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congressman southerland. this was all done on the anniversary of lyndon johnson's declaration for war on poverty. what do you think of this idea of the promise zones across the country, the first five of which were unveiled on thursday? >> the president, i believe this is the program he made reference to in his state of the union a year ago. so there doesn't seem to be much of an urgency here since it's 13 months after he first mention e it. the devil is in the details. there wasn't a lot of details that came out. as you know, president reagan had the enterprise zones. if it's patterned after that, that encouraged school choice. i do believe tax incentives to move the economy forward. and so we're going to be patient. we're going to look at what the president is offering and but again, the devil is in the details. >> congressman van holland, i think many people were appreciative of the idea of the promise zones. ted cruz came out and said all of america needs to be a promise zone with reduced barriers to small businesses creating private sector jobs. do you agree or disagree with the premise that the best way out of poverty is to have a job and the best way to create jobs
tweeted, quote, the issues in iraq are threatening to undo all that our men and women in uniform have fought for as al qaeda is resurgent, taking over fallujah and ramadi again. who's to blame here, senator inhoff? >> well, i'm not going to say who's to blame now. i'd rather look at how can we correct it? we tried very hard back when president obama pulled out to get him to leave such things as surveillance, intelligence, logistics, training. that's the type of thing that we can do. we've trained them already over that period of time. in oklahoma in my 45th, we're very much involved in that. so they're great warriors, but you can't just leave them and not have the intelligence and the logistics there with them. so that's what we're encouraging them to do now. if you look at anbar province,
but i think it's unfortunate we now see it in the book, it looks like in an effort to make the book more popular on the newsstands. >> senator inhoff, you said late last week you were not a fan of robert gates but you're becoming one now. >> that's right. first of all, to me the most revealing thing was the exchange that hillary clinton and obama had when they each one admitted to the other one that during the surge in iraq, both of them had their decisions made through a political -- for political motivation. i think that was really revealing. to me, that draws a distinction. because, you know, bob gates was also in that position under a republican. >> do you think, senator, that su hurts her chances if she decides to seek the presidency in 2016? >> yeah, i do. i do. i think for her to say that she -- of course, she may deny it. i haven't heard any response from her. the fact i haven't heard anything from her leads me to
believe she probably won't. but to be politically motivated to make those very significant decisions i think is going to be very damaging to her. >> senator cardin, do you agree? >> no. this is the type of talk -- after the fact president obama was opposed to us entering the war in iraq as i was opposed to it. secretary clinton as a senator voted for that. i think they were talking about the primary elections where issues get talked about but i don't think anyone questions the sincerity of secretary clinton. in fact, secretary gates was extremely complimentary of the role that secretary clinton played as secretary of state. >> senator en. >> dan: inhoff -- >> ben is right. that was during the primary and the primary at that time looked like it was going to be between obama and hillary. and both of them agreed they made that as political decisions.
i think it's going to come back and hurt her. >> senator inhoff, bob gates also said that vice president joe biden has been wrong on every foreign policy issue for the last four decades. you served with him in the u.s. senate as a colleague for a number of years. do you think that bob gates is correct on that point? >> well, you know, he's a real gracious person. i had a long conversation with the vice president the other day when i had a loss in my family. we talked for over an hour. now, i have debated him in years past on foreign -- on issues where i have disagreed with him. and so i don't say -- i can't say that he's been wrong on everything. but i've disagreed with him on most things. >> right. and senator cardin, it's certainly not unusual, not unprecedented for former administration officials, former administration official to write scathing tell-all books while the administration still holds office. but in this case bob gates, did you argue at all with the timing of the release of this book? >> well, i do.
believe in his own policy, the surge in afghanistan, you can see it by his decisions. his decisions to send the troops there on a slow schedule and bring them back literally in the middle of the fighting season in order to have an impact on the 2012 election. he wanted to be able to say i'm bringing our boys home even in the middle of the fighting season in 2012. what's interesting to me is that some gates' insiders have told me this book was essentially ready before the 2012 election. and gates made a deliberate decision to delay its publication until well after the incendiary charges intrude into the election. t i think that's a statement about his character.e but it also says something about president obama that he -- once having made this courageous decision to send additional troops to afghanistan, did not follow through in a way that yoa would have anticipated. but instead used their presence in the country for political purpose by bringing them home prematurely. >> how do you think the president comes off? are there enough contradictions in this book that he comes out pretty well?f?
well-known organizer of terrorist activity. >> sure. we have to go, gentlemen. thanks so much for joining us. >> i think that's going to go down as -- thank you. >> all right. thank you. the talk of the town in washington this week certainly are the revelations in former defense secretary robert gates' new memoir. a day after the public got a preview of his bashing of joe biden, we also got a photo op of the president and vice president at their weekly lunch. the white house granted the press rare access to the normally private affair. sunday panel returns for a look at the white house on defense next.
>> first of all, steve is ignoring the other part of the proposal. their proposal cuts $40 billion out of food and nutrition programs on top of the cuts in november. more than half the households there are working households with kids or households with seniors who are not expected to work. and so you're actually sending a very bad message about work when you're actually cutting food support for families that are working. which goes to the category -- >> the proposal is getting beaten rather severely. he's saying able-bodied people. >> there's one that says you have to have training programs. which is fine except for the proposal also cuts resources for training programs in the states. at the same time, you have three people, three people looking for every one job in this country. >> quick response? >> first of all, chris is pretty good with numbers. okay? as a numbers guy. there are a couple numbers that i think are glaring. since this president took office, 6.7 million americans have entered into poverty.
that president obama made on afghanistan. i believe obama was right in each of these decisions. he also said, i believe the president cared deeply about the troops and their families. i never doubted obama's support for the troops. and i think that's a sentiment that we all recognize to be true. >> the white house press secretary jay carney doing his best to highlight the positive in the bomb shell tell-all book from former defense secretary robert gates. and we're back again with the panel. gates did say i never doubted obama's support for the troops, only his support for their mission. bob, you wrote a detailed lengthy argue about the book earlier this week. your thoughts? >> he really goes after obama in a very direct way. but there's the other side and he's trying to have it both ways. he says nice things about the president. the question really is did the president do a good job in developing his strategy for afghanistan? and i wrote a book on it and spent a couple years looking at the my -- minutia of it and the meetings and notes and
facts are going to turn this into an issue. >> juan? >> e don't think it's the democrats who have the ultimate say here. i think it's republicans. i think it's the republican primaries that are going to come up and in those republican primaries you're going to see a lot of tea party kind of grass roots people who don't like chris christie, don't like the fact that he expanded medicaid in new jersey, don't like his attitude in welcoming immigrants and in state tuition, and really don't like the fact he embraced president obama for the help the president gave after hurricane sandy. that element of the party doubts chris christie's conservative credentials. i think in the battle between establishment republicans and grass roots republicans, you have a major fight. and chris christie has opened the door to his conservative critics. you said he's the leading republican right now in the polls for 2016. well, he's got to get through those republican primaries, john. right now it looks like there's a blockage on the long bridge to 2016 for chris christie. >> bob, i know you'd be champing