Respond. San us an email and we will respond to those as well. Back here next sunday morning 11 oclock and 5 00 eastern with the latest buzz. Filling in for chris wallace. K ab fig president obama pushes his domestic agenda ahead of the tuesday state of the Union Address but threats abroad mount. The president draw as line in the sand over iran. We have a chance to resolve the nuclear issue. My message to congress at this point, hold your fire. Ron johnson and ben card an member of the Foreign Relations committee are here. The Supreme Court takes up samesex marriage. Right here. Right now the. We debate the issue with two leading advocates ted olson and
the dice overturn california ban on samesex marriage. And president of the Family Research council, tony perkins. Plus, mitt romney and jeb bush steal the 2016 spotlight. We weigh in on how two of the biggest g. O. P. Names could shake up the race for the white house all right now on fox news sunday. Hello from fox news in washington. President obama prepares to deliver his 7th state of the Union Address, the first before a republicanled congress. After hitting the campaign trail he reboots the domestic agenda for fighting cybercrime, help people go to college and give workers extended paid family leave. Last weeks attacks in france and the censure of congress in iran have cast a shadow often his domestic policy. Joining us to discuss islam and terror and the handling of the
issues from wisconsin is sent ron is senator ron johnson and sent ben cardin. Welcome, both gentleman. Mr. Chairman, i start with you. What is your take right now . Do you believe that there are lone wolves or sleeper cells here in the United States motivated by radical ideology that are either capable of or planning attacks on the homeland i am not aware of specific cells but when you see what is happening in europe and you see how widespread that is from france to belgium to germany you have to assume that is certainly a risk we do have to consider and we have to do everything we can to make sure our intelligence agencies are working in cooperation with other foreign intelligence agencies and our agencies here in america are also pulley communicating so we do not have the stovepipes that led to 9 11 a dozen years ago. A concern, senator cardin those who travel freely in and out of areas that host Training Camps for terrorists, what can we do about that . As we saw in france, we have to be very concerned about foreign fighters who hold western passports that have been to syria, who have fought with isil and are in europe and could travel to the United States without a visa. In some cases they are americans who we know have been associated with the extreme groups. It is important that our Intelligence Community concentrate on those who are the highest risk to the United States. We have to share that information between our European Partners and the United States so we know exactly where the individuals are and we can be on the highest alerts. Senator johnson your colleague mentioned syria of course, an issue of growing
concern. I will put up a map showing what appears to be a doubling of the territory controlled by isis since we began airstrikes with Coalition Forces in that area. We also have the complication of assad, still operating in that area, and there are many reports that his forces and those loyal to him are actually fighting against the forces that we are counting on to fight against isis. What does this administration need to do with syria . What we need to do is accomplish the goal that president obama stated degrade and defeat isis and the super the better. The problem is, we are not seeing the leadership out of president obama to accomplish that goal. We had a debate on authorization to produce military force but the command neither chief would not bring forward the authorization land he needed. We need define what he means by defeat, and define a strategy for accomplishing that goal and he has to come to Congress Asking for the authority to accomplish that strategy and
that goal. Senator cardin we know the against department is report there could be a thousand or more United States trainers that will head overseas to that region and they will be there to train Syrian Opposition forces and we have 2,000 personnel on the ground in iraq and we are told that number could go as high as 3,400 this year and all along the administration has said, no boots on the group a very specific language they have been using there and i want to play a little bit of what secretary of state john kerry said when he testified before you last december at the Foreign Relations committee in the senate. President has been Crystal Clear that his policy is that United States military forces will not be deployed to conduct Ground Combat operations against isil. A strategy troops in troops out, at what point do you think the president has an obligation to come to you for the authorization for use of
military force with isis . He should come to us for the use of force and i have been vocal about the fact that congress has a responsibility to clarify exactly what the president s authority is. I want to disagree with senator johnson on the president s strategy. I think the president is right this is a complicated situation in iraq. We think a stable government that includes moderate sunnies is important to cut off the support for isil. We are working on that. We have a greater ground capacity in iraq to deal with the growth of isil than we do in syria. In syria we are doing a Training Mission and we started that Training Mission, we are giving air support. I agree with the president , i dont want to see us involved in a protracted Ground Campaign where we saw an iraq in affect as far as the ultimate security of the country. It is important that the Ground Support be done by those in the countries themselves. Senator johnson i know you voted against in Committee Last year the discussion of the
authorization. What was wrong with it for you and what specifics do you need to see for the administration from them so you can move forward with this conversation . The authorization voted open was limited. I am not going to vote for an authorization to produce military force and put the finest among us at risk unless the commander in chief is fully committed to success of the goal. Do you not do that. Here is the problem as long as isis is not losing they are perceived as winning and if they are perceived as winning they are good at recruiting and using social media and they will continue to inspire the the attack we have seen in paris, ottawa sydney, ft. Hood texas it and is not going away. A key point of trying to protect america, to keep america safe and secure, we have to defeat isis. We cannot let them continue
threatening the rest of the world for years. Speaking of what inspires the groups the administration said Guantanamo Bay has been an inspiration for terror groups. Senator cardin, five more releases this week and these are men from yemen with all kinds of accusations against them. They are being released to areas that share a border with yemen and we are told the brothers in paris traveled to the area and got training in yemen and returned home. Is this the time right now, to be releasing detainees like the ones we saw released days ago . It may not be the time to release the detainees but it is past time to close Guantanamo Bay. The money can be put to pet are use protecting the security of our country, it is millions per inmate we are spending to main tin gitmo bay where we could, if
congress would permit we could transfer some to the United States. We know how to keep them safe from the public or we could bring them to justice or transfer them to other countries where they could handle it. But to continue with blow Guantanamo Bay it is something we want to move away from. On the use of force, the president is operating on the use of force of isil based on 2001 and 2000 authorizations from congress. Circumstances have changed since those days. It is critically important that congress exercise its responsibility and pass an authorization for the use of military force for the president. What i hear from folks on both sides they need to hear from the administration the specifics so well watch to see if that is coming in the days and weeks ahead as both sides are asking for it. I want to play this piece for
you to respond senator johnson. The prison at gitmo continues to inspire violent acts around the globe. It is not nasa we can avoid violence by keeping the prison open and keeping them locked up. Senator johnson senator cardin said we know how to handle them transferring to United States prisons. The congress has blocked the administration from doing that. So what do you do with these people . The people at Guantanamo Bay are evil people and they will many of them, will return to the battle. One of the first lines of defense, the most important things we have to do is have an effective intelligencegathering capability and a way to do that is capture the unlawful combatants and detable them detain them and interrogate them. That is how the develop the intelligence to try to foil future plots. The fact we will try and close
we guantanamo we dont have a place to put terrorists we capture to keep america safe this is no time to transfer the individuals that are high risk individuals. We have released literally hundreds of prisoners from guantanamo and the people are the worst of the worse and should not be released. Another area of contention between the hill and the white house are negotiations with iran over the nuclear program. We have heard something about this from both of you and you have both signed on to legislation that would enact tougher sanctions if the deal does not work out. The president said stay in your line and hailed fire saying that you are going to be responsible if things go south with this deal because of the provocation regarding sanctions. Here he is on friday. I have said we leave all options on the table. But congress should be aware if
this dippic solution this diplomatic solution fails the military solution would be heightened and congress will have to own that. Senator; that a Fair Assessment . There is no disagreement between the overwhelming majority in congress and the president that if iran does not agree to give up its Nuclear Weapons they are going to reimpose the relief they have received but there will be tougher sanctions imposed. We want to work with our Coalition Partners to make sure that the sappings are sanctions are enforced internationally. The only issue now is the timing. We hope negotiations go satisfactorily and iran will not become a income weapon state. But if they move in that direction we are going to pass tougher sanctions. The question is, when do we do it . That is the issue and the discussions taking place on capitol hill. Quickly a final word, the president said he will veto it. Can you overcome that . First of all i have no faith this administration and this president has the negotiating capacity, the ability to do a good deal with iran. The negotiations were lost from the get go when we lessened sanctions and we allowed iran to continue to enriched uranium contrary to all u. N. Resolutions. I do not see a good deal coming out out of this administration and a bad deal is worse than in deal. I think imposing additional sanctions is the only way to bring iran to the negotiating table in good faith. Senator johnson and cardin thank you both for joining us today. Next, does releasing detainees from what Guantanamo Bay make us safer . What would you like to ask the panel about gitmo . Go to our facebook or twitter and we could use your questions on the air. Okay, listen up im reworkin the menu. Mayo . Corn dogs . You are so outta here aah [ female announcer ] the complete balanced nutrition of greattasting ensure. 24 vitamins and Minerals Antioxidants and 9 grams of protein. [ bottle ] ensure®. Nutrition in charge™. In my world, wall isnt a street. Return on investment isnt the only return im looking forward to. For some every dollar is earned with sweat, sacrifice, courage. Which is why usaa is honored to help our members with everything from investing for retirement to saving for college. Our commitment to current and former military members and their families is without equal. Start investing with as little as fifty dollars. There was a unanimous recommendation from his National Security team that steps could be put in place to ensure when the individuals are transferred that we can significantly mitigate any threat they have to the u. S. Or our interest around the world. The only reason most of these people have not planned another 9 11 at Guantanamo Bay is because theyve been in jail. You let them out of jail, they are going to be on the ground planning another 9 11. White house spokesperson josh earnest and Lindsey Graham clashing over the potential
threat posed by prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. Time for our sunday group. Columnist george will and evan bayh. Kimberly strausen and political analyst ron williams. Welcome to all. And before we get into the discussion of Guantanamo Bay i want to show you polls to show how americans are feeling about this. Should it be open or closed. 56 say keep it open and 32 say close it. And when we talk about the president transferring out detainees the question of whether he is exceeding his authority, doing that 54 say yes and 37 say no. George, what does that say about the administration . They have an uphill climb and paris didnt help this. But the two arguments are, one, that it is expensive. Whatever it costs, it is rounding, nothing in terms of
the federal budget. And then the idea it is a recruiting tool for terrorists. As i recall, the uss cole was attacked before gitmo was opened. The World Trade Center was attacked twice before gitmo was opened. There is no empirical evidence or plausible assumption that says people are becoming terrorists because of gitmo. We asked viewers what they wanted to ask you, the panel about this and so this is what we got from social media. Two related questions on facebook. Kelly bailey wrote why on earth cant Congress Step in and put an end to the president overstepping his bounds. The American People do not trust washington, d. C. At all. Does anybody want to make a bet at the end of his presidency, he pardon every prisoner there. And on twitter is there any way to stop president from releasing these terrorists. And were going to have a group of gop senators introducing legislation attempting to block
gitmo. Will they get anywhere with it . They might get a majority. But will they break a filibuster is another question. The president will keep enough democrats in line to keep that or sustain a veto. But i tend to side with george the root causes of alienation that lead to terrorism in the middle east are economic, political and much deeper. Gitmo is a symbol and i dont think it will have much impact. It is hard to believe that isis or al qaeda or the recruits will lay off the americans simply because they are closing Guantanamo Bay they will just simply find another excuse. And we talked with senators johnson and cardin about the growing threat in syria and how that continues to bubble up as a player as folks are training there, traveling there and returning to their countries. Kimberly kimberly, how does that impact our conversation about missed opportunities for this administration in syria . It is remarkable that they
are doing this at the time they have. Remember the hist ory the president campaigned on this and Congress Said no and barred him from moving prisoners to the United States and trying them here. It has smoldered since then. Theyve now picked up the pace, at exactly this moment where we have this enormous question about all of these people using syria and afghanistan and iraq as a terrorist sanctuary. And we know from the director of National Intelligence that 30 and thats probably a lowball number of those weve released from gitmo, have gone back to violence. So there is no question about what is happening. And the idea were going to actively feed this group of people to go out and cause more mayhem is remarkable. An the administration tuckishu with the numbers this week. But as ed henry was appreciating josh earnest whether it is what the recidivism, it will cause another charlie hebdo. And is obama prepared to do whatever it takes to defeat islamic extremists, 38 say yes and 55 say no. I think he is losing the battle on this. I think the democrats are a momma party and the republicans are the daddy party and the republicans will get out there. Dick cheney and the like and take it to the terrorists. And that sentiment remains especially when you hear criticism to closing Guantanamo Bay. The Supreme Court has ruled this is an affront to american constitutional law. That you cant keep people for an uncontrolled amount of time without charging them with crimes without taking them