three years, and i'm very concerned our country is getting stepped on, and i really appreciate you being on, jim. thank you for taking my call. >> thanks, lizzy. i do step back every once in a while because you're talking about things just beyond this impeachment inquiry. i do step back every once in a while and remember the previous presidency and remember the way donald trump attacked hillary clinton, for the my crime, the deadly sin -- >> president trump is absolutely clear to me and it should be absolutely clear to you that the leadership that we need in this country is vice president joe biden. [ applause ] vice president joe biden has earned our trust. he's someone that we can -- that

will bring back not only the dignity, but the civility that's most important not only to each and every one of us, but to this country, and to the presidency of the united states. he will and can rebuild those broken relationships with not only our ally, but with each and every one of us to make sure that we feel like we live in a safe place. one of the most important thing, and if you listen to the debate last night which i really hope that you did, you heard from him in his closing remarks. if it isn't the most, it should be one of the most important things. is that vice president biden will be read owe dy on day one. [ cheers and applause ] >> our nation was founded on democracy, and i had to look that up a week ago. i was doing a facebook post about democracy and oh, i was so disappointed when i read what it meant because of our presidency. democracy is the opportunity for

us to elect fair representation and through that fair representation it's important to understand that after we represent that, that representation, they are accountable to us. they're obligated to us. it's their duty to us and i'm not sure that we have that right now. i'm proud to stand and watch today and every day into february and into november alongside and moving forward with joe biden, and i know that he has what it will take for america to be restored and for the reputation to be brought back that each and every one of us want to see in this country for us and for our country, and with that, i bring forward our next president of the united states joe biden. [ cheers and applause ]

>> how are you? [ applause ] thank you. thank you. thank you. folks, roxanna and i have known each other a while, and i have to tell you, she's right. it's serious. it means a great deal to me at the time she endorsed me. i mean it sincerely. it means a lot, and i've got a great, great friend who, as we keep in touch with one another and we lost one of our good friends doc when he passed away. john, where are you? you're somewhere in here. there you are. jim, thank you. [ applause ]

and mayor, excuse me. i know you know this because a lot of you are involved in politics for a while ask one of the things that's one of the great honors, and the reputation running for president is going around the country talking about how tough it is. people don't realize is you end up in the process making friends for life you make friends for life no matter if you win, lose or become friends for life. so the folks i just named have been friends and they know, roxanne and i were just talking about, we shared a lousy occurrence on the same day. she lost her husband, i lost my son. but we cared what happens happening to the other person and not just to ourselves, and a lot of the people in this room

were, excuse, as we used to say in the senate a point of personal privilege, so good to my son beau, my son hunter. you really were. you reached out and embraced him and i know some of you know, i won't mention the gentleman's name, but i was on the other side of the state and good guy, and i hadn't seen him a long time and walked up and said joe, i'm still for you, but i would have rather voted for your son for president, but i'll vote for you. my dad used to have an expression and say, you know your success as a father when you turn and look at your child and realize they turned out better than you. the way you embraced my son. the way you embraced me when things happened and you embraced roxanna when she lost her husband means a lot. i didn't plan on saying any of this at the outset, but i look out at so many familiar face e and you know, to have cindy

wifrpg ler here, i want to thank her for being here and all of the roles -- of all of the roles the president of the united states has to fill, there is one that is more consequential than any other role, and that's to be commander in chief of the united states of america, the united states military. it's a sacred duty. it's not something that is done or looked at in a whim and so i hope you understand. i think it's important that i make a serious speech. it's going to take 25 minutes for me to do it about american foreign policy and why i am so concerned about our security and the deployment of the might of the united states military. you know, the power to deploy

the might of the most powerful military in the history of the world and that's not hyperbole, in the history of the world, there have never been -- never been a greater, more confident warriors or a larger, more powerful military than we've had. it's not an ego booster. it's not a ratings booster. you take an oath of office to swear responsibility a to our troops and their families and the only sacred obligation we have, and the only sacred one is to protect those we send to war, care for them when they come home and care for their families when they're gone. they risk their lives for their government. and that's why we are able to work. the other responsible sit we not risk their lives pointlessly. when a commander in chief puts them in harm's way it's for an

overwhelming national security purpose. we also as a commander in chief have an allies and partners that the united states of america will stand by its word and stand with our allies in times of need and their adversaries, our adversaries know that the united states seeks peace peace, but it will not hesitate to defend our national interest or the interest of those we've sworn in sacred alliances to work with by misuse of others. donald trump, and he is a complete failure. a complete failure as commander in chief.

and is the most reckless and incompetent commander in chief we have ever had and he's failed repeatedly he doesn't understand. part of it is he's just incompetent. he repeatedly fails to foresee the consequences of his impulses and they're impulses this he has. not based on any theory. and when the utterly predictable occurs he doesn't seem to care. he blames someone else. the buck never stops on his desk and his view. talks with north korea collapsing because they're based on nothing, but a promise by a bloody dictator which he's prepared to accept.

erratic trade war with china caused huge pain including here in iowa. 160 workers in the quiet city, laid off indefinitely and not to mention the pain it's caused in manufacturing, but virtually no gain -- no gain at all in the strategy. iran, growing more and more provocative and we started in this program because donald trump chose to renege on a diplomatic agreement with the world powers including our allies on something that was working grew as more intensive as a regime and being able to know what someone was doing and an inspection than ever has occurred modern history.

and now turkishs forr forces be donald trump tweeted their withdrawal. according to admiral, our former head of naval operations went on to say without any notification to the military. the events of this past week have brought syria, and initiated in syria have had devastating clarity of just how dangerous this president is to our national security, to our leadership around the world and to the lives of the brave, women and men serving in uniform. you know, building and maintaining the confidence of our allies has been a critical

element that every one has engaged in. democrat or republican, some with more or less success since the end of world war ii. by precipitously withdrawing, a small number of american special forces in syria trump managed in one fell swoop to betray our ku kurdish partners who helped defeat isis and with innocent civilians and ethnic and religious minority communities caught in the cross fire with up to 160,000 newly displaced persons run out of their homes. forces -- forcing our troops into retreat and they're in retreat. the united states military is in

retreat from turkey. russia and the murderous assad regime is flowing in to fill a vacuum. he's given isis, formerly al qaeda, a new lease on life by forcing the kurds to leave from continuing to fight isis and hold the 10,000 isis prisoners they have and fleeing north to try to protect their sons, their daughters, their families. instead of fighting for remnants of the so-called caliphate that isis had set up. and leaving guarding 10,000 isis terrorists and supporters, some of whom have already escaped and the throw of global confidence

of american leadership into complete freefall. i'll say something self-serving. this is something i know a lot about. i spent a lot of time in that area. i know all of these leaders. i've been engaged because that was my job as chairman of the foreign relations committee and doing major national security in intelligence matters for president obama. all of the consequences i've mentioned, every single one can be laid at the feet of donald trump. you know, he greenlighted turkish invasion. now he's left asking turkey to stop it. but the damage is done. you don't get do-overs when it comes to national security. the decisions have deadly, serious consequences, and yet

the dynamics in syria are incredibly complicated, and yes, the conflict between turkey and the kurds dates back decades. decades, but before trump's tweet, a very small number of u.s. forces working together with our kurdish partners was actually keeping northern iraq relatively stable. people weren't dying while keeping the pressure on what was left of isis. now they've been blown apart. imagine how demoralizing it is, demoralizing it is to the troops, our troops as russia pours in mercenary, taking victory laps inside of former u.s. camps and facilities. and president trump ordered them

to abandon and turkey attacking the very people they fought alongside of. that's when we need someone in the oval office who understands the gravity and the consequences of their decisions. trump's quote, his great, unmatched wisdom, end of quote. my god. what a delusional man. [ applause ] great, unmatched wisdom. [ applause ] that great, unmatched wisdom has undone the hard-won progress across two administrations in a matter of days including our fight against isis in syria. as i said, a retired admiral said, quote, everyone was absolutely flabbergasted. he went on to say in the

pentagon throughout. our military did not sign on to this. republican congress know how irresponsible this is. it's about the only thing they've mustered enough backbone to criticize him on. [ applause ] you know -- [ applause ] >> that's how outrageous it is. even mitch mcconnell knows he's wrong. [ laughter ] i mean, think about it. lindsay graham used to be a friend of john mccain and mine and others, is now being attacked by trump again, and trump tried to justify his

decision to abandon the kurds by making the absolutely ridiculous uninformed, crazy comment. they didn't help us in the second world war. [ laughter ] they didn't help us in normandy. i mean, can you believe it? i mean, when you think about it, what a global embarrassment! well, guess what? to help to smash isis, a direct threat to the united states of america and our friends all around the world and that didn't happen during world war ii, but some of it happened during trump's first term. you know, you'd think he remember. he bragged about it at the time. he said the kurds stood with us to accomplish a vital security objective to the united states. he goes on to point out the

destruction of isis and their temporary caliphate. talked about it. he said we achieved this without sending tens of thousands of troops, without spending a quarter trillion dollars as we did in the iraq surge. indeed, the obama-biden administration worked alongside our partners in syria. the kurds and the syrian democratic forces with just a few hundred americans stopping tens of thousands of local fighters to take the fight to isis on the ground. the strategy was so successful it turned out that trump's secret plan to defeat isis. do you remember that? the secret plan to defeat isis was just to keep doing what we had put in place until last week.

you know, those brave, kurdish and arab forces paid a steep price. in defeating isis in the caliphate they lost over 10,000 soldiers. hear me? 10,000. 10,000 dead. they made the ultimate sacrifice and then trump sold them out. all it took was one phone call from the president of turkey who i know very well. so now

their protection. that's the deal. he always calls when i get to this part. i'm joking. [ laughter ] that's not a problem. it happens. look, they've now handed over to those two people, control of northwest syria back back to the brutal russian and iranian-backed regime, and i say iranian-backed regime. how does this keep america safe? how does it advance our interest around the world? the answer is quite simple. it doesn't. it devastates us. you know, how does it benefit

anyone other than our adversaries? russia, which is now at the table to further expand its influence throughout syria, encourage iran to be more engaged in the eastern shore of the mediterranean. russia gets to sit back and watch one nato ally impose a sanction on another nato ally furthering putin's goal of fracturing the nato alliance upon that's what putin's about. iran and hezbollah. now we're going to be more emboldened to use syria to launch attacks against israel. isis. isis which has clearly seen it regroup and now has hundred of supporters released back into the region. every single strong man,

autocrat and dictator around the world who has just learned what president trump has done that will abandon our partners under the smallest amount of pressure, what do you think they're going to do? what do you think they'll attempt to do now? all we're left with is donald trump -- a donald trump-shaped hole in american credibility. more chaos. more instability and more threats. threats to the american people, our partners and our allies in the region. these people will flee and isis will flee to europe along with -- along with all those people displaced was his comment. don't worry. they'll go to europe. they won't come to the united states. that's being a real partner, isn't it? they're going to go to europe. it's okay. they'll take care of them, the europeans. don't be fooled by trump's

argument that he's pulling u.s. troops out of the middle east, by the way, or ending the forever wars. he may have caved to erdogan and to putin, forcing our troops to retreat under fire, but he's also authorized the deployment of thousands of additional troops and thousands of additional troops into the gulf and saudi arabia to deal with another crisis of his making, the one with iran, but this time the crisis we have to deal with in iran we have to go it alone. none of our partners want in on the deal. america, you caused a problem. you deal -- you deal with the force, and you deal with the terrorists coming out of iran, not us. so don't believe trump's con

here. this is not american leadership. this is bending to the will of a strong man, and this is not the end of forever wars. it's a recipe for more forever wars. he's more than a year in office and god forbid, four years after that? look, as erratic as he becomes, motor he's certain that i'm going to beat him like a drum, look what he's doing. [ applause ] >> no, really. [ applause ] no, but think about it, did you ever think you'd see a time when they would spend $10 million in ads to pick who the candidate will be? there's a reason for it -- over 70 -- can you turn that off,

please? over 70 polls in a row show me defeating him. i've become the new object of his attention. maybe the reason why he's going to be impeached. imagine what damage he could do in the time he has left? either intentionally or because of his total incompetence. the more under pressure he is the more erratic things he does. things for him even are worrisome. we can't let that happen. i'm not going to let it happen. folks, the next president is going to face enormous challenges of picking up the pieces of american foreign policy, salvaging our reputation and rebuilding -- rebuilding confidence and the comments made by the united states around the world. it used to be what we'd say we do, we keep our word.

the next president will have to address the world as he or she finds it on january 2021, whatever the state of disarray trump leaves it in, and there will not be time for building relationships from scratch. we will need a leader who can on day one, pick up the telephone, call our nato allies and know them by their first names and know and have them know there will be no question about the word of the next president of the united states. none. [ applause ] and that the united states will maintain our treaty obligations, will stand by democracy and freedom. i personally met with every single world leader that is still on the stage and i negotiated with erdogan. i know how he operates. i've spent more time with him

alone. i predict and i believe and the president has. in fact, the reason the united states partnered with the kurdish militia in syria in the first place is because turkey dragged its heels on helping us defeat isis. remember all of the people that we were letting across the border from europe to go to fight with isis, the turkish border? >> i spent hours -- hours of my security team in going over proposals with erdogan. he wanted us to leverage in order to deal with our concern over isis and the rest of the world. he wanted us to essentially to declare war and send hundreds of thousands of troops into syria to take down assad, and we would not do that. the syrian government with

either. >> our administration or the american people wanted to have another endless war, in fact, occur. so unlike president trump, the president gave me the authority to tell erdogan no, but we kept working with turkey helping them to cope with millions of syrian refugees who were fleeing out of -- out of syria. designed as much humanitarian aid as we could to alleviate what was possible and welcoming those fleeing violence to our shores and we put in place a successful strategy for the kurds to ultimately bring down isis whe isis while preventing turket y d the kurds from coming to blows.

there may never be a solution in syria that suffices our best hope for a region of peace within itself. no one wants american troops forever embroiled in conflict in the middle east or nation building. there is a big difference between sending tens of thousands of troops, combat troops to the middle east indefinitely which i oppose, and using small numbers of special operators to support local forces doing the fighting and advancing our common interest. i have to tell you, i was surprised last night in the debate when one of my colleagues said she'd remove all troops from the middle east. you know, we can be strong and smart at the same time and when we do a drawdown there is a right way and a wrong way and

what trump has done in syria is disastrously wrong. so this trump-created crisis evolves further into chaos. what should we be doing? that's the logical question, what should we be doing? what should we be doing now? >> first, we should be working closely with our allies and the united nations to bring more responsible parties to the table. the united states and turkey are allies even if turkey is not acting like one. so we should be inviting a broader coalition of countries to pressure turkey to pull back its operations, refrain from ethnic cleansing and targeting religious minorities as well as cease its callous disregard for civilians. the international community should make it clear to the u.s. that we intend to investigate any reports of war crimes or violations of international

humanitarian law and to hold accountable those who are responsible when it occurs. the second thing we should do is to mediate a resolution between turkey and the kurds to end the violence. there was a way, was there a negotiation going on. the united states should be able to facilitate those talks and engage all sides. leading the free world requires us to show up and have some skin in the game. we shouldn't be delegating this to putin. the third thing we should be doing is we have an obligation to medicate the new refugee crisis that will be occurring unfolding before our very eyes. the trump administration released $50 million of humanitarian aid to syria, but that's only a quarter of the $200 million in aid that already has been accommodated, but he

suspended last year, and how will it be distributed? when front-line humanitarian groups and they're all through that region, how are they going to do this when they suspended their services? pulled their staffs out of the areas where the fighting? we should be able to carry a airlifts of food, water, critical aid as they are needed and firstly, we have to remain laser focused on preventing the resurgence of isis. as the two that defended their villages from turkish attack it's easy to imagine isis regrowing and filling the void. we can't let that happen for our own safety's sake because no matter how much donald trump tweets, it may be easy for

european to capture or escape isis fighters or to go blast isis. that hadn't worked before. that's not how it worked the first time and it certainly won't be now if we have to fight isis again. during our administration we built a global coalition to take on isis that grew to 81 partners. it was part of my responsibility to put that together. not just us. we've got 81 other nations to participate with us in curtailing isis' expansion and caliphate and rendering them not a threat. nations and organizations from all around the world stood with us because they trusted the word of the united states of america under the obama-biden administration. so ask yourself, after

everything trump has done, after every international treaty that trump has pulled out of, after every ally that trump has attacked and after leaving partners to be slaughtered with no discernible strategy, after embracing some of the most outrageous thugs in the world, from kim jong-un to putin, who's going to stand with us today to get this done? if they don't stand with us how many more brave sons and daughters will we have to send to fight alone in the future to protect ourselves? and that brings me to my final point that i want to make today. as president trump's doing what he's doing in syria is much bigger than syria.

it's more insidious, insidious than the grave betrayal of kurdish partners. it's more dangerous than taking our boot off the neck of isis. trump is demming onnishing the moral authority of the united states of america. i mean that in the literal sense. [ applause ] his incompetence is so extreme and his abuse of power so rampant that he's torching america's influence and our ability to get things done around the world. climate change. we make up 15% of the problem and we'll get 85% of the world to come back and cooperate with us when we put together the paris climate accord. mass migrations of venezuela and other places in the world,

unfair trade practices, disruptive technology, nuclear proliferation, the ascendancy of china the resurgence of russia. how will we meet any of these real, global challenges we face if the united states is forever reduced to the eyes of the world to being an unreliable partner? who is going stand with us? working to identify areas of common interest while managing points of conflict that requires discipline, requires a team of experienced professionals that you empower not dim inearn or demote.

after almost three years, trump still doesn't understand any of this. all theynot our diplomats, not our values, not our leadership, not our standing in the world, not the incredible human suffering that's being caused by his decisions. not even the likelihood of isis, isis, the most coherent and spread and dangerous terrorist group in modern history. not even that isis will regenerate

once again gain strength and threaten the united states of america. there's so much at stake in this election. this should matter to every single american family. this is not some abstract speech before the council on foreign relations in new york city, or a group of foreign policy experts. this is about how to fix the lives of everyday americans. every single family. every one of them. and this is what it is. what does america stand for in the world? who do we want to be? the united states built alliances and works with our partners in democracy for the sake of our own national security, our own economic prosperity. no country, even one as powerful as ours, can go it alone against the challenges that respect no borders and cannot be contained by walls. the investment we've made, and

we make and others, have come back to benefit us tenfold. in markets for our products, in partners helping us tackle global challenges. allies to help us deter aggression, or to fight alongside us if those deterrents fail. i met a gentleman at the airport, vietnam veterans. at the time, i sat with him for just a moment before he came over here, talking about how we ran against being the worlds policemen. america first means america alone. how do we deal with a crisis that's going to affect us and every single american throughout the country? with stateless terror, all the things that affect our ability

to survive. global warming. fair trade policy. how do we do that? if we are out of the picture? make no mistake, nations will make accommodations to work with those who are in the picture, whether that's russia, or china, or any other country, they will make their own deals if they think they cannot be protected and or be part of an alliance with us. the world is going to move on without us. donald trump's vision is antithetical to every, everything generations of americans have fought for, sacrificed, and defended. i believe we are so much better than donald trump thinks we are. i believe we can and must be the nation which the world looks to. that

mobilize others for the common good. the beacon of liberty, offering refugees and the oppressed options, a hallmark of democracy and self determination. championing of human rights, the leader of the free world and that's not a slight throwaway phrase. all of this is on the ballot next november. we have to choose, we have to choose the america we want to be. we have to choose if we want to retake our place in the world and keep the united states safe and secure because we built our alliances. we choose a president who rebuilt our credibility and restore our value of americas deterrence. that is what is at stake here. because i promise you, i promise you if we do not others will make their accommodations.

imagine it. imagine a world without nato and a european alliance with us. imagine a world without an alliance in the pacific. how long will it take some of these nations that no longer can take our word before they decide to go nuclear? before they decide they have to act. before they decide that they have to make an accommodation towards china. folks, this policy has been a disaster. this president has been a disaster. we can change it. it is totally within our power. we just have to be sure what we say we mean and explain why were doing it and make no apologies. it's the world and the republican look at what we picked and say i believe that person. i'm going to believe on

day one that that person is going to command the world stage and does not need any on the job training. that is known by everyone from our allies to be what he says or she said that they are. that's is what is at stake here folks. if it doesn't do something thoroughly reckless with this shooting war of consequences. we could overcome four years of this man. but we cannot -- we cannot it will forever change the nation and who we are and if we do not defeat him this time and that is my intention. i thank you, god bless you all and may god protect our troops. (applause) what am i doing?

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announcer: washington journal

continues. joining us this morning from charleston, south carolina, presidential candidate, republican mark sanford former governor and former congressman from his state. good morning to you. guest: good morning to you. host: congressman, you are in the most recent polls. the president along with the national republican party has raised 125 alien dollars or are you having second thoughts about running for president? guest: i had second thoughts when i decided to get in. so i'm about three weeks into this, and it's interesting. a number of friends