How congress should vote. If you are a member of congress, what questions would you be asking the president this week . Here are the numbers you can also catch up with us on all your favorite social media pages, twitter, facebook, or simply email us at journal c span. Org. This syrian question leading all the major papers. Heres the front page of the Washington Times that is the question many members of congress are asking this week, amid what is being called a threeday media blitz on syria. This included Denis Mcdonough going on five of the sunday shows yesterday. We want to play you a bit of what he said in one of those interviews. [video clip] collects ive talked to members of congress, not a single one has rebutted or refused the intelligence. Everyone agrees that on august 21 assad used chemical weapons against his own people. The question is a very simple one. Should there be quantum that should there be consequences for him using gas and chemical weapons to kill more than a thousand of his own people, including 400 children . The answer to that question will be followed closely in damascus, tehran, i members of lebanese. Ezbollah this is a big question and a big week for congress to address that. It is a fundamental National Security issue. Week for congress to address that question and president obama is going to be making his case to several networks, six major broadcast News Networks tonight. He will be having interviews with them on tuesday. The president is going to make his case directly to the American People for that strike on syria. Terms of theay, in president s schedule, here is a police from politico. President obama will travel to capitol hill to sell his plan for military strikes on syria just hours before the scheduled National Addressed from the old jewel National Address from the oval office. And all handson efforts as more polling is out on this issue. Heres the latest from cnn politics a bit more on the history of recent conflicts and public support from that cnn piece. It goes on to note that the president had at least a small majority of public support behind him over the last 20 years we also have our own poll on her Facebook Page. That pulled very much opposed to the resolution and the possible attack on syria. You can see that on our Facebook Page. You on howhear from congress should vote on this issue. Is florida, on our democratic line. Good morning to you. Leeer this is sergeant from newport, florida. Span andion is to c also to the callers. Geneva put a call geneva protocol is the 1925 protection against chemical warfare. Important, nobody has talked about this. The geneva protocol of 1925 has during world war i and world war ii. If you go online and look this up it will tell you that the and congress has a 50 50 vote on this protocol from geneva. To paul will go now from oliver springs, tennessee on our republican line. Good morning to you. We want to get your take on how congress should vote on this issue and what question should you ask the president if you were a member of congress this week . Caller i appreciate you taking my call right here. Good like my comment aint enough. Host we want to hear from you. Whenr my first point is our members were put on the rooftops of libya to defend themselves, they had no help. I thought Heller Clinton was out of politics. Stuck out clinton was of politics. My second point is International Losses says that we cannot go to another country and try to take up ahead of that state, that is breaking international law. We dont have a friend in the world to go with us. We would go by ourselves and start a war. We are starting a war. Thats what we are doing. The Democratic People better get this on their brain. I dont think they know what they are talking about. I want you to hold them up on that right there. Some of the president , some of them dont. Some of them back the president , some of them dont. Why would they not back the first black resident in office . First black president in office . Heres my question to the president , how can i trust you said that food women to lie like a dog. Host he brings up a few points. Political according to politico Hillary Clinton will make her first public remarks about syria we want to point you back to our cspan Facebook Page, where we have that whole that is ongoing. Syria andupporting close to 800 opposing action. We will keep that throughout todays program and keep checking back on it. John is up next from Canyon Country california on our independent line. Caller thank you for taking my call. We dont need any more wars for israel in the middle east. We have israel lobby pushing for this. Who is aohn kerry jewish zionist, Hillary Clinton who is doing this to get money for president ial candidate for a president ial campaign. Americans better wake up to what is going on in the middle east and these wars for israel. More and more americans are waking up. Host lets talk about u. S. Action. If you were a member of congress what question would you be asking the president . I would be asking him to look at the intelligence. Go to usjhijack. Com host what do you dont believe . Caller i believe it was the Syrian Rebels who set up a sought to go to war against syria, that hezbollah is pushing so hard. If you look at the clean break iraq, syria,was and then going against the rest of the enemies in that region. I would be skeptical about the intelligence. President Bashar Alassad of syria actually made remarks to cbs on this subject. This is the front page of todays Financial Times. Assad warns of retaliation is part of the headlines. I want to read you a bit of that that is the front page of todays Financial Times if you want read more on that story. Sue is up next from illinois on our democratic line. Good morning. Caller hello how are you doing. I think we need to go ahead and let neighboring countries of syria take care of it. We always seem to be in the midst of taking care of everything for israel, the holy land and holy people. They figh,t, fight, fight, kill, kill, kill. Nobody seemed to care when almost a Million People died three months in ronda in re wanda. In rwanda. I feel sorry for them but i feel more sorry for the American People. Do we have trillion dollars to go to war over there . Host that assume from illinois. A little bit more on the case the white house is making. Sue brings up International Allies in this effort. Heres the front page of the Washington Post also a statement signed by john is up next on this question we are asking you this morning, how should Congress Vote . He is from North Carolina on a republican line. Good morning. Caller good morning. A fanow that obama is when a democrat from illinois wants the neighbors and neighborhoods to take care of the business. To American People need realize that this is a sunni shiite situation and is not the infidel martyrs situation that it usually is. We do not know all of the players that are sympathetic to democratic syria, we would just be him just be throwing our money down the whole. Republican,rvative and i am usually a hawk. I have a Political Science degree. I have to trust my president. When i see all of the stuff that is going on internationally and you are going to leave our people out to drive out to dry without doing anything in scandalsand domestic like the nsa, what you are seeing is a president whose citizenry does not trust him for policy. I dont know if that is incompetence or something sinister. Some people will follow him because of race. We are in a bad state in this country when we have this situation. This is not just going to lead over from the effect list Foreign Policy. This will contaminate his demented policy. Everybody is starting to his domestic policy. Everybody is starting to see, when i dont have it my way i will throw to congress. At least that way i can blame the republicans. John from North Carolina. At the president is taking this vote to congress this weekend. Some of those members of congress appeared on some of the sunday shows yesterday. Congressman mike rogers is the Republican House committee chairman. Nation. N cbss face the [video clip] i understand why people are skeptical. You have a commanderinchief who tries to come to the American People and say, im going to do something but not too a lot. That is what the American People are hearing. I am skeptical as well. I am frustrated with this president and his steps on syria and other Foreign Policy issues that got us to the place that we are today. Uswe just make it about versus congress or the American People versus our frustrations, we missed the big picture of what is in the best interest of the u. S. National security interests. Small and effective now saves big and ugly later. Either we are going to pay the big price now pay the bigger price later. Host that was mike rogers talking about this issue. Cspan has this debate covered in its entirety, we set up a special syria page that will statements,ments, and related videos of the debate. It includes the white house intelligence documents, the house and Senate Hearings from wednesday of last week, and the president s statement from saturday in which he announced that he would seek congressional approval of the action. We intend to add as they become available. I want to point you to another member of congress who actually appeared on cspan yesterday. That was Democratic Caucus chairman xavier becerra. He was on our Newsmakers Program on sunday. He is one of several members of congress to do that. Here is what he had to say. [video clip] i do believe there is a way to get a resolution in both the senate and house. It has to be very narrowly tailored. Broughtreas clause you up does cause me concern. Im not interested in having a vote on an authorization to use military force that can take us beyond the scope of the task in front of us. It would degrade your ability to do that to deter chemical weapons tif we do that. It goes beyond the issue of chemical weapons. The use of force to deter the chemical weapons usage may have some impact on the syrian civil war, but that is not my problem. T is the syrians problem i am making sure that everyone gets the message around the world that you do not use chemical weapons and get away with it. Ont comments coming in our social media pages. Here is the washington journal that here is twitter on her Facebook Page that is our Facebook Page where we have that ongoing poll. We will keep you updated on it throughout the show. We want to hear your thoughts on this issue. Jean is from miami, arizona on our democratic line. Good morning to you. Caller good morning. I am a vet. And we should go. I think that our president made a mistake by going to the congress. Im a former politician. Maybe we should shut down all the military bases all over the world. Chief. Ur commanderin this message is also for my congress mer for my congresswoman. He should see the faces of those young kids. Auto be ashamed of ourselves of we do not go. We ought to be ashamed of ourselves if we do not go. He is my commander in chief, even though i am not in the military anymore. Thank you and God Bless America and all the troops. One of those that would support military intervention in syria on our facebook poll page, 300 people say they would support that action but the number that opposes is much higher, 796 people. You can go on our Facebook Page and join in that poll. Patricia is up next from salem new york on a republican line. Caller i dont think we should go to war in syria. Most of the veterans do not want it. We are tired of seeing our young people come home in boxes. We dont even know who started who the bad people are there in syria. Would behis time we fighting on the side of al qaeda. We dont want it. Congress is fooled if they think they can do this without the support of the American People. War people do not want this. Im not even sure if i am a republican anymore. I wish they would make be proud of my party again. A couple stories on the challenges the president faces as he goes to congress. Here is a story from the wall street journal how congress is voting and feeling on this issue, here is the Washington Times that is congressman howard mckeon. Tennessee congresswoman marsha black appeared on cnns programs on sunday. She said that is the story from the Washington Times if you want to read more on that issue. We also have emails coming in this morning. This from sue as we are talking about the subject from what the president has to do to sell this resolution to members on the hill. I want to bring in in swanson, news editor of the hill newspaper. Track ofis keeping this whip count, they are calling it, on military strikes on syria. Take us through the latest that the hill has come up with. Latest we have in the house is that there are 141 no votes or votes leaning no. House,31 votes in the where people are voting yes or leaning yes. In the senate, we only have 26 senators saying they would vote for this or lean toward voting for this. That is a better scenario. It looks like obama is getting closer but he is not there yet. Are you finding that the senate is an easier sell . Guest absolutely the easier sell but they do still do not have the votes. Optimism they of can get this through the senate relatively easy. Right now that is not the case. You are getting a lot of defections, even from democrats in the senate. They cannot say with certainty that it will be able to get a yes vote in the senate. President doeshe get a yes vote in the senate and a no vote in the house . Any word on what the white house will do in that scenario . Guest that is played very closely to the vest. Heesident said wouldnt give a direct answer. It seems the white house believes saying one thing or another, whatever action they would take if there is a no vote. Favor of theirn position theyre trying not to give a Firm Position on that right now. Host members have been getting an earful the past week. Is the white houses job easier now that members of congress are back in washington, d. C. , away from these town halls that weve seen so often on the news, where folks are expressing their concern about this strike . Does the white house believe that their job will become easier this week . I think that they probably hope it will become easier this week, and theres a lot of people who would see that it would become a little easier, and that now youll have house members and the white house can get to them right away. Right now the house membersing when she they come back, democrats in the house can be pulled into a room with nancy pelosi, and she could potentially lay pressure down on them to vote to support the president. So instead of these house members hearing from constituent after constituent after constituent and being back in their districts, theyre in washington and the pressure can get a little more intense from leadership. But make no mistake, theyre up against a real tough task here in trying to get this across. These lawmakers are all hearing multiple constituencies say going to syria, dont do a military strike, so its going to be very tough for the white house to turn this around. Ian swanson is the news editor the hill newspaper. Ian, before we lose you, talk about how much oneonone time the president is spending with individual members of congress. We heard that he dropped in on a meeting with republican senators and the Vice President yesterday. Is the president trying to get around to all members of congress on this . Guest i think theyre doing what they can, and there have been some mixed signals. It was very interesting to see the president drop in on the Vice President s residence to meet with about a half dozen republican senators yesterday. But weve also seen some lawmakers criticize obama for not reaching out to them. Representative adam, a republican from illinois, who supports the military action of syria, said he hadnt heard from the president or from the white house yet on sunday. I do think were going to see more and more lawmakers getting face time or getting phone calls from the president. But theres 535 members on the house and senate, so its a lot of people to get to. Host ian swanson of the hill, thanks so much for getting up with us this morning. Were hearing from you on email and twitter as well. On our twitter page, monte writes in, where are we putting all our eggs in the congress basket with Approval Ratings the lowest in our history . And an email from ed from williamstown, new jersey, this morning, how should they vote . Try no. How about following the voice of the people who elected them, not the p. A. C. s, special interest groups, and Defense MilitaryIndustrial Complex . Theres no documented proof that he used them, just undocumented youtubes. The release from the rebels, like they dont have an iron in that fire. He asks, it sounds like aluminum tubes in the u. N. All over again, the only thing missing is colin