The Wall Street Journal's Shane Harris informed Shep Smith on Fox News that sources told him if Rex Tillerson is not meeting with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Wednesday, the trip and "this meeting is a kind of waste of time."
Harris was discussing the Tomahawk Missile attack Trump authorized against Syria, what it's repercussions were, and how it would affect Tillerson's trip to Moscow.
As Harris explained, nothing much has changed between Assad, Russia or the US after the missile attack, Smith interrupted him and reported that the AP broke the news that Russia was aware before hand that Syria had chemical weapons and planned to use them.
Smith said, "Did this meeting with the Russians on the part of Rex Tillerson just take a dramatic turn?"
Harris replied, "Oh, most certainly it -- and as you mention though, he is not meeting with Vladimir Putin."
"Some people I've talked to in the past few days have suggested that this meeting is really a kind of waste of time," he said.
"If he's [Tillerson] not actually sitting down with the one decision maker in Russia, who he can exert some leverage on," Harris said.
If the reports are true and Russia knew about the chemical weapons this obviously will force the Trump administration to confront Putin in a much more forceful manner than they have so far, which includes Donald Trump.
After the missile attack, the Kremlin has said that Putin will not meet with Tillerson, somebody he does know, on Wednesday.
Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on Monday that no such meeting was planned, suggesting Tillerson will follow strict diplomatic protocol and only meet his direct counterpart, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
