White House Turf War Goes Public; New York State To Offer Free Tuition.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: So after earning bipartisan praise for the missile strike in Syria, the Trump administration is really sending mixed signals about what is next. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley offering two very different ideas about the future of Syrian dictator, Bashar al-Assad. Here to discuss is Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, who has written extensively about the crisis in Syria. Lt. Colonel Rick Francona is with us. He is our military analyst. Alex Burns joins us, CNN political commentator and "New York Times" national political reporter, and Errol Louis, CNN political commentator and political anchor for Spectrum News. It's so nice to have you guys here. We have a lot to dive into. Colonel, let me begin with you because let's listen to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and then U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley speaking just this weekend about what happens to Assad now.</s>REX TILLERSON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We are hopeful that we can work with Russia and use their influence to achieve areas of stabilization throughout Syria and create the conditions for a political process through Geneva in which we can engage all of the parties on a way forward. And it is through that political process that we believe the Syrian people will ultimately be able to decide the fate of Bashar al-Assad.</s>NIKKI HALEY, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: There's not any sort of option where a political solution is going to happen with Assad at the head of the regime. If you look at his actions, if you look at the situation it's going to be hard to see a government that's peaceful and stable with Assad.</s>HARLOW: Nikki Haley says, you know, Assad has to go. Tillerson said the Syrian people can decide the future of Assad, which frankly they can't because they're being gassed by their own dictator. I mean, Colonel Francona, how much of a problem is it not to have the administration on the same page on that? LT. COLONEL RICK FRANCONA</s>CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, I'm not sure they're not on the same page. I think the secretary was very clear that he want to focus on ISIS, he didn't say that. Focus on ISIS first and then we'll hope for a political situation after ISIS is gone where everybody can sit down and figure out how we address the future of the Syrian regime. Nikki Haley has gone one step forward. She goes, yes, we're going to have that happen, but at that meeting, at that confrontation, that political situation, we're going to demand that Bashar al-Assad be removed. I think that's probably where this administration is going to end up. Focus on ISIS and we hope to resolve the Bashar al-Assad situation later diplomatically. We'll do a military solution for ISIS. We'll hope for a political solution for the Syrian regime.</s>HARLOW: Here's the thing. I mean, Gayle, you've seen this firsthand. You've written about it extensively. If you are a mother and a father who lost their child in that chemical attack, you don't have time to wait. I mean, and this is the same thing that has been going on for the three, four years since the 2013 attack. Does this administration need one clear message to Assad?</s>GAYLE TZEMACH LEMMON, AUTHOR, "ASHLEY'S WAR": Well, what is so fascinating, Poppy, you and I have talked about this for years now, which is the same debate, same arguments, different administration. I mean, you see the exact same policy debate that was in more or less dividing the Obama White House for years. You know, what is the priority? Can you fight ISIS while also toppling Assad? And then what comes next after Assad? These were all debates that were very much alive and taking a huge amount of time and attention inside the Obama White House and were never fully resolved. Now they have really seeped into the next administration. You see this playing out in real time and on cameras here in Washington and everywhere else.</s>HARLOW: Do you get the sense, Gayle, just a quick follow-up from your reporting that the Syrian people, though, have more hope in America helping them in the wake of this missile strike?</s>LEMMON: Well, what was fascinating, Poppy, is my WhatsApp was full of Syrian activists writing, you know, look, Trump did what Obama wouldn't. Now the question we have, they would write, is what comes next? You know, is this one and done? Is this simply a shot across the bow or will they be really serious about taking out Bashar al- Assad? They're at least figuring out what comes next? What is the transition after the Syrian regime is over?</s>HARLOW: You know, Errol, to you. The president wrote this letter in the wake to Speaker Ryan and said, let's pull it up, the work is to degrade the Syrian military's ability to conduct further chemical weapons attack and to dissuade the Syrian regime from using or proliferating chemical weapons, but it is not just chemical weapons that are used by Assad. It is barrel bombs. Frankly, the chemical weapons attack in 2013 was much more deadly than this one. I mean, it seems like the administration is saying this is the line and if you cross it again with more chemical weapons attacks, we will strike again. Does it appear to you as this was a one off or the beginning of increased military action or is that not clear from the Trump administration?</s>ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It's completely unclear. As you mentioned, in 2013, you saw much more deadly attack and you had Donald Trump who at that time wasn't even a candidate sort of saying, this will be a quagmire. Don't respond with military response. Don't get involved so on and so forth. A position that he held until fairly recently. When you go in all of the questions Gayle referenced come into play. Who comes next? We know that. If you want to go in and sort of takeout ISIS, you're not going to do it with Tomahawk missiles, you're not going to do it alone. It's not clear what comes next. It's unclear how you even do that. You know, some of the most effective fighters against ISIS within Syria are not the regime but some Kurdish separatist militias who are at war now, you know, a shooting war with the Turkish government on the northern part of the country. Turkey is a strong ally. How do you work this out? Again, it's not going to be a military solution.</s>BERMAN: And so it is the people around the president who advise him on this. We've learned that Steve Bannon, somebody he's trusted so much, Alex, rarely gone against, and it helped him win the election, advised against these strikes. And this comes amid White House in fighting, forced sit down between Bannon and Kushner over the weekend at Mar-a-Lago where Trump essentially said, figure it out, cut it out, stop fighting, get on the same page.</s>ALEX BURNS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: This is one in a series of setbacks for Steve Bannon over the last few months. What we saw over and over during the campaign, Poppy, when someone ends up crosswise with Donald Trump's actual family, it's actually, very, very tough to --</s>HARLOW: Jared Kushner is his son-in-law.</s>BURNS: His son-in-law, one of his advisers, one of his most trusted advisers. You can't really win that fight. The president is not going to fire hid kids or his kids' spouses. So when you do end up, you know, looking at sort of who's on the rise across the board on policy, you do see folks including Jared Kushner but other associates of his and Ivanka Trump's who take generally speaking a much more internationalist view of how you get things done on the world stage.</s>BERMAN: Right. Steve Bannon, Errol, is the Mr. America first. He is all about nationalism. Either it's economic nationalism or frankly, you know, focusing on the United States militarily. What do you make of this divide I think that Alex really rightly points out, that Kushner takes much more of a world view?</s>LOUIS: I mean, look, you've always had I think an establishment during the campaign when there were other candidates involved. Criticism of this Trump approach of America first is if a slogan was enough to resolve some of the enormously complex issues in the Middle East and everywhere else. And so if it's really going to be Trump's policy to say, America first and that's all that counts, he will immediately find, as he's finding right now, that it's not so easy to figure out where America's interests lies. Here again in Syria, you've got, you know, Bashar al-Assad who serves a purpose. On the other hand, a lot of his opposition are now uniting under the banner of al Qaeda. You have ISIS fighting the Turkish separatists. You have the Turkish government getting involved. I mean, it gets to be so complicated that simply saying America first is almost an empty slogan.</s>HARLOW: It doesn't cut it. One other bit of news and development over the weekend. Colonel, I'd like your take on this, K.T. McFarland, his deputy national security adviser, someone who was brought in by Mike Flynn, who used to be running the show over there, now leaving the post, going to be ambassador to Singapore. What do you think the significance of that is at a moment like this when you're talking about what a complex situation and fight this is?</s>FRANCONA: Yes, I think it was a polite way to get her out of the White House. I think this is General McMaster cleaning house bringing in his own team. This is one of the things the president is going to allow him to do. I think it was a good move.</s>HARLOW: Guys, thank you very much. Gayle, Colonel Francona, Alex Burns, and Errol Louis, we appreciate it. All right, the opening bell just moments away on Wall Street. International tensions and pending negotiations with China have investors putting the pause button a little bit. You see futures up just slightly this Monday morning. Our chief business correspondent, Christine Romans, has more. Good morning.</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Poppy. You're right, the 100-day clock has started between China and the United States. A lot of investors are wondering what are these discussions about trade going to be over the next hundred days. The president has not slapped tariffs on China. The president hasn't really unveiled what he's going to do exactly with China, at least in great detail. So these 100 days that they decided on last week at that summit in Mar-a-Lago between the Chinese and the American officials has begun. Investors now are looking ahead to Janet Yellen's speech later today and bank earnings later this week -- Poppy.</s>HARLOW: Also we've learned that New York State is making college tuition free for students. This sounds a little Bernie Sanders-ish.</s>ROMANS: Yes.</s>HARLOW: What can you tell us about what this really means? Who's going to be paying for it?</s>ROMANS: Taxpayers are paying for it. Potentially we are talking about hundreds of thousands of New York students. The working logic, Poppy, is this, college has become what high school used to be. The governor of New York says it should be an option for every family even if they can't afford it. Here's how it works, it's starting this fall, full-time student at two-year and four-year colleges, state colleges, and the City University of New York campuses. They're only responsible for room and board. Tuition is free. So that's a savings of about 6,500 bucks a year at state four-year colleges, about 4,300 at community college. This is for middle class students. What is considered middle class? Families earning less than $100,000. That threshold, Poppy, will rise gradually over the next few years. Students have to take at least 30 credit hours to qualify. Remember, it's tuition, not room and board. Room and board bill can still reach $14,000 a year. So families would still need to plan and save. Will other states follow? That's the big question here, Tennessee, Oregon, and the city of San Francisco, they have recently made tuition free at community colleges for all residents regardless of their income. So we'll see if it spreads -- Poppy.</s>HARLOW: But I still need to be putting money into my 529.</s>ROMANS: Yes, yes, yes.</s>HARLOW: All right, Christine romans, thank you so much. We appreciate it. Also before the break, a quick reminder our new podcast is out, "Boss Files," candid conversations with CEOs, leaders all around the world from Melinda Gates to Warren Buffet. We've got a new one up this morning. You can subscribe at iTunes, Stitcher on Android or tune in on Amazon Echo. We'll be right back.