BLITZER: The United States is invoking the revolution in Egypt to put new pressure on the hard-line government of Iran. Let's talk about this and more with our senior political analyst David Gergen.
On Friday, Joe Biden, the vice president, Robert Gibbs now the former White House press secretary and today, Tom Donilan, the National Security adviser to the president. They issued very tough statements saying what happened in Egypt, the Iranian government should let demonstrators flourish there too. It seems like it's a new strategy by the Obama administration to go after Iran.
DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: They've had a strategy all along to undermine if they could this government. They really believe it's a repressive government.
BLITZER: But when the demonstrations occurred in 2009 in Iran they were very cautious. You didn't hear a lot of bluster statements coming out, but you're hearing a lot now.
GERGEN: Yes, and what we have is there's a lot of talking around about demonstrations on Monday and organizers are trying to get a big -- get that up and moving. One Facebook area apparently has some 30,000 Iranians who have pledged that they would come out on the streets on Monday. Very interestingly, this young man in Egypt, the man from Google wore a green wrist bands showing solidarity. I think Tom Donilan issued this very statement.
BLITZER: Well, let me read it to you because they put it out. The White House statement today from the National Security adviser by announcing that they will not allow opposition protests the Iranian government has declared illegal for Iranians what it claimed noble for the Egyptians.
We call on the government of Iran to allow the Iranian people the universal right to peacefully assemble, demonstrate and communicate that's being exercised in Cairo because the Iranian regime praised demonstrators in Cairo, but won't allow similar demonstration to take place in Tehran.
GERGEN: All politics is local. The United States has long believed is that this younger generation in Iran was the great hope for the long-term future for the U.S./Iranian relationship, but they're stepping up the pressure on both centrifuges.
We've heard about sabotaging the centrifuges working with Israel and they're stepping up pressure now on the regime through the demonstrations. They see this moment. They're seizing this moment. I think that what I see they're writing -- it's going to ride a hurricane here.
But it's also interesting to me, Wolf, that they're calling attention to Iran, but not to Yemen where they were -- the Yemen government really cracked down on demonstrators today. Yemen we're not quite so sure we want a democracy in Yemen --
BLITZER: Yemen, they have the issue of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula group. The U.S. is very nervous about that.
GERGEN: Very nervous about that so they want to put the pressure on Iran. They want to put the pressure on Syria but not so much -- the White House is moving in very aggressive ways in this and other stories about the president himself.
BLITZER: It was interesting. There's a story that just moved on the "New York Times" web site about differences between the president, he was supposedly furious with his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and -- for the way they were dealing with some of the sensitive moments of the Egyptian revolution.
GERGEN: There's been an intentional leak coming out. It must have come from the White House. They make it clear, by the way, he wasn't angry at her what she said, but not happy with the content of what she said --
BLITZER: Not happy with the statement from Frank Wizner.
GERGEN: Very unhappy with Frank Wizner, but not happy with actually what Hillary Clinton said and that the president called John Kerry, the senator, before he went on the Sunday talk show to say, I want you to counter what my only secretary of state has said along with Frank Wizner.
This is the first time I think we've seen this kind of riff between the Obama White House and the Clinton State Department. I can tell you. While they were careful, there will be a lot of unhappiness at the State Department about this story.
BLITZER: The point being that when Wizner came back, a former U.S. ambassador to Egypt, he told a group in Munich, well, Mubarak has to stay through September for stability. And it looked like Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, sort of ratified that.
Then they put out John Kerry on the Sunday morning talk show saying they don't speak -- Wizner doesn't speak for the Obama administration.
GERGEN: Right, but clear what this "New York Times" leak is trying to do is make it clear that all along the president was with the protesters and he's not happy it got spun into being a caution -- remember we all interpreted Hillary Clinton's statement as being let's slow this down a little bit, we need orderly transition and seemed to be in response to other nations in the region saying don't push Mubarak out too fast.
BLITZER: They weren't happy with Hillary Clinton initial statement that Egypt was stable. They weren't happy with Joe Biden's statement that Mubarak was not a dictator. All of that moved very quickly and there's a lot of little friction going on.
GERGEN: From the State Department's point of view it's going to be you try to make Obama look good, but made our boss look bad. We're not appreciative of that. Thank you.
BLITZER: David, as usual thanks very much.
GERGEN: OK, thank you. BLITZER: David Gergen, our senior political analyst. Good stuff going on here in Washington as well. When I say good stuff, a little intrigue.
On Friday, Joe Biden, the vice president, Robert Gibbs now the former White House press secretary and today, Tom Donilan, the National Security adviser to the president. They issued very tough statements saying what happened in Egypt, the Iranian government should let demonstrators flourish there too. It seems like it's a new strategy by the Obama administration to go after Iran.
DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: They've had a strategy all along to undermine if they could this government. They really believe it's a repressive government.
BLITZER: But when the demonstrations occurred in 2009 in Iran they were very cautious. You didn't hear a lot of bluster statements coming out, but you're hearing a lot now.
GERGEN: Yes, and what we have is there's a lot of talking around about demonstrations on Monday and organizers are trying to get a big -- get that up and moving. One Facebook area apparently has some 30,000 Iranians who have pledged that they would come out on the streets on Monday. Very interestingly, this young man in Egypt, the man from Google wore a green wrist bands showing solidarity. I think Tom Donilan issued this very statement.
BLITZER: Well, let me read it to you because they put it out. The White House statement today from the National Security adviser by announcing that they will not allow opposition protests the Iranian government has declared illegal for Iranians what it claimed noble for the Egyptians.
We call on the government of Iran to allow the Iranian people the universal right to peacefully assemble, demonstrate and communicate that's being exercised in Cairo because the Iranian regime praised demonstrators in Cairo, but won't allow similar demonstration to take place in Tehran.
GERGEN: All politics is local. The United States has long believed is that this younger generation in Iran was the great hope for the long-term future for the U.S./Iranian relationship, but they're stepping up the pressure on both centrifuges.
We've heard about sabotaging the centrifuges working with Israel and they're stepping up pressure now on the regime through the demonstrations. They see this moment. They're seizing this moment. I think that what I see they're writing -- it's going to ride a hurricane here.
But it's also interesting to me, Wolf, that they're calling attention to Iran, but not to Yemen where they were -- the Yemen government really cracked down on demonstrators today. Yemen we're not quite so sure we want a democracy in Yemen --
BLITZER: Yemen, they have the issue of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula group. The U.S. is very nervous about that.
GERGEN: Very nervous about that so they want to put the pressure on Iran. They want to put the pressure on Syria but not so much -- the White House is moving in very aggressive ways in this and other stories about the president himself.
BLITZER: It was interesting. There's a story that just moved on the "New York Times" web site about differences between the president, he was supposedly furious with his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and -- for the way they were dealing with some of the sensitive moments of the Egyptian revolution.
GERGEN: There's been an intentional leak coming out. It must have come from the White House. They make it clear, by the way, he wasn't angry at her what she said, but not happy with the content of what she said --
BLITZER: Not happy with the statement from Frank Wizner.
GERGEN: Very unhappy with Frank Wizner, but not happy with actually what Hillary Clinton said and that the president called John Kerry, the senator, before he went on the Sunday talk show to say, I want you to counter what my only secretary of state has said along with Frank Wizner.
This is the first time I think we've seen this kind of riff between the Obama White House and the Clinton State Department. I can tell you. While they were careful, there will be a lot of unhappiness at the State Department about this story.
BLITZER: The point being that when Wizner came back, a former U.S. ambassador to Egypt, he told a group in Munich, well, Mubarak has to stay through September for stability. And it looked like Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, sort of ratified that.
Then they put out John Kerry on the Sunday morning talk show saying they don't speak -- Wizner doesn't speak for the Obama administration.
GERGEN: Right, but clear what this "New York Times" leak is trying to do is make it clear that all along the president was with the protesters and he's not happy it got spun into being a caution -- remember we all interpreted Hillary Clinton's statement as being let's slow this down a little bit, we need orderly transition and seemed to be in response to other nations in the region saying don't push Mubarak out too fast.
BLITZER: They weren't happy with Hillary Clinton initial statement that Egypt was stable. They weren't happy with Joe Biden's statement that Mubarak was not a dictator. All of that moved very quickly and there's a lot of little friction going on.
GERGEN: From the State Department's point of view it's going to be you try to make Obama look good, but made our boss look bad. We're not appreciative of that. Thank you.
BLITZER: David, as usual thanks very much.
GERGEN: OK, thank you. BLITZER: David Gergen, our senior political analyst. Good stuff going on here in Washington as well. When I say good stuff, a little intrigue.
Transcript from the Situation Room aired on February 12, 2011.