angus king: thank you, mr. chairman. admiral greenert, i'm sure you are sad this is your last hearing before this committee but you have had a long and distinguished career. want to thank you. secretary mabus, your dad should have met mine. i remember him watching the time go by. they would've had some sort of spiritual kinship. the arctic is an important area of policy, i know you have been looking at the navy developing a strategy. just briefly, do you see the arctic as an emerging area of importance, of strategic importance, of national security importance to this country? jonathan greenert: i think we need to look at it deliberately. we need to understand it. things like iisecs, we need to do it more frequent, get industry up there to study the place, find out when it is going to melt, when are they going to be lines open, are the threats russia is increasing their military presence. how do we survive out there, our people, our ships, our aircraft? sen. angus king: a simple example about infrastructure icebreakers, w

we go over to the senator from maine, the independent senator angus king. senator king thank you very much, why did you attend the speech? >> well what i do around here is listen and learn. i thought it was important to be there to hear what the prime minister had to say. i had some reservations about the invitation and the way the whole thing is handled and the fact he's two weeks from his major election in israel but overall i thought it was important to be there, to be able to hear and see firsthand what his comments were. i thought he made a really strong presentation. it was i think very well constructed speech. he started out by praising the president and going beyond sort of proforma praise and talking about the things the president had done for israel that weren't well known. then he moved into his criticism of the deal. i think my only criticism of the speech is he was criticizing a deal that's not done yet they are talking about it at this very moment in geneva. he was giving us a warning but it may have been more appropriate about a month from now

i will ask senator angus king. >>> tortured by jihadi john. a former hostage lived to tell the world all about it and is now giving the inside story of his nightmare at the hands of the notorious isis killer. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >>> our top story, after lying low for ten days vladimir putin has surfaced but so has an ominous comment from the russian leader. in a television interview he reveals that he was ready to put russia's nuclear forces on alert over last year's crisis in crimea and today, a key part of russia's military is on full combat alert a year after he watched these war games, putin once again orders a massive military exercise this time in a very dangerous part of the world. senator angus king of the intelligence and armed services committees. he's standing by along with our correspondents and analysts. let's start with our pentagon correspondent barbara starr. putin clearly re-emerged today but what do we know about where he was, what are we saying about his ten-day absence? >> reporter: from the ru

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joining us now for the interview is an independent senator from maine, angus king.a member of the armed services and intelligence committee, intelligence committee is a co-sponsor of legislation that would require senate review of any nuclear deal with iran but today he took to the senate floor to denounce this open letter to iran's leader. senator king, thank you so much for being with us. >> rachel, good to be with you and you hit it right on the head. this whole thing is bizarre because the bill that was put in barely a week ago by bob corker, the republican chair of the foreign relations committee, was headed, i believe, for a veto-proof majority. people were clamoring to co-sponsor it. bob corker was very careful to keep it bipartisan. he wouldn't put a republican on it until he got a democrat and was building out from the middle and all of a sudden it got blown up. i mean, this is -- if this isn't an example of snatching victory from the -- defeat from the jaws of victory, i've never seen it. it's a very strange turn of events. >> i'm glad you -- >> they have

tennessee, senator william cowan of massachusetts, senator barbara mikulski of maryland senator angus king of may, senator kay bailey hutchinson of texas, senator kay hagan of north carolina, senate majority leader tom daschle of south dakota, senator shelby white house of rhode island, senator amy klobuchar of minnesota senator carl levin of michigan senator don ringle of michigan senator gordon smith of oregon mrs. irene noa, wife of the late senator daniel inouye of hawaii, senator chris dodd of connecticut, ms. catherine states -- stevens, wife of the late senator ted stevens of alaska, senator bob graham of florida, senator paul kirk of massachusetts, ladies and gentlemen. welcome back to the senate. [applause] please be seated. i would like to ask members of the house of representatives with us today, including the massachusetts delegation to stand as a group and be acknowledged. [applause] thank you all for being here. please seated, and i also want to acknowledge the government leaders from the commonwealth and from the city of boston that joined us today, the lieutenant governor,

corker and people like kim cane and angus king, and other people who might be an opposite force, if that haven't convinced them that my party and intent on disrailing this agreement, i don't know what will. we need the democrats to stand behind the president if this agreement is to have any chance at all, if it does come about. >> you're referring to the legislation which would require a congressional vote sign-off on a deal that were to come forward. corker saying he is going to introduce that. the question of whether it can achieve the filibuster now a very open one. can you imagine a different trajectory? basically we're in the situation where you've got these very stern words from the white house towards the netanyahu government. you've got the deal looming. you've got a strategic bilateral alliance between the u.s. and israel that is robust and durable and built on a lot in terms of domestic, political constituencies, and strategic interest, et cetera. can you imagine a new trajectory? are we off on a new path here? >> i think we're off on a slightly new path. it's a path that is an

you've seen angus king saying that the partisanship on this has made him more reluctant to support tough measures against iran. he undermines israel's interests in the u.s. >> when you talk about security and you just talked about iran. he's ignoring the palestinian issue. he ran in 2009, he was against two states. he talked about a waste of time and a waste of money. today he says i don't want a palestinian state. this is part of his plan. if you're american, and you say israel doesn't have a right to exist, you're called an anti-semite. >> it's significant that he's making this last-ditch plea basically going away from a two-state solution. >> he's a politician. if things force him to re embrace the speech of the two-state solution, he'll have for example a national unity government, which could happen. he will find a way to wiggle out of the formula. many who believed in his 2009 speech, this comes as a confirmation. we told you all the time that he wasn't serious. now he's saying it by himself. it hurts him on the international stage, and we have to wait till tomorrow to see whether

i'm joined by angus king a member of the intelligence committee.m what you know about spying practices, one of the allegations in the wall street journal story is that the u.s. learned about israel spying on america because the u.s. was spying on israel. >> well andrea the first thing i need to say, i can't confirm anything except -- >> understood. >> except what you and i both saw in that article. i have a briefing in a couple of hours but right now all i have is what was in that article. i don't think there's much question or surprise to anyone that israel and the u.s. and many of our allies watch carefully each other and try to get whatever intelligence that we can. i think that the real heart of the wall street journal story that was disturbing, the allegation was that israel had gained inside information and then turned around and leaked it selectively to members of congress to effect the congressional thinking on this proposed deal. again, i can't confirm that but if true that is somewhat disturbing. it isn't so much that they gathered the in

i will ask senator angus king. >>> tortured by jihadi john.ld all about it and is now giving the inside story of his nightmare at the hands of the notorious isis killer. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room."

. >> angus king is who was with us yesterday. >> god bless angus king. >> we'll see what the republican senator who drafted this letter is the first name on it, obviously he had a he co-ligs of 47. why didn't he have all of them? put this letter to the test. >>> also this morning, growing fallout over the racist chant caught on video. members of the sigma alpha epsilon fraternity ordered to vacate their house on the university of oklahoma campus by midnight tonight. the school's president says he hopes they leave the school altogether calling them a disgrace. for more we are joined on the ou campus. what's going on there this morning? >> reporter: yeah good morning, alisyn. students and factulty both speaking out at the university of oklahoma after it was rocked by a racist scandal. sigma alpha epsilon has until midnight tonight to remove all of their belongings from the chapter house as university president says they are severing ties with the fraternity. that highly offensive racist chant belted out by fraternity members of sigma alpha epsilon is sending shivers through the university

of congress led by senator corey booker and co-sponsored by senators clair mccaskill, ed markey angus king introduced the community broadband act of 2015 which seeks to remove state barriers for constructing municipal broadband networks. it is unfortunate however that this issue has become a partisan one as of late, because it was not always that way. indeed, in 2005 an effort by senators john mccain lindsey graham, norm coleman, russ feingold and the late frank lautenberg sought to block states from restricting local governments' ability to provide internet service through the community broadband act of 2005. when the bill was reintroduced in 2007 senators late senator ted stevens olympia snow co-joined as co-sponsors. across the hall a house version of the bill. co-sponsored by representatives fred upton and rick bauscher. but what is striking is that the language in all of these bills is nearly identical. the only thing that has changed is the lack of bipartisan support. so i am hopeful that in this time in time we will once again unite across party lines to endorse measures that will b

we want to bring in independent senator from maine, angus king a member of the armed services committeemmittee and budget committee. senator, we get one stop shopping with you. great to see you. >> good morning. >> good morning. >> let's start with the big breaking news out of yemen. that is the u.s. has pulled 100 special ops members out of the country. can you explain to us? give us some context of what this mean aren't our navy seals, our delta force guy, aren't these the guy was are used to being in the worst war torn hot spots on the globe? that's sort of their job description. why do they have to leave yemen today? >> i think because the security situation is so bad. i think it's important to clarify, yemen whereas two countries until 1990 and what's really happening is it's breaking back down again into two countries. there is a civil war that's already begun. people are saying they're on the brink of it. when you take over two major cities i call that a sill war. on top of that you have a terrorist threat. it gets confusing. the houthi s aren't really a terrorist organization. t

we want to bring in now senator angus king. he sits on the senate armed services committee.nks so much. >> pleasure to be here. >> let's talk about what happened over the weekend. boko haram pledged its allegiance to isis thereby making their reach bigger. >> first thing to know about boko haram is what their name means. western education is forbidden. that's what boko haram means. >> is that right? >> that tells you where we're starting with this group. it expands the reach of these groups worldwide, of isis and -- this is -- you know this is a serious problem. we've got -- we've got a group that's -- they're bent on some -- reaching as far as they can into africa. there's a lot of discontent in africa. al shabaab is in somalia. this is bad news. >> what's the implication? you can look at it two ways. the arab, their culture, they look down on the african culture, so this probably doesn't mean anything. they relegated the suicide missions within those terror structures or is this the beginning of true consolidation. then you have a consolidated mass against you judge i thin

people like angus king the independent for example, bob menendez and other democrats, tim caine, froma who has a really good head on this. i hope they realize that now and they don't join in any co-sponsoring any congressional legislation that might kill the deal. because there's a significant number in my party who are after that. there's also a small group i'm sad to say, that are after war with iran period. >> have you spoken to any of those 47 republicans? >> i have not in the last few days anyway i would like very much to get in to see senator corker of tennessee, who did not sign the letter. along with six other, in my opinion, moderate republicans. at least in the sense that they refrained from this very unwise act. and i'd like to talk to them about what killing a deal before it's even born means. i don't think some of them understand the details here. >> colonel, you were chief of staff to colin powell when he was secretary of state, what would he have done about a letter like this to an adversary. >> i don't think it would have ever happened. that's a very good question. col

i've also worked across the aisle with senator angus king from maine on an incentive-based, paid family medical leave proposal. our idea is not more that one-size-fits-all red tape. it's a tax incentive for employers, particularly employers of hourly and low-wage workers. it offers a limited amount of paid leave so that workers can meet the complex family needs that they have. mr. president, a common complaint that i hear from nebraskans is regulatory overreach, particularly with the e.p.a., and that's why i have offered an amendment that would prohibit the consideration of greenhouse gas emissions under the national environmental policy act. the obama administration has proposed guidance on how federal agencies should consider greenhouse gas emissions and climate change impacts while conducting nepa reviews and this was not the intent of nepa, and regulations like these could cause significant project delays. in my home state of nebraska, nepa reviews already take far too long, especially when it comes to our highway projects. time and resources are being wasted on bureaucratic paperwo

our colleague angus king has come to the floor repeatedly to describe the northward march of the iconic maine lobster. cod populations in the gulf of maine suffered for years from overfishing. now the cod are struggling to recover as temperatures in the gulf increase. the cod might not return. instead, seeking out cooler water elsewhere. another scientific fact. warmer temperatures make oxygen less soluble in water. where oxygen is too low for marine life to flourish, that creates dead zones which are growing around our oceans in size and in number. if carbon pollution continues at pace global oxygen levels in the ocean are predicted to drop by more than 3% over the century. do we tell the fish to hold their breath while we wait to wake up? carbon pollution also makes the oceans more acidic, another scientific fact. and ocean water has absorbed roughly a quarter of all historic carbon dioxide emissions. driving up the p.h. level of the oceans at rates not seen in perhaps the last 300 million years. to put 300 million years in context, that's more than a thousand times as long as our spe