for the united states. two world wars and a cold war have taught us peace and stability in europe is important for security and prosperity in the united states. we have to remember the only time nato has involved the defense bills of our alliance was after the attack on the united states, 9/11. and we discussed the importance of nato both for the united states. secretary stoltenberg, thank you for sharing your perspective with us. the united airlines fiasco is getting a lot of heat. could it have been avoided with a little change? a lawmaker coming on says yes and his take on whether the democrats will work with trump.
many in the rest of the field were saying. you have marco rubio attacking ted cruz for voting against some of the defense bills. it changed in a direction lindsey graham had been warning it would for a long, long time. i think, and steve touched on this, for lindsey graham this is also mostly about his home state, right? so i had reported earlier this month the party essentially set a deadline for him. they said, hey, if you want to make sure that your name isn t going to be on these ballots in south carolina, you have to tell us by december 21st otherwise the orders are going to go out, all the different counties print their own ballots. they said weigh can t guarantee you re not going to show up. first of all, it puts graham himself in jeopardy. if he s on the ballots, he doesn t get enough votes, he risks embarrassment. but second of all, it also risks taking away votes from, frankly, an establishment-type contender who would be somebody that senator graham himself could accept, som
rubio out talking with students and veterans, but ted cruz picking up a big endorsement. let s talk about this feud between marco rubio and ted cruz. this has been going on ever since after the last debate. you ve seen them go after each other on topics like national security and immigration. that seems to be where marco rubio is escalating his language and sharpening his attack line against ted cruz. this is what he said when i asked him about the feud between the two. senator cruz and others have been given a choice between isolationism or the defense of our country and he s chosen isolationism. whether it s weakening intelligence gathering or voting against the defense bills or a budget that reduces our defense spending. these are facts. reporter: this coming on the heels of that interview on morning joe talking about
more than the other. and who is going to win the conservative endorsements? you see marco rubio who is playing more to the establishment field. senator ted cruz going for the conservative base positioning himself as anti-establishment. the duel between these two guys has been heating up for weeks. you heard senator cruz today on morning joe. and we spoke with senator rubio in des moines, iowa. i asked him about the attacks he s been getting from senator cruz and his attack against him. i want you to listen to what he had to say. in each instance in which senator cruz and others, not just him, have been given a choice between neoisolationism, he s chosen neo isolationism, whether work or voting against the defense bills or voting for a budget that substantially reduces our defense spending. these are facts. there if you have rubio painting cruz as what he calls a neo isolationist, this appears
and that s the option they felt would be the way that they could keep afghanistan stabilized and not lose everything that we have spent so much american blood and treasure on let. let me turn to the act. i have a problem with with defense bills i don t know how anybody comes up with the numbers. none the less it s a bipartisan bill the president says he intends to veto it. will he? he says that he will and very disappointing to me his secretary of defense said that he agrees with him had. look, this is the same amount of money the president requested. this is a budgetary situation. this isn t which has everything to do with appropriations not where is the money. this is an authorization bill. for the men and women who are serving in the military. to equip them better. changing the retirement system. acquisition reform. i mean, there is a long list of importance to the men and