>> i am phil mattingly. >> and i am mark halperin. >> with all due respect to the other nations governors -- >> it is cpac, day two. today's lineup, jeb, rand, rubio. we will start with the man who

is still running up front. jeb bush. he got cheered and jeered. we will talk about grading. let's talk about what i thought was jeb bush's best moment of the day. defending his record on common core. >> we took a conference of approach. yes, we did have the statewide voucher program and more school choice in florida, both public and private than in any state of the country. and we had the largest virtual school. we have the largest scholarship programs. we have 30,000 students that if their child has a learning disability, they can take the state and local dollars and send them to any private school of their choice. we have all of that and that has improved public schools. >> set the stage, i gave him an a minus.

there were rand paul and of the people in the room protesting him, heckling him. what was your sense of how he did? >> there were two ways he could handle the common core education issue. run away for them, try to boycott them, or embrace them and try to explain. he did not get that sense today, a strong, detailed explanation on the policy, countering the boos. his team did a good job of trying to out cheer. >> if they had not packed the room with their own people, it would have been a much harder day for him. i thought he was smart to be himself. he talked faster and louder than he normally does. this was jeb bush the campaigner. i caught up with him a little bit after the event. he was doing a rally with his core supporters. i wanted to know if he had fun. >> were you nervous? you seemed a little nervous.

>> he is never nervous. >> that is me holding up my iphone. he said he had a blast. no speech, stand up, one-on-one. >> rand paul is our number two guy. no jacket, rolled up sleeves trying to recover. had a lot of help from the audience. we will look at the bat from the people who spoke. we are talking about foreign-policy views. it is a weak issue for rand paul and showed a little bit. >> when i look at government, the most important thing we do at the federal government level is defend our country, without question. national defense is the most important that we have.

when i look at spending, what we should spend money on, this or national defense, for me, the priority is always national defense. >> we have heard this nonstop for the last three days, foreign policy is an essential theme. this could be a weak spot. >> i gave him an a minus. he could have read the phone book and people would have cheered for him. that question of are you strong enough on foreign policy, that is something he has down pat. that was easily his weakest moment. what he did not do, i felt, was expand the base. he came in here and talked to ron paul and rand paul people as opposed to a broader audience which i think he will need. >> they were out in force. they will push him if not to a win than a great appearance. he is aware that people are saying that that is a perceived weakness. for policy is not pulling your people back to the shores.

the idea that he does not have a response yet to counter it in a clear, cogent, quick way is really surprising. >> i have heard him give a better answer than that. the room was with him. the room will not get him the nomination. he would get the straw poll, i would get the sense. this is not a room that will carry him much further than his father got. >> he went after hillary hard, one of the few people to do that. why? >> is not afraid of it. he has been doing it for months. i think that his team likes it and he has a feel for it and he is fearless about it. >> marco rubio went hard on foreign policy. he was actually willing to get into specifics. here was his best soundbite. >> isis is a radical sunni

islamic group. they need to be the fetid on the ground by a sunni military force. the egyptians, the saudi's, the jordanians, even turks and even the kurds. it together a coalition of armed forces that can put them on the ground with u.s. special operations support and provide them with logistical and technical support and the most devastating air support possible and you will wipe isis out. >> the only thing that would have made that better was naming off the leaders of those countries. did this separate him from other people? >> it does. it was laughable and somewhat amazing that a young first term senator considered like the foreign policy dean of this large field. i thought that was the strongest moment. he was strong today. like a lot of people here, vintage.

a lot of biker fee, a lot of aspiration and optimism. i don't think that he did anything in this speech to make him stronger. did they leave stronger than they came in? he was already strong, he doesn't leave stronger. >> there was a sense that he was trying to do something out of the ordinary. he did not get out of his comfort zone. why not? >> you have to be who you are. that is what every consultant says. he has to balance seeming mature, senior, presidential with the fact that his normal demeanor is not very flashy. he did all right in that room and he will do all right in some living rooms. he is trying to convince people that he is the man, the one, the one who should take on hillary

clinton or whoever. that is who he is and he will live or die on that style. >> where is his possible moment? >> the debates. he has a good chance. between now and then, it is hard for him to break through. >> cpac, nicholas shay, they were fun to watch. they are crowdpleasers but they are not pumping out chart. we are talking about rick perry, donald trump, and john bolton himself. of all of those, who do you think helps themselves? >> john bolton helps himself the most. i thought the others were fine. trump has split it up in the past. he said he was 80% sure he was going to run.

the room did not arrest. i think rick perry, rick santorum were pretty much the guys they were the last campaign. i think ford very different reasons, they need to do more. >> we talked about rick perry during the live stream. what is his position? how does he positioned himself to be different than anybody else? >> there is a side of him that people that have met with him privately, he is more cerebral. like a suburban dad. there were moments when he was exactly like he was in 2012. the problem for him is that everyone is waiting for the oops moment. he'll vote that too much today. he came in first-round on foreign policy. very emotional on immigration.

not changing the dynamic. he needs to make people say, wow, there is a new rick perry around. >> you mentioned foreign policy, we have been talking about it extensively. senator santorum talked extensively about foreign policy. is there any way that these guys can differentiate themselves? on an issue where everyone agrees on the broad top line points. >> very hard for them because the facts on the ground change so quickly. to get anything done, they are critical of barack obama. >> aside from old hickory steakhouse and clearly in sean hannity's expense account. who won cpac? >> i say to people left stronger than when they came in.

the first is scott walker. i think he left here convincing people that he is a performer. comfortable, relaxed, ordinary guy. i think jeb bush today, you and i agree, was strong. strong in a way that there is almost no one else in the field can't be. he was an adult that was not afraid to stick to his position. he is out there taking selfies by himself. this is not the son of a president, the brother of a president. this is not a regal guy and familiar of what it will take to fight for the nomination. >> 16 potential candidates. 250 thousand tweets about this event. did anyone fall completely on their face? >> i don't think that anyone was absolutely horrible. we will talk more about cpac.

i want to talk about two political notes. the deadline is today. the senate passed the bill that would finance the bill through september which would avoid the shutdown that occurs this evening. peter cook has the latest for us from capitol hill. >> mayhem on the floor for john boehner. we have a three-week spending bill. the house republicans would hope to pass through. problems for john boehner. 50 defections are keeping the vote open. republicans, balking against john boehner. it is back to square one. things could change. the team trying to twist arms and get some republicans to change their minds but this is a bad day for john boehner. >> day with us.

we will come back to you later in the show. after the break, we will have rick santorum here in our special cpac makeshift studio. it is the new season of "house of cards," we watched a little bit of it with carly fiorina and other cpacers. ♪

>> rick santorum is our guest. even though he is wearing a suit, you can say he is the vest around. do you know what that is? welcome to you. >> well, thank you. thanks for having me here. >> foreign policy was a big deal here including dealing with

isis. a lot of people said my plan to defeat isis is to crush them. you said something specific, the introduction of 10,000 american troops. where would they come from? >> we have to arm the kurds. i was up on the helicopter weeks ago. lindsey graham, talking about how we can put an effort forward to the congress to make that happen. we have to increase our aid to the jordanians. they are serious about it, they are serious about fighting. they have 1.2 million refugees in the country. that is a very destabilizing think. king abdullah has been a good ally and we need to make sure the has plenty of support. the third thing we have to do is that we have to get boots on the ground. it doesn't have to be an invasion force. i would not be for an invasion force. what we need to do is use the

kurds that are willing to fight, the jordanians are willing to fight. a segment of the army that would be the right one to fight. train them, a quick them, and provide intel, make sure that airstrikes are effective. we have been doing a pr campaign in the past year with isis by flying a handful of missions every day. this is not a serious effort to do great isis. we need a serious effort of airstrikes in combination with this other activity to do great isis and our first priority, our strategic objective is to get isis out of iraq. not that i'm not concerned about getting them out of syria. the first thing we need to do is we need to reclaim that land that so many sunnis rose up, saw in the and bar awakening, sided with freedom, and now are being

punished severely. anyone who worked with us as you know is under death. we cannot allow that to occur. we cannot go in and ask people to join us, abandon them, and as they are being burned and crucified, allow them to have that happen. >> is clear that foreign policy will be a huge issue, but it is clear that not a lot of people have extensive experience in this area. how do you separate yourself from that pack? >> i talked about it in the speech. i served eight years on the armed services committee. after that, i did a deep side into radical islam. there was a bill offered in the past called the syrian accountability act. my farewell address was on the

threat of radicalism. i spent four years here in washington, traveling the country, and trying to sound the alarm. people think that osama bin laden is dead, everything is fine. this is a long war, a war that if we do not crush -- to eliminate the tumor, you leave a few cells remaining, you know what happens, it comes back with a vengeance. that is what is happening. every time we defeat whether it is the muslim brotherhood, the taliban, or al qaeda, every iteration afterwards is worse. that is what we are seeing with isis. if we don't do a good job in removing him from iraq in particular and right away, this threat is going to grow and grow quickly. >> i want to ask you one other thing. same-sex marriage, abortion, they are not mentioned as much. why is that? >> i think cpac has a reputation

for being more on the libertarian side. rand paul packs the place. this time, one the straw poll. it as always had a more libertarian bent to it. there is room for that. i note that the media always looks at the republican party. it is actually a pretty broad-based party. i've had an organization that is been around for three years. we have people on our team. we of been there for a while. >> thank you, we really appreciated. the house funding on homeland security. we will look at the new season

of "house of cards" after this. ♪

>> it was a big day here in washington, d.c., late last night "house of cards" dropped. we did something that would make francis underwood proud. >> who is the most vile republican to take on francis underwood? >> you mean hillary clinton? >> i was up until 3 a.m. >> have you been watching it? what you think about the people that are here.

what they care about is who is going to be the next president of the united states. they are thinking about the issues. excuse me. they are thinking about the issues that are really important in the country. these are serious issues. their lives are stake. what is going on here? what are you doing? >> i don't have time to watch and i'm a binge watcher. i cannot do it once a week. >> let's watch the whole thing. >> i don't know why your priorities are that you want to watch stuff? >> i have to see what happens. >> don't tell me. >> do you want to watch it now? >> don't tell me. >> ok, ok, i don't have a lot of time. it is so unfair that cpac is happening right now. what you are trying to run for

president. you don't have any viewing parties set up or anything? >> i remember the last part when he knocks the desk. >> bang bang. >> i am watching "house of cards" with carly fiorina. >> it is spooky. >> i'm sorry to interrupt. you are late for jeb bush's speech. >> we are fine. >> some sad news and some breaking news, right after this. ♪

>> sad news for us, of course, leonard nimoy passing away. present obama said in a statement, "i love spock." peter cook is on capitol hill to talk about what the house is going to do now that the first vote on home and security funding has failed. >> john boehner and his leaders meeting behind closed doors. he was defeated by democrats and 52 house republicans not backing this three-week extension. his main options now according to republicans, either a short-term spending bill that gets into the weekend or perhaps take up the bill that passed the senate that fully funds the dhs through the end of september. >> peter, thanks. we will have the latest information on that. for phil, for me, for john, for everyone else here at cpac. stay tuned for more results including the straw poll results. up next here, "taking stock." live long and prosper.

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>> hello i am pimm fox. a surprise from the u.s. house of representatives. john boehner failed to get the necessary votes to stop ace stopgap measure that would get the department of. top funding expires at midnight. nancy pelosi wasn't a fan from the start. >> it is the purpose to have a better idea about immigration, bring up the bill. if the purpose is to inject uncertainty into the security of the american people, shame shame, shame.