Sunday, September 15, 2013

Meet The Press – September 15, 2013


Guests:
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)
Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO)
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ)
Bob Woodward
Andrea Mitchell
Jeffrey Goldberg
Richard Wolffe
Robin Wright
Kathleen Parker
Ana Navarro
Barney Frank
Maria Bartiromo
Hank Paulson

Gregory: wow we may have a
deal on Syria – tell me why it's bad

Mitchell: Russia has ruled out
bombing its friend Syria

Gregory: is Syria backs out the
U.S. could still bomb

Mitchell: the UN is going to issue
a report and its going to make
Assad look really bad

Gregory: that's helpful

Mitchell: the U.S. And Russia are still
trying to destroy our own chemical weapons

Gregory: Assad has agreed to destroy
their chemical weapons – you have 
called this weakness

McCain: yes this is weakness because
someday it might not work and then
Obama would be weak

Gregory: how would a little bombing be helpful?

McCain: it would if it were a lot of bombing

Gregory: I see

McCain: also a different agreement
where Assad agreed to become a
Republican would be better

Gregory: I guess so

McCain: if this fails it will be an epic failure

Gregory: true

McCain: whatever happened to the
President's red line promising bombing?
I was promised bombs!

Gregory: but he's agreed to give up
his chemical weapons – how is that not progress?

McCain: because it might not work!

Gregory: so what would President McCain do?

McCain: give the wonderful Free
Syrian Army guns and rockets

Gregory: ok

McCain: until recently they had
not received a single gun

Gregory: what should the U.S. sacrifice 
to help the little rebels in Syria?

Mitchell: give the rebels anti-tank weapons

Gregory: do you trust the Free Syria Army?

Mitchell: yes – but we should have
gotten involved a year ago

Gregory: is this deal a winner or loser?

McCain: it's a loser because it
makes Russia look good

Gregory: you want to punish Assad

Menendez: yes but this may be better –
get a hold of all of Assad's stash of
chemical weapons and take them out of circulation

Gregory: not too bad

Menendez: but we must keep the threat of force up

Gregory: Roy you opposed military force in Syria

Blunt: yes but I was for establishing
a safe zone in Syria

Gregory: I see

Blunt: but then I found out it wasn't popular

Gregory: that makes sense

Blunt: so I opposed force because
not using force would leave Assad
weaker and support not threatening
force which has left him stronger

Gregory: did Obama win?

Blunt: a small attack wouldn't have worked

Gregory: oh

Blunt: Assad is stronger now than
he was two weeks ago

Gregory: Obama wanted Syria to get rid of
its chemical weapons and not get
involved in a civil war

Menendez: and he got it all – plus he sent
a message to Iran that he's a tough guy

Gregory: but it seems so limited

Menendez: Obama also said Assad 
must go – so stay tuned

Gregory: President McCain wants one
more big war before he dies

Menendez: I agree would should arm the rebels

Blunt: It will take years to recover
from the disaster of the last two weeks –
our allies will no longer trust us when we
say promise a war no one wants

Gregory: good point

Blunt: I hope this administration take a
very different approach to Iran and starts
an unpopular war without authorization

Gregory: right

Blunt: Assad caving to Obama and Putin
pleading with American not to bomb has
left American weak and helpless and we
will probably be invaded by Monaco

[ break ]

Gregory: Tom Friedman – should
America police the world?

Friedman: I have to admit this is a great deal
we avoid war, get chemical weapons and
laying the groundwork for peace in Syria

Gregory: wow

Friedman: the American people like bombing
other people but would like to know there
are little junior christian Americans in the
middle east not a bunch of islamists

Gregory: is this a victory for Assad?

Goldberg: yes but it's a victory for us too –
we're partnering with Assad to get chemical weapons

Gregory: amazing

Goldberg: the problem is not chemical weapons
it's a dictators with weird mustaches

Wright: we need a grand design to remake
the middle east to write their Constitutions

Gregory: you think that's a good idea?

Wright: we need something big to deal
with Egypt and Syria and the Middle East

Mitchell: we have empowered Vlad Putin!

Gregory: oh noe!

Mitchell: Putin has all the cards!

Wright: does the world view us as weak??

Goldberg: all the American allies in the
region are all confused about whether
Obama has their back

Gregory: I see

Goldberg: Obama has got reassure the
dictatorship in Saudi Arabia!

Friedman: why is it the job of the U.S. to
remake the middle east and probably
only help a bunch of jihadists?

Wright: there is no valuable players there anywhere

Mitchell: Kerry is trying to reassure
the Saudis right now

Gregory: oh good

Mitchell: the world is looking to America for leadership!

Gregory: what's next for U.S. missteps
in the middle east?

Goldberg: everyone is terrified that because
Obama didn't declare war on Syria
Iran will build a nuclear bomb

Wright: Putin is going to Iran soon to
maybe strike a deal with them too

Mitchell: see what I mean –
peace and diplomacy is breaking out all over

Goldberg: what a disaster

Gregory: this is not going to be good for ratings

[ break ]

Gregory: Let's ignore substance and
talk about “pure politics”

Parker: our terrible Presidents are either
aggressive idiots or an “over thinker”

Gregory: so true

Parker: it's painful to watch Obama think out loud
we're paying the price for that now

Gregory: but it's working

Parker: well we may have to
re-think our criticism

Wolffe: there has been a pattern with
this President – remember he ran terrible
campaign while being elected President twice

Gregory: McCain says he's weak

Woodward: Karl Rove says look at outcomes

Gregory: I love him

Woodward: Obama used judo and got a good result by accident

Navarro: Obama was a Commander in Confusion!

Gregory: I love it

Navarro: we've seen Obama vacillating – it's terrible

Gregory: right-minded

Navarro: Obama's friends tell me Obama
is a bunch of Keystone Cops with no strategy
or vision or competence

Gregory: well how you would you
geniuses solve this problem?

Parker: if I were President of the United States
I would attack Obama

Gregory: right

Parker: also Obama elevated Assad –
Assad is making demands on us

Navarro: we should have armed 
the rebels for two years

Woodward: Obama never does strategic thinking

Gregory: I love it!

Woodward: but to be to say Assad
is making demands on us is ridiculous

Navarro: but Obama said force is off the table

Woodward: that's a lie

Gregory: yeah I'd love it but that's not true

Wolffe: saying arming the rebels is
very easy but we tried that in Afghanistan
and it was a disaster

Navarro: Obama said any further
use of force requires UN approval

Woodward: that's another lie you've told

Gregory: let's talk about the financial crisis

Woodward: we almost had a Great Depression
it was a big deal

Gregory: true

Woodward: now Republicans want to
shut down the government

Navarro: Democrats want to shut
down the government too

Wood: that's yet another lie

Navarro: I aim to please

Gregory: thanks for coming

[ break ]

Gregory: talk debt ceiling to me

Todd: the majority of people want
us to default on U.S. debts

Gregory: what about Larry Summers at the Fed?

Todd: Obama would like Geithner
but he refused the job

Gregory: Benghazi!!

Todd: there will be three more hearings
on Benghazi next week

Gregory: I love it

Gregory: is the economy better off 
than it was in 2008?

Paulson: of course it is you dimwit

Gregory: really

Paulson: we were hemorraging jobs
and now we're growing

Paulson: could it happen again?

Frank: the same thing isn't going to happen again

Paulson: what about too big too fail?

Frank: we have big institutions but the
federal government is not going to bail you out again

Gregory: Wall Street complains they
are not being allowed to lend enough

Bartiromo: we need to get beyond 
on how evil Wall Street is

Gregory: we all know they are

Bartiromo: exactly – now we have to convince
them to lend out the trillions they are sitting on

Paulson: that's right

Gregory: why is growth so slow

Paulson: we need to cut taxes

Frank: we're doing better than Europe

Gregory: that's good to know

Frank: if the banks are in such big trouble
they can't lend out any money then why
are they paying themselves so much money

Bartiromo: [ laughs ]

Paulson: we bailed out Wall Street as a
big favor to the average American

Gregory: the ingratitude is shocking

Paulson: there will be more crises in the future
- we don't know where it will come from

Gregory: that's good to know

Frank: we made money bailing out Wall Street banks

Gregory: problem solved – and that's
another episode of Meet The Press



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