rand paul appeals to african-americans by quoting malcolm x. >> nobody can give you equality or justice. if you are a man, you take it. >> if that's not surprise enough, wait until you stee traffic jam and new leader in the poll of presidential prospects. >> i'm pro-life. if you are pro-life, you have to be pro-life when you get out of the womb, also. >> john boehner going forward with suing the president. the same john boehner pushing the president on the border crisis. >> he that has authority to deal with it on his own. >> strategy or cop out. the biggest strategy sourced by the best reporters, now. welcome to inside politics, i'm john king. thanks for sharing your sunday morning. with us, robert costa of the

washington post and julie pace of the associated press. if you thought bridgegate sent chris christie's presidential bid to its death, think again. look at the early choice for the presidential nominee. the new jersey governor comes in first, only by a sliver. then rand paul, mike huckabee at 12%. texas, governor rick perry and paul ryan at 11%. trailing them, jeb bush, ted cruz, marco rubio, scott walker and rick santorum. no clear front-runner, but a comeback for chris christie including colorado this past week. >> stop public life worrying about making everybody happy and faking like we are going to agree all the time. we are not going to agree all the time. >> senator paul is following the most intriguing strategy.

listen to part of the pitch to the national urban league where he said too many young black men are in prison and promised to help those down on their luck. >> if i had my way, not one penny would be altered from the safety net before all corporate welfare is eliminated. >> let's start with chrischristie. there's no clear front-runner, but he's on top. at a time, many thought see you later. he's not dead, yet. >> not at all. we are seeing the new jersey governor, he's not necessarily coming back, but on the way to a comeback. regardless of the bridge controversy, he's a political talent. you saw it in colorado. you saw it in iowa. he connects with voters. name me one person on that list who is a better retail politician. make perry, but he's no chris christie. >> when you see rand paul, he said to the republican party, if

we want to win in november, we have to expand the party. is he doing anything appealing to a new audience that will help him with the republican base or is it risky? >> here is what i see as rand paul's challenge. i have been fascinated for months watching how he appeals to black voters. he's taking the outreach. he's going to black colleges and going to the urban league, doing things other people aren't doing. the question is, does it seem authentic or a hoax? you saw it the day the speech happened. the bernard national committee, black voters not to be fooled by rand paul. that's the balancing act. tough do things to get the base voters out. if he's thinking past or primary, if you are going to widen the tent, widen the appeal. he's making bigger strides than anybody. >> if he gets the general election, maybe expand the field. if you can't get out of the

primary, it doesn't matter. >> he could make the argument, i'm the guy who could expand the party in a general election because, after all, folks are going to be looking for electability, a big argument. a knock against these guys. if rand paul can say i'm electable, that could help. >> you make a huge and important point. what are republican voters looking for. we ask this going into every cycle. you have a two-term democratic president. your inclination is to think they want a new voice. the rise of the tea party happened since the last republican president. they are going to look for a new voice. let's show the top tier of the poll. the republicans are known as the it's your turn party. it was john mccain's turn, they didn't. mitt romney, they didn't. if you look at this right here, chris christie well known. mike huckabee ran before. rick perry ran before. rand paul gets the only asterisk

is part is his dad's libertarian appeal and he's worked the hardest. he's been out there working the hardest. why isn't ted cruz higher in the numbers or marco rubio higher? >> there's a culture that does eventually coalesce. his trouble this spring and summer. jeb bush hasn't stepped into the void. the financial clash look at christie as probably the front-runner and the best candidate to be their guy in '16. >> one of the other guys is getting attention of late, marco rubio, came to washington with a lot of buzz. he disappeared because he stuck his neck out. he stood for what he believed in immigration. the conservatives revolted against him. he disappeared. in an interesting speech at catholic university, he spoke of

his opposition of same-sex marriage and criticized liberals. he said a lot of people of faith don't believe in it. just because they don't believe in it, they are intolerant. >> it's important for marriage is bigotry. barack obama was a big got until the 2012 election. >> his point there, senator obama and president obama opposed same-sex marriage. he took a shot at liberals using president obama's name. he learned from the rand paul playbook of 2013. if you want their attention, go after you know who. >> i think she's a 20th century candidate. she does not offer an agent for moving america forward in the 20th century, at least not for now. >> hillary clinton is the she in that case. he's trying to convince the republican base, i may look young and be a younger guy, but i'm not afraid to throw a punch. >> i wonder what model he's

looking at? it sounds like barack obama looking at the republican field and seeing john mccain and make an argument with a country fed up with washington and the political field. i may be young, but maybe young is not bad. that will be an interesting argument. so much of the argument of obama is inexperience. >> that will be difficult to navigate, for sure. he's trying to show himself as a conservative reformer. rubio, over the last several months put out policy platforms from poverty to tax issues to now he's talking social issues. he's a guy that can unite the tea party, viewed as acceptable conservative with new ideas. that's the challenge whether or not people trust him if he were to get the highest job in the land. >> i'm skeptical of rubio. he reminds me of tim pawlenty. he does the right things, gives

the speeches, but when is he going to find the magic? you can check all the boxes you want. he needs to find a way to get back and win the hearts of the conservatives. >> that's my one piece of advice. the one other person i want to mention quickly, if we can show the top tier, again. rick perry, ran a disastrous campaign last time. he's a good retail politician. an issue that put him back in the national forefront is the border crisis. >> interesting how he's asserted himself as an immigration hard liner. in 2012, he was a moderate on the issue. mitt romney ran to the right of him on the issue of whether or not to give instate tuition on immigrants and made the comment if you oppose me, you don't have a heart. that hurt him. he's reinventing himself as a guy taking a hard line, sending national guard to 1,000 people

down there. we'll see if that works in places like iowa where he had trouble last time. >> don't say self-deport. everybody stay tight. next, i bet you don't get a five-week summer vacation. i would love one. congress is about to take one, even if they don't finish all their work. politicians say and do the da d darnest things. >> nothing frustrated me more than this. the choice isn't just against big government and big business. we need an accountable -- we are laughing now but it wasn't funny. the latest version is worthy of a laugh. look. [ applause ] >> now, i can have water without people making fun of me. live in the same communities that we serve. people here know that our operations

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welcome back. congress is about to take something you and i could only dream of, a five-week paid summer vacation. sorry ladies and gentlemen in congress, the official term is recess. let's take a peek. it's supposed to begin friday. look here. maybe they will stay an extra day. regardless, at the moment, they are going to go out on friday. look at the time they are gone. look at september. all that time they are gone. the white are the days they are supposed to be in town. how does that compare in these are midterm election years going

back to 1978. they are scheduled to work, this is the house, not the senate. the house is scheduled to work 112 days this year. that's behindmost years. lighter workload except 2006, only 104 workdays for the house in 2006. that was a midterm election year. we'll track to see if that changes. you are paying these folks for 112 days at work. there's a lot they are supposed to do for you. the one thing, the highway trust fund, jobs, fixing roads and bridges. looks unlikely they will get it done in the next week. the border bill, still a big question mark. some hope at least the house will try to act. came up at the end of the week. we'll talk about that in a minute. veterans affairs reforms, spending there. the house and senate, democrats and republicans still deciding there. in the house, there is one thing on the schedule. they are certain, they say, to vote to sue the president. they say president obama has been exceeding his powers as president and they are going to

file that lawsuit. if you look at national polling, about 6-10 americans say don't do this. a pluralty, 40% say they think the president has, at times exceeded his authority. don't waste your time suing them. why do it? >> driving out the base. that's number one in this election. as we have seen in polls, this is going to be a low turnout election, a base election. which ever party brings out their voters is going to win. when the republicans travel home, what they hear from conservative voters is what are you going to do about the president overstepping his boundary? when they say we are going to sue the president, that is something that riles up folks on the right. they think it's an effective electoral strategy. >> let's show people the point you are trying to make. the election year we go state by state. we can show you a map of red and blue america. all the red you see in much of the country are the house districts. the republicans have a majority

in the house. romney carried a majority of them. the house members care about their piece of the map, not the national map. is there a sense this could backfire if they are not doing other business like a highway trust fund bill? a lot of republicans want that money? >> friday, i spoke with leadership. they are fretting the low approval ratings for congress could hurt house candidates. it's a question of simple math for the republicans especially john boehner. can he get to 2018? he can pass a lawsuit against the president. a border bill that is conservative will be difficult next week. >> that's the big coming drama. i want everyone to listen to speaker boehner here. this is a guy suing the president. he says he's overstepping. listen to john boehner saying congress doesn't have to act on the border crisis, let the president deal with it. >> the president clearly isn't

going to deal with it on his own, even though he that has authority to deal with it on his own. >> i bet at the white house, they are keeping that. they logged that carefully. the speaker says we have the authority. the challenge now is, to robert's point, a lot of house republicans say we can't go home without trying. we cannot go home without at least trying. they are going to do a paired down bill that won't give the president everything he wants, but more border security. they will say you have to add the national guard and change the 2008 law that makes it easier to send the children back faster. will the president be in the mood to cut a deal for the compromise? >> here is the interesting part. it's democrats the white house has to worry about in particular. they are a posed to the changes of the 2008 bill. they are opposed because the immigration activists are opposed to it. the president might very well get republican support for a good amount of what he wants. will the democrats come on

board? what will happen on the senate side? how does it bleed over into what we are expecting from the president later this summer, which is executive action on immigration? >> you have this, i would say sad move, whether you are a democrat or republican or independent or not sure. a sad moment in washington, the sense the republican majority is afraid to legislate and take risky issues to the floor because it may hurt a goode election year for them. if you look at the president's approval rating, the president flat lined. 42% now, 43 in june, 43 in may, 43 in march, 45 in february. george bush fell in the 30s in 2006. 42%, it's not horrible, but if you are a democrat out there in a tough state, the president is not your lifeline. >> absolutely not. that's why democrats across the map are making the hard choices. do you run away from the so-called leader and hope the numbers get better and hope if

things in washington get worse, people are looking for an outsider. not an enviable spot for democrats to say the least. >> one of the interesting things in town, george w. bush when he was president, he went to crawford to raise money. they said how can you do this? the republicans have been mocking this president saying a phone call with prime minister netanyahu in the middle of the crisis, then goes golfing. out in california raising money at a time he should be at the white house. how does the white house answer that? >> they say, and there's truth to this, the president can do his job. he can get briefings from the staff. there is an element that is optics. people pay attention to these things and the population is add missive. >> the white house is in a lose/lose situation on this. if they don't raise money for democrats, they are going to get whacked by democrats on the hill for not raising money for them.

one of the things the president can do is raise a ton of money from the big donors who want to drop 32 grand to come and have face time with the president. that's what he's been doing aggressively this year. you are not hearing criticism from the democrats. they want that money. >> if you don't raise money, we won't, either. they leave that part out. sit tight. tomorrow's news is today. we'll share nuggets and get you out ahead of the political news. uh-huh there's good more... honey, look at all these smart rewards points verizon just gave me. ooh, you got a buddy. i'm like a statue. i just signed up and, boom, all these points. ...and there's not-so-good more. you're a big guy... oh no. get the good more with verizon smart rewards and rack up points to use towards the things you really want. now get 50% off all new smartphones. let that phrase sit with you for a second.

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let's go arnds the inside politics table and ask the reporters to share notebooks with you. >> something is going to happen in washington that we don't see that often. republicans and democrats rallying around the same issue. the gops plan to sue obama. why the gop is pushing this. look this week for the white house and congressional democrats to embrace this move. they are going to hammer this point, there is one week left in this session and this is what republicans want to focus on. also, look for democrats in the white house to start talking about the possibility of impeachment if they think the lawsuit is good for them, impeachment is better. >> raise money, raise money,

fire up the base. >> we know how bad the election map looks for democrats in the efforts to take back the senate. one thing they have hope for is in all the competitive races, there's a libertarian candidate in each state. the libertarian candidate is threatening to siphon off a small portion of the vote from the right, some from the left, probably most from the right in alaska, arkansas. now there's possibly a kentucky libertarian candidate that may come up. the hope is for the democrat, at the end of the day, they will add a couple percentage points off the final vote and maybe sneak into office, they can hold on to the senate. >> a close race. 1% or 2% can make a difference. robert? >> speaking of the christie comeback, christie has new hampshire on thursday. he's going to a baseball game, a big fund-raiser for state party. an important trip for chris

christie off the trip to iowa. he has a big network in new hampshire, a former adviser is managing scott brown's senate campai campaign. another is the executive drek tr for the new hampshire gop. christie will try to build relationships and get momentum. >> we'll watch those numbers. >> we didn't talk about what rand paul said about education. it's an area he's not alone. last week, we heard scott walker governor in wisconsin, paul ryan house budget, chairman, among others, bobby jindal. republicans are picking up this issue. getting ready to go home and head to their districts. we are looking at how much it can have an impact. the districts 100 days away from 2014 and looking forward to 2016 as well. >> thank you. a prominent massachusetts democrat adding road stops in 2014 to get some to begin to

wonder if there's wiggle room and a promise not to run. i'm not talking elizabeth warren. deval patrick is in maine and circling back to new hampshire. he may had a few more stops down the road. i talked to the governor not that long ago. he insisted, no, no, no, no. he is not running for president in 2016. his top aids tell me, that has not changed, not at all. but, he raised more curiosity this week. he gave an interview in boston where he worries hillary clinton has a sense of entitlement about the nomination. he said it's not like we are the best of pals. that has some people curious. some think no means no. mrs. patrick is a firm no for him running. some see deval beginning as a back-up plan to get out there, be more active, just in case hillary clinton decides not to run. that's unlikely.

if that ever happened, ladies and gentlemen, i offer to host the deval patrick, elizabeth warren. state of the union with candy crowley starts now. the world on fire. from the middle east to ukraine to libya. power players from the hot spots. today, from tel-aviv, israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, doctor mohamed, adviser to the palestinian president on the deadly battle in gaza. >> the whole world is watching a tragic moment after tragic moment unfold and wondering when is everybody going to come to their senses. >> then, an exclusive with the president's national security adviser about threats to u.s. security