if they are left alone in a room together as congressman conley said it, terrifies him the thought of it, they might be the only two people in a room who don t accept what everyone agrees to as a cold hard fact that russia meddleded in our election. watch what leading republicans and democrats had to say about that being fact. russia will continue to develop capabilities to use against the united states and we need to be ready to meet those threats. how much of a threat to global security do you consider the russian president. i think he is the premier and most important threat, more so than isis. russia continues to engage in exploitation of the u.s. elections process. we re talking about a foreign government that using technical intrusion, lots of other methods tried to shape the way we think we vote, we act. that is a big deal. i hope the american people recognize the severity of this threat and that we collectively counter it before it further erodes the fabric of our
from maryland s eighth district chris van hollen, top democrat on the house budget committee. congressman, thank you for your time. good to be with you, alex. congressman, where is democratic leadership these days? we know we ve talked a lot about the rift between the president and members of his own party in and around syria, the authorization of force. are you confident this new diplomatic option is the way to go? yes, this is a very positive development. it has been emphasized. we would not have the russian proposal but for the fact that the president had the credible use of force on the table. jerry conley and i, congressman conley and i had a resolution in the house that very narrowly described that use of force to the purpose of deterring chemical weapons used by the assad regime. obviously if you can get in agreement to put that chemical weapons stockpile under international control you solve the problem of deterring future use. we are revising our draft right
chemical weapons under international control we have established and met that purpose. now, as you say, there are others who had other motives for the use of american military force, which was to try to get involved in determining the outcome of a syrian civil war. that goal is not one that a lot of us have because we believe it would drag the united states further militarily. we all know a big part of the rebels are al qaeda extremists. you have to worry that if you don t have a plan, that if assad goes and he s replaced by al qaeda extremists, number one, those chemical weapons would fall into even less controlling hands. and number two, you would not have resolved the situation in syria in a way that s in our interests. so that s why the president s narrow focus was justified. that s why jerry conley wanted to make sure we had a resolution that really made it clear that was the only purpose. we don t want to open up
they ve been having conference calls. this is a full-court press. and the lawmakers are completely aware of the decision they re about to make. the town halls and lawmakers getting feedback saying they re not for this. this has become the top take members are talking about pipe spent some time with northern virginia congressman jerry conley. he s a democrat. he was going out to speak with the bar association. his topic of the day, he talked briefly about sequestration and then went right into syria. lawmakers wrestling with what could be a tough decision for them. he talked a little bit with me yesterday and said it s very clear the message he s getting from most of his constituents. there are despairet voices. it s hard to say if you get a
chance, that opinion in some cases gets more sophisticated and others, i don t need to hear it. congressman conley says he does not support the plan first put forward by white house officials. he thinks it s too broad. when i asked him, suzanne, how difficult is this decision, he said he thinks it s one of conscience. he said there are huge comblik cages if the u.s. chooses to do nothing. thank you. zbloocht it was an historic night for nasa friday. five, four, three, two one, zero are. ignition. and liftoff. a 90-foot rocket took off from wallace flight facility in virginia friday night. it was the first time nasa launched a rocket to the noon from virginia in its 54 years of lunar missions. nasa said the probe nicknamed