Pence Details New Syria Policy at Debate Not Mentioned by Trump
BOLDUAN: At last night's debate, Governor Mike Pence appeared to lay out some detail on policy towards Syria, a bit surprising, maybe because we haven't heard much detailed policy coming from Donald Trump on that. Pence also seemed to go further on military action that he would support than Trump, and then some. Take a listen.</s>PENCE: The provocations by Russia need to be met with American strength. And if Russia chooses to be involved and continue, I should say to be involved, in this barbaric attack on civilians in Aleppo, the United States of America should be prepared to use military force to strike military targets of the Assad regime to prevent them from this humanitarian crisis that is taking place in Aleppo. I truly do believe that what America ought to do right now is immediately establish safe zones so that families and vulnerable families with children can move out of those areas, work with our Arab partners, real-time, right now, to make that happen.</s>BERMAN: We are joined by CNN's senior international correspondent, Clarissa Ward, who has done significant reporting in and around Syria. Clarissa, thanks for being with us. We just heard Mike Pence say that he thinks that the United States military needs to be prepared to use military force to strike targets of the Assad regime. That is something I do not believe I have ever heard Donald Trump say and it is a fairly significant policy pronouncement.</s>CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is. I think there are two issues here, John. The first issue is that this was seemingly the only thing that the vice presidential candidates agreed upon, both of them arguing for safe zones to protect civilians in northern Syria where they are currently under relentless bombardment. For both candidates to come out and propose that means it's a pretty damning indictment of President Obama's current Syria policy. Now, Pence went one step further and said it's not just a question of creating safe zones but we also need to look at returning Russian force with U.S. military force. And this is the moment where he diverged from Donald Trump, because we have heard Donald Trump, back in 2015, talking about creating what he called big beautiful safe zones where refugees and internally displaced people inside Syria could go and take refuge, which would then ease the effects of the refugee crisis that's being felt across the Middle East and, indeed, in Europe. So this was a real moment where we saw him move away from the Trump playbook. We also saw him really move away from the Trump playbook when he was talking about Russian President Vladimir Putin. We have heard Donald Trump many times talking about what a great leader his is, what great popularity ratings he has, how effective he is. You heard Pence here calling him a "bullying little man." And I think what you are seeing essentially is that Pence is really given the voice of a much more standard GOP position with regard to Syria and with regard, of course, to President Putin and the U.S.'s military handling. But the bottom line that was really interesting is that both candidates, Democrat and Republican, came out saying more needs to be done in Syria. It will be interesting to see on Sunday whether we hear Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump go into any more detail about what a more robust Syria policy would look like because, so far, we haven't heard much about the tails.</s>BOLDUAN: It's -- one thing is very clear. Arab partners around the world are watching and listening to these candidates and what they say as their prescriptions to how they would be different, especially with regard to Syria, if they win. What you heard from Mike Pence last night, if that would be the policy of the Trump campaign, how is that likely to be received around the world?</s>WARD: By people who are allied with the Syrian opposition, so the gulf states, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey, most Sunni Muslim countries would be delighted. They feel very strongly that U.S. leadership has been tragically absent in the Syria conflict. Of course, people supporting the regime of Bashar al Assad, whether it's Russia or Iran, would see this as a very dangerous escalation in this conflict -- Kate?</s>BERMAN: Clarissa Ward, thanks so much. Appreciate it.</s>BOLDUAN: Thank you, Clarissa.</s>WARD: Thank you.</s>BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, one line from last night that people keep talking about -- there are a lot of them -- including this, "You have whipped out that Mexican thing again." What was Mike Pence talking about? And why Democrats don't want to let it go, ahead.</s>BERMAN: Plus, Bill Clinton in some hot water after calling Obamacare the "craziest thing in the world." Now he's doing a little bit of a walk-back or a dance-back or sprint-back. That's coming up.