Putin And Obama Meet At G-20; Syria Crisis Takes World Stage; Tough Opposition To Attacking Syria; Marco Rubio Shifts Direction On Syria; G-20 Leaders Arrive for Working Dinner; Syria Impact On U.S. Military
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Suzanne Malveaux. It's a simple handshake in front of the cameras, but the relationship between presidents Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama definitely still strained. Their first face to face since the crisis in Syria. And speaking of strained relationships, lawmakers feeling the heat from their constituents. Latest polls shows 59 percent of Americans do not want the U.S. to take military action inside Syria. So, how will that sentiment affect the vote? We're going to take a closer look. And Pope Francis making a personal plea to the Russian president, find a peaceful solution for Syria. The G-20 summit formally began in Russia's second largest city today, St. Petersburg. It is designed to bring the world's top economic powers together. But this year's meeting has one main issue hanging over it, what to do about Syria? President Obama is openly looking for allies to join his call for military strikes on Syria. The president is convinced that Syrian troops used chemical weapons against civilians there, killing hundreds of men, women and children. Now, back in the states, President Obama -- well, rather, Obama officials, they are holding closed door briefings with lawmakers today, hoping to secure more votes in favor of military strikes. And even the pope now getting involved in this debate. Pope Francis wrote a letter to the G-20 leaders asking them to seek peace through dialog not military action. I want you to listen to the president speaking in Russia. He makes his case at the G-20 very clear.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I also look forward to having an extensive conversation about the situation in Syria, and I think our joint recognition of that, the use of chemical weapons in Syria, is not only a tragedy but also a violation of international law that must be addressed.</s>MALVEAUX: The G-20, of course, it is the group of 20. It is an international forum that brings finance ministers and central bank governors together from 19 countries and the European Union. The G-20 was initially formed after the financial crisis of 1997 which revealed just how vulnerable the international financial system was at the time. Well, it is often now overshadowed by the world's pressing issues and the crises that leaders have to deal with these days. The G-20 Leaders' Summit, it brings together the heads of state for formal meetings and equally important, however, are the side bar meetings that President Obama is having with the leaders of China, France, and Japan. And, of course, this year the big focus, the side bars, that is the crisis in Syria. Now, you can see with this map here what a huge portion of the world the G-20 represents. Even though it's only 20 countries, two-thirds of the world's population lives here. Now, the countries involved are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. I want to go live to St. Petersburg now where the G-20 leaders, they are gathering. Our Jim Acosta following this, of course. And we saw the moment -- that moment when everybody was waiting for when you had presidents Obama and Putin come together. They shook hands and I think Obama slightly disarmed him a little by smiling and laughing a little bit. Tell us what this relationship is like now and what do they hope to accomplish in the next 48 hours?</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Suzanne, the relationship, you know, is pretty apparent to everybody's eyes. It's been on ice in recent weeks not only because of what's happening in Syria right now and the Obama administration accusations Russia is blocking any actions at the United Nations but because of the NSA's surveillance programs, Edward Snowden being granted temporary asylum here. And, you know, Snowden is here in Russia where we're standing right now and he is not really the subject of conversation. It is about Syria. This has been really on the president's mind and the advisers' minds within the Obama administration who are with him on this trip. We heard the president say that in that just a bit of sound that you played a few moments ago with the prime minister of Japan. But, Suzanne, I just want to let you know earlier this afternoon, the press secretary for Russian President Vladimir Putin held a briefing here in St. Petersburg. He is sort of Russia's equivalent of Jay Carney. And I asked him a question about this Obama administration claim that Russia is blocking action at the United Nations Security Council. He sort of side stepped that question and went to really the Russian default response to these issues about Syria. He said that the world needs to remember the lesson from Iraq. Here is what he had to say.</s>DMITRY PESKOV, RUSSIAN PRESS SECRETARY (via translator): We're well aware that no weapons of mass destruction were discovered in Iraq so not every proof can be a proof in itself. So, Russian encourages to consider this situation in a responsible manner while not using the fact to justify some reasons of the actions and Putin mentioned them.</s>ACOSTA: Do you believe that the United States is fabricating the evidence or lying about the evidence?</s>PESKOV: I didn't say that. I said that we all need a convincing and legitimate evidence of proof. We highly appreciate our cooperation with American partners, and we would like our relations with the U.S. to be very positive.</s>ACOSTA: And so, you heard the Russian press secretary there, Dmitry Peskov, answering that question really basically saying this has to be handled at the United Nations. And Russia still very much against a unilateral strike on part of the United States. And just for the record, Suzanne, I did ask Mr. Peskov to answer that question in English. He reminded me, we are in Russia. He is answering in Russian -- Suzanne.</s>MALVEAUX: All right. Fair enough. Thank you, Jim. Appreciate it. Let us know if there are any side bar meetings, meetings on the margin between those two leaders.</s>ACOSTA: All right.</s>MALVEAUX: Appreciate it. And CNN, of course, is tallying how Congress is going to vote. So far in the House, 18 Democrats and nine Republicans are backing President Obama. Twenty-three Democrats and 60 Republicans are against him and more than 300 lawmakers are either undecided or their feelings are unknown. Now, I want to take a look at the Senate, 17 Democrats and seven Republicans support a strike against Syria. Three Democrats and 13 Republicans do not with 58 senators still undecided. Still quite a bit of a debate left there. And you can see how the lawmakers plan to vote on a strike against the Assad regime in Syria. Just go to CNN.com, slash, politics and click on counting votes. You can click through interactive tally state by state, name, comments, whatever. The tally is running and it's based on public statements, press releases, and these interviews from the lawmakers. And, of course, lawmakers well aware that the American public does not support military action in Syria. Polls are actually showing that, so it's backing it up. But people very much still divided. They are staying protesters starting to take to the streets to voice their opposition as well. This is a protest. It was held this week in Minneapolis. It was just outside a senator's office. I want to bring in Jessica Yellin from Washington to talk a little bit about that. Really, the passion and people are becoming aware now. They're paying attention to what is happening. They're taking to the streets. I imagine a lot of lawmakers who are getting a lot of questions and a lot of backlash as well.</s>JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Suzanne, and yesterday we saw that especially in the House committee hearing when Republican Congressman Duncan held up a lot of papers and said this thick wad of papers represents e-mails from constituents who say they fiercely oppose this effort. What we're seeing, as you might expect, is that Republican lawmakers are more openly expressing the criticism they're hearing from their own constituents. Democratic lawmakers saying that they're hearing from their constituents about war weariness from concerns over Iraq and Afghanistan. And, you know, there is a natural split there with the president's base a little more reluctant to criticize him, Republicans who tend to be more in favor of military action, in general, were willing to speak out because they oppose the president these days. So, it's a little hard to read where people really stand on the strike as opposed to on the politics of supporting an effort by President Obama.</s>MALVEAUX: And, Jessica, I thought it was interesting this morning Chris Cuomo, he was interviewing the former defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, and he asked him if he thought there were any mistakes that had been made from Iraq, because we are living with the legacy of Iraq when you look at whether or not we should go into Syria. And the one thing that he was -- that he at least did acknowledge here was that he felt that this whole nation -- this whole idea of the notion of nation building was something that the U.S. had to be cautious about, perhaps more cautious than when they went into Iraq. I want to you listen to how he put it.</s>DONALD RUMSFELD, FORMER DEFENSE SECRETARY: Now, are we capable of nation building in the United States of America? No, I think we're not. I think people in a country have to build their own nation. And we don't speak those languages and we ought to be, I think, modest about any impression we have that we can do nation building in and the idea that the template we have that we have arrived at after hundreds of years is necessarily the proper template for other countries.</s>MALVEAUX: So, Jessica, is that what lawmakers are hearing, maybe somewhat of the acknowledgment from Rumsfeld that, you know what? We've got to be really careful before you get involved in trying to completely change a regime, a country, a culture?</s>YELLIN: Well, I think these are two different instances because this White House has been pretty clear and I think you probably agree, Suzanne. They're not interested in going in and changing Syria. This is about a surgical strike and leaving. And, you know, if there are consequences, dealing with those consequences. Whereas Iraq was about changing the government. What I found striking about what Donald Rumsfeld said there and you covered them -- that administration just as I did, is he said the exact same thing before they went into Iraq. I found a quote from him, Suzanne --</s>MALVEAUX: Yes.</s>YELLIN: -- in the early part of 2003 before the U.S. invaded Iraq where he said, the goal would not be to impose an American style template on Iraq, same words, template on Iraq, but create conditions where Iraqis can form a government in their own unique way. So, I mean, this was his view before but they went ahead and proceeded in their own way. He just opposes the president, this president's, efforts now sort of striking.</s>MALVEAUX: I think you're absolutely right, Jessica, because one of the things that people are having a hard time is trust. Trust in what the government is saying. Trust in the officials, what does it mean when you put out the message and then it turns, it goes in a different direction and, you know, that is the fear.</s>YELLIN: I</s>MALVEAUX: Yes, absolutely. Jessica, thank you. I really appreciate it.</s>YELLIN: Yes.</s>MALVEAUX: Tune into CNN tonight. It is a special town hall on Syria. It's going to be hosted by our own "NEW DAY" anchor, Chris Cuomo. He's going to be talking with a panel of experts, and he's going to be taking questions about evidence, the evidence we're talking about, of a chemical attack in Syria and, of course, the proposed U.S.-led military response. That is tonight, 9:00 Eastern right here on CNN. Here is also what we're working on for this hour. John Kerry spent 27 years in Congress. Well now, he is on the other side of the table as secretary of state facing his greatest challenges yet, Syria. And for the last two years, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, he's been demanding U.S. intervention in Syria. But now, he is shifting his position. We'll take a look at that as well.