very strongly and seriously. the president mention vladimir putin by name, reinforcing a message delivered by defense secretary jim mattis at the pentagon this morning. he spoke before a prescheduled meeting with the a shifted the focus to russia, which has blocked. the first thing we have to look at is why chemical weapons are still being used at all, and russia was the framework, moving all the chemical weapons, so working with our allies and partners from nato and elsewhere, we will address this issue. taking actions, launching air strikes against assad? i don t rule out anything. u.s. has no carriers in the gulf but they acknowledged a guided missile destroyer with
because i noted it a moment ago, general mattis just spoke and i want to share that sound and i also want to share what lindsey graham had to say. here s what mattis spoke. first thing we have to look at is why a chemical weapon is still being used at all when russia was in the framework of removing chemical weapons. working with our allies and partners from nato to qatar and elsewhere, we re going to address this issue. can you rule out taking actions, launching air strikes against assad, mr. secretary? i don t rule out anything right now. thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. i don t rule out anything. it was five days ago when trump said we re not going to stay. i want to share what lindsey graham said on fox today. so the regime has to pay a big price. what would be a big price to lose your air force? this should be the last time a barrel bomb is dropped on innocent civilians by the assad air force. we have the capability to destroy his air force, to ground
home. president obama standing with the american people. especially among the republicans who say president obama has consistently under estimated and they say mishandled the isis threat. we need to come to grips with the idea that we are in the midst of the next world war. president obama has said repeated that he has no strategy to defeat isis. he doesn t believe in american leadership. they blow up people and shoot people and kill people. i don t rule out anything. with us is the atlantic s molly ball, jeff zeleny, jonathan martin, and nia-malika henderson.
never get a hearing. they never get a vote. so we need to see a structural change so that is much more from the ground up. that is better representation for members back home. what has mr. mccarthy said when you asked him specifically about these things? well he promises more representation from the base. but there hasn t been any tangible changes yet. and that is what we re going to be looking at for the next three weeks. whether is he going to do in our rules and the structure of leadership that would make us follow in support of him so we could see it would be a new day a new sheriff in town. so if he does makes those changes, will you support him on the house floor? e well it all depends on what those changes are and how permanent those changes appear to be, how tangible they are. i m open minded but i m also skeptical. so you are not ruling out the possibility of backing him. i don t rule out anything. well there you have it.
and when you talk about it with chairman rogers, he makes it known how improbable that is. can you see him backing off and still getting involved in the absence of that? in terms of air strikes? yes. i think it would be difficult for him to do air strikes if we re going to go by the ground laid out on friday without a political process because then you basically have essentially either limited air strikes that may not achieve anything or an openended commitment in a country that has no political basis for a real future. i want to play a couple of clips of president obama from just this week which show how quickly he was forced to pivot in terms of his view of the situation around the world. take a look. the world is less violate than it has ever been. it s healthier than it s ever about. it is more tolerant than it s ever been. i don t rule out anything.