Interview with Sen. Dan Coats of Indiana
COSTELLO: All right. As I told you at the top of the show, President Obama is expected -- actually he will make a primetime address tonight to lay out his strategy to degrade and destroy ISIS. The president's speech will come your way at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time. I want to bring in Republican Senator Dan Coats of Indiana now. He's a member of the Senate intelligence committee and the ranking member of the Homeland Security Appropriations Committee. Welcome, sir.</s>SEN. DAN COATS (R), INDIANA: Thank you.</s>COSTELLO: What do you want to hear from the president tonight?</s>COATS: What I'd like to hear is a very clear definition of the threat as well as the proposal and the strategy to deal with this threat. As you know, many know, that I have been critical of the president for not taking the leadership during crisis times. This is his moment because this is a threat that we face that impacts on the world as well as the United States and the president needs to stand up and take leadership, so I hope he will do that to find clearly what his goal and strategy is, try to pull a coalition together, which I think is absolutely necessary to succeed here. American invasion, troops on the ground has proven in Iraq and Afghanistan, it does not solve the problem. We need to bring the moderate nations in with us. They are at stake. Their culture, the perversion of their religion, we're looking at barbarism here in a form that we haven't seen in our lifetime, and it needs to be addressed.</s>COSTELLO: Senator, I want you to take a look at this picture because I found it interesting. President Obama met with congressional leaders to talk about ISIS. When you look at the picture of them meeting at the White House, there it is, they don't look like people actually want to be in the same room together. But it's vital they work together to defeat ISIS. Is it possible to put partisanship aside?</s>COATS: We have no other choice. We must put partisanship aside. This is a threat to the world order. This is a moral issue that faces not just people in the Middle East, but faces us with foreign fighters coming back into our country, to European countries, bringing this form of barbarism back to our shores. So, this is something that steps above politics regardless of the election, regardless of anything else. This is a challenge for all of us. But we do need a leader. And the president is that person. George Bush had his 9/11. This is President Obama's defining moment. We'll see what he says tonight. And I hope we can support and do what's right for the future of America and for the world.</s>COSTELLO: I hope so. But it seems like we just can't escape the midterm elections. I mean, one of the senators in that room, Mitch McConnell, he just released a campaign ad criticizing the president for a lack of strategy. Let's watch just a bit of that.</s>AD NARRATOR: These are serious times.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That ISIS can't be defeated without hitting --</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Three hundred and eleven thousand jobless claims.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Waves of unaccompanied children, 52,000.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Obamacare has a potential to be the train wreck.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We don't have a strategy yet.</s>AD NARRATOR: In Kentucky, we have a proven leader.</s>COSTELLO: So, there are valid criticisms contained within that ad for sure. But again, don't our leaders have to unite to defeat this new threat?</s>COATS: Well, absolutely we do. Unfortunately, we're behind the curve here. We're behind the curve because the president has not given us the leadership we need prior to this point. As I said, we have to push that aside and say, this is the defining moment. This is the threat that goes to all Americans and people around the world that believe in a civilized, orderly rule of law world instead of this barbarism that's taking place through ISIS -- a well-organized, well-funded, well-managed growing daily group of those who want to impose a radical agenda on the world and they have named us as direct threat as well as Europe. So, it's time for us all of us to step up to the occasion and not let politics interfere with what we need to do as a world to deal with this problem.</s>COSTELLO: OK. So, the president, we hear, he claims airstrikes over Syria. He says he doesn't need congressional approval for that. In your mind, does he?</s>COATS: You know, we have been debating this issue back and forth forever. What we need to do is ensure that the American people know exactly what the threat is, that what the strategy is and we need to stand together. Any president is wise for that president to bring to the Congress the American people's representatives, the plan and give support behind him. If not, it will fail. And so, that's a challenge for the president. We'll see if he's up to it this evening.</s>COSTELLO: All right. Republican Senator Dan Coats of Indiana, thank you so much for joining me this morning.</s>COATS: Thank you.</s>COSTELLO: I appreciate it. CNN will have -- thank you, sir. CNN will have live coverage of the president's address beginning tonight at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time. I'll be right back.