We are as americans. Reporter but moments later a stockily different take on an exploding crisis. Children crossing the border to the u. S. Alone, illegally. They should be september back as soon as it can be determined who responsible adults are in their families. Reporter shes speaking out of both sides of her mouth. If you want the immigrant community to see you as a champion, youre going to have to make difficult choices and take a firm position. It didnt seem that way yesterday. Reporter then theres benghazi. The attack that killed four americans on clintons watch. Republicans say she still has a lot of explaining to do so this was music to gop ears. There are still unanswered questions. It was the fog of war. Republicans convinced benghazi is clin clintons Achilles Heel wasted no time saying shes the one who must answer questions. Secretary clinton from The Beginning has stone walled on this rather than acting as a
partner getting to the bottom of what happened. Reporter clinton was cagey as ever about another white house run. Im going to think about all that, but not right now. Reporter even the most casual observer could see a candidate here distancing herself from the president how she urged him to arm syrian rebels. We pushed very hard, but as i say in my book, i believe that harry truman was right. The buck stops with the president. Reporter outside the town hall, a playful made for the cameras moment. Stopping to give her stalker squirrel, republican a republican intern, a copy of her book. Confidence is clintons calling card. A new poll shows a majority of americans think she is prepared to be president. The downside to byebye an experienced politician, merely 4 in 10 americans worry about whether clinton can be trusted. Thanks very much. You can always follow us on twitter. Tweet me or the show. Join us again tomorrow here in the situation room. Always watch us live or dvr the show so you wont miss a moment. Thats it for me. Im wolf blitzer in the situation room. Now lets step into the cross fire. Were honored to have two governors tonight. One of them ran for president in 2012. After reading the polls, he might be thinking of running again. The debate starts right now. Tonight on crossfire, americas biggest challenges. What should we do about the chaos in iraq . Were certainly not putting american soldiers at risk. No boots on the ground. Under no circumstances should we be partnering with iran. Or the thousands of children coming here illegally. We have to send a clear message just because your child gets across the border, that doesnt mean the child gets to stay. Or gay rights. On the left, stephanie cutter. On the right, in the crossfire, a republican. Two influential governors have Better Solutions to americas toughest problems . Tonight on crossfire. Welcome to crossfire. Tonight two prominent governors. Republicans are so focused on blaming President Obama that they are distorting reality. Lets start with the chief offender and the Wall Street Journal this morning. Rarely has a u. S. President been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many. Its really hard to take him seriously. He was the one who got it all wrong in the first place. Weapons of mass destruction, never found. Al qaeda operating from iraq, they werent then but they are now. Planned skpex cuted the greatest
blunder in the history of the country and well be paying for it for decades. Thanks for your advice, dick cheney, but lets have a responsible debate. The first step in a responsible debate, learning from our mistakes. If we dont understand what we did wrong getting into iraq, were never going to get it right. I hope we can have a responsible debate tonight. Its so weird because joe biden thought iraq was going to be a huge success. What happened . In the crossfire tonight, rick perry of texas and Lincoln Chafy of rhode island. You know o who also seems to me to be blaming obama for this mess in iraq is Hillary Clinton. Listening to what she said last night. I recommended that we do more in the very beginning to support moderate opposition because i believed at the time that they would be overwhelmed by assads Military Force and they would open up the door to extremists coming in. Shes talking about syria. She went on during the course of
that town hall to reiterate two more times that she would have gone in earlier. Isnt the problem with iraq now that President Obama left syria to smolder for three years . Lets back up a little bit and stephanie talked about the greatest pref indication in american history, i would agree with that. The whole premise that were in now, and that was that there were weapons of mass destruction. Saddam hussein didnt have a threat. So that premise and the fact that we ripped up a Foreign Policy that had been in place and was working since the 1940s and that is containment and unilaterally into iraq. But lets talk about where we are now and where we are now is that iraq has spiralled into chaos just after joe biden and President Obama were talking
about how stable it was in 2010. Didnt obama make a crucial mistake in allowing syria to smolder out of control into chaos . Theres so many difficulties that were going to face as a result of this blunder of getting in here. Deviating from our cold war strategy of containment were not going to get an answer. Governor perry . No appliances and now were dealing with no easy answers. Youre absolutely correct in that sense. We find ourselves now with not a lot of appropriate solutions, but the real blunder from my perspective was when this president wanted to get out of iraq so bad that we left, didnt even let the door hit us in the back getting out of there. Had we left a thoughtful force in place to be able to manage both the sunni and shiite conflict thats ongoing there now, then i think you could have seen this country make progress
towards becoming more stable. And that was our goal always is to bring this country to stability and to let it get back economically. When the United States stabilizing influence left, thats where the real problem started. Its been rumor that youre thinking about running for president. As the president , you have to make some hard choices. And at the time, the president was willing to leave troops on the ground, but maliki wouldnt sign a status of forces agreement. Of course, maliki is being propped up by iran, hes not doing anything to stop the sectarian violence. Hes basically ostracized from the government. I want to ask you a couple questions about exactly what you would do. Would you have left troops on the ground without a Status Force Agreement . Thats where we see this president s lack of diplomatic you would have been able to
get it done . I think the bottom line is we have seen this president time after time be a failure in Foreign Policy. When you think about syria, when you think about so if a country doesnt want our troops there, would you keep our troops on the ground . You basically have nor leverage in saying, mr. Maliki, can we leave our troops here . And he said no. Im sorry, but i dont think he used all the diplomatic ways what would you have done that he didnt do . There are multiple ways to leverage your position with a country like that. Like what . Theres a lot of different ways. You know that. We gave up our leverage. He was looking for a reason to get out of that country. Back after the First Gulf War when dick cheney mentioned he was Defense Secretary and theres a clip of him saying why we didnt go after kuwait. Why We Didnt Go Into iraq. He talks about the courage of the sunnis and shia and we didnt want to get into that conflict. Then for some reason ten years later, its pathetic, the first cheney as to what we got into. The first bush was right. Lets push him out of kuwait and contain him. That was working. So what do we do now . Specifically, what do we do now . Lots of people are for air strikes. I think there are a number of ways. We dont have to signal all the things were going to do. Pick up the Wall Street Journal this morning and you see a headline that says there will be no air strikes. I think thats a major diplomatic problem of signaling what were going to be doing. There are a number of ways, whether its both covert or overt that we can impact that situation over there, but the idea we need to sit here and g signal that. No offense to you, governor,
but i dont think that the terrorist groups in iraq are looking to what were saying here on this show as for signals. I think they are more sophisticated than you think they are. I understand that. I would use every covert and overt situation i had to be able to affect that. Lets talk about President Obamas larger Foreign Policy. Again, at last nights town hall, Hillary Clinton said when it comes to putting u. S. Assets in dangerous places around the world, we shouldnt shy away from that. We should stay the course. Take a listen. I dont think we should be retreating from the world. That would be a position that i would strongly advocate. According to the latest polls, americans also disapprove of President Obamas Foreign Policy. You can take a look at the latest polling. Only 37 approve. 57 disapprove. It was a mess by the previous administration. Do you degree then with the
american public and Hillary Clinton that President Obamas Foreign Policy of leave from behind and retreat is probably has probably been a failure . The key is we talked about mistakes were made getting in there, but the biggest mistake was not listening to the people in the neighborhood. That was probably the biggest mistake. If you look at what we do now, we have to listen to the kuwaits, the turks, the saudis, they are in the neighborhood. To repair the damage done to america, we lost our credibility. E we said were going into this country. When does President Obama do that . It takes a lot of repair work after the previous administrati administration. The diplomatic u answer is the one we have to work on. I think what we have to realize here is those poll numbers are not just about iraq. The poll numbers are about the way he handled libya, the way he
handled egypt, syria, craukrain the longest democracy in our best friend in the middle east israel. That is what people are looking at. They are not looking at this iraq issue in a vacuum. They are looking at a very clear president ial loss of confidence in the world looking at what this president. Right there for now. Could President Obama be having his katrina moment . Actually it might be even worse if you look at a brand new poll. First todays quiz, what was President Obamas highest Approval Rating . Well have the answer when we get back. If you have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, like me,
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the election if some of those low Approval Ratings could trounce governor romney . All right. I know that we are distracted by the latest controversy in iraq. But let me remind you of some of the other recent ones. The irs scandal is back in the news with the lost emails. Before that it was the release of five terrorist detainees. Before that it was the v. A. Scandal. I could go on and on and on. Hasnt President Obama let america down with all of these disastrous choices and decisions . Decisions are made in elections and all those issues that you brought up, some came after the election, but thats the way it works. Hes our president , we should support him. Whats the way it works . We had an election and there will be another one and we can talk about who is running, but to continuously beat up this man
is unfair. We have to ask where we have gone wrong so we dont repeat mistakes. Are you willing to concede that the president made mistakes . Of course, i have a difference with him on a number of issues. But the attack from the conservative side has just been relentless ever since he took the oath of office. I want to turn to two other Hot Button Issues right now. First is immigration. There are thousands of children coming across the border into your home state. Largely because of civil wars and drug wars in their home countries. Lets listen to what Hillary Clinton had to say about this yesterday. They should be sent back as soon as it can be determined who responsible adults in their families are. We have to send a clear message. Just because your child gets across the border doesnt mean the child gets to stay. Do you agree with that . What do we do with these children . I agree we need to secure the
border. I have told the president that since as a matter of fact a stop on the tarmac in 2010. I handed him a letter about Border Security. And then in 2012 i flagged this issue, these Unaccompanied Alien Children coming in off of rail cars. This is not news to the president of the United States. Its not news to this administration. And we have an absolute catastrophe on our hands, a humanitarian catastrophe that these young people being brought in the United States and they are hearing the message of come on up here, the border is open. You can come to america but what would you do with them . What they are doing with them right now are warehousing them and talking about allowing them to stay here. What i would do with these children is i would diplomatically go back and find out why are they coming up here . Many of them if they get sent home are being sent back into very bad situations where they are being targeted at home with
violence. Are you suggesting that we send them we actually dont know that. That may be what we are saying when they get here. I fear for my life because of drug violence because thats what they have been told to say. But we cannot i happen to agree with Hillary Clinton when it comes to even if were sending them back into difficult circumstances . We have to send a clear message to secure the border first. This administration has been an absolute failure. My home state has spent over half A Billion Dollars augmenting them. It has doubled under this administration. If its not enough, we need to go to congress and get more. But to blame this president who has doubled Birdier Security is not accurate. Doubling the amount of money is not no, doubling the number of agents. Not on the texas border. He may be putting them on the arizona border, but hes not putting them on the texas border. Youre for sending these children back . Im for securing the border. Finding out why these children are coming into yes, Border Security is a huge issue. Congress has tried over and over again, when i was in the senate, we had a bill called Mccain Kennedy. John mccain from a border state and ted kennedy. It provided Border Security, about you we couldnt get it passed. Now repeated efforts to do something similar to Mccain Kennedy. And the gridlock in congress and the te party who will not get this done. Border security is the answer to let me share with you one of the results of this thats really troubling for my state. If we have a major natural disaster, which from time to time we have. Think katrina, if you will, think rita as it pushed literally hundreds of thousands of people up into our state. With these children and these individuals that are being housed in federal facilities and in State Facilities that are
being used for this, we do not have the capacity to be able to take care of our citizens. And that is of an extraordinary concern to me. I want to get to one or topic. If i could, you have to have comprehensive immigration reform. It cant be a patchwork. Thats what Mccain Kennedy was. Learn english, Border Security, path to citizenship. Dont you think you have to secure the border first . Yes. American people dont trust this administration to get this right. Most people are you asking for comprehensive immigration reform. You are taking heat for something you said about homosexuality. I was struck by your comments. I want to show what you said. I may have the Genetic Coding that im inclined to be an alcoholic. But i have the desire not to do that. I look at the homosexual issue as the same way. Youre saying alcoholism is a
disease, we know that. Are you saying that homosexuality is a disease as well . I think my position has been fairly clear on that for a substantial period of time. And heres whats more important if you can just tell us your position. No, im going to tell you where i think we need be as a country and focused on. And that is not on these social issues. I think the social issues, frankly, should be decided state by state rather than being something in washington, d. C. , to try to make one size fits all, whether its this is not a washington, d. C. , issue were talking about here. From the standpoint of social issues and where this country is relative to that, were a very diverse country when you thing about it. So why were you referring to alcoholism then . I got asked the question and i responded in the way that i have before. That alcoholism is a disease. You have the gene. The issue is one that needs to be decided state by state. These social issues like that. Lets talk about your state. Your Republican Party in texas just adopted Conversion Therapy as part of their political platform. Now, Conversion Therapy is when you theres a belief that you can, through therapy, cure people of being homosexual. Now, thats been rejected by the medical community for almost four decades. Thats being decided by texas. Youre the governor of texas, youre the leader of the Republican Party in texas. Isnt that exactly what you were saying . Isnt that the same thing that you said . I said in that remark that id leave that to the psychiatrists and the doctors. Theyve rejected it. The more important issue is one that we need to be focused on in this country and thats to get this country working again. You dont have an opinion on any of this, you dont have an opinion on either side . I think my statements stand on your own. I dont understand it. I cant help you understand
it. Okay. All right. Very proud in rhode island we have Marriage Equality and were a free state and everybodys welcome. Thats Rhode Islands choice and i agree with that. And if we as a country will get back to allowing the states to decide these instead of we got lots of big issues in this country like how do we get this country back working again, how do we secure the border, how do we have a Foreign Policy that is actually not feckless. Well have to go to a quick break. Stay here. Be want you at home to weigh on todays fireback question, should the u. S. Launch air strikes in iraq . Tweet yes or no using crossfire. Well have the results after the break. Would you consider a 4star hotel thats up to 60 off,
you just cant know the name . Just no name . Until you book. Um. Yeah, id do that
welcome back. Lets check on our fireback results. Should the u. S. Launch air strikes in iraq . 44 of you say yes, 66 say no. Governor perry, we talked about this earlier. What do you think . The bottom line on this one is they need to leave this to the commanders in the field. And lets say theres a Big Isis Transition Convoy Coming in and we could take that out, then there might be a use of an air strike at that particular time. But just air strikes for the sake of air strikes probably not. Senator chafee. Americans are fed up with us getting caught up in these quagmires, they grew up with vietnam and they dont want anything to do with it. The debate continues online