footprints, as people say. but he s basically staffed by a politically minded top aide, and a press aide. and formerly with newt gingrich and a couple of other people. but not career diplomats with the one exception of undersecretary tom shannon who is a holdover. our conversation obviously, john, kes place in the wake, the aftermath of the cruise missile attack on the airstrip in syria. i want to play for you part of the president s motivation had erepeated today. we ll talk about it on the other side. they could have merged that attack last week without the russians knowing. i think it s certainly possible. i think it s probably unlikely. and i know they re doing investigations into that right now. i would like to think that they didn t know. but certainly, they could have.
differential gags allegations. this is classic russians misdirection and trying to change the topic. the particularly rich part of this is sergei lavrov saying this is an illegal. the cruise missile attack was somehow illegal from the united states. this country just annexed an entire region from the country. crimea. the russians are coming from a different perspective. if we think the administration can tell russia they are on the wrong side of history. you need to come to our side, that is not how the russians think. the russians think the west and the united states are quaint when we make arguments like that. phil, i respect steve hall. you have done the same thing offering the code. no matter what, the intel people are professionals. is there a risk of erosion of
administration, and we are covering a number of stories. we should lay them out this way. first, the pentagon today talked about the success of the cruise missile attack on that syrian airfield. the u.s. secretary of state is in russia. the washington post is reporting that trump campaign aide carter page was under surveillance for contact with russian agents and was the subject of a federal court warrant. and today during passover, the white house press secretary said hitler, unlike assad in syria, did not use chemical weapons on his own people. they were instead taken to what he called holocaust centers. we didn t use chemical weapons in world war ii. you know, you had a you know, someone as despicable as hitler, who didn t even sink to using chemical weapons. hitler isn t even sink to the level of using chemical weapons.
will rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocent anywhere in the world, what does that mean in terms of our policy? well, it s confusing. the administration has had trouble sticking to one message, because they are struggling for a strategy. when you see these statements you re looking at an administration trying to find its way forward. it was appropriate last week. it was the right decision for president trump to launch the cruise missile attack because of the use of sarin gas. frankly, they ought to be sending the message, they may be, any repeated use by assad of chemical weapons will meet with another attack by the united states. the broad statements particularly by rex tillerson in italy and sean spicer, they are impossible to implement in this
these mixed messages is stark. what tillerson said at the g 7 was not regime change. they want asad out, but through the political process. it was no different, frankly, from what john kerry and barack obama were saying in the previous administration that there should be negotiations in geneva and that s the way to get him out. a lot more mainstream than what was originally said. they can hardly hold an election. but what about the confusion of different voices on strategy to syria? it is a real problem. the administration seems a little built adrift. now they just changed their position last week when they used force against syria. i supported that, the cruise