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Terrorism Concerns Around 9/11 Anniversary; Kinzinger Talks Obama's Foreign Policy; Ted Cruz Booed

Aired September 11, 2014 - 13:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. I'm Wolf Blitzer, reporting from Washington.

A majority of Americans deeply concerned about the possibility of another terrorist attack around this 9/11 anniversary according to a new CNN/ORC poll. 53 percent say an attack is likely in the days around the anniversary, up from 39 percent who thought so in 2011, a decade after the attacks.

CNN's Poppy Harlow is joining us from New York.

Poppy, what are you hearing from federal officials about these terrorism concerns around today's anniversary?

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sure. Good afternoon, Wolf. We'll be talking to them this morning in lower Manhattan around the anniversary, the memorial service, for the 13th year following that 9/11 attack. There is no specific threat from ISIS to this country right now. We've been told that time and time again by the administration. Also, the NYPD commissioner telling me there's no specific threat against New York City at this point in time.

That said, everything that is a potential target is being monitored closely, like the Brooklyn Bridge behind me, that in the back drop of that One World Trade Center. They're watching very closely. You saw a lot of police officers out on the streets today. But again, the focus here has been on those nearly 3,000 lives lost on that day, all of the family members grieving in their own way, some at the ceremony, others grieving privately.

I did have a chance this morning to speak with Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and I asked him, are the American people getting the message that you and the president are trying to send, specifically about ISIS. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEH JOHNSON, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: What we've said is that there is no specific intelligence of a plot by ISIL to attack the homeland at the moment. But that does not end the story to the homeland.

HARLOW: To be clear, no imminent threats now? JOHNSON: We know of no specific intelligence of a plot by ISIL to

attack our homeland. But again, that's not the end of the story. ISIL is a very dangerous organization that has demonstrated a willingness to kill Americans because they are Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: And he reiterated to me, Wolf, when you hear, "If you see something say something," he said that is more than just a slogan. That is critical because what he did talk about, things like the Boston Marathon attack, part of our concern is the domestic-based potential for a terror attack front and center right now.

BLITZER: You mentioned you spoke with the New York City police commissioner about security in New York. What did he say? What is the department doing to keep the city of New York safe?

HARLOW: Well, it's interesting, Wolf, he said they have more than 7,000 cameras in lower Manhattan alone just monitoring that part. He talked about how you are, at this point, not able to drive in or out of New York City at any point without having your license plate recorded. He said, look, we are constantly trying to stay on top of the things that they, terrorists, may be developing in terms of the types of bombs that they can be developing. They have more than 1,000 NYPD officers simply assigned to anti-terrorism task force and many more of them in other divisions. They are watching with their eye, ears, from the water here, from the air, and with a whole lot of cameras, their eyes on New York City, Wolf, today.

BLITZER: Let's hope it stays very, very quiet. Let's hope it does, indeed.

Thanks, Poppy, for that report.

Still ahead, our next guest served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, Congressman Adam Kinzinger. There you see him. He's on Capital Hill. He's standing by to discuss the president's new plan to destroy ISIS.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will send an additional 475 servicemembers to Iraq. As I've said before, these American forces will not have a combat mission. We will not get dragged into another ground war in Iraq. But they are needed to support Iraqi and Kurdish forces with training, intelligence, and equipment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: President Obama there announcing a major shift in policy to defeat ISIS. Now he supports air strikes, U.S. air strikes, against ISIS targets not only in Iraq but in Syria as well, in addition to arming moderate Syrian rebels, sending more military advisors to Iraq at the same time.

Let's bring in Congressman Adam Kinzinger, of Illinois, a Republican member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Congressman, thanks very much for joining us.

REP. ADAM KINZINGER, R-ILLINOIS: Thanks, Wolf. Thanks for having me.

BLITZER: I know you served in Iraq. I think you served in Afghanistan as well. Are you with the commander-in-chief when he made those announcements last night?

KINZINGER: Yeah. I am. It was a surprisingly strong statement from a president not known for making strong statements. There were a few points I kind of could contend with, but at the end of the day, I think he laid out to the American people the danger that ISIS is. He laid out his view for the fact that they need to be rolled back and eventually eradicated. And while I disagree with taking boots off the ground, I don't think we need to introduce them today. Without boots on the ground, the only opportunity to make gains in Syria will be with arming the Free Syrian Army, and that's going to take quite a while, a long time to train these folks, to vet these folks, and rebuild an army great three years ago but has been battered by the Assad regime and ISIS forces. So this is probably the best of a lot of bad choices but I'll be voting to give the commander-in-chief his authority to be commander-in-chief.

BLITZER: Will you vote to provide the $500 million he's seeking to train and arm those moderate Syrian rebels?

KINZINGER: Yeah. I'll vote for what the president needs to accomplice this mission. There's hopes that a lot of partners in the Middle East will help with the funding of his, as they should, and other areas they can help, including providing housing for the training facilities here.

But again, the thing to keep in mind under this plan this is going to be a pretty long-term struggle. Hopefully, some intense bombing of ISIS in the open begins, that pins them where they're at currently, restricts their freedom of movement and ability to spread into other areas. And probably the first front to offensively take back ground from ISIS will be in Iraq with a new and invigorated Iraqi military and the Peshmerga. But we are looking at a multiyear war and I hope the people are patient for it. Anything short of destroying this group will lead to many problems in the future.

BLITZER: Are you confident this new emerging Iraqi government will be any better than Nouri al Maliki's government, which turned out to be a disaster?

KINZINGER: I'm more optimistic of it but, obviously, it's new and there's a lot that remains to be seen. It's a government that understands to include minorities in it. There is significant room for Sunnis that will have to be a lot of time for that government to make up what the Sunni population and hope they join in our fight. The folks that supported us in the Sunni awakening, join in the fight to liberate ISIS. So, yeah, there's a lot of caution, but let's be optimistic, it seems like the Iraqis understood their existence depends on being able to put their differences aside.

BLITZER: When you served, Congressman, in Iraq -- and you're an Iraq combat veteran -- where in Iraq did you serve? Where were you based?

KINZINGER: I was out of Balat Air Force Base and I flew reconnaissance missions around Iraq. It was interesting, I was there once in '08, really when the surge was taking hold, and then also in '09, and the difference between '08 and '09 astounding. In '09, we're watching the city and you see kids playing soccer and life returned to normal. It's really disheartening to me to see Iraq having fallen apart. I'm critical of the president's decision to withdraw troops but I'm more focused on where we need to go from here forward and doing what we need to do to re-secure that area and give people hope.

BLITZER: I asked the question -- I remember I visited Balat Air Base in 2005 with General Abizaid, the U.S. military's central commander, and it was a robust U.S. base, a lot of U.S. fighter aircraft, a lot of U.S. military personnel. I believe -- and I could be wrong, but maybe you know better -- I believe ISIS now controls Balat. Do you know if that's true?

KINZINGER: What I know is they were on the gates of it. They may be in control of it now, which blows me away to think about. I remember sleeping there at night feeling safe. And I never imagined you would have anybody like ISIS or, you know, an al Qaeda type affiliate walking where I was sleeping at. It's sad. And that was one base, frankly, we should have hung on to post-2011, but today it's much different situation and pretty sad.

BLITZER: So looking back -- and I remember when I was in Mosul, Mosul, the second-largest city in Iraq, now under the control of ISIS. Was the whole war, going back to 2003, a blunder?

KINZINGER: We could argue was the intelligence there for WMD. We could argue -- there were no WMD there. We could argue the issue of how did we fight the war. We should have had more troops and had a post-governing plan and not let the regime fall apart, sending everybody home, should have kept people employed. But we got it right. We got it right by 2011. And the problem is we left. I saw, you know, victory in Iraq. So it's sad to see where we are today, but again I'm focused on here we are now, what do we need to do moving forward. And I think this is the beginning, what the president laid out, is the beginning of re-securing that. But, again, it's going to take a long time.

BLITZER: Congressman, thanks very much for joining us. And thanks for your service as well.

KINZINGER: You bet. Thanks, Wolf. Thanks for having me.

BLITZER: President Obama ran for election on ending the war in Iraq. Now he's expanding America's military role in the Middle East. Our political insiders, standing by, will break down all of these developments when we come back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: America must move off a permanent war footing.

A strategy that involves invading every country that harbors terrorist networks is naive and unsustainable.

As commander-in-chief, I will not allow the United States to be dragged into fighting another war in Iraq.

One thing we can agree on is that a group like ISIL has no place in the 21st century.

America will lead a broad coalition to roll back this terrorist threat. If you threaten America, you will find no safe haven.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: You just heard a few clips, how the president has been forced to change his strategy. This hour, you also heard from two members of Congress, now asked to support the latest White House plan.

Let's bring our political insiders, an opportunity to weigh in. Joining us, our chief analyst, Gloria Borger; our chief congressional correspondent, Dana Bash; and former Democratic Congresswoman Jane Harman. She was the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee. She's now the president of the Wilson Center, a think tank in Washington.

The president really has been forced to change his rhetoric, if you will, over the last several weeks. Why?

JANE HARMAN, (R), FORMER CONGRESSWOMAN & PRESIDENT, THE WOODROW WILSON CENTER: Well, he's --

BLITZER: Is it simply the video of these two Americans beheaded.

HARMAN: I think that was part of it. But ISIL is expanding territory, membership, and ambition. And it's -- the social media campaign is relentless and better than any counter-campaign against it. So it's a bigger challenge. As commander-in-chief he has to protect our country and the circumstances are different.

BLITZER: Would he be doing this, Gloria, if there had not been videos of two Americans being executed?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Look, I think public opinion would not have shifted as dramatically and, in this case, the president's actually -- public opinion was there before the president was. The larger irony for this president, Wolf, is that he didn't want to be giving this speech last night. He came into office as the peace president, the president who got us out of two wars, who killed Osama bin Laden, and now part of his legacy is this messy situation in Syria and in Iraq that isn't going to get finished by the time his presidency is done.

BLITZER: He's getting bipartisan support on Capitol Hill though, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He is, for sure, because they realize, even Republicans, the people who are the most against him politically, realize we are where we are. And they were against the idea of taking all of the troops out of Iraq, but it happened. And now the goal is to stabilize and confront ISIS, which is why you heard from the House speaker -- I was on capitol hill in the last hour -- he was very much supportive of, at least in the short term, giving the president the authority he needs to train these Syrian --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Kinzinger says the same thing --

HARMAN: Absolutely. I actually think this is an opportunity for the president to pull the country together. And to --

BLITZER: What does he need to do?

HARMAN: He needs to do what he did this week, reach out to Congress, not just the leadership. He actually called some members of Congress, like Mike Rogers, yesterday. And then to pitch this effective to the country, which he did last night. And now to build the coalition he's helping to build in the Arab world, 10 countries meeting in Saudi Arabia, prepared to act on borders and money and training. That's not everything, but it's a huge change. And President Obama -- not now -- let's hope he stays sober and focused -- but at some future time, his legacy may show that finally after six years, he was able to exercise tools he didn't know how to exercise.

BORGER: With Congress' approval rating at, what?

BASH: 14.

BORGER: Oh, high. 14 percent --

(LAUGHTER)

-- this is also I would argue an opportunity for Congress to have a serious discussion, a serious debate about this. And even though it's close to an election -- I know you are shaking your head, right? Even though it's close --

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: No, no, no. I'm saying they're punting. They're going to punt.

(CROSSTALK)

HARMAN: I'm not sure they're going to punt.

(CROSSTALK)

HARMAN: They're the ones with the responsibility to declare war. I don't think President Obama has to ask them. And an increasing number of people inside Congress, including some of us outside Congress, think it's irresponsible.

(CROSSTALK)

BORGER: I agree.

BASH: I just literally, in the last hour, asked the House speaker that very question. He has said, yes, they'll give the president this narrow authority. That's the only thing the president has asked for. But --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: He asked for $500 billion to arm the Syrian rebels. Will they pass that legislation?

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: It's money, but more importantly, it's the authorization and legal backing to do this.

But the bigger question is if the president has given this big speech as he did last night about this incredibly horrible situation that the White House and the administration has to go forward on, why not ask Congress for help? And so the House speaker to your point --

(CROSSTALK)

BORGER: Why shouldn't Congress volunteer it?

BASH: Have said -- and I asked him that question -- traditionally, the way this happens, the White House asks. I said, but you're a branch of government can't you do it?

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: But reading between the lines, they'll work on this but not before next year.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: They only have two weeks, right, until they go into recess?

BASH: Exactly.

(CROSSTALK)

HARMAN: They could extend their time at work.

I think this should be an election issue. I think voters should measure their members by whether they stepped up or not. And Obama has said he would welcome this initiative. I think he was burned, or weren't we all, by the 2011 experience.

BORGER: With Syria.

HARMAN: With Syria. That's what I meant. 2013 experience. I think Congress may be incapable of this, but why don't we challenge Congress?

BORGER: I think their constituents out to say to them we want you to take a position.

(CROSSTALK)

BORGER: We'll be able to judge for ourselves.

BLITZER: And in the end, whether or not there are combat boots on the ground, U.S. military personnel are going into harm's way. They will be in endangered and Congress has a responsibility in this area.

HARMAN: And there's a financial cost to all this.

BLITZER: It's huge.

HARMAN: And it won't be off budget again.

BLITZER: Ladies, don't go away. We have more to discuss. We aren't done with this discussion.

Up next, Senator Ted Cruz. He actually gets booed and walks off the stage last night here in Washington. We'll tell you what happened.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: We're back now with Gloria Borger, Dana Bash and Jane Harman.

Let's talk about Senator Ted Cruz. He was my guest in "The Situation Room" last night. We had this exchange. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ, (R), TEXAS: I certainly want there to be a different president from a different party who changes the path this country is on. I think the Obama economy is a disaster. Millions of people are hurting. I think the Obama/Clinton foreign policy is not working. As we can see, when America receded from leadership in the world and we have led from behind, the result is much of the world is on fire.

BLITZER: It sounds like you think of running against Hillary Clinton.

CRUZ: I will tell you, what I am thinking about is I think 2016 will be the most important election of your lifetime and my lifetime. It will be a fork in a road where Americans will decide, do we want to continue on this failed path that isn't working or do we want to get back to the principles this country was built on that have made America the greatest country in the history of the world.

BLITZER: Sounds like a yes.

CRUZ: Time will tell.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

BLITZER: I had asked him, Dana, if he wants to be the next president of the United States and he immediately starts talking about the Obama/Clinton foreign policy. He raises the issue of maybe the Democratic nominee in 2016.

BASH: I have a very sophisticated word to use, "Duh."

(LAUGHTER)

Yes, he's running for president. I've been down to Texas and in the 18 months he's been in Senate, it's not because he's a fascinating Senator, it's because we know he'll be one of the key people planning to run for president.

BORGER: Can I say something about three Republicans who were first- term Senators who might run for president, all of whom criticized the lack of experience of Barack Obama as a first-term Senator who ran for president? I think that's going to be sort of difficult.

BLITZER: Jane, let me turn, because after he was in "The Situation Room" last night, he went to a conference here in Washington. Middle Easterners trying to protect Christians in danger in Iraq. He was giving a speech. I'll play a little clip. Because he got booed when he said something about Israel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRUZ: I will say this.

(SHOUTING)

CRUZ: If you will not stand with Israel, then I will not stand with you.

(BOOING)

Thank you. God bless you.

(BOOING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: He was saying Israel is a friend of Christians in the Middle East, and I guess some of the people there are Christians from the Middle East, Palestinians, maybe others, weren't very happy. They started booing him and he walked off.

HARMAN: I understand why he walked off. It's sad that it was an intolerant audience. The fact is that Christians, Jews, Arabs, Persians need to co-exist in the Middle East.

BLITZER: And there's a threat from ISIS. There's a lot of -- not just Yazidis, the minority religious group in Iraq, but Christians are deeply endangered right now.

HARMAN: But ISIS is fundamentally an anti-Muslim group. Let's understand that. Most of the people they've killed are Muslim. If you don't conform to their specific, quote, "caliphate idea," you're dead. That's hugely dangerous. And it's good that the Arab nations have signed up today to join the coalition willingly.

BLITZER: You heard the president last night open by saying the Islamic State is not Islamic and not a state.

(CROSSTALK)

HARMAN: That's right.

(CROSSTALK)

BORGER: I think to give Ted Cruz some credit here, he obviously felt this was a group that was being anti-Semitic to a degree and he couldn't reason with them and get his point of view across. He wanted to tell them what he thought and he got booed out of the stage.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: When I watched the whole tape, there was an element there, but it wasn't necessarily all of the people there. A few people were heckling them.

(CROSSTALK)

HARMAN: If you want to run for president, you have to take a punch.

BORGER: Right.

BASH: That's a good point.

BORGER: It was a way to make his point.

BASH: They were very loud. It was hard for him to make his point. He put out a statement late last night saying that he is sorry there were a few people bigoted and intolerant, and he's not wrong.

BLITZER: As we all know.

OK, guys, thanks very much. We'll continue our conversation.

We'll certainly watch Ted Cruz down -- I think it's fair to say he's going to run for the Republican presidential nomination.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: He made that clear when he raised the name Hillary Clinton -- HARMAN: He makes Hillary's job easier.

(LAUGHTER)

-- in response -- you think Hillary is running too.

(CROSSTALK)

HARMAN: Only she knows.

BORGER: I'll use Dana's "duh."

(LAUGHTER)

BLITZER: All right, guys, thanks very much.

That's it for me. I'll be back at 5:00 eastern in "The Situation Room."

NEWSROOM with Randi Kaye today starts right now.

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Randi Kaye, in today for Brooke Baldwin.