United States Democratic Senator Bill Nelson returned to Florida during his Easter recess from Capitol Hill.  One of his stops was the Sun ’n Fun International Fly-in and Expo in Lakeland.
 
There he talked to educators about the future of the space program, and his goal of making sure NASA is equipped to go to Mars.
 
He also visited the new hangar being built for the NOAA Hurricane Hunters, who are moving from the MacDill Air Force base to the Lakeland Linder Regional Airport in May.
 
Senator Nelson also shared with reporters his views on Syria. He said he was glad President Donald Trump ordered air strikes in Syria and said it should’ve been done a long time ago.
 
"This was a good opportunity to let Mr. Assad, the president of Syria know if he continues to use chemical weapons, we will hit him and hit him hard. My recommendation is if he does it again, we ought to knock out his entire air force," said Nelson.

He said he supports removing President Assad altogether.

"Somebody who has killed a half a million people in his own country, that is gassing children and seeing them suffer as we've seen so visibly on these photographs and film. I think Assad has to go,” Nelson said.
 
Some members of Nelson’s political party criticized the president for not consulting Congress first.
 
“So President Trump doing this, finally waking up to the atrocities in Syria is a good thing but he should not have done this without coming to Congress,” said Senator Tim Kaine, D-Va.
 
Nelson said he felt President Trump acted appropriately.
 
“On a quick strike like this where the element of surprise is absolutely necessary, the President has that authority,” Nelson explained.
 
He believes Congress should give President Trump the power to do more in Syria.

"Before we left yesterday, Congress should've stayed in session in this Easter recess and gone through the debate and passed, and I think the votes are there, to pass an authorization to conduct a war if that's what it takes to solve the Syrian situation,” Nelson said.