Transcripts For MSNBCW The Daily Rundown 20130910 : comparem

Transcripts For MSNBCW The Daily Rundown 20130910

0 series of network interviews he was saying the idea, quote, could potentially be a significant breakthrough. >> i think a famous american president once said trust but verify. you have to take it with a grain of salt initially, but between the statements that we saw from the russians, the statement today from the syrians, this represents a potentially positive development. we are going to run this to ground. >> though the origin and timing of the kerry proposal looked a little ham handled at the time, more like stumbling into a possible diplomatic solution that engineering one, the president clearly seized on it. >> the fact that the u.s. administration and i have said we are serious about this i think has prompted some interesting conversations. and these are conversations that i've had directly with mrmr. putin when i was at the g-20. we had some time to discuss this. >> this morning syria made a show of publicly accepting the russian proposal to give up chemical weapons and win a reprieve from u.s. strikes. white house spokesman jay carney responded to that development this morning on "morning joe" just moments ago. >> there is ample reason to be skeptical, but there is no question, as they've explicitly said, that they're taking this action or at least responding this way because they want to deter u.s. military action. so it is the threat, the credible threat of action by the united states that has brought about this potential diplomatic breakthrough. >> france announced via its foreign minister that it will submit a draft resolution in the united nations today for syria to give up its chemical weapons or else face some strikes. now, there's every reason why everybody from members of congress to the white house to european allies are grasping on to this idea. they're all looking for a political escape hatch. and why? our new poll shows nearly 60% of americans say they want their member of congress to vote against the use of military consensus around even a limited strike, because if you ask somebody, you know, i read polls like everybody else, and if you ask somebody, if you ask michelle, do we want to be involved in another war, the answer is no. >> this afternoon, the president travels to capitol hill to make his case directly both to senate democrats and republicans and will do so in separate meetings. our whip count in the senate has just 22 senators saying will vote for this resolution authorizing syrian strikes and 22 are definitely opposed, 56 undecided. more undecided senators have come out in opposition to the syrian resolution in the last 124 hours, including some republicans facing 2014 primary challenges. late yesterday, harry reid put senate action on syria on hold. over in the house, just 24 lawmakers publicly support military action and just 36% would support the president using military action without congressional approval in our poll. so it's unlikely he would do that. another worry for the white house, confidence in the president's ability to handle the situation in syria is down, not up, just 28% approve the president of how he's handled this situation. that's down seven points from just 35% in our poll at the end of august and only a third of americans believe the president has made a convincing case about the u.s. need to take military action. so will the president say anything tonight that actually changes people's minds? will he have something new to propose? joining me now, harvard university's nicholas kerns, former u.s. ambassador to nato and a senior affairs correspondent. and charles ogletree is the jesse clemento professor of law at harvard law school and the director of the charles hamilton race for justice and an expert on i remember law. ambassador burns, let me start with you. i the we're all following this debate so closely, have a bit of whiplash on here. everybody wants to grab onto this russian proposal. if you were still working in the administration or any presidential administration, what would be your view of this proposal? >> i think the president's got to look at this seriously. it comes from russia. it's a way out of this conflict by a peaceful means. but he's going to have to ask a lot of tough questions, which is what he's doing. the french and the united states will introduce a security council resolution this afternoon which will challenge the syrians and russia. where will the weapons be transported? who will control them? on what timetable? and if a short, decisive timetable is not met, the french will want to write in that serious consequences should ensue, meaning the united states and france could take military action down the line. the key point the president made yesterday in all his interviews with you and others is that it was the threat of force that brought assad to his knees. >> it's clearly all of this has had an impact. professor ogletree, what's been interesting about this and one of the reasons why the president felt like he had to go to congress in the first place, which has led to frankly this very public hand wringing that's been uncomfortable far lot of the washington establishment, is that there's been a legal question here about whether these strikes would have been legal internationally, and it's my understanding that there's a big question about that, that eve the white house has concerns about the legality of these strikes. what say you? you study this very closely. >> this is what i would say, that we have to look at the whole picture here. the president has seen photographs of children who have been victims of chemical weapons in syria. no question about that. if we look at the whole issue, the president has the authority and he can take the authority to do something. i think he's doing what's right now, talking to congress, talking about a solution, talking about resolving it in some way, and listening to the other people around the world. i think that a lot of people who are against going into syria for this very reason. this is another vietnam. when do we get in, how do we get out, how do we stop it, how many lives will we lose? we can bomb all we want to now but at some point this will be a administration to push congress to rewrite them? >> congress has an opportunity now to support the president. if, in fact, the security council resolution is introduced, and it will be, and if the united states and france in effect test the credibility of the syrians and the truthfulness of the syrians, congress could pass a resolution that would eventually back the united states, challenge the syrians to give up all of their chemical weapons to an objective third party, not to the russians. >> who is this? the u.n. that would be -- nato? could nato be involved? >> taito could be. >> the russians wouldn't want that. >> the united nations is a safe common ground. but congress could say that the syrian government has to comply or else it will face serious consequences from the united states. president obama said yesterday something very important. he's got to leave the threat of force on the table in order to get this deal done. i think that's the most critical point. >> what does he say to the american people tonight? this is now -- we've had all this developing. yesterday it was he was preparing the nation the case of why he's got to strike today. tonight now all of a sudden that might not be the facts on the ground, so now what does he say? >> i think he's going to talk about the facts. he's going to say the same thing that secretary john kerry said, that we've seen weapons, children have died, chemical weapons in syria, we have to stop assad, say all that, lay out the case for it because he's great in terms of giving these public addresses. but i think ultimately he's going to be bound by and listen to and learn from other people around the world saying that let's be careful, let's think of other solutions, and he'll show his strong hand what he thinks should be done but also his weaker hand saying i'm going to cooperate with other people. i think we'll see that tonight. >> why has this been so difficult for the administration? >> it's one of the worst situations for any administration because we're weary after two wars but yet we're still the world leader. assad crossed a red line. someone has to enforce the chemical weapons ban. but if you don't have congress behind you or the public or your closest ally, britain, the president was clearly isolated so he tried to make the best of a very bad situation. there's still something that has to be done, chuck. even if the chemical weapons issue is resolved, you still have 100,000 people dead and several million homeless. so that syrian crisis continues, that's going to decommand american support hopefully for a cease-fire ahead. >> professor ogletree, the president brought up rwanda in sort of this way of, hey, a lot of people gave president clinton a hard time for not intervening in a humanitarian crisis, because ambassador burns brings up a good point. regardless of what happens here, if assad gives up his chemical weapons, he clearly was afraid of being crippled militarily. he's still going to have a military advantage and he's going to be slaughtering a lot of people. >> i think the reality is that -- i'm thinking about what jimmy carter went through when he tried to be presidential and get involved in some battles of lost lives. i'm thinking about bill clinton and the problem with rwanda, how much it affected his presidency. >> he regrets it now. >> absolutely. >> very public about it. >> i'm thinking of george bush who did two great things. people thought the idea of responding to 9/11 was important and yet going in for these weapons of mass destruction turned out to be a failure. and i think right now president obama is saying i'm going to do what i need to do because i think it's the right thing to do, and i'll live with the consequences. i think that will be the alternative solution, that is, i'm going to stand back, i'm going to look at all the points of view. it's not that he's undecided. he know what is he wants to do. but for the first time an enormous amount of collaboration realizing that he says there's an international view on this, those people know, they'll live it, i don't want to be in a war for the rest of our life. he's going to step back i think and listen to the elders who are telling him there's another solution. >> you know, ambassador burns, one of the things that one of the other european allies said at the g-20 and was whispering to us reporters, trying to get some sense of what happened at that world leader meeting, was the sense the political will is not there to intervene. everybody knows what's going on. forget the united states. we know why the u.s. public is skeptical. iraq is scarred. it's clear iraq has scarred everybody politically and all that stuff. but why is the world in such a different place today than it would have been 20 years ago on an issue like this? >> i'm not sure it is. the president has a coalition, the french government with him, the saudi government, the turkish government with him so, very important regional actors. >> but are those arab allies with him for the right reasons or because it's one side of a religious issue or the other? >> well, they're opponents of assad. the worrisome trend is in the united states. understandable the public would be weary of war. but our political leaders have a responsibility not to be neoice lacist and certainly in the tea party but the extreme left of the democratic party. what you see in this debate is come home -- >> total retreat. >> -- pull up the draw bridges and that's a recipe for failure in our foreign policy. we tear global leader. >> the thing is that the other countries we share a global leadership stage with are more isolationist than the united states. >> exactly right. >> china will throw money around but never want to get involved in anything like this. >> chuck, twoef look back to 2002. president obama was not a senator. he was not a president. but he gave this speech in 2002 saying he didn't believe in dumb wars. makes sense. right? but this is beneath err dumb war, not a smart war, it's a complicated war. so he may not believe in it, but the reality is that something has to be done. innocent children are dying in syria. something has to be done even if it's a peace mission somewhere. i think he's going to act. tonight we'll hear him talk about that. >> it may be a few months before he acts but something's going to happen. >> i think the idea of caution makes sense and the idea of jumping before you know all the facts is very dangerous. >> all right. we begin our show here. ambassador burps, professor ogletree, thank you both. much more ahead. special edition of "the daily rundown." we're expecting to see secretary kerry arriving on capitol hill shortly. that's just one of the big events on today's very busy politics planner. a super tuesday. new york city voters decide on the democratic and republican nominee for mayor. colorado is holding recall elections for new democratic state senator, jeb bush sort of involved in presenting a liberty medal to hillary clinton tonight. ♪

Related Keywords

Vietnam , Republic Of , New York , United States , Moscow , Moskva , Russia , Damascus , Dimashq , Syria , Kentucky , Turkey , China , Rwanda , Boston , Massachusetts , Washington , District Of Columbia , London , City Of , United Kingdom , Harvard Square , Iraq , Iowa , Colorado , Saudi Arabia , Pennsylvania , Cambridge , Cambridgeshire , Panama , Capitol Hill , France , Grenada , Bedford , Americans , America , Saudi , Turkish , Russian , Syrians , Britain , French , Syrian , Russians , American , Chuck Schumer , Cory Booker , Mo Cowan , Jay Carney , Jim Brody , John Kerry Ed Markey , Ronald Reagan , George Bush , Garth Bjorn , Keir Simmons , Jeb Bush , Chris Janice , Peter Hart , Charles Ogletree , Harry Reid , John Kerry , Jimmy Carter , Moe Cowan , Chuck Todd , Barack Obama , Chris Jensen , Rachel Maddow , Trey Grayson , John Kaplan , Hillary Clinton , John Mccain ,

© 2025 Vimarsana