peter brooks, i want to give you the last word. instead of an arab spring, peter, will this be an arab winter and one weir not going to like in terms of american interest interess and one whoses door has been opened by president obama? >> we're in the crosshairs and if we don't teach these people a lesson we'll pay this price again. we have to do something that shows resolve. we have to show strength. we can't show weakness and there's something that has to be done to deter others from taking similar acts. >> let's not forget that the egyptian government is trying to stop these things. they're not encouraging them -- >> why hasn't he apologized then? the president of libya has arc apologized, larry. why hasn't the president of egypt? they tore down and ripped our flag apart on the day we were commemorating 9/11. where's the apology for the muslim brotherhood president of egypt? >> he stopped the violence. they had an election. we supported an election. he won the election. >> these pictures show the violence outside our embassy is c

i am joined now by heritage foundation national security affairs senior fellow peter brookes. eter, good to have you with us. it looks like completely rebukes everything that the obama administration and its top officials have been saying to the american people for more than a week about what transpired in benghazi. >> exactly. and it is also supportive of what libyan the libyan prime minister and what he has been saying. at the same time that he was saying that, our ambassador to the united nations is saying no, no, we think that it was protest due to the film. we believe that folks in benghazi, a small number of people came to the embassy were to the consulate to replicate the challenge that was posed in cairo, and as that unfolded, to have been hijacked by some individual extremists who came with heavier weapons, weapons, that as you know, in the wake of the revolution in libya are quite common and accessible. and it evolves from there. lou: can you divine in any way by a top ranking official, the obama administration would straightforwardly, emphatically assert statements t

where is president obama on this distinguished former deputy assistant secretary of state peter brooksounds off. that's next. >>> welcome back to "the dud low report kudlow report." i'm joe kernen in for larry. remember when president obama campaigned in 200 8 and four years later he said he can't change washington from the inside. what makesa i president think he'll change washington in the next four years? the president and paul ryan go at it over medicare. the administration will reward hospitals that spend the least per senior. we're going reveal how that plan and obama care medicare cuts could lead to the deaths of thousands of americans. first up, pakistan declared today a day of love for the prophet muhammad, a national day for protests and the american -- anti-american demonstrations turned deadly. at least 17 dead ask nearly 200 others injured. muslims took to the streets and half a dozen countries and ten days after.s. ambassador chris stevens and three others were murdered at our embassy in libya, american soil. secretary of state clinton finally, publicly admitted today wha

we'd like to bring in peter brooks.istant secretary of defense, former cia officer under the bush administration i believe that was. are you there? >> yes, i am. >> so i wanted to read something to you, it's a presser that came out from this. libya's deputy interior minister, he had a live presser from benghazi not too long ago and this is his account. an angry crowd marched towards the u.s. consulate with their weapons to protest the u.s. stance and the fact that they didn't stop the insulting movie about the prophet from being made. when the consulate security guards heard the gunfire it seems that they felt thats consulate was about to be attacked or under attack so they started to fire from inside the consulate. this led to more anger, and this is when the consulate was stormed. we were talking earlier with you about what happened in cairo. in cairo, egypt. the protests that were happening there. it was this anti-muslim movie that was created by an american, and that's what sparked the protest there. flag bunrning.

later on, we talk to peter brooke s, former secretary of defense. of defense jamie rubin, middle east analyst robin wright and obama campaign foreign policy ambassador tim roemer as well as ambassador richard williamson. >> a big lineup. still ahead, remembering the man behind the diplomat. >> instinctively and intentionally and through his training, he was about bringing people together. >> the family of u.s. ambassador chris stevens talks for the first time about his life and his death in the benghazi consulate attack. you're watching "early start." t family dinner to be special. dad, we want pizza. you guys said tacos. [ female announcer ] it doesn't always work out that way. you know what? we're spending too much money on eating out anyway. honey, come look at this. [ female announcer ] my money map from wells fargo is a free online tool that helps you track your spending. so instead of having to deal with a tight budget, you could have a tighter family. ♪ wells fargo. together we'll go far. nature valley trail mix bars are made with real ingred

i do want to bring in peter brooks. a former deputy assistant secretary of defense and a former cia officer, currently a senior fellow at the heritage foundation. peter, good morning to you. >> good morning. >> let me just begin with, wow, you know, revolution, we thought revolution can happen. we've covered these revolutions in both libya and egypt last year. and now we have this. in terms of diplomacy, as we go forward, how does the u.s. proceed, and how does -- how do both libya and egypt proceed, as well? >> very, very difficult. while we're in this very important political season here in the united states, we can't forget about what's going on overseas. i mean there's also syria, which we're not talking about this morning. but a lot of people thought that libya, perhaps, was moving in the right direction. although there was concerns about armed militias. the referendum. the constitution. things along that line. look at this terrible tragedy here. which seems to me, the more i think about it, brooke, it was a plot.

peter brooks, thank you for your time out of washington today. >> thank you, bill. folks in southern illinois are cleaning up today after an apparent tornado swept through that region. it leveled at least one home, damaged several others. the winds flipped a tractor on its side. the driver suffered minor injuries. people reported seeing a second funnel cloud out there. all of this came as part of a severe form system that also dropped large hail and several inches of rain, very tough day in that part of illinois. and some controversial comments about governor romney's religion from a fellow mormon, senator majority leader harry reid, what he said about the g.o.p. candidate and the fallout. that's next. there's the sign to the bullpen. here he comes. you wouldn't want your doctor doing your job, the pitch! whoa! so why are you doing his? only your doctor can determine if your persistent heartburn whoa! is actually something more serious like acid reflux disease. over time, stomach acid can damage the lining of your esophagus. for many, prescription nexium not only pr

peter brooks a senior fellow of the national heritage foundation joins us now, and judith miller, a pulitzerice investigator reporter and fox news contributor. a lot to get to in so many areas around the world. when do we see an end to the protest? >> that is hard to say, jenna. i think the famous quote is prediction is difficult, especially about the future. i imagine over time it will die out. a lot of it will come down to what local governments are able to do in dealing with these protests, but it's hard to say. there is any number of issues that could come up that could make these go on for quite some time. jenna: judy what do you think about that? >> i think it is going to last a while. i agree with peter we don't know how long it's going to last, we don't know whether or not something else is going to come along that will set it off again, but what we do know, that is until this wave of violence and protest subsides american companies, and american officials overseas have to exercise extreme caution. you've seen already the americans being pulled out of tunis and khartoum by the u.s. s

peter brooks, former cia officers, senior fellow, is with me right now. you. >> good morning to you. >> what is happening between egypt and libya now? how do we understand this? >> very, very difficult. we are living in a very unsettled situation in that part of the world. we are not even talking about syria today. this is a whole new crisis that we're dealing w. it's important that we understand what happens to us overseas is very important to us. we need strong leadership from the president and this is a tragedy on several levels. obviously on a personal level for the familiar leave the ambassador and others and for international relation and our own security. >> is there because of some internet film that may or may not have been viewed in cairo, bengazi or other parts of the world. piece it together. >> i'm skeptical of that. someone was playing in wait to ambush the ambassador's car with an rpg. it could have meant to be used on the gate on the consult in bengszi, or was he targeted, they knew someone would exit that compound and were waiting for him

congressman mo brooks is a republican from alabama and says not another dime to these nations. also with us is peterdemocrat from vermont. congressman brooks, you want to khat off financial aid to the nations. tell us why. >> well, let me be clear where i'm coming from. we have a united states of america that's in the tail of a deficit that's unsustainable that risk solvency and bankruptcy over time if we don't change our path. we have a $16 trillion debt that we surpassed during the democratic national convention last week. you've got admiral mike mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, who recently retired, who stated that the greatest national security risk to the united states is our debt. we need to start heeding these warnings. we need to start looking more closely at these financial conditions we face. that means we're going to have to cut back. one of the places we need to cut back, quite frankly, in my view, is foreign aid. we have to get our own financial house in order, recognize our limitations. when we do that, we can start looking at some of these things we're doing wheith so ma

i am the director here at the brookings defense institution. i am peter singer. we are talking about the 2012 presidential election. in many ways, the issues in defense and national security have never been more important and more dynamic than they are today. we have over 80,000 u.s. troops in afghanistan today engaged in a decade old conflict. we have emerging strategic threats and asia. we have game changing technologies like robotics that have massive impacts not just on the battlefield but also shaping the decisions off the battlefield. we have new domains of potential conflict like cyberspace. and we have a defense budget that is best described as influx the potential half trillion dollars worth of cuts over the next decade looming that could seriously affect not just the military, but also the broader defense economy. yet, in many ways, defense has been largely absent from this campaign. yes, we have some mentions here and there, but it's mostly been in the realm of symbolism and wedging. using the optics of making a vp announcement on a retired battleship

brookings institution discussion on defense policy. panelists discuss the differences between president obama and republican presidential candidate mitt romney. this is an hour and 35 minutes. >> i'm peter schiff, director of the 21st century defense initiative here at brookings and it's my delight to welcome you all to this session on u.s. defense 2012 presidential election. in many ways the issues in defense and national security have never been more important and more dynamic than they are today. we have over 80,000 u.s. troops in afghanistan today engaged in a decade old conflict. with emerging strategic threat in issue. we have gained change technologies like robotics that are having massive impacts not just on the battlefield but also shaping the decisions off the battlefield. we have new domains of potential conflicts like cyberspace. we have a defense budget that is best described as influx with the potential half a trillion dollars worth of cuts over the next decade looming that could seriously affect not just the military but also the broader defense economy. and yet in many ways defenses been largely absent from this campaign. yes, we have had some mentioned here and there, b

peter hamby, give it to us bluntly. how bad is this particular poll for mitt romney? >> it is it is very, very bad brookeumber you mentioned there, obama holds a 25-point lead among women which is a big gender gap we have seen in any poll between the two this cycle. ohio is the linchpin of any white house strategy. romney can still do it, though the needle he's threading becomes very, very thin if he does lose ohio. the question the political people are asking today is this lead actually ten points? or is it closer to what we have seen in previous polls, which is seven, six, five, four perhaps point lead for barack obama. a lot of republicans are criticizing the polls saying the gop is undersampled, democrats are being oversampled. if you talk to any republican in ohio, they'll admit to you they are losing the state they just say -- they point out they're losing by four points and they're still in the hunt rather than ten points. ten-point lead is bad also from a media narrative perspective, the more we talk about romney losing, battling ohio, the more that becomes a perception among voters. the romney c

brooke. >> you would presume they would want to remind the voters every day, all 49 remaining, that mitt romney has said this. peter handy, thank you very much. >>> want to take you to nashville, nashville, tennessee. joining me is republican strategist chip saltsman, managed the mike huckaby presidential campaign. nice to see you. >> good to be with you. >> how big a problem is this for mitt romney? >> it is not -- you know, well, because it is a problem in itself, but you tack it on to the last week, and then he's had not only a bad couple of days, he's had a bad couple of weeks and the campaign is really not only just kind of stopped, everybody is now instead of talking about a very close presidential election which we're at, they're talking about how mitt romney messed up the campaign and all this kind of stuff. and the really -- this campaign is completely off message. they haven't been on message in a couple of weeks. they're responding, they're defensive. and we need a little bit of a game changer here to kind of get us right back on message. >> if you were running the romney campaign, what do you do? and i

brook bam. he shouldn't be like woody hays too much but he got canned after punching a player in the face. >> i didn't know where you were going with that, hamby. peter hamby, in washington, watching them next week. thank you so much in washington and we are getting this hour started. a lot more for you, including this. >>> critics had been mostly silent over the death of the u.s. ambassador to libya but today hillary clinton heads to capitol hill to answer some tough questions. i'm brooke baldwin. the news is now. >>> a grieving father shares a heartbreaking story. what happened to the afghan train ee who gunned down his son? >> the afghani police officer that murdered my son i found out last week was released. he's nowhere to be found. >> we're calling to get answers on what happens after these green on blue insider attacks. >>> mexican prisoners crawl through a tunnel to freedom but none of it was true. the reality much more revealing. remember when you said men are superior drivers? yeah. yeah. then how'd i get this... [ voice of dennis ] ...allstate safe driving bonus check? what is that? so weird, right? my agent, tom, said... [ voice of dennis