CNN Lobbies McCain to 'Help the Administration Succeed' with ISIS Strategy

Matthew Balan | September 11, 2014
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[More in the cross-post on the MRC's NewsBusters blog.]

On the 11 September 2014 edition of New Day, CNN's Kate Bolduan hounded Senator John McCain to back President Obama's new strategy to combat the Islamist terrorist group ISIS and help him gain congressional support: "We talk about how you are a critic of the administration. But now that there is a strategy, Senator – now that there is going to be action...how are you going to help the administration succeed now in implementing this?"

Earlier, Bolduan pressed the Arizona Republican to push for an authorization of force against ISIS in Syria:

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R), ARIZONA: ...Bill Clinton – after Bosnia, after Srebrenica – came to the Congress and requested that they support what he wanted to do. George Herbert Walker Bush, after the invasion of Kuwait, came to Congress and requested their support. It's in the President's interest to have debate and discussion and votes here in the Congress of the United States, because you got to get the people behind them.

KATE BOLDUAN: But, Senator, on some level is that a little bit semantics? I mean, the President, as you heard Jim Acosta say, that – from an administration official – that they'd welcome a new authorization of force – then, just do it. If he says welcome it – and I know that you support a vote – then where are the leaders? Just do it.

MCCAIN: But there's a – there's a real difference there, because the President is saying, I'm going to go ahead and do what I'm going to do – with or without Congress. I believe that if he said, I want Congress's support and ratification of what I'm going to do, then that would put the burden on Congress to act. So, there's semantics – it sounds like a small difference, but it is a big difference.

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