she could get a key spot to speak at that convention. >> come on. >> the democrats wanted to have the convention in st. louis and clair mccaskill said don't do it here do, it somewhere else. >> good point. that's all. greta is next. in the last few hours the white house and the republicans scrambling to avoid a holder contempt of congress vote. but the two last ditch meetings failed. what happened behind the closed doors? we have the very latest. is president obama losing friends? who are they and why won't they come to his party. we will tell you. and is there war against him. one congressman is here. and former secretary of state condeleezza rice goes on the record. is she head fourth a supporting role on the romney ticket? we go straight to secretary rice for that answer. all that just minutes away. buff right now move over

attorney general holder. congressman darrell issa passing you by, taking the fast and furious fight around and straight to president obama. in a letter to president obama, charm issa wise in part your privileged assertion means one ever two things. either you or one of your senior advisers were involved in managing fast and furious and the fallout from you or you are asserting a presidential power you deem unjustified solely for the purpose of obstructing a congressional investigation. >> and today the white house firing back calling his analysis absurd. and in a few hours they would hold whether to hold attorney general eric holder in contempt. and a short while ago there was a last ditch toast a void the vote. but that failed and the vote will go on. good morning. >> good morning. >> how are you?

>> very well. >> do you agree with warm issa there is some white house involvement, even the suggestion president is more involved in fast and furious than previously disclosed? >> there are three forms of executive privilege, two of which would directly implicate the white house if it was the appropriate location of executive privilege. so i took chairman issa's letter to be kind of like a legal brief, which version of executive privilege are you relying on? s first two directly implicate you, despite the fact that you, the president, said you having in to do with fast and furious. third version of executive privilege, which is a common law version is as weak as water. it doesn't apply to congress and it doesn't apply when you are withholding or covering up information. so i took the letter to be a genuine request for clarification on which version of executive privilege you are relying on? >> in an effort to, for lack of better word, trying to box the president in, either the president asserts the first of

two executive privileges and puts it within the universe of those two in which ways k. cass he says he's involved in some fashion, could just have knowledge of it, or are you trying to box him in and say he has nothing to do with it and the executive privilege doesn't apply here so give us the materials? >> greta, the phrase "boxing in" has such a nefarious undertone. i hook his letter, which read twice, to be a good faith request for more information. you waited eight months to rely on executive privilege in the first place. you did it ten minutes before we were set to mark off contempt of congress, and in your letter you are didn't tell us what version of executive privilege you are relying on. and you know you are either directly part of the conversations or someone high newspaper the white house was directly part of the referrings key lated to fast and furious or the letter, or thirdly you are relying on this deliberative

process, executive privilege, which doesn't apply to congress and can't withstand scrutiny when it involves beholding of documents. tell us which of those three versions you are relying on and we will defeat it. make no mistake, we have to defeat it. we are going to vote on this thursday. and some of our colleagues that may number the middle, particularly democrats, they may say tell us about executive privilege, why doesn't it apply? it would be helpful for us to know which of these three versions, even at this late versions, which of those three versions the president is relying on. >> it's interesting in this letter to the president, and the fact it's not to the attorney general, but it's from chairman issa directly to the president, he talks about how the attorney general has called this an election year tactic and then he comes back and says in the letter that you have been asking for this material for a lock time. nonetheless, there is some criticism that this is a political move in an election year. do you have a response to that? >> well, i mean, what else can they say? i mean, they aren't going to give us the documents. they certainly aren't going to admit that we are right.

what else can they come back with? but the truth, greta, is this. this investigation started shortly after i was sworn in. almost a year and a half ago. here we are on the press of another general election and that's how long this investigation has been going on. so the fact that we may be butting up against another election cycle is the president's fault, not ours, and it's the attorney general's fall. if he had complied with the subpoena when it was issued to him we wouldn't be having this conversation. so to the fact it is an election year, they need to look no further than to themselves. >> what happened at the meeting today and is there any chance, any other meeting scheduled between now and thursday? but what happened today? >> well, i was not part of the meeting. as such, i cannot fully confirm that it took place, but epithetcally, if that meeting did take place, there were no new offers made. it was the same offer repeated again, which is essentially we

will summarize the document to you, you have to take contempt of congress off the table. greta, i don't know when the last time you used car over the telephone was, but those usually don't warning out very well. for me to strike a deal with someone before i have any idea what the evidence shows would be malfeasance. >> what i understand, the so-called hypothetical meeting that we aren't admitting happened, may have hypothetically happened at the white house and hypothetically not all documents were shown, and hypothetically to the republican staff members there were there. do you know anything hypothetically about that? >> your sources are probably close to being correct. but greta, the fact remains do i want to give 100% of the answers to brian terry's family, do i want to give 100% of the answers next time i'm on your show, would you settle for a half of it, would you settle for a third of it? my guess is you are not going to cut my any slack if i agree to take less than the full panel of documents, nor should you. and if you are brian terry's

family or families of the mexican citizens who have been murdered, are you going to expect less than the full come marines with the subpoena? i will make it very clear for the white house, i'll make it very clear. the subpoena was valid and legitimate. comply with all of it and quit asking us to negotiate in the dark or to buy a used cash over the telephone. we aren't going to do it. the vote is come on thursday. comply with the subpoena or you will be on the wrong side of history. >> have you done any informal head count whether you are going to lose hi republican votes on thursday and whether they are going to gain any democratic votes? >> i think we will gain democratic votes. i'm not aware of any republicans that will vote no on contempt. but we had a meeting some afternoon, and the mccarthy got chairman ice saw to explain to our colleagues, we aren't voting on fast and furious thursday. we are voting on the fact that

the attorney general refuses to comply with a subpoena. this is not getting into the facts of fast and furious, this is whether congress has the right to provide oversight. and call me naive but i would expect and hope some of our same colleagues that were very critical of the bush administration for not turning over documents, to stand up for the institution of the house and our responsibility to provide oversight, so we will pick up mor democrats than we lose republicans and it will pass if we do not get the documents before the vote on thursday. >> congressman, thank you, arecy." of course, we will watch to see what happens between now and thursday and on thursday. thank you, sir. >> yes, ma'am. thank you. >> and today three republicans congressmen say the obama administration is declaring war against arizona. one of the three, congressman dave schwiger joins us. good evening. >> good evening.

>> and you have sent a letter to the director of ice, john morton. and i scan see from the letter they have taken 287g often the table as it relates to arizona. what are you going to do about it besides write a letter wench will have to go back after legislation, we will offer amendments where we can starting to after the administration and the department of homeland security and say why don't you try something novel, follow the law. look, last monday, a week ago monday, i introduced legislation that would accomplish this both because of the stunt that was pulled about two weeks ago, that last friday on basically creating the president's new version ever the dream act, but also now stepping up and saying mr. president, homeland security, my former governor, janet napolitano, followed the law. this game of choosing and selecting for political purposes, because my great fear, this is all a political stunt

about re-electing this president. >> one of the quotes i have seen reference to it from either you or your two colleagues, that this is purely retaliatory against arizona. >> yep. >> you say yes? >> yep. absolutely. well, how could it not be? think of the time. the key issue in our sb1070 decision from the supreme court, you know, gets upheld, and within hours my state is given a memo saying we just aren't going to play with you anymore. so even though you arrest someone that is undocumented that is in my state illegally and in my country illegally, we aren't going to play with you. we aren't going to help you, we around going to work with you. we around going to provide the resources that i think is legally obligated to perform. >> i did a little quick count. looks like you have three members of congress that are democrats, and i know it's a very important issue to your state and to the nation as well, no matter on which side you fall on this.

have the three democrats, do they support you in this letter -- i know they didn't sign it, but do they support you to the director of ice? >> you have to remember one of those democrats actually promoted boycotting his own home state of arizona. so i don't think they are with us on this one. though if they really cared about the rule of law, they would be there with us. because think of this. if this were a different president pulling this kind of stunt, you would hear the left just scream right now. >> do you think that president obama had any idea that the director of ice was going to pull this provision away from arizona? or was it -- and do you think janet napolitano, your former governor, the secretary of homeland security, did she know about it? how far does it go up, the decision to pull it off the table? >> it's unimaginable that janet napolitano didn't drive this train and it's almost unimaginable that she did not

consult with the white house in the political ramifications. remember this white house right now seems to be all about winning re-election. so it's hard to believe that this whole cascade of events has nothing to do with the president's re-election. of course, it does. >> congressman, thank you, sir. >> thank you, greta. >> and it's not just the congressman from arizona. last night you heard right here arizona senator john mccain and tonight you hear from arizona's other senator, john kyle. he, too, is fired up at the president. he said president obama doesn't have the right to make his own law. so is the president retaliating against arizona? we asked senator john kyle earlier tonight. >> i think it is. you combine that with a couple of other things they have done, and it's pretty clear. they have said that they are going to open a hot line at the department of justice so that anybody that has a complaint about being stopped by a phoenix police officer, for example, should immediately call this hot line and let them know that maybe they were mistreated by

the phoenix police department. you know, that's a real slap in the face at local arizona law enforcement which we are all very proud of. and the supreme court has now said, look, the law is constitutional and it was the most important part of that sb1070, it's constitutional. why wouldn't the obama administration accept that on its face and say, okay, we didn't think it was, but if the court says it is, we will abide by that and we will continue to work with arizona officials to apprehend and it prosecute illegal immigrants who deserve prosecution. instead they are making it much more difficult for arizona to do their job, and i know this is breaking news, that means the federal government is not going to do their laws in enforcing immigration laws. >> is this within the president's authority? >> i don't think it is. technically he can decide which parts of the law to enforce and which not to if he doesn't have enough resources to enforce the law as to everybody. that's not what is going on here. that's what they say, but the reality is they just decided they don't want to enforce the

law. they have always told us when we said do you need anything more and we said we have all the resources we need. and then they turn around and say we have to prioritize enforcement. in other words we should only go after certain ones because we dope have the resources to go after everybody. bologna. the reality is they are creating an amnesty for at least all the illegal aliens in arizona of that been there for time. and not just students, but everybody else. the way i see the department acting, or ice, they intend to have the same enforcement with respect to illegal immigrants in other states, as well. in other words, if you haven't committed serious crimes, and you have been here a while, you didn't just cross the border yesterday, they will turn their back and ignore you. they around going to prosecute you, they around going to deport you. >> you don't like it. is there anything you can do about this? >> there are some things. first of all, we could change the law and specifically dictate that they work with -- instead of making it optional to require that they work with local law

enforcement officials. i suppose we could do that. we could deny them appropriations funding. ace stands for i am griggs, customs enforcement. and the question is that word enforcement there, that's what we need them to do, to upheld their law of enforcing the laws that congress paces. >> it seems one interpretation of this, that this is the president having a little bit of a stand -- not a little bit, but a stand with arizona, certainly governor brewer has had a standoff with him in the infamous picture she has her finger in his chest on the tarmac and a standoff with arizona and also the united states supreme court since they unanimously voted to support it, and then an hour later. is this an exercise of muscle by the president and a legitimate one? >> sure, and it's also very political. i think if you look at justice scalia's dissent, he based that partially on the fact that it didn't appear the federal government was enforcing the law

or wanted to. now this is confirmation of the fact. now he can go back to his colleagues and say this is what i was talking about. they have no intention of enforcing the law that arizona passed and that is why they are saying fine, lets us help you. >> why do you think it's good exercise of what he thinks is good judgments versus purely political. >> we have offered time and time again additional resources if they need them to carry out the law that congress has passed. they always say, they, secretary napolitano has personally told me, i will make it specific, no, we have everything we need. we are securing the border, we have what we need. they haven't asked for anything more. they can't have it both ways. either they don't have everything they need and therefore they have to prioritize and only prosecute the most violent criminals and let everybody else go and not deport all the i will lease immigrants hear they come into contact with, or they need to ask for more resources because they don't have enough resources. one way or the other. >> and straight ahead, are some

democrats holding their noses and running away from the president? now why would we ask that? stick around to find out. that's next. and also as if eric holder did not have enough trouble tonight, now he has a new problem on his plate tonight. has nothing to do with fast and furious, nor arizona immigration, but it has 30 u.s. senators joined together and they are mad at him. find out the lated of the. kelly goes on the record. right in the middle of wimbledon. the women's ten nation association issued a crackdown on players. what do they want to stop them from doing? you really must hear this to believe it, and you will. why not make lunch more than just lunch? with two times the points on dining in restaurants, you may find yourself asking why not, a lot.

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>> they seem to be dropping like flies. a growing number of democrats assigned to skip this year's democratic national convention. the latest, missouri senator clair mccaskill. now why are some democrats staying clear of the convention? are they trying to distance themselves from president obama? abc news editor rick klein joins us. rick, senator mccaskill now is not going. >> that's right. and this one stings. senator mccaskill is not your typical red state democrat. she represents a demographic, a type of voter that president obama wants to afeel to. and she was so active for him four years ago in healing the

party after the big primary battle against hillary clinton. for her to make this statement now is say i have other things to do that week than be in missouri, it's a strong statement. >> and that i have a hard election, a hard election that you would stay and work, too. and she's calling the chatter dumb about why that was her words, dumb, about why she's not going. but it's not as though the democratic national convention is 20 days long. in fact, it's just been trimmed i think a little bit. >> it's only three days >> you can just show up for like one night. and so, you know, i know she has a hard election. >> they have flights. >> she needs a better excuse. >> they have flights from north carolina. you can do it easily. it's a simple calculation. if the president is popular in your home state and your district, then you want to be seen with him and you want to get some of that reflecked glory. if he's not, as he is right now

with clair mccaskill facing a difficult re-election fight, is doesn't make political sense. >> she's in trouble. i went and did some research. in '08 senator mccain won it by one tenth of a point. 49.4 to 49.3 for president obama. so close. then six or eight months ago there was the state-wide referendum and 71% of the people were opposed to the individual man date in missouri, which she, of course, was a big advocate for it and she was a big advocate for president obama against hillary clinton. so she's got a tough race. >> she does. it's just a measure of how much the terrain has shifted in the last four years. if the obama campaign isn't seriously contesting missouri. they aren't going to put resources into the state. they want her to win. >> then they better go there and start campaigning, better than they did in wisconsin for the mayor. >> be careful about that. he will do some campaigning for her, no question about that, but because of where he stands in a state like that he has to be

careful about what he use necessary terms of his own political coat tails because they don't always pull in the same direction. >> why wouldn't he go to missouri? if it was close last name and he has a really good friend in senator clair mccaskill, and she has said, she made another statement, i've asked the president to come campaign in missouri. if he doesn't show up to help her out after she was one of the first to go for him -- >> i would be very surprised if he doesn't he won't make the trip trying to win the presidency in a state like missouri. >> has he given up missouri? >> essentially, yes. it's not part of their map right now. in part because there aren't a lot of previous mccain voters who they think they can win over this time around. he will be looking at what he did last time essentially as his ceiling. >> who else isn't going? >> john tester, the senator from montana is on the list. two from upstate new york who are running for re-election. the key thing they all have in common is they are from parts ever the country or districts that the president just doesn't have a lot going for him right now. and so they look at these things. they know they will get whacked for this back in their home

state newspapers if they go. a couple from west virginia, joe manchin. >> wouldn't you expect that? you would think you would. >> but they have to decide for themselves does this make sense based on where i stand? and if you are someone like joe manchin from west virginia where the president is deeply unpopular, it might make sense to say i'm not going anywhere near the state of north carolina when the convention is going on. democrats across the country, and the anybodies and west virginias, and the missouris, everyone wanted to be near president obama four years ago. a little different when he's in office. >> thank you, rick. >> thanks, greta. >> and the heat is turned up on hearing holder. this time not fast and furious but something else. a gland for a special counsel to investigate the white house. kelly is here to tell you next. and also former secretary of state condeleezza rice goes on the record. critics say president obama apologizes to the breast of the world too much. does secretary rice agree? she's here to tell you herself.

>> pressure is building. republicans senators ramping up the pressure on attorney general eric holder. they insist he should immediately appoint an special counsel to investigate the leaks. and the letter said the numerous leaks purportedly out of the branch have been stunning. they reveal details of our most highly classified and intelligence matters, there by risking our national securities as well as the lives of american

set sentence and our allies. senator kelly joins us. nice to see you. >> nice to see you, greta. >> and the attorney general has pointed two u.s. attorneys, one a republican point tee and one a democratic point tee? >> that's right. and 31 senators signed a letter to the attorney general urging him to appear point the special counsel. the concern is this. we are talking about highly classified, sensitive matters where we need to ma sure there isn't an appearance of a conflict or influence of politics in an election year. and even democrats, like, for example, chairman feinstein of the intelligence committee has said the leaks are so serious it's the most serious she's seen in 11 years on the intelligence committee. and if it's that serious, we need to make sure that the investigation is beyond approach. >> i'm surprised you feel that way, as a former ag there are a lot of prosecutors work in the executive bran windchill a seriousness of purposes. one and a republican point tee

and one a democratic appear point tee that's there now. and won the flip side we've had investigations of that been endless. when it's ken star investigating the clinton administration, these investigation endless and end less with no checks. >> but the problem with this, greta, first ofa, we are going to have a vote in the house. i think there's a lack of confidence right now in the attorney general. that raises questions in and of itself. but let's put that aside for a minute. given the nature you are of the programs, and that they may go up to high officials within the white house, that's too much to ask of any attorney general, particularly in an election year. >> what about the u.s. attorney, though? which is way down -- which is down the chain of command a little bit from the a. g.. the two u.s. attorneys, you think they would be influenced by the attorney general? >> here's the problem. they report directly to the attorney general on these investigations. there's no independence, unlike, for example, the example you said of valerie payne case.

and that's the problem here. these two u.s. attorneys who i don't question their qualifications, they have to report on a day-to-day basis to the attorney general. the other problem is one certainly, there was indication that donated to president obama. and i'm not questioning that person's integrity, but the problem is the appearance that creates. the appearance is one that we shouldn't have for public trust. >> and the appearance is always a risk and it always does cast a bad glow on investigations. >> it does. >> on the flip side, did you take the valerie plane investigation, in july novak wrote the article that was the beginning of the fact that there had been a leak, and in october, three months later, he learned, patrick fitzgerald learned that arm tanning was the leak and he kept the investigation going for several years, dragging people in, dragging them before the grand jury and bankrupting people and that investigation was endless because he had no

stuff. >> but here we don't even know. this is an avalanche of leaks. we aren't even talking about one situation like the plane situation. we are talking about repeated leaks that will put american lives at risks so we have to get to the bottom of who leaked the information, why did it happen, and make sure it doesn't happen again. and the american people have to have confidence in this investigation and i don't think they can from an appointment that reports directly to this attorney general. >> i totally agree with you. i think both choices are lousy. the question is which choice is better, to have a prosecutor who has no limitations versus two prosecutors who report to the attorney general. neither is particularly attractive to me. >> i go with the one the american people can have the most confidence that the east although politics are not going to play into it. i think we should come up with someone that both sides agree on. i think we can come up with an individual that isn't beyond approach rather than raise questions where we are now. >> it's a very serious matters.

these leaks are extremely serious. >> they are. >> and who knows where this one will end up. anyway, thank you, senator. great to see you. >> great to see you. >> coming up next, former secretary of state condeleezza rice. she dazzled people in weekend. could she be on gov. romney's short less for vice president? she answers that question now. and the president gets booed in boston. is it because they didn't like the color of his socks? it's all caught on camera. that's coming up next. ♪ then we turned the page, creating the rx hybrid. ♪ now we've turned the page again with the all-new rx f sport. ♪ this is the next chapter for the rx. this is the next chapter for lexus. this is the pursuit of perfection.

>> most people know president obama is a big sports fan and loyal to his chicago teams. and during a campaign fund raisener boston president obama brought up baseball news e referred to third baseman kevin youkilis. the boston red sox just traded him to the chicago white sox. and the president's boston supporters didn't take it well. >> i just want to say thank you for youkilis.

[booing] >> i'm just saying he's going to have to change the color of his socks. >> the white sox fan in chief said he probably shouldn't have brought up baseball. president obama saying you've got to know your crowd so much who do you think made the better trade, the white sox or the red sox? is the president's joke funny or should he stick to his day job in go to gretawire.com. we are back in two. ♪ what started as a whisper every day, millions of people choose to do the right thing. there's an insurance company that does that, too. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy?

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>> greta: condoleezza rice on eyeing a vice presidential run? she'll tell you but first let's go to ainsley earhardt. >> tropical storm debbie now a tropical depression. but the danger not dwret over. tonight the storm continuing to drift northeast and could drench parts of florida and georgia with four to eight inches of rain over two days. central florida hit especially

hard, severe flooding, downed trees and sink holes. isolated tornadoes and tropical storms-force winds remaining a major threat. word coming in tonight nora efron has died, losing a long battle with leukemia. "sleepless in seattle" earning oscar nominations and she directed some of her own work including julie & julia" she was 71 years old. now back to greta. >> greta: it's a closely guarded secret, who will be the governor's, mitt romney's running mate? is condoleezza rice on the list of potential candidates? the answer may be yes but what did secretary of state rice think? >> over the weekend in utah in a romney event, you took down the house. people apparently got a standing ovation.

we got a huge amount of warmth and support if asked would you agree to be on the ticket with governor romney? if asked? >> i shouldn't be asked because i don't want to run for office. >> greta: i know you don't want to. there are a lot of things people don't want to do in life. i'm trying to gauge if you got into a corner? >> i don't think i'm going to get cornered. i've made it as clear as i can this isn't what i am equipped to do or what i want to do. i love public service and policy. i'm not a politician. i wasn't cut out that way. i never ran for student government in high school. and so i'll find my ways to serve but this isn't the right thing for me. >> greta: i would think one of the things governor romney looks at is looking for someone with foreign policy experience. that has got to be a consideration in this volatile world. there is no denying you have foreign policy experience. >> there are many ways to put

together an administration so that you represent all of the challenges the president of the united states will face. it doesn't all have to be in the presidency and vice president. i am quite certain because i know him and admire him. and i trust his judgment. governor romney is going to find the right person for the number two place on the ticket. the most important thing is going to be it's someone ready to serve, should something, god for bid, happen to the president. that is the most important characteristent. and i know he's going to make a good choice but i know it won't be me. >> greta: well you said going back to secretary of state or some other. you'd probably say no. but i want to throw out a statistic. according to some staft stifti stiftics -- statistics hillary clinton spent 31.days of her life in an airplane.

i spent 93.7 days of your life in an airplane. >> that is sad. >> and well, it's a job requiring getting out there. and even in the era of modern technology and you can pick up the phone and you can do video conferences, there is nothing like the personal contact. and i think what this demonstrates is that person secretary of state has to travel, has to travel widely because the in box for the world is really the american secretary of state's inbox. so i think that is really what those numbers show. have you to get out there and represent the united states. have you to try to properly show you're out there. i thought it wasn't just number of people to which you traveled or how much you traveled but what are you trying to do. i think in those numbers i went to the israel and the west bank and probably something like 22 or 23 times. >> greta: 85 countries, too.

you've got the data there. >> right. >> greta: how do you compare and contrast the bush doctrine with obama foreign policy? what is the big picture difference? >> well, there have been similarities in fighting the war on terrorism. think president obama has benefited from the instruments the president bush put in place. whether it is the ability to remotely strike targets or whether it's frankly most of the intelligence i think that they're still waiting -- operating on came to them from the bush administration. integration of intelligence and mill near a way i think helped us to get them so many tools have been passed on. it's not surprising the fighting of the war on terrorism looks similar. i do think president bush had a strong understanding of how exceptional the united states is. and a very strong

understanding that if america doesn't lead, from it's perspective, that the world should belong to free markets and free peoples. then either you will have chaos or someone will lead who doesn't believe in free markets and free peoples so president bush was willing, against a lot of criticism to assert american leadership. sometimes, we make mistakes. i'd be the first to say that. but when you look around the world, when you look at the middle east these days, you're looking at freedom agenda unfold. we'd hoped it could unfold before people had to be in the streets and places like egypt. i'm not certain that i see that same level. ichl certain i don't see that same level of willingness to assert this, the united states is indeed exceptional and that it isn't just the lowest common denominator of what the security council can deliver.

>> is there a cost to that? is there a long term cost? >> i think that people need countries in the international system, need signals from the united states. about where we stand, sometimes, they'll oppose us, but very often they'll rally around signals. if you look at a place today like syria, i understand that this would be a very good thing if we were able to bring the entire international community around the view that assad has to go and the syrian people deserve a better few turk it would be great if the un would do that. but the security council rarely does hard things. and so... here, if the united states is willing to step forward and help organize the response, to say to the opposition, future of syria

has got to be a democratic, multi confessional syria in which all can participate. n that basis we will help you, the opposition, then people will rally around that. when the united states doesn't do that, you get the regional players playing their own agenda. you start to get the kind of chaos you're seeing with syrian fighters firing on turbish planes with lebanon, problems in lebanon and southern iraq. so yes there is a cost when the united states does not stake out a ground. >> greta: i watch fox news and see people say that president obama is apologizing for america around the world. and that is sort of antithesis of exceptionalism. is that a fair criticism of president obama or not? >> there are differences near how he's responded to various countries. i don't care, really if the president of the united states says well, we made mistakes in

the past that. is fine. that is fair game. i think it's much more important you have an affirmative view of what the united states can do and that you don't try to reduce the united states to the lowest common denominator of what everybody will accept. >> greta: is that what he's doing? >> i see elements of that. i think when people talk about leading from behind which is a oxy moron, you're seeing some of that. and the united states, the only thing the world hates more than unilateral american leadership is an absence of american leadership, the international system is a system. it has certain rules, power relationships and people respond to those. and if the united states is not setting that agenda, then, someone else will. that might be a country that doesn't believe in free markets and free peoples. and greta, i know that the

objection is the last 10 year we've done too much of that. it's got news wars in iraq and war in afghanistan. i understand those arguments and i certainly understand the argument which i share that we have a significant job of internal repair to do. we've got to stop spending money we don't have and borrowing it. we have to deal with entitlements and k 12 education and immigration. i understand all of that. i understand the american people will not lead if we're not strong at home but we don't have the luxury of retiring to the side lines in order to repair at home and then, reentering the international system because it will have moved on. and it will have moved on in direction that's are not good for our interests or our values. >> greta: madam secretary, always nice to see you nice to see you, too.

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>> greta: you've seen our top stories but here is the best of the rest. womens tennis about to get a lot quieter, the association is cracking down on grunting.

officials want to stop female officials from grunting on the court they plan to use a hand held device, a grunt-o-meter. and a current tennis player will not be affected and it will take 20 years to phase in the anti-grunting rule z a baby duck rescue caught on camera. the mother and her 11 ducklings were taking a stroll. two fell down a sewer great. the mother waited for realized she couldn't save the babies and she left but a camera woman and a police officer came to the rescue saving the ducklings. they'll be released back into the world. there, you have it. the best of the rest. coming up from new york to hollywood, remembering nora efron tonight, next. and crowd cheering sfx: sounds of marching band and crowd cheering so, i'm walking down the street, sfx: sounds of marching band d crowd cheering just you know walking, sfx: sounds of marching bandnd and crowd cheering and i found myself in the middle of this paradeeet, sfx: sounds of marching band d crowd cheering honoring america's troops. sfx: sounds of marching bandnd and crowd cheering which is actually in tquite fitting becauseadeeet, sfx: sounds of marching band d crowd cheering geico has been serving e military for over 75 years.

aawh no, look, i know this is about the troops and not about me. right, but i don't look like that. who can i write a letter to about this? geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. the teacher that comes to mind for me is my high school math teacher, dr. gilmore. i mean he could teach. he was there for us, even if we needed him in college. you could call him, you had his phone number. he was just focused on making sure we were gonna be successful. he would never give up on any of us.

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>> greta: finally tonight, writer and film maker

nora efron has died sh probably best known for hollywood movies including "when hairy met sally" and "sleepless in seattle". >> i have never taken anyone to the airport at the beginning of a relationship. >> why? >> because i never wanted noin say to me how come you don't take me to the airport anymore? >> and his dad needs a new wife. >> and tell me, what was so special about your wife? >> well, it was like magic. >> i'm going to try to slip this thing over now which is a rather daring thing to do. >> she changed everything. before her it was broken food and can openers and marshmallows. >> nora efron was 71 years old. >> and this