Corker: The Whole World Is Longing for U.S. Leadership

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:

BRZEZINSKI: “Mike Barnicle.”
BARNICLE: “So, senator, let’s talk about a fuse that appears to be burning more quickly than the Ukraine and that would be Syria. Russia’s involvement in Syria, our involvement in Syria. Give us from your point of view what you think we’re doing right and what you think we’re doing wrong vis-a-vis Russia.”
CORKER: “Well, what we did wrong was leaving the vacuum there for so long and leaving the Syrian opposition just hanging. Let’s face it, we’ve done almost nothing that we said we would do to support them. Opportunity after opportunity with Turkey went away on closing the border, at one time establishing a no fly zone. What happened was Putin stepped in. So now John Kerry I can’t even give him a hard time anymore. He’s dealing — he has no tools because in essence Putin, Assad and Iran know that this administration is not going to do anything to push back against them so what we have right now is basically a cessation and in essence Russia will begin that cessation when they believe they’ve gotten all the terrain control that they want to control. It’s totally in Russia’s hands now. When you meet with John Kerry and you talk with John Kerry what’s happening with him is he’s more frustrated with the Syrian opposition than he is Iran and Russia. Look, Syria, I hate to say it, but the map is — the outcome is basically I think almost determined at this point because now a conflict between us getting involved is really a conflict with Russia and I think it’s something that this administration and most Americans candidly don’t want to see happen.”
GOLODRYGA: “Senator, having said that in dealing with Russia specifically in regards to the Middle East or foreign policy in general, when you hear the plans from the likes of Donald Trump or Ted Cruz, are you satisfied with having them, either one of them, as commander in chief as far as addressing the current issues that we’re discussing?”
CORKER: “So, look, you know, I’ve been meticulous in not responding to any candidates. I think it’s fascinating what’s happening on both sides of the aisle when you think about it. You can understand how there would be sort of a revolution on the Republican side because we’ve been in the desert for seven years. What’s fascinating is it’s happening on the democratic side of the aisle, too, which is not usually the case. I think what the American people are responding to in this election is that neither party, neither party, has addressed the big issues of our country. Neither party. And so they understand — Joe understands this — there’s an infrastructure that’s built around both parties that basically keeps them in a very narrow lane, neither party has really been willing to use up political capital that we have to solve our fiscal issues, to lay out a plan, a real plan, to deal with the wealth gap that does exist in our nation, nor a long-term plan to deal with the terrorist threats that we have. I was in the Balkans last week after being in Munich and I can just tell you the whole world is longing for the United States to assume the role that the united States has played for so long. The world is not the place it should be without our leadership and it’s just not there and so the American people see that, obviously we had really talented — we have had a lot of really talented candidates on the Republican side, people that I admire, but what the American people are looking for right now is solutions and I’m not going to respond to anything any of them say because I don’t want to be drawn into that, but that’s what we’re seeing play out.”