Transcripts For CSPAN Newsmakers 20140914

You and your colleagues have just started to absorb the information. How old you like to proceed in regard to combatting the inas you are insurgency . Isil needs ah be confronted and defeated. It needs to be removed as a threat to Regional Security in the middle east and theres a Security Threat to. United states of america. I think that there will obviously be debates about how to do that, butable that we will be unite the but i believe we will be united . Host can you give us some information about what you would like to see . Some of the options are taking the idea of authorizing, arming, and training the rebels and putting it into funding the government. Others say we should split them up and have two separate votes. And there are still others, i talked to jim moran, and he said that they should come back and have a full authorization of force debate in november after the election. Guest i believe that the process is what we will pursue. I think that there will be a consideration of the president s request to train and equip regional players, those from syria, iraq, other middle eastern countries, arab nations that will be the boots on the ground that people talk about. I think we will be the facilitators, supporters, and help coordinate a Large Coalition which the president and secretary of state are now putting together. We have some significant number of nations that have said they want to participate. I think that will be the first thing that we will consider, authorizing president under article 10 to equip and train in an overt as opposed to covert way. Now that we have an Iraqi Government that is trying to and hopefully will respect both sunni and shiite interests and that they will feel that theyre in a partnership to confront isil, i think well proceed on that. Secondly, i think after the elections, there will be a consideration of a larger authorization for the use of force. We passed an amendment through the house of representatives with a large bipartisan support before this immediate crisis confronted us and said that we ought to reconsider and change or modify or withdraw the use of force authorization passeded in 2001. So i think jim moran is correct. I think it will be a twostep process. Host have you begun to have conversations with your colleagues about what they would or wouldnt support in a continuing resolution. A lot of people want that authorization to arm the Syrian Rebels included in the continuing resolution as something that the president has requested. Other members are saying they dont want to take any vote relating to this crisis abroad until they have that vote on authorizing the use of military force. Especially those folks who dont want military intervention and want to go on record saying so. I think that the majority of our members are prepared to support the president s request to train and equip other nations nig nighters in syria, iraq, and other places in the middle east. I believe those members also believe that we should have a vote at the end of the year on the authorization of the use of military force so that congress can speak about the views of the American People regarding that. Host do you have a sense of how broad that use of force resolution would be in november . The republicans will probably want to go a lot further than the democrats. How do you tie that together so it maintains bipartisanship and passes . Discussions, hearings, working together toward that end to reach a bipartisan and majority in the house of representatives as to what that authorization for the use of force ought to say. There will be some with a much more restricted view and some will have a much more expansive view. But when you ask how were going to get there, im hopeful and well be working towards discussions in my own party that we reach a consensus. That does not mean that everybody will agree but well have a broad agreement on the parameters. Then hopefully we can also agree with the republicans who may want a different set of words in a resolution. But i am hopeful that we can Work Together in good faith as americans confirming a security challenge and come to an agreement. So were going to work hard at that, and i think we can get it done. Id like to follow up on that security challenge. Since were talking on the anniversary of 9 11, the president contended last night, mr. Hoyer, that the country is safer today than it was 13 years ago. Weve built up quite an infrastructure to fight the threat but has that threat changed to the degree that americans may not be as safe as he contends . Guest i think hes correct on that point. We are making our airways as safe as possible but in addition to that, we were paying much more greater attention and more focused on preventing a terrorist threat on the homeland and i think weve done a good job at that through two administrations. We havent had a major strike on our country. But we need to be vigilant. But i think the president was correct. Now, i think also it is correct to say that the middle east is a much more complicated, destabilized area than it was 13 years ago on 9 11. To that extent, the challenge is greater, and the president is suggesting ways and means to meet that challenge. But it is a much more complex world that he faces today and that we face today than we did in my view in 2001. Congressman, do you anticipate that, you cans will need the help of the democrats to pass the continuing resolution . Guest i believe thats the case. Mr. Mccarthy has not told me its the case but i believe its the case. Other groups have come out against the cr in it contains a reauthorization of the export import banks. The democrats believe strongly thats a very important component of ensuring america is competitive internationally. When we passed it before just a couple of years ago, mr. Cantor and i worked on the reauthorization together. He was then the majority leader. It passed with over 330 or 340 votes, an overwhelming majority with the significant number of republicans voting for that enevery democrat voting for that. Unfortunately for idealogical reasons, it has become very controversial. There are 41 republicans that have urged a long term reauthorization of the bank. Every democrat is for that. That would give us at least 230 votes. And i am hopeful the Republican Leadership would bring that option to the floor because i believe it represents not only the majority of opinion in the house of representatives but a way to help create jobs and ensure our competitiveness in global markets. Lets assume that you do pass the resolution funding the government next week and whether its inside the cr or not that there is this authority for training rebels, why not spend october considering the use of force authorization . In 2002 just before that Midterm Election, you guys held a vote then and got a bipartisan result. Is that just a bad time to do that sort of politics . Guest i think what america is all about is democracy, listening to our people. Its about elections where people come to the polls and make decisions about their country. So frankly, i think youre going to see a very robust discussion about this among the American People. And after coming back into session, better informed of the view of america and i think that will be helpful to the final result frankly. So listening to americas advice and counsel is a good thing, not a bad thing. Looking ahead to the midterms, i know that you would hope that the house would go back into democratic control assuming that it stays in control for republicans stay in control and that the senate also goes into republican hands. How do you anticipate the next congress playing out and working the lame duck trying to finish up certain priorities before you go into a brave new world in january . Look, i think the American People are rightfully disgusted and disappointed with their board of directors, the congress of the United States. I frankly think our republican friends have led the most ineffective house of representatives in which ive served since i came here in 1981. We frankly ignored the views of the American People. Weve refused to consider legislation which has a majority of the support in the house of representatives. I think its very unfortunate. Minimum wage clearly needs to be addressed. It hasnt been addressed for a lot of years now. Last addresseded in 2007, 2009. We need to do that. Immigration reform. Everyone admits the immigration system in our country is broken. The United States senate by a 21 majority passed over an immigration bill. The republicans themselves have passed some five or six bills out of their committees. However, the Republican Leadership has not brought either the senate comprehensive bill, the house bill including the Homeland Security committee and the house of representatives and the other parts of the senate bill which were passed by thats unfortunate. I am hopeful that the outcome of the election will such that we move together in a much more positive fashion and bring to the floor legislation that has bipartisan support, that can pass the house of representatives, and not simply because you have the power to do so, exclude from consideration legislation which will help our economy fix a broken immigration system, ensure that people are getting enough money to live on and not live in poverty while make sure that women get equal pay and make sure we do what the American People want us to do. How difficult is it for your members, those running for reelection in the house, those running in open seats, and also some running for senate races to have barack obama at this point be a very unpopular president hovering around 40 approval ratings. Where you have a situation where it seems Michelle Obama seems to be doing more campaigning for the democrats than the president himself. I think we have some excellent candidates. We have excellent candidates with experience, commonsense, feet on the ground candidates. I think a lot of them are going to win. Having said that, i think this president did what the American People wanted last night. I think they saw a leader looking at a security challenge saying theyre going to confront it and defeat it. I think weve seen a president who has led an economy that is the worst that almost every american has seen in their lifetime. Have you to be 90 years or older to have seen a worse economy than president obama inherited. Not withstanding that, working with us in the congress, democrats and some republicans have built up the economy, weve had a growing committee. Weve averaged over 200,000 jobs creates per month. The stock market has almost tripled in terms of value. So much of our economy is doing well. But we havent passed the kind of jobs legislation that will make sure that those who have not been lifted up by the growth in our economy, the increase in jobs, have an opportunity, have a running on the ladder to get to middle class status and the status which they can support themselves and their families. So this president has made some very tough decisions. Has been confronted with, as i said, the worst economy that this nations had. Has brought us back. And is now confronting one of the most complicated National Security problems that weve had. So i think america is seeing leadership in this president. On the subject of president obama and his pop ewe later and the elections in november, what did you think of president obamas decision to delay taking executive actions on immigration out of respect for the position it was putting some democrats in on the campaign trail . The bottom line is this president , the United States senate, and House Democrats are committed to comprehensive Immigration Reform sooner rather than later. We also believe that the president has the authority to take action and that he should take action before the end of this year to make sure that we that the house finds himself if the house finds itself unwilling or unable to act, to make sure that we have a humanitarian system before we make it a working system. We ought not to wait to make it a working system. The fact of the matter is that this president i think is very focused on this. Were very focused on this. The American People overwhelmingly support Immigration Reform. And the congress has the responsibility both constitutionally and i would say morally to act to fix a broken system which is a large part of our challenge. And i think the president will address it before the end of the year. Looking at immigration and also this potential use of force debate, in each instance, you see the kicking of the can past the election. When does the fever break on capitol hill . When are we able to actually deal with things when they need to be dealt with . Six years ago at this time, wall street was imemployeeding imploding and congress came together and came up with the bail out. It was a republican president. Came to the congress with secretary paulson and ben bernaki, head of the federal reserve, and said if you dont act, congress, the country will go into a deep depression. And what happened . Twothirds of the democrats voted to support the policy that the president of the United States, the republican president , recommended. On the other hand, twothirds of his own party opposed him as you know. And that only passed and we only in my opinion saved the economy of america from going into depression because of the willingness of democrats to vote in a bipartisan fashion with a republican president on the policy that he proposed. Unfortunately, when president obama became president in 2009 and february of 2009 when we were acting to staunch the hemorrhaging of the economics of our country, they were not there at all. No support in the house of representatives at all. No ability. Notwithstanding the fact that the president reached out and said lets Work Together, there was no response in a positive question. However, your question is can we do it in the future . I tell my colleagues you cant solve americas problems in a 24month cycle. What i mean is we cant always focus on the election. We have to make tough decisions for our children and our grandchildren and our countrys sake. Because those decisions are tough, they are made much more manageable and possible if we act together in a bipartisan fashion. That the has been my that has been my intent throughout my career when i was in the state senate, when i was in the congress. The senator from missouri who used to be the minority and majority whip, we had the opportunity to Work Together closely. Im hopeful i can work with mr. Mccarthy in the same bipartisan fashion because we need to come together and solve americas problems and if we do, america and americans are going to be a lot happier with us and properly so. Have you had a chance to assess whether things will be different under mr. Mccarthy . Its a little soon to assess that. This is really the first time weve had to work in real bipartisan fashion. Im hoping the next week we start to forge such a relationship. Hes indicated he wants to do that. Mr. Scalise has also indicated he wants to do that. And ill tell you that leader pelosi and i will be positive in our response if we find an receptive audience. The first exercise with the new leadership team, we had some drama over this bill to Fund Resources at the border with the Child Migrant crisis, and other things, and people were wondering if this was a new team that could keep it together. Did that give you any early indication of what you were up against here and what kind of leadership the republican conference was going to have . Im prepared to give mr. Mccarthy and mr. Scalise the benefit of the doubt. What we learned from that incident unfortunately is that the republicans did what they have done so often. Turn towards their far right, not towards consensus, not towards bipartisanship in order to pass something through the house of representatives. What we need to do is meet, discuss, and resolve, not simply just move to the most radical part of the Republican Party. Thats what happened then and it was unfortunate. But im hopeful mr. Mccarthy and mr. Scalise mean that they want to Work Together and that they can Work Together. I look forward to trying to do so. All right, mr. Hoyer, you referenced 1981 is when you started this job. How much longer do you want to keep going . Well, i enjoy this job notwithstanding the fact that not trying to get rid of you. I appreciate that. But im happy. I enjoy this job. I think this job gives me an student to serve my country and my state and the people who are my neighbors. And as long as theyre willing to have me and my health is good and im able to do it, that will take care of itself. All right. Thats it for our time. Thank you very much for joining us. Congressman steny hoyer, the minority whip. Thank you . Host the election is only weeks away, so what are the prospects that they will find consensus on these big issues particularly with the cr and the antiterror request . I think there is definitely bipartisanship to fund the government and keep it open. There is definitely bipartisanship for this minimum action over in syria training the rebels. How that comes together, whether those are two separate votes or put into one vote, thats still mr. Hoyer doesnt seem to have the answer there. Thats going to be a call that Speaker Boehner makes. But its fascinating that he seems clear that theyre going to come back after the election and have a debate on the parameters of a real war resolution. Host but theres always concern when that discussion happens with a lame duck congress. Yeah. Youll have people who are retiring, those who are just elected. Host and making a war decision without having to stand for reelection again in front of the voters. Yeah. I think it will get quite a lot of reaction in the next few weeks. I certainly think that members are going to need some reassurances on what theyre going to have a chance to vote on and discuss and debate on and go on the record for or against. In terms of the members who say we want a broader conversation about authorizing military force, about coming up with a real strategy to confront the Islamic State of iraq and syria, you know, weve had a lot of conversation in this congress about not wanting to give the president a quote, unquote, blank check, you know, to do whatever he wants. And a lot of discussion about wanting to put markers down for our position. So i think that, thats probably something that the leadership is trying to gauge from their members, what do you need now . What do we need to promise you later . Just to get the government funded. And with the two iraq wars, they both came around a Midterm Election and were both handled different by the administration. In 1990, they spent many months ramping up for getting congressional approval to go into and expel iraq from kuwait. But they waited until january, 1991 when the new congress had come in. So you had people like a Paul Wellstone from minnesota who won in november, 1990, and in january, 1991, one of the first votes he was taking was on a war resolution. 12 years later in 2002, they didnt wait until after the election, and they didnt wait for the new congress to come in. They did it in october about three weeks before that midterm. And it became a very political football in terms of how people were going to vote. Now mr. Hoyer seems to be saying were going to go option three and wait until after the election but the old congress, the Outgoing Congress will be the ones voting, not the new people who just won in november. Its a tricky spot how you do that. Host it has become tradition that right after the Midterm Elections in a president ial cycle with no incumbent, the president ial campaign will really start ramping up in earnest. This was a president elected on the drawing down of iraq and afghanistan. He is now getting the United States more involved in a longterm commitment. How does that tee up the debate for the president ial election particularly for Democratic Candidates. I think that will be fascinating because that is the timeframe after the election up until january when youre going to start seeing people announcing their 2016 campaigns whether it is a marco rubio, rand paul. Even someone like paul ryan. Yeah. So you now then start creating a 2016 overlap on a war resolution host and the strategy that is a multiyear or multigenerational strategy when the president is laying out here. So it involves the Democratic Candidates in carrying this forward if the debate ramps up so quickly. Thats right. Yeah. I think what they had said was this is a policy that will carry out through Obamas Administration host and where will the left be . The ones who brought him into office in a debate like this . Whats interesting right now is what youre seeing especially from those from if progressive caucus who want to vote on military force. Its an important statement for 24e78 to make about what they think the president ought to do and not do when it comes to engaging in more military conflict. You know, you have mr. Hoyer and nancy pelosi and other leadership between a rock and a hardship. At this point they want to support the president , they want to empower the administration and the Democratic Party and establishment, but there are a lot of members in their party who feel that, that goes very much against what the party should be standing for. In the senate itself, you have almost a majority of the democrats in the senate got elected in 2006 and 2008. Almost all of them on campaigns that were against the iraq war. Now they find themselves stuck in this position of wow, well, this is a democratic president and i want to be supportive of him, but, you know, it is a core principle issue for a lot of those folks. Host interesting times. Thank you so much for being here this week and for your questions. Any time. On the 13th anniversary of the september 11 attacks, House Intelligence Committee chair mike rogers and senate Intelligence Committee vice chair Saxby Chambliss discuss the current state of u. S. National security. Their remarks were part of an event hosted by the Ripon Society in washington, d. C. This is one hour. Good morning, all. Shhh. Good morning. We are going to get started since time is not our friend this morning. We thank you also much for coming out on this thursday morning. I am jim, the president and ceo of the Ripon Society. For those of you who it is your first time to attend one of our events, we are an organization that was established in 1962 by one of congress own. We take our name from the small town where the Republican Party was established in 1854, ripon. One of the main goals of our group is to promote ideas and principles that made our party great, keeping our issues secure, our taxes low, and having a federal government that is not only smaller, but smarter and more accountable to our people. We promote these goals in a number of ways. Four times a year, we promote this through the ripon forum. We also host a daily new site called the ripon advance. Do you see the thread here . The advance is focused on solutions for america and those leaders trying to make a difference not only in their communities, but here in washington as wealthy as well. We hope that you will visit the site. It is ripon. Com. If there anything if there is anything we are not following, please let us know. We would love to promote it. We hold a series of breakfasts, lunches, and dinners about the challenges that we face all the time. This is one of those events. Before i begin, i would like to reflect on the event 13 years ago today that changed the lives of everyone here in our country. Would you please join me in a moment of silence to remember those folks who lost their lives on 9 11 as well as those who sacrificed and continue to risk their lives in defense of our nation . Thank you. Some housekeeping details, everyone. I would like to recognize several of our guests this morning could first and foremost, the honorable mike kelly. [applause] we also have the commissioner of fe the u. S. International trade commission. [applause] from governor rick snyders d. C. Office, for the great state of michigan, bill mcbride. [applause] from the European Parliament office, the director. [applause] there you are. And from the australian embassy, tim roberts. [applause] welcome. Also, we have a number of staffers here. As you all know, we would not be here today without their great help. Let me go through them and please hold your applause until the end or we will be here until 9 00. Tyler stevens with senator Saxby Chambliss, chris with tim scott. Diane with mike rogers, david stern with andy barr. Jesse walls, bobby frederick, grant gardner, formerly with Speaker Boehner and now with the Republican National committee. Susan, also with mike rogers. Eric, audra hill, darian flowers at Homeland Security and also with rob portman. Martha Scott Poindexter with the Senate Select committee on intelligence. And tim butler with mike kelly. Welcome. [applause] i would like to call your attention to a number of events we have coming up. Next wednesday, we will be hosting a breakfast with egoists. We will be discussing the november elections and the landscape that we will be seeing soon. On september 23, we asked senator bob portman, who will not be here, but will be over at the monaco. Do not forget that. At the monacle. On september 25, back here at the capitol hill club, we are hosting a Senior Leadership staff from team majority leader kevin mccarthy. We will have all of his senior staff here. This will be a launch event. Do not miss that. As for this morning, we are so honored to be blessed with these two guys. I already miss them and they have not even left yet. They continue to try to keep america secure and i feel that the greatest thing about both of them i have traveled with mike rogers. Senator chambliss, i knew when he was in the house. The greatest thing about both of these guys is they have never forgotten from whence they came. As you know, their staff, the apples do not far do not fall far from the tree. We are so pleased to have you here this morning, especially on this very special day. To introduce them, i will turn it over to the Senior Vice President of affairs. We would like to have both of them take their seats here. So please welcome them. [applause] thank you, jim. Your timing is impeccable. There is not a better time to hear from our guests today. Senator Saxby Chambliss of georgia, his final term in congress afternoon newly 20 years in capitol hill. He spanned both chambers and provided tireless leadership for his constituents. Born in North Carolina and raised in louisiana, he graduated from the university of georgia and law school at the university of tennessee. Soon thereafter, he began practicing agriculture law with a passion that would prove instrumental during his time served in key roles, both the agriculture and the select Intelligence Committees around congress. His congressional tenor tenure shows a man willing to work across the aisle. A long and distinguished legacy for this true american statesman. Senator chambliss serves as a member of the Agriculture Committee and is firmly vice chairman of the Senate Select committee of intelligence. Joining the senator is congressman mike rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Also in his final term in congress, he believes that National Security issues should be bipartisan or even nonpartisan. The Washington Post has called his leadership a rare example of bipartisanship. Along with his Ranking Member democrat, the chairman has worked to get authorization bills signed into law with bipartisan support. He has also taken on critical Cyber Security legislation, getting it passed the house with an overwhelming bipartisan vote. He was a commissioned officer in the United States army and continue to serve his country as special agent with the fbi in chicago. After being elected to the michigan senate, he went to congress in 2000. Please join me in welcoming our guests. [applause] thanks very much. If anyone cannot hear me, let me know and i am happy to pick up this microphone. I will try to shout if you cant. It is great to be here this morning with my long time dear friend. It is not my first time to be here. I have known the makeup of the audience. Thank you for your great support and commitment to america and what is good about washington and our government. It is also good to be back with my buddy, mike rogers. It has been 24 hours since we were on the platform together. And i missed him all day yesterday. We have shared a few drinks of whiskey now and then and sold lots of problems between ourselves. I cannot be here without saying that i was on the House Committee my last two years in the house. That was a great experience at a critical time, obviously. Under the leadership of mike rogers and dianne feinstein, we have made a dedication to not just making that relationship better, but making it a very smooth operation between the committees. We visit regularly and i was talking earlier to a couple of folks yesterday. The four of us have been talking about Cyber Security for two years now. That is the extent to which we have gone to these bipartisan committees. Mike has been a dear friend and a great leader. I think it is appropriate that we are here today on the 13th anniversary of september 11. It is one of those seminal us remember where we were. I was the chairman of the house subcommittee on intelligence, terrorism, and Homeland Security. Meeting after september 11, that subcommittee was charged with the first investigation. We worked closely together to produce a report on that. It kind of set the stage for me with respect to what i was to be doing for the next 12 years in the senate. The al qaeda that we knew in 2001 was a narrow band of renegades and killers. In 2001, they attacked us on our homeland. Today, lord knows, we are looking at thousands and thousands of offshoots of al qaeda scattered around the world that present a greater threat to us today than al qaeda presented in 2001. When the president talked about we have eliminated core al qaeda, guess what . We have al qaeda in iraq, al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. Just in the last 30 days, we have seen the creation or the announcement of al qaeda in india and bangladesh and burma and other parts of the world. So we have not struck al qaeda in a way we are going to have to continue to fight and continued to strike them. We have got to destroy them just like the president has been talking about destroying isil. Isil is not an isolated terrorist group, but they are the most vicious of the terrorist groups that are out there. As we have seen exhibited on tv over the last several months, particularly the last several weeks, they are committed to a caliphate in the middle east part of the world that now stretches from syria into iraq. They want to stretch that into jordan and lebanon and into gaza. If we do not eliminate their capability by destroying them and killing those individuals, they may have the capability to do that. That is why it is so important that we use the only thing they recognize and understand, deadly force, to counteract them and destroy them. With effect to what the with respect to what the president said last night, we have been in conversation they have called me over the last several days, couple weeks, regarding our thoughts and opinions. The white house has reached out to both sides of the aisle. Where they think we need to go with respect to this heated conflict. The president answered all the the president didnt answer all the questions last night. But look, this is not a partisan issue. We have got to it is not about giving the benefit of the doubt as much as it is joining as americans to solidify the offensive action that needs to be taken to kill this group of nasty terrorists. I was pleased to hear some things the president said. Obviously, i would like to go a bit stronger on some things. But there are some things he couldnt talk about that are going to happen. The thing that pleased me the most mike and i have been around the world together, talking to our friends in the arab world. They have always encouraged the United States to do what we are doing. They are pleased to have us in their countries, fighting terrorists. But they never really step up to the plate like weve needed them to do. The president has put the ball in their court with his comments last night and the strategy that he outlined. So the challenge is there to the arab world. America is willing to do its part. We will do more than our part. We always do. But the challenge is for the arab world to come forward and really confront these guys. It will have more meaning to it than all of the action america can take. So i am very encouraged by the fact that the arab world is joining hands with us in this effort. Our european friends are also joining hands and we have got issues there, off the battlefield, that we have to address. I just got back from a 10day trip to europe with some of my colleagues. One of the issues that we talked to our friends about is the visa ways of Visa Waiver Program we have with every one of those countries it is a very serious situation that we have gotten ourselves into. Obviously, a very unintended consequence. We used to never have concerns about anybody coming to the United States. But today, with all of the foreign fighters going to syria, going to iraq, and now coming back to their native lands and having the capability with their british passport, french passport, whatever it may be, of hopping on an airplane and coming to the United States, they are presenting a different threat, from that respect, then we have ever seen. Than we have ever seen. So we need to join hands with the president and make sure we exhibit the right kind of forceful action to destroy isil. At the same time, we need to make sure that we are given the make sure that we are giving the tools to our intelligence and Law Enforcement community to take sure that they have the capability to keep these bad guys out or that we are able to monitor them and control them and keep an eye on them while they are here. We are going to be debating some of that as we go forward between now and the end of the year. Next year, somebody other than mike and i will have to be making those decisions. Our Intelligence Community is composed of a lot of brave men and women who are doing a wonderful job. Our military is composed of great men and women who are doing a wonderful job and if we do not give them the right kind of support from a policy standpoint, they are not going to be able to continue to do that. I will continue working with mike between now and the end of the year to make sure that we continue to accomplish some policy matters that keep those tools in place and hopefully give support and make sure that the table is set Going Forward in this long, and during fight against isil and other threats out there around the world. Thanks very much for letting me be here. [applause] thank you very much. The councilman invited us today, of all days, and i found out that he just wanted to see if we showed up. If we did not, he was going to get in the car and go home. So thanks for that. I want to be part of the dialogue that gets this town right. That is going to be even more important as we go forward. I just want to go back and talk a little bit about some history. When you look at this, since there is so much debate today we do not look back far enough and look at how we got here. 9 11 is when this fight started with al qaeda or jihadists or extremists you remember the bombing in germany, a radical Jihadist Movement in the 1980s. 1993, they tried to blow up the world trade center. Do you but do you remember that . If their engineers had gotten it wrong, that building would have come down then too. And you look at the east african bombings of the 1990s. Just a couple of years later, 9 11 happens on our soil. They were against us long before we ever notice. We ever noticed as americans. That was part of the problem. The 9 11 Commission Said something interesting. Because we never really engaged them, they believed they could get more emboldened. They could do more emboldened efforts, Something Like 9 11. One of the things that they also said was that we lacked imagination. Because we had bits and pieces of information, but nobody had the imagination to put the information together and say we knew they were taking private pilot lessons. Lessons. Lessons. We knew that they were jihadists. We knew they were committed to acts of terror and violence. Somebody said we could not quite put it together. No one said, what if they got on our airplanes and flew them into buildings . No one had the imagination to put that together. And so 9 11 happened and we are where we are today. When you look at the threat as you see it and notice it today, someone said this whole episode of the last decade created all of these new jihadists. I am going to dispute that for several reasons. The one reason why al qaeda was able to spread its wings as you recall, Osama Bin Laden moved around a lot. He was in africa or a long time. He has been moving around for a long time before his demise. Finally, he found a home. He found time and space in afghanistan. He found a government that was willing to absolutely tolerate him and support his efforts. You do not mess with us, we are not going to mess with you. We are going to be equipment in the soccer stadium. Executing people convicted of adultery. Do you think they went back to the stone age . They made it illegal for girls to read. You could not teach your girls to read. 50 years ago, 100 years ago, not 200 years ago, this was in the 1990s. When we got there, i was the first congressional delegation, dave hobson, we were the first congressional delegation. It was still against the law to teach girls how to read in afghanistan. If we do not take a step back as americans and pull ourselves out of the kardashian world that we live in and start understanding who they are and what the threats are, maybe you would not have statements like it is the 21st century, people do not act like that. I have bad news for you and america and the rest of the world yes, they do. What you see now with isis, you have a group gaining safe haven in eastern syria, further radicalizing their individuals, employing their harsh version of sharia law, summary executions, burning churches, killing christians, killing people of the muslim faith who do not agree with their version of the muslim faith. And they took that opportunity to grow. They found Oil Refineries and were able to sell it on the black market at a million bucks a day. They have a billion dollars in cash and Precious Metals to sustain their operation. So some notion we can call any of these teams jv or these operations as less than serious is a serious mistake. Were getting ready to make that mistake again. Im very, very proud of the president that he decided to change his path, stood up last night and said we have to do something about it. All right. Thats a good start. Im with saxby who has been a great leader in the United States senate on these issues. Hes very humble at the southern gentleman as you would expect. But he has been very key in all of those authorization bills, all of the cyber fight that we had. And all this comedy weve been able to find between the house and the senate. Thank you for doing that, we appreciate it. What is that saying . Thanks for doing it, now get out . [laughter] its a good radio show. Yeah. Exactly [laughter] so i just hope we take a second to stand up. Ill tell you why we do that. For those of who you study National Security issues and understand the threat, theres about 20, 21 now with this new announcement about this new al quaeda affiliate in i understand yap. Theyre jealous that isis is getting all the attention. They slit peoples throats to take over airplanes to fly them into building. Its hard to say whos less brutal. What you have is this competition between al quaeda saying we have to get on the board and show the rest of the world that were still the strongest jihadist organization. From a safe house overseas, an al qaeda safe house to san diego. And they said operation is a go and we missed it because we didnt want to have those kind of communications from a foreign country and a foreigner into the United States. So think about the debate weve had in the last year. Well, weve got to get out of afghanistan, theyre gaining ground, so the table is gaining ground and with that comes al qaeda. Were saying lets dismantle our ability for the n. S. A. To track foreigners overseas and even watch a phone call from a foreigner overseas into the United States