SUNDAY PREVIEW: CNN’s Candy Crowley interviews General Martin Dempsey
Before the unrest in Egypt, CNN’s Candy Crowley sat down for an interview with chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey. A preview of the interview is below; tune in on Sunday to CNN’s State of the Union with Candy Crowley at 9 a.m./ Noon ET.
MANDATORY CREDIT: CNN’s “State of the Union”
Highlight from Full Interview
THIS IS A RUSH FDCH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CANDY CROWLEY, HOST, “STATE OF THE UNION”: And for perspective this took place a half-an-hour or an hour before we began to learn that Morsy was no longer the president, or at least according to the U.S. military. But we did talk about these amazing pictures that we’re all seeing. He called them remarkable, said, I think the demonstrations, in so far as they remain peaceful certainly are remarkable.
He said they also prove that it — quote — “takes time for democracy to stick.” We then went onto what really is his bailiwick, Wolf, and that is the military-to-military connection, the U.S. military and the Egyptian military and here is some of what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CROWLEY: The military-to-military contacts, are those contacts still stable? Are they strong? Do you feel when you see on TV the military saying, hey, President Morsy, you have either got to do something and meet some of these demands or we’re going to take over, are you — knowing these people, are you on the know in that sort of thing? What’s the nature of your conversations?
GEN. MARTIN DEMPSEY, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF CHAIRMAN: Well, to your question about the nature of the relationship with the Egyptian armed forces, it was actually trending very — even more strongly than it had been for maybe the last 10 years, because we committed to that to try to help them find their way in a new system.
They went from being — the armed forces ran the country for several decades. And they were transitioning themselves into their role in a democracy. I’m not in the know about exactly what they’re going to do. My conversations with them have been principally about — I wanted to hear, get their assurance that they would protect our U.S. citizens and they will.
I wanted to encourage them to protect all the Egyptian people, not to take sides in any particular issue, and to ensure that they were a part of the resolution of this, but in their proper role as a military which is to ensure stability, but not try to influence the outcome.
CROWLEY: And you feel confident with the assurances you have gotten?
DEMPSEY: Well, I feel confident that we have a close enough relationship that they listen. At the end of the day, it’s their country and they will find their way, but there will be consequences if it’s badly handled. There’s laws that bind us on how we deal with these kinds of situations.
CROWLEY: You mean the U.S., how the U.S. deals, for instance?
DEMPSEY: Yes. Yes. Well, for instance, if this were to be seen as a coup then it would limit our ability to have the kind of relationship we think we need with the Egyptian armed forces.
CROWLEY: I see.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CROWLEY: So, again, Wolf, talking about what are they going to call this. I think he was always — very interesting about, he said, look, our first priority was protecting the Americans. We know there — he said several hundred American citizens working there and Jill’s been reporting on that possible evacuation. He said there are about 60,000 dual passport American-Egyptian citizens, that they also made a point to say, you need to keep folks safe.
###