[Blitzer:] While Donald Trump's open battled with the parents of a fallen American soldier has captured headlines, there more comments that bear more scrutiny, like this one about Russia and Ukraine.
[Trump:] He's not gong into Ukraine. Just so you understand. He's not going into Ukraine. And you can mark it down and you can put it down and you can take it anyway you want."
[George Stephanopoulos, Abc News Anchor:] Well, he's already there, isn't he?
[Trump:] Well, he is there in a certain way. But I'm not there yet. Obama is there. And frankly, that whole part of the world is a mess under Obama.
[Blitzer:] Joining us now from New York is Fareed Zakaria, host of CNN's "Fareed Zakaria, GPS." Fareed, Donald Trump tweeted this clarification, "When I said in an interview that Putin is not going into Ukraine, you can mark it down, and I am saying if I am president. Already in Crimea." And he says that the people of Crimea would rather be with Russia anyway. What message does it send when a presidential nominee of a party needs to come back, clarify his remarks on such a sensitive and volatile issue?
[Fareed Zakaria, Cnn Host, Fareed Zakaria, Gps:] Well, Wolf, every time it is demonstrated that Donald Trump is plainly ignorant about some basic public policy issues and well known facts, he comes back with the certain bravado and tries to explain it away with a tweet or statement. And he did it on the Brexit, and the nuclear Triad, and also he thought that Tim Kaine was the governor of New Jersey. And this and so now it is amusing to watch how he is going to be pulling it off this time, and what is he going to be arguing, and he adds that the press hates him, and there sis a term for this kind of thing, and this is the mode of a bullshit artist, entertaining, and if the guy is trying to sell you a condo or a car, but for the president of the United States, it is deeply worrying.
[Blitzer:] Evidence to suggest that he is right when most of the people who are live in Crimea, annexed by Russia, would prefer to be part of Russia than Ukraine?
[Zakaria:] There is evidence for that, but it has never been the way in which we changed the borders since the end of World War II. It is important to understand that the argument that Donald Trump is putting forward about Crimea is the same argument that Adolf Hitler made about the Czechoslovakia and also, the argument of the Austrians, that these people want to be part of Germany, so I will go in and invade the country anyway. You don't change borders without some process that is, you know, legal, that is Democratic and that does not involve force. And the fact that maybe, and we are not sure, but maybe if you are from Poland and Crimea, maybe more people want to be part of Russia than Ukraine does not tell us much. The Germans in Slovakia probably wanted to be part of Germany, but it did not justify Adolf Hitler's move.
[Blitzer:] Is he right about NATO, saying that most of the 28 NATO allies do not pay up their responsibility, they don't meet the financial obligation of being a NATO ally?
[Zakaria:] Well, he is right. They don't pay enough, and they should pay more, and it is no an obligation that is written into the charter of NATO, and agreed upon NATO policy to spend 2 percent of the GDP on defense. But this is crucial. NATO is an automatic treaty in which an attack on one is an attack on all. That automatic guarantee is what has kept the peace in Europe since 1945 in a land where years before you had wars and devastation, and you is had peace, because the United States has said automatically and no matter what, we will come to your defense, and that is what works. And to change it, to say, well, if you are invaded, I will take a look at the books and decide how much you spent on defense last year, and on the basis of that, maybe I will and won't, is a very different kind of foreign policy.
[Blitzer:] Fareed, thank you for joining us.
[Zakaria:] Pleasure.
[Blitzer:] And coming up, the U.S. has now launched new air strikes against ISIS targets in Libya. We'll bring you the latest developments in the grueling battle to defeat the terrorist group. New information coming in. We'll be right back.