MEET THE PRESS -- SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2014
CHUCK TODD:
This Sunday, on Meet the Press, President Obama makes it clear this country is in for the long haul...
Earlier this week the president used
a primetime address to reassure a fearful American public that he is
taking the threat posed by ISIS as seriously as they are.
Crucially though, he has
promised not to commit American troops to fight in Syria or Iraq.
Instead he's calling for airstrikes and providing weaponry and training
to forces on the ground who are fighting ISIS.
By the way, it's striking that President Obama sounded like his predecessor, George W Bush...
PRESIDENT OBAMA:
Trained and battle-hardened, these fighters could try to return to their home countries and carry out deadly attacks.
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH:
They are sent back to their homes or sent to hide in countries around the world to plot evil and destruction.
PRESIDENT OBAMA:
The United States of America will continue to do what we must do to protect our people.
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH:
We will take defensive measures against terrorism to protect Americans.
PRESIDENT OBAMA:
ISIL is not "Islamic."
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH:
These acts of violence against innocents violate the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith.
PRESIDENT OBAMA:
It will take time to eradicate a cancer like ISIL
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH:
Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign ...
PRESIDENT OBAMA:
If you threaten America, you will find no safe haven.
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH:
We continue to pursue the terrorists in cities and camps and caves across the earth.
CHUCK TODD:
American people support President Obama’s plan to attack ISIS and at the
same time are deeply skeptical that the plan will actually work.
RICHARD ENGEL:
We are seeing the Iraqi
military not stepping up. This is an enormous military, trained by the
United States to the tune of $25 billion. I remember so many times
speaking to American generals who were here saying, "The Iraqi army is
ready." Well, the Iraqi army was not ready. The Iraqi army has not been
able to push out ISIS.
BILL NEELY:
Attacking not ISIS positions, but another rebel group allied to Al Qaeda. So, as you say, we've had the rhetoric from President Obama. Now comes the reality...
CHUCK TODD:
Let me start with this
issue of terminology, for some reason. I asked the President last week
about whether he was preparing the country for war. He pushed back.
Said, "This is not a war."...Why now are you calling it a war on ISIS?...
DENIS MCDONOUGH:
Oh, I don't think the
President told you it was not a war, Chuck. You asked him if he was
preparing the country for war. And he said he was preparing the country
for this effort against ISIL. And that's exactly what we're doing. And
there was no debate between The Pentagon and the White House. And you heard Secretary Kerry, The Pentagon, and Josh on Friday
underscore that inasmuch as we've been at war with Al Qaeda since we got
here, we're at war with ISIL...
CHUCK TODD:
We've got some polling
that we're just releasing this morning. Sixty-two percent of the country
supports what the President wants to do, and 68 percent don't believe
it will work...
He held up Yemen and Somalia as good examples. It's hard to look at those countries and say that they're pictures of stability...Is there a single country in this coalition so far that has pledged combat troops on the ground in Syria?..
DENIS MCDONOUGH:
--the specifics-- well, we're trying to put together the specifics...
CHUCK TODD:
But there's not a single military advisor that has come to you guys and said, "You can defeat ISIS without some combat troops...
DENIS MCDONOUGH:
That's correct.
CHUCK TODD:
I guess I'm going to
ask this another way. So if you know you need combat troops on the
ground, you don't have any countries that have pledged to do it yet...
Can you pledge for sure that there will never be American combat troops on the ground in Syria?...
But a year ago he needed, he said he needed Congress behind him before
he took any action in Syria. And this time he just simply welcomes it.
But if they don't do it, he's going to do it anyway. Why the change?...
DENIS MCDONOUGH:
Now we have a situation where, with the 2001 authorization, we have statutory authorization.
CHUCK TODD:
It's funny that you
want to use this authorization to do this, and you also want to change
the authorization. Are you still going to pursue chancing that war
authorization, rescinding it, and having a new one?...
Denis McDonough, White House Chief of Staff, thanks for coming on Meet The Press.
DENIS MCDONOUGH:
Thanks for having me, Chuck...
HELENE COOPER:
Well, President Obama, I think is-- this interview with Dennis was just really interesting...there's a lot of skepticism within the administration about this plan on training up the Syrian opposition, because I mean just months ago we didn't know who these people were. There's still a belief that some of them may have been the ones who turned over these Americans--
CHUCK TODD:
The weapons. Some have traded an American to ISIS--...
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON:
Yes, yeah, to ISIS, to
begin with. So the idea that suddenly the free Syrian army is going to
turn into, you know, the Kurdish Peshmerga, even, seems a little bit
far-fetched...
MIKE MURPHY:
I want to call Vegas and get the line on the moderate opposition's war-fighting capacity. (LAUGHS) Because that's been a bad--
CHUCK TODD:
The President himself said they're dentists...
MIKE MURPHY:
long-term it's a political problem, it could take a generation to fix. Short-term, defining what victory is in this, with limited American arms, that have been highly de-funded under this administration, is very difficult. And now he's paying that price...
JIM VANDEHEI:
one of the things that I think people want to see from the President is
just more clarity. Call it what it is. My brother-in-law was in the
military, was in Baghdad. And one of the frustration he voices is there
are boots on the ground. What do you think the military advisors are,
sanitation specialists? No. They're often the elite forces, the hardest
to find, the hardest to keep alive, the hardest to train. And they're
there...
MIKE MURPHY:
And I think, you know,
that's the issue here is that we just don't know. Even if we win here,
there's going to be something else that fills this vacuum. Which I think
that's what the public is being so skeptical.
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON:
That's right. That's right.
MIKE MURPHY:
We just know after ISIS it'll be something else...
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON:
Yeah. And that's what
we've seen, right? I mean, the Iraq war, there were all sorts of
promises made about what the outcome would be over that. And routing Al
Qaeda. But, guess what, there's a new Al Qaeda, and it's bigger, it's
badder, it's more well-funded, and it's called ISIS. So you see this
public that has watched over these last 13 years, in the wake of 9/11,
see people on television making promises that just haven't come to pass.
So no wonder they're skeptical.
CHUCK TODD:
Perfectly rational, to
me, for the public to react that way. I think all of us have that same
feeling, 'cause you just don't know how this ends...
CHUCK TODD:
All right. Let me start with this, the President's plan. Is it the right plan?
JAMES BAKER:
Well, that's the
President's plan, so it better be the right plan. It's got some problems
with it. And your panel was just talking about some of those. The
biggest, of course, is who are our, quote, "partners on the ground" that
the President referred to in his speech. And I don't know where they
come from...
JAMES BAKER:
Five hundred thousand. We had 500,000 U.S. troops...In Desert Storm. And then we had addition thousands of troops from other countries...You've got to have some people on the ground. You can't do this just with air power...
CHUCK TODD:
Well, and that's this
whole hope. The President himself was skeptical of this moderate Syrian
opposition. So the other idea is you hope that it's Sunni countries.
Other Sunni countries that provide the boots on the combat troops.
Where's Saudi Arabia? Obviously it's not coming. Obviously the
Jordanians, the Emirates, the Turks, all of those military forces, all
of whom built their militaries with U.S. money, by the way. Where are
they?...
JAMES BAKER:
I'm not-- well, I'm not suggesting that we need to get into another ground war in the Middle East...I'm afraid to say what I think it's going to be. It's going to be U.S.
special ops forces and people like that on the ground. Because we don't
have any other forces being offered to us...
"Why didn't you guys take care of Saddam when you had the chance?" Every
time I'd go out and give a speech, or something, I'd get the question.
Well, now people see why we didn't. Because we were worried about this
very thing happening. That there would be ethnic divisions, and that the
country would split apart...
Whether we can still do that or not, I don't know. When we put our
coalition together we had 500,000 U.S. troops on the ground. We had a
specific goal, within a limited timeframe. Kick Iraq out of Kuwait. And
America was respected by its allies, and feared by its enemies. We're
not there anymore...
CHUCK TODD:
And oh by the way, you actually got the war paid for. Most of it paid for.
JAMES BAKER:
Well, we got other people to pay for the war. That's correct...
CHUCK TODD:
Hillary Clinton is making a big
splash today in Iowa. Our own NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell, though, finds
she may not be the sure thing, again, that her supporters are imagining...
Hillary is finding that, once again, being the most prepared candidate
with the best resume may not be enough for many in a Democratic party
that is increasingly tilting to the left...
ANDREA MITCHELL:
Carla Bromwell works
for a nonprofit. When you look at Hillary Clinton, what do you see
first? A politician? A woman? A president?
CARLA BROMWELL:
I think people see kind
of the cronyism on Wall Street. And, I mean, her biggest supporters is
Wall Street. And, you know, she's currently on the circuit giving
speeches to Goldman Sachs. And I just feel like regular people might see
that as something that they're not looking for...
ANDREA MITCHELL:
Last time Team Clinton was stunned by the Obama forces. She even finished third in Iowa behind John Edwards...Obama blitzed her on new media. This time Clinton supporters are trying
to catch up on social media, and enlisting celebrities like Katie Perry,
who posted on Instagram...
ANDY DUFFLEMEYER:
I feel like I don't know who she is. And I do feel like maybe she's a little malleable, in kind of a Mitt Romney sort of way...
ANDREA MITCHELL:
And just in a few hours
this field behind me, it's going to be filled with more than 5,000 very
enthusiastic democrats. But the Hillary Clinton skeptics I talked to,
they still want Elizabeth Warren. They want Bernie Sanders...
CHUCK TODD:
we're going to kick off our Meet The Press "Meet the
Candidate" series with Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who could
cause Hillary Clinton some trouble. Sanders is a self-proclaimed
Democratic Socialist...joining me now is Senator Bernie Sanders, the independent who caucuses
with the Democrats. Let me actually just start with that, Senator
Sanders. Are you about to switch parties? Are you going to become a
member of the Democratic Party if you pursue this presidential campaign?...
BERNIE SANDERS:
Well, I am the
longest-serving independent in the history of the United States
Congress. That’s how I’ve always won in the state of Vermont...Look—the truth is, profound anger at both political parties, more and
more people are becoming independent, the negative is, how do you set up
a fifty-state infrastructure as an independent?...
CHUCK TODD:
I want to read
something that was paraphrased to you, it says, “‘It is essential,’
Sanders said, ‘to have someone in the 2016 presidential campaign who is
willing to take on Wall Street, address the collapse of the middle
class, tackle the spread of poverty, and fiercely oppose cuts to social
security and MediCare.’” Is it safe to say if you thought Hillary
Clinton were doing that, you wouldn’t be considering this?...
BERNIE SANDERS:
Well, A: I don’t know
that Hillary Clinton is running. B: I don’t know what she’s running on.
But this is what I do know: I know that the middle class in this country
is collapsing...
I know there is profound anger at
the greed on Wall Street and corporate America. Anger at the political
establishments. Anger, by the way, at the media establishment.
The American people
want real change and I’ve been taking on the big money interests and the
special interests all of my political life...The question is: At a time when so many people have seen a decline in
their standard of living, when the wealthiest people and largest
corporations are doing phenomenally well, the American people want
change. They want Congress, they want candidates, to stand up to the big
money interests...
I was on the floor of the Senate for eight-and-a-half hours because I disagreed—
CHUCK TODD
–Right.—
BERNIE SANDERS:
–with his continuing tax breaks for the rich...I have a lot of disagreements with him. But the bottom line is: I think
he has not tapped the anger and the frustration that the American people
feel on many, many issues...
The only way we bring
about change is when the American people become mobilized...
Chuck, I think Citizens United will go down in history as one of the
worst Supreme Court decisions ever. I think it is opening up the road to
oligarchy in the United States of America...
I think whether people are Democrats, moderates, or conservatives, there
is a profound anger at understanding that the middle class is
disappearing, that millions of people are working longer hours for low
wages, that 95% of all new income has gone to the top 1%...
I think anybody who speaks to the needs of the working class and the
middle class of this country and shows the courage to take on the
billionaire class, I think that candidate will do pretty well...
JIM VANDEHEI:
Well, I think, let's
talk about Hillary for a second. Because there is so much talk about her
inevitability. And I think there's three big problems that people are
not paying enough attention to. One is what Andrea Mitchell hit on. I
don't know that her theology is where the Democratic Party is right now.
Two, she's been running for three months.
And that rollout has not been the smooth operating machine that everyone thought. She's looked disconnected on her wealth issue. And her trying to break away from President Obama looked politically craven.
And three, elections are about the future. And her whole argument, look at the '90s, look at my record. I think the next election, given what we talked about, the beginning of the program, and what's happening in the world, is going to be way different than everyone's imagining it...
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON
It's a grim case. But
the problem is it looks like it's going to be a field-- if Hillary runs,
it'll be Hillary, and it'll be not Hillary, right?...
CHUCK TODD:
our newest NBC News Wall
Street Journal poll did not have some good news for the Democrats...President Obama's approval still sits at a mere 40 percent this month. And look at this, it was actually higher in September of 2010. Pretty bad year for Democrats. 45 percent, that's when this party lost 63 seats in the house, and six seats in the Senate...
Here are three potential yellow flags for the GOP. Number one, there is a female firewall for the Democrats...
BRYANT GUMBEL:
Yeah, I agree with you.
But they're going to pink-wash once again. They're going to wrap
themselves, it's what they do best. They sell their image very, very
well. They sell that they're sensitive to women, wrap themselves in
pink. And yet they don't punish domestic violence. They suggest they
care about players' safety, yet only medical science and a team of
lawyers force them to confront it. They care that they're great
citizens, and wrap themselves in the flag. And yet they operate, it
might surprise many Americans, as a tax-exempt nonprofit. The NFL's very
good at masquerading...
CHUCK TODD:
Well, it's funny, you
know, so is it us? You know, I look at the problems in Washington, and I
always say, you know what, we have to look in the mirror. We elect
these folks. If you don't like what's going on...
http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/meet-press-transcript-september-14-2014-n205036
2014: It's time to donate and join us to elect Constitutional Independent Representatives not funded by special interests.
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Respectfully,
Richard "Ricardo Carlos" Charles
Candidate for Las Vegas District 1 US Representative
Here's what We The People can do here now:2014: It's time to donate and join us to elect Constitutional Independent Representatives not funded by special interests.
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