White house, she told me how she would like to fix the dysfunction in washington, and what being president is about. Power inthe seat of america, the white house. There seems to be gridlock. Can Hillary Clinton make a difference . Barack obama thought he could. And he didnt. Hillary clinton well charlie it takes two to tango. Hillary clinton he got a lot done. Charlie how can he do it . Hillary clinton get at it every day. Charlie its not enough. Hillary clinton it starts with that, it starts with nurturing relationships. Lady, when irst was a senator or secretary of state, i worked across the aisle all the time. Sometimes there was only one thing that i could find to work with somebody on, because everybody Everything Else we were at odds. Charlie so you say to the new speaker of the house, Hillary Clinton is someone you can feel it, im prepared to reach out to you. Hillary clinton right, and i will do anything to find common ground, but i will also stand my ground. There are some things that are not good for the country. I will not give in on those. But there is a lot of room to find common ground. Charlie buton you know a lot of people think the biggest problem for americans washington. And that is part reflected in the politics we see. Hillary clinton thats true. But look at the way our founders set it up. They set up the separation of powers, and they made it really difficult to get things done. Years, it is really hard. We are in one of these. Iods where we have a minority in the other party that does not believe in compromise are reaching consensus here it is. Charlie thats not the way to do it. Hillary clinton part of what you have to do is make it clear to everyone else who is in the party that there is room for negotiation. Do not even believe in the legislative process, because they think they arrived with all the answers, and theres nothing they can learn maybe there is some ground. Onorked with tom delay reforming the adoption system. Even though we were politically opposite, he cared a lot about foster kids. Them, that, i cared about so we found common ground. That is just a 24 7 effort. I will put whatever it takes into doing it. Charlie waiting for the plaintiff come down from new york, a nice lady said to me, where are you going . I said, im going to talk to Hillary Clinton. She said, ask for this one question. What can i do to make a difference . That is what she said. You must a finding that as you go. I would think my running for president , you have done this before as tough as it is an sleepless, you get a sense to touch base with the with and reds of this country width an country and how they aspired for a better life. Hillary clinton theyre so intimate and personal about the encounters you have when you are running for office. You have only 30 or 60 seconds, people look into your eyes and say, i need help. My son is a drug addict, and taking care of his daughter. We have to have more help. Are young men i meet who says, and taking care of my mother quitalzheimers, i cant my job but i cant afford a caregiver, so i take her to work. I hear these usually intimate stories. It gives not only a real texture to what i thinking about and what im proposing, but it makes it all real. There are real people doing the best they can out there. What can she do . Maybe there is somebody she can help. Maybe theres a child she can tutor. Project to is a raise funds to send kids to college. Maybe theres something she can do to contribute to the life that will be better for somebody else. I say in my speeches, and i know it sounds a little corny, you dont expect a president ial candidate to say we need more lovingkindness in america, but im saying it. We have to stop demonizing each other. We have to stop with the anger, and the terrible sense of alienation and division that is stocking our country. We need to be kinder to one another. We need to put ourselves in each others shoes and walk in them, if you can. Being president is running the executive branch, doing foreign policy, working with congress, but it is also being a catalyst for people to feel that they can be their best selves, and that we need them. We are in this together. Absolutely. Charlie this was the first major interview secretary clinton has granted the terror attacks in paris here and we began with that tragedy, and her strategy to defeat isis. Thank you for doing this. It is great to see you. Hillary clinton great to see you, charlie. Charlie this is the first interview since paris. What is new . What did paris change for all of us . Hillary clinton i think it that is conversation taking place, not only in our country and europe, but in many places across the world, about what are the opportunities and the dangers in this very complex time we are living in. Specifically, with respect to isis, i think it really has accelerated a discussion about how the world is going to deal with not only isis how to deny a territory but also with a whole network of radical which has taken advantage of the arc of instability from north africa to south asia. Finally, how are we going to protect ourselves, our friends, our partners, in a way in keeping with our openness, our values. I think it is really it has pushed all these discussions that you have in the situation room, and lots of places. Now it is pushed into the open, and it is a matter of personal and political debate. With respect to the new urgency, what should the United States do, and what you would you recommend we do . I gave a speech about this on the consul of Foreign Relations, i think it is important we look at it from a broader perspective. Number one, we have to deny them territory with a Multi National effort, and the United States must lead the effort. Charlie what does that mean . Hillary clinton it means we have to do the heavy lifting, to get people to make contributions that they have to make, whether to fly airaft strikes against isis territory to go after leadership and economic infrastructure, or putting together the troops on the ground, how we get more equipment and support to the kurds who have been bearing the brunt of the fighting. How we do everything we can to get the iraqis not only to end up their army, but to begin to work with sunni tribal leaders. Charlie what incentive would you offer to sunni leaders to get them to engage on the ground, so that with the addition of american airstrikes, you might wage an Effective Campaign in iraq and syria . Hillary clinton nothing beats what was tried last time, which is cash. [laughter] lets not turn our nose up at it. Yougeneral petraeus, recently talked with. And was very straightforward and said, look, we basically paid eiks, and now we continue to do that across the border and syria, to pull together a fighting force. It worked. It worked in part because of repulsion against the predecessor, al qaeda in iraq, the treatment of everybody at their hands. That also works because they were promised that they would have the autonomy and authority to make a lot of decisions within iraq, on their own behalf. And hisately, maliki views towards sectarianism slowly but surely undermined all of that. Iks youve got the sunni she and fighters on the sidelines, some of them, making common cause with isis. Anrlie which raises interesting question, did we lose influence in the baghdad government . Would it have made a difference in the behavior so the sunni would not be so turned off by baghdad . Hillary clinton i certainly thought we should keep troops there. I advocated for that. The real problem was maliki. He would not give us a status of forces agreement, that would provide protections for american troops, that we have to expect anywhere in the world. Despite our best efforts, despite trying to negotiate and bargain with him, other members of his government, even the parliament, we were not able to reach the agreement. The prior administration, the bush administration, had set a date for us to withdraw. The absence of agreement, we had to withdraw. That is what he wanted. He made all kinds of promises to the administration. Which he did not result. Charlie was the absence of american troops did it help lead to the strengthening of isis . Hillary clinton i wouldnt go that far. I think it was the collapse of the internal agreements. Our understanding was we had helped them build up a force respect her needs, have a place in the iraqi army, that there would be a National Guard created that would in effect protect the sunnis and give them a sense of autonomy, enabling them to protect themselves. With theirthe kurds, ongoing arguments over Oil Distribution and autonomy. So what maliki did he was the driving force he was purging the army of sunni officers, began to take a hard line against the kurds and their desire for more autonomy, and so i placed the blame, such as it can be placed, at malikis feet. Charlie what should be a limit of our involvement . Hillary clinton we have to look at it from several perspectives. Number one, if we are going to lead a multinational coalition, we are going to still have to take the lead in the air. That is our highest and best use. Even with france picking up airstrikes, we are still carrying out the best majority of them. We also need to get special forces that the president has arena asd into the soon as possible, because they will be able to tell us what more is needed. In particular, how do we have better targeting on the ground . We want to go after isis leadership, economic infrastructure how do we really know what we are targeting . Charlie the general petraeus should be, that we embedding at the battalion level and not just special forces. Hillary clinton i couldnt tell whether he was meaning the iraqi army, if we ever get it stood up again, that is something we could look at. We had over 3000 american troops in iraq trying to do that, working to essentially undo the damage that maliki did to the it totrying to return what it was. To train, mission is assists, and enable. If down the road it appears we do get them up and willing to take the site to fight to in iraq, thens there will be a role for americans to perhaps be a part of advising those army units. We are a long way from that. Donthat im told, we even yet have confidence that we could put them back into the fight. At the same time, lets not forget what we were talking about earlier. We need to be building up a sunni force. That will have to operate on a parallel track to the army. Charlie but, many people are saying, we have been talking about this for a while how do we get the sunnis involved. There is a new urgency and new emergency now. Tell me how serious the threat of isis is, and what level do we decide, we will do anything we have to do to stop them. Hillary clinton i think we have to have as our objectives, their defeat. What is it you have to do to defeat them . I think you have to hide them in their desk fight them in the air, fight them on the ground and in cyberspace. It seems to me, there are people both currently serving and retired, like general petraeus, who know a lot of the players. We should be utilizing anyone who has that kind of personal contact. It is all relationship based. We need people to go over there, look into the eyes of the tribal leaders who say, you betrayed us and we say, no we didnt. When you have promises of continuing to pay sunni troops, continuing to have an integrated army we had promises. They were systematically broken. Lets do it again right. Used it against al qaeda in iraq, because you saw the damage they were doing to your way of life, to your people, the oppressive and violent approach they took. Now you are facing an even more barbaric enemy, which has more money and now controls territory. We need to get back in the game, and we need to help you do that. Charlie do we need to make coalition with russia to do this . First of all, i think we need to build a coalition of europeans and arab states. Charlie dont we have that now . And dont we see market is a patient by the british in terms of proposals to their parliament, and the french are clearly energized. Hillary clinton the french are energized. The brits are waiting for the weather they can be. We have a number of european allies who are flying. The arabs have pulled back and we need to get them reengaged. With respect to russia, i am not yet sure what exactly putins objectives are. We know he has been vomiting a lot of the opposition to a ssad. We have to operate on two tracks at one time on a lot of what we are doing. Theyit comes to russia, have to understand that we are going to go forward with our multinational, multipronged approach. I believe a nofly zone is important to try to provide safe havens on the ground. Taking back the syrian Turkish Border will require turkish help. It will require the russians to be at least respectful of our efforts. We need to be engaged. We are engaged on a military to military level. We conflicted the airspace we are both in, so we are not making mistakes. But what they did, whether intentionally or unintentionally, invading space r forc charlie they did it on purpose . Hillary clinton i dont know, but they were on notice to stay that. You cant make mistakes. But they got so close that a mistake was possible, or they just did not care. Charlie why did they do that . What is Vladimir Putin trying to say to the world . Hillary clinton i think this probably was not something that came down from the kremlin. They want to go after those somes threatening assad, of whom are near the Turkish Border. But by invading the airspace this is not the first time they came close to doing this. Thehowed a disregard for perspective of others, most particularly the turks, that is troubling. I think they have been pushed back, and i think that we will be able to have a more realistic conversation with them, which i would urge. Charlie but isnt Vladimir Putins interest clear, he wants to be relevant, he wants to be a player and be part of the decisionmaking, and he wants to say to the world, russia is important. And he has accomplished that. Hillary clinton he has certainly stake a claim, whether he has accomplished it or not is not clear. There is what also has to happen. Here is what also has to happen. We need to get over the choice going after Bashar Alassad or going after isis. Charlie everyone talks about that, how do you do both . Hillary clinton you do both by making it clear in bringing the russians in. They have paid a big price because of the bomb in the jet. They have lost people to isis. I think you say, look, it is not acquiescenceelp or in what you are going to do going after isis. That means you are going to have to pull back from the area while we go after their leadership and economic infrastructure. But if you want to be part of that, we would welcome you. You have a dog in this hunt now, because you are worrying what is happening to caucuses, isis spreading the ideology. Tothe same time, we have fight the ideology. There has to be more willingness on the part of russia and iran, to take a hard look at how we prioritize. Right now, we are not going to see a military defeat of assad. Its not going to happen. It might have been possible if users of the, it will not happen now. You will continue to see russia from the air, iran from the ground, where running soldiers are dying on behalf of assad. You will see them continuing to hold the territory they havent pushed back against opposition. Part of what we have to do is say, you have to help us get to a political and diplomatic and you have to either get out of the way or come on board with respect to isis. And we have to be very clear about that. It should be a full throated effort. Charlie and you have to thatnse convince assad time is limited. Hillary clinton right. And there will be a transition. And the iranians have an invested interest. ,f they in their own minds they quit bombing the people helping us fight isis, go ahead and put barrier, charlie protect them. Some people like to ask you this question. The question becomes, if there is a nofly zone, which you are and the russians invade the nofly zone, with president clinton say, shoot it down . That would not happen. We are going to put up a nofly zone where the russians are clearly cap informed. I want them at the table. They dont have to participate in it am a but i want them to understand that there has to be areas on the ground, safe areas on the ground. If we can stop hundreds of thousands of more syrians leaving syria, because they get to a place where they can get medical aid, that is good for russia. Why does russia want this incredible burden that is going to be coming up through europe, and yes, maybe they are happy to see europe suffering but in the end, it makes no sense for them or all of us. I think you have to have that conversation. It is never easy with the russians, and particularly hard putin. Adimir if you say, as i think you should and the conversation needs to get to an operational level, and then at the same time a conversation with putin about what options truly are, i think you can say to him, we are going to put up a nofly zone. You will know very well where it is because it is going to be the same people 2d conflict airspace, the same americans you are dealing with. But we have to figure out how to keep syrians in syria, and frankly, it is good for the fight against isis if we have populations that can be a locus. Charlie nofly zone is one place where th you and the president disagree. Are there others where there is a difference . We saw what he said at the council of Foreign Relations and the interview he did in turkey. You seem to be responding to what the simulation similarly responding to what the siation is. Where else do you differ . Hillary clinton i think the president has said, perhaps we should have taken additional steps earlier. Thatie back to the point you and general patriots were recommending in 2011 . Hillary clinton yes. Now the important issue is what do we do now. Im arguing for perhaps a greater, quicker intensification of the work i think needs to be done. I agree with the president s point that we are not putting american combat troops back into syria or iraq, we are not going to do that. Charlie under no circumstances would you not do that . This point,ton at i cannot conceive of any circumstances where i would agree to do that. I think the best way to defeat isis is as i have said from the air, which we lead, on the ground which we empower and train and equip, and in where, dont forget, they are a formidable adversary online. We dont know yet how many special forces might be needed. How many trainers and surveillance, and enablers might be needed. That in terms of thousands of combat troops, like on the republican side by recommending, i think that should be a nonsta