tv New Day CNN August 22, 2017 2:59am-4:00am PDT
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departing older workers are being replaced by younger, cheaper ones. people who were sidelined during the recession. that keeps a lid on wages. right now about 44 million americans are retired. 44 million. that's up 36% from the year 2000. >> glass half full, glass half empty. there are more jobs. that's a good thing. >> there are. you don't want to blame a whole generation. sorry, mom and dad. thanks for joining us. i'm christine romans. >> i'm dave briggs. president trump with a new u.s. strategy for afghanistan, but is it actually new? "new day," that is new, they'll discuss just that next. our troops will fight to win. conditions on the ground will guide our strategy. >> i'm very pleased with this plan, and i am very proud of my president. >> victory will have a clear definition. attacking our enemies, obliterating isis, crushing al qaeda. >> this is obama's strategy 2.0. just some nibbling around the
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there is no room for bigotry and no tolerance for hate. >> i do believe that he messed up on tuesday. >> president trump's aides hoping he won't veer off message tonight. you're going to go to phoenix and make a speech, fine. say something that's going to bring people together. >> this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. this is "new day," tuesday august 22nd, 6:00 here in new york. the starting line, president trump reversing course, recommitting the united states to the war in afghanistan and offering few details certainly about any exit. the president did not say how many more american troops will be deployed or how success will be measured. president trump also attempted to clean up his response to the deadly violence in charlottesville, without actually mentioning the city by
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name. new national poll shows the problem. 56% of americans disapprove of how the president handled the aftermath. >> and house speaker paul ryan is one of those. in a cnn town hall last night ryan says the president "messed up" his charlottesville response and needs to provide the american people with moral clarity, all this as president trump heads back on the campaign trail tonight with a rally in arizona. many are watching to see if his mess am will change when he's not antehe witeleprompter. athena jones is live at the white house. >> reporter: good morning, alisyn, a speech delivered long on broad themes but short on spesksz. the president emphasized the importance of a regional approach to fighting terror groups. he insisted he would not lay out a specific u.s. timetable for its commitment to the country and said eventually the u.s. would win the fight but he didn't lay out details on troop levels, and he didn't explain
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how this new strategy which borrows heavily from previous ones would help ensure a victory that has alluded this country for 16 years. >> the consequences of a rapid exit are both predictable and unacceptable. >> president trump recommitting the united states to the nearly 16-year war in afghanistan, despite repeatedly calling for america to pull out of the conflict entirely. zblts he aa total and complete disaster and i'd like to see money spent on this country. at some point are they going to be there for the next 200 years, you know at some point what's going on? it's going on itto be a long ti. my original instinct was to pull out and historically i like following my instincts, but all my life i've heard that decisions are much different when you sit behind the desk in
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the oval office. however, our commitment is not unlimited and our support is not a blank check. >> reporter: president trump vowing to build up america's military presence in the region. but refusing to offer specifics. >> we will not talk about numbers of troops or our plans for further military activities. conditions on the ground not arbitrary timetables will guide our strategy from now on. >> reporter: the commander in chief criticizing his predecessor while pledging to roll back obama era restrictions on military engagement. >> micromanagement from washington, d.c., does not win battles. >> reporter: but certain key components of president trump's strategy largely echoing the previous administration. >> we are not nation building again. >> we have no interest in
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occupying your country. >> perhaps it will be possible to have a political settlement that includes element of the taliban in afghanistan. >> we will support efforts by the afghan government to open the door to those taliban who abandoned violence. >> pakistan often gives safe haven to ages of chaos. >> this same cancer has also taken root in the border region of pakistan. >> reporter: the initial response of republicans to the address largely positive. >> i'm pleased with the decision. we cannot allow another safe haven for terrorists to materialize again. >> reporter: democratic leaders criticize the president for declaring an open-ended commitment to america's longest war. the commander in chief used the beginning of his speech to call for unity a belated attempt to address the damage caused by his willingness to immediately condemn white supremacists in charlottesville. >> the young men and women we send to fight our wars abroad deserve to return to a country
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that is not at war with itself at home. >> reporter: his tone a stunning departure from his language just six days ago, which drew widespread condemnation. >> i do believe that he messed up in his comments on tuesday when it sounded loo you cike a equivocation or moral ambiguity when we need extreme moral clarity. >> we'll be watching to see if the president's gentler tone focused on unity continues at the rally tonight in arizona. we know that vice president mike pence will be joining him on that stage, but the state's republican governor and two republican senators both of whom have been frequent critics of the president won't thereby. alisyn, chris? >> athena, thank you very much for all of that. let's talk about all of this. we want to bring in our cnn politics reporter and editor at large chris cillizza and analyst john avalon, and khoura
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khouran demerjian. he didn't spell out benchmarks and didn't say how many troops, how many more will be going to afghanistan. do the americans deserve to know those numbers? >> well, this is probably the first time in american history we've had an announcement about troop increases without making specifically clear what those troop increases are. we have maximum promises but uncertain details. the main specifics of the speech and lindsey graham and others applauded he's delegating the details to the military and expanding to some extent the theater to pakistan, recognizing the hakani network. gloves are off, the troop levels and time is deferring to the military, a clear departure from his policy in the past and murky for the american people. >> it's murky by nature though,
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but we've done it many times. the problem with afghanistan it's called the graveyard of empires for a reason. anybody who has been there will tell you what the main problem is and it wasn't addressed in that speech last night and not addressing with the military really feels, which is what do you do about corruption and how do you get that government to deliver the services to the people that they need so that they don't need the taliban. he didn't address that last night because it's too hard to do. >> it's very hard to do, and he didn't address even what the success measure is for something less than that. he talked about everlasting peace, talked about getting rid of the 'tises and making economic commitments. he did not challenge the afghan government expect at the end we expect to see something, not a blank check. he didn't say what he was expecting from the afghan government either. you have a system of throwing out all these things we're going to commit ourselves
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diplomatically, economically and military. >> the old donald trump would have rejected every one of the point of this plan. >> the doctrine of principled realism which basically means when things change, question change strategy, that's what that is basically. which is what he has done since the campaign, because he had to, but it doesn't tell us what the benchmarks are that we're aiming for or where we're going or how we get there. it may be realistic but it's troubling for the troops and the country. >> we know it's an escalation of some mind. mattis and mcmaster feel positive, they worked in anti-corruption in particular but this speech contained multitudes of contradictory phrases. they sounded good on their own. when you add them up it was pretty incoherent. we know the broad direction, the details are utterly unclear. >> chris cillizza, no timetable for withdrawal, no specific
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troop increase, our numbers suggest, our sources suggest 4,000. the president did not say that. the plan is so obliterate isis, reduce taliban's influence, target terrorist networks, strengthen the afghan security forces, and pressure pakistan to fight terror. what it ydid you hear? >> honestly, a speech about troop withdrawals -- troop increases and time lines that had neither details of troop increases or time lines. i actually think donald trump used that speech los night in the prime time format of it to try to make right the damage done from charlotteville. i thought the first five minutes of the speech in terms of what he was trying to do was by far the most important. some of the quotes coming out of donald trump, love means love for all of us, talking about an injury done to one is an injury done to all, anyone who suffers an injustice means we all suffer an injustice, those are not typical donald trump lines.
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to me, that was a clear attempt to apologize for charlottesville without apologizing for charlottesville because donald trump is not going to be apoll ji jidsing for anything. the charlottesville stuff i thought was quite important. the rest was just sort of, you know, well i'm going to give a speech about afghanistan and our next steps forward, karoun and john pointed out there's no details that. the only thing i take away he knows he screwed up in charlottesville. he's being told he needs to make it right and that's what that was last night. campaign rally is a whole different animal. if donald trump's past is prologue that was a one-off for the duration of that speech, a
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call to unity. >> i'll try not to suggest the speech is a wag the dog. the opening of the speech was very well written. you have teleprompter trump, twitter trump and town hall trump. >> it doesn't matter how you say it, you don't have to be articulate, you have to mean it. you can have an eloquently spoken word as we saw at the top of the speech last night but it doesn't mean that people are going to believe especially when it has been contradicted time again. >> which people, which audience. was there an audience of the country that needed to hear something on charlottesville, is he talking to the world in afghanistan who needs to figure out are we going to stay or go or sending out pakistan talk to india there is a conflict. >> he has the same problem in
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each one he has said something opposite. he spent years saying pakistan stay out of there. you give them lots of money, stay out of there, give me a date certain. when obama said ef getting out it was one of the few times he said i like what the president's saying. on charlottesville he looked the media and the nation in the eye and said i know it's true and you know it's true but only one of us wants to admit it. >> in the speech you're right, absolutely, how he addressed all these things but in so doing leaves everything a little bit more muddled, confused about where it's going and where he stands. >> go ahead, chris. >> it's not just charlottesville. look at his comments in the past regarding barack obama and birtherism for example. there is a lot of bridge under the donald trump racially coded not all that racially coded
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language bridge. lot of the donald trump as divider not uniter political bridge. it was harder for donald trump to say we need to love one another. is he a credible messenger given what he's said and given the fact if you were in las vegas and could bet on things like this the odds would be in the favor of donald trump being more confrontational, more fiery, rhetorically, far less of a uniter in a speech tonight because's at a campaign rally. >> stick around, because in our 8:00 hour we have another one of our voter panels of diehard president trump supporters and how they feel about it, also we have nikki haley coming up, u.s. am bassor to the u.n., she'll be here to talk about the president's afghan strategy. maybe she can put a few more details into this. >> big polls show the president
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needs to be speaking not to that little shrinking core but the huge group that we don't talk to the same way, that are against what he said. so as we mentioned president trump is trying to circle back, clean up the mess. it's his mess from charlottesville. he fanned the flames of hate. there was plenty of opportunity to say the right things coming out of it. he just didn't. speaker paul ryan had strong reaction. does he own the mantle of authority in moral agency? judge for yourself, when we come back. n. now get our best offers of the season. on the agile mkc. and the versatile midsize lincoln mkx. or go where summer takes you in the exhilarating mkz. hurry in it's the final days of the lincoln summer invitation sales event. ending september 5th. right now, get zero percent apr plus 1,000 dollars summer savings on the lincoln mkx, mkc and mkz. we believe in food that's anaturally beautiful,,
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all right, if if you didn't watch the speech last night, and you're going to listen to some sound this morning, it's really the top of the speech that you want to listen to, because everything else gets muddy after that. the top of the speech was the president trying to deal with his response to charlottesville. the president did not mention the city explicitly but he made numerous references to diversity, peace, especially in the military. take a listen. >> the young men and women we send to fight our wars abroad deserve to return to a country that is not at war with itself at home. we cannot remain a force for peace in the world if we are not at peace with each other. as we send our bravest to defeat our enemies overseas, and we will always win, let us find the courage to heal our divisions within. >> you saw the president there
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locked on the teleprompter, those words were the right words. are they his words? we bring by chris cillizza, john avlon, karoun demirjian. there's no question the top of that speech was not necessarily to sell the plan in afghanistan. >> not at all. >> obviously somebody's gotten to the president and say we know you doubled and tripled down but you are wrong and people aren't with you and you can't draw moral equivalence between the kkk and people fighting against them so let's do this, and he did it last night. what is its net effect? >> look, donald trump is a believer mostly in polling, and a poll came out yesterday "the washington post"/abc news that had his approval in the way he handled charlottesville at 28% and the disapproval at 56%. man, your graphics people are good. so the point here being, it is pretty clear how it went over,
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no matter what donald trump thinks. these were words that he said. now, are they words that he believes? his candidacy in the first six months of his presidency would not bear out that donald trump is the what's so funny about peace, love, and understanding candidate, right? he is someone who has really focused heavily on what divides us, the bad state of the country, remember? the american dream is dead, folks. so words you read versus words you say in a non-formal speech setting are different. it seems to me based on saturday august 12th and charlottesville happen and the response tuesday with the back-and-forth we have a good sense where donald trump is coming from us. >> i appreciate the elvis costello reference by the way but this is not terribly
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complicated. as a former speechwriter you can get the words crystal clear right, a strong lead to the speech but of course it doesn't represent what donald trump believes. it's not off the cuff. let's put that conversation on the shelf. it's done. >> tonight he's going to talk also, this has been his pattern to be on message one day and next day not quite so much. if he's going to undercut what he said it will probably be at the rally. if it's not maybe he said let's just end this now. >> here is white house speaker paul ryan said last night in the town hall meeting about how he interpreted the president's response to charlottesville, which was not good. listen to this. >> so i do believe that he messed up in his comments on tuesday, when it sounded like a moral equivocation or at the very least moral ambiguity, when we need extreme moral clarity. let me back up and make one or
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two other points. it should not be about the president. this is not about republicans or democrats. this shouldn't be about some voting congress or some partisan issue. this is so much more important than that. >> so where was he? if it's all true, what you just heard from speaker ryan, karoun demirjian, where was he last week with his kind of non-committal tweet about it. where was that sent of clarity and leadership. if it's so much more important than sticking to the politics of getting your agenda through and backing the president, where was he last week? >> he was not as far forward as other members of his party were, who were stepping out and making bold statements like senator tim scott, like others who were saying mr. president this is not good enough. this is what paul ryan does. he does not seek out the lime light in moments like this. it's gratuitous you had the white house press conference
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because he didn't expect to hear from him for 24 hours and when congress is in session reporter also ask him questions at his weekly briefings and he'll be like why are you asking me to answer for the president all the time? i'm trying to govern in congress and it ends up being this pattern over and over and over again that he doesn't usually step out front. >> no, and look, he answered questions, tough from the audience last night, forthrightly and he deserves credit but he doesn't deserve credit for that answer and here's why. he's trying to, talking to what the president said directly while it may have been less than ideal that conversation and directing at the president demeans the whole moral conversation we have as americans by making it partisan, by directing the criticism at the president or the republican base. that ignores the facts of what happened and what we need to deal with to talk about the problem, so it's great to try to raise yourself above the partisan fray but doesn't comport with the reality of the situation because politically it's uncomfortable to do so. >> that's also a pattern when
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the president makes a conversation we blame the media, whether it's russia, charlottesville, when the gop is having a conversation within itself about whether something is right or wrong it's easier to blame the media or other people. >> so chris tonight the president goes to arizona for a campaign style rally. obviously he won't abe using teleprompter. this is where he feels he's in his element. it will be a different message. interestingly the top arizona officials in congress and the governor will not be at that rally. they have different excuses. the governor says that something about for public safety, he's focused on public safety somehow, so that he doesn't want to get in the way of that. but is that notable that they're skipping this? >> yes, of course. he's president of the united states. and look, frankly donald trump has clashed with both john mccain and jeff flake, the two senators from the state very publicly. arizona is a fascinating political state. it has a very conservative element.
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obviously the immigration bill where you could stop people and ask to see their paperwork, one of the most conservative legislation in the country and a state heavily hispanic and growing in that direction. you have a very bifurcated electorate there. still tingeing republican. trump won it by 3.5 points. i'm skeptical that the donald trump we saw from ft. myer monday night is in anywhere of the known universe of the donald trump we'll see at a campaign rally. >> he knows what the expectations are. >> he does. but that's never stopped him before. >> he knows last night wasn't the test. if he comes out and echoes what he says last night, if he can go so far as to say here is what i said and here's what i need to say right now, it could be a big night for him. >> will you put money on that,
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chris cuomo? >> it could be, chris. i would just say that everything, it would have to be a break with everything we know about who he is as a politician. >> i agree. >> doesn't mean it's impossible, just means it's unlikely. >> which way, though? i'll put money that tonight may be the night that the president doubles down on doing the right thing, not just backing himself up, but that he's had enough of the beating he gets when he doubles down the wrong way. tonight will be the night. >> i will gladly give you a high five around set if he does that. >> we look forward to seeing you tonight and tomorrow. thank you, panel. divers are searching through the hull of the "uss john mccain" looking for ten missing sailors after that collision at sea. we have a live update for you next.
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the dinosaurs' extinction... you outnumbered. don't listen to them. not appropriate. now i'm mashing these potatoes with my stick of butter... why don't you sit over here. find your awesome with the xfinity stream app. included with xfinity tv. more to stream to every screen. megan's smile is getting a lot because she uses act® mouthwash. act® strengthens enamel, protects teeth from harmful acids, and helps prevent cavities. go beyond brushing with act®. divers are now searching flooded compartments of the "uss
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john s. mccain" for ten missing sailors. now a top navy admiral demands a fleetwide investigation about how this collision happened. cnn's matt rivers is live in singapore with more for us. matt? >> reporter: there is the damaged ship right there, alisyn. divers have been in the water for most of the day trying to get inside some of the compartments that were sealed as a result of the flooding that took place after that accident happened early monday morning here singapore local time. we also know the navy has been searching the waters out to sea where that incident actually took place in the hopes of finding those ten missing sailors. in terms of the cause of all this, a u.s. navy official tells cnn that the ship did in fact lose steering right before the incident happened but they're not sure if that is the actual cause here. that is going to be part of an overall review, the navy says it's going to be undertaking looking at best practices, at safety standards because this is the fourth incident in the last eight months or so, 2017 alone,
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involving u.s. navy ships deployed to this part of the world, and that is going to be a broad look that the navy is doing its safety standards but of course for now the priority remains on the ten people, the ten sailors that are missing at this point. chris? >> frustrating for people, everybody wants to know the fate of the sailors, but those ships are large, the compartments were flooded, and we've seen before that it takes time. thank you for the reporting, let us know if. there are any developments. the big day yesterday, the first total solar eclipse of the century all across america, an unforgettable moment for the millions who experienced it. so many amazing pictures like the one on your screen right now. they were just all over social media. cnn meteorologist chad myers has more on the incredible site. it was interesting to see so many people interested in something positive. >> absolutely. we talked about yesterday how we lost the saturn 5 and lost the moon and we lost the shuttle but now all of a sudden there's a
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new excitement with space, excitement with this, something that hasn't happened in a very long time, won't happen for six more years but for a slightly different part of the country, we could feel it on the camera yesterday. steph me elam and reporters were out there, and people were cheering right at the point of totality. it made the hair stand up on the back of your neck. it truly was an amazing, amazing sight as we covered it here, anderson and wolf and i all the way until about 4:00 yesterday afternoon. here is the next one for you if you live in carbondale, illinois, you're going to get two in six years. there it goes, dallas, little rock, carbondale, indianapolis, buffalo, 2024, and in my best president reagan, mr. president, put on those glasses. alisyn? >> he was just pulling a chris cuomo. chris also refused to wear the glasses. he said he was going to stare down the eclipse until it looked away. >> and i did. all of a sudden the sun disappeared, it got dark. i took that as defeat.
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and then i looked back down and the sun came back out. >> that's fair. nonethele nonetheless worse for it. >> chad, thank you. >> thank you very much. he's been calling for complete troop withdrawal from afghanistan for years but president trump yesterday reversing course and recommitting troops to the war. what changed his mind? we'll ask two of our generals next. ♪ ♪ it feels good to be back. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪
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president trump recommitting u.s. soldiers to the war in afghanistan, without specifying how many troops will be deployed or even a time line. for years donald trump before he was president had said publicly that the u.s. should with draw immediately from afghanistan, so what changed? joining us is brigadier general, former deputy commander of u.s. forces in afghanistan author of
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the book "besieged" and lieutenant general mark hurtling, former army commanding general, europe and 7th army. gentlemen, great to have you here. general hurtling, what did you hear last night? >> it's not only what i heard last night, alisyn, i watched the speech a couple of times since then trying to dissect it as your military analyst and as i mentioned last night, i was anticipating a lot of whats. here's what we're going to do, but i thought what would have been important is if we got some of the hows. i didn't see that. there wasn't a whole lot of change truthfully from my perspective in terms of what we're doing. the one key one that the president mentioned was that he was going to make any kind of withdrawal condition based as opposed to time line based or troop based, and that was a good thing. but the rest of the items he talked about, the integration of diplomatic and economic measures, the afghans taking control, the focus on
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counterterrorism troops, all those kind of things, it's pretty much the same as what we've seen before, and there was no definition of victory other than in very muscular talk, we're going to bomb them, we're going to obliterate them, we're going to kill terrorists. the one thing that is contrary to what i think we should be saying is, when he said we're going to fight to win, i've been with soldiers for a very long time as i know tony has, we always fight to win. i'm mott su am not sure what it terms of a perspective new strategy. >> it was a search candidate or citizen trump would have condemned but now he's president and even he said last night, you know, in some other words i didn't know what i was talking about then. now i do, i have all of these experts around me. what did you hear last night, general, that could be different going forward? >> the first thing i heard, chris, you had a president that came out and talked about his
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appreciation of servicemen and women on the ground, and how we should honor them back home, you, alisyn, me, mark, all by being good citizens and supporting our nation and coming together. and i think that was a real important first step in the speech, that then he pivoted into talking about an honorable outcome that's worthy of the sacrifice that's happened. >> the first part of the speech seemed to be about charlottesville, not about what's happening -- >> i have a different take on that, in that he was really using the military that mark and i served in as an example for the nation to look at given all the differences. we're just members of the nation that come together and are focused on a single mission, and that's defeating the enemy and securing our nation. >> but did you hear what general hertling heard, which was not enough about the how. >> i don't want to hear a lot about the how if we're talking about troops on the ground, and you know, numbers and time lines
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and all of that. i know mark was probably frustrated, i know i was frustrated in afghanistan for 13 months when there was a time line out there and you're dealing with governors on the ground, mayors on the ground, and they're like, hey, you're leaving in three months. the taliban is over there sharpening their knife until you go. i appreciated the lack of a time line, and i don't agree that there's no measure of success. >> how do you sell congress on it, though? >> defeating the enemy, breaking the will have the enemy is a measure of success. event-driven not time driven. >> the president doesn't have unfettered discretion to continue a war there. he doesn't have the authorization of the use of military forces since 2001. >> neither did president oobama. >> true. congress said something different touring oweobama, thef is supposed to come from us, those specifics you'd think he
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has to give them to them. zploi >> i'm sure briefings are taking place and i'm hoping secretary mattis are briefing the intelligence and armed forces committees and so forth. at the end of the day the president i thought laid out a very good approach that talked about a regional approach, broadening into smack tan, leveraging india against pakistan. you got to think we have a power projection base there looking at iran, looking at pakistan, two very real threats, and at a time where we are under threat from isis, from north korea, where al qaeda, you know, the beginning of the speech i still contend was really about using the military as a role model for the nation to come together. >> general hertling it was interesting to read the "new york times" reporting they have on how the president pivoted. he was very against it publicly. he thought that the war in afghanistan was futile then he had the meeting with the war
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cabinets, it was described as dlab rahhive and comprehensive and they convinced without u.s. soldiers it would become more of a haven for terrorists. do you know the answer to what success looks like? >> there's a couple of things, alisyn, that i would say that i had hoped the president would have said last night. number one, i think the military commanders on the ground, as well as the state department people there, are telling him a couple of things. number one, there is more than one fight in afghanistan. it isn't just the afghans against the taliban. there are all sorts of terrorist organizations and could you go down the litany of the gangs of terrorists there, and tony knows this, having been a deputy over there. so there is multiple fights, and we have to fight, help the iraqi, excuse me, the afghans fight them all and it has to do with increasing their counterterrorism forces. i think that's nicholson's plan, number one. number two, pakistan has been a thorn in the side since the beginning of this operation, and we have to tell pakistan to knock it off.
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now the president said he was going to do that, again, that's the kind of how i want to hear about. there are some decrease of foreign aid to pakistan, statements about that, but one phone call from secretary tillerson isn't going to get it. the third thing is the most important thing and i mentioned this to anderson cooper last night. the president had a forum last night to tell the american people this is going to be a long war, if we want to prevent a base of support for attacking inside the united states. it isn't going to happen overnight, and it's more than just in afghanistan. there is an arc of extremism between afghanistan and west africa, and we better consider basing in all of those areas for a very long period of time, and get the american people on board. it's now tuesday morning. by wednesday, the focus of america will be somewhere else and we will, again, make afghan a forgotten war, because we think we've given a couple thousand more forces to fight the terrorists. this is a long war for america.
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>> general hertling and general tata thanks for all the expertise. >> president trump had some tough words for the regional players there, pakistan, how to use india, there's no question. take a listen. >> we can no longer be silent about pakistan safe havens for terrorist organizations, the taliban, and other groups that pose a threat to the region and beyond. pakistan has much to gain from partnering with our effort in afghanistan. it has much to lose by continuing to harbor criminals and terrorists. >> all right, let's talk about the speech last night and its implications with the u.s. ambassador to the united nations, nikki haley. ambassador, it's good to have you. >> good morning. >> so i want to talk to you about the top of the speech, because it seemed that the president was using it as an opportunity to go back a week and talk about what happened in charlottesville, and try to build up some of the moral
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agency that many people feel he surrendered last week. what did you hear in the top of his speech last night? >> well, i think he clarified the importance of unity. he clarified the fact there is no room for bigotry in our country, but he brought it home to the fact that if our troops are fighting overseas, and they're fighting for our freedoms and our rights, let's not abuse it. because at the end of the day, we are one country, and we have to stand united, and i think he clarified that very well. >> you know, you shot to national prominence because of the moral leadership that you showed in then your home state as governor, and what happened in charleston, and how you dealt with it and what you let this country know about what you would tolerate and what you would not, and calling out hate when you saw it. do you believe that the president did that when he needed to last week? >> well, i had a personal conversation with the president about charlottesville, and i will leave it at that, but i will tell you that there is no room for hate in this country. i know the pain that hate can cause, and we need to isolate haters and we need to make sure
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that they know there is no place for them, because our country is founded on so much more than that, and i think that they're a minimal crowd that's very loud that we have to stomp out every chance we get. >> and look, this is something that is going to reverb rate in your new mission as well, to the americans now, who picked up on what the president said, and said yeah, the kkk, the white supremacists, there are a lot of other people out there who are just as bad as they are. what do you say to them? >> they're terrible people. anyone that goes and tries to spew hate on someone because of their color or their religion, or their place in life, that's terribly wrong, and it's something that we don't stand for in america, and i think the president clarified that last night and what we have to make sure we do is every time we see it, we are a country that has freedom of speech, we need to always honor that, but when we see hate speech, we need to make sure we call them out. we need to make sure that we isolate them and we need to make sure that they know that they are in the minority and there is he a lot more of us that love our brothers and sisters,
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regardless of where they're from, what they've preached, and who they are. i think that's something that we have to always be very tolerant of. >> you know what? the truth of your words is so obvious from what we've seen in the past week. all these people came out of the woodwork the white spleem cysup are not the only ones, we have all the other groups and created a battle in the country which we haven't seen in recent history. let's turn to how he used it in the speech last night, am bassor. there was a lot put on the plate for you last night on the diplomatic side. i don't know how you're going to get it done with the cuts to the state department, but you got to go at pakistan, india, you have to figure out one against other and get them to create less safe havens for terrorists in places like pakistan and the northwest frontier provinces let's not forget where osama bin laden was found. >> i think the president's speech was strong. i think it was showing that
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we're taking an entirely new approach from what's happened in the past. i was in the national security council meetings, there were multiple meetings. there was a lot of information. there were a lot of questions asked and i think what you saw last night was something the president believes in, and something he's going to follow through with. in the past, it's always been time based, on when we were going to get out or based on the number of troops or all kinds of things. now it's results based and that works. we've seen it work in the way they've taken on isis in syria, and iraq. we've seen that work in the way we confronted chemical weapons in syria, whether we've confronted north korea. it works when the president speaks up and says this is what we're going to do. we're going to stomp out terrorism, and he follows through with it, and what you saw was he listened to his generals. he saw what they were saying, but he also talked about the path forward, and i think he came out with a very strong speech last night that the military, the diplomats, and citizens of this country should be very proud of.
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>> theres' no question that the president needed to have his own mind changed. citizen, and even candidate trump would have hated that speech last night, because he was the complete opposite mind-set than what you're laying out right now. he wanted the united states out of the country and he saw results-based just meaning we'd be there longer, am bassor. >> no, i think that really shows the signs of a president. you know, one thing is to be a candidate, and talk about what you think. >> true. >> the other thing is to be a president and talk about what you know, and the facts were put on the table, and he asked all the right questions, and you're going to see a very different approach. our enemies are no longer going to know what our time line is. our enemies are no longer going to know where we are and how many troops and all those things. what our enemies are going to know is we're not putting up with the terrorism anymore and we're going to do whatever it takes. more importantly the president's taking on a regional approach. this is not just about afghanistan. this is about the region, and so that means that we've got to put the pressure on pakistan. they can't safe harbor terrorists anymore. we've got to put the pressure on
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india that they have to be part of the political solution. we need to continue to let iran know that all of this terrorism and their sponsorship of it is not something we're going to put up with, and we need the international community to step up and say look, if we're going to do this, we're doing it together. it's not the united states alone. >> a lot of this is going to come down to how and we'll be watching you and watching the state department and the military to see how this concerted action will achieve these ends, but it does raise a question about things that have been done already. if you're going to own the reality that pakistan and afghanistan both are places that have harbored bad guys in the past, and do so now, and may do so in the future, why weren't they listed in the travel ban? >> i think the travel ban was based on certain threats, and more importantly, it was based on the fact that if we didn't have enough information. the goal was always, and the goal continues to be for the president to keep americans safe, and any country where we don't have enough background, we don't have the background checks, we can't ensure that
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americans are going to be safe, that's how those countries were picked. if there are other countries, and we have enough information, they weren't put on the travel ban. >> right, but explain to me why autograph began sta afghanistan and pakistan don't make the list of where it's coming back. pakistan you found osama bin laden in pakistan, there's a lot of unknowns going on there and everyone knows afganistan's infrastructure is all than any other word you want to use but competent. >> because osama bin laden did not come to america. in those countries we have information that we feel like we can obviously monitor, and we can screen and we can make sure exactly who is coming into our country. in those other countries on the travel ban, we don't have that, and the goal is not just to keep everybody out of america. the goal is to make sure that anybody that comes into our country we know exactly who they are, where they're from, and what their intentions are.
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it speaks volumes that we have not had any problems so far. we are not seeing any sort of threats but i think it's this president trying to be very careful and make sure that we're not going to allow any of those threats to come into the country, and so he's trying to protect americans on the homeland, and he's trying to protect americans abroad. >> last question to you, madam ambassador. the idea of being results-oriented, not having a set timetable, you have to get certain benchmarks met and that will wind up triggering movements in and around the country. it sounds like that's a suggestion of duration and you're going to be there longer, and if you will remember how we got to where we are right now, it started that way. it started as benchmarks for seeing different types of capabilities of security and reliance upon themselves, and it moved to time lines, because they weren't getting it done and people wanted americans out, people like donald trump. so what do you say to the american people about what they heard last night? was this an admission this is
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going to be a long war and americans are going to be committed for a very long time, there and elsewhere? >> well i think we all as americans should want this president and want our military to be successful, so we can downplay every part of this that th we want to. at the end of the day all the generals came together. the national security team came together and this president made some decisions and i can tell you the decisions he made are very different from anything that's happened before. we're not talking about duration, because we're not focused on time. we're not talking about troop numbers because we're not focused on troop numbers. what we are focused on is results, stomping out terrorism, doing whatever it takes. you've seen the president do this with isis in syria and iraq. now we're getting ready to do it in afghanistan and i think the american people should have faith in their military and know that this is something the generals strongly believe in and i believe the generals, i've seen their work and i think we should all as americans support them.
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>> nikki haley, thank you for being on "new day." >> okay thanks so much. >> alisyn? >> okay chris. president trump vowed to pull u.s. troops out of afghanistan as we've been talking about, but last night he told the nation a much different story, so how do his die-hard supporters feel about this decision? we have another one of our trademark voter panels next. this golden opportunity features leather wood and glass. raw elements made premium... by lexus. experience unparalleled luxury at the lexus golden opportunity sales event before it ends. choose from the is turbo, es 350 or nx turbo for $299 a month for 36 months if you lease now.
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>> this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> good morning, everyone. welcome to your "new day." up first, president trump reversing course, recommitting the u.s. to the war in afghanistan. he did not offer specifics about troop levels or a timetable. the president did not give benchmarks for how to measure success. >> the accoupresident attemptin clean up his controversial response to charlottesville, calling on americans to come together. he was talking about the military, and the home that they deserve to return to but it was obviously about that and more. this as the president heads back on the campaign trail with a big rally in phoenix tonight. will he hold true to his message of unity. let's discuss with cnn political analyst david gregory, cnn politics reporter and editor at large for cnn chris cillizza and international correspondent clarissa ward. gr
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