers and it's more important, it appears to me, than even the flynn disclosures, which back in

january 2017 helped him get the heave-ho. but the important thing about cohen is cohen also met in new york with an opposition leader in ukraine and they discussed the sanctions, which are the most important thing with putin. and in a sealed envelope, he caused their discussion and their summary to go to flynn. but presently i think we're in a bomb ballet. i think the syrian thing -- consider the fact that ambassador huntsman actually meats with the russians to set up what the attack is going to be. we have a president who claims you never tell them what you're going to do and nothing that happened in this attack happened without the russians knowing about it. it was nowhere near the mediterranean bases, they were assured it wouldn't involve any of their troops and you have to guess they weren't told the targets and that assad didn't know the targets. we don't even know today if we got anything in the two objectives in damascus and the one outside of damascus.

we're telling everybody in glowing colors how wonderful we did but the major general said as a matter of strategy and tactics, after what assad did, he doesn't need to use, if he did, he didn't need to use chemical weapons again. as we sit here now, we have no idea, no one can go in and confirm and assad is not going to confirm we destroyed anything. he's going to say we didn't get anything. we got two nation state leaders who look terrific in their nations and a security council meeting that putin knew was going to go this way because we have a veto in it and that we were going to uphold the resolution. now we're going to walk away from it and look like heros and some people aren't going to pay attention to the investigation and putin looks good in russia. that's the deal, the bomb delay, in my opinion. >> as you call the bomb ballet, some would call the bomb ballet in the white house, as they try to juggle all these issues and back to the ballet that might be

orchestrated at the white house, i brought up the mcclatchy report, which has not been confirmed by nbc. why is that important? it goes back to the dossier? >> there are very good reasons the united states deconflicted the strike with russia. russia has very serious air forces that could do a lot of damage with american planes and there was a real wish to avoid escalating the situation and avoid killing russians. absolutely this has been a huge week in the russia investigation and the raid on with michael cohen's offices adds a whole new dimission to ension to it. i think we have to be careful about the mcclatchy report. if true, it's huge. but no other news or has confirmed it. it doesn't allege outright that he was in prague or that this journalism organization is alleging he was in prague. we need to be careful about

that. it's huge, it's true. more and more elements of that christopher steele dossier are proving out as this investigation unfolds, richard. >> david, as we saw the former fbi director come to the cameras for the first time, heard him speak on his new book, talking about james comey, all part of the russia investigation that the four of us are talking about, david. that was i think some might think atypical of an fbi director, those who would be critical what james comey has done in his book and in front of the cameras. but then when you look at what's happening to cohen, the word from the white house according to the "new york times" is that's the much bigger deal here at the moment is mr. cohen and what is happening with him versus this book, which is a tell all. >> well, i think we've long gotten past the point of atypical in many different ways. >> right. that's for sure. >> and the comey book coming out

on tuesday, parts started coming out this past week, is going to continue to inflame donald trump and the feud that he insists on waging not just against comey but against the fbi. i think the pardon of scooter libby yesterday was a big part of that as well. so trump has declared war basically on the justice department, even though he's in charge of it and the fbi, which presumably works for him. but the michael cohen raid, we still doesn't have all the detaste d details on what it focused on, bank fraud, wire fraud, stormy daniels and even taxi medallions, which can be a very sleazy business up in new york city. but the fact that prosecutors up there are saying he's not really trump's lawyers, he's a fixer, it's something that people around trump is a whole other universe to worry about in addition to the russian

investigation and could be even harder to shut down than shutting down mueller if trump tries to do that. >> let's very quickly to you on this, if we can, john. so the pardoning of scooter libby, smoke signal to those who might be involved in this case, question mark? and if so, any legal peril this president could face either coming from mueller or otherwise? >> i think transapparently the overarching thing is obstruction. he's not at war with the justice department, he's doing everything he can to obstruct the investigation of himself. and he's trying to set, ironically, if you will, a benchmark with scooter libby who other witnesses said did leak and obstruct justice with himself who is accused of lying and obstructing justice. i think these pardons are in fact illegal because he's trying to affect an investigation of himself and granting a pardon without merit. this is to lay the groundwork to

encourage others to believe he may grant them a pardon. pardon me they'll all be saying to them. there's the only pardon he cares about and it the one for himself when the walls finally close on him. >> thank you all three. we covered a lot in six minutes. we'll do it again soon. >> new protesters lined up outside the white house with signing saying "no war or syria."

nothing says spring like fresh flowers, so let's promote our spring travel deal on choicehotels.com like this. earn one free night when you stay just twice this spring. allergies. or, badda book. badda boom. book now at choicehotels.com not in this house. 'cause that's no average family. that's your family. which is why you didn't grab just any cheese. you picked up kraft mozzarella with a touch of philadelphia for lasanyeah!

kraft. family greatly. it was always our singular focus. to do whatever it takes, use every possible resource. to fight cancer. and never lose sight of the patients we're fighting for. our cancer treatment specialists share

the same vision. experts from all over the world, working closely together to deliver truly personalized cancer care. and these are the specialists we're proud to call our own. expert medicine works here. learn more at cancercenter.com appointments available now. i'm late.he's trying to tell let's see what forensics thinks.. sorry i'm late. what did i miss? wanna get away? now you can with southwest fares as low as 49 dollars one-way. that's transfarency.

amid last night's air strikes, the president's approach to the conflict in syria has been facing some scrutiny. senate armed services committee chair john mccain praising the strike in a statement but then saying there are not enough and that a comprehensive strategy in the region is still needed. mccain's recommendation coming after a week of somewhat mixed messaging on the issue from the commander in chief. earlier this week president trump telling russia via twitter to get ready for u.s. missiles in the region but the next day said the attack could come, quote, very soon or not so soon at all. for more on the president's handling, let's bring in our panel for discussion. thank you all three. jay, we have been watching the messaging.

this is not atypical of this president except we're talking about foreign affairs, aren't we? we're talking about many countries, not political infighting within the borders of the united states. the question might be how is this being digested internationally but also domestically for that matter because we're talking about international security. >> david, i think internationally it helped a lot that you had the u.k. and friends on board as part of these attacks. it really makes a response a tougher response from russia and iran much more difficult because they don't want to involve europe, they don't want to sort of piss off europe and it's just a lot stronger of a response i think to have them on board. domestically it's been such an interesting kind of hodgepodge of responses. you had hawks like mccain and lindsey graham this morning releasing a statement saying it didn't go far enough, a lot of hawks gafawed a bit saying what mission, we had no strategy whatsoever in russia and syria.

if anything, kind of just by your gut saying we want to get out of syria and when you see pictures of dead children, you go back into syria. and to republicans getting very angry that the president did not request permission from congress for this action, request an authorization for use of military force and same on the democratic side. a mixed bag. some saying it's great to draw a red line and others saying that this is yet another show of weakness from this president. >> josh, as you watch what's happening here, foreign policy, which is your beat here, certainly is going to be something that's normally discussed in the idea of years and even decades and what's the approach over those arcs? are we moving to an arc of 24 hours? >> it seems that we are. people have been trying to answer this question of what is the mission the president said he accomplished. a long-term mission in syria trying to resolve the civil war that's been going on for some

seven years now goes far beyond a few missiles launched at some facilities. is that mission to say no longer will assad be able to use chemical weapons? no, clearly not because administration officials telling us today that they believe the assad regime still possesses some capability. is it to say we're sending a message that this is unacceptable? we sent that message last year and it still happening. or is it to say we're committed to resolving the civil war and russia and iran have increased influence in the country, clearly not because u.s. officials are saying the president's comments about want to pull out just as long as the islamic state is defeated build on those strikes. >> i want to build on the points that you're making here. joel, if the president is saying one thing one day and days later saying something else, basically

foreign policy via tweet, does that then result in what we have seen, which is a chemical attack on civilians in syria? those who are critical of the way the president has approached foreign policy this week say that is part of why we did have this attack potentially. your reflection? >> yeah, richard. what the last day's events have really unveiled for all of us to see is essentially the failure of this administration's syria policy. it's a failure on a strategic level, a failure in terms of its morality. only 11 syrians have been let into the united states in 2018. clearly this policy is not driven by concern for the syrian people. and it's also a legal failure as well. it's very dubious, the justification. the chemical weapons convention doesn't provide a military remedy, for example. secretary mattis didn't articulate an authorization for

use of military force justification. it is in a sense a policy by the seat of our pant and enables our adversaries, and in this case assad to take advantage of that gap in lodge ek agic and launch. >> is this why assad did launch these chemical attacks on civilians perhaps hearing from the west we're going to reduce or remove support for our efforts there? >> i think that the reason why is assad is using it as a military tool and he has been for a number of years. but why now? clearly he got a signal from the president last week that we as a country, the united states, were not going to be in syria for much longer. so from his calculation, as in the past, it made it appear like it wasn't going to be a very costly choice. it's hard to say this was a costly choice for assad when

looking at what happened in the last 24 hours. how costly was this to assad. he did win his tactical victory and he's still standing. >> stay with me on the idea for a while, is this transactional foreign policy? is this the trump doctrine, as we often talk about, when we look at administrations and the way they approach foreign policy, is this transactional foreign policy? >> it's certainly a unique kind of foreign policy, sorry, richard, than we've ever seen before. it's unlike i think any other foreign policy that we've ever seen from a president in that it just shifts so much. you go back to the 2016 and the second debate in foreign policy where he disagreed with mike pence, his on vice president, and said, no, we're not going to hold assad responsible, we're not going to draw red lines in syria, i'm not going to get involved in that, i'm just going to focus on the fight against isis. then last year he does go ahead

and bomb assad. this year again he's bombing assad but still saying he doesn't want to get involved in a broader conflict. he still wants to just focus on the fight against isis. so you have this very disjointed, incredibly confusing, basically nonexistent policy there where you're sort of saying on the one hand you say you don't want to get involved in regime change in syria and at the same time you keep bombing assad every time he does something you don't like. >> josh, 15 seconds to you. nationalism coming from the united states and followed on in europe, will we see this approach followed on by other nations? >> it's a good question. so far we're seeing a lot of u.s. allies, saudi arabia and others say that they support what the su.s. is doing. we had support from the u.k., britain and france. but the u.s. took the lead in that. we're here seven years after the war started and the u.n. process doesn't seem to be going anywhere. i don't hear anyone saying what

happened last night is going to make that any better. >> thank you so much. appreciate all three of you. coming up, a message to iran. how allies reacting to last night's strike and the impact it could have on the iran nuclear deal deadline a month away. this is a story about mail and packages.

and it's also a story about people and while we make more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget... that your business is our business the united states postal service. priority: you

stay at la quinta. where we're changing with stylish make-overs. then at your next meeting, set your seat height to its maximum level. bravo, tall meeting man. start winning today. book now at lq.com you were persecuted, and forced to flee the country of your birth. but you started a new life in a brand new world. when i built my ancestry family tree, i found your story... then, my dna test helped me reclaim the portuguese citizenship you lost. i'm joshua berry, and this is my ancestry story. combine the most detailed dna test with historical records for a deeper family story. get started for free at ancestry.com

i also have a message tonight for the two governments most responsible for supporting, equiping and financing the criminal assad regime. to iran and to russia, i ask, what kind of a nation wants to be associated with the mass murder of innocent men, women and children? >> president trump there, last night sending a very clear and tough message to iran and russia for backing a what he calls murderous regime in damascus, hours after he ordered a military assault on syria's chemical weapons there. it did not take long for tehran to respond. let's go to nbc news tehran

reporter. this is a government, a country that supports the government of syria. >>reporter: that's right, richard. very strongly supports the assad government. they've invested a lot of political and financial capital in syria. they strongly condemn the attacks this morning. they said that the u.s. attack on syria was a flagrant violation of international laws, ignoring syria's sovereignty. they warned of a broader regional consequences because of this attack and even said that president trump launched the attack to deflect from his own domestic problems. pledging support for assad and syria telling them they can

count on iran's support. highest authority in the land, supreme leaders the america, and france and britain as criminal. with that said, the nuclear deal is coming up and relations between iran and america i don't think have been ever this bad. tehran is fully aware of that and i don't think they want to exacerbate the situation. leadership here is anxious. they don't want to give trump and excuse to come down harder on them directly. so they're probably breathing a sigh of relief right now that the attack on syria was fairly narrow. it didn't target iranian assets and iran didn't have to step into the frey for now. so asigh of relief. they can restock and take count of what's happened in the situation and not get to involved with the conflict in syria. so the u.s. can't blame iran for more meddling in the region and

more nefarious activities which could be detrimental. i don't think the nuclear deal is going to get recertifiedniway, but nonetheless, they're playing it safe for now. >> a very important element in this multifaceted theater in syria. live for us there in iran. thank you. so much. resolution rejected. how russia's attempt to condemn the attack was blocked by the u.n. security council. next. e and new beginnings, challenges and opportunities. at ameriprise financial, we can't predict what tomorrow will bring. but our comprehensive approach to financial planning can help make sure you're prepared for what's expected and even what's not. and that kind of financial confidence can help you sleep better at night. with the right financial advisor, life can be brilliant.

he gets the best deal on the perfect hotel by using. tripadvisor! that's because tripadvisor lets you start your trip on the right foot... by comparing prices from over 200 booking sites to find the right hotel for you at the lowest price. saving you up to 30%! you'll be bathing in savings! tripadvisor. check the latest reviews and lowest prices.