Indecisive. Feckless. Feckless. On the left, sally kohn, on the right, Newt Gingrich. In the crossfire, senator ben cardin, a democrat and lindsey graham, a South Carolina republican. Is the president being undermined by republicans or by his own decisions . Tonight on crossfire. Welcome to crossfire, im sally kohn on the left. Im Newt Gingrich on the right. In the crossfire tonight, two key u. S. Senators in the ukraine debate. More breaking news out of russia today. Vladimir putin spent his day staging large scale war games near the Ukrainian Border and had the russian navy sink a ship to block in the ukrainians. How did President Obama spend his day . Imposing symbolic sanctions that
will prevent russian thugs and oligarchs from vacationing at disney world. He could get rid of the symbolic liberalism and boost Defense Spending. That might start to convince put than the u. S. Is serious. Look, newt, the president has been taking serious steps all day, but no step seems to be enough to stop his republican critics. In the crossfire dpmt senator ben cardin and republican senator lindsey graham. Senator graham, to hear republican rhetoric good evening. You would think that President Obamas just been sitting around twiddling his thumbs. Hes imposed visa restrictions, proposed sanctions proposed an ai aid package and sent planes. So would it be time to stop criticizing the president . In the last 24 hour hes done a very good job. My problem is the way the president engages not just putin but the world. I think the big problem with President Obama, i dont think he has a vision of Foreign Policy. I think hes uncomfortable with the idea that were an exceptional country, the voice for freedom and that putins of the world have to be dealt with. So i appreciate what he did today. Thank god hes upping his game. But heres the test for President Obama, at the end of the day with the crimea in russia hands in a direct or de facto way let me ask you two followup questions. Sure. Given the last 24 hours big improvement. You will stop criticizing him . Im not going to stop criticizing the president for Foreign Policy thats a failure from one corner of the world to the other, nor should i. When he was senator obama did anybody ask him would you stop criticizing president bush . Look at President Obamas Foreign Policy successes. Hes gotten more support for our policies in iran, a coalition
thats been put together. In syria we are standing up to the chemical weapons. Now in ukraine President Obama has been the leader in standing up for the rights of the ukrainian people. Now, the bad guy here is putin. Its not President Obama. Putin is the person who invaded another country. Putin is the person who is violating his international agreements. Putin is the person thats putting so much at risk. Ben, i agree with that distinction and i want to ask you a very specific area where the president could, i think, make a difference. Three weeks ago in what seemed to be a somewhat safer and more stable world the president was proposing a budget which cuts the u. S. Army below its pearl harbor strength for the first time really in a long time. Weve now had a pretty big Seismic Shift with Whats Going On in the world. Secretary Hillary Clinton compared putin to hitler. Shouldnt the president turn back to the joint chiefs and
say, i want you to review this and tell me what you need now that weve determined that were in a much more dangerous relationship with the russians . Obviously we need to always reevaluate our military strength. We do spend more money than any other country by far on our military expenditures. Were in tough Economic Times as far as our budget is concerned. We reached a bipartisan agreement for this year and next that provides a certain cap on how much money we can spend on Discretionary Spending whether military or nonDefense Spending. A lot of us would like to see those numbers higher. In order to do that weve got to reach a real Budget Agreement that deals with more than what we did earlier this year. I agree with you. Id like to have a longterm budget, but Defense Spending is certainly not out of line as far as the fiscal restraints as naub Defense Spending. Would you say specifically visavis the situation in
ukrainian, would more have changed what whats happening on the ground . Were on track to have the Smallest Army since 1940, the smallest navy, less than 240 ships, since 1950, Smallest Air Force in modern history. Were gutting our military. Its not just President Obamas fault. Its the congress fault. Its called sequestration. To my good friend ben who is probably the nicest guy in the senate, serious debacle. Syria is stronger after the chemical weapons deal, not weaker. Thats not me saying it. Thats the director of the National Intelligence clapper. My belief about the interim deal with the iranians is a disaster in the making. The Prime Minister of israel says the iranians got the of the century and theyre watching us. President obama now is your time to reset the world, not just your relationship with russia but let the world know that the United States wont sit on the sidelines and watch people take over countries by force and the iranians are not going to get a Nuclear Weapon and now is the
time to admit the iranians and putin enough is enough. I dont think anybody would say the United States is sitting on the sidelines. Were out in front in syria, were out in front in iran, what wer doing in syria . Were out in front getting the coalition together to i mean, what are we doing to change the tide . The challenge in syria is that the assad regime needs to go. We all understand that. The opposition is not as unified as we would like to see it. There are parts of the opposition that you and i both would like 26,000 al qaeda fighters and three years ago there were 500. Theres significant force. And 40,000 a year from now. And theres resources that are going to that part of the opposition. Weve got to make sure that our help goes to the right people. At the end of the day be have the right people in charge of syria. I think the president is very correct in the way that he is being cautious as to where our arms end up. We dont want it ending up
against u. S. Interests in al qaeda. If were more cautious than syria, there wont be a man or woman alive that opposes assad. The question is much bigger than syria. I watched today both the president and the Secretary Of State make a commitment and a focus on crimea that i thought was sort of amazing because we have less leverage in crimea than we do in a lot of other places. Its much like the red line over syria and the red line over this and red line over that. The washington post, which is hardly a right wing publication, in a recent editorial said that for five years President Obama has led a Foreign Policy based more on how he thinks the world should operate than on reality. And this strikes me that youre getting a very grim i mean, i agree with you entirely that this is putin. This is not obamas fault. This is putin. But the fact is this is the same putin who since 1999 has been in charge of russia. He is a former kgb colonel. Hes a totally ruthless person. And doesnt that require his president and our Foreign Policy and our Military Policy to have a kind of realism thats very tough minded . Oh, absolutely. Youre absolutely right. Putin is using his kgb tactics. This is a very, very dangerous situation. Far beyond just ukraine and crimea. If you can use force to take over areas, look at Whats Going On in south china sea, look at Whats Going On in the western balkans, this can be used by others to justify the use of force. Its a very dangerous serious situation. I think the president , as lindsay said, is saying the right things, getting the coalition together. Its not even russia, its putin, one person thats responsible. I would suggest that really russia appears to be strong, but theyre not. Theyre an oil and gas company thats corrupt. He is ripping off his own people, his friends live like
kings. So stopping their travel will make a difference. Hitting them in the wallet will make a difference. But heres the problem. Were at a moment now where weve got probably the last chance before iran breaks out and gets a nuclear capability. Sending those fighters in did more to convince me that were going to deal with putin differently than hitting them in the wallet. Mr. President , keep it up. Keep it up, hey, at least its nice to hear you saying something good about the president s leadership even if its only for a few minutes. Next ill ask Senator Graham Whether Running the president down with personal insults is undermining our Commander In Chief abroad. [ male announcer ] we know theyre out there. You cant always see them. But its our job to find them. The answers. The solutions. The innovations. All waiting to help us build Something Better. Something more amazing. A safer, cleaner, brighter future. At boeing, thats what building Something Better is all about. At boeing, thats what building Something Better is all about. Hey, buddy . Oh, hey, flo. You want to see something cool . Snapshot, from progressive. My Insurance Company told me not to talk to people like you. You always do what they tell you . No. Try it, and see what your good driving can save you. You dont even have to switch. Unless youre scared. Im not scared, its. You know we can still see you. No, you cant. Pretty sure we can. Try snapshot today no pressure