this is what i think of congress. they are a bunch of marshmallows. that s what they are. that s what they ve become. a bunch of marshmallows. john mccain getting an earful in phoenix last night. i m john berman, in for piers morgan. joining me, van jones, co-host of cross fire which debuts monday, cnn political commentator ben ferguson, host of the ben ferguson show, and lieutenant colonel rick francona, former air attache in damascus, who traveled extensively in syria as an observer of the country s air defense and military operations. quite an introduction there. ben, let me start with you. we heard that town meeting where john mccain was presented with a bag of marshmallows right there. we have been hearing from members of congress all around the country who have been hearing from their constituents who are not at all happy with
i ve seen exactly the same 12-page document that she s seen. i don t find it convincing at all. it doesn t change the fact that it s not our responsibility to act alone here, which is what s being contemplated. it s very dangerous. it s expensive and it s not going to do any good. it s just not going to do any good. last question. is there anything that the president can say tuesday night that would change your mind? yes. the president can demonstrate that we re under attack from syria, that our allies are under attack from syria, or that there is a so far unknown how shall i say this, holocaust taking place in syria that has escaped the world s attention. my objective is to protect the people of the united states and our allies. that s why we have a department of defense, not a department of war. that s what would change my mind. congressmen, thank you both so much for joining us tonight. i have a feeling we will be hearing a lot from you over the coming weeks. americans clear
and the proof is look at how bad the president has handled the situation this week. if it s such a dire situation as he s trying to tell democrats and republicans who are against this, then why did you go play politics by going to congress? why did you wait two years to act? why did you wait for 110,000 people to be killed in syria? he s got a really bad set of principles here to go try to sell it to the american people tuesday night, and i think most people are saying we re not buying into how bad it is because look how long you ve waited to do this. we just got a little bit of time left. i want to ask a question to elyse and the colonel here because you have both been in a lot of bad places, iraq, afghanistan, all over the middle east. i have, too. when you confront the suffering you see in some of these places at the hands of dictators, you see how people suffer, you re often left with the feeling couldn t we do something to help. could other countries step in and do something to
hours from now, it will all be over. doug, who gets the blame if congress doesn t support the bombing here, the bombing never happens, and say things get worse in syria. will this be the president s fault or will this be congress fault? well, it will probably be the president s fault if that s the way you want to look at it, but i also am not so doomsday that this is the end of the obama administration. i remember when the gun debate was going on and president obama gave a big speech and we didn t get a result on gun control. the cycle will move on. if he doesn t get the vote, it will be a very grim couple of weeks, maybe months for the president, but by next spring, i m not convinced everybody s going to be talking about syria again. there are sometimes 35 civil wars going on in the world and seldom do we hear about them. this is unusual. assad used chemical weapons and if the president deserves real credit for anything, it s his reminding us that this isn t okay. he is taking a
strike on syria and the american people don t want it, either. indiana republican luke messer says action is needed and dictators around the world are watching. congressman messer, let me start with you. you support, you re republican, i should reiterate here, you support the president s proposal to strike on syria. what convinced you? listen, i m no fan of this president. i m certainly no fan of this president s foreign policy. i think his mismanagement in the region has compounded our problems there. but i believe that we can t stop being america just because we have an ineffective commander in chief and when you look at the facts and the evidence here, there are several things that are clear. it is clear that assad gassed his own people. it s clear that that gas was used to murder hundreds of innocent women and children. it s clear that our allies in the region like israel are asking us to intervene and it s clear that evil dictators in places like iran and north korea are watchin