population of libya from moammar gadhafi s forces, and the administration policy, the unilateral united states policy, of taking moammar gadhafi out. john mccain had a little bit more to say about that today on meet the press. reporter: longer we delay, the more likely it is there s a stalemate, and if you re worried about al qaeda entering this fight, nothing would bring al qaeda in more rapidly and more dangerously than a stalemate. reporter: and we mentioned the fact that the united states is flying the unmanned predator drones, firing on gadhafi forces in the city of misrata under siege from the gadhafi forces over the last several weeks. now the question is how much should we be arming the rebels, and should we be funding the rebels. taking the assets frozen from the gadhafi family and taking the money and giving it to the rebels. that s also under consideration. alex. we ll pick up on that last point right now as there s a major setback for those rebels in libya.
second unmanned predator drone strike, this one targeting a libyan anti-aircraft system in tripoli. so we re hearing a lot today from lawmakers who want the u.s. to put more pressure on tripoli. let s bring in sandra endo in washington. sandra, the sunday talk shows were full of calls for the u.s. to get tougher on libya, on gadhafi in particular. despite nato supporting the mission around the conflict in libya, key lawmakers say the u.s. needs to take a lead so they can produce a decisive outcome in the conflict. senator joe lieberman, who chairs the senate committee on homeland security, is applauding the use of predator drones to enhance the mission, you can t get into the fight with one foot. you ve got to get swo into it. therefore, i think the use of our predator drones, which have extraordinary capabilities, was the right thing to do, and i thank president obama s
bombing qaddafi s inner circle, their compounds and military head quarters in military. the way to get him to lead is to have his inner circle turn and break on him and that will take a sustained effort. we tried those things in the past with other dictators and it is harder than you think it is. qaddafi is a great survivor. we don t know exactly where he is. we do have to worry about civilian casualties and that could turn the libyan people against us. the debate comes as the u.s. put more unmanned predator drones back into the fight in libya. they were there in the early days mostly for surveillance and now their goal is to strike government forces in defense of the rebels. u.s. war planes also being used but much less than they were in the first few days of the battle. some say this sends a confusing message. we were very much involved in the opening days of the strikes. now, we have gone back in sort of dipped the dough toe bac toe
lead us or lead others, it s extremely difficult. nbc s chief foreign correspondent richard engel was there with mccain. he joins us now from benghazi, libya. richard, it is always great to talk to you. what do you think the significance will be of mccain really throwing in with the rebels today? reporter: this is the biggest support they have got from a public figure. certainly an american coming to benghazi and telling the rebels exactly what they want to hear. he called on the united states, senator mccain called on the united states to recognize the rebel government and release some of gadhafi s frozen assets and give them to the rebels and he was calling for an increased military mission to be led by the united states, not just by nato. he wants to see the united states taking up that leading role, as you heard in that bite. he said when u.s. leads nato, good things happen. when nato leads the u.s., it becomes complicated. what does it mean that we re now using predator dron
this, which is another way of saying i don t think anybody says this about any other president. i don t know how he is ben, what do you make of that? people don t know. isn t that a way of saying i don t trust him. he said he was born here. he wouldn t take the office if he wasn t born here. there say history of polls saying nasty things about the other party. democrats in 06 and 07 half of democrats thought bush had an idea about 9/11 before it happened. i don t know how seriously to take the numbers. what i think is really different is that a lot of republican politicians, as you say anyway, gene robinson, mr. smith, thank you for your reporting. we ll always be talking about you in this regard. and those pumas are coming to get you. still ahead on hardball, president obama authorized the use of predator drones. this is fascinating. i think we re going in for the kill here. drones are the things that go in your window like the third window from the left to get you bec