[indistinct conversation] [indistinct conversation] [singing in foreign language] [singing in foreign language] [indistinct conversation] [indistinct conversation] [speaking in foreign language] [speaking in foreign language] [speaking in foreign language] [speaking in foreign language] [speaking in foreign language] [speaking in foreign language] [speaking in foreign language] [speaking in foreign language] [speaking in foreign language] amen. Amen. [speaking in foreign language] [singing in foreign language] [singing in foreign language] [speaking in foreign language] [indistinct conversation] [speaking in foreign language] [speaking in foreign language] [speaking in foreign language] [speaking in foreign language] [indistinct conversation] the spirit of only created by american cable and brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. Announcer the 63rd annual red mass was held in the cathedral of Saint Matthew the apostle here in washington, d. C. Today. Service isces the traditionally held the sunday before the start of the new term u. S. Supreme court. It brings together some of the members and other Public Officials for blessing, guidance in the administration of justice. Heres a look at some who came the mass this morning. [indistinct conversation] gregs cspans washington journal, like the every day with news and policy issues that affect you. Early up, lawrence previews upcoming cases. Will also talk about president obamas nominees and legacy. Then, the National Defense counsel on the Fourth CircuitCourt Hearing on the clean power plants. He will also talk about Climate Change policy. Also, david french joins us from nashville to talk about donald trump and Hillary Clinton must strategies on winning the white house. Journal livegton every morning at 7 00 a. M. Me eastern. Secretary of state john kerry talked about u. S. Engagement. From the annual washington ideas forum, this is 20 minutes. [applause] mr. Secretary, thank you so much for joining us today. You complained last time and we took it seriously. [laughter] it was memorable. Couch, by the way. Steven c. Clemons lets get to serious stuff. I hear a rumor i dont know if its true that Vladimir Putin and Sergey Lavrov are huddled around a screen right now in one corner of the world watching us, and i hear Lindsey Graham and john mccain are near another. And so id like to ask you, what would you like to communicate to the world and to those parties about syria that they may not have heard . [laughter] secretary kerry there is absolutely no way possible to communicate with those four people in the room. [laughter] steven ok, how about for our crowd here . John f. Kerry ill take on a lot of challenges steven yeah, yeah. Secretary kerry but syria is as complicated as anything ive ever seen in public life, in the sense that there are probably about six wars or so going on at the same time kurd against kurd, kurd against turkey, saudi arabia, iran, sunni, shia, everybody against isil, people against assad, nusrah. This is as mixedup sectarian and civil war and strategic and proxies, so its very, very difficult to be able to align forces. So its steven so in the middle of that, why did you think you could get a ceasefire . Secretary kerry well, we did. We got one for a period of time. We got one that held for a number of weeks, originally. And then this one was interrupted by two very tragic different kinds of events one was a mistake; the other was the destruction of 18 un humanitarian trucks, which is hard under any circumstances to find a rationale or an excuse for what happened. There is no excuse. Steven and you now believe, as i understand it, that that was a purposeful action by kerry well, i think there is strong evidence with respect to Syrian Regime engagement in the beginning of it and russian involvement. But look, the point is that theres just huge levels of mistrust on either side. But you asked me the question, what makes me think . I make no apology, nor does president obama, none whatsoever, for trying to reach out and find out if there is a way to achieve the political settlement that everybody says is the only way to solve the problem of syria. Youll find most people constantly saying there is no military solution. Well, if theres no military solution, what is the political solution and how do you get there . And whos going to get you there . Well, its the job of the secretary of state and its the job of diplomats to try to do that, as tough as it may be, and it is tough. So steven do you think diplomacy has become a dirty word . Sec. Kerry with respect to syria, to some degree. Its been marred by these breaches of the ceasefire and by the destruction and by russias persistent support of assad in a way that is beyond the seeking of a political settlement, if you will. And i think that the bombing of aleppo right now is inexcusable. Its beyond any beyond the pale of any notion of strategic or otherwise. Its indiscriminate. It is they took out a hospital last night. I think 400 civilians have been killed in the last eight days; 100 of them are children. And weve made it Crystal Clear to them that under those kinds of circumstances it is not possible to be cooperating, and we need to see a change. Steven so are we on the verge of taking down this scaffolding and walking away from any chance of going back to your plan of a joint Implementation Center and a deal with the russians on how to do it, or are you willing to give it another chance . Sec. Kerry no, i think were on the verge of suspending the discussion, because you its irrational in the context of the kind of bombing taking place to be sitting there trying to take things seriously. Theres no notion or indication of a seriousness of purpose with what is taking place right now. Kerry so its one of those moments where were going to have to pursue other alternatives for a period of time, barring some clearer indication by the warring parties that theyre prepared to consider how to approach this more effectively. Steven senators Lindsey Graham and john mccain have kind of lampooned you with threatening the suspension of talks and saying, how can this have any influence on the russians . I just, look, because ive you and i have talked about this before that id like to understand how you, if youre putting yourself, as a diplomat does, in the heads and intentions of russia, how do they see the map in their future and what are you trying to influence . And if we do walk away, then what influence do we have with the russians . Kerry well, im not worried about lampooning, particularly from people who dont seem to have the votes or the ability to be able to cobble together a legitimate plan or a legitimate approach. I dont see congress panting to put people on the ground to go to war in syria. I dont see people its easy to be critical of the diplomatic effort because its difficult, but what is the alternative . Is the United States of america going to go to war in syria . I dont think thats about to happen. We are at war against isil and we are going to win that war; i have no doubt about that. And we are making enormous progress, but that is different and distinct from involving ourselves directly into the civil war, which is the war against assad. And the Russian Point of view, they look at it and they see nusrah, jabhat alnusrah growing stronger. Jabhat alnusrah is al qaida and jabhat alnusrah quaeda is plotting against the United States of america. So there is a huge distrust against russia. Theres huge distrust on both sides a. M. Be levels of mistrust, because of the type of operations that the russians have chosen to engage in, is huge and appropriate on our side, incidentally. It is inappropriate to be bombing the way they are. It is completely against the laws of war, it is against decency, it is against any common morality, and it is costing enormously. So, that is why were going to have to why we are pulling back from this concept of so theres no no miscalculation in anybodys mind about us cooperating in a way that is empowering them to do what theyre doing. Ven right. As much as i dont want to leave the syria subject of syria and isil and iraq, i want to ask you a bigger question. My colleague, jeffrey goldberg, wrote probably one of the most important articles in Foreign Policy on the obama doctrine, one of our cover stories. And i thought it was useful, because it began to sort of raise this question of what is someones frame and filter, their dashboard, their priorities . And im really interested in what john kerrys frame. When you look at a problem out there, im interested in what you see as a as the nations leading diplomat, as a man who may have been president of the United States, how do you organize in your mind taking on one of these Big National Security challenges . Secretary kerry well, i mean, the first thing you need to do is obviously understand and define the interests of the United States of america. Our job, my job, the president s job, is to protect our nation and to advance our interests and our values simultaneously. Thats really what Foreign Policy is. I mean, Foreign Policy is a combination of interests, values. Hopefully theyre melded like that, but not always. Sometimes interests are of far greater importance to a particular moment and you may have tension with the values because of the level of the interest, or the values may be i mean, the holocaust or rwanda or which is also relevant to the debate about syria, by the way, is the killings and the torture and the barrel bombs and the gas. Steven so you put syria in the values category more than the interest category . Sec. Kerry its both. No, no, no, its in both. We have both. We have huge interests because of the stability of the region, because of the need to fight against extremism, the need to prevent the country from breaking up and having a negative impact on all of the neighborhood, including our ally israel and jordan and egypt, so forth. So there are a lot of interests there, but there are also values, obviously. And what im just trying to say is you have to get a sense of the import of all of that steven so whats the john kerry secret sauce in that if kerry well, you have to figure out once youve figured out those things, then you have to figure out whether you can find in the adversaries a meeting of the minds on any of the interests or and or values. And that mixes differently with different people at different times. With iran obviously and negotiating the iran nuclear agreement, iran wanted out from the sanctions, iran wanted to didnt think it was worth the cost they were paying to pursue a nuclear weapon, and i think the ayatollah made it clear that he was going to outlaw it, not go after it. He made a calculated decision i think the right decision, an important decision and so there was something to work with. But at the same time, there was a huge level of mistrust, a huge level of questioning about sort of where they might go at some future point in time, so we had huge interests in making sure the verification was as strict as possible, that we were able to answer peoples questions about the technology and the capacities. And ultimately you could see a way to get from here to there. Thats what you have to decide, you have to figure out. There are some frozen conflicts in the world today nagornokarabakh, azerbaijanarmenia, where you cant quite see that right now because the leaders arent ready, because the tensions arent there. There are some where i think theyre difficult but you can see how you could get there if people made a certain set of decisions. I believe israelpalestine falls into that category. But you have to have people prepared to make a certain set of decisions. Steven is the iran deal what youre most proud of during your tenure . Sec. Kerry i dont i really havent stopped to sort of start to create a scale of steven so what are you least satisfied with during your tenure . Sec. Kerry im not happy with syria. Im very, very dissatisfied with where we are in syria. Im extremely concerned about where it is going and what will happen to the people of syria and to the region if a more rational and moralbased, commonsense approach is not found to deal with the situation. Yemen, libya i mean, there are challenges, many challenges, that are extremely difficult right now. I feel good about where we are moving with isil. I think we could move faster to some degree, but i think the president has really gotten us on a track where you can see where were going in iraq, you can see where were heading in syria, and hes constantly looking for ways to try to accelerate that. I think the Climate Change agreement that we reached in paris is a monumentally a monumental agreement, extraordinarily important because of the threat of Climate Change, which were seeing manifest itself on a global basis everywhere. And to have brought 185, 186 nations together to reach agreement, which really largely grew out of the effort we made with china when we got china to agree to work with us rather than against us which is what had happened in copenhagen. That was a sea change, and that resulted in sending a signal to the marketplace in paris which were now following up on with the aviation agreement, with the hydrofluorocarbon agreement which we hope to get in kigali in october. And that alone, just getting the hydrofluorocarbons, could save onehalf degree centigrade of rise of temperature on the planet. So these are critical issues. Steven i think you probably talk to more Foreign Ministers than any person of the world today . How are they seeing it . I mean, youve got probably the largest quotient. How are they seeing american engagement in the world today . Are they seeing us robust and out there . Because theres a sense that the world doubts americas staying power in the world. Secretary kerry well, i hear this, but its really interesting. I hear this and i hear people allege that the United States is retrenching and that were somehow pulling back or but i have to tell you, steve, i think if you measure all of american history, there has never been a moment where the United States is more engaged in more places simultaneously on as significant a number of complicated issues as we are today, and with impact. On ebola, predictions were a year ago a Million People were going to die. President obama had the courage to send 3,000 troops there. We built Health Care Delivery capacity. We galvanized support from around the world. So that never happened. We did not lose one Million People. Aids were in the front were about to have the first generation of children born in africa free of aids, and we have put an unprecedented amount of money on the table and expertise to deal with that. Afghanistan weve held afghanistan together with a unity government after a failed election where it could have collapsed. Weve been able to nurture that. Its complicated, difficult, but weve been able to sustain the effort in afghanistan. In the south china sea, we have been able to make it clear, freedom of navigation. Weve been able to deal with china. Weve held that from becoming a major conflict. Ukraine the sanctions worked. We are working on the minsk application and implementation right now even as we sit here. Weve been making progress. I hope we can further that. On yemen, weve put a peace proposal forward. The parties are talking about it. Were on the verge maybe of a ceasefire there. Libya weve been able to build the gna, the government of national accord. Were working with the egyptians, with the emiratis. We are able to try to grow the capacity, the sustainability of the government. It is strictly, it is tribal, it is complicated. There are extremists they are. We have made very aggressive efforts. Boko haram in nigeria, were pushing them back. Were working with buhari. Alshabaab in somalia were pushing them back. Weve got a major planned offensive to really sort of, i hope, terminate the alshabaab challenge in somalia. Steven so maybe we need a Bumper Sticker or something like, theres a lot going on. More going on than you think. It sounds like a marketing problem, right . [applause] secretary kerry yes. I like that. It is a marketing problem. But steven youll call your folks. Weve got a couple of minutes, and i know youve got some hard stops and i know youre going to israel for shimon peress funeral, and well work on that. But in the next minute and a half, im going to combine two things. One, id like to know just real quickly, what do you think about iran today . Is iran becoming more comfortable for us or does it still remain in the very, very uncomfortable, despicable category . And im going to tack on my last question is, vietnam is such an important frame for you. Id like to know what lessons you think were forgetting from vietnam in your role that you think that youre worried about. So im going to ask you to do those two things because weve got to wrap up. Well, iran isy complicated. We just had a meeting in new york of the joint commission. The iran agreement is holding. They are living up to their requirements in the iran agreement. It is measurable and accountable, transparent. The iaea knows whats happening, we know whats happening, and we are comfortable that iran is meeting the agreements it met. They think we are not meeting our part of the agreement and theyre upset at us that more banking hasnt more banks, large banks have not engaged steven are we meeting our part of the agreement . Sec. Kerry we are. Weve done everything and more. Weve not only met our part of the agreement in terms of lifting all the sanctions we said we would lift, but weve personally engaged ive engaged, and others, with banks. Weve tried to help, because we think its important that we live up to our side of the bargain and that iran get the benefits that they bargained for. Otherwise, theres not a lot of incentive for them to continue to live by it. So its important. There are tensions in iran; there is a battle in iran, in a sense, for its own direction. Thats an internal struggle within the country, and president rouhani i think has tried very hard to try to reach out to the world, but there are forces there that pull back on that. And so its it will remain complicated and it just is complicated. Steven so your successor is going to have a fun time with that. Secretary kerry well, i hope its not i mean, i hope its not a time consuming, tense time. It will always be challenging. There are things that iran is doing in the region that we obviously object to. We dont like the support for the houthis, we dont like the support for hizballah, the support for assad, some of their engagement in other countries meddling. Obviously, those are things the missiles, the concerns about human rights and terrorism those remain. And we left all of those, in fact, intact in the sanctions regime that we have, because we really were negotiating the nuclear piece. And the reason windmill if we put those things on the table, they would still be on the table. Steven and finally, quickly, im really interested on vietnam and the frame and so much in the diplomatic area. What are we getting secretary kerry i never thought id do vietnam in 30 seconds. [laughter] secretary kerry cant do it in 30 seconds, but its i think whats happening in vietnam is exciting. Its it is not communist, it is authoritarian. It is waging capitalism. It is moving so rapidly in the marketplace, it is one of the Fastest Growing countries. When i first went there 1990, there were no cars. People were in black pajamas still. Bicycles. The traffic lights did not work in hanoi. Now, skyscrapers everywhere, traffic, people wearing blue jeans, western close, yearning for engagement with the world. Fast growing, changing lifestyle. Middle class. And it is changing rapidly. They are allowed labor unions, they can strike stop they can strike. Fought a war. And in fact, it is only the aftermath of the war and the diplomacy, the opening up, the lifting of the embargo which, by the way, john mccain was a partner with me. To help change the economic and vietnam has changed, i is changing. We announced when i went there a few months ago, the opening of a Fulbright University in hanoi. That will beh city free,tely academically able to teach. The Fulbright Program has been one of the real transitional vehicles if you will, catalyst, in vietnam. Many of the leaders at the highest echelons have been a part of it in the program. Over hereed somewhere to go over there. An incredible transformation. The lesson is that it really if youores knowing why are going to work, you are going to war and getting it right and then afterwards also getting it right. And i think we did one part of the other part we have done right, and i am very proud of of that. [applause] announcer and head of tuesday kospis president ial debate, we will take a look at the candidates. Using the cspan video library. I have seen this story before. I have turned on the television and seeing the bad news of a weather emergency, a famine. There will be more stories. But something in the story yesterday was different, you. Even in a dark day of hostages, there is hope. The presidency is the most visible that runs to the tapestry of american government. It sets the tone for the other branches. The expectations of the people. The powers are vast and consequential. Its requirements from the outside impossible for mortals to fulfill without you humility. Without a look at tim kaine and mike pence ahead of the Vice President ial debate monday night at 8 00 eastern on cspan at watch anytime on cspan. Org and listen at 8 00 eastern on the cspan radio app. This past week, james comey was on capitol hill for no oversight hearing held by the house judicial committee. Much of the testimony have to do with the investigation into Hillary Clintons use of the private email server. This is for hours. This is four hours