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Feinstein: Obama Approach to Islamic State Not 'Sufficient to the Job'

November 22, 2015

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) continued to be a thorn in the White House's side on the issue of fighting Islamic State, saying Sunday on CBS that the Obama administration's approach is not "sufficient to the job."

Face The Nation host John Dickerson asked whether her earlier concerns about the administration's strategy had been alleviated by a briefing from Secretary of State John Kerry.

"No, I don't think the approach is sufficient to the job," Feinstein said on Face The Nation. "I think their general principles and their general principles in terms of the administration's strategy, too, but I'm concerned that we don't have the time, and we don't have years. We need to be aggressive now, because ISIL is a quasi-state."

Dickerson asked her whether she felt the Obama White House had been too cautious or lacked urgency in addressing the problem.

"What I'm saying is this has gone on too long now," she said. "It has not gotten better. It's gotten worse."

Feinstein advocated for a larger special operations plan than the group of 50 Obama deployed, saying that number would not solve the problem.

Feinstein also remarked last week, in direct rebuttal of Obama's stance, that IS was "expanding." Obama said in the days before the Paris terrorist attack by IS that killed 130 people that the U.S. had "contained" IS, and he said after the attack that his administration had the "right strategy" to destroy IS.