In a 2012 book, Roger Ailes is quoted saying that if he was in charge he’d wage war in Syria — and that he’d get Vladimir Putin to join him with an unusual offer.

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Republicans may be divided on how to handle the crisis in Syria, but the president of their favorite news network has made it clear he's 100% in favor of toppling the Assad regime — though he has a somewhat unorthodox plan to get it done.

In Zev Chafets' 2012 book Roger Ailes Off Camera the president of Fox News is quoted saying if if he was in the Oval Office he would "open a new front" in Syria, and that he'd use use flattery and the promise of international prestige to convince Russian President Vladimir Putin to join the intervention.

From Ailes' comments in the book:

"Putin is angry. He thinks the United States doesn't take him seriously or treat Russia as a major player. Okay, fine, that's how he feels. If I were president, I'd get in a room with him and say, 'Look at the slaughter going on in Syria. You can stop it. Do it, and I'll see to it that you can get all the credit. I'll tell the world it was you who saved the innocent children of Syria from slaughter. You'll be an international hero. You'll go down in history.' Hell, Putin would go to bed thinking, 'That's not a bad offer.' There will still be plenty of other issues I'd have with Russia. But instead of looking for one huge deal that settles everything, you take a piece of the problem and solve it. Give an incentive for good behavior. Show the other guy his self-interest. Everybody has an ego. Everybody needs dignity. And what does it cost? You get what you want you give up nothing."

Later in the book, Chafets describes a news meeting at Fox in which Ailes pushed for more coverage of the conflict, and considered giving coverage to Jesse Jackson if he went to Russia to protest the country's alliance with Assad:

"Jesse Jackson called me today. He wants to go to Moscow and protest the Russian government supporting Assad. I told him that we'd look into the possibility of coverage. We have to open a new front in Syria or a shitload more people will die. Assad's murdering journalists and silencing them. It's troubling when a country goes silent. Somebody talk to Walid Phares [a Fox Middle East commentator] and let's find out what the terrorists are up to over here these days. Somebody get in touch with Ray Kelly about it."

Conservatives disagree on whether to Congressional Republicans should authorize President Obama's desired military strike in Syria, and some of Fox's most prominent personalities, including Sean Hannity, have been deeply skeptical of getting involved in the conflict.

The war of the young.

Children have been involved from the start of the Syrian revolution.

STRINGER / Reuters

A member of the Free Syrian Army holds up a child as he protests against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad

HANDOUT / Reuters

But as the civil war enters it's third year, more and more children are becoming involved in the day-to-day fighting.

HANDOUT / Reuters

Many of the boys follow their parents into the war.

Stringer / Reuters

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Our government is yet again marching us towards a war of choice in the Middle East and our non-partisan, peace-loving celebrities have gone missing since late 2008. We fear the worst.

Sheryl Crow

LAST KNOWN PRE-2009 COMMUNICATION:
“I think war is based in greed and there are huge karmic retributions that will follow. I think war is never the answer to solving any problems. The best way to solve problems is to not have enemies.”
-- Sheryl Crow

Bruce Springsteen

LAST KNOWN PRE-2009 COMMUNICATION:
"War. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing."
-- Bruce Springsteen

Martin Sheen

LAST KNOWN PRE-2009 COMMUNICATION:
"But I am equally against the death penalty or war -- anywhere people are sacrificed for some end justifying a means."
-- Martin Sheen

Ed Asner

LAST KNOWN PRE-2009 COMMUNICATION:
“I also think that there is a strong streak of racism, and whenever we engage in foreign adventures. Our whole history in regime change has been of people of different color.”
-- Ed Asner

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“It’s comparable to me pointing out I’m Jewish in attracting the Jewish vote,” the New York City mayor said during an interview with New York magazine . Update: Bill de Blasio responds to Bloomberg’s remarks.

John Minchillo / AP

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg called mayoral candidate Billde Blasio's campaign "racist" in a New York magazine interview published Saturday.

Then there's Bill de Blasio, who's become the Democratic front-runner. He has in some ways been running a class-warfare campaign—
Class-warfare and racist.
Racist?
I mean he's making an appeal using his family to gain support. I think it's pretty obvious to anyone watching what he's been doing. I do not think he himself is racist. It's comparable to me pointing out I'm Jewish in attracting the Jewish vote. You tailor messages to your audiences and address issues you think your audience cares about.

De Blasio responded to the comments at a campaign event Saturday afternoon, saying, "I'm exceedingly proud of my family ... We all have proceeded as a family together." He called Bloomberg's remarks "very unfortunate and inappropriate" and said he hoped Bloomberg would "reconsider" what he said.

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Flooding the zone.

Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

President Obama is set to a TV blitz while making his case for Syria Monday. That's according to the latest White House press pool report citing a White House official.

"According to a White House official, President Obama will tape interviews on Monday afternoon with three network news anchors, as well as with PBS, CNN and FOX," the pool report reads.

The interviews will be taped an air at night during the network news broadcasts.

President Obama is also set to address the nation Tuesday to discuss Syria.

De Blasio responds to the mayor’s interview in New York Magazine . “Twenty years ago, my dad did not know he was running for mayor and did not seek to marry a black woman to put on display,” says the frontrunner’s daughter, Chiara.

Eric Thayer / Reuters

At a rally in Brooklyn's Clinton Hill neighborhood, Bill de Blasio responded to a recent interview with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the man he hopes to succeed in City Hall, calling his charges of racism "very unfortunate and inappropriate."

Just days before Tuesday's New York City primary, Bloomberg told New York Magazine, in an interview published Saturday morning, that de Blasio has run a "class-warfare and racist" campaign because of the way in which he has used "his family to gain support," the outgoing three-term mayor said.

De Blasio, the late-breaking frontrunner in this year's crowded primary contest, stood alongside his wife, longtime activist Chirlane McCray, who is black, and his daughter, 18-year-old Chiara, at a packed get-out-the-vote rally Saturday afternoon, where he denounced Bloomberg's comments.

"I think we have run a campaign about the ideas, about the issues, about how to move this city forward," said de Blasio, who led a recent Quinnipiac poll with 43 percent of the Democratic vote. "I'm very proud of that. I'm exceedingly proud of my family, and as you'll know meeting every member of my family, they are each and every one strong and independent and make their own decisions."

"We all have proceeded as a family together," he said. "It's been an extraordinarily positive experience."

De Blasio, calling the interview "very unfortunate and inappropriate," said he hoped Bloomberg would "reconsider what he said."

After the rally, where de Blasio appeared alongside Ken Thompson, a candidate for Brooklyn District attorney, his daughter Chiara told reporters she and her mother and brother, 16-year-old Dante, participated in the campaign on their own terms. "My mom, my brother, and I are all capable of making our own decisions," she said. "Twenty years ago, my dad did not know he was running for mayor and did not seek to marry a black woman to put on display."

The de Blasios have appeared on the campaign trail with the candidate often, and Dante filmed an effective, much-talked-about direct-to-camera television ad earlier this year. When a reporter asked whether de Blasio has used his family as "a prop" during the campaign, McCray responded sharply. "Do I look like an inanimate object? I walk, I talk, I make my own decisions," she said.

The rhetoric from de Blasio supporters at the rally was more heated. Activist Bertha Lewis, the former head of the now-disbanded ACORN and a longtime de Blasio supporter, introduced the candidate at the rally.

"Big Mikey says that Bill de Blasio is a racist," she said, inciting boos from the crowd. "I mean, what? Seriously?"

"If Bill de Blasio is a racist, so am I. So are we all," Lewis said. "Big Mike, your days are numbered. Come Tuesday, maybe you will finally get the message."

De Blasio himself lamented that, just hours away from Tuesday's primary, the Bloomberg interview — deemed already by the political class as an unexpected gift to his campaign — was distracting from "the issues."

"It's the silly season, my friends," he said.

Bill de Blasio, alongside his wife Chirlane McCray and daughter, Chiara (left), responds to Bloomberg's comments at a get-out-the-vote rally in Brooklyn.

Ruby Cramer / BuzzFeed

“Mike the Mensch.”

Andrew Burton / Getty Images

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg set off a firestorm Saturday when he called mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio's campaign "racist" in a New York Magazine interview. Bloomberg made the case that de Blasio's campaign was "racist" for using his family to gain support in the black community equating it to him pointing out that he was Jewish to attract the Jewish vote.

In previous mayoral campaigns that's exactly what Bloomberg did.

"Class-warfare and racist," Bloomberg said of de Blasio's campaign to New York Magazine. "I mean he's making an appeal using his family to gain support. I think it's pretty obvious to anyone watching what he's been doing. I do not think he himself is racist. It's comparable to me pointing out I'm Jewish in attracting the Jewish vote. You tailor messages to your audiences and address issues you think your audience cares about."

According to a report from Newsday during his 2005 campaign Bloomberg, who is ethnically Jewish but not observant, sent out "an eight-page mini-magazine with photos of 'Mike the Mensch' wearing a yarmulke. A headline atop one of its pages proclaims: 'Orthodox Jewish Families a Priority For Bloomberg.'"

Likewise in 2005, according to the New York Times wearing a yarmulke while speaking to Hassidic Jews in Brooklyn "appeared on a dais adorned with blue balloons that read 'Mike the Mensch.'"

During his 2001 campaign for mayor, Bloomberg also sent direct mail to Jewish voters as well pointing out the fact he was Jewish.

The "glossy direct-mail" items read "he learned from his parents," and went on "Mike Bloomberg for Mayor — Protecting Our Community."

The brochures said "has been an active supporter of many volunteer and non-profit organizations," naming specifically the the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee.

Bloomberg's item sent to Jewish voters "even bragged that he had been given the 1997 Herbert H. Lehman Award by the American Jewish Committee," according to the New York Sun.

Another 2001 mailer said he was 'one of the Jewish community's most dedicated volunteers and most generous donors.''

Campaigning with your interracial family to appeal to a community might be different than pointing out your Jewish in direct-mailers, but it's not that different.

Note: This has been updated to note it's unclear how Mayor Bloomberg was comparing de Blasio using his family to campaign to Bloomberg pitching himself to Jewish voters.

The then-Senators missed the vote.

Pool / Reuters

Secretary of State John Kerry didn't vote for a 2003 law he cited in making the case for U.S. military intervention in Syria while appearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Tuesday. Neither did Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel who was sitting besides him.

"This debate is also about Congress' own redline. You – the United States Congress – agreed to the Chemical Weapons Convention. You – the United States Congress – passed the Syria Accountability Act, which says Syria's chemical weapons are, quote, 'threaten the security of the Middle East and the national security interests of the United States,'" Kerry said in his opening remarks.

The Syrian Accountability Act passed the Senate by a vote of 89-4 with 7 Senators -- including Hagel and Kerry -- not voting.

Kerry was, however, a co-sponsor of the bill and cited it in his 2004 platform as the Democratic candidate for president on Israel even mentioning it in an op-ed in the Jewish newspaper Forward during his presidential campaign.

The bill said Syria should halt "support for terrorism, end its occupation of Lebanon, and stop its development of weapons of mass destruction" and that Syria could be held accountable "for the serious international security problems it has caused in the Middle East, and for other purposes."

The bill also states "the Government of Syria should halt the development and deployment of medium- and long-range surface-to-surface missiles and cease the development and production of biological and chemical weapons."

Kerry cited additionally the law in his testimony to say that responding to Syria's use of chemical weapons was a responsibility of the United States.

"Now, some will also question the extent of our responsibility; to them, I say when someone kills hundreds of children with a weapon the world has banned, we are all responsible," Kerry said. "That is true because of treaties like the Geneva Convention and the Chemical Weapons Convention and for us, the Syria Accountability Act. But it's also true because we share a common humanity and a common decency."

President Obama cited the law in a press conference in Sweden Wednesday as well.

"Congress set a red line when it indicated that -- in a piece of legislation titled the Syria Accountability Act -- that some of the horrendous things that are happening on the ground there need to be answered for," Obama said.

John Hugya hopes to win back the Pennsylvania House seat of a Democratic legend.

Joe Raedle / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — A former top aide to the late Rep. John Murtha — a conservative Democratic icon best known at the end of his career for his strident opposition to expanding the war in Iraq — is expected in the coming days to announce a bid to take back Murtha's seat for the Democrats in 2014.

John Hugya, a former chief of staff to Murtha, will soon announce his campaign for the Pennsylvania congressional seat Murtha occupied from 1974 to his death in 2010, a spokesman said. The seat is currently held by Republican Rep. Keith Rothfus. Political observers in Washington generally consider the seat a tough one for Democrats to win.

Hugya brings many of the same qualities Murtha relied on to win the western Pennsylvania district repeatedly, however. Like Murtha, Hugya served in the Marines, retiring as a Colonel. The 79 year-old has a blue collar background, too having spent years working in the Pennsylvania steel industry.

While he was a close associate of Murtha's for many years during Murtha's time in Congress, it's not clear how closely Hugya's political stances match that of his his former boss. Michael Duga, Hugya's campaign spokesperson said more details of Hugya's political stances on issues like military action in Syria will emerge in the coming weeks.

"Col. Hugya is running because he believes the people of the 12th District deserve better," Duga told BuzzFeed. "Col. Hugya holds Chairman Murtha in the highest regard. He'll run his own race, and as a former Marine Colonel he is very much his own man."

Hugya's experience in the district and in politics could make him a formidable candidate, even if the race is an uphill climb for a Democrat. But in addition to his age, which could be made an issue on the campaign trail, Hugya carries some political baggage from his time with Murtha. In 2008, Hugya made headlines when he used $2,000 in Murtha campaign cash to purchase a firearm for himself at a National Rifle Association charity event. Hugya disclosed the purchase as a gift to him from the campaign on a Congressional form and paid taxes on it, leading to questions about whether he violated House ethics rules. Hugya and the Murtha campaign denied any wrongdoing at the time.

A pro-Israel group seen as close to the White House says it has decided not to decide where it stands on Obama’s plan to strike Syria.

U.S. President Barack Obama pauses during a news conference at the G20 Summit in St. Petersburg September 6, 2013.

Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

WASHINGTON — Liberal pro-Israel advocacy group J Street has decided not to take a position on the White House's Syria resolution currently being debated in Congress, the group's director confirmed to BuzzFeed on Sunday.

"We are not taking a position on the Congressional resolution," J Street's executive director Jeremy Ben-Ami said in an email. "Our statement on Syria from August 29th stands."

The group's August 29th statement condemns the Syrian regime for its use of chemical weapons against civilians and calls for the United States and the international community to "hold President Assad and all responsible for this heinous crime fully accountable."

Last week, J Street had still not decided which side to take on the Syria resolution, a spokesperson said, and were waiting until this week to decide.

Ben-Ami once described his group as President Obama's "blocking back" in Congress and told The New Republic earlier this year that "We have the ear of the White House; we have the ear of a very large segment of Congress at this point; we have very good relations with top communal leadership in the Jewish community."

Meanwhile, AIPAC plans to flood Capitol Hill this week with lobbyists and activists in support of the administration's plan, Politico reported last week.

“Phony” conservatives are inflating the issue, Inhofe says.

FILE - In this Monday, Aug. 22, 2011, file photo U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., gives a speech at the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial & Museum, in Oklahoma City.

Sue Ogrocki, File / AP

WASHINGTON — Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe, who has previously called for an investigation into the National Security Agency's activities, slammed "phony conservatives" for making the recent NSA scandals into an issue on Sunday.

"There are a lot of conservatives, and some of them are phony, quite frankly, trying to use this as an issue, saying we are going to do away with the NSA and all that," Inhofe said on Aaron Klein's radio show on WABC in an interview that will air on Sunday night. "Well, since I am the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee I have to look at this very seriously to see what function the NSA is performing."

Despite excoriating other conservatives for inflating the threat posed by the agency, Inhofe still called for greater checks on the NSA's power, accusing the Obama administration of having allowed the agency to break the law.

"So we have to have that capability [to stop terrorism], but we have to make sure that the NSA people in this Obama administration are not in a position where they can just merely say, 'Well we cannot do that because we will break a law,' since we know that wont make any difference to them," Inhofe said. "So we are now faced with a situation where we know if you set up something where legally the NSA has to follow the guidelines, has to comply with the law, that doesn't work. Because those guys are breaking the law."

"I just have to admit right off the bat I don't trust anyone in the Obama administration, particularly on gathering information," Inhofe said.

The NSA should not be able to access the content of people's communications, Inhofe said.

"What you have to do is change this so that they cannot have access to the conversations," he said. "The intent of this has always been to establish contacts, not content. In other words, we want to be able to have the ability to go after known terrorists, primarily overseas. And they should be restricted in what kinds of calls they can use for contact information."

"We know, and I know a lot of people in the town hall meetings get very angry when you talk about classified information," Inhofe said. "But there are many cases where we have been able to effectively stop terrorist activity that would have killed perhaps many, many, many thousands of people in this country."

Smiley and West agree: A strike would be “dictatorial.”

Tavis Smiley and Cornel West (right), co-authors of The Rich and the Rest of Us, speak on CBS's Face the Nation in Washington in April 2012.

Mary F. Calvert / AP

One of President Obama's most prominent critics on the black left said Sunday that a strike on Syria in the face of congressional disapproval would be "dictatorial" — and grounds for impeachment.

"It doesn't make sense to commit more war crimes," Cornel West said Sunday on the syndicated radio show Smiley and West, to an approving response from host Tavis Smiley, who has also been consistently critical of Obama.

The two men, leading black public intellectuals, have emerged as controversial figures in a community whose support for the first black president is overwhelming. West, in response, has recently attacked other black leaders for what he views as their reflexive support for Obama.

"It would be an illegal war. It would be an immoral war for the United States to begin bombing and sending missiles to Syria and killing more innocent people," said West, who is a philosophy professor at Princeton University.

Later in the discussion of Syria, Smiley said: "If the president doesn't get the vote that he wants... then I hope he has more sense then to go ahead anyway. But you used the phrase 'dictatorial' — and that's exactly what it would be."

"You would think in some ways grounds for impeachment," West replied.

Listen to the whole episode:

Cornel West and Tavis Smiley start talking about Syria at 1:15 and they start discussing impeachment at 8:15.

An ad for the city’s largest union. “When Bloomberg looks at a photograph of de Blasio’s family, he thinks racism. Me, I just think New York,” the Oscar Wao author says.

Mario Tama / Getty Images

Leonardo Cendamo

In a radio ad set to air during the final two days of the New York City primary, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Diaz endorses Bill de Blasio and takes aim at Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Diaz, a Dominican-American novelist and member of a number of New York City activist groups, recorded the ad for the city's largest union, 1199 SEIU. The 60-second spot will air starting Monday morning on the top five English-language stations in the city, according to a spokesman with the health care workers union, which endorsed de Blasio in May.

The Diaz spot joins two other radio ads — one featuring Russell Simmons, and the other John Leguizamo — already airing in support of de Blasio, who is leading his Democratic rivals by more than 10 points in the polls ahead of Tuesday's primary.

In the ad, Diaz responds directly to comments Bloomberg made in an interview with New York Magazine, published Saturday morning. Citing the way in which de Blasio has prominently featured his wife, who is black, and his two teenage children, Bloomberg called the frontrunner's campaign "class warfare and racist."

"Mayor Bloomberg seems to think that showing up in a photo with your black wife is 'racist,'" Diaz says.

"Bloomberg can keep hunting for billionaires," the ad continues. "Me, I'm backing de Blasio for the next mayor. De Blasio intends to forge a new covenant for our city — one that prizes democracy over privilege, justice over inequality, and makes the problems of immigrant families no less important than the problems of billionaires."

"When Bloomberg looks at a photograph of de Blasio's family, he thinks racism. Me, I just think New York," Diaz says.

The author has endorsed assembly and congressional candidates in the past, but the ad marks his first major comments on the New York City mayoral race.

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“I wouldn’t really attack him for that.”

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Conservative author and columnist Ann Coulter joked on the Opie and Anthony radio show last Tuesday she "wouldn't really" attack Jesse Jackson for using the n-word when referring to President Obama. Coulter was referring to comments Jackson made during the 2008 presidential election on Fox News.

"Fox didn't go after Jesse like they should have either when he dropped that n-bomb," one of the hosts said. "He mumbled n****r, and he mumbled it, and they played it, but they didn't kill him for it like they should have."

"But that's because he was talking about Obama," Coulter jokingly interjected. "I wouldn't really attack him for that."

The hosts of the show then laughed, with one saying "Coulter" and another saying "Jesus."

"But it was a fair point," Coulter then said of the host's criticism of Fox.

In 2008, Jackson said off-air of Obama before an interview on Fox and Friends Weekend: "Barack…he's talking down to black people…telling n*****s how to behave." Jackson was not referring to Obama directly as Coulter seems to contend.

"I am deeply saddened and distressed by the pain and sorrow that I have caused as a result of my hurtful words. I apologize again to Senator Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, their children as well as to the American public," Jackson said in a written statement of the incident. "There really is no justification for my comments and I hope that the Obama family and the American public will forgive me. I also pray that we, as a nation, can move on to address the real issues that affect the American people."

Video of the Coulter's full interview have been embedded below.

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“I am the one who LEGISLATES!”

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But “deep skepticism” abounds.

Pool / Reuters

WASHINGTON — The United States will take a "hard look" at a Russian proposal to put Syria's chemical weapons stockpiles under international control, State Department spokesperson Marie Harf said on Monday.

Harf also said that Secretary of State John Kerry's statement on Monday calling for the Assad regime to hand over its chemical weapons was "hypothetical."

"It was rhetorical and hypothetical," Harf said. "He didn't put it out there as a proposal."

After Kerry said in London on Monday that Assad could avoid a U.S. attack by "turning over every single bit of his chemical weapons to the international community in the next week — turn it over, all of it, without delay and allow the full and total accounting," the Russian foreign minister made that offer to Syria, and the Syrian foreign minister reportedly welcomed the idea. Since then, the State Department has tried to walk back Kerry's statement, with Harf calling it a "rhetorical statement about a scenario that we think is highly unlikely" on Monday.

Harf said the U.S. harbors "deep skepticism" that the Assad regime would actually hand over its chemical weapons.

"We're only having this discussion in the context of U.S. military action," Harf said. "This proposal with the Russians and Syrians is only taking place within that context."

"Clearly we think it would be good if we could get these weapons under international lock and key," Harf said. "But we don't want the Syrian regime to be able to use this as another stalling exercise."

Harf said Kerry had spoken with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday after the press conference in which Kerry made the statement that prompted the proposal.

The war of the young.

This is Issa. He is a 10-year-old Syrian boy.

He lives in the war ravaged city of Aleppo.

STRINGER / Reuters

Issa makes mortars to be used by the Free Syrian Army.

STRINGER / Reuters

Issa machines his own mortar shells.

STRINGER / Reuters

The machining is difficult and dangerous.

STRINGER / Reuters

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The former secretary of state was speaking at the White House Monday. Clinton said the proposal for Assad to give up chemical weapons could not be “another excuse for delay or obstruction.”

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Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Monday that Syria giving chemical weapons to international control would be an "important step." Clinton was speaking at the White House at a forum on combating wildlife trafficking.

"The Assad regime's inhuman use of weapons of mass destruction against innocent men, women, and children violates a universal norm at the heart of our global order. And therefore, it demands a strong response from the international community, led by the United States," Clinton said. "Second, the international community cannot ignore the ongoing threat from the Assad regime's stock piles of chemical weapons. Whether they are used again against Syrian civilians or transferred to Hezbollah or stolen by other terrorists. This is about protecting both the syrian people and our friends in the region. The world will have to deal with this threat as swiftly and comprehensively as possible."

Clinton went on, discussing a possible deal proposed by current Secretary of State John Kerry in which Syria turned over its chemical weapons stockpiles to international control as an "important step" adding it could be used as excuse to delay a possible Syria solution.

"Now, if the regime immediately surrendered its stockpiles to international control, as was suggested by Secretary Kerry and the Russians, that would be an important step," Clinton said. "But this cannot be another excuse for delay or obstruction and Russia has to support the international community's efforts sincerely or be held to account."

Clinton said such a discussion could only take place in the context of threatened U.S. military action against Syria.

"It is very important to note that this discussion that has taken hold today about potential international control over syria's stockpiles only could take place in the context of a credibility military threat by the United States to keep pressure on the Syrian government as well as those supporting Syria like Russia."

Kerry said in London Monday that Syrian Preisdent Bashar al-Assad could avoid a U.S. attack by "turning over every single bit of his chemical weapons to the international community in the next week — turn it over, all of it, without delay and allow the full and total accounting."

The Russian foreign minister subsequently made that offer to Syria, and the Syrian foreign minister reportedly welcomed the idea. Since then, the State Department has tried to walk back Kerry's statement, with spokeswoman Marie Harf calling it a "rhetorical statement about a scenario that we think is highly unlikely" at a press briefing.

Clinton concluded her remarks by calling the conflict a "threat to regional stability" and a "humanitarian catastrophe," saying she would continue to support President Obama on Syria.

The Senate’s top Democrat made the case for intervening in Syria Monday.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid compared the need for military strikes against Syria to U.S. involvement in World War II Monday, saying "America's willingness to stand for what is right should not end at its borders."

Look prior to World War I ... prior to World War II. Some prefer isolation. That's the easy thing to do. But sitting on the sideline isn't what made the United States of America the greatest nation in the world in years past and, yes, today. And sitting on the sidelines won't make us a better nation tomorrow.

As America faces yet another crisis of conscience, another opportunity to intervene on behalf of humanity, my mind returns to that turning point in the world's history when the United States faced down an evil regime that murdered millions of innocent citizens. Millions and millions of civilians and prisoners of war were murdered by poison gas in Nazi death camps. Treblinka, Auschwitz. Never again, swore the world. Never again would we permit the use of these poisonous weapons of war.

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“He believes he has the authority.”

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White House Press Secretary Jay Carney reiterated remarks from the White House counsel Monday that President Obama has the authority to order a military strike on Syria even if Congress votes against authorization.

"The president believes that congressional authorization enhances the argument. That it's important in this case because of the facts given in the assessment by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs that we can attack militarily in a day or a week or a month as the president said and have the desired impact that we seek," Carney said. "And therefore given that, he thought it was very important to get congressional approval, but he's also made clear he believes he has the authority as commander-in-chief and president to take action, but we are better and stronger if in these circumstances we receive authorization from Congress."

White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler had told The New York Times Sunday that the president striking Syria without congressional approval would be legal.

Ruemmler said that although a Syria strike "may not fit under a traditionally recognized legal basis under international law," the White House believed given the circumstances, limited strikes would be "justified and legitimate under international law."