tonight a conversation with joe lieberman. the former democratic and then independent senator from connecticut. also al gore's running mate in 2000. he was an early supporter of intervention in iraq. iran may turn out to be our ally in this conflict. then we will turn to a conversation with toni braxton. entitledt tome is "unbreak my heart." we are glad you joined us. those conversations are coming up right now. ♪ >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> a senator from a democrat -- a senator first a democrat and then an independent. at the american enterprise institute that has it as their mandate to rebuild american leadership around the globe. he joins us from new york. thisto have you on program. >> good to be back with you. tavis: let me start with what that means. to refill the american leadership around the globe. what do you think that means. >> the first egg senator john kyle and i, the cochair of the broadlythat is bipartisan -- all committed to american international leadershi

, himself, running on a new political party he created to get joe lieberman re-elected.inent democrats -- josh, how do you make sense of this? >> i think it's a couple of things. one is almost nobody rose their hand to oppose kevin mccarthy. serious tea party conservatives in the house could have run for majority leader. they didn't. he had a token opposition from raul labrador. you're going to end up doing things that annoy the tea party. >> you have to. matter of a definition of your job. >> some republicans have basically sold tea party conservatives this line just by saying no, no, no, we can force a democratic senate and democratic president to impose whatever policy agenda we want. that doesn't work. if you're a majority leader, part of your job is finding a way to get a debt ceiling increase through the republican house. and so if you become majority leader, you end up getting branded as a sellout just like eric cantor did and i think they didn't want to take that risk. >> i was particularly interested by the fact everyone said a lot of people analyzed the brad up

i want to bring your attention n editorial by former senator joe lieberman. this is available online. travis from new york is on the democrats line. caller: my question is about syria. serial?s this mean for guest: it means a lot for syria. serial policy how changed in the u.s., even before it was clear that the american people were not in the mood to intervene when the president suggested striking syria for the use of chemical weapons. there was a lot of reservation about what the u.s. should be doing. discovered that al qaeda affiliated groups were wasing ground and everybody looking at the prospect of them controlling. they clearly see the united states as an enemy and have done everything they can to attack american interests and would if they were further empowered. what is happening here is you have two trends that are going on the same time. people are more terrified about islamicpect of the state of iraq and syria taking hold in syria. people have more reservations supporting the opposition. people want to differentiate between operation that is milit

but i would go back to joe lieberman in 2006. people do not remember this, but the progressive left beat joe lieberman, a very powerful incumbent senator, and really disrupted the status quo, and you were seeing this more and more. there is a trend line here. barack obama did the same thing as hillary clinton. that new poll out showing chris mcdaniel is about eight points over thad cochran. "new york times" says the mississippi senator has a plan for avoiding a cantor-like fate by saying we will expand our pool of voters. guest: certainly the cantor defeat what wins in the sales of the activists in mississippi. i was with them on election night, and the first thing they said is -- are you guys still going to be with us? and i said of course. i would suggest that it is wishful thinking on the part of the thad cochran's campaign that they can expand the voter pool at this point because democrats who of already voted are not eligible to vote in a runoff runoff, so traditionally lower turnout affairs, and this race will be won on the

joe lieberman was, by 2006, an apostate within the democratic party over his incredibly enthusiastic support for the iraq war and i think he appeared in the 2004 republican convention. you know, cochran is in no way, shape, or form that kind of a figure within the republican party. to hear them talk about him like this is preposterous. >> the difference being, a bunch of liberals preferred lamont, but they didn't sound like this after the results came in. steve, that kind of bitterness, i didn't hear any of it privately or publicly after the election. i think there might have been real disappointment in wishing lamont were the senator, but it wasn't like this. >> look, there's two types of churches. there's the type that goes out there and tries to get converts in the church's door and the type of church that hunts heretics. and the republican party, particularly this wing of the republican party, is in the heretic hunting business. by no rational process do you get to a place where thad cochran is anything but a conservative. and so though it really is silly talk, and it's destructi

news morning from senator joe lieberman, from inside "the washington post."t is wrong from bayside, new york. -- is ron from bayside, new york. funny: america is a country. the united states beats the hell out of you and that let's say, let's be friends. look at germany today. iraq, there is another breed of people. it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that when we pullout it would go back to write the way it was. have beenand shia killing each other for hundreds of years. obama just wants to get the credit and say, i ended it. now he has his hands full and we are going to have another afghanistan. if you want to comment, i will listen. next is --st: joining us on the democrats line. all sit back and do monday morning quarterback. this thing did not come overnight. people have been fighting for many years. i do not understand where they get this poll that somebody of the american people are 'ssapproving of the president handling of foreign-policy. i think he is doing a great job. secondly these people -- they have been fighting for many years. i t

again, i crafted it originally with then-senator joe lieberman and now have joined with senator landrieu to introduce in this congress. it directs the secretary of the interior to install an area of the world war ii memorial a plaque or inscription with the prayer that we have just read. last congress the house of representatives passed this legislation with an overwhelming vote of 386-26. and after a hearing on may 29, they are moving forward with doing so again. today, on the eve of this historic anniversary, it's time for the senate to lead the way toward enshrining this singular moment in the history of our great country. senator landrieu and i intend to call up calendar number 339 later this afternoon and we hope in doing so that we will achieve unanimous consent to be able to have the senate proceed to consideration of this legislation and then ask unanimous consent for it to be passed by this body. this is legislation that we have worked on carefully. it has gone through the process of working with the department of the interior. we have ensured that it is consistent not just with

but i would go back to joe lieberman in 2006.ople do not remember this, but the progressive left beat joe lieberman, a very powerful incumbent senator, and really disrupted the status quo, and you were seeing this more and more. there is a trend line here. barack obama did the same thing as hillary clinton. that new poll out showing chris mcdaniel is about eight points over thad cochran. "new york times" says the mississippi senator has a plan for avoiding a cantor-like fate by saying we will expand our pool of voters. guest: certainly the cantor defeat what wins in the sales of the activists in mississippi. i was with them on election night, and the first thing they said is -- are you guys still going to be with us? and i said of course. i would suggest that it is wishful thinking on the part of the thad cochran's campaign that they can expand the voter pool at this point because democrats who of already voted are not eligible to vote in a runoff runoff, so traditionally lower turnout affairs, and this race will be won on the gr

lindsey graham, joe lieberman and i were in bagdad and ir beal.nted out. we came back and said, look, we've got a deal there and it was rejected by mr. donelan and the white house. we could have negotiated a deal because lindsey graham, joe lieberman and i were on the ground and got the commitment from maliki and ar law which to do it. that's just a matter of record. >> you matter tremendously in these situations because of your expertise. you've become a little bit of a cassandra. by that i mean you predict doom in all these situation. is it incumbent upon you, especially because of who you are, to be offering solutions and not doing what some are suggesting is a victory dance that things have gone wrong? >> well, thank you for that comment, chris. but in 2006 when i called for the resignation of donald rumsfeld because we were losing in iraq, then i was the brave maverick standing up against my own president. now saying what i think is the right thing in this situation, i'm now, as you said, the cassandra. i know the formula for victory. i know

president, of all the visits that the senator -- the former senator from kentucky, joe lieberman and lindsey graham and i made every fourth of july, two or three times a year traveling the country and having been in the company of not just great leaders like general petraeus and ambassador crocker, but the young men, the privates, corporals, especially the sergeants. these brave, brave men and women who were serving, who were willing to sacrifice on behalf of somebody else's freedom, and they pleefd they won. the surge succeeded. any military expert will tell you the surge succeeded. but it was won at great sacrifice. among the cities, the black flags of al qaeda fly over the city of fallujah today. 96 brave soldiers and marines were killed, 600 wounded. what do we tell their families? what do we tell their families? what do we tell their mothers? so it's not too late. america is still the most powerful nation on earth. we still have the finest and strongest military ever. we have the finest young men and women who are serving in it ever. it is not too late. but we've got to have a d

i was in baghdad at the time with lindsey graham and joe lieberman and we could have done it if we wantedand that's why i've predicted that these events would take place. >> let me interrupt because the secretary of state, marie harf, says you're dead wrong on this issue. i'll play for you what she said today at the state department. >> and how would a few thousand americans saying don't do that have stopped this? i would press senator mccain to say specifically how it would have prevented what is happening and what he thinks we should do now because he's also said he's not supportive of military option. you're so concerned that you think it's a threat to the united states, what would you do? you don't get to just attack us and call on all of us to resign. you get to come up with your own ideas. >> senator, you heard what she said. >> first of all, i'm not in the business to responding to that kind of trivia but, first of all, we left troops behind in korea, in germany, japan, even in bosnia. they are stabilizing force. that's what the influence would have been. maliki got progressively w

. >> i want to read you both something from former senator joe lieberman says that what is happening will happen in afghanistan after u.s. troops pull out of there in 2016. he writes an op-ed in the washington post and i say, quote, the obama adm administration's plan for afghanistan severely raises the risk of where the region of the attacks of 9/11 were plotted. and with the implications of the danger to the united states and the allies, congressman, is this notion something that the white house should consider for afghanistan as well? >> well, i have a lot of respect for senator lieberman, but the fact is that also in afghanistan, it takes a political solution. in afghanistan, when you had president karzai and just like maliki in iraq, neither one of those are effective leaders. in afghanistan, karzai's term is about to end, and both of the presidential candidates either one said they would work with america on a agreement which is positive, but in iraq,ly tell y -- i will tell you that maliki squandered a chance to get the dem xra circumstanc democracy, and they can get it back i

lindsey graham, joe lieberman, and i were in iraq and negotiated and the kurds and maliki wouldn't dod i predicted in 2011 when we left that there would be failure -- a colossal failure. so all of those fears we had have come true. and it didn't have to happen. because we had the conflict won. >> willie geist. >> senator mccain, it's willie geist. good to see you this morning. i think only to come up this week and flair up in an incredible way. can you articulate for people at home what you think is at stake here? what are we watching unfold here? >> i would say that the over 4,000 mothers and fathers and husbands and wooif who is lost their loved ones in that conflict, they haven't put it completely in the rearview mirror. >> i agree. i was talking about the american public at large. >> yeah. well, the fact is that the president is now deciding saying that there's no option. i'm sure you saw the reports where two iranian force their elite battalions have moved into iraq. this has turned into one of the most security threats to american security in recent history. there is now the syr

john mccain says they did have a deal in place with joe lieberman and him working it, and it could havecal reasons back here at home, playing to the polls, they pulled out. >> i think that's a bit of hind sichlt maliki would not sign an agreement. he was playing his shia base. the fact is we didn't have a force there. i think we have to look at it from where we are at this point. >> politically now, what's the right move? we'll goat the obvious things. are you on the ground or not, do we have enough people? however, the headline, dealing with iran directly, do you basically deal with the enemy when you have all the issues with them to help in this situation? is that the right move? >> i think we can deal with iran particularly in the context -- broader context of other regional players, turkey and others, but i think we have to be very clear here. iran is interests are in iraq and our interests are not the same. iran seeks to have a shia dominated iraq within its lean as part of an iranian kres set from lebanon, syria, iran, iraq. that's their objective. our objective is a stable hopefu

i was in baghdad at the time with lindsey graham, joe lieberman, and we could have done it if they hadthe secretary of state, john kerry's spokeswoman says you're dead wrong on this issue. i'll play to you what she said at the state department today. >> sure. >> and how would a few thousand americans saying don't do that stop this? i would press senator mccain to say specifically how it would have prevented what we saw from happening and what he thinks we should do now. i also heard senator mccain say he is not supportive of military options at this time. you're so concerned, you think it is existential threat to the united states, what would you do? you don't just get to attack on us, call on us to resign, you have to come up with your own ideas. >> all right, senator, you heard what she said. >> first of all, i'm not in the business of respond to go that kind of trivia, but first of all, we left troops behind in korea and germany, japan, even in bosnia. they are a stabilizing force. that's what the influence would have been. maliki got progressively worse after we left, had no influe