Efforts. The response so far has been unacceptable. Our roundtable on ebola politics, the wins of 2014 and what jeb bushs wife and rand pauls promise tell us about 2016. This is state of the union. Good morning from washington. Im candy crowley. Theres word today that lab tests clear a cruise ship passenger who works at the dallas hospital that treated ebola patients. Though showing no symptoms of ebola, the passenger had been in isolation anyway but has now been allowed to leave the ship in galveston, texas. A bit of relief after a week that saw plenty of medical anxiety and political positioning. Joining me now is senator ted cruz, a republican from texas. Senator, one of the many things that we have learned over the course of the past several weeks is that Public Health is largely in the state and local purview. Looking back over what has occurred in dallas, when you see what the governor what steps hes taken, what steps texas Public Health has taken and what steps the hospital, Texas Health Presbyterian has taken, what do you think went wrong in there . Well, look, there were no doubts mistakes were made up and down the line at the level of the hospital, at the level of the Health Officials implementing the protocols. But ill tell you the biggest mistake that continues to be made is now more than two weeks into this, we continue to allow open commercial air flights from countries that have been stricken by ebola. That doesnt make any sense. We have upwards of 150 people a day coming from countries with live, active Ebola Outbreaks. For over two weeks ive been calling on the administration to take the common sense stand of suspending commercial air travel out of these countries until we get the air travel under control and for whatever reason, the Obama White House doesnt want to do so. What mistakes were made at the hospital level . What mistakes were made by texas Public Health officials . Candy, the first mistake that was made was allowing Thomas Duncan to get on an airplane and fly to the United States. Understand. If he hadnt flown to the United States, none of the other mistakes would have happened. Obviously this hospital when mr. Duncan came in the first time with fever symptoms, they shouldnt have sent him home. They should have responded more quickly. The mistakes continued up and down the line. When he came in again he was allowed to be around his family, potentially transmitting the disease. When he came into the hospital, the protocols that were supposed to in place were not followed. At least two different nurses have contracted the ebola virus from mr. Duncan, despite the protocols. We also know that second nurse was allowed, after contracting ebola, to board a commercial airliner flight. She was told by the cdc she wasnt told dont get on the flight. The cdc gave her the green light to do that. That was a serious mistake. Right. Throughout this process there have been mistakes. Dealing with a virus with an epidemic is a learning process. Its a learning process with high stakes. We cant afford mistakes. But i am hopeful that the health professionals, you know, the doctors and nurses and cdc officials who are risking their lives are brave, courageous professionals. Im hopeful well continue to improve our response. But the best thing to do is to minimize the initial contact with ebola. I have to say, candy, it was over two weeks ago that i sent a letter to the faa asking what they were doing to protect u. S. Citizens to stop commercial air travel out of these countries to protect the pilots, the flight attendants and the fellow passengers. Its now been over two weeks. The faa has not responded to those questions and weve now seen both democrats and republicans coming together saying, listen, this is a basic common sense step. While there is an active epidemic raging we should not be having commercial Airline Flights with up to 150 people a day coming to the u. S. For whatever reason, candy, the Obama White House is digging in and not listening to the voices of common sense coming from both sides of the aisle. Well, perhaps it is because the voices in the medical community, particularly dr. Frieden, has been one of them out there saying that this would be counterproductive. I want to play you a little bit of what dr. Frieden had to say about a travel ban. Sure. Right now, we know whos coming in. If we try to eliminate travel, the possibility that some will travel over land will come from other places and we dont know that theyre coming in will mean that we wont be able to do multiple things. We wont be able to check them for fever when they leave. We wont be able to check them for fever when they arrive. We wont be able to take a detailed history to see if theyve been exposed when they arrive. Just respond to that. His concern, we wont be able to track these people because they will come in in other places and we wont know theyre entering the u. S. Well, candy, the administration is given two arguments against a flight ban, neither of which makes sense. The first one they say, they have screening in place in five airports and then that should be our line of defense. Now, i would note they have omitted airports like dfw where mr. Duncan came. More importantly, the screens only work if a passenger is demonstrating symptoms. Ebola, unfortunately has up to a 21day incubation period where the patient has no demonstrated symptoms and walks right through the screenings. Mr. Duncan, the one patient we know who did come from liberia to america would have traveled right through the screenings. The screening would not have stopped him because he was not presenting symptoms at that time. Let me ask you a couple things with regard to mr. Duncan. He did indeed come to the u. S. From liberia, but he went from liberia to brussels to Dulles International in virginia to dall dallasft. Worth, and so how does a ban on air travel stop mr. Duncan . Because the visa he had coming in was a travel visa from liberia. We should stop issuing travel visas from liberia. Which interestingly enough, the neighboring countries in africa have done. What we need from the president is serious leadership to protect the American People. Shouldnt be a partisan issue. We should be protecting citizens of this country. Understood. But, again, the experts are telling the president the president is not a doctor. And if you were president , and nih or the cdc were saying, hey, you know, this will only make it worse. A travel ban, a flight ban, will only make it worse, what we have in place is better, you would overrule the doctors and the experts . Their arguments candy, the doctors and experts that are saying this are working for the administration and repeating the administration talking points. And their arguments dont make sense. The first argument about the screens doesnt make sense because they dont work during the 21day incubation period and the second argument they make is they say a travel ban would prevent Health Care Relief workers from arriving in west africa. No one is talking about banning flights into west africa. Of course physicians and nurses and Health Care Workers should be allowed to go in there and we can send them in on charter flights or military c130 aircraft with appropriate safety precautions. Thats very different from saying commercial airliners should fly day after day after day with hundreds of passengers connecting with thousands of passengers coming all throughout the country. The arguments theyre giving dont make sense. And what is unfortunate is watching the Obama Administration treat this as yet another political issue rather than as a Public Health crisis, for the same reason, youve seen virtually no attention from the administration on the need to secure the southern border. Now, that is not with standing the fact that general john kelly, the commander of the Southern Command just a week ago said if ebola is transmit to central or south america we will see a mass migration, the like of which we have never seen and the administration unfortunately is not acting to protect our southern borders. Or to restrict commercial Airline Flights from places with an active outbreak. And that just doesnt make sense. And when you say, just again, i want to put a period on this, when you say banning flights, you mean withholding visas from those who want to travel to the u. S. Coming from these three affected countries, correct . Absolutely. We should not allow nonu. S. Citizens coming from these countries coming into the United States. Ri right now, temporarily. We get the outbreak under control, its a different story. When you have an active and growing epidemic, the first thing you want to do is contain it. One of the things that has been brought up, of course, now this is now entered the political arena and the democrats are charging you all with making politics of it and vice versa. So the fact of the matter is, one of the things thats brought up is we havent had a Surgeon General who is the nations leading Public Health official at least the voice of it, for a year. Some democrats and some republicans had opposed the particular Surgeon General, the president had nominated. Do you think it would have helped, a, if nih and cdc had a little more money and b, had there been a Surgeon General in place to calm what has become the fear of ebola . Look, of course we should have a Surgeon General in place and we dont have one because president obama, instead of nominating a health professional, he nominated someone who is an antigun activist and a doctor. That individual didnt have the votes in the senate. He is a doctor. Thats a health professional. Hes a crusader against Second Amendment rights. As a consequence he didnt have the votes among republicans or democrats. Was it a mistake for the president to nominate an extreme partisan on an issue that is not connected to Public Health . Yes, that was a mistake. He should have nominated a respected Health Care Professional who could actually get the votes in a senate controlled by democrats. Candy, it speaks volumes that harry reid and the Senate Democrats wouldnt confirm this Surgeon General. It show just how extreme the nominee was. And the funding, senator . Funding for cdc. Its been cut, in particular, by the sequestration that cut across the board. Look, we can debate appropriate funding levels. We have seen funding for Public Health increase over the last decade significantly. We need to devote whatever resources are needed to contain this Ebola Outbreak. What do you think about i think i can probably guess this, but the president has put ron klain in charge of sort of keeping control of both the u. S. Activities abroad in the three affected west african nations as well as what goes on here with the cdc and nih and various hospitals. Look, candy, i think its a great example. Mr. Klain is not a doctor or a Health Care Professional. He doesnt have backgrounds in those issues. There are lots of those, senator, there are lots of doctors on this. Republicans have been saying whos in charge . Whos in charge . Doesnt this need someone who has Organizational Skills which the white house says ron klain has, to give the public the feeling that the government is on top of this . Candy, we should be less concerned about giving the public the feeling that the government is on top of this and more concerned about the government actually being on top of it. And this is a manifestation. We dont need another white house political operative which is what mr. Klain has been. What we need is president ial leadership. The person that needs to be on top of this is the president of the United States, standing up and leading it and treating it as a Public Health emergency. Two weeks ago the president should have stood up and suspended flights from these countries. Two weeks ago the president should have put Additional Resources on our borders. Gotcha. Two weeks ago the president should have demonstrated real leadership to protect american citizens. For whatever reason he isnt doing so. I would welcome his leadership today. We need a commander in chief who fulfills his constitutional obligations, not just another white house political operative trying to spin reporters. 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Well, look, fidel castro and raul castro, they never miss a chance to push propaganda. What i can tell you is that the castro brothers have put in place a brutal regime that oppresses their citizens, that mu murders their citizens and tortures and imprisons their citizens, and the castros are never shy to jump up and engage in some propaganda to criticize the United States. I want to ask you about the u. S. Led air assault against isis. There have been some successes from what were learning. There have been some setbacks. In the end you have talked you made a famous quote recently, we ought to bomb them, meaning isis, back to the stone age. It does not appear that bombing alone will make that happen, that isis will not disappear with a u. S. Led air assault. That being the case, where do to see the role, if any, of u. S. Military personnel . Unfortunately, the approach of the Obama Administration to isis has been fundamentally unserious. We have dropped a bomb here, a missile there but it has been a photoop foreign policy. What we need is a concentrated directive military objective to take isis out. What does that entail . Number one it entails a far more vigorous air campaign than were seeing. Were dropping a fraction of the ordnance that we have in other campaigns such as afghanistan. Should it eventually, do you think it should involve u. S. Troops . It involves u. S. Troops now. There are over 1,500 on the ground right now. What im getting at is the air assault wont work, senator, where do you stand on the idea of putting perhaps more u. S. Personnel in there as advise