0 thanks so much. good to talk to you. >> thank you. >> that will do it for me. thanks for watching "around the world." good to be back. see you tomorrow. "cnn newsroom" starts now. syria may be on hold in the united states but the civil war still rages on. a big meeting at the white ho e house. in less than an hour the president meets with john mccain and lindsey graham. pl members of congress are being vocal on where they stand. some support, some do not. all of them still have a lot of questions. >> the president why he said to the congress we want your input and we want your support. it's better for the u.s. and it's better for the world. we're capable of acting on this and then going onto other things. i think ti'm basically in support. >> i need to hear more. i'm going to continue to listen but the broad authority the president asked for, i think creates lots of concern with me and others there. plus, swiller diana nyad set to make history. it could happen in the next hour. she's swimming from cuba to florida and only had a couple of miles to go. digging for answers in florida. an throe po they have started unearthing the remains of dozens of children buried on the grounds of a former reform school. this is cnn newsroom. the debate over what to do about syria is revving up. now russia says it's going to send its own delegation to congress to make exactly the opposite argument. the russians insist there's no proof that the assad regime used chemical weapons against its own people. defense secretary chuck hagel, secretary of state john kerry is prepared to testify tomorrow. they will explain the president's strategy. i want to bring in athena jones. republican senators have said that the president's plan for limited action in syria would send the wrong signal. they want more action. they want a stronger more robust military response. what do we expect to come out of this meeting? how important is this for the president? >> reporter: it's certainly important. the white house is hoping they can convince mccain and senator graham to go along and convince their colleagues on capital hill to go along with supporting this resolution. the votes are very much up in the air now. we expect senators mccain and graham to use this meeting to make the case. they both want to see a clear plan and a strategy for how military action in syria will work and what the goal is they want to accomplish. they've been pushing for the president to go further. they want military strikes to take out bashar al-assad's control towers and military targets with the goal of shoplifting the balance of power against bashar al-assad. the white house has said the goal is not regime change. it's to punish assad for using th chemical weapons. there's some disagreement there. this meeting will be important in the white house's push. i should add the white house has said the president doesn't necessarily have to have the support of members of congress but since they put this on the table, they'll be working very hard to make sure they get it. >> thank you. appreciate it. what is behind the president's decision to seek congressiona c approval of military action? >> reporter: secret briefings on capital hill. the white house making its case to skeptical lawmakers. on cnn, secretary of state john kerry revealing new evidence to back claims the assad regime killed hundreds with nerve gas. >> blood and hair samples that come to us have tested positive for signatures of cak sarin. >> reporter: the president's team moving quickly after his decision to put a syria strike on hold saying congress should approve. >> the noes have it. >> reporter: friday he sends kerry out to argue for urgent action. >> what is the rirvsk of doing nothing? >> reporter: later that day he signals second thoughts. >> nobody ends up being more war w we weary than me. >> reporter: at 7:00 he tells national security staff sparking a heated debate. saturday morning he calls his top team to the situation room to finalize his plan. phones congressional leaders and then heads to the rose garden to stun the world. >> i will seek authorization for the use of force from the american people's representatives in congress. >> going to congress high stakes strategy for the president. he's not guaranteed to get approval for taking military action. in fact, the president is getting lot of push back from both parties. listen to what lawmakers said earlier on cnn. >> i think when all facts are known and legislatures in both parties see what's best for the united states, i think the vote will be overwhelmingly yes. >> i think we waited a couple of years too long to act in the middle east. i think time is of the essence. we've got to move quickly. i think we'll have an important debate about how congress ought to deal with the response and give the president the power to intervene. i think we'll be fully engaged this next week. >> i want to bring in dana bash. i want to show some of these pictures of the lawmakers. interesting bedfellows. some of the democrats who have teamed up. how does the president manipulate, cojoel when you have a large swath of lawmakers who do not believe it's the right action? >> reporter: it's very difficult especially since the people who don't believe it's the right action, many of them believe it for many different reasons. some of those reasons contradict each other. to give you an example, the white house or white house officials just got off a conference call with house democrats. it lasted for about 70 minutes. according to a member on the call, it was very lengthy but very impassioned when it comes to the argument that administration officials made especially john kerry. very forceful about the need to do this. on the flip side, the q and a didn't last that long. i am told that there were some very tough questions from the president's own party. one member asking if the administration is suffering from historical amnesia because of the what happened. i'm told that john kerry responded by saying as a former prosecutor he feels this is something he has beyond a reasonable doubt. that gives you insight to what's going on behind the scenes on this conference call. one piece of news i want to report to you is we already flow there are going to be public hearings tomorrow. we've been reporting that. chuck hagel and john kerry will be testifying. we just got word that martin dempsey will be testifying. they added a second public hearing on the house side on wednesday. it looks like kerry and clapper are going to testify there. on top of that they'll have classified briefings pretty much all week. every day all week. tomorrow at 11:30. every day except for wednesday. white house says they are flooding the zone. this is flooding the zone. >> you have all those briefings going on. any reaction to the fact you have russian lawmakers who are planning on meeting with members of congress? >> reporter: isn't that interesting. we were talking about it within our team to try to figure out what the reaction will be. nobody's here. they are coming in and leaving. we're trying to get reaction to see if anybody will meet with them. >> it's going be a busy week. we'll be following you closely. we'll be on your toes. thanks again. more u.s. fire power is led headed to the region as well. several u.s. navy ships are in the red sea. another u.s. official says the aircraft carrier is not expected to participate in combat operations but the ship is there for greater u.s. military presence in the region even as the possibility of this missile strike is delayed. here is also what we're working on. they crippled a new york sometimes website last week. now they have targeted the u.s. military. we'll show you the message one group of hackers supporting syria's assad regime has now for the marines. this. love this story. it's a goal she's been chasing for 35 years. she's so, so close. diana nyad about an hour away from the florida coast. we'll have a live update on her quest to swim from cuba to the united states. how much do you love it? 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