syrian forces that was launched from the base that was struck tonight by 50 to 60 tomahawks. those photographs were from the attack monday. the horrific attack using chemicals. jim, you said it s likely to be both the president and other officials briefing the nation? we re going to get some kind of briefing. the president will come out and make a brief statement about what has occurred in syria tonight. he s not going to present all the details that these other senior administration officials can provide. the president is not only
happened with this president. you mentioned a few moments ago that the president is getting ready to talk to reporters at mar-a-lago. we can point out that at the president hold area as we call it just outside of the mar-a-lago resort i can tell you inside that briefing room reporters are staged there is another area being set up for what appears to be a separate briefing that occasionally happens where senior administration officials will come in and brief reporters after a president speaks on a national crisis or some sort of big foreign policy development that s come up. it appears that you re going to hear from other administration officials talking tonight about what occurred over there in syria. i want to point out the images we were showing you were from the attack on monday by
strike from the area where the weapons were launched. it appears that the president is indicating in these comments that he ordered this attack on the site where these weapons were laufrnched by the syrian government against those civilians on monday. the president making brief comments, but as i was saying earlier this is the president really kind of setting the stage getting the broad highlights in terms of what happened tonight. we expect to hear from other senior administration officials. this is not a situation where the cameras go into the white house and everything is able to come out live into all of our viewers out there so that is why you re seeing the president make these comments to reporters at mar-a-lago. that video is now in route to some kind of feeding operation
congratulate our men and women in uniform. i don t believe this is a message. i believe this is actually a tactical action that furthers an objective. my guess is and i think you ll see confirmation, the airfield which is where these attacks were launched from a couple of days ago is going to be the target and that is the airfield from which the chemical attacks were launched. it s a critical point in a part of the country where they are battles rebels in the southern part of syria. as i said, i think this is an important decisive step that was taken. it is not a message. it is a degrading of the capability of the syrian regime to carry out further chemical attacks against innocent civilians. this will degrade their capability to launch those attacks from the air and i think it was important step and hopefully it s part of a comprehensive strategy. when you talk about a comprehensive strategy would you like to see more urgent air
these have a range of a thousand miles plus. they fly relatively fast, but not as fast as you might think that some other missiles do. they would have launched them sometime ago. i cannot tell you exactly when. one of the reasons is is it safe to assume they have already struck their targets. reporter: i don t know that all 50 have, but they are telling us they launched 50 and you raise a good point we need to find out if they all actually struck the targets they aimed at. sometimes these missiles go astray. i m going to check back with you. joining us from the capital is marco rubio. he s a member of the senate foreign relations committee and he s been critical of the approach to syria in the past. what is your reaction tonight to the news of this struck that president trump has launched. my first reaction is to