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tv   Face the Nation  CBS  December 21, 2014 10:30am-11:31am EST

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bob today on "face the nation" the eric garner case has taken another tragic turn. now two police officers are dead. new york patrolman rafael ramos and question january liu were shot and killed at point blank range while sitting ip police car by deranged gunman seeking revenge for garner's death. nypd commissioner. >> two of new york's typest were shot and killed with no warning, no provocation. they were quite simply assassinated. >> schieffer: we'll get latest and talk to naacp president cornell william brooks. next, perspective on the week's other big story, the sony hacking case and change in cuba policy from republican senator
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marco rubio and lindsey graham and democratic congressman chris van hollen. plus the cbs news tradition, an end of the year round up with our cbs news correspondents. 50 years of news because this is "face the nation." captioning sponsored by cbs good morning again we begin with a new york story cbs news correspondent. >> good morning, bob. officers liu and ramos were in their squad car brooklyn yesterday afternoon when police say 28-year-old us nail brinsley opened fire numerous killing both officers then ran to subway station where he took his own life as police were closing in. earlier that morning police in baltimore say brinsley shot and wounded his ex-girlfriend. he posted numerous messages on instagram warning of his plans that said, putting wings on pigs today.
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shoot the police follow weeks of protest over failure of various grand juries to indict officers involved in deaths of black men. some of those protests here in the city turned violent. and the police union chief part of blame clearly on shoulders of the mayor who is mother sympathetic to the protesters than the police. >> there's blood on many hands tonight. that's on the hands, on the steps of city hall in the office of the mayor. >> today police all across the city as well as country are mourning the loss of two of their own. now the family of eric garner the man who died in police custody while he was being arrested for selling loose cigarettes, has condemned the shooting. they will be taking part in press conference here at harlem later today with the reverend al sharpton. bob. >> schieffer: thank you so much. both president obama and
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attorney general eric holder condemn the killings and urge calm, for more now we turn to the head of the naacp cornell william brooks. mr. brooks, i want to ask you first, you heard what the head of the police union just said. former governor of new york george pataki, republican, sent out a tweet also very credible of democratic of the mayor, these are his words, we're sickened by these barbaric acts which sadly are predictable out come of divisive anti--cop rhetoric of attorney general eric holder and bill de blasio is that fair? >> i don't think so it's fair. i send my condolences to the families of these police officers. i don't think it's fair because the clear insanity of lone gunman to the peaceful protests and aspirations of many people across the country including the
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attorney general, the mayor, even the president. simply not fair. >> schieffer: this does appear as you say to be deranged man. but are these shootings somehow a step backwards in the effort to try to get this thing right? >> i believe it's not a step forward. we have a violence problem. think about it this way. the tears of the families of these police officers and the tears of eric garner's family and michael brown's family, aren't shed in law enforcement blue. they're colorless. they're tragic. unnecessary. we have a violence problem. the policies that we're pushing to protect not only the public, but police officers and families that they hope to go to at the end of the day, members of the public. >> schieffer: what can be done? what should be done now? >> we've got to push for reform in policing.
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but that is a part of larger challenge of addressing violence in this country. we can certainly push for federal, municipal and state legislation. we got to be clear here. it is simply wrong to violate the command meant of thou shall not kill. the police officers in uniform or civilians, that's wrong. >> schieffer: we want to thank you for coming in. coming in on short notice this morning. >> thank you. >> schieffer: we turn now to the other big stories of the week, the hacking of sony and the repercussions and the president's surprise announcement about changing relations with cuba. we welcome senator marco rubio of florida. senator, let me ask you first about this sony situation. you, last week, asked the question to, quote, undo the damage freedom of speech and express caused by sony's decision not to release this movie. what exactly do you want him to
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do? >> well, first of all i think the president end of the year press conference alluded to the fact that there would be response and strong one and measured one but that's reciprocal. i'll support that. the tactics of that is something i probably wouldn't say, but suffice it to say there needs to be responded to multiple ways. first, the response that the president is thinking through, second, i think it's important that that movie be played. that that movie be seen. i don't know if it's a good movie but now important that that happen. that we figure out way to get that out there so americans can watch it. it's unacceptable to this attack not just on business located in america but on our constitutional freedom, unresponded to, stays the way it is now it is going to be incentive for others to try to do the same thing in the future. >> schieffer: the head of the republican party said the republican party will ask people to buy a ticket to that movie. is that a good idea? >> i think as many americans as possible that can show that
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we're not going to be deterred by these attacks, better off we'll be. the problem sony is seeing that movie theaters don't want to show it. i think it's critical. downloading it on streaming video platform or actually having people open up their facilities to watch this movie i think it's important part that we show that we're not going to allow these attacks to infringe upon our constitutional rights. >> schieffer: the north koreans have warned there will be repercussions if we take any kind of action and response. that we should join them in investigating this. should that be taken kiir justly? >> no. it shouldn't. the not even government it's a criminal syndicate that needs to be treated as such. they possess nuclear weapons and led by irrational leader. north korea is a growing problem
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in the foreseeable person you have person running that country that is mentally unstable, also fully capable of over estimating his own strengths ends up and creating catastrophe not just south korea but japan and the united states. it's a very serious threat. not just a cyberthreat. i think north korea has potential to become source of huge instability in the next few months. >> schieffer: let me ask you about cuba. you obviously are very much against this and made that known. you were the first person out to say the president is wrong in doing this. you have opposed it for a long time. can you and other republicans who oppose this, can you stop this from happening and how would you do that? >> well first of all it's important to understand why i oppose it i am not opposed to changes in cuba policy, we need to examine our foreign policy. i'm opposed to changes like this that have no chance of leading to the result that we want, more freedom and more liberty for the cuban people. this change is predicated upon
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with false notion that engagement alone automatically leads to freedom. and i think we got evidence that that is not the case. look at vietnam and china, countries that we have engaged no more politically free today than they were when this that engagement started. our job is twofold. one important to have oversight how these changes are made. there is existing law that codified the u.s. em bar dough whatever regulations are now written to implement the president's new policy have to live up to that law. and beyond it i think we need to examine as cuban government doesn't make think changes to the human rights they're going to arrest people today, they arrested people yesterday. they're going to continue to crackdown on opposition in the islands. we need to hold this administration accountable for these policies changes and fact that cubans do nothing to live up to or open up political space, constantly challenge and reexamine these policy changes the president made. >> schieffer: rand paul, who like you is considering whether to run for republican nomination
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for president in 2016 is one of the few republicans who came it in support of what the president did. he said he thought it was a pretty good idea, what was your reaction to that? >> well, obviously i disagree. he halls the right to become a supporter of president obama foreign policy but premise on the same false notion that engagement alone leads to freedom. it doesn't. we have engagement with vietnam and china. their political freedoms hatch not grown. look what china is today after that engagement. china obviously conducts cyberoperations against the united states. internally people have no religion, no freedom, no access to the -- >> schieffer: let me ask you this question. do you think it would be good idea for us to break relations with china? >> first of all comparing china to could you been is not really a probable analogy because china is second largest economy in the world. they have third largest nuclear arsenal on the planet. they are the most populous
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nation on the planet. obviously from a geopolitical perspective our approach to china by necessity has to be different from small impoverished island of 1 million. cuba is a neighbor our foreign policy has very realistic opportunity of helping further the cause of freedom and liberty on the island. in fact what cuba offers that china does not is opportunity to engage with real and vibrant civil society on the island. they were not consulted. they were left out of the equation and rightfully feel betrayed. >> schieffer: senator thank you so much. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> schieffer: now on this very busy morning we go to republican senator lindsey graham. he is in clemson, south carolina. let me just start at the top here and talk a little bit about this situation in new york, senator graham. as a republican what do you think about this tweet that george pataki put out he called out democrats eric holder and
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the new york mayor. said some of the blood was on their hands. do you agree with that? >> i blame the shooter and nobody else. >> >> schieffer: any more to add to that? >> no. >> schieffer: do you think it's connected to the other cases? >> i think that the mayor of new york undercut his cops and torch is trying to walk a fine line. what happened in missouri i understood why the cop had to defend himself when you see the video in new york, that that man really have to die. but tone they're setting around the rhetoric regarding the cops incites crazy people. i blame the shooter. >> schieffer: let's talk a little about this cuban surprise we got from president obama to resume relations with cuba. you were very much against that. some people would argue, senator
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graham, that this is a good place for americans to be selling american products. we sell a lot of grain down there. we sell medical products under the heading of humanitarian aid. why do you think it's such a bad idea to do that? >> well, north korea would be great place to sell products they don't have anything. when america engages a country we do so with our moral voice just not cigars and rum. the last 50 years cuba's gone from being interventionist communist power to angola to back water poor dictatorship. without any reason we've changed our policy. look at cbs news stories in 2013 and show me one where cuba is becoming more democratic. as to what the congress will do, bob, if you are being ambassador ship to cuba turn it down because you don't have snowball's chance in hell of get cook confirmed. congress will not reinforce
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that. there will nobody confirmation of ambassador to cuba because castro brothers are terrible dictators who deserve no engagement. they deserve to be condemned and isolated. when it comes to funding any embassy in cuba, i'm in charge of all foreign aid all state department i'll be chairman foreign operations subcommittee, i will do everything i can to limit the size and stake of this embassy because you are rewarding people who kidnap americans and who really are still communists in every way. >> schieffer: senator, do you think that cuba at this point in time represents a security threat to america? >> last year the cubans were shipping arms to north korea in violation of the embargo. yes. cuba to me represents everything that threatens us and who are we. we believe in freedom and democracy, we safe when somebody rattles our shores, practices
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totalitarian communism in our back yard. they were actively trying to send weapons to north korea a year ago. should we be worried about north korea, yes. should we be worried about cuba? yes. but iran is watching. i can only imagine what the ayatollahs in iran must be saying when our president called north korean attack on our way of life not just movie, vandalism, when he reaches out to communist dictatorship done nothing but change they must be feeling pretty good about their chance to negotiate a deal with america. >> schieffer: what about north korea. what should the president do now? >> make it so hard on the north koreans they don't want to do this. we impose sanctions lifted by president bush, put them on terrorism list. put china on notice. it's not a movie it's our way of life. america is not a building with a symbol but way of life. to make a product and receive a profit. to go see what you would like,
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produce something that is edgy that's what we're about. they attacked who we are. when the president called this act of vandalism that just really bothers me greatly. it is an act of terrorism and i hope respond forcefully because iranians are watching everything this man does. when he draws the line in syria against assad and nothing happens. now saying he's contained putin. he owns the crimea, dismembered the ukraine only reason putin is suffering because gas prices have gone down because of opec. nothing we have done put putin in a box. iranians siding up obama i don't like the way they view him because i think he has been weakened and desighs stiff from one end of the planet to the other. >> schieffer: you're not talking about taking military action against north korea, are you? >> you can't attack their first amend. because they don't have one. i'm talking about putting them in a spot in the world where they are diminished beyond where
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they are today. i'm talking about consulting with china holding them accountable without china there is no north korea. we impose sanctions, what's next attack coming, on power plants, on our financial services? this is the first act of warfare that's really gotten a lot of attention. how the president handles this is very important. >> schieffer: you said recently that if the president, if i remember your words, released anybody else from guantanamo bay that you thought maybe impeachment was in order. >> i didn't say impeachment, i said constitutional crisis and it is coming. senator kelly ayot will introduce legislation in 2015 to put moratorium on releases from guantanamo bay because of a 30% recidivism rate. all kind of restrictions on transferring prisoners that the president is ignoring.
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rather than closing guantanamo bay he should be filling up the place because terrorism on the march. i 'lone with senator mccain want to outlaw waterboarding. this president takes every terrorist, reads them miranda rights, gives them a lawyer holds them for a few days puts them in federal court. we can't gather intelligence. one hell of a fight between the president and republicans and democrats in 2015 over guantanamo bay. >> schieffer: we have to leave it there, senator. thank you so much. >> merry christmas! >> schieffer: we'll be back in a minute with a top democrat.
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so yhere i can just...ght you know, check my policy here, add a car, ah speak to customer service, check on a claim...you know, all with the ah, tap of my geico app. oh, that's so cool. well, i would disagree with you but, ah, that would make me a liar. no dude, you're on the jumbotron! whoa. ah...yeah, pretty much walked into that one. geico anywhere anytime. just a tap away on the geico app. >> schieffer: back with chris van hollen he was on that plane that went to cuba last week return american allen gross. you heard lindsey graham, marco rubio i guess i don't have to ask you a question. what is your response?
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>> we heard a lot of rhetorical chest bumping but i don't think it actually dances to the goals of the american foreign policy. with respect to cuba does advance our goals. we know that the policy of the last 54 years has been a total failure. on its own merits, on own standards that the idea was that we were going to pressure cuba in that i would move the castro brothers out of power. increase more democracy, in fact opposite has happened. we've isolated the cuban people but we've reinforced and helped sustain the power of the castro brothers. more engagement directly with the cuban people. more travel, more trade, more ideas. back and forth. that will over time i think help loosen things up from the bottom up. is it going to happen tomorrow? not expecting transformation but more engagement will work better. >> schieffer: we heard fidel castro's brother, thanks a lot,
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but we're not changing. >> the theory blind this was not that the castro brothers were going to change their views that was the theory behind the failed policy last 54 years. by putting pressure on the island that somehow the castro brothers would say, hey, we're going to have free elections. that failed. we have very different concept here. idea is more direct communication with the cuban people will over time create more personal freedom then over time create conditions for more political freedom. isn't going to happen overnight. >> schieffer: i think that is may be the understatement of the year if what people in the bureaucracy in the state department and other places around town have been say can because, while you can say you're going to do this, say we now have relation, there are lot of things that republicans or those who oppose this can do to block this. this is going to take some doing. congress will be called on toe vote on a lot of it. how do you get this done?
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>> well, first of all the measures the president announced the other day can take place immediately. in other words, he can resume diplomatic relations, we can set up an embassy. we can, of course, increase travel, more trade in the area of telecommunications which will help open up cuban to more communication with the outside world. those are things the president can do right away. to confirm ambassador, of course needs senate ratification there could be debate about that. clearly lift the embargo would require congressional action. no one believes that is going to happen in the next couple of weeks or maybe even next year. but i do believe that greater engagement with the cuban people and through private sector in the cuban economy, which right now is very small. but we can begin to open it up. that's the way you get the conditions for more personal freedom over time. >> schieffer: if you don't change that em bar dough it's -- embargo not much is going to
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happen here. >> a fair amount can happen immediately. in terms of more travel because now people can travel under general license. more trade, especially in the area of telecommunications. the banking connections will change so that will facilitate a greater interaction. of course lifting embargo remains the long term goal. that does require congressional action. >> schieffer: all right. senator -- congressman we thank you very much. that was quite a trip for you to go down there. thank you. we'll be right back. that dares to work all the way until... the am. new aleve pm the only one to combine a safe sleep aid plus the 12 hour strength of aleve. and for many, it's a struggle to keep your a1c down. so imagine, what if there was a new class of medicine that works differently to lower blood sugar? imagine, loving your numbers.
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>> schieffer: beef got lot more "face the nation" coming up. including commentary of saying goodbye to an awful year, 2014. plus our cbs news panel. stay with us. it's about getting to the finish line. in life, it's how you get there that matters most. like when i found out i had a blood clot in my leg. my doctor said that it could travel to my lungs and become an even bigger problem. so he talked to me about xarelto®.
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xarelto® is proven to reduce the risk of dvt and pe, with no regular blood monitoring and no known dietary restrictions. treatment with xarelto® was the right move for me. ask your doctor about xarelto® today. >> schieffer: some of-stations are leaving us now but most of you we'll be right back with part two of "face the nation."
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job we continue our 66-year tradition at cbs news. the end of the year correspondents' round up jan crawford is our chief legal correspondent. margaret brennan covers the state department. david martin, our national security correspondent. on the other side of the table john dickerson, our political director. nancy cordes our congressional correspondent. major garrett, our chief without correspondent you don't look like you've been here 66 years. glad to have you back. i always say this is one of my favorite things at cbs news i can remember when i was first at cbs news hoping they would invite me to be at the table some time. it was a long time before they did. let's talk about start with
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north korea. margaret, what are the president's options really when you come down to it. >> this is bad movie about a bad movie that creating this international incident. diplomatically the tools are limited. you put north korea back on terror black list, list they were taken off of in 2008 by the bush administration. in an effort to keep them going what ended up with to be failed nuclear talks. along with that you get more targeted sanctions, directed at leadership. keep in mind this country is already very much sanctioned to the hilt. >> schieffer: what about beyond that, david. can we take some sort of cyberaction? there seems clear we do have certain capabilities in that area. >> u.s. certainly has set of capabilities. question is, do you want to expose those capabilities on such a puny target as north korean infrastructure. you are giving away more in your techniques of how you conduct
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these attacks i think than you would be gaining. i think most people believe that the most effective thing you can do is go after the leadership bank accounts that are overseas. the bush administration did that in 2005 and succeeded in freezing the accounts and north korea very quickly started to change its behavior enough so that the funds got unfrozen. now, since then leadership has been done better job of hiding bank accounts. still that is the surest way to make north korea pay a price for what now the president has called not an act of war but just an act of vandalism. >> the white house there was a joke speaking to david's point about cyber-counter strike. we can attack one north korean computer. someone say, yeah, the atari computer. that would suggest that the white house doesn't really few that as productive line of
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retaliation to go after them in a cyber-way. financial mechanism by more far much more important. the the other issue, whatever do you with north korea you must do with our conversation ongoing with china. this becomes a front and center issue in everything that we do with china economically, militarily, climate, every other conversation now north korea has injected itself unhealthfully. that complicates things for chain. that in the last 12 months china has been more helpful in dealing with our concerns, they have to get back in the game. >> schieffer: john dickerson, unusual thing for american president to go after an american company as he went after sony saying they set a bad example. >> very forceful about that. he wished they would have talked to him first to give him a little presidential guidance on how to handle the issue, how to deal with their theaters. he said he recognized that the had its own interest in legal issues but very forceful in that press conference that he gave. where he kicked off that, sort
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of emblematic of the entire press conference, he was much looser than we've seen before. that was really one of the strongest examples of that is his strong position. >> schieffer: how did all this go dob down on the hill? congress was not here when we found it about most of this. >> they were gone. but the reaction that we heard from lawmakers, we need to do something. what that something is, there is absolutely no consensus. i think lawmakers will want to know lot more when they come back about what the options are before they get behind one strategy or the other. >> schieffer: what street this year going to be like, jan? >> i think i'll leave the predictions until the end. you look at so much with surprising in 2014, what is 2015 going to be like about north korea, the president, new posture i agree with you he seemed kind of freed now to do some things that he'd been talking about including closing
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guantanamo bay which i think would be really interesting to see how forceful he is with that. every candidate including going back to george bush said they wanted to close guantanamo bay. the president said that was one of the first thing this he wanted to do when he took off. not so easy. i don't know legally and politically how he could do it. i don't think he can. >> schieffer: lindsey graham has been one of those, you heard what lindsey, senator graham said this morning, i think we ought to put more people down there. >> if you look at that, what senator graham said to you that is what you're going to see on the hill and going in to 2016 democrats are going to get behind the president wanting to send potentially 60 -- pretty serious terrorists. >> schieffer: what do you do with them if you close them down? >> release about half of them. >> contaminated evidence or difficulties in presenting that evidence in security or
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classified perspective. there is as president said routinely a real conundrum. where do you put them, do you hold them forever, what way is that consistent with american judicial values. >> where you couldn't make progress on the dozens who have already been cleared for transfer. that's what you saw this weekend with the four afghans who did go back to afghanistan. and diplomats are working on seriously trying to resettle them, find country who will take those who have been cleared of charges or bring them back to the country where they were taken from in the first place. you are going to see large numbers transferred. >> i agree with that. that still leaves about half -- >> right. so then it becomes what do you do with those. the president will try to argue that it's just too expensive, $2 million basically inmate a year versus bringing them here. i don't think anybody is going to care. the american people overwhelming leo posed to this going in to
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presidential election. democrats are not going to want to be on -- holding banner of let's bring some terrorists. >> schieffer: speaking of things that are seesier said than done. let's talk about the cuban surprise here. president says reestablish relations with cuba. obviously going to be considerable opposition from republicans, but i think republicans will face some hard choices here. here you have the u.s. chamber of commerce coming out strongly for this. you have the texas business council. there's no more republican than the state of texas. but all of that grain that we're already selling to cuba as humanitarian aid it goes through the port of corpus christi, texas. that is the main point for aid to cuba. i think this is going to be something that is going to be debated and i think it's not going to break on partylines. >> it will. but i think at the end of the day you still have far more
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republicans in the house and senate who favor placing restrictions and keeping restrictions on cuba. you have republicans from farm states and maybe more libertarian leaning republicans like rand paul who feel that, once we've tried hasn't worked. i still think by and large republicans think we've got to keep restrictions on cuba until we see democratic action. and most importantly the speaker of the house, john boehner and new senate liter, both oppose lifting the trade embargo. i don't think you're going to see any votes with it. >> schieffer: margaret, my sense that this came not only as surprise to most people in washington but to lot of people in the state department. >> well, this is a policy that many diplomates had privately support. and have for some time, though publicly were unable to. you're right, having foreign policy negotiations directed out of the white house, not the
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state department, been ruffle a few feathers fair to say. the way to frame this what actually changed when you talk to people at the state department now going to be on the front lines of that diplomacy, little slow, deliberate, quiet. not getting on u.s. airline and delivering back cuban cigar to sell. the business community. that is who is going to benefit up front take another six months before we look at whether cuba comes off that terror sponsor list and then you might open up more sanctions being lifted. but this is really going to be about migration issues, smaller scale things than the way this is being framed right now. >> schieffer: david, what did they did i of this over at the pentagon? >> cuba had lone been seen as national security threat. not like an opening to cuba suddenly releases the pentagon from great burden of defending against an attack from cuba.
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it was always just a nuisance value. it was favorable developer but not game changer for the pentagon. >> schieffer: what i thought was interesting about the president's end of the year news conference. not a mention of terrorism. isis did not come up once. syria did not really come up. did immigration come up? i'm trying to remember? i don't think it did. mostly about cuba, mostly about -- >> right at the end of the year it dominated discussion but i think in the new year, north korea and possibly cuba are going to recede because you have pressing issues, president wants authorization of military force to go against isis that is going to be a huge debate. talking about iran these are the foreign policy issues that are going to dominate. >> the president wanted to put a bow, literally, on the economic year for the united states of
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america. feels very good about that. one truism about that, however, is that the economy improves and washington had nothing to do with it other than getting out of the way. none of the state domestic initiatives got across the finish line yet the economy improved. washington basically didn't scare anybody with the threat of government shut down or default and the economy using its own means, own moxie and own energy created economic growth and jobs. that's a telltale symbol about what you can and can't do and limits of your own aspiration. >> how do they tray in that lesson. you can see which improved economy means more money, more revenue, you want fight over scarcity the way we've had it which could encourage more mischief. more efforts to try to get some things done. if the lesson of the last couple of the year is don't get in the way, they are still going to push to try to get in the way. the president will be trying to keep the economy -- his legacy
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now so tied to that economic upswing as it continues. >> schieffer: we're going to take a little break here we'll be right back. i've been called a control freak... i limore of a control...f as enthusiast. mmm, a perfect 177-degrees. and that's why this road warrior rents from national. i can bypass the counter and go straight to my car. and i don't have to talk to any humans, unless i want to. and i don't. and national lets me choose any car in the aisle. control. it's so, what's the word?... sexy. go national. go like a pro.
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bob back now with cbs news correspondents roundtable. jan crawford what is going to happen on the court? is justice ginsburg going to retire? >> she says she's not. she's 81 years old. recently had a stint put in. she's made clear that she's not going to give president obama a nomination. who would be better than me? from a lib balance perspective she's right with republicans going to take over senate.
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i think president obama probably has got to be content with making two nominations to the supreme court. the interesting question is, the next president. obviously supreme court is president's most lasting legacy. affecting american law and life long after the president has left town. the next president's first term four justices will be in their 80s. that would give next president real opportunity to shape the direction of the supreme court. president obama didn't change the direction of the place. placed two liberals with two liberals. if conservative or liberal were to retire and president were different ideology could turn the direction that have court which now 5-4 conservative. >> schieffer: let's talk about capitol hill. nancy cordes, who is going to be the leader mitch mcconnell or ted cruz? >> i think it will be mitch mcconnell. ted cruz can make mischief but his influence has waned some of the fellow republicans feel that in 2014 he went too far few
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times. last last week had to apologize toe fellow republicans because he tried to maneuver ended up making them stay in town through the weekend, members of congress like nothing less than everything to stick around here especially at the holidays. i think mitch mcconnell, will put the pipeline up for a vote, it's passed the house and like three pass the senate the big question will be does the president veto it. then i think see series of jobs bills. republicans want to rack up early wins to look to pass some bills that they thinking get some democratic support as well. things like making easier for veterans to transition in to the civilian workforce, things like restoring the 40 hour work week threshold and obamacare. feel that lot of people have been put on to part-time work because companies are trying to evade that threshold in obamacare. they want to restore that get some democratic support for that
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as well. >> schieffer: and what about the state department, what will be john kerry's main priorities? what would he like to leave of his legacy if there would be such a thing? >> i don't know if i could speak for him except for, he really believes in pushing diplomacy on middle east peace that is going to be quite difficult until after march when you see israeli elections. primine material netanyahu has been difficult ally for this administration and in the peace process. you see palestinian position weakening. doesn't have lot to provide to his people at this point. >> schieffer: do you think there is any chance of an agreement on nuclear matters with iran? >> i believe that you will by march get clear read on what is going to be possible and the hope is really extension of what we've got. the freeze, partial freeze, partial sanctions released believed to be solid. you heard president defending earlier this morning as well. >> schieffer: david, at the
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pentagon. >> still got two wars going. war against isis and iraq and syria and war against taliban and al qaeda in afghanistan. u.s. had 1300 airstrikes against isis targets. just last week commander of the operation there said it would take three more years just to get iraqi army up and equipped and ready to retake all of the ground that has been lost. that's not saying anything about what goes on in syria. that's just iraq. >> schieffer: let me ask you a question that i've often thought about, i don't know if i know the answer bud like to get your take on it. we talk about how long it takes to train an iraqi. in world war ii we sent kids to officer candidate school we had 90 day wonders. three months they sent them off. they spend less time training
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enlisted people. why is it that takes so long now? >> the difference was in world war ii those young men had a reason to fight for their country. the government of iraq has not given many of the young men -- >> schieffer: best answer i've heard. john, 2016 what happens? >> it started already. i think have two debates, both parties. democrats having big debate about difference between effective leadership and who really speaks for the party and republicans talked about it with mcconnell and cruz fight between who is going to try to get things done through the system of washington. who speaks for the real principle of the party. what has been unanswered is what americans want. in the last election only 22% thought next generation would be better than this one. that used to be the definition of the american dream. >> schieffer: yet only 37% of those people voted. >> there's that. then you got the nearly 70% who
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say they think the economic system tilt towards the wealthy. those two questions, those two issues are not being scratched by the politicians those people out there looking for answers, debate within the party may or may not speak to those needs. >> schieffer: do you think jeb bush is automatically the front runner? >> he's a front runner if you can be front runner with 14%. lot of people running. what's interesting about jeb bush he's running, even though everybody knows the -- he's running as a bomb thrower. and i'm going to run a different kind of campaign, really hear thing to do but going to try to do it. >> schieffer: hillary clinton will be the nominee of the democrats? >> if she chooses to run she'll almost certainly be the nominee. the question for her who is her campaign about? >> schieffer: all right. prediction time. jan crawford. >> predict that by beloved alabama crimson tide going to
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beat ohio state on new year's day. >> schieffer: now that they don't have to play tcu. >> i have to say, sorry we won't be able to place a bet. we'll win the championship. >> u.s. military will succeed in killing the leader of isis. but won't make much difference. >> cracks in the coalition against isis are growing frustration there's not strategy just a vague vision for syria. and keep in mind you still have at least two americans being held there. three americans being held in iran. hostages and how to handle that is going to continue to be an issue for this president. >> you're going to have republicans consider variety of strategies to dismantle obamacare then probably see them pass border security bill aimed at going after what the president did on his own on immigration. >> president obama will talk in the state of union push for trade promotion authority as to
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trade deal in asia, incite the wrath of the progress stiff democratic party and enjoy it and work with republicans. >> republicans will rally around the governor who will be their nominee after complaining about president who is only in the senate for one year had no executive experience, they're not going to do the same thing. >> >> schieffer: thank all of you. thank you for being here i'll be back with some personal thoughts about leaving 2014 behind and you all are captive audience you all have to stay.
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>> schieffer: finally a little holiday poem. holidays hurry come fast as you can, i'm done with this year, it's all i can stand. yes, i'm one who thought i'd seen it all. but this was as bad as i can recall. is it any wonder in a year that so screwy that d.c. is the seth row began movie? some red lines got crossed what a mess, putin popped off, add
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that to the stress. the job front got better, not many noticed. but something went wrong they blamed it on potus. the poor guy got slammed for many a sin, every time he played golf something else would fall in. the white house forgot to lock the front door, no wonder that guy dropped in to explore. congress found new ways to daudle and diddle, if they -- mitch mcconnell just look at him beam, running the senate, living his dream. but as he figured out part two of this news, suspending more time with his bestie ted cruz. still count our blessings, hey, we did survive, and who knows what will come of the cuban surprise. so merry christmas all around, i wish you good night. but just put this old year way, way out of sight. back in a minute.
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that it's given me time toabout all this walking i've been reflbiggest questions.e's like, if you could save hundreds on car insurance by making one simple call, why wouldn't you make that call? see, the only thing i can think of is that you can't get any... bars. ah, that's better. it's a beautiful view. i wonder if i can see mt. rushmore from here.
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geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. >> schieffer: thanks everybody, we'll see you nest week right here on "face the nation." captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org
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