apparently not an ally.t's what president obama said last night about egypt, which gets boatload of money from the american taxpayers. late today, the administration tried to walk that back. this comes as the american diplomatic outposts all over the world are on heightened alert and the u.s. citizens are warned about dangers of traveling in some spaces. here is chief white house correspondent ed henry. >> one day after accusing the republican rival of shooting first and aiming later, president obama's own administration was in damage control mode after the president used interview with telemundo to reveal what sounded like dramatic shift in u.s. policy toward egypt. >> i don't think we would consider them an ally but we don't consider them an enemy. they are a new government trying to find its way. >> in the 1980s, egypt was designated a handful of major non-nato allies under u.s. law enjoys special status, buying american military equipment more easily. nonetheless, white house spokesman jay carney today i

he said the word ally doesn't amount to much. and call the term ally a legal term of art. for the record, the oxford english dictionary defines the term as a person or organization that cooperates with or helps another in a particular activity. not much art. in that, a simple word. not necessarily a term. for the president's enjoyment, enemy means a hostile nation or its armed forces or citizens. meanwhile from the white house come obama campaign, much of the mainstream media, and even some republicans going after governor romney's criticism of the initial apologies released by the cairo embassy. the very same words that were disavowed by president obama himself and removed from the embassy website. many of governor romney's supporters are wondering why more republicans are failing to voice their support. where were his surrogates? undeterred and unhesitatingly, governor romney has kept up the pressure on president obama, criticizing what he calls his failure to lead. >> the world needs american leadership. the middle east needs leadership. >> president obama and his admin

by then, maybe they will blow themselves up. >> andrea: speaking of allies you brought up allies.i were israel i'd be puzzled. we thought mubarak was ally of ours now. when president obama was asked interview with tell money doe if egypt was an ally, here is what he said. >> i don't think that we could consider them an ally. but we don't consider them an enemy. >> andrea: maybe someone should give the president a flowchart on two the allies are and who they're not. egypt, are they not, the muslim brotherhood? >> eric: someone tell me, did i miss it or has president obama not gone to israel yet? as he not stepped foot in israel? pretty sure he hasn't. >> kimberly: too busy. >> eric: not as president, right? he has gone to cairo and he has gone to several other places. he made time for some of the other allies. israel is amazingly important to keeping the peace in the middle east. if israel goes or israel taken over or bombed by iran, the whole area -- if you want to talk about caliphate? caliphate two. >> andrea: hold on, bob. i want you to react to this. here is what obama said ab

but if you mean by ally, partner and special diplomatic relationship and cooperation we are that ally. >> rose: president morsi for the hour. next. >> tonight a special edition of charlie rose. >> rose: mohamed morsi won an historic election this june to become the fifth president of egypt. he is the first civilian to hold this title. two years ago it would have been difficult to imagine a member of the muslim brotherhood leading the country. the history of the party has been defined by suppression but the arab spring transformed the political scene as protesters drove lmes out of power. the president inherits a tough breathe. morsi has had to deal with a military guard. he must gain the trust of minorities and work to overcome sectarianism and has also come to power in a time of increasing regional instability. in syria, the conflict between the government and free syrian army is settling into a long and bloody war. the middle east peace process in which egypt played a leading role has stalled as rhetoric heats up over iran's nuclear program, israel is increasingly isolated and most

is egypt an ally, is it not an ally? is israel an ally, is it not an ally. at the domecratic convention is jerusalem the capital of israel or is it not. president won't meet with netanyahu because he is too busy yet they are supposed to be a ally and he has your back. all the administrations i've been in, you want to send a consistent message. as a parent do you want to tell your child you can do this, do that? no you want a consistent strong message. otherwise they don't know are with you stand and they will take full advantage. bill: in fairness, look at post-arab spring middle east. >> right. bill: look at egypt we're not sure whether or not yet whether morsi is really on our side. he is trying to demonstrate that right now. apparently they had a fairly tough conversation, president obama an morsi last night. would it be better to say of course the country of egypt, the people of egypt are allies of the united states. this is a new government that we are, sort of learning to deal with at this point? >> the problem with that is that you've got to the say t

is egypt our ally? >> well, they formally are our ally.correct of the president to say this. there is something called a non-nato ally. so he's wrong and had to walk it back. on the other hand, egypt sometimes doesn't feel like an ally, i am not sure a lot of people heard that and thought, oh, my god. on the other hand, you know, when mitt romney traveled to england and mildly offended an ally, talk about this british preparation for the olympics, it was a huge uproar. i don't have any problem with obama getting flagged for this. >> the situation on the ground in egypt has changed so fast. this was a country that was -- has been a very staunch ally of ours for decades. we have worked with them in great depth on many of the greatest crisis that we have faced. it has changed and instead of an authoritarian regime that we could -- we knew what they were going to do, if they said they were going to do something, now all of a sudden, you are dealing with a very new elected government that is doing things that, you know, sometimes are back and f

for the last 40 years the united states has had two main allies, arab allies, in the middle east -- saudi arabia and egypt. the other ally in the middle east being israel. so for the president to come out and say, well, he's not exactly sure if egypt is an ally anymore but it's not an enemy, that is a significant change in the perspective of washington toward this country, the biggest country in the arab world. it makes one wonder, well, was it worth it? was it worth supporting the arab spring, supporting the demonstrations here in tahrir square, when now in tahrir square there are clashes going on behind me right in front of the u.s. embassy. you can see now teargas coming -- that teargas being fired into a crowd of demonstrators who are trying to get close to the u.s. embassy which is at the end of that street and throw rocks at the u.s. embassy. a very different scene here, a very different egypt. before, when the united states, president obama, was supporting the demonstrators here, president mubarak was in power -- and egypt was very much an ally. now, the president doesn't seem to b

they are a major nonnato ally. ally is a legal term of art .ve a mutual defense treaty with ally. >> gretchen: that is called spin mr. #2: not even a good spin. >> gretchen: here's the spin. the united states was behind getting rid of mubarack and the whole arab spring. you would want egypt as an ally with a new government. that is confusing. >> eric: do you send the money. the billion in loan excusing wait and see what happens and see how this thing plays out. i would say hold off for now. >> brian: i would say this, if we give 1.2 billion to someone who might not be our ally, how much do we give to ally. >> eric: three billion and that is to israel >> gretchen: we need egypt to be an ally. egypt and the reason israel remained safe all of these years and we need egypt to be an ally. the arab spring was important to see what sort of government would go in place. many people were concerned when the brotherhood took control. >> brian: i heard of spin but art term. >> eric: egypt is feeling more like pakistan. allegedly an ally. but osama bin lade

this is a line that obama's not treating israel's an ally. israel currently receive more than a quarter of all u.s. foreign aid even though it's only one one thousandth of the world's population and that's a relatively affluent country obama has brought us aid. israel to its highest level in history despite cutbacks in domestic programs at home he has used this veto power in the un security council to veto a non-binding resolution simply reiterating the longstanding consensus international law based on the force of the. convention for previous un security council resolutions and a landmark world court decision that that the colonization the settlements in the west bank are illegal i could go down the list but. to say that some of that that obama is not adequately supporting israel or that he is not treating his role as an ally is a gross distortion of obama's record you can agree or disagree with specifics but he has recommitted and self both in word and deed two is a steadfast support to israel even under the current right wing government wi

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if the regime is an ally, that's a different conversation. what obama is saying and he may not fully understand or appreciate what he's communicating to the egyptians is we're friends with who is ruling at the moment. the relationship between the peoples is secondary or unimportant, and that's potentially a quite divisive thing for the president to say. i don't think that was necessarily what he meant, but that's how it will be translated in the street. >> andrea, is that one of the pit falls what the president said? >> he was talking about the government, and he was just about to call president, mo mor when he set down with jose. i think he was speaking government to government, because it's the government that get $1.5 billion in aid. that's an issue on capitol hill, as we were discussing an hour ago with congressman chris van holland who very much believes, by the way, that despite some criticism that this aid is important because it's important to continue this relationship. it's a pivotal relationship in the region. >> that is so true. w

we don't know but we want them to be our allies and need them to be our allies.e not giving them this money out of the goodness of our hearts, but we are giving them this money because it's in our national interests, and it's a complicated case. it's a case the president will have to be making. >> how much do you have the debate about the managing of the arab spring and the middle east politics and it's worthy of debate and should be part of the presidential debate and at the same time not take your eye off the ball of what the american voters are concerned about, which is the economy? >> yeah, for romney you have to be commander in chief, but you are right at the end of the day, mitt romney wins the election if people go into the ballot box and vote solely on the economy, and today is the day that we will mourn the loss of american life and tomorrow you need to be back on the economy. >> what is the debate question you want to see asked between when it comes to the arab spring, between the president and mitt romney? >> what do you do to win the street? it's one

is not a reliable ally. and the fact that you would have the prime minister of israel on this show explaining his relationship with the president of the united states -- we have never had a such a disconnect between the israeli prime minister and the president. >> the prime minister of israel did not describe that as a snub. >> i'm saying it. >> it's ridiculous. the president has been consistent. he's been steady. and he set real progress and policy wins in the middle east. this is a seriously deeply rooted phenomenon, the arab spring, that will be unfolding for a long time. the last thing we need is to start making quick emotionally charged decisions. we need consistent steady leadership like the president has shown. >> there is a policy component, andrea and bob, to this and "the new york times" writes about it in a piece this morning. i want to put a portion of that on the screen. the upheaval over an anti-islam video has suddenly become mr. obama's serious foreign policy crisis of the election season, an

and so they see no reason to be pro-ally. remember that allies from world war i are primarily england, french and czarist russia. so there is pro-german or at least anti-english feeling in new york city, very prominently among irish-americans beard polish americans are split. who's going to get us independence? is it going to be bizarre or the kaiser? is sort of a topic and there's different factions within poland, as in the homeland there's factions in each group is looking across the ocean and really thinking about its national ambitions. jews. the czar of russia is one of the principal allies. so you've got england with this constitutional monarchy. the bow work of literal ascent in the world. you've got french with this republican in some sense is revolutionary liberty equality. and then you've got czarist russia, which is the most backward, corrupt monarchy in europe and is also of course bitterly anti-semitic and a larger reason why so many jews come over from russia and russia poland, lithuania and parts of the russian

administration and of course our allies in europe western allies need to are going to be surprised by not just this attack but by the widening expression of extremist i mean those who attacked the embassy in cairo these salafist you hottest extreme of course but that the allies of the sitting government of egypt and we are going to be reviewing the decision to send another package of foreign aid we send about one point five to one point eight billion dollars to egypt meanwhile the president of egypt muslim brotherhood. mr morsi has been changing the structure of the army of egypt replacing his own supporters so this administration and and over the next administration are going to be facing tremendous problems in two thousand and thirteen in the region. and it's really really murky waters wallington to navigate for any government because there are so many factors here. you know some of them stem from long before you were i were alive and some of them stem from from recent history and a changing of the guard and change post arab spring what do you think though are the most important thi

allie rasmus is live on east 14th street, what happened allie? >> reporter: well the restaurant was on fire and the firefighter who cut his leg wild on the building trying cut holes to release some of the smoke that was trapped underneath the roof in the building and he ended up cutting his leg with a circular saw. he was immediately rushed to the medical center in caster valley. >> he has a good laceration to his leg. >> reporter: now when firefighters arrived there was heavy smoke and fire coming from the buildings but they don't know what sparked this fire but it appears to be the back storage room where a dumpster is stored and when we arrived there was still smoke coming from that dumpster.