[Blitzer:] The celebration continuing on the streets of Libya, throughout the country. We're following the breaking news this hour, the death of the Libyan dictator, Moammar Gadhafi. I talked about it earlier with Republican senator John McCain, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and I asked whether the Obama administration deserves any credit.
[Sen. John Mccain , Arizona:] I congratulate the British and French for their leadership and their effort. And so it's been a significant success and we should celebrate today.
[Blitzer:] But the U.S. played a significant role in the NATO operation, not just the British and the French, Senator McCain, the first few weeks, first two weeks in particular, U.S. Tomahawk cruise missiles and U.S. air refueling capabilities. The Obama administration, from your perspective, deserves a lot of credit for this, as well, don't they?
[Mccain:] Oh, I think they deserve credit. The fact is, if we had declared a no-fly zone early on, we would have never had Gadhafi would have fallen at the beginning. The second thing is that if we had used our capabilities, the A10 and the AC130, this would have been over a long time ago. But I think the administration deserves credit, but I especially appreciate the leadership of the British and French in this in carrying out this success.
[Blitzer:] What do you think the U.S. should do with the $30 billion or $33 billion in frozen Libyan assets that have been held over these past several months?
[Mccain:] Well, the Libyans obviously, it's their money. They are going to reimburse us and our allies for the expenditures that were entailed in this operation. They obviously are going to be a very wealthy country. And again, if we send a hospital ship to Tripoli to help them with their wounded they have 30,000 wounded, Wolf. We could send some of their wounded to our hospital in Landstuhl. Right now, this is one of their key requirements. We Senator Rubio and Kirk and Graham and I went to the hospital there in Tripoli. They don't know how to care for these kinds of wounds and people who are harmed in conflict, and we could be of enormous help and generate enormous good will by helping out in that respect.
[Blitzer:] So are you saying that you have, when you were in Libya, received official confirmation from the transitional authority there, the interim government, that they will reimburse U.S. taxpayers the, what, approximately $1 billion that have been already been spent in liberating Libya from Gadhafi??
[Mccain:] They said that they would seriously consider it. They did not make a commitment to me, and nor should they have, but they certainly have showed a willingness to do so-
[Blitzer:] I asked the question-
[Mccain:] Just as the Kuwaitis did after Desert Storm.
[Blitzer:] I remember when the Kuwaitis paid, basically, for the liberation of their country from Saddam Hussein Kuwait, like Libya, a wealthy country. I asked the question because there's been some suggestion, before the U.S. were to transfer back that $33 billion in frozen assets, it deduct a billion dollars for U.S. expenses and deduct other expenses that other NATO allies like France, Britain, Italy, other NATO allies, may have had. Would that be smart? Would that be legal, to simply deduct whatever it cost?
[Mccain:] I don't think it's either legal or smart. They're a sovereign nation. They now have a government that's recognized, basically, throughout the world. And I think it would generate enormous ill will if we carried out such activity. I don't know who would suggest such a thing.
[Blitzer:] Well, there have been those suggestions. Among others, I've written about it myself, but that's just me.
[Mccain:] OK.
[Blitzer:] So for what it's worth, on our blog. But that's just-
[Mccain:] It's not our money, Wolf. It's their money that's been frozen. It's not our money. That's-
[Blitzer:] Right. I know- And the Obama administration by the way, the Obama administration takes exactly the same position as you're taking, that it shouldn't that the U.S. shouldn't simply unilaterally eliminate or deduct some of the funds that have been spent. But let's get out to the bigger picture- Go ahead, Senator.
[Mccain:] Could I just point out very quickly, Libyans right now are very grateful to us and there's enormous good will there. And if we can help them succeed getting these weapons under control, helping them with their organize their government, helping them with their wounded, a lot of things, there'll be a lot of further good will here. And that's important, I think, especially in that part of the world.
[Blitzer:] I think you make an excellent point. And if you look at the sweep of changes, it's breathtaking over these past several months of the Arab spring, in North Africa and the Middle East. You think a year ago what was going on over there and you take a look at how it's changed over these many months now, it's dramatic. And no one has been more closely associated in watching what's going on than you, Senator. Senator McCain, thanks very much. Any final point you want to make before I let you go?
[Mccain:] I think it's a great day. I think the administration deserves great credit. Obviously, I had different ideas on the tactical side. But this is the world is a better place and the Libyan people now have a chance. But this is just the beginning. We know how hard democracy is. They're going to need a lot of assistance not in money, but in other ways, and I think we're should be eager to provide it.
[Blitzer:] All right, we just heard from Senator John McCain. Let's now hear from our chief political analyst, Gloria Borger. Sort of a reluctant bit of praise for the president and for the administration.
[Gloria Borger, Cnn Chief Political Analyst:] It was. It was. And as the senator pointed out, look, he had different ways of doing this. He wanted us to go in unilaterally. He says we would have gotten him a lot sooner had he done it his way. But still, John McCain was a lot more generous than the other Republicans we've heard from, the presidential candidates, Wolf. Instead, none of them said, I give Barack Obama credit, which John McCain said. Instead, they're talking about what happens in the future in Libya? How do you deal with Gadhafi's remaining stockpiles? How do you make sure that they're on their way to democracy? But it was only John McCain, the president's former opponent in the presidential race, who actually said he deserves credit.
[Blitzer:] Deserves credit indeed. Listen to Joe Biden today because he seemed to suggest that this could be a template for future U.S. and NATO missions.
[Joseph Biden, Vice President Of The United States:] In this terrible beauty, this all changed world, what happened? NATO got it right. NATO got it right. And guess what? Libya Gadhafi, one way or another, is gone. Whether he's alive or dead, he's gone. The people of Libya have gotten rid of a dictator of 40 years who I personally knew. This is one tough not so nice guy. And guess what? They got a chance now. But what happened? In this case, America spent $2 billion total and didn't lose a single life. This is more the prescription for how to deal with the world as we go forward.
[Blitzer:] He's I guess he's taking some credit for this, and implicitly criticizing the previous Bush administration.
[Borger:] Right. It's clearly seen by the administration as a vindication of its strategy. They don't want to come out and brag about it, but they do see that the alliance worked, that the United States provided the strategic support, which was considerable, that it need to provide, and that this is the way you need to think of these actions in the future, Wolf, as we look at the reductions we need to see in the military budget. What's even more interesting, though, Wolf, is the way the Republican Party is split on this. The Democrats are united on this, but it's the Republicans who are split. John McCain, who you just interviewed, really is the last one of the last remaining hawks in the Republican Party. Of the presidential candidates, Ron Paul, Jon Huntsman and Michele Bachmann, all of them said we should not have been in Libya in the first place, which is why they're not about congratulating Barack Obama.
[Blitzer:] So the president of the United States, on his watch, bin Laden killed, Anwar al Awlaki, the head of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, in Yemen, killed. On his watch now, Gadhafi killed. Is it going to be politically beneficial for him in his reelection bid?
[Borger:] If it is going to be beneficial, it's going to be at the margin. I think this is a White House that probably wishes that foreign policy is going to be as important in this election as it was in 2008. Take a look at these polls. We asked how the president is handling both foreign affairs and the economy. You see foreign affairs 47 percent, the economy 36 percent. The election is not going to be about foreign policy, even though he rates better on it. So if the president didn't get a substantial bounce out of the killing of Osama bin Laden, he's not going to get a substantial bounce out of this.
[Blitzer:] Gloria, hold on for a minute because we're just getting this report in courtesy of our friends at Reuters. The Libyan prime minister, the acting Libyan prime minister in the transitional government over there, Mahmoud Jibril, citing what he says is a forensic report, now providing details on the death of Moammar Gadhafi. He says this. "Gadhafi was taken out of a sewage pipe. He didn't show any resistance. When we started moving him, he was hit by a bullet in his right arm. And when they put him in a truck, he did not have any other injuries." This is what Jibril is quoted as saying at a news conference, and he's reading from the forensic report. He goes on to say this. He says, "When the car was moving, it was caught in crossfire between the revolutionaries and Gadhafi forces, in which he was hit by a bullet in the head. The forensic doctor could not tell if it came from the revolutionaries or from Gadhafi's forces. Gadhafi was alive when he taken from Sirte" that's his home town "but he died a few minutes before reaching the hospital," this according to the prime minister, Mahmoud Jibril. I suspect we're going to be getting a lot of information.
[Borger:] Right.
[Blitzer:] Some of it will be contradictory. Some of it will be made up. Some of it will be accurate. It's all just the beginning.
[Borger:] But he's clearly making the point that this was not an outright assassination, and that somehow, Gadhafi was caught in the crossfire here. We're not sure who hit him. But I think the key point is here that we didn't assassinate him point-blank. That's what he's saying.
[Blitzer:] That's what the Libyans are saying.
[Borger:] Yes. Exactly. Exactly.
[Blitzer:] There will always be suspicions-
[Borger:] Of course.
[Blitzer:] and I suspect there'll be conspiracies. And we're learning more about the U.S. and NATO role in hitting that convoy, especially with that Predator drone. All right, Gloria, don't go too far away, as well. The Arab spring movement claims the life of a dictator. Two experts on the revolution tell us what's next for Libya, what's next for the Middle East. Stand by.