look at russian foreign policy and the future of us russia relations hosted by the center for the national interest in washington dc. this is an hour and 40 minutes. >> welcome to the center for thenational interest . we are going to discuss an important but confusing subject. what does russia want, what does america need? based on what russia wants, there are a variety ofviews . we don't have any russians here but we have four very accomplished, quite knowledgeable american experts in russia who will present a variety of i would say institutional and political perspectives. then the second question which we are asking what does america need? that may be even more confusing because we are having this conversation let's say in december and we would assume that what america needs is defined by the winning trump team and we will probably give one answer. if we look at what the president is saying today, that was his issue to his advisor, secretary of state is saying today, we would give a very different answer. lots of possibilities of course with russian behavior has changed . and n

go on in the d.c. go oion in >> watch "after words." >> next, look at russia's influence in the middle east and u.s. policy.s this was hosted by the center for national interest. it is just over an hour and a half. we are going to discuss a new subject what does russia want? >> we don't have any russians here but there quite knowledgeable experts on russia. with the institutional and political perspective. in arabia caused even more confusion so what america needs we would probably give one answer. with as the nation's security advisor and with did a very different answer and then to change significantly and then another possibility president has discovered incriminating conduct regarding other american interests. this is a very important interesting topic. the director from georgetown university also with his books from the state department as a scholar and a practitioner sojourn of both russian government in the position if you want that perspective you will get it spirit these are too tough questions. so i will spend bedtime talking about what does russia want? if i were twee

of chemical weapons. and that russia should live up to its obligations. russia right now is an island. it is russia on north korea, syria, and iran. that is not something you want to be associated with. russia is among that group the only not failed state. nato.retary of the atlantic treaty organization. donald trump: secretary-general toltenberg, it is a pleasure welcome you to the white house, especially at such an important moment in our great alliance. i also want to acknowledge the great work being done by our secretary of state, rex tillerson, is a strength in this nato alliance as well as his trip to moscow to promote the security interest of the united states and its allies. he did a terrific job. i watched parts of it. he did a terrific job. 68 years ago, not far from where we are gathered today, president harry truman spoke at the signing of the north atlantic treaty. in the nearly seven decades since harry truman spoke those words, the nato alliance has been the bulwark of international peace and security . nato allies defeated communism and liberated the captive nat

center for national interests, their discussion on the influence of russia and u.s. russia foreign policy. >> very accomplished quite ,nowledgeable experts on russia a variety of institutional perspectives. the second question which we are asked in -- asking, what does america need? conversation this what america needs rumpefined by the winning t team. if we look at what the president is saying today, his secretary of state and security advisor, we would give a different answer. the russian behavior has changed completely. another possibility that president assad -- they did not pass the test, that is also a disability. another disability is that the president has discovered something new and incriminating about russian conflict or discover something important that we he was not aware of regarding and american anyway, this is a very important, interesting and difficult topic and i am looking forward to the conversation. we will start with -- director of the center for european russia and european and professor -- of georgetown university, who has written numerous books and articles

chemical weapons and the u.s. response as well as tensions between the u.s. and russia. this is a half hour. >> the big topic of the day, the syria, russia, north korea, china. ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states and secretary-general of the north atlantic treaty organization. president trump: thank you. secretary-general stoltenberg, it is a pleasure to welcome you to the white house, especially at such an important moment in our great alliance. i also want to acknowledge the great work being done by our secretary of state, rex tillerson, to strengthen this nato alliance as well as his trip to moscow to promote the security interest of the united states and its allies. he did a terrific job. i watched parts of it. he did an absolutely terrific job. 68 years ago this month not far , from where we are gathered today, president harry truman spoke at the signing of the north atlantic treaty. in the nearly seven decades since harry truman spoke those words, the nato alliance has been the bulwark of international peace and security. nato allies defeated communism and li

russi russ russ russ russia." today's forum is particularly timely. russia has experienced the worst crackdown in human rights in decades, and we have three keynote speakers who will be up first and all of whom are making a difference in their own way. they're strong outspoken advocates for freedom and basic human rights in russia. i'm going to introduce the first three. then we'll be having a panel afterwards which will be moderated by dr. polykova of the atlantic council. first, we'll be hearing -- i'm going to introduce all three. we're going to be hearing first from a maryland senior senator ben cardin, ranking member of the senate foreign relations committee, who just this week condemned the arrests of hundreds of peaceful demonstrators in moscow. he is a cosponsor of the global human rights accountability act, which empowers the united states to deny human rights abusers and also those corrupt officials entry into the united states and access to our financial institutions. following him, we'll be hearing from florida's senator marco rubio, also a member of the senate fore

hour ahead. let's get to it. this much, it's been removed. the u.s. and russia are not on the same page in syria and the future of the assad regime or just about anything else. secretary of state rex tillerson and the russian foreign minister just made that crystal clear in moscow. one of the only things they agree on is the u.s. relationship with russia is bad and in trouble. secretary tillerson said bashar al-assad must go after his most recent series of attacks on his own people with chemical weapons. >> the final outcome in our view does not provide for a role for the assad -- for assad or for the assad family in the future governance of syria. we don't think the international community will accept that. >> shepard: the foreign minute store lavrov called investigate ors to prove who was behind last week's chemical attack in syria. the russian minister gave a lecture and a stern one against u.s. policy failures about supporting regime policies in iraq, libya and elsewhere. >> this fixation on trying to oust this dictator and authoritarian leader is well-known for us and we know

together political leaders and commentators from the us, russia and the baltic states to ask how the relationship between donald trump and vladimir putin will develop. will it create a new world order that brings more threats than opportunities? the programme was recorded last week in the latvian capital, riga. riga, the capital of latvia. a baltic metropolis with a spectacular old town and one of the main draws is this building behind me. the venue for this edition of global questions. it is blackheads house. latvians had hoped they had put their turbulent history of occupations behind them. when theyjoined the european union along with fellow baltic states, lithuania and estonia. but russia's annexation of crimea has reawa kened concerns about moscow's ambitions and whether nato could protect them if russia were to interfere in their affairs. in the last few months, there has been a build—up of nato troops in the region, with british units leading the effort in estonia, close to the russian border. if moscow and washington were to reset relations, would that leave the baltic stat

to uphold their agreements and spoke about russia's role in syria. secretary tillerson is now in russia for meetings. sec. tillerson: good morning. i have a statement i want to share first and then i'm happy to take a couple of questions. assad regimee killed more of its people using chemical weapons. our missile strike in response was necessary as a matter of u.s. national security interests. we do not want the regimes uncontrolled stockpile of chemical weapons to fall into the hands of isis or other terrorist groups that could and want to attack the united states or our allies. nor can we accept the normalization that the use of chemical weapons by other actors in countries like syria or elsewhere. for the is grateful statements of our partners who have expressed support for our proportional response. , the unitedift states will continue to evaluate its strategic offerings -- options and ability to deescalate in syria. we want to produce stability and give the syrian people the opportunity to determine their own political future. ssadhope is a sought -- a will not be part of th

table and how long will the united states meet for russia to come around? and foreign minister lavrov, if i may, your government and the united states government seem to be miles apart on the syria issue, on ukraine and other issues. did you feel that you cleared up any of those issues you mentioned earlier today since you've had those discussions with secretary tillerson? >> we did discuss at length the future role for assad, whether it be a future political process or not. clearly, our view is that the reign of the assad family is coming to an end. and they have, again, brought this on themselves with their conduct of the war these past few years. we discussed our view that russia is their closest ally in the conflict, perhaps has the best means of helping assad recognize this reality. we do think it's important that assad's departure is done in an orderly way. so that certain interests and constituencies that he represents feel they have been represented at the negotiating table for a political solution. how that occurs, we leave that to the process going forward. we do not

before that as just another guy with a twitter account on nato, china, syria and russia, perhaps most vividly on russia, which has not been a quick 180 but a certain, well -- seems a complete 180. on nato donald trump said it was obsolete. president trump said it no longer is. donald trump said china was a currency manipulator. today he said it's not a currency manipulator at all. he urged against intervention in syria. today, of course, president trump called assad a butcher and holds out the possibility of more strikes. it's rather striking and it has been playing out in moscow as well as in washington. we begin this hour with michelle kosinski in moscow. >> reporter: four hours of crucial, contentious talks with russian officials, including an unscheduled meeting with president vladimir putin himself. secretary of state rex tillerson and russian foreign minister sergey lavrov finally faced the press. >> the current straight state of u.s.-russia relations is at a low point. there is a low level of trust between our two countries. the world's two foremost nuclear powers cannot h

$180 off hp printers. >>> to russia, but no love here. america's top diplomat heads to moscow as tensions over syria reach quite a high point. >>> north korea lashes out at the u.s. deployment of war ships to the region. the communist nation says it is ready to war. >>> and you may remember this pledge by then candidate donald trump? >> i love golf. si i think it's wup wi it's one of but i won't have time. i'll be working for you, i won't have time to play golf. >> well, there's a lot of time, apparently. and president trump is on pace to spend more on personal travel in one year than the entire obama administration. good morning, i'm john berman. >> and i'm poppy harlow. it's getting tense this morning. russian president vladimir putin firing off at the u.s. one day before secretary of state rex tillerson meets with his russian counterpart. tillerson right now in the air on his way to moscow for this high-stakes meeting with sergey lavrov. a short time ago he ripped russia and its steadfast support to have syria, even after last week's chemical attack on civilians. >> he condemn

we discussed us relations with europe and russia. in the trump ministrations policy on nato. with a former secretary general of nato. this is one half hour. >> joining us now we have rasmussen, the former nato secretary-general and also former prime minister of denmark. he is here to discuss the secretary of state, rex tillerson's speech today at the nato foreign ministers meeting and brussels as well as us relations with russia and the impact of brexit. thank you so much for joining us today. >> good morning. >> secretary tillerson is meeting with nato foreigná today. what are the top things in your opinion we should watch for in that speech? >> at the tomb messages are important. the first message should be the american commitment to defending all allies. there is a commitment -- secondly, i think european allies should commit to investing much more in defense. at my last summit as general we decided that in the next decade, all allies will reach a two percent, that is they will invest in defense of equivalent two percent of their total economic production. so these two messages

democracy now! pres. trump: right now we are not getting along with russia at all. we may be at an all-time low in terms of relationship with russia. amy: president trump warns relations with russia are deteriorating as u.s. accuses moscow of covering up the syrian government alleged role in last week's chemical attack that killed 87 people. meanwhile, russia is accusing the u.s. of raking international law by launching airstrikes against a syrian airbase. we will get the latest. calls are mounting for white house has a richer sean spicer to resign over comments he made about hitler. >> as despicable as hitler, who did not even sink to using chemical weapons. he was not using the gas on his own people the same way that a ssad is done. amy: we will get response from the anne frank center. all of that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. secretary of state rex tillerson has wrapped up a visit to moscow where met with russian president vladimir putin and russian foreign minister sergey lavrov. the meetings come at a time o

us missile strike on his country? good evening and welcome to bbc news. russia, an ally of syria, has condemned a missile strike authorised by president trump on a syrian government target. 59 tomahawk cruise missiles were fired from us warships in the mediterranean at the shayrat air base. it was from there, according to mr trump, that this week's deadly chemical weapons attack in northern syria was launched. in a moment, we'll get the latest on russia's response — and how the strike could affect the long war in syria. but first, here's our north america editorjon sopel and a warning, his report does contain some distressing images. it was after dark on the east coast of america and before the sun had risen in the middle east, when the commander—in—chief gave the order to strike. from two us warships in the eastern mediterranean, a volley of cruise missiles was fired, targeting a single military airbase outside homs that had been used, say the americans, by the syrian air force to launch the deadly chemical weapons attack on idlib earlier in the week. it was in this vital

rex tillerson's changed during rex tillerson's trip to russia. changed during rex tillerson‘s trip to russia. and the talks your shoe we re to russia. and the talks your shoe were pretty tense. that you assume. given the fact that america launched the attack on that air in syria last week. so the journalists and press waiting for the press conference in the next few minutes. hello and welcome to sportsday. i'm hugh ferris. the headlines — another leap into the unknown for leicester... the next chapter of their extraordinary story takes them to madrid. and a champions league quarter final with atletico. double formula one world champion fernando alonso will miss the monaco grand prix next month so he can race in the indianapolis 500. and success for gb on day one of the world track cycling championships in hong kong. hello again. massive underdogs they may well be but no—one thought leicester would win the premier league did they? so with that as their inspiration england's champions insist they can compete in their champions league quarter final. the first leg is in spain tonig

montague. just a few months ago, russia was congratulating donald trump on becoming president, and expressing the hope that both countries would take their relationship to a whole new level. now, moscow's relations with the us and the west are so bad that the russian prime minister dmitri medvedev talks of them as "ruined". that was after america's response to the recent chemical attack in syria. but even before that, there was the stand—off in ukraine, and accusations of russian interference in american elections. now there are fears the russians could meddle in the french elections and other european votes this year. my guest is vladimir chizhov, russia's ambassador to the eu. will russia promise not to pervert democracy in europe? vladimir chizhov, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. france's foreign minister jean—marc ayrault has accused russia of meddling in french democratic life. is that true? of course it's not. well, i'm afraid that this wave of anti—russian rhetoric has become contagious, and has spread across the atlantic ocean. that's very bad for our relations with o

russia. this is 30 minutes. >> secretary-general, it is a pleasure to welcome you to the white house it is an important moment in our great alliance. i want to it the great work being done by our secretary of state rex tillerson to strengthen the nato alliance, as well as the secretary's trip to moscow to promote the security interests of the united states and its allies. he did a terrific job. just watched parts of it and he did an absolutely part o terrifc job. not far from where we are gathered today, president harry truman spoke at the signing of the north atlantic treaty. in the nearly seven decades since harry truman spoke those words, the nato alliance has been the bulwark of international peace and security. nato allies defeated communism and liberated the captive nations of the cold war. they secured the longest period of unbroken peace that europe has ever known. this enduring partnership is rooted out of so many different things, but our common security is always number one. and our common devotion to human dignity and freedom. 1949, the nato member states have more than doub

tillerson. we have had a long conversation with the president of russia. the negotiations have proved to be substantial and very frank. they have comprised a gamut of issues of importance to power ballad and the introduction to the international community. we are aware of the current well of a relationship, as -- there are certain issues from the previous administration that have been inherited. we're being realistic and we understand the inevitable obstacles we have. we seek to do that. we understand how american counterpart will do this as well. our president confirmed we see that attempt as escalating a confrontation but we don't believe this is an approach. we do understand this is for the benefit of not just our nation, but the sake of the world. we have reaffirmed that we both seek to fight without any compromise in terrorism. this issue has been raised by our president and the course of the telephone conversation of april 4 when president trump called to express his condolences on the attack that had taken place in the context of fighting international terrorism. we are touched upon

was concerned that president trump might make what he called, quote, a cheap deal with russia, something along the lines of working with russia in syria against isis and permitting putin to get away with aggressive action in crimea and ukraine. did you at any point share that concern? >> my concern about putin's actions here and what we should do about it is referenced with the legislation that i passed through the house with elliott engall, my ranking member, to try to put additional sanctions on putin's russia and on iran as a consequence of their support here for assad. we're now bringing that bill up again, and this time i think we'll get it through the senate, and this time i think we'll get a presidential signature on it, so i -- i think everything is moving in the direction of additional sanctions. >> russia's foreign minister lectured secretary tillerson warning the u.s. not to conduct any more strikes in syria. are you at all concerned about a military confrontation with russia over syria? >> look, you can see how measured this response was, what effort was taken to m

relationship. us is angela stent, former russia and eurasia intelligence officer and teaches at georgetown university, the director of eurasian studies. what did you make of secretary of state tillerson's statement? guest: i think it is accurate. it is probably worse than before the cold war ended. i think relations as mr. putin said it got worse after the election of president trump because of all the revelations about what russia was doing in our election. there is very little trust. we have had a meeting with the 2 sides to resume. host: more importantly, as far syria is concerned, what does it mean going forward? and what are other issues we have to tackle? guest: the russians have come back and joined in the agreement so the pentagon the russian ministry of defense do not plan on shooting each other in the sky. it is more problematic, will we work with russia on the transition from president assad? mr. tillerson's said we do not think it is russia's future. we are not at the stage where we can sit down with the russians and talk about syria going forward. it is a preliminary, get to k

? are war crimes charges on the table? and how long will the united states wait for russia to come around? and for mr. lavrov, if i may, your government and the united states government seems to be miles apart on the syria issue, ukraine and other issues. did you feel that you've cleared up any of those issues you mentioned earlier today since you've had those discussions with secretary tillerson? >> we did discuss at length the future role for assad, whether it be in a future political process or not. clearly our view is that the reign of the assad family is coming to an end. and they have, again, brought this on themselves with their conduct and war these past few years. we discussed our view that russia, as their closest ally in the conflict, perhaps has the best means of helping assad recognize this reality. we do think it's important that assad's departure is done in an orderly way, an orderly way, so that certain interest and constituencies that he represents feel that they have been represented at the negotiating table for a political solution. how that occurs, we leave that

" despite donald trump being an alleged russian puppets, the american tensions with russia keep rising. a russian official said relations are at the lowest point since the cold war. at secretary of state rex tiller's and had an unproductive meeting with vladimir putin in moscow. >> president trump: right now were not getting along with russia at all. if we may be at an all-time low in terms of relationship with russia. >> we need to put an end to this steady degradation which is not doing nothing to restore the trust between our two countries or to make progress on the issues of greatest importance to both of us. >> tucker: democratic structuralists strategist and it says there's plenty of warning signs that the administration is too cozy with russia. thanks for coming on. the relationship is bad right now, you heard the russians say the very same, use of the prime minister say were as close to war as we've been in a long time, do you believe any of this? is it is just part of the conspiracy? >> i actually do, i found today's developments on the one hand discouraging but on the other hand

. later a look at russia's foreign-policy objectives and its relations with the u.s. and europe from the center for the national interest. our live coverage begins at 12:40 p.m. eastern on c-span. nato secretary-general jens stoltenberg was in washington this week for a two-day visit. of his stops included a speech at george washington university where he took questions from students. topics included russia's military buildup and the syrian civil war. this event happened the day after the secretary-general met with president trump. it is just under an hour. [applause] good morning, ladies and gentlemen. as our guests are being seated i'm steven knapp, president of i'm steven knapp, president of george washington university and i'm pleased to welcome you. when you do have the opportunity to look outside, we have a balcony here with a broad view of our nation's capital. this is an excellent symbol of what it means to be the largest university in the heart of our nation's capital. it affords an excellent of our monument, the monument here. we like to think of that as the monument of geo

the press conference for the foreign minister of russia and the united states. i would like to invite our guests to take their seats. >> come on in. >> good evening. this is been a long day, we have had talks from the state secretary of the u.s. right now, we have had long conversations with the president of russia. the negotiations have proved to be substantial and very frank. comprised a gamut of issues. biological relations as well as our introduction in the .nternational consideration. issues fromrtain the previous administration. we're being realistic and we understand the inevitable obstacles we have. we seek to do that. asunderstand our american well. assee that attempt escalating a confrontation but is an't believe this approach great we do understand this is for the benefit of not just our nation, but the sake of the world. we have reaffirmed that we both seek to fight without any compromise in terrorism. this is been raised by our president and the course of the of april conversation the fourth and the nights were tosident trump called express his condolences that had

he wanted to project a position of him being the host, that russia says the u.s. is doing something wrong. i mean, he called the u.s. strikes on syria a violation of international law and said that they need to stop. he also took that opportunity to slam the state department and they had so many positions unfilled. it's been hard to communicate with the united states. then there was an interview with russian president vladimir putin. as you mentioned, he talked about the relationship getting worse, actually deteriorating under president trump. quite a change from what we were talking about months ago in the lead-up to the election. president, then candidate trump, talking about putin being a strong leader. now things are much different. listen to what president trump said in an interview this morning. >> frankly, putin is backing a person that's truly an evil person, and i think it's very bad for russia. i think it's very bad for mankind. it's very bad for this world, but when you drop gas or bombs or barrel bombs and have these massive barrels with dynamite and they drop them right

assad, and defending missile strikes last week. even before rex tillerson landed, russia was already striking back. and the russian foreign ministry says relations with the u.s. have not been this bad since the end of the cold war. what can tillerson really do? let's get over to michelle kaczynski in moscow now. so this appears to be the first time putin has not planned to meet with a visiting secretary of state. is that in and of itself supposed to send a message? what are you hearing? >> definitely. that's a huge thing. to the point that originally the state department had it pencilled in on secretary tillerson's schedule that he was going to meet with putin after he met with lavrov, and then it would be sort of solidified later with an exact time. well, now the kremlin has not extended the invitation to have that meeting at all. yeah. the message is this relationship is pretty much in the gutter right now. what can either side do to make it better. the words exchanged are not helping. president putin himself today in an unrelated statement -- he is meeting with his italian counter

minister of russia and secretary tillerson, it was pretty icy. they sat there next to each other talking past each other. talking about policies they don't share. their view of syria quite different. tell me how you read that and how strong language was from secretary tillerson. >> when the two men sat across the frabl each other and rex tillerson sat there and listened to sergeier lavrov talk about how bad the u.s. was. he started by saying, it's been a long day. that's one of the only things they could agree with. he spent two hours with him and two hours with vladimir putin, a meeting that we thought might not take place at all. but i think mostly they agreed how bad their relationship was. as lavrov said, it is uneasy. rex tillerson saying the current state at a low level of trust. we can't let this continue. we need put an end to this steady degradation. then they went into everything they disagreed about. they clearly completely diametrically disagree on the chemical weapons. and also about assad. they discussed assad at th. mr. tillerson said assad should leave power in an

white house re-think with press secretary sean spicer. he talks about the possibility of russia being involved in a chemical attack in syria, u.s. relations with china, and efforts to repeal and were placed the health care law. this is 40 minutes. >> someone was nice enough to have class outside today. rose garden press briefings. i want to start off this afternoon with a quick comment on the tragic and heartbreaking events that unfolded at a san bernardino school yesterday. it occurred after the briefing so i want to make sure i'd knowledge that our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the three victims. speedy and full recovery of those that were wounded in the events that occurred. moving on to today, the president this morning read a discussion with -- had a discussion with private sector thinking about how the government can modernize and efficientbetter, more service to the american people. the companies represented in the room included nearly 4 million people worldwide and at least 1.7 8 million americans here in our nation. starting in small, interactive groups

has been icy. russia denouncing washington's missile strike on syria and branding white house rhetoric as primitive and loutish. at the press conference between the secretary of state rex tillerson and russian foreign minister sergey lavrov, both men played it pretty straight. the sticking point continue to be syria and the newly aggressive u.s. stance on russia's role there. our moscow correspondent steve rosenberg starts our coverage. steve: the last time he was in russia, rex tillerson was an oil man, doing multibillion deals with the kremlin. drinking champagne with vladimir putin. he even got an award from him. but in moscow today, it was a political deal. secretary of state tillerson was seeking over syria. not easy, with u.s.-russia relations at their worst since the cold war. he met his russian counterpart, sergey lavrov. behind closed doors in the kremlin, president putin. there was a lot to talk about, including this. last week, america launched cruise missiles targeting a syrian government airbase. an act of aggression, said russia against moscow's ally. washington

>> it will clearly antagonize russia but i think that's the point. they have clearly been supporting assad so i think russia is complicit with respect to these chemical attacks. that doesn't bother me that this potentially antagonizes russia, because i do think we need a firm pushback against russia. obviously anything is possible. i think the likelihood of this leading to a conflict between russia and the united states in my own opinion is very, very low. of course anything is possible. but i think that's a very low probability. and i think, again, this action relative to the very small probability of that happening i think was the right answer. >> finally looking forward here between syria and congress' investigation into russia's involvement in the u.s. election, what should we expect when secretary of state rex tillerson meets with russian officials, possibly even with president putin in moscow next week? >> what i'm hoping is that secretary tillerson is very firm with putin about what outcomes we want in syria and to get him to stop supporting assad so we can figure o

the annexation of crimea -- the use of force against russia's more assertive behavior especially against the ukraine. therefore, nato is implementing the reinforcement to the collective defense that a stem since cold war. we are fixing the response force. forces bothploying to the altered countries and in the southeast of the alliance. so we are adapting, once again, of a morense difficult and challenging security. is thatn, the message investing in defense not to promote conflict but to prevent conflict. so what we do is defensive. it is proportionate and it is measured in a way that we don't want to provoke a cold war and we don't want a new arms race the idease this on that there is no contradiction strength andgth -- dialogue. we strongly believe that as long as nato is united, and as long as it is firm and predictable, then we can and should engage in political dialogue with russia because russia is our neighbor. we have to manage the relationship with russia in the best possible way. he does it is in both our and russia's interests to defuse the tensions. to find better way

condemnation from what i call the usual suspects, the usual corners, russia, oi ran and syria itself. this has been a very important turning of the united states policy on these issues. it's a limited, targeted strike. it's proportional to using of chemical weapons the we tonight believe there will be furtherer strikes like that, unless there's further action by syria. >> rex tillerson said it did not represent a change in policy or our posture against syria. what do you think of that statement? >> that's what we expect. the big picture in syria is to go after isis. the united states has increased force there's. increased its support for local forces on the ground. it's in the process of surrounding rocca. it's pursuing mosul. that's the main picture for the united states. for many, many years, people have said that which is the chicken and which is the egg? assad is the chicken. assad is the man who has started this war, who has used well cal weapons, who has created so many deaths and so many refugees. and isis grew from the actions and the vacuum in syria. so, it is a complicated proces

trump/russia story. all this comes as trump prepares to face a week of serious and urgent global challenges. from the raging battles in syria and iraq with u.s. lives on the line in the fight against isis, facing a full-blown crisis with north korea. and with a critical meeting with china's president days away, this hour, we'll dig into the dangers the russian investigations pose to the president. and we'll confront how trump's struggles could affect america's place in the world. with three influential voices. ash carter joins us exclusively. he's the highest ranking member of president obama's cabinet to speak out since trump took office. and armed services committee chair, senator john mccain, now breaking with trump on a range of critical issues. we begin with the first sunday morning interview with a member of donald trump's core foreign policy team. u.s. ambassador to the united nations nikki haley. ambassador haley, thank you for joining us this morning. >> good morning, martha. >> i want to start with russia. president trump has been tweeting again this week end, calling t

that. he has also gotten more critical of russia and in holding russia accountable. remember a few years back with the obama administration, russia brokered a deal with syria and that they would dispose of their chemical weapons and that russia would guarantee and destroy those weapons. secretary of state said clearly that didn't happen. russia has failed to deliver on that commitment. and that russia is either complicit or simply incompetent as a secretary of state continues his pressure all throughout the day on assad and russia. >> the syrian regime under president bashar al-assad are responsible for this attack. i think further it is very important that the russian government consider carefully their continued support for the assad regime. >> in that statement, he also said there is clearly no role for bashar al-assad at the leader of syria. that's much different, much different tone and much more aggressive than the secretary of state was just a week ago when he was in turkey and he said that it was up to the syrian people to decide the ultimate fate and the long-term fates of

evening with our continuing coverage of the investigation into russia's meddling in the u.s. presidential election. the senate intelligence committee held its first opening session today. democratic and republican leaders promised a thorough inquiry as doubts them out what happened in the house investigation. meanwhile, the "new york times" reported two white house officials helped to provide the chairman of the house committee with reports indicating surveillance of president trump's associates. joining me from capitol hill is senator mark warner. he is the ranging democrat and vice chairman of the senate intelligence committee. we also have asked chairman richard burr to join the program and hope he will do so soon. let me begin with the question of today's testimony. what is the takeaway from what you heard today? sen. warner: today's testimony focused on the foundation. what did the russians do, why did they do it? this is part of russian doctrine that goes back to the oviet era of spreading misinformation and disinformation. they have now taken it to a much more modern space in terms

use of force against russia's assorted behavior especially against the ukraine. we are increasing the eastern part of the lines and we are deploying forces to poland and also in the southeast of the alliance. so we are adapting once again to respond to more challenging and difficult security alignment. actually we strongly believe as long as nato is united, as long as nato is firm and predictable then we can and should engage in political dialogue with russia because russia is our neighbor. russia is here to stay. we are to manage the relationship with russia in the best possible way. it is in our and russia's interest to reduce tensions and to find better ways to live together. this is the main issue i hope to discuss with you in the coming hours. thank you so much. i'm ready take your questions. thank you. [ applause ] >> my name is curt. i am for international leadership. i'm a very proud alumnus of the elliot school even before it was called the elliot school, longer ago than i plan to state publicly. it has been a great privilege to have gone here and have a career billed upon th

. aggression against a sovereign state and has condemned it and fairly harsh terms. russia hass -- echoed in the syncretism -- sentiments and has halted quarter nation with the u.s. in a movement between the russian air forces. molly: henry, thank you for that from beirut. we will bring it to the studio where i am joined by is specialist and jihadist movement. let's focus on what we are seeing in terms of this missile launch. what are the ramifications? is it a game changer? >> i do not think it is a game changer at all. not like 2013, we should see what we saw today that the strikes were neither a saturation state made to cripple the syrian military forces. neither strike aimed at degrading chemical weapons. in both cases among this airport is like a facility. they may be destroyed five or six airplanes, which are very old airplanes, and we saw from the first video from russia tv i'm a not that much damage done on -- tv and not that much damage is done. mosul know the state and regimellow the assad which evacuated most of the human power and some of the airplanes from before the strikes, wh

the state of relations with russia. >> it would be wonderful as we were discussing just a little while ago if nato and our country could get along with russia. right now we're not getting along with russia at all. we may be at an all-time low in terms of relationship with russia. this is built for a long period of time. but we're going to see what happens. putin set leader of russia. russia is a strong country. we're a very, very strong country. >> president trump also very suspicious of putin, questioning if russia knew about syria's chemical attack before the slaughter of those innocents. >> they are doing investigations into that right now. i would like to think that they didn't know, but certainly they could have. that's a butcher. that's a butcher. so, i felt we had to do something about it. i have absolutely no doubt we did the right thing. >> the president's comments come in short time after secretary of state rex tillerson tour of moscow meeting with vladimir putin. after his boss president trump, secretary tillerson with the ominous news that there is a low level of trust with

is cnn tonight, i'm don lemon. ohm thing they agree on, relations between the u.s. and russia are bad. >> russia is a strong country. we are a very, very strong country. we will see huh that all works out. >> former trump campaign adviser, carter page tells cnn he is not a foreign agent. how did the fbi get a weren't to monitor his contacts? plus about to launch cruise missiles against syria. what do you do next? if you are president trump you have yourself a piece of cake, not just any piece of cake, the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake you have ever seen, of course. we'll explain that. get right now to paula newton, live in moscow for us this evening. hello, to you, paula. want you to give of the big headline out of russia today. what do we know about secretary tillerson's meeting with vladamir putin? >> we know it actually went on longer than anyone thought. what i had been saying, you have talked about it on the show. two men that know each other. look, don, they went way beyond, hi, how are you, thank you for coming. probably, shook hands. sat right down. got right to work.

listening to you talking about russia with ben.. it is now apparent that russia has failed to uphold the commitments it made in 2013 to ensure the elimination of the syrian chemical weapons programme. russia faces a choice. either it takes responsibility for ensuring that assad complies with the removal of these weapons, as russia committed it would do, or it admits that it lacks the ability to control assad. very much putting russia in the picture in terms of blame for this chemical weapons attack being carried out because it had not met its commitments for guaranteeing that assad destroyed all of those weapons. also had a go at russia for the way it responded to this chemical weapons attack. its explanation was that the opposition chemical weapons depot had been hit and the gas was coming from that. they said it was completely implausible and that the russians promote a false set of facts every time the regime commits an atrocity. so they are really taking on the russians very much like we saw in the un security council with nikki haley. russia very much partly blamed for this atta

russia investigation basically in order to keep them safe quoting from the nbc news report today, quote, obama administration officials were so concerned about what would happen to key classified documents once president trump took office they created a list of document serial numbers to give to senior members of the intelligence committee. after the list of documents related to the probe and russian interference was created in early january after the list of numbers was ceded, he, the former obama administration first page u hand carried that list of serial numbers to members of the senate intelligence committee. the purpose was to make it, quote, harder to bury the information. so the investigation into the russian attack on our election last year started during the obama administration obviously. the obama administration was worried that the trump folks would erase it, would get rid of what had been found already. nbc news reports tonight that obama administration officials made a list off all the documents that existed at the time trump took over. and now the senate intelligence com

dodging questions about former national security adviser michael flynn and his ties to russia. but he did tweet about it. more on this and reaction from moscow. >>> in paraguay, change the constitution. >>> welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world, i'm george howell. >> i'm natalie allen. "cnn newsroom" starts right now. >>> a cnn exclusive leads our newscast. u.s. intelligence officials believe isis and other terror groups have found new ways to hide explosives in laptops and other electronic devices. >> they believe the terrorists may be testing these devices on stolen airport security equipment in order to find out how they can get them on to planes undetected. intelligence on this helped prop the u.s. ban on larger electronic devices in cabins of certain flights into the country. the ban also includes nine airlines, you see them here. >> cnn terrorism analyst paul says this is a real and serious concern. >> it's serious because these terrorist groups including al qaeda and yemen are developing new ways to try to get bombs on to airplanes, including by

, this was designed to send a message, a message to assad. a message to russia, as well. and the secretary of state had very sharp words for russia. he said this, don. he said, either russia has been complicit or russia has been incompetent in its act ability to, essentially, stop these chemical attacks. so, these pointed words from the secretary of state. he is heading to russia next week for meetings. so, you know, this, of course, is the underlying question here, what is next from this, was this -- this was the biggest military strike, the first military strike the president has ordered of this magnitude, will it be the last? >> and rex tillerson saying, making it clear that russia was not the target of these attacks, saying that it was the syrian regime. >> indeed. >> jeff zeleny joining us from palm beach, florida, jeff, thank you very much. wolf, i want to get back to you. wolf, there was some indication earlier, as you were on the air, that the president was speaking to officials about the possibility of what actions he could take or possibly take with syria. >> yeah, he w

"your world." with tensions mounting between the u.s. and russia over those air strikes in syria, is it time for our allies, including nato, to back the president up? we'll talk to john bolton about that in a moment and about that meeting today between secretary of state tillerson and his russian counter part. first, kevin corke at the white house as we await the news conference. kevin? >> stuart, good day to you. you're right. we're probably pretty close to seeing the secretary general and the president come here. we've just seen remarks at the podium generally. that means we're around two minutes out. so if that happens, i will break free and allow you to listen to the remarks by both men. this is interesting when you compare and contrast with what candidate trump said in the run up to the election. you heard shepard mentioned moments ago, nato appeared to be a punching back. even in his time in office, the president has been critical of other nation members that have yet to give their fair share into nato funding. we're talking 2% of the gdp. that's probably the conversation the two

attacks. u.s. officials can't say if russia was complicit in the gas attack, but they do accuse russia of trying to cover up what happened. >>> showdown with putin. secretary of state rex tillerson arrives in moscow slamming russia's role in syria as russian president vladimir putin doubles down, defending his support for the syrian regime and criticizing the u.s. amid a war of words, will the two men meet? >>> offensive comparison. white house press secretary sean spicer says even hitler didn't use chemical weapons and is forced to make a heytvelty -- a hasty clarification saying that the nazis used a poisonous gas at their death camps. >>> and north korea says the deployment of a uss aircraft carrier as an act aggression and if provoked it's ready for any mode of war, including nuclear war. in a cnn exclusive, we'll take you inside north korea. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >>> breaking news. the pentagon says it's very clear the syrian regime planned and executed the chemical weapons attack which killed dozens of civilians, including many children. it says the u.s.

>>> never again russia draws a red line for the united states on syria. the u.s. secretary of state stayed behind closed doors in moscow at this hour a. crucial uncomfortable and unpredictable meeting. >> so what was he talking about anyway? a cnn exclusive, cnn inside theer says they see nothing that the obama white house collected information on trump campaign officials and an ad advisor to the trump campaign investigated as a possible russian agent? a new report says the fbi had their eye on him for months. good morning, everyone, i'm john berman. >> i'm poppy harlow. in a new interview, president vladimir putin spoke about the dire terms back and forth with the united states saying quote the working level of confidence in russia-america relations especially at the military level, under the administration of donald trump has not improved, but rather worsened. >> he is saying this as the u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson is behind closed doors right now meeting with his russian counterpart, talk object about their differences, differences right now that seem as big as black an