Transcripts For MSNBCW The Last Word With Lawrence ODonnell

MSNBCW The Last Word With Lawrence ODonnell February 5, 2016

Done by muslim troops with our support. We must not get involved in perpetual warfare in the middle east. Can you address the question on afghanistan. You cant simply with draw tomorrow and allow the taliban or anyone else to reclaim that country, but what we must do and what we have seen in recent months is some progress in iraq. The iraqi army which has not been a par quickly fighting force retook that may be our training and their fighting capabilities are improving and we are going to make some progress in destroying isis. We have more american troops in afghanistan right now than what we were talking about with iraq. Absolutely. The president decided to leave more troops than he originally planned in afghanistan. We have a cooperative government there with the top partner. They are doing their very best and the afghan army is fighting and theyre taking heavy losses to defend afghan territory. I would have to make an evaluation based on the circumstances at the time i took office as to how much help they continue to need because its not just the taliban. We are now seeing outposts of fighters claiming to be affiliated with isis. So we have this instability and we have to pay close to it and we have to build coalitions, something that i did to take on the Iran Nuclear Program and what i will do as president to make sure we defeat these terrorist networks. Nobody knows who your Foreign Policy advise orz are and it doesnt sound like all the time that Foreign Policy is a priority. You have not proactively laid out a Foreign Policy doctrine yet. Why . Thats not quite accurate. I gave a speech where i talked about democratic socialism and Foreign Policy. Maybe i shouldnt have combined the two in the same speech because the Foreign Policy part didnt get much attention. So let me take this opportunity to give you a short speech here on the issue. I think while it is true that secretary and i voted differently on the war in iraq, what is important that we learn a lesson of the war in iraq and that lesson is intringsic to my Foreign Policy is the United States cannot do it alone. We cannot be the policemen of the war. We are spending more on defense. We have to work in Strong Coalition with the major powers of the world and with those muslim countries that are prepared to stand up and take on terrorism. So i would say that the key doctrine of the Sanders Administration would be no, we cannot continue do it alone, we need to work in coalition. If i could just add 30 seconds, please. A group of National Security experts, military Intelligence Experts issued a very concerning statement about senator sanders views on Foreign Policy and National Security pointing out some of the comments he has made on these issues such as inviting iranian troops into syria to try to resolve the conflict there putting them right on the doorstep of israel asking them to Work Together when they cant stand each other. So i think questions have been raised and questions have to be answered because when New Hampshire voters go on tuesday to cast your vote you are voting for a president and commander chief and theres no way to predict what comes in the door of that white house from day to day that can pose a threat to the United States and i think this is a big part of the Job Interview that we are all conducting with the voters here. All right. Senator, 30 seconds. I fully, fully concede that secretary clinton who was secretary of state for four years has more experience. That is not arguable in foreign affairs, but experience is not the only point. Judgment is. And once again, back in 2002 when we both looked at the same evidence about the wisdom of the war in iraq, one of us voted the right way and one of us didnt. In terms of iran and in terms of saudi arabia, of course they hate each other. Thats not great secret, but john kerry was doing a very good job has tried to at least get these people in the room together because both of them are being threatened by isis. Let me add that ive said this before and im proud of it that when it comes to judgment having run a hard race against senator obama at the time, he turned to me to be secretary of state. When it comes to the biggest Counter Terrorism issued we faced in this administration, namely whether or not to go after bin laden, i was at that table, i was exercising my judgment to advise the president on what to do, on that, iran, russia and china. Because i know from my own experience that you have to be ready on day one. There is just too much unpredictable threat and danger in the world today to try to just say ill get to that when i can. That is just not an acceptable approach. Secretary clinton, at the last democratic debate senator sanders called for moving as aggressively as we can to normal lies relations with iran. Your campaign has criticized him for saying that. Now that hes standing next to you can you explain why u. S. Shouldnt try to normal lies relations in iran in your view. Absolutely i started the negotiations that led to the Nuclear Agreement sending some much my closest aids to begin the conversations with the iranians. Im very pleased we got that Nuclear Agreement. It puts a lid on the Nuclear Weapons program. We have to enforce it. There have to be consequences attached to it. But that is not our only problem with iran. We have to figure out how to deal with iran as the principal state sponsor of terrorism in the world. They are destabilizing governments in the region. They continue to support him in lebanon against israel. A lot of work that we have do is going to be incredibly hard. Im prepared to do that work, but i believe just as i did with imposing the sanctions you have to get action for action. If we were to normal lies relations right now, we would remove one of the biggest pieces of leverage we have to try to influence and change iranian behavior. The president doesnt think we should. I certainly dont think we should. I believe we have to take this step by step to try to reign in iranian aggression and bad behavior that can come back and haunt us. Who said i think we should normalize relations with iran tomorrow . I never said that. They are a sponsor of terrorism around the world and we have to address that, but you know a number of years ago people were saying normal relationship with cuba, what a bad and silly idea. Theyre communist. Change has come. So please dont suggest that i think we normalize relations with tehran tomorrow. We dont. I would like to see us move forward and hopefully some day that will happen. You can correct me if im wrong, when you ran against senator obama you thought him naive because he thought it was a good idea to talk to our enemies. I think those are the people you have to talk to and you have to negotiate with. Senator, let me correct the record if i can. Let me correct the record. 30 seconds, madam secretary. As i certainly recall the question was to meet with without conditions and youre right i was against that. I was against it then, i would be against it now. Okay. Part of dip lomsy is trying to extract whatever concessions you can get in giving something the other side wants. Of course you have to try to make peace with and work with these who are your add ver sirry. Thats not the way it works. I think president obama had the right idea and the bottom line is that of course there have to be conditions, but of course it doesnt do us any good to not talk with our we accept the conditions on iran, we worked hard to get them established and enforced and it worked. Thats what i did with the president. He and i were on the very same page. Just to set the record straight, i very strongly supported the agreement which makes certain that iran does not get a nuclear weapon. As commander in chief, senator sanders, you have to prioritize potential threats to the United States. North korea, iran and russia how would you rank them with the biggest threat. Im talking about these three countries, how would you orient our National Security National Defense . Clearly north korea is a strange situation because it is such an isolated country run by a handful of dictators or maybe just one who seems to be somewhat paranoid and who has Nuclear Weapons. And our goal there in my view is to work and lean strongly on china to put as much pressure. China is one of the few major countries in the world that has significant support for north korea and i think we have to do everything we can to put pressure on china. So i worry very much about an isolated paranoid country with atomic bombs. I think clearly we have got to work closely with china to reserve the Serious Problems we have and i worry about putin and his military adventurism. Secretary Defense Ash Carter this week picked one of those three and he has said russia was the most important National Security threat. Do you agree with his decision . No, i dont. I worry very, very much about an isolated country. Thats what makes me nervous. Russia lives in the world. China lives in the are world. North korea is a strange country because it is isolated and i do feel a nation with Nuclear Weapons they have got to be dealt with and dealt with effectively. Secretary clinton, what do you think of secretary of Defense Ash Carter, hes putting russia above iran and north korea as the chief National Security challenge right now. I havent talked to secretary carter, but heres what i think hes planning. We do have the Nuclear Weapons agreement with iran. Thats an enforcement consequence, action for action follow on. We have a plan, we will watch them, we will be vigilanvigilan. We do have to worry about north korea. They continue to develop their Nuclear Weapons capability and theyre working on their ballistic capability. I know some of those plans could lead to a missile that could reach hawaii if not the west coast. We have to try to get the countries in the region to work with us to do everything we can to confine and con strain them, but what secretary carter is looking at is the constant pressure that russias putting on our european allies. The way that russia is trying to move the boundaries of the post World War Two europe, the way that he is trying to set European Countries against one another, seizing territory, beginning to explore whether they could make some inroads in the bal ticks. We know they are deeply engaged in supporting assad because they want to have a place in the middle east. They have a naval base. They have an air base in syria. They want to hang on to that. And i think what secretary carter is seeing, and im glad he is, is that we have to get nato back working for the common again defense. We have to do more to support our partners in nato and we have to send a clear message to putin that this kind of testing of boundaries will have to be responded had to and the west way to do that is to put for armor in and put more money from the europeans can so theyre contributing more to their own defense. Thank you. I want to ask you about a National Security issue that is closer to home. There are houses of veterans living in the state of New Hampshire. Either one of is nominated as the democratic partys nominee you will face a republican opponent who wants to abol issue big parts of the va. Its a new idea in politics. How will you win the argument on that issue given the problems in the va in the last years . Whats your argument that the va should exist. First of all, im against privatizing the va and im going do everything i can to build on the reforms that senator sanders and others in congress have passed to try to fix whats wrong with the va. Theres a lot of issues about the wait times and services that have to be fixed because our veterans deserve nothing but the best, but youre absolutely right, rachel, this is another part of the agenda. Theyve formed an organization to try to convince americans we should no longer have guaranteed health care, specialized care for our veterans. I will fight that as hard as i can. I think theres where we can enlist the Veterans Service organizations, the veterans of america, because, yes, lets fix the va, but we will never let it be privatized and that is a promise. Senator sanders, you as congress al ledder is the right contour of the fight . As the secretary knows i have the privilege and the honor of chairing the committee on Veterans Affairs and its interesting to me republicans give a lot of speeches about how much they love veterans. I work with the American Legion and virtually every Veterans Organization to put together the most comprehensi hence ifr piece veterans legislation. I brought it to the floor of the senate. Every democrat voted for it, i got two republicans. We ended up with 56 votes and i couldnt get the 60 votes that i needed. That is pathic. This was legislation supported by all of the Veterans Organizations addressing many of the Serious Problems that the veterans face in health care and how we deliver benefits to them. So republicans talk a good game about veterans, but when it came to put money on the line to protect our veterans frankly they were not there. What i did next, rachel, is i had to retreat a little bit and compromise. I did work with john mccain. I did work with jeff miller over in the house and we put together not the bill i wanted, but probably the most comprehensive Va Health Care bill in this country. Secretary clinton is absolutely right, there are people who have a group called concerned veterans of america. The brothers want to destroy social security, medicare, medicaid, every Governmental Program passed since the 1930s. There are people out there who want to privatize it. I had a hearing. I had all of the veterans groups in front of me and i said tell me when a veteran gets in the va, understanding there are waiting lines and problems, is the quality of care good without exception what they said good, excellent, very good. Very to strengthen the va. We do not privatize the va. We are back. Were going do get into a little bit of election politics. The Iowa Democratic party has declared Hillary Clinton the winner. Today the Des Moines Register has an editorial calling for the audit of the results saying what happened at the Democratic Caucus was a debag kel. Senator sanders, do you accept the idea that Hillary Clinton won iowa or do you believe the caucuses are still an open question . I agree with the Des Moines Register, but lets not blow this out of pore portion. This is not a winner take all thing. I think where we stand you have 22 delegates, i have 20 delegates. We need 2,500 delegates to win the nomination. This is not the biggest deal in the world. We think, by the way, based on talking to our precinct captains, we have at least two more delegates. What the Des Moines Register said there were half a dozen coin flips, a fairly chaotic type situation. At the end of the day it will break roughly even. I love and respect the caucus process in iowa. I dont have to say it because they voted already. I love New Hampshire too because you havent voted, but i think people are blowing this up, but i think we need improvements in the process by way results are determined. Secretary clinton, will you participate in some sort of audit if thats what the party wants to do . Whatever they decide to do, thats fine. Thats fair enough. Good we move on. Were happy with that. Senator sanders, in 1964. Oh word. See, when you are old, then they go back all these years. In 1964 i heard that the republicans nominated Barry Goldwater who was far to the right of most that party in 1972 the democrats nominated george mcgovern, but he was to the left of his partys main stream. Both of those parties made activists excited and they got destroyed in the general election. Even democrats who love you worry about your fate in a general election and i know you have good headtohead polling numbers against republican frontrunners right now. We know that, but do you have a general Election Strategy that is different than the way youre running right now to get the nomination . General election is different than a primary and caucus process. But let me say in terms of where we are right now as you mentioned in a number of national and state, including New Hampshire, for example the last poll i saw there may have been a new one, the last one i saw here in New Hampshire had me defeating trump by 19, the secretary defeating him by one. There were large margins in iowa and wisconsin. Heres where i think i will be if nominated the candidate. Democrats win

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