With us from day beruit is bill neely. Lets start with you, kelly. We are half an hour out from what we are expecting to be a White House Press briefing. We are now into the time period where the president says a decision will be made. We know jim mattis walked into the white house just over an hour and a half ago. It was thanks to our cameras capturing the image of the defense secretary walking into the white house that we knew for certain he was here. We were talking to a range of officials and people didnt want to disclose that he was here. That may be just a matter of them not feeling they were authorized to do so or it might be this is the cane of session with the president or others here that they didnt want to get public attention. Certainly the secretary comes here to meet with the president from time to time the. It takes on new importance given the tweet schedule that the president put out, the backdrop of the chemical attack in syria and the time line that the president provided which has certainly put us into this zone as you describe it. At the briefing thats coming up we know that some of the official who were involved in that are working behind the scenes to prepare for the questions that will be coming from the reporters in the briefing room. Typically something of this itch in a, a military action is not disclosed and talked about in specific terms in a public setting like the brooep briefing but we might get a sense of the president s thinking on get a sense of World Leaders he has talked with, others who are consulting him. We might get some of that context to help us know where the president is in this process. All right kelly. Bill neely is in beruit for us, 10 p. M. In the middle east. What is the chat on the ground in syria, neighboring countries. We no there have been troop movements. We know people are moving equipment around. There is a sense certainly that an attack is imminent. Absolutely. All eyes are on the skies as you say. Its 10 00 p. M. Here in lebanon and syria. And plenty of evidence, today, in fact that those skies are quiet because reports from syria suggest from north to south it was a huge drop in the number of air strikes today. Now, that would suggest that the Syrian Air Force is not interested in. Booing its interested in repositioning and getting its planes into shelter. The Syrian Air Force has about 260 fixwing aircraft, around 80 helicopters. And those, of course, are the aircraft that dropped chemical weapons. Remember, emmanuel may krone, the french president , said yesterday that one of the targets would be destroying syrias chemical weapons capabilities. Now you would imagine that would include the aircraft that dropped those chemical weapons. Clear evidence that the airbases are evacuating, that headquarters buildings are evacuating, one Missile Research facility outside damascus was also said to be emptying today. The big question is are some of those aircraft seeking shelter at russian airbases . Because if that were true that would really present the United States air force and navy with a problem because they one assumes they do not want to be seen to be targeting russian assets. Again, thats what president may krone of france said yesterday. Russia and iran are not targets. Ali, plenty of evidence that syria is moving people around. Its air defenses are good. And indeed there was one analyst on Syrian Television today speaking about the fact that syria has a missile shield. Yep. So those air defenses will be up tonight. Israel lost its first fighter jet in a long time as a result of those defenses. So this is a serious issues. Kelly odonnell we will stay close to you as well as bill neely in bay krut. The president what are the president s option . This is heavily simplified. Lets discuss what could happen. He could launch a small attack on a runway or territory. Thats what he did last april in the 2017 chemical attack. Launching missiles at a syrian airbase. There are three airbases that supported the chemical offensive in eastern ghouta. He may want to do something bigger considering that that attack didnt deter assad from further chemical weapons use. He could consider more damaging strikes. He could target multiple military bases linked to assads regime linked to its capability to deliver chemical weapons but that might kill russian and iranian personnel supporting assads regime. And that complicates the situation as long as it involves any of americas allies. That brings us to the final option, actual strikes against russian and iranian bases in the area. President trump called out both russia and iran for backing assad. Such an attack would be sure to send a message but escalates a risk of fighting with russia which promised to retaliate against any strike that hurts russian troops. I have to bring in an analyst. I have to say we have no information that the u. S. Government is considering that last and most drastic strike, which would be attacking iranian and russian installations in syria. But it is important to understand the potential unintended consequences of a strike on syria. Absolutely. Of the three options you laid out the third is certainly the riskiest. I think there are a lot of reasons why the United States is going to avoid that at all costs because the United States, as well as the potential coalition partners, france, the united kingdom, they do not want to go to war with russia over this issue. All signs point to the desire for the United States to send a message about wanting to degrade and destroy the Syrian Governments ability to deliver chemical weapons. They dont want to strike or risk striking russian personnel. That sort of brings us to an option two, right . Because option one is the crews missiles 59 crews missiles like we used last year which not only didnt do a great deal of damage because the air field was up and running within a couple of days but certainly didnt deter the assad administration. I think its fair for people to realize that the administration is propped up by the russians and the iranians. How do you get into how do you send a message to assad without having the iranians and the russians feel it, too . Right now, because the syrian battlefield is so complex and because you do have the involvement of so many different powers, regional powers, extra regional powers like russia and the United States on the battlefield there are simply so many different strategies and different powers that are trying to see their own plans realized on the ground in syria, but russia its important to arer that russia does not control the Syrian Government. They are their most important great power guarantor. Iran is absolutely critical for syria on the ground but russia cannot control what the Syrian Government is doing. We have seen that as multiple ceasefires have fallen apart in syria over the last years. Americans have little appetite for wars in the middle east. At this point, given that america is good at getting into them and bad at getting out, should we be thinking about exit strategy, end games, what success looks like in syria . You know, President Trump has laid out earlier this month and last month his desire to not become more involved in middle eastern conflicts and to let regional powers shoulder more of the responsibility. Thats why we are watching to see who is brought into a coalition to launch this potential punitive strike against Syrian Air Force assets. We are looking at potential involvement, sort of in a facilitatory capacity from the gulf states. We know that President Trump does not want to get more involved in the syrian conflict beyond the stated objectives that the United States has been clear about, which is combatting the islamic straight and other violence extremist organizations and containing iran. Should be noted there isnt a oernling outpouring of the gulf states, qatar which hosts a number of meares middle Eastern States i says it doesnt want to get involved. When it comes to the Syrian Crisis most of the focus of this white house and of most americans has been on the threat isis. You cant forget that the people on the ground have different concerns. I cannot emphasize enough, this is a civil war. It is a conflict thats been going on since the spring of 2011, trig erred by peaceful protests on which the Assad Government fired. Over 165,000 people have died for gone missing. 5. 6 million fled their country. More than 3 million are hosted by turkey, a country that according to the Washington Post doesnt really want them there. More than 6 million Syrian People are displaced. They are inside syria but not in their homes. According to u. N. Investigators and recent news reports president Bashar Al Assads regime is accused of using chemical weapons not once or a dozen times. At least 30 times since 2011. I want to bring in gentleman gene giovanni, she has been covering the middle east and syria for more than 25 years. She is the author of the morning they came for us, dispatches from syria. Janine i think its important on the eve of potential war in syria to remember the people of syria. This is not necessarily a welcome thing for the people remaining in syria. Its not clear that this ends the war or brings it closer to a conclusion. Absolutely. I mean we are not sure what it will bring. About you look at the past air strikes, they werent that punitive. They were more i think of a moral symbolic gesture. You have to remember there are people in syria who do support assad. These are the people that said in the beginning assad or we burn the country. And we now see, there is no end to what they will stop at. When you think about the attack on douma, which we now know open sources have given us evidence that 34 people did die despite what the russians say that there was no chemical attack. We know that assad is now in a position where he really is disparate. He wants to wipe out the last of the opposition. He uses chemical gas. I want to stop you there because he talks about the last of the opposition. We talk in terms of the last gasp for isis. They are not the same people. Absolutely. Because this is where the narrative of the war has gotten lost. Right. I think to most of the American Public i do understand it is the most complex war i have ever covered. Sure. There is the war on the ground which started as you said in 2011 with people that what did they want . They wanted to rise up against a dictator. They wanted what we have, rule of law, human rights that protect them. In fairness beside they were not asking for the full democracy that americans would think of. They wanted some better rights than they had. Free and Fair Election where is they elect someone they know is not part of assad family or his kplan or his cousins. I think thats all they basically wanted. So those people were punished for that in a way that is so severe. He burn the country. His tactic all along was scorched earth. It was basically to attack homes, the place where is the resistance, the opposition was very strong to show, looking you are going to follow the opposition . This is what you are going to get. So we have the war still going on there. And then dont forget the other part of the country, the syrian kurds. What do they want. They are in an opposite part of the country. They have been fighting alongside the u. S. Trained and equipped by the u. S. They control the largest swath thats not government controlled. As trump said last week, if he is going to pull out the troops how does that leave them. They were our allies, they did the heavy lifting against isis. We are abandoning them yet again. What will happen to the syrian kurds and the christians in syria. Syria was a multicultural place, for all of its problems it was multireligious and mul cultural. We are worrying about the northwest of the country, al qaeda. We have wide out isis . What about al qaeda . They are still in the northwest. We need a Long Term Strategy to ensure they will not develop and even you know, grow even faster. Then we have to think about in the aftermath lets say these strikes end the war and diplomacy comes in and we get a peaceful negotiation at least. How do we divide up this country . How do we reconstruct it. More importantly, looking to past wars like say bosnia why were hey treads linger for so long. In a country like this, thousands have been killed, people have been burnt outside of their homes, people are outside of the country. How are we going to put it back together. It would we hoove us all to do more reading about syria in the coming days because these questions will be before us soon. Janine de gea vanny, the author of the morning they came for us, dispatches from syria. This just in, the New York Times is reporting that fbi agents who raided the offices of Donald Trumps personal lawyer, Michael Cohen were seeking evidence related to the access Hollywood Tape. Thats according to three people who have been briefed on the contents of a federal search warrant. The access Hollywood Tape surfaced during ump drfrs campaign. He can be heard in it making vulgar comments about women. Joining me now, one of the authors of the article and former u. S. Attorney joyce vance, she is a professor at the universe of Alabama Law School and an msnbc contributor. Matt, you are one of the authors of that piece. Sure. What is the thinking . Why would fbi agents be looking for information related to the access Hollywood Tapes given they went public . Right, is he what you have to do is you look at all the Different Things that we know that the fbi is looking at here. They are looking at the payments to women who claimed that they had affairs with President Trump. And one of the things they are looking at is was Michael Cohen essentially facilitating payments to buy their silence . And if so, was that a Campaign Contribution . Did that violate any banking laws . And then look, the access Hollywood Tape came out at crucial time. I think what the Justice Department is looking sat did Michael Cohen play any role in trying to tamp down the release of that video . Did he have any role in sort of reacting to that video . And they had there was a catchall after that that said we also want to know what else, you know, what other negative stories or negative issues that Michael Cohen was involved in responding to. Basically they are looking to see was he essentially an unofficial fixer for the Trump Campaign. Joyce vance, give me a legal umbrella onto this. Because maybe he is an unofficial fixer. He has long been referred to as such, he is a fixer for donald trump. But when you fix things that could otherwise cost you votes in the course of an election that becomes a federal crime . One of the biggest problems that drops just right in your lap here is the Campaign Finance law violation. Its illegal to make contributions that either exceed a certain amount or that end up being unreported. And so this is really very much what jon edwards was prosecuted unsuccessfully by the Justice Department for. And that prosecution failed because the department was unable to prove a linkage between payments that were made to edwards and an intent to influence the election. Those payments were made before the first primary votes were even cast. But in this situation now, one believe has the fbi is looking believes that the fbi is looking for potential payments were being affected, were being made, were being negotiated in the case of stormy daniels, perhaps attempted to suppress the access Hollywood Tapes in the weeks preceding the campaign. That could be a criminal problem for Michael Cohen and others who knew who were going on. Matt, some people are going to say this is a fishing competition, its well outside the purview of the russia investigation which is why it was not the mueller Team Involved in this. But in order to get the warrants that were required to search Michael Cohens office in this building and a hotel he was staying at, they would have had to have presented something to a federal magistrate. There is a certain bar that would have had to be met. Tell me about that. Absolutely. For starters, you have to clear the bar of is there probable cause that you are going to find evidence of a crime in these documents and in these locations . So you clear that. But internally, inside the Justice Department, going after, doing a search of a Lawyers Office is one of the highest levels of you know, this is right there in the red zone. You know, that gets a lot of scrutiny. Ed a to that that this is the president of the United Statess lawyer and the sensitivity of this search is paramount. You know, but whats significant here is yes this was carried out by prosecutors in new york. Cohens lawyer has said that this began with a referral from bob mueller, the special counsel. Obviously, this began with information they developed as part of the russia investigation. But you can bet you know the president s sporters and the president himself are going to say, look, this is just mueller being cute and using prosecutors in new york to essentially rummage around inside Donald Trumps personal life and inside his campaign. And i predict they are going to start pointing at ken starr and bill clinton and they are going to say heres the thing, the democrats didnt like it when ken starr was rummaging around in bill clintons personal life. And why is the Justice Department doing that right now . But when you put all of this together you can start to see why donald trump is just apoplectic over the raid. Because this means the Justice Department is squarely focused on the inner workings of the Trump Campaign and his closest surrounding him during the campaign. Apoplectic in terms of using capital letters saying witchhunt and now floating the idea of not just getting rid of robert mueller, and also getting rid of rosenstein who is really in charge of mueller. Where do you think this goes . It is like the juncture at which president nixon found himself getting a negative reflection up on the hill. With the polls out today saying the overwhelming majority of the American People dont think bob mueller should be fired that if the president were to understand rosenstein and people were to understand that was a thinly veiled evident to terminate the Mueller Investigation that the public would then shift its focus there. Maybe thats aspirational but i think the American Public is paying attention here, and they wont indulge the president in any trickery with the intent of avoiding the rule of law. The president just as accountable to the law as the rest of us. And this investigation, which has been rigorous in its integrity, needs to proceed to a termination. So an effort to fire rosenstein ultimately should not be tolerated, if not legally then certainly not politically up on the hill. Joyce vance thank you for joining us. She is a professor at the university of Alabama Law School and former u. S. Attorney. And New York Times adam pewso, one of the reporters who has broken this latest story. Up next, despite sharing he is among the 87 million facebook users whose personal information fell into the hands of Cambridge Analytic, a Data Analysis firm hired by the Trump Campaign zuckerberg is facing tough questioning from the House Committee. A congressman joins me after the break. Im in the field. While this was burning, you were saving other homes. Neighbors helping neighbors and strangers alike. This is what americas about. Sometimes its nice to see all the good thats out there. Bringing folks out, we have seen it in community after community. This time, its his turn. You have 4. 3 minutes to yourself. This calls for a taste of cheesecake. Philadelphia cheesecake cups. Rich, creamy cheesecake with real strawberries. Find them with the refrigerated desserts. You know whats not awesome . Gigspeed internet. With real strawberries. When only certain people can get it. Lets fix that. Lets give this guy gig really . And these kids, and these guys, him, ah. Oh hello. That lady, these houses yes, yes and yes. And dont forget about them. Uh huh, sure. Still yes xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. Now you can get it, too. Welcome to the party. Something that we can consider. Although one thing that i would push back on is i think it is often characterized as maybe these mistakes happened because there is some conflict between what people want and business interests. I dont think thats the case. I think a lot of these hard decisions come down to different interests between different people. For example, on the one hand, people want the ability to sign into apps and bring some of their information and bring some of their friends information in order to have a social experience. On the other hand Everyone Wants their information locked down and completely private. The question is not a business question as far as which of these equities do you weigh more. Zuckerberg just left the House Committee hearing room moments ago after answering questions for five hours. Lawmakers grilled him on several issues particularly the data privacy scandal in which up to 87 Million People had their personal information improperly shared with a political executing firm Cambridge Analytic. Zuckerberg said even his own personal information was not safe. Was your data included in the data sold to the malicious third parties . Your personal data. Yes. The hearing on the house side came one day after zuckerberg spent more than four hours answering questions from senators. Joining us is Georgia Republican congressman buddy carter. He was in the hearing today with Mark Zuckerberg. Good the see you. Good to see you. After two days of testimony, have you given thought to the role congress the thoughtful role that congress should play . I think we are all coming around to the idea that there probably needs to be some thoughtful legislation of social media. But its got to be done in a way that doesnt wreck all the good things about social media. We have to understand that Mark Zuckerberg and the like have given us something that we didnt have before that. Whats your thought on this two days of testimony. Well, there is no question about it. I do feel like we need to nibble at the edges. If you remember, today the president actually signed legislation that calls for criminal and Civil Penalties against platforms that knowingly advertise sex trafficking. Thats the kind of thing that we need to be doing. But i am not in favor of making the internet a utility of the government getting involved with it. I think it will stifle innovation that we have been the beneficiary of. I think that would be one of the worst things and lets face it, ive been doing this a long time you cant legislate morality. What i hope that mr. Zuckerberg the message that he got and what he took away from this is that he has a responsibility. He has a responsibility as a platform to be monitoring that platform. Some of the things that i brought up about Illegal Drugs being advertised on the enter net, about wildlife, and the sale of ivory over the internet thats almost putting our elephants into extinction. Also approximate the privacy of movies. Those are all kinds of things they can control and they should be kproeld. If the White House Briefing doesnt eliminate the possibility im going to be talking about the back page story, which is a remarkable development. But to the issue of russian interference via facebook in the 2016 elections we are almost at the 2018 elections, thats got to concern you that bad kt aing parties sponsored by other governments still seem to have a back doorway of getting involved in our elections. No question about it. We in congress are very concerned about that. And of course we are concerned about the privacy issue. Thats why we have had hearings with equifax w the other breaches that have occurred where private information has gotten out. And we are we know that we have a responsibility as members of congress to make sure that this didnt happe this doesnt happen. I hope companies are understanding that you need to do it to yourself before we have to do it to you. Congressman thanks for taking the time. Congressman buddy carter of georgia. Mark zuckerberg was asked numerous times during his two days of hearings about the impact of facebook on the elections. Heres what he said to senators yesterday. All right, we are going to get that for you in a minute. I want to talk about the impact that facebook is going to have on our elections. I have spot and two people here who know about the impact of media and social media on elections. Tina brown, the found he and ceo of tina brown live media and the women of the world summit. And im also joined by roger mcnamie. Cofounder of elevation partners. An early and current investor in facebook and an early mentor to Mark Zuckerberg. Thanks to both of you for being here. A, this is really interesting gray area for us but a you heard buddy carter say i dont want to regulate Facebook Like a utility. I think we can all discover we can all realize the great power that social media has brought us. At the same time, the europeans have started to impose regulations on facebook. What should we be thinking about . The most interesting thing in the last two days is when zuckerberg suddenly said, i agree we are responsible for the content on facebook. That was an interesting thing which he then tried to somewhat walk back later and kept saying we are a tech company. Facebook reaches american households for 35 minutes a day. Not only has it been connecting people, but it also has been harvesting, involved with this harvesting of data and at the same time it is its greedy grab on advertising has destroyed legitimate medias whole entire business model. Not only have they done all this bad stuff but they have also destroyed the good people who are trying to do good with information. I think its time they stopped having it both ways. What way should they have it then . They have to be regulated. They are a Media Company. They are responsible. They shouldnt be exempt from all the regulations that regular Media Companies have because they are media and they are profiting from it as well. Roger, what is the distinction . How do we make the distinction . Because you are never going to get one of these people like Mark Zuckerberg of his ilk to say yeah of course we are a Media Company just like comcast or nbc or tina Browns Company of thats not what they say. They say we are a platform, we are pipe, we are a vessel, we are something else. If they want to be a platform then we regulate them like a platform. In 1956 we put a fence around at t and didnt allow them to go into the computer industry, took all their patents and made them licensable for free. They had the transistor. That created silicon valley. That level of regulation could work because it would leave the companies in fact and create the opportunity for new competitors to come along. To tinas point, a super important point there is more than one problem going on here. Right . The election problem, the media problem, thats one class of thing. The data privacy is another class. They have overlapped in the Cambridge Analytic case but there is more than one problem. You and i for months were talk being the privacy issue. Exactly. I look at this and think the european approach of the Global Protection regulation is a great day to go after data privacy but we need a separate animal to attack tinas problem because at the end of the day they have been allowed to destroy the economics of Media Companies that we all depend on for information. Isnt that because we were old and not nimble . Isnt this oldfashioned disruption . Its certainly true to say Media Companies were asleep at the switch and terrified of looking uncoal when it came to the groovy people in silicon valley. But it is out of control. There is 40 billion and not a shred of it goes to the content providers producing this content. And the recent move to take all of that content out of news feed, in theory, to reduce their regulatory threat to them has been terrible. First they lured everybody into the system, then pulled the rug out from underneath them. To me, one way or the other, not both, right. Total bait and switch that was. Total bait and switch. Media companies decided im not going to build out all this infrastructure. Facebook is the way you get to everybody and then facebook changed that. What happened was google first and facebook privatized the open web. It used to be that everybody was quas equal on the global web. Then they realized people would adopt the free programs, and then they could control the audience. I look at that and i go that was incredibly clever by google and facebook. But at the same time not in the public interest. Tina you have run a lot of different Media Companies of all different shapes is sizes. If someone said it is note going to happen because Mark Zuckerberg doesnt need to go anywhere but if they said run facebook, fix it what would the obvious fix be . They have to ask themselves what their morale ethos is. Im impressed with the ceo at uber. He is coming i think they need an swirl new management at facebook. I do. I think somebody needs to come in as dara has. We havent forgotten kalanick was a crazy cowboy over there. We dont talk about uber nip. They have cleaned it out, all the top management. They have produced a new set of norms and established a new working ethos. Zuckerberg has apologized i think six times since 2006. Im really sorry. Yes, we did this. Cambridge analytic, they just said oh, yes we thought they deleted it. No oversight. Sheryl sandberg is chief operating officer. What is underneath her . Why has there been a sloppy ethical approach to this company. I would clean out management and start again with a new ethos at facebook. But the structure, the way facebook is built, Mark Zuckerberg is going to control this forever. And it importantly we have talked about this before, ali, they have a very unusual culture in that mark is a cult leader and and sheryl is the cult leaders right hand person. Its almost as though the management is sitting on top of the giant loaf of bread. And there is an aerial sticking up out of the top and a million miles up in the air are mark and sheryl. There is a cult of personality around him. In my mind the reason these hearings are important is not because they are going the lead to legislation but like water against a rock they erode the cult of personality. I think there is a chance that mark becomes more human and he and sheryl say you know what we can be on the right side of history. We are billionaires, exceeded our wildest dreams. What are they playing for now . Why not be heroes. Thats smart. They can retool the whole thing. The thing is only mark has the authority to make those changes. My great hope is that the process hes going through now will lead to something better. But i have to be honest with you i didnt see it at these hearings. He was basically stalling to get through the hearing. He was well trained. Beautiful media training, excellent performance. Thanks to both of you. What atry treat to see you both. Tina brown is the founder and ceo of tina brown live media and founder of women in the world. And roger mcnamie snim up next, House Speaker paul ryan announces he is not seeking reelection joining the dozens of republicans who made it known they are retiring ahead of the 2018 mid terms and coug up a struggle within the gop of who is going to take the helm of the very divided party. Any minute now we will be hearing from press secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders. We will bring that to you as soon as it gets started. Regularly with our ameriprise advisor. We plan for everything from retirement to college savings. Giving us the ability to add on for an important member of our family. Welcome home mom. With the right financial advisor, life can be brilliant. Moderate to severe Rheumatoid Arthritis was intense. My moms pain from i wondered if she could do the stuff she does for us which is kinda, a lot. And if that pain could mean something worse. Joint pain could mean joint damage. Enbrel helps relieve joint pain, and helps stop further damage enbrel may lower your ability to fight infections. Serious, sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma other cancers, nervous system and Blood Disorders and allergic reactions have occurred. Tell your doctor if youve been someplace where fungal infections are common. Or if youre prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for Heart Failure or if you have persistent fever, bruising, bleeding or paleness. Dont start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. Since enbrel, my moms back to being my mom. Visit enbrel. Com. And use the joint damage simulator to see how joint damage could progress. Ask about enbrel. Enbrel. Fda approved for over 18 years. S sds. This is my 20th year in congress. My kids werent even born when i was first elected. Our oldest was 13 years old when i became speaker. Now all three of our kids are teenagers. What i realize is if im here for one more term, my kids will only have ever known me as a weekend dad. House speaker paul ryans announcement that hes retiring at the end of this term sent shock waves through washington. Ryan joins 24 other republicans announcing they will retire at the end this term. 13 House Republicans are leaving to run for the senate or another office. President trump tweeted about paul ryan he is truly a good man and will leave a legacy of achievement that no one can question. Garrett haake joins us from capitol hill. I have been listening to your reporting today. Maybe a surprise to much of america. Not necessarily a surprise in the halls of congress. No. I think thats right. You talked to republican members earlier today. They said they were not terribly surprised by this. Being speaker is a hard job and a job that paul ryan never really want. It was foisted upon him when john boehner left and there was in other clear successor who could unite the problem. I believe paul that it has too do with his family. He has young children. When you are the speaker you are gone all the time. Either here, on codels, raising nun. What is important is you are seeing a changing of the guard particularly in the house of representatives taking another big step today with paul ryans announcement toward becoming more completely more donald trump. Whoever the next speaker of the house is will be a much bigger trump supporter than paul ryan ever was. Heres Steve Scalise one of the two most likely republicans to take that job. We are going to make sure we keep moving the agenda. Get our economy back on track. Working with President Trump to do that. Thats not going to stop. We have to keep the House Majority so that pelosi isnt the speaking again. Run against pelosi will remain popular for as long as pelosi is in this congress. Sort of hugging donald trump as part of your platform is something we are going to see more of from House Republicans continuing to run. As for raus who are retiring we heard a little bit of this from charlie dent. I hope we have time to squeeze the sound byte in. I think it is important. There is a lot of weariness and a lot of exhaustion. Its going to be a challenging year. The litmus test of being a republican is not about a given sets of eye daels or principles its about loyal tee to the man. Charlie dent saying what republicans think privately. Laying out the topography if you will, of paul ryans decision today and fascinating to watch what happens in the house going forward. Right now we are waiting for White House Press secretary schwarzenegger briefing. It was expected to be at 3 30. The press briefing has been rescheduled to 3 45. It could happen at any minute now. We are expecting details on how the u. S. Will respond to the chemical attack in syria because we have passed the president s 48hour deadline. Halle jackson is standing by for us. Mr. Mattis got to the white house at 1 11 p. M. And just left after spending more than two hours inside. Joining me cal perry, hans nichols is at the pentagon for us and from the White House Briefing room halle jackson. Halle, we will get to you first because you may have to sit down. What are you expecting . Given that jim mattis has departed, we do not expect him to be in the briefing. We are expecting Sarah Sanders. Im not expecting Sarah Sanders to tip her hat as to what the president has decided that said, earlier this week, President Trump said he would make a decision. At this point, given his tweets this morning, it seems as though the president is threatening a decision. He seems to be threatening this missile strike against syria and putting russia on notice. I spoke with one white house official within the last hour who emphasized the importance of making sure they are in close contact with allies, the National Security apparatus is closely advising the president as well. He has dinner with congressional leadership later on tonight. Presumably this will come up as well. But at this point it seems as though all signs point to something happening. It is a question of what and when. Im sure hans can lay out some of the military options there. Experts say there are two or three main ones. We way get guidance from schwarzenegger on that. Im also interested to hear what she has to say about the relationship between Vladimir Putin and donald trump. Right now the president has two things that seem to be burning him up. One is whats going on in syria and other is the raid on his Lawyers Office, Michael Cohen and the musings about firing Rod Rosenstein or mueller. In all the deliberations going on today what is taking precedence . Ill let the pundits talk about what might be playing into the rests mind there. I can tell you what i know based on our reporter here in the white house unit which is that those two thing are discrete sets of facts. The president is contemplating this decision on syria. We know that. The president is upset, very upset, and publicly upset with his Justice Department and with the raid on Michael Cohens office. We know that he is feeling intense pressure based on what we hear from from our sources related to the special counsel investigation. And i think that was all delineated, the sort of mashup of these two huge stories for donald trump in that series of tweets this morning when he talked about both. Alhalle stand by until you c. I know you may have to leave. Hans, what is your inclination . I think we need the know what happened in the meeting at the white house. Im looking to Sarah Huckabee sanders to clarify whether or not the team from the haig are in in or out of syria. We know we were deployed. We know there has been no comment where they are and when they will be leaving until they are outside of syria. The crucial question is does the u. S. Intelligence have an official outline of what sort of chemical weapon was used that will give us an indication that the team is out of syria and the severity of the likely response. We been talking about it all day, ali we what we hearing here is proportional, deterrence, and sending a clear message. This is not about regime change. No one is talking about that here a the pentagon. They are talking about proportional responses to deter future use of chemical weapons. Lets he a talk about the various end goals. We are not looking at as hans said at replacing the assad regime. If this is a civil war, the assad regime has won, and done so with the support of the russians and the iranians. What is the National Security interest here that gives us the reason to reach out and strike syria . We are sending a message chemical weapons cannot be used, chlorine shouldnt be used on a civilian population. What is the National Security interest here . People are going to be asking that question. The other question is as hans said, the variety of options are going to range from striking a target in striking a command and control center or as we did a year ago. Striking an air field that doesnt have planes or people. That is the question, what do we do in that place. Hans, were getting more and more information as the intent to do something has been telegraphed. The syrians are effectively moving a lot of their material and troops around. That limits option, right. I do believe they took out some aircraft in that strike last year. They made a decision not to hit the runway because it was explained to President Trump, building and rebuilding a runway, the cost of concrete. That is not a great use of a Million Dollar tlamb, tomahawk missile. As the Syrian Regime is able to move assets around, it limits the targeting options that they could potentially come up with. They are always thinking of military options. They didnt just start thinking about this. They are constantly providing options. Thats what they do all day long. I suspect theyre pretty creative and the menu of options theyre going to give the president or have given the president. Again, we dont know where this stands. We know that as of around 11 30 secretary mattis said no decision had been made. He said that in so many words. Earlier this morning the president said clearly missiles are going to be flying. We dont know the proportion on response or the timing. It is unlikely an attack happens while that Chemical Weapons Team is still inside of sear yachlt well be staying close on this. Cal perry, hans nichols, Hallie Jackson in the briefing room. Well let you know when we get the briefing. Well continue to monitor it. More on something we mentioned earlier in the show. There has been a Huge Development in the attempt to regulate Tech Companies today but it had nothing to do with facebook. President trump signed a bill that targets websites and Tech Companies that enable sex trafficking here in the United States. In particular the trafficking of minors. The law is designed to allow state prosecutors and victims to sue social Media Networks and online advertisers who knowingly keep trafficking material on their sites. Now, before those companies were protected because the material was posted by a thirdparty. This law changes that protection. Today signing was a huge victory for many of the women and families who have been fighting for years to stop sex trafficking online. At 1. 1 of the women involved in the event broke out into a little dance. Another woman who lost her 16yearold daughter to trafficking became emotional as she shared her story. It means so much to our family. To lose your child who has been trafficked, which is modernday slavery in our country. And the law has already had an impact. Even before it was signed it led to the shutdown of backpage. Com. It was an Online Market place where you could sell old clothes or couch. It was a destination for Human Trafficking and prostitution. Last friday the Justice Department seized the site and charged seven people with crimes including facilitating prostitution, conspiracy to facilitate prostitution and money laundering. Joining me mao now is a man who helped stop enabling traffickers. Senator portman was in the oval office when the president signed the bill. Congratulations, senator. You and i talked about this months ago. This is something you and your colleagues in the senate have spent a lot of your time and currency getting done. How do you feel . Ali, it feels good. It is a victory for the victims and survivors of trafficking. Thank you for following the story. When we first started on this a few years ago as you recall, we were told there was very little chance we could be successful primarily because the Tech Companies were opposed. I believe they were opposed because they thought this was much more broad reaching than it actually is. Its a very narrowly crafted statute. It deals with sex trafficking only and it has a standard of knowing. In other words, you have to be knowingly involved, supporting, engaging in sex trafficking. But its had an enormous impact. The website shut down. More than twothirds of the trafficking websites have gone off line now. It is because theyre worried about the lawsuits. Not just from the local prosecutors and states attorneys general who can now sue them for the first time but also because of the victims ability to have their day in court. The websites hid behind the Decency Communications act. It was written at a time when we didnt know what was going to be on the internet. Even the companies that werent involved directly, but a lot of Tech Companies said once you go down this road its a slippery slope and you people in congress will end up doing damage to the Free Internet because you dont really know how to manage it. The concept that you took a thin slice and were able to regulate it around something i think we can all agree is abhorrent, sex trafficking particularly of minors, i think is a good precedent for the world were in right now where were going to have to figure out regulation of the internet on other levels as well. I think youre absolutely right. As you know because you follow this story, the reason that we gott got engaged in this several years ago, we were hearing increasingly back home that trafficking was increasing. Here we are in this country in this century seeing more sex trafficking than ever. Why . The experts all agree it was because of the online presence. The ruthless efficiency of online trafficking of women and children. And so we had to go here because this is where the problem was. And well see what happens, but my view is that, you know, this will stem some of the increase, of course, but also actually save future generations of, you know, women and girls and boys from being trafficked. And it does it in a way i think is very sensible. With regard to the concern about the internet freedom, i share that concern. In fact, we keep in our legislation Good Samaritan provision. If youre on a site trying to clean up your site, trying to edit your site to help deal with this issue, you are protected from the Good Samaritan provision. It is a safe harbor for you. If they were to do it on a street corner, you wouldnt want them to do it online. Senator, i have to remind people this is a bipartisan effort you and your democratic colleagues worked together to get this done. So, thank you for that. Senator, i have to ask you about all the deliberations we have right now, about syria. Youre on the Foreign Relations committee, homeland security. What are your thoughts right now . Ali, i think we need to respond and i think we need to respond in international manner. In other words, i think it would be likely that if we have some of the arab countries joining us, some of our European Countries joining us well be much more successful avoiding this ever happening again. We need to step forward and respond, but lets international ize it to the extent possible. I think its actually quite possible to do that because it seems to be seems to me there is an International Outrage of what is going on, as there was last time, as there was the time before when we didnt act. But my hope is that in addition to our nato allies we can actually get some of the countries in the region to participate as well. Senator, you come from ohio where youve given up many young people in the various wars weve had over the years. Theres a lot of difficulty and fatigue that americans have with wars. Are you concerned that its hard to get out of these things . This sounds like the kind of thing that might be easy to do, but you know, a year ago we tried something but it didnt seem to dissuade bashar alassad. Well, it seemed to persuade him at the time because he told us that he was getting rid of all his chemical weapons and the russians, as you know, confirmed that. It didnt happen so i think what we need to do is once again send a strong statement not just from america again. It needs to be an international statement. And i agree with you ali, there is a certain weariness about war. All the more reason for us to go in with a posse, not just go in as the lone ranger. I think that is very important in syria, but also in other parts of the world. Whats your, whats your advice right now . Everybody is soliciting advice at the white house. What do you think the best course of action would be . Something limited, something that we wait a little longer on so we can get more allies into it . What are you thinking . I would be more deliberate. Lets take our time. I dont mean a matter of weeks, a matter of days. But lets take our time to get all the facts, to get as many of our allies as possible engaged in this, provide them the facts. My understanding is from what i know about this is its very clear who was involved and who is responsible. But lets do it right. And i think it can be relatively limited to the extent possible if we can target as we did last time the perpetrators, that would make sense as well. Senator, thanks for joining me. And again were talking about an important topic but i want to remind people of the success of the work that you and your fellow senators did in getting this bill that was signed by President Trump today to get sex trafficking off of the internet to the extent that it is possible to do so. So, thank you for that. Senator rob portman, always good to talk to you. Rob portman of ohio. Lets look at the markets as trading winds down for the day. We are in lower markets giving up 9 10 of a percent, unclear what that is about. We are obviously talking about a strike on syria and that sometimes has markets a little bit worried. I cant really tell you what this is all about, but you can see through the course of the day that market has been below the break even level all day. Its moved up and down a fair amount. That brings this hour to a close for me. Im going to see you right back here at 11 00 p. M. Eastern on the the 11th hour. You can see me on social media, facebook, twitter, snapchat. Thank you for watching. Deadline white house with Nicolle Wallace starts right now. Hi, everyone. Its 4 00 in new york. Buckle up. We come on the air with breaking news about the president s fixer and lawyer Michael Cohen, and that search warrant for his home and offices that led to the fbi raid on monday. The New York Times breaking the story just over an hour ago that the access Hollywood Tape and possible efforts to suppress, quote, damaging information about mr. Trump are under scrutiny by federal investigators. From that New York Times report, the, quote, fbi agents who raided the office and hotel of President Trumps lawyer on monday were seeking all records related to the access Hollywood Tape in which mr. Trump was heard making vulgar comments about women. According to three people who have been briefed on the contents of a federal search warrant. The times adds, its not clear what role, if any, mr. Cohen played regarding the tape which was made public a month before the election, but the fact that the agents were seeking documents related to the tape reveals a new front in the investigation into