After dueling with Tim Russert, both candidates "met the press" afterwards in the Sunday morning show's studio. Democratic challenger Claire McCaskill came out first.
FRENCH CONNECTION
She was immediately asked about Sen. Jim Talent's reference during the debate to her talking to supporters in Paris. McCaskill said she was doing a conference call with "Americans Abroad," a group of voters overseas with an interest in U.S. Senate races. "Someone asked me about the detainee bill and I said what concerns I had with the lack of habeas in the bill," McCaskill explained. She said Talent's attempt to align her with France on national TV "was silly."
Regarding her plan to "redeploy U.S. troops," out of Iraq, I asked her what those troops would do.
OUT OF IRAQ, INTO AFGHANISTAN
"In Afghanistan, they'd be helping NATO try to deal the the Taliban. Obviously we did take our eye off the problem in Afghanistan. The tunnel vision in Iraq caused that and now you are seeing the Taliban come back, so we didn't finish the job and we need to have more troops there. NATO keeps asking for more troops. They've had difficulty getting the troops they need in Afghanistan. We can be an assistance with that," McCaskill said.
Catanese - But what would be the point in having troops sit in Kuwait? When would they move back into the country of Iraq?
"I think a lot of the military leadership and a lot of the Senators that have military experience have talked about the necessity of remaining in the region. I mean, clearly, the Middle East and the entire region has destabilized because of our tunnel vision in Iraq. You have Iran saber-rattling. Obviously, you've got Hezbollah attacking one of our allies. I don't think we can leave the region. These are military decisions that need to be made but I do know this, what we're doing now is not working and we need to change," McCaskill said.
When McCaskill was asked about a specific number of troops remaining in Iraq, she deferred to military leaders. "We need to quit listening to the political people in the White House and start listening to the military leaders," she said.
"Those are questions that should be asked in the Armed Services Committee that aren't being asked. Unless it is very short term, we shouldn't be adding troops, we should be looking at every way to put the Iraqi government on notice, that they are going to need to deal with the problem they have with their civil war internally, as opposed to us providing some kind of buffer."
McCaskill was asked about the possibility of her strategy risking more strife in the region. She said the recent National Intelligence Estimate showed that the U.S. presence is part of the problem. She said we are creating more terrorists than we are destroying.
Catanese - Richard Engel of NBC News who has been over there for years now, has said that redeploying troops would be the exact wrong thing to do, because if Iraqis saw all of our troops, weapons and resources sitting on the sidelines, they would even resent us more . . .
"There may need to be some troops there," McCaskill replied. "This is the point. We have Shiite killing Shiite, we have Sunni killing Shiite. We have literally thousands of Iraqi citizens losing their lives. What we are doing there is not helping at this point."
McCaskill pointed to Sen. John Warner's recent visit to Iraq. "Sen. Warner came back and said we need to do something in 60 or 90 days. I didn't hear a word from the White House that he was a cut and run coward, that he is setting an artificial timetable. He said 60 to 90 days. Noone, Senator Talent didn't criticize him today. None of the Republicans have criticized him. He is doing the right thing. Sen. Talent should watch his leadership and try to emulate it."
But if the violence did get worse, should we then send troops back into the country?
McCaskill again deferred to military leaders on the ground, and then said this administration's "stubbornness" gives her pause about whether they would be open to changing course. She called for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to be removed.
A FALSE PATRIOT?
Catanese - Do you regret the false patriot comment? Now they seem to be using it against you in a new radio ad . . .
"The part of that ad that is most offensive to me is for the first time in the history of Missouri, a candidate has approved an ad that calls their opponent a liar and a cheat," McCaskill said.
Catanese - But do you regret calling him a false patriot?
"No. Here's the issue on the patriotism. For years now, the Republican leadership have said anyone who questions the war is not patriotic, anyone who thinks we should change course is not supporting our troops. Cut and run, the word coward has been thrown around. I think asking questions about this war is patriotic. I don't think breaking our promises to veterans is patriotic. I believe the fact they have undermined veterans benefits, they have cut veterans benefits, they have broken their promise to veterans in terms of what they are entitled to. That to me, is unpatriotic, not asking questions about the war. So we just disagree of what is patriotic."
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