Cliff Schecter Slams GOP Strategist On War Profiteering

September 2006: Cliff Schecter debates Republican divide over use of private contractors in the war on terrorism on MSNBC.

**transcript generated by third-party transcription software, please excuse any typos**

and now to a pre-election struggle over national security and it's pitting republican against republican the divisive issue here is the president's plan for interrogating and prosecuting detainees in the war on terror a real tug of war has developed between the white house and prominent republicans such as john mccain and colin powell i'm joined now by republican pollster john mclaughlin and democratic strategist cliff schechter gentleman great to see you both today good to see you contessa good day cliff you know all the republican infighting does that is it good for democrats of course it is i mean look right now what you can see among republicans as you can see there's a fight between those who actually have served in war and those who haven't a perfect example that for people need to see right now you know there's a great new film out by robert greenwald called iraq for sale and it shows the war profiteering that's been going on in iraq they show this one terrific scene where halliburton actually gives our troops tainted water and makes them sick and of course makes millions of dollars off it now that kind of thing does not sit well with people who've been in the military so now you fast forward to what's going on right now uh who do you who's in this fight right now over you know over whether we're going to continue with the geneva you know conferences you've got colin powell you've got john mccain you've got lindsey graham you've got john warner all veterans all distinguished who are all saying that you know that this is going to weaken us if we don't follow the geneva conventions let me bring john in here because at this point you raise a good point cliff here are some really uh well-known republican leaders and as cliff points out john these are guys with military backgrounds they've been on war fronts i mean john mccain was a prisoner of war himself do they have a point they have a what what's interesting to me about this is it's a debate among republicans because it actually the democrats are pretty weak when it comes to terror they can't carry they can't carry this issue at all i mean let's face it the republicans since the terror bombings that were allegedly broken up when they were gonna when they were gonna blow up those airliners coming over the atlantic to celebrate the five-year anniversary of 9 11. the republicans have been taking up in the polls today george allen debated jim webb jim webb was evasive george allen was direct he was strong on terror what you've got is you've got people like even in new york and that's why the democrats really at this point are are staying silent on the issue because they think well if john mccain and colin power are going to take on the administration then why do we need to get our hands on we're not silent on the whole issue of terrorism if i can answer john i mean he throws out of course the ridiculous talking points that i'm sure bush faxed him today saying the democrats are amazing the democrats are weak on terror let's let's talk for a second john is somebody who ignores katrina and can't protect us from rain and storms we're talking about okay fine let's move on you can't protect us from rain john john you want to try and protect us from rain good yeah okay you know what else john i'm going to finish whether you let me or not finish if you can't protect us in iraq because you can't protect our troops because you send them there with body armor that doesn't work so you can give tax cuts to paris hilton all right that doesn't protect us

cliff raises 19 points for john to respond to responding to none of them wait wait well you keep interrupting hold on one second go ahead john let me go one better for five years the president has kept us safe from terrorist attacks we've got the we got the terrorists on the run in iraq and my point was gonna say even in new york even in new york sure look i live look i live in new york and i know it's like where you live where you're where you're a terror target but you know what i'm from new york city you're good you will well you know what even in new york your center hillary clinton won't even acknowledge she voted against the patriarch december 16th so even against when she's when she's a and a challenge from john spencer she has to divert from the issue

in iraq and the taliban is starting to take over in afghanistan again acknowledge that hold on a second in the most recent nbc news wall street journal poll i mean hold on a second please 54 of the people responded they believe the president has taken the right course of action in its imprisonment and treatment of suspected terrorists and for foreign fighters only 34 percent of those responded say the president has gone too far in this case it does