Regime was trying to destroy and cover up evidence of the chemical attacks. last night there were 12 to 100 russian military personnel at the syrian air base when the u.s. military struck. that according to those defense officials that just briefed here at the pentagon. the all is military took efforts not to hit the barracks. they don t believe there were any russians killed. the u.s. said they gave russia an hour heads-up. about 20 syrian aircraft were destroyed at the base, shep. shepard: what do we know about the timing on when the president decided to take the strike? we re told yesterday at 4:30 eastern time after being briefed but the national security team at mar-a-largo, he took the decision. general mattis and his national security adviser flew down separately from their boss with the plan. 60 tom house missiles were launched from the eastern m
Kremlin. over the course of the last 24, 48 hours, all that has gone out the window. this is a president who is involved in setting a very bright yes, i ll use the expression red line in syria about the behavior of assad and his secretary of state and u.n. ambassador have taken on russia and talked about their involvement and complicity with the al-assad regime and attacks on civilians, a dramatic turn-around in trump foreign policy this week. shepard: have you learned anything about the next steps? the if then possibility. if assad carries out another attack like this, then what? i m told there s quite a split. i m told by a top u.s. official, there s quite a split inside the trump administration, that general mattis, secretary of defense is one of the hawks on this. in fact, wanted to take even
The president said it changed the way he views syria and bashar al-assad and we have the executive editor of fox news to talk about this live. good to see you. as we talked about there s so much on the agenda with china. north korea probably atop the list but there s more. i think what donald trump is experiencing right now is the difference between being a candidate and president. when you re president you have to be able to handle multiple alarming situations simultaneously and efficiently and his campaign rhetoric indicated he d take wild positions on anything he wanted to when he felt like it. shannon: and finding america s interest is complex when you look at the situation. their tentacles that feed to russia and iraq.
Continued support of the al-assad regime. neil: the secretary of state on, you know, what we do now in syria that we re going to do something, obviously, he and his boss are not telegraphing what that something will be. but arkansas senator tom cotton with us now. presumably we ll work with our allies in the region, maybe outside to do something should that be the first step. we should work with our allies where we can but we have to work alone if we must. the threats from syria are grave. president obama should have enforced the red line when he said that the use of chemical weapons would be a red line. he shouldn t have walked away at the time. now the world has seen another atrocity committed by bashar al-assad. it s these images that are the primary recruiting tool for the islamic state. president trump was very emotionally touched by this and he recognizes the deep u.s.
Take you live when the president speaks as well. when you kill innocent children, innocent babies that crosses many, many lines beyond the red line. many, many, lines. it s very possible and i will tell you it s already happened that my attitude towards syria and al-assad has changed very much. bill: the president making a shift towards syria after the chemical attack that killed 80 civilians. the al-assad regime claims it would never carry out such an attack. and senator, good morning to you. good to be with you. bill: no easy options here. what s the first step? well, i think the first step has happened. it s a tragedy. we ve known of the moral depravity of al-assad and i ve