with me this afternoon, democratic senator chris coons. he's on that committee.s for joining us this morning, senator. >> thank you, kristen. >> to get you on record, if the vote were held today, how would you vote? >> the reason i'm back in washington this morning is get a classified briefing on the administration's information. there's intelligence that supports their assertion that assad used chemical weapons to massacre 1500 of his own people. what i'm looking for in this morning's briefing and this afternoon's hearing is a clear strategy, a path forward behind missile strikes or aircraft strikes that i think may be called for to make sure that we respond forcefully. our president did draw a red line. i think it is important for our credibility in the region and world for us to act but i first need to be convinced that the intelligence is there and is sound and that the administration has thought carefully about the strategy going forward because there will inevitably be responses to attacks. >> just to be clear, you don't know how you are going to vote at th

the senate foreign relations committee led by john mccain and his partner chris coons of delaware have approved a measure not only backing an attack on syria for its use of chemical weapons, but a fresh new declaration that makes it the policy of the united states to, quote, change the momentum on the battlefield in syria, committing this country, the united states of america, to providing lethal, indeed, all forms of assistance to this syrian opposition. so here we are, faced with the horror of certain rebels and what could be coming in this senate approval of helping the syrian rebel groups, including the revenging executioners we see in today's pictures. nbc foreign correspondent ayman mohyeldin. may endorse rebels we know little about when it's comprised of extremists and terrorists. those were exacerbated. it shows in the process of executing seven prisoners. you're to be see a clip from the full video. i should warn you. i will not actually show the video themselves. the video is quite graphic. >> what happens next leaves little to the imagination. multiple gunshots ring out in r

military strikes him john congressional approval they've been careful not to say that in fact senator chris coons is confident however that the president is listening to congress members i welcome and respect the president coming to congress to seek authorization i don't think he had to i think constitutionally he has the power to act in exigent circumstances i think both what we decide and how we decide it here in the congress is important of both as a role model of how democracy can work and in order to end up hopefully with sort of unified support behind a narrow and clear path forward part of the problem here though is in my biggest complain about it is you know i want to be proud of the president for bringing this forward but then they say well they won't adamantly say they're going to adhere to congressional verdict so is the vote just feed or is it just pretend and that's a pretty important thing if the president wants credit for believing in current question authority and coming forward with us he needs to say yes the votes binding absolutely i would never go to war if i lose the vote but

jerry connelly, barbara lee, chris coons. i want to start with you, congress him would, and ask to react when he says i challenge anyone going to vote no, which you have said you intend to do, to take a look at that video of the children dying of what appears to be of a sarin gas attack and think about their vote. has that video given you pause? >> candy, for me, first of all, these crimes against humanity, these error risk attacks, the use of chemical weapons, it's who are ren dwu horrendous, outrageous. so i don't think any of us would say we don't support an effort to bring those accountable and it appears and i think the evidence is very clear that it's the assad regime, that we do not hold them accountable in a very forceful way. these images, the tragic deaths, the terrible violence that's taking place is unconscionable. what i worry about is more retaliation, more use of force. more efforts to escalate the war by other continues in the region. so i worry that the unintended consequences could even be more stark and dir

he and the delaware democratic senator chris coons added amendments that read in part the president's goings of assad leaving power an end to the violence and negotiated political settlement in syria are prerequisites for a stable democratic future for syria and it is the policy of the united states to change the momentum on the battlefield in syria so as to create favorable conditions for syria that ends the conflict that does change the game. the resolution does not authorize president to send in combat troops to make any of that happen. of course recent history shows he doesn't need authorization. the full senate vote still has to come and this is not a done deal. today a house committee held its first hearing on possible military action. this afternoon, on "studio b," the head of the subcommittee on middle east told me congress is facing what she calls a terrible decision in the land of bad options. >> the mission is not to stop the slaughter. what we're in fact saying is you can continue killing your own people. you just can't kill them with chemical gas. that is in essence what

we'll talk to jerry conly of virginia and barbara lee of california and delaware senator chris coonsnvinced him to vote for the resolution. tomorrow at 6:00 p.m., president obama will sit down with our own wolf blitzer and the return of "crossfire." if you missed any part of today, head to itunes and search "state of the union." fareed zakaria is next. >>> this is gps, the global public square. welcome to you in the united states and around the world. i'm fareed zakaria. we're going to get you one step ahead on understanding the crisis in syria. we have put together our own war room, a national security council of senior officials from recent administrations that is assembled and ready to take us through the path ahead for president obama. we have general wesley clark, james steinberg, and nicholas burns. then, a critical question. can president obama take action without congress? should he hav

i do think john will offer an amendment that, i think, will be constructive, and i think chris coons may be doing something similar. they may even work together. but we had a really good morning. it started off a little, you know, it's a big issue. and yet i think as time went on, there's a possibility -- i don't want to, i never want to overload and say things that are not going to happen. but i think there is a reasonable chance that maybe by the end of the day we'll be in a place where there's consensus. >> can you just discuss how hard it is to -- [inaudible] something that's narrow enough to, you know appease some and broad enough to appease others? >> yeah. look, on an issue like this and certainly on this one there is. i do think, again, just with the conversations we're able to have in a more flexible environment, again, i think we could well get there today, and i hope that we do. >> [inaudible] >> yeah. now, let me say this. we certainly are more than glad to convene again friday, saturday, sunday, monday and, you know, nobody -- everyone understands that there's no, there

the last congress my colleague senator chris coons and our colleague sheldon whitehouse, from anotherate, and i tried to pull off a triple play of our own. we introduced a bill called the reducing federal energy dollars act, and it focused like a laser on bringing down federal energy costs. today i'm happy to see that many of its provisions have been incorporated in the shaheen-portman bill. and if we pass it, we can pull off that triple play after all. one of the provisions that takes what works and seeks to ensure that we do more of it. here's one example. not too long ago the veterans affairs department mandated that employees turn off their computers at the end of each work day. this is not the whole federal government. this is one department of the federal government, the v.a.. the agency also began acquiring more energy efficient computers and software. combined the department plans to save about $32 million over the next five years. $32 million, not too shabby. the bill before us today calls on all agencies to adopt these kinds of energy and cost-saving techniques. another prov

coons. as liberal as they get supporting action. oh my god. and dick durbin. dick durbin supporting action. who would have thunk it and angus king knows some surprising nos. marco rubio no. chris murphy, jim reesh, bob johnson, rand paul we knew that tom you uudoll how could you process it. >> this was the easiest vote senate relations committee between menendez and corker you had bipartisan effort president's resolution. you touched on tellerrier. the first and most important thing for the president to do is to convince the president and american people that there is a strategic american interest in taking action against saddam hussein. not simply a humanitarian or an international component but there is a strategic u.s. interest. and, you are right. the outcome in syria is either assad wins in which case hezbollah and iran and russia win or assad loses in which case iran, hezbollah, and russialess. if assad, iran, hezbollah, and russia win, then that changes the balance of power in the middle east against us. and if they lose, it advances it in our direction. >> bill: the argument for people and as you know you see the polls. many republicans and conservatives say okay, well