Hillary Clinton admitted President Obama’s strategy to fight the Islamic State is in line with her own in an interview Monday with the Concord Monitor.
"I think his take on what needs to be done is close to mine," Clinton said on defeating the terrorist organization. "I think we have to intensify and accelerate and really get the world behind us, and that’s why I laid out my own views on this."
Clinton’s assessment of the president’s strategy to "degrade and ultimately destroy" the Islamic caliphate contradicts her remarks while on This Week With George Stephanopoulos just a day before. The Democratic frontrunner admitted under Obama the U.S. was not winning the war against ISIS.
"We’re not winning, but it’s too soon to say that we are doing everything we need to do," Clinton said Sunday.
During the Sunday show, Clinton refused to say that America is at war with IS, only that it is engaged in a "conflict" with the barbaric organization.
A large majority of Americans disapprove of Obama’s handling of the Middle East, a poll taken before the Islamic State terrorist attacks in Paris that killed 130 people found. Even 63 percent of Democrats do not believe his strategy to fight IS is working.
Clinton has followed Obama’s lead in drawing red lines. The former secretary of state promised she would not send troops to Syria, even in the case of a terrorist attack on American soil. By her own words, Clinton, like Obama, does not count the 50 Special Forces already in Syria as "boots on the ground."
"I don’t believe those should be American combat troops…I think it would make things worse not better," she said Sunday. "I do believe we have to up our special ops numbers. The 50 that have been authorized need to get there, and then we need to take stock of what else we need."
During his rare address from the Oval Office, the president acknowledged the attack in San Bernardino killing 14 Americans was an act of terrorism.
"I was really happy he made the address," Clinton said of Obama’s speech. "I thought it was very important for him to address the nation."