Live from the Headlines - Interview

SHOW: LIVE FROM THE HEADLINES 19:00

HEADLINE: Interview with Mitch McConnell, Wesley Clark

GUESTS: Mitch McConnell, Wesley Clark

BYLINE: Paula Zahn, John King

HIGHLIGHT:
An interview with Mitch McConnell and Wesley Clark

BODY:
ZAHN: All right, General Wesley Clark, always good to see you. Good to see thanks for your time tonight.

Now for another take on the situation in Iraq, let's go to Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky the Senate majority whip. He joins us with Louisville.

Tonight, good to see you again, sir. Thanks so much for joining us. I wanted you to react to some of those numbers General Clark was just talking about.

Are you concerned when you see the drop in support for these action in Iraq that there may come a time when the American public will demand that American troops come home?

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MAJORITY WHIP: I don't think that's going to happen. General Clark has been excessively skeptical about this whole enterprise, before, during and after. And it could as you indicated at the end of your questioning of him, be somewhat related to his testing the waters to running for president himself as a Democrat. Look, everybody knew this was going to be difficult.

The period after the victory was going to be doublely challenging because it's a very large country with a lot of disdent elements. And getting control there was never going to be easy. In terms of what ought to be done, the president is doing exactly what General Clark suggested, trying to get international troops in. The Poles are coming in later in the summer, training an Iraqi police force, turning over as much as we can to them. That's exactly what we're not process of doing.

ZAHN: Are you satisfied that -- or do you really believe the administration underestimated or did not underestimate the strength of Iraqi opposition?

MCCONNELL: I think we anticipated that there would be a challenge in this period after the hostilities, the large hostilities stopped. I don't think it's particularly surprising that there's still people taking pot shots at us. But we're in the process with various search and destroy missions and with internationalizing a force there in getting a handle on it. I don't think the -- you know, we're not going to be run out of Iraq. This is a major commitment. We're there for the long haul to help them establish a genuine democracy in the Middle East which would truly be revolutionary and very educational for all of its neighbors.

ZAHN: And what gives you any optimism that the American public will be patient enough to bring peace to this country?

MCCONNELL: Well, I think the public has a lot of confidence in the president's ability to deal with foreign policy and defense matters. He's been a forceful leader on this issue. The public has followed him. You remember the public was skeptcal about going to war in Iraq in the first place. But after the president began to play out the case for it the American people rallied behind it. Now today the president began to layout if case for completing the job in Iraq, for doing it right. And my suspicion is the American people will stick with the president on his handling of the whole Iraq issue.

ZAHN: Senator Mitch McConnell, thanks you for your time tonight, appreciate it.