we leave you with this very sad note. we learned over the weekend that our good friend, professor ajami had passed away from cancer. he was a brilliant scholar that always educated us. he was passionate with very strong views on so many issues, including the obama administration and syria. >> had they come to the rescue, we would not be here. >> on egypt. >> very interesting this idea that somehow the military could pull off a coup and it would not be a coup, it would be a path to

democracy. it's really kind of idle to think this way. >> on what he called the arab pain. >> well, you know, you've asked the right question, but when you have young people underemployed, unemployed, angry, with the feeling of disinheritance and when you have a culture that winks at these kinds of things, when you have the rule of the unreason, if you will, i think these things are perfectly predictable. that is where the muslim world finds itself today. >> and even on herman cain. >> the idea that someone is running for president and is so unprepared. >> he always had a sharp, sharp wit as well. i was fortunate enough to have studied with the professor at the johns hopkins university school of advanced international studies. i learned a great deal about the middle east from him. i will always be proud of that, just as i was always proud to say the words when he joined us that i always would say, so glad, professor, you are in the situation room today. a native of lebanon who came to

the united states as a young man, he was only 68 years old. our deepest condolences to his wife and family. remember, you can always follow us on twitter. tweet me @wolfblitzer. tweet the show @cnnsitroom. you can always watch us live or dvr the show so you won't miss a moment. that's it for me. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." now let's step into the crossfire with van jones. >> hey, wolf, it's a very special night. we have all four of the co-hosts tonight and we've got a lot to talk about, including a prominent republican who's finally making some actual sense. the debate will start right now. >> tonight on "crossfire," do voters care how much our political leaders are worth? >> don't hold against me that i don't own a single stock or bond. >> biden plays poor as hillary clinton's wealth keeps causing her problems. and america's role in iraq divides the republican party.

>> i'm not willing to send my son into that mess. >> on the left, van jones and stephanie cutter. on the right, newt gingrich and s.e. cupp. are americans really turning into soccer fans? plus the outrages of the day. tonight on "crossfire." welcome to a very special edition of "crossfire." i'm van jones jiend by stephanie cutter. on the right we have both newt gingrich and s.e. cupp. so a big mohooray for us and a bigger one for rand paul. this guy is talking common sense, especially about iraq. listen to this. >> am i willing to send my son to retake back a city, mosul that, they weren't willing to defend themselves? i'm not willing to send my son into that mess. >> well, hallelujah.

rand paul says he wouldn't send his kids to die in iraq. i've got two boys, neither would i-probably neither would you. rand paul is blaming also dick cheney for this whole mess. so do i. and back here at home, rand paul says he wants to build a stronger american democracy right here by, among other things, restoring voting rights for some former prisoners. now, i love this. you stop trying to fix every other country and get more americans a real stake in this country. i am loving this guy. so to you, newt, what is wrong with what he's saying? >> first of all, i'm just sitting here thinking about the van jones commercial in iowa endorsing rand paul and the republican caucus. tonight rand paul is going to go home and think, finally, i've made a real breakthrough. >> he's thrilled to have your endorsement and somebody else is fund-raising off of it. >> and in fact i think rand paul would say at one level he'd love to have your help because i think he is in a sincere way trying to broaden the party.

but both rand paul and you are half right. that is i don't think we should be sending americans back to try to retake mosul. but i do think the president today inadvertently said something that puts this in a different context that all of us need to think about. just take a look at what he said on cnn this morning. >> part of the task now is to see whether iraqi leaders are prepared to rise above sectarian motivations, come together, compromise. if they can't, there's not going to be a military solution to this problem. >> and here's the challenge, and there's a tremendous new book coming out called "a million steps" which is about the marine battalion which took the most casualties in afghanistan. and the point west, who was in vietnam, says when you're up against an enemy like isis, the fact is if you don't kill them, you're not going to win their hearts, they're not going to compromise. i just checked this afternoon. isis actually issues an annual

report to their donors. think about this. >> they're very well organized, absolutely. there are lessons there for everybody. but i think the point the president was making is if the iraqi people don't want to fight for their country, there's nothing that the u.s. military can do. it doesn't mean that you don't kill isis or push them back, but the iraqi people have to be part of that. and to do that, you need a functioning, unified government. otherwise why would we be -- >> if there's nothing the military can do, why are we sending 300 advisers in? >> to help the iraqis fight for themselves. >> as it always the case with president obama, you can't be half pregnant. we either need to take this threat incredibly seriously and get some special forces on the ground to guide air strikes, get intelligence, regain the chemical weapons facilities isis has taken, the oil refineries that they have taken, or we need to stay the heck out. the president doesn't know what he wants and he's got a base back at home he's trying to please, people abroad he's trying to please and we're going

to get nothing out of this. >> well, i know you don't find it surprising that i disagree with you. but i think that there isn't a general out there that disagrees with the general. that unless you're going to get the people in iraq to fight for themselves, there's nothing the u.s. military can do to keep that country intact. >> listen, here's the problem, and it's not going to make either of you happy. we may be up against enemies in nigeria, in iraq, in syria, in afghanistan who both hate is, are pretty well organized, are increasingly capable of doing things, and may turn out that the people who are allies are incompetent, dishonest, corrupt, weak. if we're not going to send troops in, i think given the current american mood, it would be impossible to sustain sending troops in. we had better figure out a radically different strategy. this is not a partisan comment about obama. neither the bush nor the obama administrations have had a strategy capable of surviving reality. >> well, first of all, let me just say a couple things. i agree with you that we need a

new strategy. the problem we have right now, if we're going to be honest and put aside the partisan stuff. humpty dumpty got broken. it is impossible to put this back together. and we are now going to have to manage the mess over there or we're going to have to take a bigger step back. the republicans are consistently demagoguing and preventing the kind of rational discourse you're talking about. i think both sides need to come down and come up with a new strategy. >> the democrats won't stop talking about bush. let's talk about what's happening now. >> happy to learn from president obama's mistakes but i'll ask you this. bush ran in there with a plan to win the war, no plan to win the peace. >> he didn't have a plan to win the war. >> well, i'm being generous with these guys. how much money since you're probably the most hawkish person at this table, how much money are you willing to spend and whose taxes are you willing to raise to pay for it. when you go into your whole boys and toys and people on ground, how much money are you willing to spend to fix this mess that

bush created? >> that's a good question and a good point. how much money were we willing to spend when we sent boots on the ground in libya, in uganda in, mali, in chad, to help assuage the nigerian -- you're exactly right, it's a much bigger problem. i'd like to break it to everyone at this table, we will have troops on the ground in iraq, mark my words. mark my words. and it's a shame that the president has tied his hands. >> i think you will be right and i think they'll fail. nobody is going -- there may be other ways to solve it. troops on the ground are not going to defeat isis. they may protect baghdad, they may push them back a little bit. you look at the scale of what knees guys now control and how much money they now have, this is a really big problem. >> it is, it is, i'm sure we'll keep talking about this. all right, next, the self-proclaimed poorest member of the senate takes aim at hillary clinton. not that he's in the senate

anymore nor exactly poor, which brings us to today's crossfire quiz. how much does the vice president make? doesst $95,000 a year, $174,000 a year or $231,000 a year? we'll have the answer when we get back. ♪

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your auto and home insurance. call liberty mutual insurance at... to speak with an insurance expert and ask about all the personalized savings available for when you get married, move into a new house, or add a car to your policy. personalized coverage and savings -- all the things humans need to make our world a little less imperfect. call... and ask about all the ways you could save. liberty mutual insurance -- responsibility. what's your policy? welcome back to "crossfire." all four of us are here tonight, gang's all here. it was an interesting day at the summit for working families. vice president joe biden took the curiously timed opportunity to discuss his own working

family's financial situation. take a listen. >> don't hold it against me that i don't own a single stock or bond. don't hold it -- i have no savings account. but i've got a great pension and i've got a good salary. sometimes we talk about this stuff about struggle. my struggle, my god, compared to where i grew up and the way people are trying to go through things now, but here's the point i want to make. i've been really, really fortunate. >> this comes just two weeks after hillary clinton's interview with diane sawyer in which she lamented being dead broke after leaving the white house and needing money for houses. it comes just two days after she said this in "the guardian." but they don't see me as part of the problem because we pay ordinary income tax, unlike a lot of people who are truly well off, not to name names, and we've done it through the dint of hard work. now hillary could learn a thing or two from joe biden when it comes to relating to actual working families, which brings us to the answer of today's

"crossfire" quiz. vice president joe biden makes just under $231,000 a year and he gets a free house. stephanie, to me it seems like for hillary clinton this is obvious stuff. this is campaigning 101. and while it might be early in her presidential campaign, if there's to be one, it feels a little late in life to be learning just now how to be relatable. is this something she can deal with? >> s.e., i don't think that she is coming late in life in learning how to be relatable. she's been -- you know, like i understand what this debate is. we just went through a very similar debate in the 2012 presidential election where mitt romney was unrelatable. not because of what he said, it's really because of what he fought for as a governor but also in the private sector. and not just that he was wealthy, but what he did with that money. swiss bank accounts, paid less taxes than the middle class.

>> philanthropy. >> philanthropy, absolutely. he gave a lot of money -- he gave a lot of his money away, but he also -- i think what matters most to people is that he didn't fight for opening up the doors of opportunity so that other people could do just as well. with the minimum wage, college opportunity. i lived in massachusetts when he was governor and taxes went up for the middle class. i'm saying that ep poo people a smarter than just watching those talking points. even in the cnn poll just last week, 59% of people polled by cnn think that she would do a good job by the middle class. you know why? she's been doing it her entire life. >> but i feel badly because i actually like her a lot. but i think she's blowing it. and i think she's actually 'em boldening -- if i were elizabeth warren or schweitzer, i would be sharpening my pencils and getting ready to go because i think she comes across badly.

i wuronder, and you've been in public life and you know it's tough, i wonder if she tries to come back if there's not a sense of agrievement that creeps into her comments. >> i think people misunderstand hillary. >> here we go. >> you have to put in context her experience, her life experience. she and bill go off to the hamptons. they stay at mansions that are -- that make their houses look like starter homes. they are with people that are worth billions. they get on private planes to go anywhere in the world they want to. and they're surrounded by billionaires. so if your comparison in life is a billionaire, hillary is -- >> you know what your comparison is? that these people -- full disclosure, i worked for bill clinton for eight years, i saw it up close. minimum wage, health care reform, family medical leave act, college opportunity, all of the things that we could possibly do so that everybody has opportunity to be one of those billionaires that you

mentioned in the hamptons. and that's what matters in public life. >> so hillary is going to campaign on vote for me and i'll help you become a billionaire. >> hillary will campaign on look what i've done with my life. i've opened up those doors of opportunity for average americans. >> look, she's one of the smartest people in the world and one of the most accomplished people in the world. but i think that this comes down to -- when you get hurt in public life, we've all been there. you get hurt in public life, you've got to figure out how you're going to come back. bill clinton gets hurt and he comes back almost like a hallelujah anyway type of a kind. it happened but i'm going to focus on my blessings. with hillary clinton she still feels victimized. >> she has been -- >> dr. van. >> dr. van. she has been first lady of the united states for eight years. >> sure. >> wait a second. >> so has bill clinton. >> she has senator from new york. she has been the secretary of state for four years. >> these are all great things.

>> you guys roughed her up pretty badly. >> in fact a number of democrats have discussed recently in a "washington post" article that they are a little nervous about how hillary is coming off. the real question here that i have for this esteemed table is what is joe biden doing? because it feels like a "veep" episode. i feel like he's giving hill oar sort of a tutorial in how to talk about this kind of stuff. >> you'd think he would deliberately sort of punch her? >> oh new york ci, no. >> anybody that's been around the vice president. newt? >> i knew him as a senator. >> what he said today was nothing new for joe biden. he talks about his life story all the time because he -- he counts himself as very fortunate. he comes from a very modest family. >> is he running for president, that's the question. >> i have no idea. >> hold on, guys. >> one more thing like that -- >> hold on, guys. stay here, we want you at home to weigh in on today's question

which certainly fits this. who better understands the middle class. tweet biden or clinton using #crossfire and we'll have the results after the break. we also have the outrage of the day. a few of you are outraged about the world cup, and we have a soccer competitor here who's going to comment on it. ♪ (train horn) vo: wherever our trains go, the economy comes to life. norfolk southern. one line, infinite possibilities.

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now, it's time for the outrage of the day.

i'm outraged personally by washington's short-sided solution to the veterans affairs scandal. you can reform the v.a. or fatten it up. congress seems to be deciding that fattening it up is easier. we've now learned that the top bureaucrats of the v.a. received high marks of their job performance the past five years even though they were cooking the books all the while to deny veterans the high quality care they deserve. so with all these problems, what does the senate propose? doubling down on a failed system. though they would expand a choice, which is a good thing, it does nothing to fix the broken system. and it'll cost taxpayers more than $50 billion a year. >> i think the question, reforms are needed. some reforms are currently put in place administratively. that if this is a mat -- part of the problem with the v.a., many of the people at the advocacy and at the v.a. will tell you

they didn't have enough money. so the incentives worked against everybody. if more money is needed for that, i'll willing to put it there. i think if there are reforms to put in place administratively, i think we should -- >> in 2012, the rey reported $2 million spent in waste and fraud. they can't manage the money they already have. >> how would you feel, s.e. -- >> hard right turn. >> how would you feel if the other team gets a touchdown just because they made it to the 20 yard line and not the end zone. or a runner made it to third base, good enough, home run. there that is no difference to what referees did yesterday in the world cup game. the few seconds allowed portugal

to tie the united states. i think the rules are slightly outrageous. of course, nothing new. i love soccer. i played it for years. even though the u.s. women's soccer team is not about to call me up any time, soon. i am a fierce competitor, surprise, surprise, i know. but i like the actual rules in my sport. >> i love soccer, too. you but just epitomized the frustration of every american tuning into that game last night. what happened? it was frustrating. >> it is outrageous. i am also outraged by something else. everyone loves the shiny new stadiums, plural, that they've got over there. but here is the thing from me, from the fancy new stadiums, you can see some of the poorest slums in the world. millions of brazilians that lack access to clean water but somehow we can find money for the big sport arenas. i'm not jumping on just the

brazilians. we have the same thing in the united states. you have a mayor that want to build a stadium. but if that mayor want to build apartments, they is a money-wasting communist. some said hosting the world cup is bad for their economy. maybe they would rather have a descent place to live. >> south africa had the same problem. you invest all this money, then it turns out you don't use most of the facilities after it is over. you diverted from every other investment you could have made, every job creation you could have made. a big problem. >> agreed. >> at a picnic over the weekend, joe biden did the unthinkable. aiming a squirt gun at journalist and said, anybody who writes a bad story about me is dead. joe biden is what wrong with the violent gun kul neur this country. remember the dangerous threat out of dennis township new jersey in 2000 when a 7-year-old drew a picture after stick

figure with a water gun? luckily for all of us, he was suspended. for the 5-year-old in pennsylvania who made a terrorist threat with a hello kitty bubble blower, don't worry, she too was suspended. and a psychiatric evaluation was ordered. the threat that school children with water guns, bubble guns and drawings, posed to our commune sits real. and if we truly have a zero tolerance policy, vice president biden should be suspended and i will leave the psychological evaluation. how do you think that will good? >> i'm not sure. i have two little boys. they love their water guns. >> then you're part of the problem. you're part of the problem. >> i that i is brilliant. i think suspending joe biden would be exciting. should be out in public and accountable. let's check on the fire back results. who better understands the middle class? the winner is --

neither biden nor clinton. 50% say joe biden. 43% say hillary clinton. but more people wanted neither and wish it had been one of the choices. >> you wanted to take your tweet back, right? >> yeah, i said biden barely. i thought the average american was smarter than me. i wish i had neither. >> i wonder if it it was hillary clinton versus ted cruz. i think hillary or joe biden would have won hand down. >> we can test that one night. i have a hunch the country is anti-washington. >> i don't disagree with that either. however, people do believe these are two fighters for the middle class -- >> do you think that hillary clinton has the number and this is like spring training and they will eventually get over this. >> i think we are two years out from 2016. she hasn't even decided whether or not she is running for president. and we are putting up points

against her on the board. >> the debate continues on-line at cnn.com/crossfire. as well as facebook and twitter. join all of us tomorrow for another edition of crossfire. erin burnett "outfront" starts right now. >> next breaking news, iraq's largest oil refinely believed to be in the hand of terrorist. er with live if baghdad tonight, plus congress grills the irs over thousands of supposedly gone forever e-mails. did they really just disappear? "outfront" investigation. real life jaws. one man's story of coming face-to-face with this great white. not the movie, it's real life. let's go "outfront." >> good evening, everyone. i'm erin burnett. "outfront" tonight, a major for terrorist in iraq.