joining me now paul in washington with me our senior political analyst david gergen who knows dennis hastert well. this is a man second in line from the presidency of the united states at one point. this is one of the most powerful people in the united states. we have to keep emphasizing the significance of this. how could someone like this if these allegations are true have covered up sexual abuse from when he was a there coach years ago. >> if so the arrogance that he would become speaker of the house knowing lurking in his back ground might be this allegation. of course we've seen similar thing in the past. remember spiro agnew becoming president of the united states after taking bribes in maryland. this is not the first time a politician has second a promotion while potential criminal charges lurked in the wings. >> denial it is hastert has been married to the same woman for more than 40 years. they have two children. did anyone you just heard congressman davis. emthis is not the man i knew. this was not the man i worked with. did anyone have any idea this was someone who possibl

with me now, cnn political analyst and former presidential adviser david gergen and former aide to generaleus, colonel peter mansour. colonel, do you believe that iraqi forceses have surrounded ramadi and are ready to retake it? >> no. i think we're in the very preliminary stages of gathering forces and it would be astonishing if iraqi forces were ready to retake the city. what they are doing is fighting further east in the twin villages of a hot bed of sunni radicalism and the place where saddam's intelligence services went to ground after 2003. in fact the brigade i commanded in 2003 and four fought a battle in the area. we called it bad karma. there is some progress in anbar province further east but i doubt that the battle for ramadi will begin any time soon. >> there's some sort of action. i'm looking at the glass half full here. let's talk about ash carter's comments. first, did he speak out of turn and might his comments have goated iraqi forces into action? >> thank goodness for ash carter speaking the truth the way he did. the united states public will support this will fully if t

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