SEN. JOHN BARRASSO (R-WY): The president has the authority that he needs [to defeat ISIS]. My concern is if the Senate passes something, it would be to limit the president's ability.



I think the president has full authority to do it, but we've been asking him for several years to say: What is your strategy? What is the strategy to defeat ISIS?



If you look at the history of why they showed up in the first place, it has to do with a vacuum that was created when all of our troops were pulled out and there was no stay-behind force to provide stability. And the evil people went into the area of the vacuum, which is giving them this safe haven in which they're operating, and even the president's CIA director has said this has allowed them to train with more intensity...



The president is the commander in chief, and the president will tell you, he has all the authority that he needs. And he says that ISIS is on the defense, but I believe that they are not.



These are not the JV-Team.



You need to describe who they are. They're radical islamists. The president will not use that term. That's the facts on the ground. I think the president needs to be realistic about the way it really is, rather than the way he wishes it were. So I think the CIA director when he came to the hill really laid out the facts.



But it is up to the president now to come up with the strategy to defeat ISIS on the ground and deny them the safe haven from which they continue to operate.