Can they . A conversation with the Number Two Senate democrat dick durban and tom price. Also, republican Carlos Gutierrez. We must be the party of immigration. Our followup conversation with a man who led mitt romneys outreach to latinos. Plus, the politics of scandal. The Jackie Calmes of the New York Times and jerry seib and cnn pentagon correspondent barbara starr. Im Candy Crowley, and this is state of the union. Good morning from washington. With all the intrigue of a bond film, i stealthy general David Petraeus arrive and left capitol hill. Behind closed doors they heard him. His testimony today was that from the start he had told us that this was a terrorist attack. It was testimony that seemed to challenge white house explanations of who knew what when about the attack on the u. S. Consulate in libya that killed four americans. Joining me is missouri senator roy blunt and mare marry congressman doug coopersburger. Thank you for joining us. Lets start off with the last point, and that is when you all listened to general petraeus, was he saying Something Different than the white house was saying in the days after benghazi about what it was, what the attack was about . Sfoo well, when he came before our committee, he said really the same thing that he said september the 14th. I think on september the 14th, though, when you walked away from that hearing, you felt there was more based on a protest. He did say when he communicated to us, but he felt that there were terrorist involved and there could be an al qaedatype plant. He then reiterated this at that time. Theres no question that the impression to the American Public was that it was a protest, but at this point that was changed, intelligence evolved, and the administration did state that it was not a protest. So at this point we know it was not a protest. We still dont know if it was planned or not. We know it went on for hours. The point here for people who may be confused as to why is this all important is that folks on the republican side believe that the president and his administration dlebly didnt tell the truth about what went on because they were using the storyline m election that they had all but taken care of al qaeda and that this seemed to be al qaeda connected. Do you believe that . That seems to be the case for me. I mean, you have this discussion about, well, we have classified material and unclassified material. I think that really you have to have a really good reason why you dont give the American People the information you had unless you think youre somehow going to really endanger the people that are in other parts of the world. I mean, we had the people out of benghazi that survived that attack on september the 12th. No reason they couldnt have been talked to. This idea for days until somehow we get the surveillance film well, dont really know for sure that theres not a protest. Its leer from the surveillance film there was never a protest. We had people out of there the next day. Its also clear that there had to be some planning. The first people are killed really early at the mission, but its six or seven hours later before the other two people are killed a mile and a half away. That clearly was something that intended to happen. It wasnt seven hours later. People get excited again. We knew that from the very start. You basically think that it was put out there because they didnt want to have the direct conversation about this being a terrorist attack. I think in two years thats the only conclusion you could reach. Let me ask you about the attack itself because we still dont know. Do either one of you feel that you know exactly what happened and who did it . From what i know and the information that we received is that the first attack was more of a chaotic type of attack. This is the one that killed the ambassador. The ambassador, who died of smoke inhalation. It wasnt gunfire. And that at that point that it was more chaotic. Fires were set. You had people looting. Then seven hours later the attack at the compound was a lot different. That was well organized. You had people who knew how to shoot mortars. There seemed to be command and control, and that was a lot more planning, in my opinion, and they were a lot more effective, and thats when we had our other two americans who were on the perimeter protecting the citizens. We had people from the first attack who worked for the state department. They were all taken, and their lives were saved thanks to the security, taken to the second compound, and the people who were killed were in the prim meters, and they were put on planes or helicopters or whatever to get them to safety. Candy, i think doug and i saw the same compilation of surveillance video. Even the first attack. A lot more chaotic and maybe not as well planned. These are people who suddenly get through the gate with weapons in most cases, and they start doing bad things from the very first moment, and i would agree totally that the Second Attack where you had relatively good use of the weapons that had to fire the mortars, precise hits, this is several hours later. Clearly, somebody who knows what theyre doing is behind that attack and the first attack, again, was not in any way you could look at it coming out of the spontaneous demonstration because there wasnt was wherein. Were there calls for help . Were they denied . Do we know the answer to that . Absolutely they were want denied. There was an issue after it appeared in the media that when the state department the state department was at the first location. When they called out for the cia for help, immediately within, i believe, 20 minutes they were getting their ammunition together and getting together, and they did come, and they also received firepower when they got there. They obviously had to fight their way in, and once they got there, they were able to get all of the people, the americans, to the area of safety at the second location. Other than the ambassador, who decided stay and his press person, and he died of smoke inhalation. Senator, let me ask you pause here a second because i want to take a quick break, and ill let you answer that on the other side. We also want to focus on the middle east. Right after this break. [ man ] hello hello [ all ] ohh that is crazy are you kidding me . Let me see oh what thats insane noooo mr. Woodson . Oh hello hello [ whistles ] hello [ all ] hello [ coach ] caleb, ive got someone i want you to meet. Hello. [ male announcer ] at t. The nations largest 4g network. Covering 3,000 more 4g cities and towns than verizon. Rethink possible. But they havent experienced extra strength bayer advanced aspirin. In fact, in a recent survey, 95 of people who tried it agreed that it relieved their headache fast. 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They had left their location within 24 minutes of the call, but my other question would be there was nobody anywhere in the world that we could get there in six or seven hours to save those last two lives and potentially other lives that could have been lost in that attack that occurs hours after the ambassador is killed and the Mission Statement the mission itself has been abandoned to the second facility. You have added on to that the arab spring, which gave us new leadership in egypt. How scary is this that Mohammed Morsi will be a source for good. Clearly they have a right to defend themselves, and they have to protect their citizens. We have to remember the United States its as if washington d. C. Was being attacked from the state of maryland. Its very, very serious whats happening there. I think as far as the arab spring, clearly the environment has changed, and i think the United States now is looking to morsi so look to hamas to get them to stop shooting. Hopefully you can take advantage of the negative situation and Start Talking about peace. President morsi has his own problems at home too in terms of trying to be tough on hamas, which, after all, is part of the Muslim Brotherhood and the palestinians. Do you think he can be helpful . Has he been helpful . I dont know that he has. Clearly weve benefitted from almost 40 years now of having peace partners between israel and egypt even though the Egyptian Government never told the people of egypt how important this was to maintain this peaceful relationship, and we dont have that right now. I think the Prime Minister of egypt not morsi, but the Prime Minister went to gaza, highranking person went to gaza last week, met with them. Theyve expressed all kinds of industry. Certainly the Senate Passed a resolution last week unanimously thats in line with what the congressman just said about the right to defend yourselves, but weve got people who have traditionally been our allies in trying to maintain the peace in turkey, in tunisia, in egypt that now are encouraging the things that clearly will not keep the peace if hamas is allowed to continue to do what israel cant, frankly, allow it, candy, to continue to do. Let me add in the other element here, and thats iran. Is iran arming hamas . We know where these weapons are coming in. Iran says theyre not, but is there evidence to the contrary, is iran involved in the arming of hamas and what seems to be a little bit at least of increased capacity with these missiles coming from gaza . Well, theyre coming in, and theyre getting there from somewhere. My guess is iran is involved. My guess is there has to be some involvement in egypt and the border or these things wouldnt be getting in to gaza and theres all kinds of public encouragement of what we would consider terrible misdeeds perpetrated on innocent people in israel coming out of gaza. Iran is a very dangerous country, very dangerous to israel and the middle east and also the United States. They export terrorism, and they also have the ability to manufacture rockets and missiles. I have had a conversation with the ambassador to israel. Clearly the rockets that were sent in are iranian rockets. They support hamas, and i think that theyre very serious. By the way, to answer your question, you talked about morsi. I think a bigger player here is president erd owi ne of turkey. Theyve become very powerful. They have a lot more influence in the arab area, and i think theyre going to be a key player if theres going to be any issue of calming down the hostility as it relates to hamas. Over the last 20, 30 seconds we have president obama as far as we know doing everything he can. He is satisfied with what the u. S. Has said and done so far. In his statement yesterday i thought they were helpful. They are in line with what the congressman and i have said here today, and i hope were aggressively pursuing that idea that israel has a right to protect itself, but people all over the world have a real interest in trying to stop this violence from being initiated by hamas and gaza. Because the president has also said apparently please dont equate gaza to israel. We always will stand behind israel. Theyre our ally there. We have to do whatever we can help them to protect their citizens. Congressman, senator, thank you both so much for being here today. Okay. When we return, solving the financial crisis before its too late and, later, the political fallout of the benghazi investigation. [ female announcer ] introducing yoplait greek 100. 100 new. 100 greek. 100 mmm. 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Were both going to have to give up some of the things that we know are a problem. Most of my members, i think, without exception, believe were in the dilemma were in not because we tax too little, but because we spend too much. It doesnt sound like much, okay, but when congressional leaders left the white house, they were talking about getting a deal, if believe on the nick of time. We can do this and avert the fiscal cliff that is right in front of us today. We should have a deadline before christmas. High stakes deal making in the season of goodwill. The possibilities are endless. Not all of them are good. Senate majority whip dick durbin, and the house chairman tom price are next. Of any Small Business credit card. Your boa [ garth ] thors Small Business earns double miles on every purchase, every day ahh, the new fabrics, put it on my spark card. [ garth ] why settle for less . The spiked heels are working. 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And now trade up to get a 2012 Chevy Silverado allstar edition with a total value of 9,000. From outstanding value to standing the test of time, chevy runs deep. Joining me now dick durbin and tom price. Gentlemen, thank you for joining us. I want to start out by playing two bits of sound from both Speaker Boehner and president obama on staking out what they would like to see in a deal to get rid of this fiscal cliff. Raising tax rates will slow down our ability to create the jobs that everyone says they want. What im not going to do is to extend bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 that we cant afford. Gosh, that doesnt sound like you all are anywhere closer to a deal now than you were prior to the election. Congressman price, where is there room for compromise here . There is certainly room for negotiation on a real solution, and a real solution includes both revenue increases and spending reductions. The reason we have concern about what the president is talking about and what my friends on the other side of the aisle have talked about is that it doesnt solve the problem. If we take the president s deal, you know how many days that pays for. Eight days. Not months. Eight days. We neat to look at increasing revenue through progrowth policies. Not through tax hikes, correct . That means broadening the base, limiting the deductions, limiting the credits, and making certain that we identify the appropriate spending reductions so that we have, indeed, a balanced approach. Okay, but were still at the place where everything gets hung up. No increases in tax rates. That is still the position of House Republicans, correct . We would be happy to look at that, if it solved the probl. The problem is it doesnt solve the problem. We want a real solution, which means increasing tax revenue through progrowth policies. Let me just try to get the senator in here. So the answer is no, they dont want to look at tax rate increases, and, yet, we kind of have the president saying he would veto something that didnt have tax rate increases for the wealthy. Where are we going from here . Candy, you have to listen closely, and i have been listening for a long time since i was on the simpsonbolles commission. What i hear is a perceptible change in rhetoric from the other side, and what it is is an invitation for our side to basically sit down and say what can we do for this country . Push the special Interest Groups aside for a moment, and what i hear the president saying is were not going to solve this by asking the wealthiest to pay their fair share, but it will be part of the solution. What i hear from the republican side is what is the rest of the solution . That is the beginning of a negotiation. Its an indication that the election had an impact on all of us. The American People are sick and tired of all the obstruction and all the rhetoric on both sides, and i can tell you that the fiscal cliff is focussing the mind. We are really trying our best now to at least come up with an understanding of an agreement before the end of the year. Okay. So we have had let me stick with you for a second. Weve had the president meeting with the top leadership. What is going on now . W