We know you'll stay on top of
it.
If there are updates we'll bring
you back in.
Kamila, thank you so much.
>>> Back here in Washington,
there's a new deadline looming,
and we're counting down to one
week from today.
Next Saturday, the federal
government will face a midnight
shutdown unless some funding
bill can be passed in congress
and signed by the president.
With every passing hour,
resolution seems more and more
unlikely.
Now federal agencies have been
told to begin their formal
process of preparing for a
government shutdown.
That means thamimillions of
federal workers and military
personnel are getting ready,
too, their paychecks may be cut
off for weeks.
Today house speaker Kevin
Mccarthy conceded he has to win
over some Republican hard-liners
who continue to defy him.
He says he's hopeful that they
will fall in line and pass some
kind of a stopgap spending
measure to prevent the shutdown.
Here's what he had to say --
>> Crunch time.
Holding off and blaming
everybody else.
Shutting down is --
>> And with so much at stake at
home and overseas, we turn to
former defense secretaries,
former white house chief of
staff Leon Panetta.
Great to see you as always.
You know, you were the chief of
staff for Bill Clinton when
there was a government shutdown
back in the '90s.
So I think you're a good person
to go to on this.
You know the speaker, Kevin
Mccarthy, has said that some of
the hard-liners in his own party
want to quote, burn the place
down, not something I it
upically hear from a house
speaker speaking about members
of his own conference.
How do you negotiate in this
situation, and at the white
house do you have to sit back
and watch this unfold?
There's not a whole lot you can
do if members of Mccarthy's
party are bucking him.
>> No, listen, the ball is in
speaker Mccarthy and the
Republican's lap right now to
decide what happens.
And what they have to be careful
of is making exactly the same
mistake that newt Gingrich made
when he was speaker and bill
Clinton was president.
Gingrich continued to try to get
his way, refused to negotiate
and compromise on a budget issue
with the president, and
ultimately shut the government
down for about five days in
November.
They thought they could work
something out, didn't happen,
and then they shut it down again
in December for 21 days.
And the result of that was that
the Republicans were blamed for
the shutdown.
And what it did, frankly, was it
gave Bill Clinton what he needed
was the issue of saying that we
stand for protecting the united
States, protecting America, and
the Republicans stand for
tearing it down.
And with that, he won
re-election.
So I think the Republicans are
on the verge of making the same
mistake that Gingrich made.
>> And if you're trying to
manage the situation down at the
border and border agents aren't
getting paid because there's a
government shutdown, not to
mention military personnel
around the world not getting
paid or having to wait for their
paychecks to come in because of
this, that makes everything much
more difficult for the
administration, especially down
at the border which is dealing
with such a big influx of
migrants right now.
How might that become an even
bigger problem if this shutdown
happens?
>> This is not a good moment for
a shutdown of the federal
government.
Number one, we're trying to
support with weapons and
military support Ukraine in a
war against Russia.
We're trying to deal with other
danger points in the world, but
we're trying to deal with a
crisis on the border with
immigrants, we're trying to be
able to deal with problems in
the economy because of the
strikes that are taking place.
If you have a shutdown, it's
going to hurt the economy that
much more.
And so I think both the
president and the leadership in
the congress have to focus on
doing what's right for the
country which is passing a
continuing resolution, fund the
government, and then move on to
negotiate on the budget in the
future.
>> And one quick final before I
move on to Ukraine, if you're
advising the president now, do
you advise him to get involved
or to sit back and let the
Republicans duke this out?
>> Well, I think the speaker
knows that the president is
always available if he really
wants to turn to the president.
But right now Mccarthy is trying
to do this on his own.
His problem, though, is he's
trying to do it through
appeasing a group of nuts on his
side of the aisle.
And you know, my experience is
that when speakers or any
leaders for that matter start
appeasing their enemies in one
way or another, they weaken
their own position and make it
even tougher to be able to find
a solution.
So I think he's in tight spot
right now, and I'm not sure he's
going to be able to find a way
out.
>> And secretary Panetta, I want
to shift to Ukraine.
Today at the U.N. A journalist
asked Russia's foreign minister,
sergey lavrov, at what point the
U.S. And other western countries
become directly involved in war
against Russia versus a proxy
war.
Obviously, you know, some people
might have problems with that
question.
Let's listen to what sergey
lavrov had to say about that.
>> Translator: So you can call
this whatever you want to call
this, but they are directly at
war with us.
We call this a hybrid war, but
that doesn't change the reality.
>> What do you make of that
comment that he's saying they're
directly at war with us, western
nations?
>> Well, you know, I think
lavrov is basically a mouthpiece
for Putin.
He always has been.
And he continues to be.
And what he's trying to do it to
put the blame not on Russia, not
on his boss, Putin, but putting
his blame on the United States
and putting his blame on the
Ukraine.
And so by basically saying that
everybody's at war with Russia,
he's basically blaming everybody
else but Putin and Russia for
what's happened in Ukraine.
And that's just something we
have to understand takes us
nowhere with regards to trying
to resolve this war.
>> And Mr. Secretary, I had to
get your take on what's going on
with these military nominations.
This week the senate voted to
approve three military
nominations in the face of
senator Tommy Tuberville's
continued blockade including the
new head of the joint chiefs of
staff.
But as you know, more than 300
nominations are still in limbo.
You know, we asked general
Wesley Clark a week ago about
this, and he was saying it was
time for somebody, somewhere to
start playing hardball with
senator Tommy Tuberville.
What is your sense as to how you
get through this logjam and how
in can be overcome?
Or does everybody just have to I
guess placate Tuberville while
he backs himself into a corner
on this?
>> Well, he's already backed
himself into a corner.
Mitch Mcconnell doesn't support
what he's doing.
Most of the Republicans don't
support what he's doing.
The Democrats certainly don't
support what he's doing.
But he's kind of like we see a
lot in the congress these days
are individuals that kind of do
their own thing and to hell with
the country.
And what he's doing is shameful.
He's really hurting the military
and our ability to have a
command structure in the
military.
So yeah, I think it is time to
get tough with this guy.
I think chuck Schumer did the
right thing to try to push
through at least the approval of
the chiefs.
In addition to that, I think a
clear signal needs to be sent to
this guy that the longer he
continues the more defense money
he's going to lose for his home
state as a result of what he's
doing, period.
>> All right.
And does it shock you at all to
this -- this a senator can have
this kind of power?
I mean one senator can hold up
all of these nominations.
If you're family member of some
of these senior military
officers waiting to move
somewhere, that's being held up.
One senator can do that.
Isn't that a little strange?
>> Well, we're seeing a lot of
that in Washington these days as
individuals play their own game
and forget about the country and
forget about the importance of
the nation.
And I think there is just
another -- this is just another
example of irresponsible
leadership.