Transcripts For CNNW The Lead With Jake Tapper 20141107 : vi

CNNW The Lead With Jake Tapper November 7, 2014

Weekend after feeding the great big elephant in the room today. President obama inviting congressional leaders to lunch for the First Time Since republicans flipped the senate. Did they all leave with a bad taste in their mouths . And the money lead. They know where you are. They can even shut off 0 your car. Are you driving at the mercy of your car salesman who decided to sneak a tracking device into your ride . Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the lead. Im jake tapper. We begin this friday with breaking news in our world lead. President obama, the president who ended the iraq war, is now about to double the number of american troops back on iraqi soil. The white house announcing it will up the number of military advisers in baghdad and throughout the country from 1,500 to 3,000. The Obama Administration insist s the troops will not be in combat but focused on better positioning Iraqi Security forces to battle isis. The move also comes with somewhat of a hefty price tag. The Administration Says it will ask congress for 5. 6 billion for the isis campaign, 1. 6 billion, just to train iraqi and kurdish fighters. The timetable for just when these troops will get there remains fluid. There are more and more signs Iraqi Security forces desperately need some sort of help. Suicide bombers detonated three devices in a military checkpoint near a krcritical oil field ear this morning. The attack killed a Senior Police officer and wounded five others. Here now with the announcement, jim, where is centcom deploying these troops . A massive numerical deployment, its double the number thats there now but its actually ten times the number of advisers sent there originally with 300 june 19. Think of that over that span of time. Geographically this is fascinating as well because to this point those advisers have been confined to baghdad. Two relatively safe locations in iraq well protected by the kerdz in erbil and iraqis Security Forces in baghdad. Theyre going to now establish two more socalled advise and assist centers outside of baghdad and erbil. The two places discussed are Anbar Province and they were preparing plans to send advisers to anbar. Reported the week before that they were anbar was falling into isis hands. Absolutely, 80 controlled now. Had in addition, the pentagon says they will establish several sites to train a further 12 iraqi and kurdish brigades. They will not just in baghdad and erbil, two additional Operation Centers it is thought anbar and taji where these forces are to train them. Not combat troops but, to be frank here, much closer to the combat than they were before. And why now, jim . What the Administration Says is the iraqi forces have finally been taking the fight to the iraqis. They claim the president in a Statement Today that isis has in the words of the white house suffered a series of defeat in iraq recently and it is fair to say Iraqi Security forces have had their first victories in recent wakes taking back the mosul dam, a he key Border Crossing up on the syrian border. They took back a town just to the south of baghdad. These are Small Victories when you consider the amount of territory controls, but its their argument that now that iraqi forceses are doing that, it is our assessment if we help them they can do more to prepare them for more offensive operations. To be fair, Officials Say substantial offensive forces are still a month off you can see the advisers sent there to prepare them for that. So they are portraying this not as mission, they say the mission is the same. Certainly, as you point out, its ten times the number of troops as were originally sent in june. June 19, 300 advisers sent in a limited role to assess the iraqi forces. August 8, you begin the air campaign. Which you remember in iraq only. Which you remember at the time they defined as protecting the people up on the mountain and in erbil. September 22 you extend into syria and over the course of time clearly the air strikes have been about more than protecting u. S. Personnel or protecting minority groups under threat. Theyve been about trying to fight back and degrade and destroy isis. So youve seen it, whether you use the term mission creek, it has expanded the last several months. The mission and the size of troops numerically and geographically. Thank you for details on how significant this move is to u. S. Military operations in the region. Lets go to general spider marks who joins us now on the phone. General, would you tray to explain the timing behind this move . Why is the white house announcing this now . Why is it urgent to get 1,500 more troops into iraq . Jake, i cant speak to the political reasonings for the expansion of the mission at this point, but i can tell you that clearly what the u. S. Wants to do with this Coalition Partner as jim as described, you want to reinforce success and weve given the Iraqi Security forces an opportunity with the u. S. Presence thats on the ground right now an opportunity to achieve some Small Victories that leads to confidence and increased missions for them and provides an opportunity for the United States to fall off and say, look, were reinforcing success. I would suggest theres a political aspect to this as well. Im not naive. I would say what were seeing on the ground would drive you to this type of conclusion. Defense officials told cnn pa part of the reason the aerial campaign has not significantly rolled back isis especially in syria is because the u. S. Does not have the intelligence and the reconnaissance personnel to effectively target isis leadership, even though these troops are going into iraq, will this maneuver help solve that problem . Obviously 1,500 troops can only do so much but is it a step in the right direction to solve that problem . Well, thats a great question, i would assume the United States certainly is not going to take its eye off of or its resources off the fight in syria. With the increase to cover down on the Iraqi Security forces and to bolster them in terms of the train and equip mission sigh mull tan quusly the United States is probably supporting as best they can kurdish fighters, pkk if they can, in order to try to put some very specific targeting against these targets that exist in syria. Because theres been success in syria, specifically by the air campaign, the targets of isis have dispersed. Thats a good thing. That decreases their ability to conduct command and control and try to mass targets. You have targets all over the place and if you wanted to tray to continue, you would have a large number of special forces type of operations that can go after and have Close Air Support going against. Its a much more expansive mission but its one the United States is probably start iing t take on anyway. Were just not getting any publicity or Media Coverage on that aspect. General lloyd austin, the commander of centcom, leading the campaign against isis, told me this yesterday at a forum on just how many troops tal take to beat back isis. He said this. I think its somewhere between 9,000 and 17,000. Hes referring to the number of members of isis. Between 9,000 and 17,000 and, again, without having the human intelligence on the ground to confirm or deny its very difficult. He was expressing concern that he did not have the human intelligence that could tell him how many members of isis there were. And i speck, i mean, a guy like general austin is not going to voice concerns or frustrations publicly although he came close by saying he didnt have the human intelligence that he needed to discern how many members of the enemy he was fighting. Do you think that this is one of the reasons why these men are being deployed . If you try to separate the two, you have a hard time. These soldiers are being deployed into iraq. There will be an associated intelligence Collection Mission with that. The presence of isis throughout the region certainly goes wrond the purview of isis. There still remains under general austins command, prosecute from the air in syria and to prosecute now from the ground to an advise and consent type role. Yes, there will be an intelligence Collection Mission to go against the isis numbers. He did voice a concern. When he gives you a number between 9,000 and 17,000, you essentially have 100 variance. Thats a difficult problem that you need to get your arms around, and it does relate to precise intelligence collection on the ground. General spider marks, thank you so much. Were waiting for rear admirable john kirby to come out and brief reporters on the white house announcement that the president has authorized sending 1,500 more traoops to iraq to help train kurdish Security Forces. Well bring that to you. Coming up on the lead president obama has congressional leaders over for the First Time Since democrats were kicked around on election night. Someone there, if there was any hope. Cnn talks to one of kim jong ils former bodyguards who says the late north Korean Leaders son is even more dangerous. Stay with us. If yand youre talking toevere rheumyour rheumatologiste me, about a biologic. This is humira. This is humira helping to relieve my pain and protect my joints from further damage. This is humira giving me new perspective. Doctors have been prescribing humira for ten years. Humira works for many adults. It targets and helps to block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. Before treatment, get tested for tb. Tell your doctor if youve been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. Talk to your doctor and visit humira. Com this is humira at work toasty or frosty . Exactly the way you want it. Until boom, its bedtime your mattress is a battleground of thwarted desire. Enter the sleep number bed. Right now save 400 on the c4 mattress set. Hes the softy. His sleep number setting is 35. Youre the rock, at 60. Silent night not so silent . Elk bellow sleep numbers even got an adjustment for that. Give the gift of amazing sleep, only at a sleep number store. Where youll find our lowest price ever on the c4 Queen Mattress plus 36month financing. Know better sleep with sleep number. Welcome back to the lead. Im jake tapper. Turning to the politics lead and what really is the first day of president obamas new political reality in washington, d. C. A political reality summed up by this, the cover of next weeks new yorker magazine. The great big elephant in the room, the room, of coverurse, t oval office. Something of a power lunch at the white house. Ever since tuesday night when republicans won the majority and beefed up their House Majority to historic levels weve heard both sides are willing to tray to find common ground. Weve also heard areas where both parties will not budge. No matter how important the issues might be to you and me. Cnns Michelle Kosinski is live at the white house. What went down at that table today . Reporter jake, right, it begins. This supposed new era of working together and getting a lot of stuff done in this congress. Weve heard a lot said already about Getting Started finding these air qureas of common grou. These lines have been drawn and ominously hang iing over this i the president s eminent action on immigration. Its a come to meeting, get down to talking, lets start working together lunch days after republicans delivered a blow at the polls, that placed them in control. I am not going to judge ideas based on whether theyre democratic or republican but base d on whether or not they work. Reporter so lets start with what had will probably work, the tack the white house is taking, a place there is common ground. Funding badly needed Infrastructure Projects around the country that every law mmak wants for their district, increasing u. S. Exports, Early Childhood education. Hardly the things people tend to battle over. On the agenda today is funding against ebola, an update on the war with isis, and the president s listening to what republicans want to get accomplished. The thing is, though, looming over all this commitment to cooperation is what sounds increasingly like a nasty stalemate over immigration. The president continues to act on his own. He is going to poison the well. When you play with matches, you take the risk of burning yourself. Its like waving a red flag in front of a bull. Reporter some violent analogies there from the guys now in charge of congress. The white house continues to put the onus on republicans saying its been a year and a half of the house refusing to even take a vote on comprehensive reform that the Senate Passed with bipartisan support and that, yes, the president are will act alone before the end of the queer delivering a path to citizenship for possibly millions of immigrants here if Congress Continues not to act. I am eager to see what they have to offer, but what im not going to do is just wait. Reporter even today the white house threw down the gauntlet. There is one thing that they can do to prevent the president from taking executive action. The thing they can do is allow that common sense, bipartisan bill to come before the house of representatives. Maybe the republic will be saved. Maybe the ego of the House Republicans will not be bruised. Certainly the United States of america would benefit significantly from them taking that step. Reporter so were hearing at this lunch today the president and House Speaker boehner talked about immigration for a half hour, going back and forth, that the president said, yeah, its within my legal right to take executive action and republicans countering with, well, its not so much what you want to do but how you want to do it and you need to work with us. We heard the white house say that its hard to take republicans seriously, that they want to work with the president on immigration. We hear a lot of jokes, too, about what was going to be served at this lunch today. Some suggested how about crow or sour grapes, but it turns out it was just nice sea bass. Jake . Michelle kosinski at the white house, thanks so much. Joining me is the House Democratic whip, steny hoyer, who was at the white house today. Congressman, thank you so much for joining us. I want to get to the politics in a second. First there is this breaking announcement from the white house this afternoon that the president has decided to double the presence of u. S. Troops in iraq. Do you have any concerns about this announcement in terms of Mission Creep . Will you support it . I dont think theres Mission Creep and, yes, i will support it. This is clearly pursuant to training and equipping and making sure that those folks on the ground, the boots on the ground who are indigenous to iraqis or others give them the kind of support and training they need to be effective in defeating isil, the president s objective and i think an objective shared by republicans and democrats and the country. What do you say to the people watching at home who think why is this announcement coming on a friday afternoon three days after the midterm elections . Well, i dont say much about that because i dont know why the specific timing, but clearly theyre developing a plan. Were briefed in a security briefing on that plan that they believe will be effective in accomplish what i think the American People and the president have articulated is our objective, the defeat of isil. This announcement has to do obviously with the amount of boots from america not in combat but to train and equipment which the congress has already spoken to that are necessary to get the job done. My own thought is that we need to make sure that we can, in fact, accomplish the objective that the president has articulated. Thats in our National Security interest and in the interest of stability in the middle east. All right, congressman. Lets go back it to the subject of todays lunch. What can you tell us about the meeting, were there areas agreed upon where there can be some tangible bipartisan accomplishments . I think the answer to that is yes. I think both sides made it very clear that they dont want to simply be throwing bricks at one another for two years as has been the case. And the American People have sent, i think, a very strong message that they want to see us Work Together and thats why you hear so many people talking about that. Now the proof whether that talk is going to be walked is whether or not, in fact, we do it. There were areas of significant agreement, i think. An agreement that we wanted to do an omnibus and that we wanted to do that hopefully by december 11. A big spending package . Well, completing the funding for this years operations of government. The ebola creigh sis funding that is going to be necessary so that we can do what the president and

© 2025 Vimarsana