this was to be the week of the g 8 summit in sochi russia, hosted by vladamir put spin. instead the week of the g 7 summit in brussels. the seven member nations of group of seven decided against going to russia and dropped russia as a protest against russia s annexation. so the united states, britain, france, canada, italy, japan went to belgium. for the russians the first time since 1997 that they have been absent from the u.s. when asked about the snub, vladamir putin told reporters, he simply wished them bon appetit. president obama makes no apologies for bringing bowe bergdahl home.
regime-controlled neighborhood. and landed in opposition neighborhoods. it is an insult to human reason and to the legitimacy of this institution to suggest anyone other than the regime carried out this attack. president obama responded to putin s the new york times op-ed critique of american exceptionalism this way. i believe america must remain engaged for our own security, but i also believe the world is better for it. some may disagree. but i believe america is exceptional. in part because we have shown a willingness through the sacrifice of blood and treasure to stand up not only for our own narrow self-interests but the interests of all. joining me steve clemens, washington editor at large for the atlantic. steve, quite striking language to stay what vladamir put spin
president obama responded to putin s the new york times op-ed critique of american exceptionalism this way. i believe america must remain engaged for our own security, but i also believe the world is better for it. some may disagree. but i believe america is exceptional. in part because we have shown a willingness through the sacrifice of blood and treasure to stand up not only for our own narrow self-interests but the interests of all. joining me steve clemens, washington editor at large for the atlantic. steve, quite striking language to stay what vladamir put spin had said without using his name was an insult to the in tell intelligence of the people in the room today. couldn t have found a stronger way of saying that? the was very strong. this president and vice president biden both made the whole notion about proliferation of weapons of mass destruction,
philosophical, god driven, most often driven like we are by sense of our interests. russian interests in the middle east. what are they in terms of syria? en this case, presumably the russians have no interest in an unstable syria with access to chemical weapon that may be going to terrorists. that s something that the russians have felt strongly about all the way back to 1991, when the cold war ended. so, what seems to be happening, what we hope will happen and we don t know tonight whether this is a serious gamble by put spin. this may bean expression that jfk said, they see this is a larger interest of theirs. we are on our way to a no confidence vote. sure looks like that. the polls, movement in congress showed that. have you seen anything in history, where a president was really confronted on a foreign policy issue by rejection of the american people? kosovo probably the best recent example. it was rejected by both houses of congress, clinton went
he has got to say, i told him to go get the belt. it is to talk about we have made progress. right, remember. as the president of the united states, i did cancel a meeting with putin before. we haven t had the best relationship. the president goes to the g-20. he gets enough allies to convince put spin. you have an interest in this. you better get with the syrians and figure out what you can do about it. does he have to talk about american exceptionalism. explain why the united states has to do this and not france? yes. or belgium? chris matthews, would you weigh in on the question? i m not big on that form of american exceptionalism. american exceptionalism is the way people develop, what you can do in the country as american. the only thing we can hope for here, we have to develop it, use di policem diplomacy. we talked about it tonight, they do have an interest in doing what we have to do.