We hear this every year and wait for the words and message and a year ago certainly was a lot different than the reality on the grounds overseas now. Biden has a few months left for his term. This image will not be easy. A series of major Foreign Policy conflicts breaking out during his term. Afghanistan in 21, ukraine in 22. Israel and gaza in 23. The u. N. Secretary general condemned countries feeling entitled to invade others. Today a growing number of governments and others feel entitled to get out of jail free card. They can thumb their nose at international humanitarian law and can invade another country, lay waste to societies or actively disregard the welfare of their own people. And nothing will happen. Dana Eric Shawn is outside united Nations Headquarters in manhattan. Whats the scene like down there . Yes, President Biden about to take the podium in the General Assembly. You may hear the Police Helicopters that always signal the arrival of the commanderinchief. Across the street the Protestors Rally against radical islamic terrorism funded by iran. Iranian president will take the same podium later this afternoon. In remarks to reporters he blames israel for the middle East Conflict saying iran does not want to get into a war with israel. His predecessor was killed in a Helicopter Crash and has only been in office for a few months. The rhetoric from the Islamic Republic remains the same and unchanged. It keeps on funding its proxies, hamas, houthis, and, of course, hezbollah and the iranian president said they will continue to support hezbollah. Telling reporters, quote, we keep defending them. Hezbollah fired a rocket, hezbollah or any other that wishes to defend their rights we defend righteousness and it isnt hezbollah that started the war, israel is hitting him. Targeting them on a daily basis. That is not true. Israel was attacked first in this conflict. At his Hotel Protestors gathered to blame iran and for targeting u. S. Officials for death. There is an open Assassination Contract by iran against former president trump. Secretary of state mike pompeo. National Security Advisor John Bolton and other trump officials in retaliation for trump taking out iranian general Coal Soleimani in an Air Strike in 2020. The protestors here told us it is the iran regime that must end. We are here to denounce him. We are here to say he is not iranian representative. They are part of a Tyrant Regime and they must go. By changing regime in iran and supporting Regime Change in iran we end terrorism in the Middle East. He will speak in a few hours. Its ironic the same Secret Service that protects our president and former president trump, they are protecting him also while he is in New York for the General Assembly meeting. Back to you. Dana we do that responsibility well. Bill a ton to cover there today. Secretary of state Antony Blinken could be held in Contempt Of Congress if he doesnt show up today to testify for the house foreign Affairs Committee Hearing on the botched afghan withdrawal. He is currently here in new York City for the u. N. General assembly. Gillian turner is tracking this one down at the State Department. The house foreign Affairs Committee is about to gavel into the hearing. The star witness, Secretary Of State Antony Blinken is in New York for the u. N. General assembly. So instead of moving forward with this hearing were told the committee is going to be begin the process to hold him in Contempt Of Congress. Chairman Mike Mccaul insists doing so will prevent a tragedy like what happened in kabul from ever happening again. Listen. The american people, u. S. Service members, veterans, and the Gold Star families who recently received the congressional Gold Medal here in the capitol deserve both transparency and accountability. Those who support this resolution will deliver a vote. The committee and the State Department have been trying to set a date now for more than four months. Committee is alleging blinken was a key Decision Maker that led to the death of 13 service members. The State Department is saying is calling Foul Play accusing them of playing politics. The secretary has already testified before congress about afghanistan 14 times. He has testified before chairman Mccauls Committee four times. Some families of the 13 fallen insist the true details still are not known even today three years later. But democrats say that Grilling Blinken is barking up the wrong tree. Says things that are patently false will not help them grieve, will not help them understand what happened. A couple hours this thing will Go On, bill. It could make it to the House Floor for a full vote, the Contempt Resolution later in the week. Bill were watching President Biden now enter the United Nations. He will passion behind that wall and pop out The Other Side and begin his address momentarily. Dana Foreign Policy is what he always wanted to focus on. A Speech he probably didnt anticipate giving and thinking it would be his last but now we are going to have to deal with the fact there are all these conflicts around the world and well hear what he has to say. He will talk about the Middle East. He will talk about Ukraine And Russia and he will talk about a 17 month old Civil War in sudan. The Back Drop lies with the u. S. Military. Yesterday well send more troops to the region to join 40,000 already now stationed in the Middle East and you are coming up toward The End of your term and not seeking another election here, dana. The Wall Street Journal puts a fine point on this and they say Middle East, ukraine, what is happening with china, etc. all of this and more, they write, adds up to the worst decline in World Order and the largest decline in u. S. Influence since the 1930s. That is quite a sentence. Dana it is such an interesting venue in which to give a Speech. Somebody who covered many of these is Bret Baier, our head honcho. There you are, good to see you. There is a lot going on in the world. Hot spots all around and he is going to also mention everything that bill just said, china, then in our own hemisphere our southern border, of course, the problems in latin America And Haiti in which the United Nations finally was able to convince kenya to send troops to try to get a handle on haiti. A lot going on in the world that could affect us At Home. Youre right. President biden faces a big challenge in the Speech of trying to stitch all that together and say he has it covered. They dont. And the biggest sentence that theyve had over time about the situation in the Middle East is to try to avoid a wider war, to try to avoid an expansion of the war between israel and hamas in gaza but its happening. It is happening. Its because of hezbollah but the response and what is happening on the ground is a real tineder box. This is environment President Biden walks into the United Nations in a diminished capacity because he is finishing out his term and no longer the nominee and what weve seen over the last months has not only affected Domestic Politics but also geopolitical analysis from other countries looking at us. Bill we were thinking about a year ago when he made the Speech. 18 days before October 7th. And they were talking about the normalization between Saudi Arabia and israel. The Abraham Accords taking it one step further. Biden was quoted as saying, he said if you and i ten years ago were talking about normalization with Saudi Arabia i think we would look at Each Other and say who has been drinking what . Think about where that Peace Movement and the region for the Middle East has moved in the last 12 months. Extraordinary and going in the wrong direction. It is. There was hope inside the biden administration as we look inside to where President Biden will deliver that Speech, very familiar Back Drop. That marble behind him. There was this sense that maybe they could resurrect the israel saudi normalization. And then the situation with gaza, the situation with hamas post October 7th there. There was a hope maybe it would end quickly and get back on track. That hope is out the window now. Everybody i talk to on all sides says there is no way with what they are seeing on the ground that anything gets done before The End of the biden administration. The question is whether this affects world politics but this election. We usually see the u. S. Economy driving the day but sometimes, dana will remember this from 2004, in a World Affairs can affect an election one way or another. A feeling of safety whether families feel safe At Home. Dana indeed that is one of the things. I want to thank you, bret, for being with us and staying with us. We have kurt volker, former nato ambassador. One of the things biden and Kamala Harris have done theyve told bad actors in the world they have one word for them and the word is dont. The bad actors have done it anyway. Biden is giving a different Speech than he imagined he would have given four years ago. Thats right. We have more crises in the world now than we had four years ago or eight years ago. This is a major war in the Middle East, major war in europe. Threats in Asia And Insecurity for sure in parts of latin america. In many ways, these are getting more and more connected. Iran is providing the drones to russia. Russia is providing political cover for Irans War in the Middle East. China is providing the tech for Russias War in ukraine. These are morphing into a more dangerous situation and a lack of deterrence to these wars to begin with. Bill the afghan withdrawal and they said not the way to do it. But when the Ukraine War broke out about a year and four months later, i do believe, if i have my timeline right, that was august of 2021. Ukraine war broke out in february of 2022. That war forced governments all over the world to pick a side and look who chose a side, russia went with russia, iran, North Korea and china and thats the adversarial pact against us today. Thats right. Russia, you are right, saw the withdrawal from afghanistan as a lack of will on the part of the United States. If we have people falling off of aircraft as they are taking off and we have americans stranded in Kabul And Wont rescue them, thats a signal to everybody we dont have the will. And thats what i think caused putin to decide he can go ahead and invade. What caused iran to decide it could unleash its proxies. Dana we have President Biden approaching the lectern at the United Nations. Likely be his last big address to the world. Lets listen. World leaders, today is the fourth time i have had the great honor of speaking to this assembly as president of the United States. It will be my last. Ive seen a remarkable sweep of history. I was first elected office of the United States of america as a u. S. Senator in 1972. I know i look like im only 40, i know that. [laughter] i was 29 years old. Back then we were living through an Inflection Point. A moment of tension and uncertainty. The world was divided by the Cold War. Middle east was headed toward war. America was at war in vietnam. At that point the longest war in americas history. Our country was divided and angry and there were questions about our Staying Power and our future. But even then, i entered public life not out of despair but out of optimism. The United States and the world got through that moment. It wasnt easy or simple without significant setbacks but we Go On to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons through Arms Control and then Go On to bring the Cold War itself to an end. Israel and egypt went to war but then forged a historic peace. We ended the war in vietnam. The last year in hanoi i met with the vietnamese leadership. We elevated our partnership to the highest level. A testament to the resilience of the Human Spirit and the capacity for reconciliation. Today the United States and vietnam are partners and friends. As proof even from the horrors of war there is a way forward. Things can get better. We should never forget that. Ive seen that throughout my career. In the 1980s i spoke out against apartheid in South Africa and i watched the racist regime fall. In the 1990s i worked he was held accountable for war crimes. At home i wrote and passed the Violence Against Women Act to end the scourge of violence against women and girls not only in america but across the world as many of you have as well. We have so much more to do especially against rape and Sexual Violence as weapons of war and terror. We were attacked on 9 11 by Al Qaeda and osama bin laden. We brought him justice. Then i came to the presidency in another moment of crisis and uncertainty. I believed america had to looked forward. New challenges, new threats, new opportunities were in front of us. We needed to put ourselves in a position to see the threats, to deal with the challenges, and to seize the opportunities as well. We needed to end the era of war that began on 9 11. As Vice President to President Obama he asked me to work to wind down the Military Operations in iraq and we did, painful as it was. When i came to office as president , afghanistan had replaced vietnam as americas longest war. I was determined to end it and i did. It was a hard decision but the right decision. Four american president s had faced that decision but i was determined not to leave it to the fifth. It was a decision accompanied by tragedy, 13 Brave Americans lost their lives along with hundreds of afghans in a suicide bomb. I think of those lost lives every day and all the military deaths over the long years of that war. Many wounded in action. I think of their service, their sacrifice and heroism. I know other countries lost their own Men And Women Fighting alongside us. We honor those sacrifices as well. To face the future i was also to rebuild my countrys partnerships to a level not previously seen. We did. We did just that from traditional treaty alliances to new partnerships like the coude with the United States, japan, australia and india. I know i know many look at the World Today and see difficulties and react with despair. But i do not. I wont. As leaders we dont have the luxury. I recognize the challenges from ukraine, to gaza, to sudan and beyond. War, hunger, terrorism, brutality, Record Displacement of people. Climate crisis, democracy at risk, strangers in our societies, the promise of Artificial Intelligence and significant risk. The list goes on. But maybe because all ive seen and all we have done together over the decades, i have hope. I know there is a way forward. In 1919, the irish Poet Yates described a world, and i quote, where things fall apart, the Center Cannot hold, anarchy is loosed upon the world, end of quote. Some may say those words describe the world not just 1919 but in 2024. Well, i see a critical distinction. In our time, the center has held. Leaders and people from every region and across the political spectrum have stood together and turned the page. We turned the page on the worst pandemic in a century and made sure covid no longer controls our lives. We defended the u. N. Charter and insured the survival of ukraine as a free nation. Our country made the largest investment in climate and clean energy anywhere in history. Always be forces to pull our countries apart and the world apart. Aggression, extremism, chaos, cynicism, a desire to retreat from the world and go it alone. Our tasks is to make sure that the forces holding us together are stronger than those pulling us apart. That the principles of partnership that we came here each year to uphold can with stand the challenges. That the center holds once again. My fellow leaders, i truly believe were in another Inflection Point in world history. Where the choices we make today will determine our future for decades to come. Will we stand behind the principles that unite us . Will we stand firm against aggression . Will we end the conflicts that are raging today . Will we take on global challenges like climate change, Hunger And Disease . Will we plan now for the opportunities and risks of a revolutionary new technologies . I want to talk today about each of these decisions and the actions in my view we must take. To start, each of us in this body made a commitment to the principles of the u. N. Charter to stand up against aggression, when russia invaded ukraine we could have stood by and merely protested. The Vice President harris and i understood that was an assault on everything this institution is supposed to stand for. And so my direction, america stepped into the breach providing massive security and economic and humanitarian assistance. Our nato allies and partners and 50 plus nations stood up as well. Most importantly, ukrainian people stood up. I ask the people of this chamber to stand up for them. The good news is, Putins War has failed at its core aim. He set out to destroy ukraine, ukraine is still free. He set out to weaken nato, nato is bigger, stronger, more united than ever before with two new members, finland and sweden. But we cannot let up. We have another choice to make. Will we sustain our support to help ukraine win this war and preserve its freedom or walk away and let aggression be renewed and a nation be destroyed . I know my answer. We