the president is only asking for the power to make certain that the u.s. means what we say. he is asking for authorization, targeted and limited to deter and degrade bashar al-assad i will make it clear. for those who feel that more ought to be done and in keeping the policy that assad may go, the degradation has an impact on the totality of the weapons available. it will have an impact on the battlefield. today i read an e-mail to me about a general, the minister of defense and has just dissected and is now in turkey. we are hearing about the potential.

shere will be downstream impact though that is not the principal purpose. if we do nothing, what is the likelihood in your country that last year all assad will use chemical weapons as a routine weapon to turn the tide of the civil war? >> the likelihood is very high. he would use them again. >> mr. secretary. >> i agree completely. i may even put it out 100%. should go check the intel on it. i think you will be convinced. probably 100%. >> if you are right, that it is 100% we will see them used routinely in the civil war, what is the probability that

such weapons will also get into the hands of has both the and other elements supporting the assad regime and thus proliferate the region against friend and foe? >> i cannot give you that probability. i just do not know what it is. i do know there are three principal supporters of assad and the rest of the world is in horror. iran, hezbollah, and russia. if iran and has below are allowed to both see him stay in power as well as do so with the use of typical weapons, that is extraordinarily dangerous for jordan, israel, lebanon, and our interests. can see that around 1035 eastern. now "newsmakers."

>> joining us on "newsmakers" is representative xavier chairman ofocratic california. joining us with the questioning here in the studios, ginger gibson who covers congress for "political." thank you for being wished us. does the president have the votes in the house of representatives to conduct oteri action in syria? ? >> i know he will work very votes. get the it has been drafted in the house. i know the president will work very hard to get them for his requests. >> according to the newspaper, at the moment the president and the houston attracts her

looking at members of congress opposing. it means he would not get a majority. many members do not want to see us enter into another civil war. many members want to see the actual evidence so they can say they can support whatever the president might want to do. a lot of folks are very including the american public. it they should be. until we can prove what the evidence is and what the response would be, i understand the skepticism. it is healthy. we do not want to go into war for the wrong reasons. we do not want to see another iraq. it is appropriate for everyone to say "show me." >> did the release of the video change views as to what you saw? i had taken a pretty clear

position that we must do something. we must act when you had the use of chemical weapons. the evidence is strong. it is not something we would allow to occur. i think pretty strongly in that regard. i am interested in finding out if the president will ask congress to authorize something that is only directed at that. issuen dealing with the of chemical weapons. i believe that any time you see , ithic evidence of the use has to move you. it might not be your son or daughter that is dying. it might not be your spouse that will never wake up. there are brothers and sisters. it is the evidence of the type of the heinous crime that was created -- committed. to be votes, we

see overwhelmingly republicans are going to oppose any resolution that comes to the floor. said she willhas not lift the bill pushes making a public push of support. how does your caucus approach this and how you talk to your members? init going to be necessary the house without democratic support would be large? how do you go about talking to members and trying to win people over? >> you are sounding like you know what is going to happen. that is the case, i i want to take you to vegas. we can make some good money on it. i do not know what is going to happen. i do know that something did happen in syria. evidence is piling up tummy tuck. what matters to me is to

make sure my colleagues have a chance to make an authorization vote that deals with this issue in a way we can support the president. this has been the will of the house. i believe what we should do is get the president an opportunity to make the case for action against the use of chemical weapons that kills innocent civilians and hundreds of children. that is what i am focused on. i cannot predict what will happen. .he facts are pretty clear chemical weapons were used. hundreds of thousands of people did die. -- hundreds, if not thousands, people did die. ofdo you just take it out house leadership hands and leave it in the white house? he have inay does the caucus? do you think he can with the

more votes? >> any vote to use our military force is a vote of conscience. i do not believe that votes of conscience suit themselves to have some sort of whip operation were you try to get people to vote a certain way because of party. i do not believe you will see a whip operation undertaken here. i do believe that people will talk. we will talk to each other and the administration and try to come to the best conclusion. cts are there and we know what the president is requesting, members will be able to make up their mind. first and foremost, my responsibility is to make sure every member in my caucus has ample opportunity to see all the evidence. clear, focused

decision on what to do with the president's request. there have been a number of briefings already. folks walked out saying they are not convinced. it seems like the more the administration makes its case the less they are convinced. it is not about the chemical weapons. very few evil are doubting they are used. they do doubt the administration's plan and assurances that the complex can -- conflict can be contained. what do you make of the administration? why are they having such a tough time? the specific case is problematic and is not winning the vote and seems to be costing votes.es -- them >> i believe that over time we

have seen an increase in the number of people not just in the u.s. but around the world to understand what the president is saying. they may not all agree but they understand that we now have strong evidence that chemical weapons were used. the evidence continues to build. it was the assad government that used those chemical weapons. we now have international support. our closest allies are now saying the same thing. i believe we are seeing a building toward support of what the president is saying. what we will bow on may differ from what we saw a week or so he would askaid for authorization to use force. i believe that what we are seeing is clarity is building. whether people vote yes or no

is not the issue. it is having a clear choice of what we're going to do. we want to have a good choice that this is not the rock -- iraq. if the president has the force , ivote to use military force am a no. if the president has a very focused approach or he is asking for limited authority both in time and scope and for the purpose of deterring future use of chemical weapons integrating the ability, but i believe people overtime will see that the evidence in your current come together. if not, we will see what happens. in terms of my district, i held a telephone town hall just a couple of days ago. a big number of my constituents

a thousand people. there was clear concern about using military force. were is a desire to know were not going to get ourselves involved militarily. this is a desire to make sure that we are not throwing our armed forces into another civil war that we do not need to get out of it. i believe that many of my constituents are concerned that if we watch and people use chemical weapons and commit mass killings that we are setting ourselves up in the future for one of the situations. in may not be them. it may be us. member of congress suggest the opposite. it suggests the support is

falling away from the president. .e have seen an informal count there are several different media operations that suggest the numbers are getting very close to you. what is the administration's case specifically? very few doubt the chemical weapons it use. declared.een it seems folks are very wary about what the administration is proposing and not sure. other folks say they do not seem to trust that there is a real plan. what are you hearing that is different? >> it is just that you are assuming that there is an authorization before the house that we can vote on that you can tally votes one way or another. what is it? you cannot yet say.

the house is not yet have a resolution offered. there are telling me a number of members of the house for expressing reservations about moving forward. there is definitely concerned about that. are you gauging that there is concerned that we may involve itself ourselves in a way that makes it impossible to get out? i have heard that as well. if you're telling me that there are certain number of votes for specific authorization, you do not have that. i do not have that. so long as we work hard to make sure that we craft that authorization, that it is very

limited and targeted, i believe that is something that can get the report. >> he was going to craft that legislation? who is going to be responsible for the warning? was something like this, they will receive the input of all members and the leadership. it comes to the door. .s the consensus else around it iople are going to be saying want to say this i cannot say that. you can try to make it so you have an authorization that addresses different voices. it will be tough. it addresses what the white house is requesting. this is something that no one had asked to see.

>> ddb president can move ahead? -- do you think the president can move ahead? >> i think he will address the american people on tuesday. i think you will do everything he can to make clear to congress that he is making a request. i think the president did something i applaud him for. he did what too many presidents have not done. in the seek the support house of representatives and the senate. i applaud him for that. this is the risk. you're talking about the dangers of the president marketing the authorization support. my sense is that the president will get the votes. say he does not. we're just speculating.

will havee president made it very clear what he wanted to do. those who vote against it will have made it very clear what they are unwilling to do. whether that affects the president or not, i cannot say. i'm not in the white house. he presidentlly, has the ability and authority to if there is not a war. i do not think he is requesting authorization to commit us to war. he will have lost the authority to move forward. i would hope that he would listen to what congress does. that is why i hope my properlys will adjust so we can decide what to do. >> this discussion and debate

is expected to take up next week or the week after. issue that has been very important to you, immigration, he sees the serious debate pushing immigration next year. what do you see? is this conversation over? >> we have seen the house become the graveyard for good ideas for the last two or three years now. i hope the republican leadership will not let a necessary reform of our broken immigration system become the that some of to theng unrelated an serious crisis. i hope numbers of congress can walk and chew gum at the same time. there's no reason we cannot tackle the things that are important to the american territory because the focus is on this issue of syria right now. the here at home because

focus is on the issue of syria right now. it is demoralizing to hear members of congress saying we cannot get our work done over here. that does not make any sense whatsoever. we should be able to fix a broken immigration system. the senate has already acted. even if the house is not believe -- does not believe they can get their act together, they can give us a chance to vote. that is not mean democrats are ready. democrats are ready to vote for a comprehensive fixed our immigration system. let the leadership but a vote on the floor of the house on a the systemoes fix which will reduce our deficit i the tune of close to a trillion dollars. it will create jobs. are working families and organizations. you name it.

businesses to the high- tech community to defenders of immigrants all say we can do this. why not at least give us a vote up or down? at least give america the chance the house can do something. en.are brokin that theyer issue is had expected to tackle early on the debt limit. we heard from jack lew that we will reach the debt limit sometime in mid october. there has been some speculation that lawmakers would work on a compromise that would extend that to mid december. are you hearing? >> we have something to do. if we cannot walk and chew gum on syria, the republicans better learn very quickly that we've got more than just chewing gum to do. of our military, how

we treat our veterans, what we do with our seniors on social security, how we do it our the congressds on acting on the budget and on the issue of paying for the debt. republican to democrat alike as that the congress and the government undertake. these are not dead obligations that republicans were oblivious to or had no role in in curring. now that we have to pay them, everyone must get to the plate. to keeping the government from shutting down i hope those republicans will keep talking about shutting down government to make their social agenda clear when not followed through. we need to do the work of the people. get things done whether it is serious, the budget, or

immigration. we have worked to do. >> let me go back to serious for one quick point. you're talking about immigration in the senate bill. one of the things interesting is the senate resolution on syria appears to have moved a little more broadly than the limited juarezin the wire as -- clauses. languageto add in that would essentially pressed the administration to try to put a finger on the balance in a civil war there. i am wondering your reaction to that. chance for getting a final resolution that can pass both of senate and house on syria? what are the challenges they are? t question.len i do believe there is a weight.

i believe it has to be very narrowly tailored. that youzz clause bring up does cause me concern. aam not interested in having vote on an authorization to use military force that can take it beyond the scope of the task in front of us. it is to let people know that we will deter any effort in the use of chemical weapons. starting to talk about tipping the balance is the syrian civil war. it goes be on the issue of chemical weapons. the use of force to deter chemical weapons use may have some impact on the syrian civil war. that is not my problem. that is serious problem. i'm interested in making sure everyone gets the message around the world.

to not act with the morally irresponsible. i do believe we can draft a tailored. that is even if the language in the resolution isn't a cause which does not have any legal effect, they are not part of the resolution that would be legally binding on our government. weback to immigration which talked about a minute ago. whiche part of the group is now seven. an update onus where you see that and what the chances are question mark gutierrez says he is ready to sign uoff. give us an update but whether you did any conversations over

the five-week vacation, whether there are any chances. where do you stand? know a number of conversations have taken place among some of us. .he staff have met before we left for the august issue work. very close to final sign off. i believe we're still very close to having final signoff. we can actually walk and chew gum. it would give some of our republican colleagues a chance to find a home to fix an

immigration system. >> at this point, are you literally waiting for republican leaders to sign off on your able to do this? what is the specific holdup that you believe right now? ready to come back on where things stand on both side of the aisle to make sure the language is something we find acceptable to present to our colleagues. this is where they are ready to

vote. an i leave it to republicans. click is there another round of budget cuts to kick in. will the cuts happen? will there be a compromise and agreement on spending cuts to between house and senate democrats and republicans? inthere are politicians congress that cannot walk into gum. we will see the devastating cuts occurred to our military. to the head start program for 75,000 children. we will probably continue to see the devastating impact based on people who are trying to maintain affordable houses tummy tuck. i believe congress was elected to walk into gum and do more. there is the reason we cannot come up with a decent compromise here that really moves us forward.

i do not think there is any reason we should allow the government to shut down or we should let interest rates --etically increase dramatically increase because one party thinks it is ok to shut government down. think the next round as sequestration cuts will happen? >> i'm going to work very hard to make sure they do not happen. it is not smart to invest in the things that create jobs. we have seen how thousands of jobs have been impacted. it is not a smart law. it was not supposed to take effect. they are holding economic progress hostage. that is the way things are these days. some people say they cannot walk into gum. >> one more piece of gum to throw in there. the farm bill came out of the house without food stamps.

it is something your caucus was heavily propose to. do you see this moving through the house and the next month? ?s that going to get lost thehis is where you see how house of representatives is so .ummed up in it dysfunction you're talking about not funding the nutrition programs that so depend on.en i have a hard time believing that there are members of congress who are so gummed up they cannot walk into gum that we will allow a nutrition program that helps feed and let it children just languish because of politics. i cannot believe that. the dysfunction is big but i do not think is complete.

i believe there are still some voices in the house that want to get things done. we will find out. we are supposed to get things done. we do not get elected to tell people we did nothing. i hope people recognize it. >> we have to get things done. >> pulling back a little bit there is a lot before congress in the next month. if you had to rate your confidence on a scale of one to 10, how confident do you feel that things are going to move? they're talking about the inability to do multiple things at the same time. soon some point in the -- it will cause a distraction. be able to find common ground. since when