president trump is set to meet with senior military leaders just a few minutes from now. he says all options are on the table after earlier today he condemned the suspected chemical attack this syria and said his administration would be making major decisions on how to respond in the next 24 to 48 hours. we will have much more on that, including the president's unprecedented criticism of putin. but first, the other news that's breaking right now that's tied to russia in a whole different way. the fbi raided the law office of michael cohen, president trump's long time personal lawyer today in manhattan. according to cohen's lawyer, the fbi was acting on a referral by special counsel robert mueller and empowered by search warrants from u.s. attorneys in the southern district of new york. according to the "new york times," the fbi seized e-mails, tax documents, and business records from cohen's office. thetimes says the seized reports include communication with president trump. the move today by the fbi acting on a tip from the special counsel's office raise as lot of of review and approval and scrutiny not by one different part of the department of justice but by several when you are going to do a search warrant of an attorney's office. i can tell you from personal experience that the department of justice frowns upon doing search warrants of lawyers' offices unless that evidence really cannot be obtained somewhere else. and they take it extremely seriously. there is extraordinary review of those types of search warrants. yes, i expect that mr. trump and mr. cohen will raise attorney-client privilege with respect to many of the documents. there are all sorts of procedures usually that are put into place in these kinds of searches. they are referred to commonly as a wall team. so you will have a separate team of agents and prosecutors who are not involved directly in the investigation that's being conducted. those agents and prosecutors known usually as the wall team, they will review the documents that are taken, and the communications that are taken first, to ensure that only things that are not covered by the privilege are passed on to the investigative team. that way, the investigative team never sees any potentially privileged communications or documents and are not tainted by it. so they wouldn't later have to get off the team because they are -- have seen some kind of privileged documents. so i'm sure that there will be arguments raised about it being privileged. i'm sure there will be all sorts of people saying, you know, that this violates the attorney-client privilege but there are so many ways -- not so many. but there are important ways and exceptions to the attorney-client privilege that i am guessing apply here that will, you know, be responses to those arguments. >> mimi, this is the southern district of new york that conducted this rate. it is not the special counsel's office. it was a referral by the special counsel's office as we understand it. while it's not the special counsel's office, what does this mean for the special counsel investigation? who could it mean for somebody like rod rosenstein maybe? >> i think it could mean a couple of different things rmtd part -- different things. we know some of it relates to the stormy daniels payment. it will be interesting to see, though, what other possible -- if there is tax fraud lists, what other kinds of possible criminal violations they are looking at. and possibly, those will all remain within the soruthern district of new york's investigation. if they become relevant to the russia probe they could always be received back over to that probe. i think it's interesting because, you know, any moves now that trump would try to take to fire rosenstein or mueller, to try to lessen the impact of the russia probe, would really be weakened now by the fact that there is this separate investigation going on in the southern district of new york that seems like a pretty significant investigation given what happened today. >> mimi hang on for us if you can. i want to bring in tom winter, who is also on this story here for us at nbc news. we just got a note from the investigative team. they went over to the regency hotels where michael cohen has been staying because a water pipe burst in his home and the doorman said that the fbi is still there. they called up to michael cohen's room and a woman answered, said it was michael cohen's wife. when asked if the fbi was still in the room, the woman hung up. we have the regency where michael cohen is staying. we are also led to believe they could have raided his actual home where that work is being done. then they came here to 30 rock, where his law office is. he has been partnering with a law office and working out of here. moved everything from his trump tower location we presume. we also went to trump tower. as we know the fbi did not go there. i think it would be complicated to go there at the moment. what are they looking for? what did they find? >> based on the reporting of myself and my colleagues our understanding is the heart this search is tied to a possible payment involving stormy daniels. she's the adult fim actress what has recently been in the news who said she had an affair with the president and received a $10,000 payment. under her legal name, stephanie clifford. we believe the bulk of this search is tied to possible payment from michael cohen the president's personal attorney just before election day to stormy daniels. that's kind the basis of this search. this is the second known time that mueller's office has come across a possible crime and they have referred it to the southern district of, no. the first time was a story we broke here at nbc news involving an investigation into paul manafort and a chicago banker and a quid pro quo between the two in order the get mr. caulk a position this the trump white house or some part this administration. this is not -- i don't think we are in unusual waters but this is something we have seen before. >> there are reports out there that the president is watching the news conference of his long time friend, can have can't, fixer attorney michael cohen being raided. when we are talking about pardons -- we have been talking about that in the case of paul manafort -- he can't pardon michael cohen for a state crime if the state of new york finds him guilty of a crime. i many we are jumping ahead had. they haven't done that yet. this is just a search warrant. but talk about why this could potentially inoculate a section of the mueller investigation. >> right now actually it can't. at this point this is still a federal investigation. >> got night while the prosecutors are based here in manhattan it's known as the southern district of new york. it's this particular district in new york state but it is a federal investigation. >> got it. >> at this point the president would have some purview over that. the manhattan d.a.'s office has investigation into paul manafort and business transactions and maybe some other areas and the attorney general in new york schneiderman has investigations in similar matters. those investigations to your point would be protected if there ever were charges brought from any sort of presidential pardon. at this point this would fall under the president's purview. we cannot underscore enough this afternoon that federal investigators found enough probable cause to go to a judge, get a search warrant, and sent fbi agents in. there was no announcement. this is not something where they send you a s&p or call you up and say you are going to get a notice we want your e-mails from last november and you are lawfully bound to send them over to us. this is they are taking the reports. we will fidel castro them at some point and return the originals at some point but they are taking all of them. this is a significant step. >> mimi, if you are still with us, as tom pointed out, this is an incredibly aggressive move by fbi agents by the southern district of new york. michael cohen has been friends for years, he is his confidante, his fixer. he has told me in the past that he would take a bullet for trump. and i have every reason to believe that he would. he is very sincere when he talks about the president. i haven't heard him ever utter a single even remotely negative thing about him. he's very protective of the president of the united states. he has always been that. for them to get as close or that close to someone as close to the president, what does that say to you? >> well, i think it's going to be interesting to say, as i said before, what the crimes are that they are looking at. certainly it's going to be the campaign finance -- possible campaign finance fraud. but my hunch is it's more than that. it's in large part to be about the payments to stormy daniels. it may not be only campaign finance. by need to find out -- we need to find the source of that money that was paid to her. there would be -- you know, the scope of this search suggests to me that there may be other crimes that he's going to be possibly looking at. so if that's the case -- not that campaign finance sit in and of itself it serious violation, but if there are other serious federal crimes like you know money laundering, tax fraud, he could be -- mr. he coulden could be looking at some real trouble. and you know, we see -- have seen what happens with people under federal investigation who are facing a lot of criminal exposure. many do end up cooperating. even people against their own family members. so i understand that he has a lot of loyalty to mr. trump but you never know. >> tom? >> katy, i have been trying to think for the last ten or 15 minutes here, the only other person i believe that we know that an fbi court authorized search has been conducted on is paul manafort. when you think of all the players in this case -- that's something we will go back and double-check but when you think about all the people that we have written about, talked about and the headlines that have filled your shows throughout the course of the year, to have only two people that have received this type of level of intrusion, it's court authorized, it's unlawful under the constitution, i think it's pretty significant. and obviously we know the world of trouble that paul manafort is in. that might ab little bit of a signal recording mr. cohen. >> i can't think of anybody more significant to raid right now than michael cohen unless you are look at donald trump's family. cohen has so much information about donald trump and such a long history and relationship. we should also know as of right now our latest guidance is michael cohen has not yet been interviewed by the special counsel. despite that he is a subject for the special counsel. at this point we know that people who have gone in for questioning have been asked about cohen. but the thinking around cohen and the trump orbit is hey if you haven't been interviewed by now and you are somewhat of a player in this things are not looking good for you. >> to continue on that, some peeks predicted this investigation was wrapping up or in its final days. i think when you start to look at you have a fresh search warrant that was executed today. we continue to have the dpran jury empanelled. we have knowledge of that based on some of the folks we have seen around here at the courthouse. i don't think that indicates that they are out of leads or a report is imminent but what they are doing versus what we know there is quite a bit of lax. >> this again, could not have anything to do with the president of the united states but could only what michael cohen did. certainly they have gathered some sensitive conversations indeed. thank you. ahead, much more on this breaking news. the fbi raiding long-time trump attorney michael cohen's office, also his hotel room over at the very least the stormy daniels case. we will break it down with tonight's panel next. ey. but for cyber criminals it's plenty of time to launch thousands of attacks. luckily security analysts and watson are on his side. spotting threats faster and protecting his data with the most securely encrypted main frame in the world. it's a smart way to eat lunch in peace. sweet, oblivious peace. it's a smart way to eat lunch in peace. alright, i brought in high protein to help get us moving. ...and help you feel more strength and energy in just two weeks! i'll take that. -yeeeeeah! ensure high protein. with 16 grams of protein and 4 grams of sugar. ensure. always be you. and it's also a story mail aabout people and while we make more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget... that your business is our business the united states postal service. priority: you welcome back to meet the mid terms. it's official. florida republican governor rick scott is running for senate. despite being a two term governor he's presenting himselves a a political outsider. >> i won't fit in in washington either. it's time to shake that place up. we don't need another politician in washington. it's full of politicians. and that's why it's broken. >> that senate run gives republicans a boost and gives the party a real opportunity to pick up a neat from bill nelson. scott is personally welly and will sink some of his own money into the race. that means democrats will likely have to spend millions to prop up nelson. remember, any democratic dollar that goes to florida is a democratic dollar that will not go to another state. good news for republican candidates around the country. democrats groups are up with digitate ads blasting scott. with the high stakes and a wealthy challenger, we could be looking at one of the most costly senate races in u.s. history. we'll be right back with "mtp daily" and more breaking news in just 60 seconds. dynamic lighting elevated comfort powerfully efficient and one more thing the world comes with it ♪you can go your own way... the 2019 jeep cherokee ♪ from only the thickest, juiciest heinz tomatoes. no one grows ketchup like heinz™. welcome back. let's bring in tonight's panel. gabe debenedetti and do you l-- zerlina maxwell. garee cohen, very chose to the president. why does it matter so much that his office would get raided. >> not justice his office but apparently his residence and his hole room. he's as close to the president as you can possibly get. when you have the president and members of his team saying this is not about me. i am not a target. when you have someone this close to him getting raided that sends a signal here. this is the president's personal attorney here. it shows not only people in trump's orbit but this is getting press close to the president himself andth on an issue that's not just u.s. are. a whole lot going on. everyone is waiting for something from the west wing. >> i imagine there is going to be some partisan bickering, that republicans loyal to the president will come out and say maybe that the fbi is overreaching and this is a witch-hunt. or the they may start tweeting he is a reputable. >> they knew they were going to be going into the field of attorney-client privilege. that's substantial that the fbi really feels they have to have something there. plus we can also find out if there is a pattern with donald trump and michael cohen paying off people in this manner. 10,000 off of a home loan? i mean, is that part of a pattern? that could be what mueller find out. >> is there an expense report process for these payoffs. >> lot of different things. we know it's not part of the mueller investigation. this is where donald trump put a line in the sand. it will be interesting to see if he is throwing thing at the tv or he will start tweeting away. >> it's not part of the special counsel investigation but this was tipped off by the special counsel. do you expect the president to start going after bob mueller after this? >> i do. i think as an american citizen today i'm worried about whether or not the president is going the fire bob mueller and whether or not the president is going to fire rod rosenstein who authorized or gave mueller the power in this action as well. this search warrant was not about russia. but michael cohen is related to russia. because as you recall, he was the point person who worked with felix aider who may or may not be an fbi informant working with bob mueller in terms of the moscow -- >> referring to the southern district. >> correct. this was not that but michael cohen is an important person with regards to the trump tower and moscow as well. >> they are going to pick up all kinds of things, pick up communications and you are going to pick up potentially michael cohen's passport and you are going to see for yourself was michael cohen overseas at the time that the dossier puts him overseas? were there communications behind the scenes. it feels like a lot of this could end up being hand over to the special counsel. >> absolutely. that's the reason why everybody is so on edge right now. we have no idea what's going to come out of this. it's an expansive search to raid someone's home and work and residence. there is a lot going into this here clearly we tone know what is going to come out of it. it would be something on russia, something on stormy daniels. drudge on the drudge report said earlier look at the clinton days. the star investigation started with billing records. look where it ended up. again he don't know where it is going. >> cohen has a real estate history in new york. >> sure. >> there is all sorts of ways that it could just focus on michael cohen and not focus on donald trump. >> he could be the collateral damage out of this eggs have. it's quite possible. just to follow up on what gabe said, again, i can't emphasize this enough. this is donald trump's personal attorney. the fbi really had to have it nailed down to get the warrant and be willing to take that kind of political risk. that is huge when it comes -- especially the southern district, which is someone that donald trump just appointed. >> there is a lot of questions why cohen didn't go to the white house. if he was so close to donald trump and done a good job in the trump organization blocking for him, why didn't trump bring him on in some capacity in the white house. there are a lot of theories. one of them would be that he would lose the attorney-client privilege that he maintain right now. >> absolutely. one thing that's important to remember, one thing that donald trump has consistently said listen, you can look into russia robert mueller but as long as no one starts looking into his business past or any other dealings he may have had personally. that is exactly what this is. and the fact that this originates with mueller even if he's not the one actually going through this is a huge problem for trump. and we should watch closely how he is reacting. >> we should also consider what sort of pashdones could come out of this. could any pardons come out of it. how far is michael cohen willing to take it. he has told me he would take a bullet for donald trump. i mean he is extraordinarily loyal to the man. there a scenario where you see the president trying to wipe this clean? if he does, what sort of ramifications will there be? >> that's possible but i think that the president would have a really hard time politically doing that i think certainly he has the authority and they are arguing that the president can pardon anyone he wants to attempt that's true but that doesn't mean that doing so will not then trigger elements that are part of the obstruction of investigation or that it could be a legal problem for them down the road. i also want to mention that i think bob mueller probably has donald trump's tax returns at this point considering all of the different search warrants that he has activated and the homes of the people he has searched. i think at this point it's safe to say he probably has that and that's definitely something that donald trump is going to be very alarmed in the white house and we should be concern that he might fire bob mueller as a result of that. >> how is the stormy daniels payment -- could it potentially become part of the mueller investigation? >> the mueller investigation? i don't think -- probably not. again, this wasn't a russia collusion. the only thing is it could dovetail into federal election committee rules. and he could -- but that kind of investigation typically is small unless it's -- unless it's actually done not just in a violation of the rules and regs but to obstruct justice. that could be different. that's where it could potentially go to mueller but i don't see that happening here. i actually think we may see something about again how michael cohen and trump officials may be funding not just this non-disclosure but others and wire money which will be a state issue. >> do you disagree? >> i don't necessarily disagree but we have to say it moves the stormy daniels story into a different realm. the reality is you have a lot of republicans saying i don't want to talk about that, that's a personal issue with the president. now that we know it is a serious legal matter. >> one thing is for certain. donald trump's circle around him is getting into a lot of legal trouble lately. >> swampy. >> very swampy. >> and those people that are close to donald trump are coming into all sorts of issues. at least some of them. gabe, zerlina, susan, stick around. watch your phones and the president's twitter if you can for me. ahead the president condemns the suspected chemical weapons attack in syria and for the first time calls out vladimir putin by name. could a military strike be coming within hours? witch... and presto your business is magically transformed? not quite. it takes a ground-breaking company like dell technologies. a 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( ♪ ) stop dancing around the pain that's keeping you awake. advil pm gives tossing and turning a rest and silences aches and pains. fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer with advil pm. with the cnbc market wrap. >> u.s. stocks closing well off their session highs. according to traders reports of an fbi raid on the office of trump's personal lawyer michael cohen contributed to that late-day decline. the dow up 46 points, wiping a 400-point rally in the final hour. the s&p rose eight points ask. the nasdaq picked up 35. wells fargo may feis a fine of up to $1 billion by the consumer protection bureau according to reuter's. the lender faces penalty abilities for reports of auto insurance and mortgage lending abuses. that's it from cnbc first in business worldwide. quite a lot of colleges to pay for though. a lot of colleges. you get any financial advice? yeah, but i'm pretty sure it's the same plan they sold me before. well your situation's totally changed now. right, right. how 'bout a plan that works for 5 kids, 2 dogs and jake over here? that would be great. that would be great. that okay with you, jake? get a portfolio that works for you now and as your needs change from td ameritrade investment management. people according to syrian activists and aid groups. a warning these pictures are difficult to watch. >> hundreds were killed and dozens were treated in duma near damascus. moscow's syria's staunchest ally sis there were no chemical weapons and calls the stories on the attack made up. >> we are studying that situation closely. we are meeting with our military and everybody else. and we will be making some major decisions over the next 24 to 48 hours. we are very concerned. when a thing like that can happen -- this is had humanity. we are talking about humanity. and it can't be allowed to happen. >> the administration is warning that there will be a big price to pay. >> i don't rule out anything right now. thank you very much ladies and gentlemen. >> u.s. military action is it off the table? >> nothing is off the table. nothing is off the table. >> folks, maybe the biggest development in this is that president trump, whose cozy relationship with russia is under strikeout me and who has been reluctant to criticize putin publicly attacked the russian leader by name. mr. twump tweeted yesterday quote president putin russian and iran are responsible for backing animal assad. today he hinted that there would be consequences. >> does putin bear responsibility for this? >> he may, yeah, he may. if he does it's going to be very tough. >> he will pay a price. >> he will, everybody will. if it's russia, if the it's syria, if it's iran, if it's all of them together, we'll figure it out. >> let's bring in former u.s. ambassador to iraq, and nbc news contributor chris hill. ambassador thank you for being here. john mccain had a pretty forceful statement about about linking the president's words, his past statements, to president aside becoming more bold in syria. president trump last week signalled to the world that the u.s. would rematurely withdraw from syria. assad and his iranian backers heard him. and launched another chemical attack against innocent men, women, and children. it sure sounds like he is placing the blame for this attack on the president's shoulders. do you agree? >> he sure is doing just that. and i think john mccain has been pretty clear on his views about trump in frarchly recent years. i think the real issue for trump is that he look at a situation on the ground where russia is very much in scotts there, where the iranians are there, and we are sadly, bashar al assad, the leader of syria, seems to be winning. in fact one of the arguments that assad made or his people made about this whole issue is why would he do that? what's the logic of that when he is already winning. sadly, because logic is not the most operative element in syria. i think despite and hatred plays a huge role. the question is what is trump going to do? i would expect he is going the try to stay close to the allies. i think the french have been particularly appalled by all of this. he has to stay close to them. but he has to do more than he did a year ago which people pointed out clearly did not deter assad. i think it is is going to be something more. as for theed a hom him in criticism of putin, i wouldn't put too much into that. let's see what comes in the coming days and weeks. he has to take some of this pressure off. had he not talked about putin that would have been an enormous omission. >> you mentioned last year. after the chemical attack that shocked the president last year, he launched air strikes on a military base. some folk at this time said while it was a good show of force it wasn't really going to change u.s. much because that military base wasn't entirely operational even though some planes had taken off from this to drop those chepcal weapons. if you think he needs to do what more what does that look like? >> the russians are essentially everywhere in syria. and i doubt he wants to get into a situation where american bombs start killing russians or russians start killing american pilots but i think it has to be more than what he did a year ago. what he did a year ago is reminiscent of what we went through in the balkans. the serbs would do something outrageous and we would hit them with what we called at the time pinprick bombing. i don't think he wants to be accused of anything more than that. i think it's going to be more but i doubt it's going to be to the degree that senator graham talked about today somehow taking out the syrian air force. i think to do that you would end up taking out some russians and i don't think he or the american people are really prepared for a kind of shooting war with russians. >> u.n. ambassador nikki hayley was pretty tough today. listen to what she said. >> we are beyond showing pictures of dead babies. we are beyond appeals to conscience. we have reached the moment when the world must see justice done. history will record this as the moment when the security council either discharged its duty or demonstrated its utter and complete failure to protect the people of syria. either way, the united states will respond. >> let's be honest, the u.n. is not going to do any, any resolution that mice pass, russia is going the veto. and they have got veto power. so they are kpleektly ineffective in this scenario. you have john bolton, his first day was today, the new national security adviser. always being described as a hawk. when it comes to syria back in 2013 when he was on fox news he advocated that president obama not do anything that congress not do anything until response to a chemical attack back then. do you think his calculation will have changed now that he's in this administration? >> i think it is a question of where you sit is where you stand. i suspect you will see a somewhat different john bolton than we have heard on fox news in recent years. i think he's got to be concerned about the president getting in over his head in the form of a kind of shooting war with russia. at the same time, he's got to be concerned about the accusations of fechlessness if we do just a pinpoint strike. they have got to do something in between. i hope they are on the phone with the allies, especially president macron of france who has been very clear that france doesn't want to stand by here. it would be a helpful exercise if the u.s. worked with other countries. >> i want to ask the he request, is anything going to chang? if there was a coordinated strike, is that going to defer assad from attacking his own people as he has the support of russia. >> he is on the cusp of winning this war. i don't think anything we are going to do is going to change the basic pact that he is going to win this war. >> ambassador chris hill thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> ahead, loretta lynch versus james comey. i've always wanted to have a photo exhibit of the faces of our community and those people that create the heart and the soul of where we live. directer: so i think we can make that happen oh my gosh, you're kidding me. introducing the suv equipped to make your first-ever happen. the first-ever ford ecosport is here. discover card. introducing the suv equipped ti justis this for real?match,. yep. we match all the cash back new cardmembers earn at the end of their first year, automatically. whoo! i got my money! hard to contain yourself, isn't it? 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>> i can tell you it was like a meeting like any other we had had where we talked about the issues. we had a full and open discussion about night he didn't raise any concerns about it? >> concern also not raised. >> you can catch more of lester holt's exclusive interview with the former attorney general tonight on "nbc nightly news." she talks about whether comey should have been fired, her tarmac meeting with bill clinton during the 2016 campaign. her stands on civil rights issues and more tonight on nbc. we are back with more "mtp daily" after this break. that's why at safelite, we'll show you exactly when we'll be there. with a replacement you can trust. all done sir. >> grandpa: looks great! >> tech: thanks for choosing safelite. >> grandpa: thank you! >> child: bye! >> tech: bye! saving you time... so you can keep saving the world. >> kids: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace ♪ with exciting new dishes like lobdueling lobster tails.r. and lobster truffle mac & cheese. classics like lobster lover's dream are here too. so enjoy these 10 lobsterlicious dishes now. because lobsterfest ends april 22nd. touch is how we communicate with those we love, but does psoriasis ever get in the way? embrace the chance of 100% clear skin with taltz. for people with moderate to severe psoriasis, up to 90% had a significant improvement of their psoriasis plaques. with taltz, 4 out of 10 even achieved completely clear skin. don't use if you're allergic to taltz. before starting, you should be checked for tuberculosis. taltz may increase risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection, symptoms, or received a vaccine or plan to. inflammatory bowel disease can happen with taltz, including worsening of symptoms. serious allergic reactions can occur. ready for a chance at 100% clear skin? ask your doctor about taltz. try it for as little as $5 a month. time now for "the lid." the panel is back. gabe debenedetti, sue an del parsio, zerlina mackwell. last year he got bipartisan approval for the attack on the err airbase. nothing changed. assad is still attacking his own citizens, killing babies. what can the president do that will change anything? >> i don't think the president can do anything at this point. i think that certainly he will go about it the way he did it before, which is go to congress. i think that's an appropriate strategy because it's dangerous for us to do us to do anything preemptively. it's not as if, as you said, this problem has dramatically changed since the last time we were talking about it. additionally, i'm very concerned when it comes to issues of foreign policy and this president. the national security infrastructure has obviously gone through some dramatic changes recently, with h.r. mcmaster leaving the white house and john bolton being put in place, which is very concerning, because he obviously has a completely different approach to these kinds of issues. so i think that the likelihood that the president goes to congress is lessened with john bolton, but not impossible. and i think it's probably the right strategy. >> well, as far as we know, he's meeting right now with his generals about what to do. earlier today, he sent a bunch of reporters that he could have a decision by the end of the day. you know, it's a really risky move. he campaigned on -- he campaigned on not being involved. but when you look at those images, how do you not get involved. >> if you remember around this time last year when we were having this similar conversation, he wasn't exactly clear what he was going to do. then he saw the images and said, we have to do something. and something similar may be happening now, although i don't want to speculate. but it's a moment of extreme flux in his foreign policy team. we are about to have confirmation hearings for a new secretary of state, cia director. there's a new national security adviser. but one of the reasons that this is such a complex issue for this president in particular is not just the humanitarian toll that's happening out there, but because of the role of russia and this is the first time you saw the president speak out against putin in the way that he did in his tweet the other day. but this raises a very complex situation because if he does crack down and if he does go for many strikes here, that is a more direct confrontation with putin, whose administration has said, don't go there. >> do you put stock in his criticism of putin? >> um, i mean -- it was big news that he did it, because he's never done it before, so publicly, but it's the actions that matter now. and i think we saw lindsynindse graham out on the sunday shows basically saying, you can't just tweet this. you must take action. and i think there's very little doubt that the president will take action. even though he just gotten off of a campaign saying, we have to get out of syria. and he took some heat saying that. but i think the president will make his decision and my guess is we'll see something similar to last year. >> and then another year, we'll see an attack on the people again and then we'll do something similar in perpetuity. it feels like we're -- what's the point? >> how many things can this president -- i mean, it's really, we're dealing with syria, talking about north korea happening in like two months' time, which is crazy. this president does not have the bandwidth to deal with so many issues on foreign policy. and i agree with serlina, when it comes to the president's authority, on domestic policy, there's a lot more checks and balances than there are when it comes to his foreign policy. and frankly, it's a really scary time now and we just don't know when he will unravel. like, michael cohen, this could have him spinning off for hours as he's trying to make this decision. and that frightens me. >> and we know john kelly has very little influence over him any longer if you read the reporting the from "the washington post." all right, facebook on capitol hill. mark zuckerberg testifying tomorrow. he's on this apology tour. i was speaking with senator bill nelson earlier today and he met with him privately and i said, are you buying the apology? and he very deftly skirted around that answer and said, you know, he did tell me what he's going to do, but i don't think it's enough. >> well, it was a good day for mark zuckerberg, after this latest news broke, he's no longer the top headline. there are a lot of people within -- >> what does that say when bombing syria because they've attacked their citizens with sarin gas is -- it's good for mark zuckerberg, because he's now on, you know -- >> i actually thought you meant the michael cohen stuff. >> or the michael cohen stuff. >> perhaps we shouldn't go that far. but what i'm saying -- >> it feels like it must be pretty freaking bad for facebook if that's the bar. >> facebook clearly has a fairly large pr problem they're having to deal with right now. that's obviously while mark zuckerberg is on the hill, going through this pseudo apology tour. but he's going to be doing this for the rest of this week. we're going to see himti testifying. facebook is having to answer some real tough questions. but i think one of the tough ones to watch, he and other leaders of facebook have said, we're open to some regulation, it's a really good question about what that looks like, but what's the answer to the question question? >> i feel like while this is interesting to watch and interesting to see him under fire for this because they really just mishandled user information for their own financial benefit, what's going to change? >> here's the problem. he'll get slapped around a lot tomorrow and it will be a bipartisan, you know, rumble, if you will. but these -- the officials, the senators are not capable of actually putting forth their own recommendations or even questioning him properly. they don't have the understanding of how this whole -- how the facebook works, if you will. so there's talk about, if it has to be regulated differently. does it get sent to a different agency? but the answers aren't going to come from the u.s. senate. >> susan, i believe you just took 15 more seconds of zerlina's time. >> but i owed you that time back. >> that's right, a 2:00 p.m. inside joke. you'll have to watch the 2:00 p.m. to find out about that. gabe, zerlina, and susan, thank you very much. happy monday. coming up, starting today, "meet the press" has a new audio briefing for you every afternoon and it's called "the lid." our msnbc news political department will run down the most important stories in politics. the lid is available every afternoon on your amazon-enabled alexa devices. average lasagna? 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