Governors: No Syrian Refugees in My State
BLITZER: Paris investigators are now looking into the possibility that one of the attackers came into Europe as part of the refugee wave coming out of Syria. That news has lead to a quick reaction by some governors in the United States to block the states from taking in more refugees. Ohio and Mississippi just became the ninth and tenth state to make that announcement. Our Martin Savidge is joining us now. Martin, how many states are we talking about? It is clearly escalating, thus desire to avoid allowing more Syrian the refugees into the United States.</s>MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's escalating as the day goes on. It started off with three and now at 10. I know the states where we are at so far, and the governors said no more refugees, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and Massachusetts. On the fence is said to be Iowa. The governor is asking for more transparency. And the governor of North Carolina has set up a press conference later today to talk about the very subject, and he may go on the list as well. The number of Syrian refugees in the country so far, at least according to the Department of Health and Human Services that tracks the refugees, says that, in 2014, they were roughly 132 Syrians, but the numbers have gone up some in 2015. But it's the president of the United States that has committed to accepting 100,000 Syrian refugees. Keep in mind there are roughly four million that are said to have fled the fighting in Syria. So it is that number that is clearly alarming to many of the governors in light of what they have seen going on in Paris this past weekend. And it should be noted that all of the governors in the states are Republicans -- Wolf?</s>BLITZER: Good point. Thanks very much, Martin. And I want to bring in two specialists to help us to appreciate what is going on, and joining us from London, the former United States ambassador to NATO, Nicholas Burns; and in Washington, our chief political analyst, Gloria Borger. Gloria, the president says it is un-American to turn away the refugee, and America has welcomed the refugees and immigrants into the United States. Ben Carson, one of the presidential frontrunners, is weighing in, saying this is not a time to allow the Syrian refugees in because ISIS could be infiltrating the waves. Where do we go from here?</s>GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: It has become a political issue that clearly divides the Republicans and the Democrats. Saturday night, at the debate, the Democrats did not say anything about slowing down the refugees from Syria. And Dr. Carson wants to block funds for programs that allow for Syrian refugees. You have, as Martin was saying, these 10 Republican governors, and the list is going to grow. There are some presidential candidates who want to only allow in Christian refugees, which is something that the president also made reference to today. So this is a bone of contention in a presidential campaign in which immigration is already a very big issue -- Wolf?</s>BLITZER: Nick Burns, you were once the undersecretary for political affairs. Can the governors do this? Let's say the president of the United States says we will accept 20,000 refugees in the next few months, can the governors say, you won't send them to Ohio or some of the other states?</s>NICHOLAS BURNS, FORMER UNITED STATES AMBASSADOR TO NATO: Well, this is an issue for the president and the speaker of the House to work out. Congress controls the purse strings. The administration proposes refugee number. By the way, I think what the administration's position is, is that the U.S. should take 10,000 and not 100,000 Syria refugees--</s>BLITZER: 10,000 by the end of this year.</s>BURNS: And 100,000 refugees from all over the world, just to correct that number. But we have a long tradition of Republican presidents, as well as Democratic presidents standing up to take the refugees. And as Secretary Hillary Clinton said the other night in the Democratic debate, of course, job number one has to be security. You have to vet the people. It does take time. You have to establish who they are. You have to put their name through criminal databases and international security bases. We have to do all of that. But this nation, our nation has never shut its doors in the last 70 years, since the close of the World War II, and we should not begin now when you have 12 million Syrian homeless, when the Europeans are doing so much more than the United States.</s>BLITZER: Gloria, the president spoke out at the news conference in Turkey at the end of the G-20 summit, and I want to play a clip and hear your reaction to this.</s>OBAMA: We have always understood that it is a long-term campaign. There are going to be setbacks, and there will be successes. The terrible events in Paris were obviously a terrible and sickening setback.</s>BLITZER: And now, the critics say it is a lot more than a setback. They are pounding on him right now that his strategy has not worked.</s>BORGER: Right. And what the president spoke about was an intensification of his strategy, and not a rethinking of his strategy. I think that this needed to be in some ways, Wolf, a larger moment than it was. If you are in Paris, this is your 9/11, and this is not a setback. And when you are president of the United States, he spent a lot of time today talking about his political opponents, and talking about how the strategy needed time to work, and talking about the intensification, and not talking a lot about resolve or American leadership, which is what I think that people wanted to hear. He talks about leading a coalition often, with France, with Arab allies, and that is what I wanted to hear more from him about today. [13:45:]</s>BLITZER: Nick Burns, this is clearly a turning point what happened in Paris the other night, and I assume that you agree, right?</s>BURNS: I very much agree with that. The U.S. has had a policy in place to essentially contain the Islamic State. It is not going to work. And we have to transition to a defeat strategy. That does not mean American combat troops on the ground. But what it does mean, Wolf, is I think Gloria is exactly right, the world is looking for the United States to lead a huge coalition. And we need to do that. We have that opportunity. The president, to his -- in his defense, needs some help. In Britain, today, I was reminded by a British friend that the British government is not conducting air strikes in Syria because the parliament has not given permission. You know, Wolf, some of the Arab states on the front line, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, no longer on the front lines with us against the Islamic State. Turkey, where the president is now, they are the most complicated of all. They have been bombing the one group that is fighting the Islamic State, the Syrian Kurds. So the president needs help from the allies, but he needs to lead in a more assertive way. He is obviously capable of doing that. And that is where the focus of the United States should be right now.</s>BLITZER: And I spoke recently with Philip Hammond, the British foreign secretary, and asked him why the British is not involved. He said politics basically. They don't have political authorization to do so. Nick Burns, thanks very much. Gloria, thanks to you, as well. As France steps up its campaign against ISIS, we're ask the question, are the air strikes actually working and can the coalition change the dynamics in the war against the terrorists to prevent another tragedy like we witnessed Friday night in Paris? We'll talk about that, get new information when we come back.