into congress, we ve changed our mind, we want to take military action. that s not going to happen? nixon used to give these speeches on vietnam and he we found out later the telegrams were fake. president george w. bush really didn t persuade people to support going into iraq until after our troops were already in harm s way. what the president can do though, what he has not yet done is layout in an intellectually clear way, why this would be necessary, why chemical weapons are so different that we have to step in as he would say. what the goal is, and what could possibly come of it. in a way it s to give members of congress who might think it is the right thing to do but know they are getting tremendous heat from their constituents, some cover. it s not that they are going to suddenly turn public opinion. that didn t even happen in the
i m not going to engage in monday morning quarterbacking. i think the president to his enormous credit, recognized the constitutional role of the congress and deferred to it. by the way, i would say to mike rogers, his leadership, the republican leadership, no one tied their hands. i called on them to call us back in session and not wait until the ninth of september. and got no response. so it wasn t just the president. the republican leadership could have done that if though thought it was a priority. and i think the president has tried to use this time as productively as he can making numerous classify the briefings available and unclassified available and meetings, one on one discussions, small group discussions available to try to present the case and to try to present the intelligence. and i think he deserves credit for that. congressman, you mentioned earlier that some of your colleagues in the house basically, their minds are closed, they are not interested in hearing anythi
republicans in the house. it s not an easy position to take especially with the public. but he came out pretty strongly against the president and the administration s handling of the situation so far or lack there of. here s what he said yesterday on face the nation . do you think the president hurt his case by saying he wanteded to go to congress? i think the way it happened was misty fiing to me. the president announces it on a saturday. doesn t call congress back. if you were going to do that, call them back for a serious national security debate. i think that had to happen and review the evidence we had so you could have a quick order of events. instead he announced it and then left. he left the country for a week. congressman also said that the white house has done an awful job explaining themselves. looking back the past week, do you feel the president could have handled any of the situations differently? at this point is it too little too late?
maintains alternative solutions? i think generally speaking in diplomacy the idea you threaten a war or have military force backing up what you want the other country to do is effective. you could get a political solution of that. somebody doesn t want to get struck. what the administration would be looking at is a promise by the syrians and russians that the syrian chemical weapons stockpile would be disposed of or given away, sold to somebody perhaps and you d have to believe that was actually happening even though you believe that they used chemical weapons against their own people and lied about it and making that case for a long time not only to americans but the intercommunity. and by the way believe that the syrians aren t smart enough to effect the vote in congress by suggesting there s a political solution going on. i think, i m not in these meetings or conversations between americans on behalf of syrians. y don t know exactly what s going
calendar year but recognize the stakes here are significant. the hope with interviews the president is doing today, the six anchors walking behind us here across the north lawn within next five to ten minutes or so really make the president as it was described to me, the closer in the words of one adviser, have the real opportunity to make his case to the american public. they hope that when members of congress who have been at home finally come and see the evidence and intelligence for themselves, that and the sort of washington world will help influence the responsibility the white house believes they have to support and authorize these strikes. jonathan, you ve been writing over at politico that the administration is privately making the case to democrats that this is his presidency at stake. talk to us about that and do you think there are any republicans who are also open to the idea that nothing that they might be interested in, like tax reform, is going to get done if this v