across america, this election is going to determine in so many ways what kind of futures you will have. i don't say that lightly. everybody always says every election is important. i happen to believe that. i think it's one of the great gifts of our democracy, that we have the opportunity to choose our leaders; and people -- brave people going back for so many years have fought to preserve that right. that right is under attack right n now. and it is under attack in north carolina of all places, a state that often set the standard for moving everybody into the fut e future, and i admired that so much, emphasis on education for literally preschool through

college, emphasis on research, on job creation and innovation. and now north carolina under the current governor and legislature has been trying to restrict people's right to vote. well, you know it. north carolina voters won an important victory when a federal court just struck down this state's voter i.d. law. the federal court brought back more days of what's called one-stop early voting. here is what the court said. this is not me talking. this is what the federal court said. the court said the north carolina law was designed to target african-americans with almost surgical precision. that's not just happening in north carolina. unfortunately it's happening across america. and courts have been overturning

restrictions that make it harder, not just for african-americans, but latino people, young people. one of the provisions in the north carolina law was to make it really hard to vote where you go to school. so this has been a concerted effort to undermine the right to vote, even to make it hard for people with disabilities to cast ballots. well what's the best way to repudiate that kind of underhanded, mean spirited effort to deprive people of their votes? get out and vote and make it clear and make it clear we're not putting up with that! . these laws are a blast from the jim crow past and have no place in 21st century america. we should be doing everything we

can to make it easier to vote, not harder. that's why, if i'm elected president, i will work to expanderly voting. we will enact universal voter registration so every young person in every state is automatically registered to vote when you turn 18. and we will repair the damage done to the voting rights act and take on discrimination in all forms. hb 2 is another example of trying to discriminate against people that doesn't have anyplace in our modern society. you've seen this firsthand in north carolina. discrimination is not only wrong, it's bad for business the nba, you know, canceled the game. paypal canceled bringing i think

400 jobs. others are not coming the this beautiful state because they don't want to be associated with the discriminatory bigoted policies of your governor and legislature. one thing you can do about that is change your governor in novemb november. while you're at it, change one of your senators. we're going to need reenforcements in washington. we've got a big agenda. people say to me, well, what is it you're going to try to get done? i'll show you, real easy. we just published a book. tim kaine and i put this book out. it's called "stronger together." it's not very long, it's not a

hard read. we have this old-fashioned idea that if we're asking you to support us as president, we're going to tell you what it is we want you to do. not just blufter, not empty words, not demagogic rick, real plans that will ill prove our lives, make our country safer and better. so you can pick this up. we're going to build an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top. sounds like a good idea. we're going to make the biggest investment in good paying jobs since world war ii. infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, clean energy jobs. we're going to make the economy fairer, raise the national minimum wage, get people to work full time out of poverty. and we are finally going to guarantee equal pay for women's work. it is long overdue.

if you see any of the democratic convention, you might have missed one of my favorite sets of speakers. we had these two young people from kansas, 17 years old, young man, young woman. i'd read about this. i said let's contact these young people and find out their story. here is their story. 17, had the same summer job, knew each other, working in a pizza restaurant. they were pretty excited. i remember when i got my first real job, not babysitting, but actually showing up at a job and having to do it. so one day after they finished work, they were talking, and the young woman said, you know, i think making $8.00 an hour i should be able to save something for college. the young man, a friend of hers said, well, i'm making $8.15 an

hour. she said why are you making 15 cents more an hour than i am. neither of us have any experience, we're the same age. he said, i don't know, that doesn't sound right. maybe there was a mistake. they go to the manager, they tell the manager. and the manager fired them both. you know what? that's legal. if you find out you're not being paid the same for doing the same job, you can be fired. so this is not some made-up problem. this would raise family incomes. if you have a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister who is working, it's your issue. so we're going to get that done as well. like i said, we're going to make college affordable for everybody. pay down debt. we're going to do something else. i think it was a mistake when we got rid of all vocational

education in high school. it needed to be improved, don't get me wrong. it wasn't training people for the jobs out in the marketplace anymore, but we got rid of all of it. we need technical education in high school. we need more apprenticeship programs where young people can learn and earn at the same time. we're going to go back to emphasizing that in high school, community colleges, apprenticeship programs, creati creative ideas like coding camps. jobs for people with commuter science tills. we'll only, if we continue on our present path, only have 400,000 americans prepared to do those jobs. i want those jobs to be american jobs. we're going to help train people of all ages to be able to do those jobs. we are also going to defend quality affordable health care for everybody.

we're going to get the cost down. we're going to get the cost of prescription drugs down for sure. we're going to emphasize two things that we have fallen short on. mental health and addiction servic services. people i've met here in north carolina and across the country talk to me about that all the time. again, we've got our ideas in here. we want you to engage with us, give us your ideas. this needs to be an ongoing conversation. we want you to hold us accountable. when we're in that white house trying to do all of this, but we also have to keep america safe. we have to lead the world with steadiness and strength. one of the biggest differences in this campaign is donald trump basically says i alone can fix it, whatever it is. think of who that leaves out.

that leaves out our troops on the front line. it leaves out our police and fire responders to emergencies, it leaves out our teachers, our educators who are working to help young people. it leaves out everybody. i alone can fix it? i was raised to believe that we're in this together, and together we can fix it. that's is exactly what we're going to do. that's why tim kaine and i are running a campaign of issues, not insults. donald trump has a different approach. he wants to build an economy that works even better for himself starting with a $4 billion tax cut for his own family. he's built a career on stiffing workers, mom and pop contractors, small businesses that did jobs for him and then he refused to pay them. i take this very personally. my father was a small businessman. that's how he provided a good

middle class living for us. he printed drapery fabrics. he would get the fabric and roll it out on these big long tables. you take a silk screen, dump the paint in, take the squeeze gee, go down one table and start at the end of the other table. you do it ununtil the job was done. sometimes i would be there helping him. then he would load the fabric in the car and deliver it. i am so grateful he never had a contract with donald trump's businesses. in fact, i just ran across the story in las vegas when i was there a few weeks ago of a small drapery business who got what they thought was the greatest contract ever for trump's new hotel in las vegas. they delivered the goods and they were refused payment, for no reason other than it's a game to him. everything is a game.

it's like he's living in his own celebrity reality tv program. you know what, donald? this is real reality, this is real people, real decisions that have to be made for our country. he actually stood on a debate stage and said wages are too high in america. now, he's got new advisers -- a bunch of advisers. he's got new advisers and they're all trying to make him look more presidential, sound more serious. not working too well. but remember what maya angelou who spent the last years of her life right here in this state at wake forest reminded all of us. i think about it often. i was so privileged to know her. when someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.

[ cheers and applause ] >> stronger together also means working with our true allies and partners around the world. last night i offered some thoughts about isis, iran, how we're going to reform the va system to take better care of our vets, and just since last night when i appeared on that program back-to-back with trump, just in the last 24 hours, more retired generals and admirals have signed up to support my campai campaign. people who have sacrificed and spent their lives protecting our country, valuing what makes us exceptional and already great. see donald trump and know he should not be anywhere near the white house. he is temperamentally unfit to

be president and commander-in-chief. tomorrow i will hold a meeting of bipartisan, bipartisan -- which is what i want to get us back to, where republicans and democrats work together to make the changes, to protect our country. i'm going to be meeting with a bipartisan group of leaders and experts to focus more on these crucial challenges. but it's hard to forget what trump did last night. it was a test, and he failed it. he trash talked about americas generals, saying that they've been, quote, reduced to rubble. he suggested he would fire them all and hand pick his own generals since, you know, he knows so much about what it takes to be a general. he attacked dozens of former flag officers. at the same time -- and here is what i want you to really hear

because eenl i was shocked by this, and i didn't know much could shock me coming out of his mouth anymore. he praised russia's strong man vladimir putin, even taking the astonishing step of suggesting he prefers the russian president to our american president. that is not just unpatriotic, it's not just insulting to the office and the man who holds the office, it is scary, it is dangerous! it actually suggests he will let putin do what putin wants and even make excuses for him. i said this morning -- i was trying to think about what other presidents would be imagining hearing that, coming out of the nominee for the republican

party? what would ronald reagan say about a republican nominee who attacks america's generals and heaps praise on russia's president? we've never seen anything like this. one thing you didn't hear from him was any plan to take on isis, one of the biggest threats facing our country. he says his plan is still a secret. well, the truth is he doesn't have a plan. i served on the senate armed services committee. i served as secretary of state, as you know. i respect the men and women who put their lives on the line for the country that i love and that i believe in. so whether you're passionate about more good jobs, better

education, health care, whether you're passionate about protecting our country and the brave men and women who serve s us, you have to realize as so many republicans are, that this is a time to put country over party. i would be saying that even if i were not running against him. we have never been threatened as much by a single candidate running for president as we have been in this election. as your commander-in-chief, i will not trash our country's most cherished values. i will defend them. that is especially on my mind because this weekend is the 15th anniversary of 9/11. i was a senator serving, and i will never forget the horror of that day or the bravery of our first respond eers, the victims

the survivors, people i had the honor to work with and represent. it's what kept me so passionately involved on behalf of the people that i served all during those years. that is what i was thinking of ten years later in the white house situation room. i was part of the small group advising president obama whether or not the intelligence we had was good enough to take a chance, to go deep into pakistan, to try to finally bring osama bin laden to justice. it was not an's si choice by any means. these never are. that's why who sits at the head of that table in the situation room has to be able to sort out fact from opinion, has to be able to ask the hard questions,

pursue even the most difficult leads. we went through that hour after hour after hour, and then the president went around the table asking each of us what we advised. and we were split because it was not some kind of easy layup. i believed it was strong enough that we needed to take action and i supported take action that would determine whether or not we were successful. that meant sending in special forces. you know what happened. i was in that situation room watching that day the most stressful 30 minutes of my life probably. because you remember one of the helicopters hit its tail on the wall going into the courtyard and became disabled. thank goodness there were good contingency plans, but you had to get another helicopter in to take out the s.e.a.l.s that would no longer be able to fly out on that one.

here is what i want to tell you. it is a story that to me illustrate our values in such a clear, unambiguous way. you heard donald trump say he would order our troops to torture. you heard him say he would order our troops to kill family members of terrorists. you know he was advocating illegal actions against our own laws as well as the laws of war. thank goodness there's a code of honor in our military stronger than the blufts center /*ter an bullying of donald trump. here is what happened on that night. every single second counted. that helicopter had to be blown up, but before it was -- remember, the s.e.a.l.s had gone in. they had taken out the two kuwaitis, the bodyguards, they

had taken out bin laden's son who was there, they took out bin laden. they had to get his body out, they had to get themselves out. here is what they did first. they rounded up all the women and children, members of terrorist families, they took them outside as far from the helicopter as they could get them in order that they would not be hurt. that, donald trump, is what american honor looks like and that is what we're going to stand up and defend in the face of your outrageous, disgraceful attacks on the men and women of our armed forces! we're going to unify this country, my friends. we're going to bring us back together. we're going to get things done, big things. that's who we are as americans. i can't do any of this unless

you join me in this campaign. you can start by going to hillaryclinton.com or texting join to 47246. you can knock on doors, make phone calls, register your friends to vote, attend a house party in your neighborhood. we're going to keep asking for your help over these next two months. there's so much at stake in north carolina and in america. no one can sit on the sidelines. the stakes are high for everyone. join the campaign. let's build a future where we're stronger together! thank you! [ cheers and applause ] in charlotte, north korea n, hillary clinton delivering another campaign rally address focusing in on a whole host of issues including national security. there was one theme throughout, a theme of trashing, trashing donald trump, especially for some of his comments last night

at that commander-in-chief forum. jeff zeleny is in charlotte covering the clinton campaign. what stood out in your mind? >> reporter: there's no question hillary clinton is trying to point out the deep differences in experience she has and donald trump. it is all about judgment. the clinton campaign believes this is a pivotal moment in this race to stop growth of donald trump, particularly in the area of national security. we heard hillary clinton go through a laundry list of how she believes donald trump is not prepared to be commander-in-chief. this election has been about many things, about the economy in some degrees. it's now about national security and who would be a better commander-in-chi commander-in-chief. it's one of the reasons she's here in north carolina, obviously a heavy military state and going through chapter and verse about that story about osama bin laden and reminding voters what donald trump has

said before about the military. specifically the respect of the military and the generals who he said he would, indeed, fire. she simply is calling him out on some of the things he said. wolf, we should note, many surveys say actual members of the military and veterans have a strong affinity for donald trump. she is trying to get some of those voters to her side. more importantly, stop any growth and keep those questions that some voters may have in their mind about if donald trump is ready to be commander-in-chief. wolf? >> jeff, stand by. i want to bring in my political panelist, gloria borger is here, executive editor of cnn politics, mark preston and "washington post" reporter, david knock muir rah. she referred several times to what happened last night. >> look, i think donald trump gave her a lot of openings last

night. first and foremost praising putin, talking about his 82% approval rating. i'm not so sure we would trust those polls saying, look, he thinks i'm brilliant, so i like the guy. she is trying to remind voters that vladimir putin is not somebody that folks in this country should either love or respect. talking about the generals and came flat out, wolf, and said donald trump is scary. she said he's dangerous. again, it goes to the points that jeff was talking about, judgment, temperament and how risky it would be. that's a key word, how risky it would be for donald trump to become president. i think they believe that while people may not like her, there is a question when they go into that booth, do you want to take a risk with him? and that's what she's going to be talking about for a long time. >> she said, mark, he praised

the russian strongman. she called putin the russian strongman and said he prefers putin over the president of the united states. she said trump is unpatriotic, insulting, scary and dangerous. >> let's put in perspective where he's saying this. in the state of north carolina that has more than 700,000 veterans that live in the state, a very big military presence. so when she talks about that and goes on to say that donald trump trash talked about the generals who were executing the war and the flag officers, many of them leading the folks who are still in the service right now, clearly trying to send a message to those that donald trump is not adequate enough, not good enough to be their commander-in-chief. >> north carolina, as mark said, clearly in play, the polls show it's very close in north carolina. >> she was there a few weeks ago. we're seeing a flip on those

numbers. the numbers earlier suggest she's a few points down. the bigger question, we saw this at the dnc convention, she's a woman who has been in the arena, she's been in "the situation room," going after bin haddin. she says she has the good junlment and temperament. what was interesting about yesterday, still defensive about her vote on the iraq war, again, a question of judgment and one that donald trump has obfuscated his own position on the iraq war, but something she continues to defend and sort of maybe make up for by saying she won't put anymore boots on the ground there, maybe trapping herself if and when she does become president. >> donald trump says he always opposed the iraq war when we know in 2002 he in an interview with howard stern said i guess i support the war. that's a question that will be asked and asked over and over again. i think what was stunning to me,

and she didn't mention it in these comments, but did mention it earlier today because she was asked about it. this notion that after a classified briefing -- yes, he was asked about it. he was asked about it last night, but he seemed to insinuate that as a result of his briefing, there was something explosive in it that allowed him to believe that the president and hillary clinton had made some huge mistake and this kind of insinuation -- many people are saying insinuation, that we hear from him over and over again, very surprising to come out of a classified briefing, that a candidate for president would hint at some kind of insinuation without being able to offer evidence because, of course, he can't. doing that was surprising. >> she also remarked she's going to have a briefing tomorrow with a bipartisan group of national security experts including michael chertoff, former republican secretary of homeland

security who presumably is now supporting hillary clinton. she said it's important that they put country over party. how realistic is it that republicans will vote for her? >> we've seen a lot of administration officials have come out in support of hillary clinton. donald trump's biggest problem in this general election campaign is he was never able to solidify the republican base right after he won the republican nomination through the summer. we are seeing now, according to the polls, they are starting to come around to donald trump. hillary clinton needs to try to create a wedge and get enough of those republicans to come to her side. to that point about noting it is a bipartisan meeting tomorrow, she also noted that ronald reagan -- what would ronald reagan say about the criticism of barack obama, the praise of vladimir putin and the attack on the u.s. military? clearly trying to use that as a wedge issue. >> clearly that's going to be a major line in her speeches going forward. hold on for a moment.

i want to bring in our global affairs analyst kimberly dozier and colonel cedric leighton. colonel, when you heard donald trump say last night, these generals, they aren't necessarily all that trustworthy, and if they don't do the job, he's going to get a new set of generals, what was your reaction? >> well, wolf, i was basically incredulous. those kinds of comments really don't reflect the reality of the current promotion system that the department of defense has for its general and flag officers. basically they're all picked by the secretaries of the respective services and confirmed by the senate and of course subject to the approval of the president. but that kind of a statement would really mark the beginning of a complete turn-over in military leadership. i think any presidential candidate would have to be careful with that. there are times in history where that has happened.

world war ii, for example, when you had roosevelt and general marshall go through the little black book and pick the right people, the people they thought were the right people to lead american forces to victory in world war ii. since that time, we have never seen anything like that. it would be a wholesale change, not only of the promotion system, but also of the way in which we select generals and admirals. >> when he said that because of the policies of the president of the united states, president obama, these generals have been reduced to rubble. you heard him say that. i wonder how that's playing among your retired colleagues? >> not very well, wolf. the reason it's not playing well is, i think part of it is what the candidate intended to say, what mr. trump intended to say was probably they had been sidelined. what came out, though, was they had been not only sidelined but completely ineffective in the way in which they had not only presented their case but the way in which they prosecuted the

war. there's lot of evidence to indicate that that is not the case. the reaction has been very negative, at least with the people i've spoken with, it certainly shows there's a degree offense mending that would have to happen if mr. trump were to become the president. >> kimberly, you're well plugged in with a lot of national security professionals out there. what's the reaction you're getting to what donald trump and hillary clinton said last night? >> well, there's a bit of outrage. a lot of these generals have put their reputations and careers on the line saying things in public testimony before congress that wasn't always welcome at the white house, things like, yes, we believe you may need more troops in afghanistan going against the obama administration's planned drawdown. yes, isis is expanding beyond what we'd hoped in syria. yes, russia is a strategic threat to the united states. that was a comment by chairman

of the joint chiefs, general dunford. he doesn't often air these out loud in the public. his job, the job of the other generals is to advise the secretary of defense and the president and not share publicly when they disagree. you only get these rare glimpses sometimes in this congressional testimony of disagreement. what donald trump is presuming is that the policy on the ground that we're seeing in syria, for instance, is exactly what the generals would have planned. he would have to interview every single one of them personally, decide who he didn't like. and think about the disruption in military ranks of taking out senior leaders, and that also means bumping up junior leaders a year or two before they're ready for these posts. >> i've got to take a quick break, kymbimberlkimberly. cedric leighton, stand by. we have live pictures coming in of a donald trump rally in cleveland.

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welcome book. hillary clinton just wrapped up a campaign event in charlotte, north carolina. donald trump is set to speak in cleveland, ohio. we'll see if he responds directly to what we just heard from hillary clinton. we'll have live coverage of that coming up. in the meantime, i want to bring in senior advisor to the trump campaign, jack kingston, a former republican from georgia, a strong supporter of donald trump. thanks very much for joining us.

>> thank you, wolf. >> trump says, if he's elected president, he'll give his generals 30 days to submit a plan to defeat and destroy isis. he already says he has a secret plan to do that. what is it? does he already have a plan or is he waiting for the generals to come up with a plan? >> actually, i think he has some ideas of what he wants to do. and unlike barack obama he doesn't want to broadcast it to the bad guys. i think also he's saying to the generals, in 30 days we're going to change directions. we're not going to have isis and other groups just running roughshod or syria falling to bits and chaos in afghanistan and libya. so i think what he's saying is, we're going to change things. i believe, wolf, that's what the american people want, a new direction, not just domestically, but in foreign policy. >> he said his plan is foolproof. so it raises the question, does he really have a foolproof plan to destroy isis or does he need the generals to give him 30 days

to come up with a new plan. there seems to be some confusion which i'm sure you appreciate. >> i think what he's saying is, look, you've got to keep these guys a little bit on their toes. you don't want to put your cards face up on the table. he has some ideas. as somebody who served on the defense committee and had the honor of representing five military installations, there are a lot of good ideas out there. what mr. trump said last night is he wants to pick a new team in there. if you think about whoever advised barack obama that isis was a jv team, whoever said to the red line and if they go over it, bomb them and then don't do it, he's probably not really getting good advice. what donald trump wants to do is put new advisers in there and has a new team. i want to point out, it's not unusual. remember harry truman fired douglas macarthur. barack obama forced the dismissal of stanley mcchrystal

because he did not agree with what he had said about afghanistan. so i think the president of the united states as commander-in-chief does have the right. of course he has the right. it's constitutional, to choose his team. that's why 88 military advisers have recently endorsed donald trump. these are flag officers with great years of experience. >> i think there was another issue involving general mcchrystal, but we don't have to kbo into that right now. i want you to listen to what the president of the united states said to do about donald trump suggesting he's uninformed or has out right wacky ideas. here is the president. >> as far as mr. trump, i think i've already offered my opinion. i don't think the guy is qualified to be president of the united states. every time he speaks, that opinion is confirmed.

i think the most important thing for the public and the press is to just listen to what he says and follow up and ask questions about what appear to be either contradictory or uninformed or out right wacky ideas. >> what's your response to the president, especially because donald trump last night said the generals. i assume he means chairman of the joint chiefs, members of the joint chiefs. he said they have been, quote, reduced to rubble. >> let me say this. this is a democrat president doing what a democrat president should do for his party nominee. no surprise there. but when he talks about donald trump maybe not being up to the job, what has barack obama accomplished in the middle east? chaos in syria, chaos in afghanistan, iraq and in libya. isis now in 18 different countries. a 1% economic growth rate back

home, health care premiums skyrocketing 20% and 30%. i don't think barack obama is in a great position to be saying who should be president or who shouldn't. donald trump was saying with his comments about the military, look, i want people who disagree with me, i don't want yes men and women in those positions, i want them to come to me with viable criticism. >> congressman, do you agree with donald trump that the generals have been reduced to rubble? >> i agree that under barack obama he hasn't been listening to them. he's selectively taken information which is what donald trump was saying. i think that's very important. again, commander-in-chief of the united states of america constitutionally can pick his own team. what drchl is saying, i want a new team. if you're satisfied with the foreign policy that we have right now, then hillary clinton has promised a third term of barack obama. but if you want to change in the middle east, you want peace

through strength, i will bring it to you. >> he can certainly pick a new team as far as his national security adviser, civilians are concerned, secretary of defense, secretary of state, director of the cia. you know this well. there's a process in the u.s. military for moving up the chain of command, moving up the ranks from a junior officer to a senior flag officer. it's not that easy simply to get rid of these generals, if you will. we'll leave that for another time as well. congressman jack kingston, former congressman from georgia, thanks for joining us. >> thanks, wolf. for team clinton, the democratic presidential candidate is doubling down on her position to never again send ground troops in iraq and syria. listen what he said a few hours ago at a news conference in new york. >> i think putting a big contingent of american ground troops on the ground in iraq and

syria would not be in the best interest of the fight against isis and other terrorist groups. in fact, i think it would fulfill one of their dearest wishes, which is to drag the united states back into a ground war in that region. >> let's talk about this with congressman chris van hollen of maryland. he's endorsed hillary clinton. congressman, thanks for joining us. >> good to be with you, wolf. >> do you agree with her flatly saying, doubling down this morning that under her administration the united states would not send any ground troops into iraq or syria? >> i do. because i think american ground forces in syria and iraq would only inflame the situation and make it worse. we saw what happened in the aftermath of the last time we september american ground forces into iraq. a long, protracted war where we're still seeing the fallout. we need to make sure our allies

in the region, whether they're the kurds, whether they're the iraqis, that they have the equipment that they need and the air support they need to go after isis and ultimately destroy isis. putting u.s. forces on the ground in that part of the world would make matters worse and i think harm our national security. >> lindsey graham, member of the armed services committee from south carolina, he told me last night there are about 7,500 u.s. ground troops in iraq and a few hundred in syria right now. would she pull all those troops out? >> i think it was pretty clear that secretary clinton is talking about ground combat forces. she's not talking about american troops who are there to train iraqi forces. she's not talking about some limited numbers of special forces that have been there primarily to help train the syrian kurds and others. she's talking about making sure we don't do in syria and iraq

again what happened with the first mistake in iraq. that is what she is focused on. i think it's very appropriate that she lay out a strategy that doesn't involve american ground combat forces because, as she indicated, i think that makes the situation worse, not better. >> you don't think any of those 7,500 u.s. troops in iraq right now are engaged in combat? >> those troops, other than a limited number of special forces are engaged in training and equipping the iraqi forces and our kurdish friends to go after isis. >> but they are in harm's way. they're in danger right now -- let me ask you this. what happens if the u.s. military were to say to a president hillary clinton, you know what? there's a major national security threat facing the united states, let's say in mosul, the second largest city in iraq, still under ooi sis control. or in raqqa, the capital of isis in syria. the only way to destroy these

guys to kig baghdadi t leader of isis is to send in ground troops and kill them. what would she do if the military commanders said, that's what we recommend? >> wolf, you can always come up with hypotheticals. what we know right now is this, u.s. military commanders have not said that. they have not made the recommendation. in fact, they've been very clear that putting more combat forces in those regions would risk dragging americans deeper into the conflict and not solving the problem, but making it worse. i have to say, we're now talking about which candidate is suitable to be commander-in-chief. last night -- if people didn't already know it, the amount of misinformation, the amount of fact-free statements that were made by donald trump should scare every american about this

guy being anywhere close to the white house and certainly being our commander-in-chief. he had his facts wrong. he's unprepared. he has a dangerous mix of somebody who thinks he knows a lot, thinks he knows more than the generals, and yet he knows very little. that's a very dangerous mix in a commander-in-chief. >> congressman, thanks very much for joining us. >> thank you. still to come, stopping a major arms deal with a key u.s. ally? how will stopping the deal impact international relations and potentially the u.s. economy. we're standing by to hear from donald trump. he has a rally coming up soon. you're looking at live pictures from cleveland, ohio. we'll have coverage of that and a lot more.

bipartisan group of u.s. lawmakers looking right now to stall the planned sale of more than $1 $1 billion in arms and sophisticated military equipment to saudi arabia. the reason -- the growing number of civilian casualties in yemen, a result of air strikes carried out by the saudi-led military coalition. republican senator rand paul of kentucky is joining us now from capitol hill, he serves on the senate foreign relations committee, as well as the homeland security committee and governmental affairs committee. senator, thanks for joining us. >> thank you, wolf. >> so you are opposed to the continued sale of this military equipment to saudi arabia. how can you stop it? are you planning to introduce legislation to stop or delay it? >> we have a privileged resolution which means it will demand a vote, and a vet will occur because of the law. the arms export control act of

1970s gives the right of any one senator to demand a vote on this. the arms export control act also says that we can only export arms that are solely for the legitimate defense of a country. well, they're using these arms to have an incursion into a neighboring country and get involved in a neighboring country's civil war. but this is not self-defense of saudi arabia. so i think they're in breach of the original arms export control act. but i also think that weesht have a swe should have a say, congress and people should vote on whether we are in the middle of another war in the middle east. >> some of these yemeni fighters that the saudis are fighting together with the uae and other countries, they are actually in saudi arabia. they've taken over some parts of southern saudi arabia. so wouldn't that justify the saudis moving against them the way they are? >> well, the saudis invaded yemen, and yemen rebels invaded back. but i don't think this was

something where the saudis were trying to stop an invasion. the saudis actually invaded and started bombing in the capital of yemen. >> so you're blaming the saudis for this war that's going on over there, not the yemenis. >> well, there is a civil war that's very complicated. i'm not sure assessing blame is very accurately done in a civil war. but, yes, saudi arabia chose to get involved in a civil war and take sides on a civil war. we've now given $100 billion worth of arms under president obama to saudi arabia. we've approved $100 billion worth of sales of arms. we also approved billions of dollars to be released to iran. so we're supplying the arms on both sides of this arms race in the middle east. we supplied turkey with tanks that are now rolling in to syria and we have kurdish troops using american arms to fight turkish arms which are supplied by the u.s. as well. so i think we do need to rethink whether or not this is making the situation better or worse.

there are now millions of displaced people in yemen. they're refugees. so we supply the saudis with arms, they create havoc and refugees in yemen. then what's the answer? then we're going to take the yemeni refugees in the united states? maybe we ought to quit arming both sides of this war. >> you think your legislation would have a realistic chance of passing the senate or the house? and if it did, do you think the president of the united states would sign it into law? he would presumably veto it. >> at the very least, it begins the debate of whether or not we should be at war. we are refueling the saudi bombers, so we are essentially part of the bombing campaign. we are helping them choose targets and we are refueling the saudi bombers that are dropping the bombs. it is said that thousands of civilians have died in yemen because of this. yes, we need to have a debate over this. i don't know what the president will do but he ought to come to congress and ask for permission. we've given him no authority to get involved in the civil war in

yemen. and we have to ask the bigger question, is that making it better or worse? are there more refugees or less refugees? is there more chaos or less chaos with saudi arabia bombing in to yemen. so, yeah, it is a debate we ought to have, and no president should unilaterally have this authority without the approval of congress. >> for you, this is a moral issue because you know there are a lot of jobs at stake certainly if these defense contractors stopping selling warplanes, other sophisticated equipment to saudi arabia. there is going to be a significant loss of jobs, revenue, here in the united states. that's secondary from your standpoint. >> well, not only is it a moral question, it is a constitutional question. our founding fathers very directly and specifically did not give the president the power to go to war. they gave it to congress. so congress needs to step up. and this is what i'm doing. stepping up and asserting our authority over foreign policy and that we need to be involved. we should not be an after-the-fact, oh, we'll give

you a consultation. no, we should be directing the president whether he has the power to do this or not. i don't believe he has the constitutional power to do it, nor do i think it is wise. i think we are elevating an arms race in the middle east and i don't think it is good for america. to have millions of new refugees -- look, saudi arabia hasn't taken any refugees. they were part of the violence in syria. many of the weapons that saudi arabia and qatar sent into the syrian civil war, some of those wound up in the hands of al qaeda and isis. and then refugees are streaming across the world and saudi arabia foments this but didn't take any of the refugees. >> very quickly, who's more qualified to be commander in chief? hillary clinton or donald trump? >> without question, i think hillary clinton would more likely get us involved in another war in the middle east. she's been for sending arms into syria. from the very beginning donald trump has said that he questioned the iraq war. so that gives me some consolation that donald trump would be a better commander in chief because he at least had the foresight to see that the

first -- the iraq war led to a destabilization of the area and hillary clinton was on the other side of that. >> before the war, he did tell howard stern he supported the war. but we have to leave it on that note, as usual, senator rand paul, thanks for joining us. >> thank you. the news continues next right here on cnn. hi, everyone. you're watching cnn. i'm brooke baldwin. thank you for being with me. in a bit of a waiting game right now as donald trump is set to take the podium in an ever important battleground state of ohio. yes, he is back in cleveland. if you are keeping score with us, 61 days until the presidential election. he is scheduled to start any moment so we're watching and waiting for him. he is hosting this roundtable with teachers and administrators right now. obviously the key theme here -- education. but the big question is this -- how will trump hit back after his rival hillary clinton came out