and his time and of course leonard was spock -- cool logical, big-eared and level headed the center of "star trek's" optimistic inclusive vision of humanity's future." >> live long and prosper. images. father of all we now hold true. >> leonard nimoy died yesterday at his home in los angeles. he was 83 years old. i'll see you back here at 7:00 p.m. smerconish begins right now. i'm michael smerconish. thank you for join us. crisis averted for at least one more week. or is it? after a nail-biting showdown on capitol hill last night, the house and senate agreed on a bill to fund the department of homeland security. but only for seven days. it's gridlock in action a dysfunctional display, but at least it keeps hundreds of thousands of tsa screener border agents and other who is keep us safe on the job and paid for a few more days. dhs funding has been held

hostage because a group of conservatives in the house want to add a provision to the funding bill that stops president obama's executive action on immigration. democrats and some republicans have pleaded with them to give it up. but still the fight goes on. with me now is exactly the person that i want to talk to about all of this the nation's first ever secretary of homeland security tom ridge. governor i know that you, too, disagree with what the president is doing via executive action on immigration. but is this the way to go about opposing his plan? >> you know, michael, the cacophony inside the beltway for the past couple weeks reminds me of an expression i think we all learned from our parents and teachers when we were kids -- two wrongs do not make a right. the president is wrong. i think he has exceeded his constitutional authority. i think my republican friends are wrong in holing the department hostage. i mean these men and women go out daily to try to make us more secure and safer and withholding

their paychecks to send a message to the president of the united states is wrong. so i'm hopeful that at the end of the day my colleagues will -- in the house will embrace a full bill full funding for the balance of the year and engage the president one-on-one executive/legislative, do it the old-fashioned way. send some legislation. get at the immigration problem and do it the way we've historically done it the art of politics and the art of governing. >> you've run and won a couple elections yourself. in fact i don't think you ever lost one. the political optics of this are horrible for the gop because to me at least, it seems that they're saying well we oppose the president's amnesty. so what are we going to do? we're going to cut border patrol agents. >> michael, i think the perspective is something i'm afraid some of my friends on the hill my republican colleagues have lost. look you and i both know that 300-plus americans outside the beltway have a lot of things on their mind. they want to keep their job.

they want to save a few bucks, take the family to dinner. they've got bills to pay, et cetera. the only thing they really focused on after the 2014 election is the republicans won the house and the republicans won the senate. so debates over cloture rules, over appropriations that's all the inside the beltway stuff. if we can't get this done and demonstrate that we are capable and confident in our own ability to govern the ultimate damage is to our reputation. remember we promised we weren't going to shut down the government and we're flirting with it now, and that does not play well outside the beltway. >> you know, governor cnn is now reporting that speaker boehner may face a coup, that there are a number of conservatives within the house, part of that very conservative caucus that he can't contain who are calling for his jouster and there could be a move in that regard. what should happen relative to the leadership in the house? >> first of all, i think at the end of the day these -- this band of conservatives nipping at

john boehner's heels are just flat wrong. this is one of the toughest most challenging positions in our political system in our system of governance. he is trying to lead them. he understands and takes a much longer view not only in terms of dealing with immigration but a longer-term view over the responsibility of the republican party in control of both chap chambers of congress to govern. and i think it would be folly on their part to undermine his efforts to try to bring them together to fund dhs and get on with the business of legislating, get on with the business of dealing with this issue as we've done historically. send the president some legislation. by the way, the president is obviously unable and unwilling to lead. newt gingrich and bill clinton worked out a compromise on welfare. papa bush 41 worked on foreign policy issues american s w diss with

disabilities act. ronald reagan and tip o'neill solved tough problems. we don't have a president who wants to engage the congress be part of the effort to solve national problems don't worry about john boehner, come together and send the president -- start addressing some of these problems the old-fashioned way. keep sending some good legislation. let him veto it. let him explain to americans why the republicans had a good idea but it wasn't good enough for me. >> you know, i'm glad governor you're focused at both ends of pennsylvania avenue because it does occur to me that the president has been awol for the last several days as this has played itself out. what could he have done? what should he have done trying to get together the leadership of the house to put this aside? >> well i think, michael, again, i'm respectful of the office of the president. he's my president even though quite obviously i didn't vote for him. but i think from day one, he's pretty much demonstrated his point of view when he told eric cantor and john boehner a couple weeks after the 2008 election hey, i won. what the president has forgotten, maybe it would have been helpful had he held a

governorship or something, he represents the people that voted for him, the people that voted for his opponents, and frankly the people who didn't vote. you put those three clusters together there's some real problems here. we need coalitions and bipartisan work on foreign policy to defeat isil on health care on immigration. and what the president has failed to do not just the last several days but for the past six-plus years is engage. governing is tough. compromise is difficult. there's a give-and-take to the process. i don't think whether he thinks he's above or beyond it which is disappointing, he's in the middle of it. it's one thing to have the title of president. the job is tough. that means you have to mix it up, engage and unfortunately he's failed to do that in most of these critical issues in the past several years. >> stay with us. on the threat of isis here this week we saw americans arrested trying to board planes to join isis extremists have threatened the mall of america in minnesota. i want to bring in cnn global affairs analyst and former u.s. delta force commander lieutenant

colonel james reese. colonel, isis they are savages, but they are savvy. might they seek to exploit this political dysfunction taking place in the united states? >> michael, good morning. do i think they will try to? yes. do they have the ability right now? no. they don't have the reach right now. they would like to get it. but this exploit or this friction point within our government right now could cause an aspect of where a lone wolf could have an effect on this because right now as the governor said we've got unfortunately our great people of dhs supposed to be doing their jobs trying to figure out what bills are going to be paid at the end of the week when they're cut off from money if we don't pass this bill. >> just to tay-pay attention to the newspapers in the past week in the united states is to perceive that isis is on the ascent. i'm referring to the alleged threat against the mall of america. i'm referring to the outing of the identity of jihad johnny. the three from brooklyn.

the incident in canada as well. is that proper perspective that things are picking up for isis in pace? >> i'm not sure you could say that, michael. what you see right now is isil is having some degradation done to them in the syria and iraq theater of war for them right now. and the beauty is isis has several theaters of war they're working in. but it also shows that they are continuing to try to recruit, bring people in and what i find interesting about the three men picked up in new york is, you know they're from the uzbekistan ground uzbekistan has a terrorist group called the islamic movement of uzbekistan imu. bad dudes and especially guys that were part of al qaeda early on. it really shows isis reaching out and grabbing these other elements to bring them under their wing. >> governor ridge, there's been a debate playing itself out since a story in "the atlantic" began a week ago talking about whether there really is a religious motivation on the part of isis. i'm sure you're familiar with

it. i'd love your reaction to that issue. >> an extraordinary job identifying the root motivation the ideology around isil. basically combining the notion that mohammed might have been a prophet was but was also a general and his means of destruction involved crucifixion, beheading, the kind of activity we see isil engaged in now. i think now at the end of the day we need to accept the fact that this is a permanent scourge, that they're not going away far long time. one of the fascinating things that i suspect the colonel agrees with me is the threats to the malls have existed since i started looking at screens many many years ago. but the fact they're able to elevate it through social media and through the replay of the videos on tv in large measure helps them to advance their cause of creating a level of anxiety directed toward critical pieces of our infrastructure and their potential destruction. we're in this for the long haul. again, we talked about the

president's leadership before. i think the colonel will tell you, this is not a jv team nape ear pretty sophisticated. they're stretched a little bit. but i think as i've been reading some of these reports, if you look and read that article, you know they're in for the long haul and we just have to deal with them. they're not jvs. they're sophisticated. we better never get back into that body count notion that we're winning because we're killing more of them than they are of us. you and i have watches. they have time. and if it takes them a decade or two decades to achieve their goal and that's the caliphate, that's absolute control and the fight against infidels it's the religious war to a certain extent but sunni, muslim christian, jew, hindu, if you don't subscribe to their radical interpretation of the koran, you are an infidel. if you don't believe in their religious practices you're the infidel and you are potentially subject to the horror associated with how they deal with you. >> colonel, take my final 30 seconds and react to what the

governor the secretary just said. >> yeah. i mean i do agree with the governor on a couple points. one, the mall pieces we've been watching for years. when i was in the service and even now. we see these pieces and these other threats they want to try to go against our critical infrastructure. but i will tell you, we have to also remember that isis, whatever you want to call them they're killing more muslims than they are killing westerners. i mean it's tragic. and as i talk to my folks throughout jordan and iraq and i see it, i mean, they hate these people and they do not subscribe to islam. whether you agree with it or not, there is a point of just humanity where they're just killing muslims left and right over there. and how they're bringing these people in, you know really from a younger aspect and just because it's excitement and it's the call of duty type of, you know, game on the television show once they get out there it's really not.

so some bad people i agree. it's going to take several years and jihadi john is on a hit list and he will go down. >> gentlemen, thank you both. secretary, governor ridge. man's got a lot of titles and has earned them all. colonel james reese. we thank you both. coming up company is coming and not everybody is rolling out the welcome mat. tutz israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu speaks to congress. alan dershowitz and jeremy ben ammi will discuss whether the visit is in the united states' and israel's best interest. and who are the real contenders and who are the pretenders? those at cpac going on right now in washington. i'll speak to the only gop woman who's eyeing the job, former hewlett-packard ceo carly fiorina joins me live. plus when he talks about family, he's not talking about your average family. john gotti jr. joins me for an exclusive interview he says to set the record straight about life in the mob.

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welcome back. for decades john gotti was the head of the most powerful mafia in the nation. his son not only shared his name but carried on as acting boss when the law finally caught up with john gotti sr., who beat the rap so many times he was known as the teflon don. today i have a rare opportunity to get an inside look at the fascinating world of the mafia. in an exclusive interview with john gotti jr., who now says he's out of the life a different man than his father. in his riveting new book a tell-all "shadow of my father," gotti tells the whole story of life in a mobster family. john gotti jr. joins me now.

let me tell you what comes clear from reading the book. you continue to idolize your father. >> right. >> at some level, do you blame him, hold him accountable for the fact -- >> no. >> let me just finish. that you went down that road for a significant portion of your life? >> well from a father's perspective, and you being a father yourself you would say, well how could you? you'd say how could you? i sort of feel the same way my father may feel right now, my son doing mma fighting something i don't want him to do. it's a strain on my heart to watch him do that. yet my father looking at me i guess he felt that i wanted this really more than he wanted it for me. i wanted to be in that world. and i guess he had said that look, you know this is what he wants, i believe in this life wholeheartedly. i believe it's no different than h.w. bush bringing his son into politics. he believed. he believed a republican card-carrying member he

believed that in the political world, somehow he could make a change in politics. well my dad believed he was a card-carrying hoodlum. he believed in the streets. he believed in the policy of the streets. he thought this is the way it should be we're right, they're wrong. that being said why not? >> everything i know about the mob i learned from watching movies and reading your book. so you correct me where i'm wrong. i thought guys couldn't get out. how did you get out? >> well, in actuality, you can do anything you want to do okay. now, you make a decision in your life and you can say it's no longer for me and i want to move on with my life. >> and they let you go. or only if you're john gotti jr. >> look, that's my prerogative. okay. my prerogative to say i'm done. their prerogative is to a, accept it or b, act on it. now, at the time in 2006 of my trial, when all this noise was being made about that i had walked away and that now it's being profiled more and more at the trial, there was a death

threat. there was a death threat that -- a conspiracy to kill me as a result of my leaving the life because you can't leave the life. but in my case in actuality i could have left the life because my father's power is absolute. >> your john gotti's son, so you can leave the life but maybe somebody else who is not john gotti's son couldn't. let me ask you something else. >> okay. >> i don't understand this. it seems that most of the guys end up dead or in jail. >> right. >> so why is it so intoxicating for street guys to nonetheless pursue the life? do they all think, well that's them, but it's not going to happen to me? >> i'll tell you from my viewpoint. from my viewpoint, being around my father it was intoxicating. when he walked into a room he owned everything that was in that room. i just would look at him in awe. i was starstruck every time i saw him. even in the house in his bathrobe i was starstruck by the guy. the way he comported himself, always erect, always proper

always had his hair coifed right. >> suits $2,000 a pop. >> outside of the home yes. he always comported himself like i believed a man should comport themselves. he was a tough guy, a tough guy's tough guy, and he had -- his ethics i liked. i liked the things that he stood for. he would say, john, you don't do this, you don't do drug we don't do that. if i got angry and cursed in front of my mother pal, something wrong with you? no nothing wrong with me. won't happen again. he'd shoot me a look. he did everything right. don't get me wrong, hanging around the boys he had a temper and i'm sure you could hear him on tape some choice words, you know that was the other john. but the john that i seen in the house was really -- he was to me perfect, he was beautiful. >> true or false, you have to kill somebody to get made yourself? >> nonsense. hogwash. >> true or false, when you're made you've got to burn a picture of a saint. you write about this in your book.

in your handle at some private ceremony. >> right. that's true. >> your father called your mother butch. >> butch. >> as in butch cassidy and the sundance kid. >> absolutely. >> how did she feel about you going into the life? >> she never knew. she never knew. he denied denied, he denied. he denied -- you know, he definitely has reasons because in my house as it is in my home it was in my father's home as well that was none of her business. however, i am her baby just like my sons are my wife's baby -- babies. he always denied it. he always denied. as a matter of fact one time in "the post" in 1993 there was a big picture of me on the cover and a bull's-eye on me that i was about to be killed. i guess through an inform nuclear plantinformant they leaked a conspiracy to kill me. i raced to the house to get her, hope she didn't read "the post." and she's gone already. i asked my brother, pete, where's mom my? he said i don't know. he didn't see her.

didn't see her. my sisters, where is your mother? i find out she's in marion illinois goes right to kennedy airport, jumps on a plane. >> to confront him. >> to confront him, how could you do this to my son? i buried a son already. my son frankie died in my arms on the street. how could you do this to me? >> i know it's painful. i want to ask you about frankie. you were 16 he was 12. >> right. >> on a mini bike. a neighbor hits him. he's gone. your brother. and soon thereafter the neighbor disappears. >> right. >> presumably your father killed him or had him killed. >> i couldn't answer that because right before me -- look as i had answered in the book said in the book if you knew my father, he's not letting you hurt somebody close to him without him hurting you. >> doesn't that violate the code? i thought civilians never got caught up in this and if it were inadvertent, an accident as hard as it would have been to

forgive, why didn't take place? >> again, if my father did do this again, a piece of his heart was cut right out. nobody heard the tears. my father soldiered up. the moment he died he said now is the time to cry and don't cry again. that was his expectation of me. i couldn't deal with him that way. >> you heard him crying. >> i wasn't half as strong as my father. he let his tears out and that was the end of it. however, i would hear him through the vent crying in his den. >> your vent. your room -- >> my room was attached to his den. so it was right there. inches apart. i would hear my father. but at that point he would say -- his expectation was you have to soldier up and move on in life. again, that being said knowing the kind of man that my father was, he loved you, he loved you to a fault, if someone hurt you, they had a problem. we're going to continue this conversation after a quick break. i want to show a clip of john gotti jr. visiting his late

father in prison and telling him he wants out of the mob. the real-life showdown between a father and son.

welcome back. continuing now with my exclusive interview with john gotti jr. and the fight that he waged with his father the dapper don. john gotti jr. says he reached a point where he wanted out.

that's not so easy when dad runs america's most powerful mob syndicate. things get complicated. look at this fascinating video seldom seen of the last discussion between father and son. al visit between my father and i, the visit i was telling you about earlier the judge allowed me the fist time i touched my father in 7 1/2 years. >> no glass for this visit. everybody knows it's the last visit. >> off camera you don't see, very emotional for me. he's telling me basically don't give them the satisfaction. i began to cry. he's saying don't give them the satisfaction don't give them the satisfaction because he's a

tough guy to the end, my father. at that meeting you heard him say closure. i sent him a message. dad, i'm looking for closure, i want to forfeit money, go to jail and be there for my kids. >> and get out of the life. >> closure is walk away completely. >> he didn't want to hear that. >> he's having a hard time because it's like being a quitter. to him it's like, you know again, man chooses the path doesn't matter. at some point in your life you have the wrong choice to be a man he has to follow that path to the end. >> the hard part i have understanding this though again, seeing how many guys end up dead or in jail, you know why a father doesn't say, yeah get the closure, leave this life. that i don't understand. >> i guess he was too much a man. and i guess that he -- you know, as i had written in the book and i believe this as much as he loved us i think it was second to that life. >> you think his family was second to that family, to the gambino family.

>> he loved us differently, but his whole life was about the streets. his whole life was about that chase, the streets. and i believe, you know, he just -- it was so in him that there's no way he was going to change. >> do you work today? >> yes, i do. >> what do you do? >> i write. i wrote a book. i wrote some screenplays. the movie -- >> is that what puts food on the table? is it buried somewhere? >> no believe me. do the math. they tried to in trial three make it a money case and said connect the dots and follow the money. i told them let me know when you're done because you're going to see there is no more money. every case every prosecution it costs you a significant amount of money. >> how is your mother in accepting that the family was second to the life? >> i don't think he quite put it like that to her. >> right, but she had to have known. >> she knew what she married. my mother knew what my father was. you know he was a rough and tumble kind of guy from the moment she met him. she was 17. he was 19.

they were kids together. they lived together very young. from the time they met they were together. and you know what she knew what she was getting -- my mother would complain about my father and argue and fight. i'd say, mom, is this something new? you're telling me at some point he changed? no. so he's always been this way, right? friday and saturday nights he's home right, he comes home he's with you. sunday he has dinner on the table, dinner with all of us on sunday. the rest of the week you don't see the guy. your whole life has been like that. he rolls in at 4:00 5:00 in the morning and rolls out 11:00 and he's gone you don't see him again. you see him in the morning. butch, get my vitamins. butch, get this get that. that's it. lay his socks out for him, put his socks on put a sweat suit on jump in the car and get to the club. his clothes were laid out for him. that was it. the barber do his hair. you saw him at 4:00 or 5:00 in the morninging. >> you told a story he gets out of jail, the car pulls up

you're a young boy. he acknowledges you and asks you a question. what was it? >> we'd never seen the house. we lived in 311-a street in brooklyn. from there my father went to prison and we moved. so now my mother told him where the house was and i would continuously tell the kids in my block, because i had no father as far as they were concerned, i would say my dad's doing construction. he would tell us in lewisburg he was building the wall. when we walked in all the guys were in the visiting room like reunion time. they'd say, yeah, me and uncle frankie and angelo in the wall. one more wall to build and i'm coming home. if i say my dad's doing construction be done soon almost done. everybody in the block began to doubt, he doesn't have a father she's a single parent. >> until the car pulled up. >> yes. it was a march, snow on the ground around the block, playing with the other kids and this beautiful black -- i'm sorry --

charcoal brown mark iv lincoln continental pulls down the block. tinted windows. slows by me and the window rolls down. he goes hey, dad, used to call me dad, i said there's my father. everybody's in shock. he said where's the house? the one with the green awning i pointed. he pulls away. everybody began to come out of their houses. canarsie you had about 13 steps then the top, the porch was up on the top, come out of the house, go down about 13 steps. they're all standing on their porches and the car pulls into the driveway and he gets out. >> walks in like he's been there his whole life. >> he's beautiful. tony curtis with muscles. beautiful. jet black hair chocolate brown overcoat on chocolate brown suit mock neck matches the car, looks amazing. and he grabs me by the back go in the house, and we walked in the house. that was his first time seeing that house. >> john gotti jr., thank you. appreciate you very much being here. >> thanks for having me sir.

>> thank you. fascinating stuff. i've got to tornado warning another break, but coming up, the war within. american jews sharply divided over the visit of benjamin netanyahu this week. and from secretary to ceo, former hewlett-packard boss carly fiorina eyeing a possible 2016 run. she'll join me to weigh in on the red-hot political headlines. it's happening. today, more and more people with type 2 diabetes are learning about long-acting levemir® an injectable insulin that can give you blood sugar control for up to 24 hours. and levemir® helps lower your a1c. levemir® comes in flextouch® the only prefilled insulin pen with no push-button extension. levemir® lasts 42 days without refrigeration.

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welcome back. the relationship between united states and israel has never been this tense with benjamin netanyahu about to make a speech to congress. tensions are at a boiling point. among american jews there's a war within. j street bills itself as the political home of the pro peace movement. this week j street ran a full-page ad in "the new york times" against the speech by netanyahu saying the speech was a prop for his election campaign in israel. netanyahu has accused the white

house and other world powers of rolling over and allowing iran to develop a nuclear bomb. and more conservative jewish groups like a pakistan firmly behind netanyahu. let's dig into this with both sides. joining me now is the president of j street, jeremy ben ammi and attorney alan dershowitz who's been friends with netanyahu for more than 30 years, will be meeting with him this week and will attend the speech this week. jeremy the ad says he's using it as a prop for his campaign at home but response from prime minister netanyahu is to say, wait a minute congress has an important role to play in this issue and i'm coming to influence the congress. what's wrong with that? >> i think one of the things he could have done is delayed the speech until after his election. that's what was called for in the last few weeks. if the interest at stake is a serious discussion of iran policy, there are ways to do that in a closed-door setting, ways to do it through back channels after the election. this kind of appearance has been

used in the past by the prime minister as a campaign ad and that's where you inject the partisan agenda that defeats your policy agenda in the long run. >> professor, why not delay the speech far month? >> because the deal might very well have been struck by then. we're told by john kerry it's too early to criticize the deal but once the deal is made we'll be told it's too late. let's look at the big picture. this is the most important foreign policy decision of this century, giving iran which is the greatest exporter of terrorism nuclear weapons to put on their icbms will change as president obama said will become a game changer. liberal senators like senator menendez and others oppose this. david brooks of "the new york times" opposes it. henry kissinger. "the washington post" editorial page so many well-regarded liberals and conservatives think this is a bad deal particularly the sunset provision.

let's give prime minister netanyahu a chance to make his case. congress has equal power in foreign policy to the president. the speaker of the house was entirely within his power to invite him. let everybody come and listen. i would like to ask jeremy ben-ami whether he supports the boycott of israel by some liberal democrats or whether he would join me in urging everybody to come listen to the speech then make up your mind to see whether or not this was good or bad for the united states and for israel. jeremy what do you think? >> go ahead, jeremy. >> i think the issue isn't giving iran nuclear weapons, alan. i think that we can agree, and i think president obama agrees with all the leaders of the p5 plus 1, that the goal of this entire enterprise is to prevent iran from getting a nuclear weapon. and the question isn't whether or not the president or in some way through this deal other countries are trying to help iran get a nuclear weapon it's whether or not this is the best way to prevent it.

if there is no deal then iran will proceed unimpeded towards a nuclear weapon. if there is a deal we have at least 10 to 15 years of very strict intrusive inspections, real limits sanctions that remain in place and are only gradually reduced. this is the best way to achieve our shared goal of having no nuclear weapons for iran. >> professor, i'll give you the floor back in a moment but jeremy wait i do want to ask the question though of jeremy to professor dershowitz's point, should democrats, because they're the ones who are in opposition to this stay away from the speech or do you agree with professor dershowitz jeremy that everyone should attend? >> well it's an individual decision for members of congress to make. that's not the issue. the issue is whether or not this speech has actually set back israel's national interest. has this speech done damage the way it was concocted to the u.s. u.s./israel relationship. that's what the former director of the mossad said in an intensely detailed interview say

nothing one has done more damage to the u.s./israel strategic relationship than prime minister netanyahu in the way he's gone about his relationship with the white house. that's the problem with this speech. >> professor, when susan rice is using words like destructive to discuss the u.s./israeli relationship would you concede, indeed significant damage has been done or do you believe it's reparable? >> oh i think it's reparable, and i think we won't know until we hear the speech. the speech is going to be critical critical. if it persuades members of congress to serve their constitutional function of checking and balanceing a very bad deal and, you know, it's very debatable, this deal as i said many many good people liberal democrats don't agree with ben-ami and they think within five or six years the sunset provisions will begin to kick in and iran will be guaranteed a nuclear weapon. if that's the case let's see if prime minister netanyahu can persuade congress. if he can, then it will be good for the relationship.

people forget that congress has as much power over foreign policy as the president does under the constitution. and it must serve as a check and balance. and we will see whether or not congress is persuaded that jeremy ben-ami is right, that this is the west best way to do it or whether increased sanctions -- nobody wants to put the military option on the table exempt as an absolute last resort but increasing sanctions rather than giving them a sunset provision which will send a green light not only to iran but to saudi arabia the emirates and egypt, all of which will start getting into sprays. let let's have this debate in front of congress. everybody listen to the prime minister, then make up your mind but don't boycott an american ally. a boycott is for people like ahmadinejad. you walk out on bigots. but you listen to allies even if you disagree with the way it was set up. come and listen make up your mind based on the facts and based on the arguments you hear on both sides.

>> jeremy, do we know enough about the deal to be taking such positions at this juncture? >> well i think the broad outlines are becoming very clear. the broad outlines are that iran will have the ability to enrich to a certain extent that is appropriate for civilian purposes only. there will be the most intense and intrusive inspection regime that has ever been imposed on any regime. and there will be a gradual loosening of the sanctions in return for actual compliance with the terms of the agreement. that's the broad outlines of the agreement. it turns out that 84% of jewish americans support a deal like that that helps to prevent iran from getting a nuclear weapon. and there are just as many republican experts and foreign policy professionals and editorial boards who support that approach to dealing with the iranian threat as oppose it. i agree, there's a policy debate to be had. but the question here is whether or not the prime minister his ambassador and the speaker of the house have injected partisan politics in an inappropriate way

into the middle of the u.s./israel relationship in a way that damages that relationship for the long run. >> gentlemen, i think this was a productive conversation and i appreciate jeremy ben-ami and alan dershowitz for having been here to have it. thank you. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. coming up she's already positioning herself as the anti-hillary clinton among a pack of big-name gop presidential contenders and make nothing apologies for it. carly fiorina joins me next. >> i will say this -- if hillary clinton had to face me on a debate stage at the very least she would have a hitch in her swing.

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go to huntsmancancer.org. ♪ ♪ welcome back. as the 2016 election draws near and the gop field takes shape, there's a lone female emerging in the party what which has struggled in its lack of diversity. carly fiorina is the former hewlett-packard ceo. this week she had a prime speaking spot at the conservative political action conference known as cpac, the comic-con-like event which can catapult a presidential contender to political superstardom. she wasted no time going after another female, the presumed democratic front-runner. >> unlike mrs. clinton, i know that flying is an activity not an accomplishment. i have met -- i have met vladimir putin, and i know that his ambition will not be deterred by a gimmicky red reset

button. mrs. clinton, please name an accomplishment. >> carly fiorina joins me now. we'll come back to cpac in a moment but allow me to ask you about some of today's headlines. the house republicans narrowly averted stopping the funding of dhs last night at a time when jihad johnny is on the front page of american newspapers. is this the right way to pose president obama on immigration? >> well i think honestly this has been a huge failure of leadership on both sides. this has been going on for months now. president obama for his part knew how republicans would react to his executive overreach. he could have invited leadership to the white house to talk through a solution. of course he chose not to. on the other hand gop leadership knew as well that this was coming for many many months. and to your point, we cannot defund the department of homeland security at a time when americans are rightly concerned

about our security. >> some house republicans, the more conservative elements are calling for the ouster of john boehner as speaker. are you supportive of speaker boehner continuing in that role? >> well look i'm not in the house or in the senate, and so that's a decision for congressional members to take on their own. >> this week israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu comes and speaks to the congress. do you worry about the precedent that might set? could there be a day in the future where president fiorina is countermanded by a democratically controlled house that says we're going to bring someone here without consulting you? >> you know, i listened to your previous segment on this issue, and i believe the reason that prime minister netanyahu is coming here is because he has tried to talk behind closed doors to the president. he has tried to say to him that this deal that the president seems determined to reach is a

danger not only to the region to the world. you know i remember sitting in prime minister netanyahu's office five years ago, and what he wanted to talk about then was iran. i believe he is coming here because he needs the american people and congress to understand the dangerous path this president is on. i believe he is in fact trying to put pressure on the situation so that we can avert a terrible deal and so that congress steps up and does its job by passing bills for punishing sanctions and by playing the role they rightfully need to play. this deal is headed in a bad direction, and i think prime minister netanyahu has been consistent for at least five years on his views about such a deal. >> a question of semantics, if i might. you know that the president refrains refuses from saying radical islam and the like. what's the verbiage? here you are contemplating a run for the presidency. what's the word choice with which carly fiorina is

comfortable and why? >> well i think we have to acknowledge what the islamic state wants us to acknowledge. they are very clear that their goal is to return the world to a middle-age state. they are very clear that a radical interpretation of islam is at the heart of their political philosophy. they are very clear that they are perhaps misinterpreting portions of islam but from their point of view they have the right interpretation of islam and they are willing to slaughter muslims, christians and jews as well as to destroy priceless works of art and antiquity in order to return to world to the middle ages. so if we're not prepared to speak the truth about who they are and they speak the truth about who they are, then how can we possibly defeat them? >> on the subject of isis scott walker potential opponent of yours, said something interesting at cpac this week.

i want to roll the tape. i think you'll at least be able to listen to it. play it. >> i want a commander in chief who will do everything in their power to ensure that the threat from rad islamic terrorists do not wash up on america's soil. we will have someone who leads and ultimately send a message not only that we will protect american soil but do not take this upon freedom-loving people anywhere else in the world. we need a lead we are that kind of confidence. if i could take on 100,000 protesters i could do the same across the world. >> would you agree that was a blunder on his part to make a comparison between isis and union protesters in wisconsin? >> i don't think it was an appropriate comparison. i think he was trying to demonstrate that he has fight and clearly he has a lot of that. but isis is a unique threat in the world. we need to treat it as a unique threat in the world. we should not underestimate in any way their willingness to use whatever barbarous means are

available to them to make their point and to win. and we have to have equal resolve and a clear-eyed understanding of who they are and what their goals are. >> another potential opponent of carly fiorina is jeb bush. he came to cpac yesterday, had some interesting words about immigration. allow me to play that for you. >> the simple fact is there is no plan to deport 11 million people. we should give them a path to legal status where they work where they don't receive government benefits where they don't break the law, where they learn english, and where they make a contribution to our society. that's what we need to be focused on. >> is he right? >> well i think what we need to be focused on right now is securing the border. it is the first and most important step. we obviously can and we obviously have not. we need to start there because the problem just keeps getting worse when we don't.

we need to start there because isis has figured out we have a porous border just as the chinese already have. we're being very naive if we don't believe that the state of our border is an invitation for trouble. and finally, we need to secure the border first because unless we do that people don't have any confidence in governments' willingness or ability to do what it says it's going to do. and that lack of confidence and trust becomes corrosive to our ability to do bigger things. >> we have just 30 seconds left between us. is your gender an advantage or-in a race against hillary clinton because you could criticize her in a way that men couldn't and no one could call you sexist? >> well i'm not running because i'm a woman. i've never been a toek en in my life. but the facts are i am a woman, and the facts also are that 53% of voters are women and we're half the nation. we're the majority in other words. and it's completely reasonable to ask people to focus on results and accomplishments.

i come from a world where results and accomplishments are what counts. i think the american people are frustrated with professional politicians because results and accomplishments somehow don't count enough. and so i'm going to continue to call on whoever the nominee is to say what have you done for the american people? talk is cheap and actions matter. >> carly fiorina, thank you so much for joining us from cpac. we'll be right back. is

\ tter if you can spell smerconish. see you next week. hi everyone. you're in the "cnn newsroom." 7:00 eastern. i'm pop paypy harlow. brek braeking news out of venezuela. the president says authorities have captured an american pilot. i want to give you lytle bit of context. then we're going to go to carlos lopez, who is an anchor for cnn espanol. he'll bring us all the details. venezuelan president nicolas maduro saying just now that authorities in venezuela have captured an american pilot who has latino roots. they say that the pilot was captured with quote, all